communists, as has already been mentioned, and this new leftist influence began to gain a foothold even in the cooperative movement. When the depression came at the end of the 1920s, the communists tried to make their hold on the Cooperative Central stronger. Kendall considers the first indication of this attempt to have been a proposal made in July 1929 that the Central donate $5,000 to the Communist Party of America. The demand was refused, but the demands continued to be made and, indeed, to be increased to a demand that $10,000 per year be given. At this point the issue became public, and two camps were formed. In one camp was the Työmies, and behind it the left wing of the Finnish Workers Federation; and behind them, according to Kolehmainen, stood the Communist Party of America, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Finland, and ultimately, the Comintern. 28 In the other camp was the Cooperative Central itself, and its weekly paper which had been started in 1926, The Cooperative (Pyramid) Builder, and its Finnish language paper started in 1930, Työväen Osuustoimintalehti, edited originally by Henry Koski, together with the majority of the Finnish Workers Federation and numerous supporters of the cooperative movement. Of the members of the board of directors of the Central, only three were and remained faithful to the communists: Oscar Corgan, Matti Tenhunen and Jack Vainionpää. Business manager Ronn and his successor, H. V. Nurmi (1931-38), together with George Halonen, secretary of the educational office, belonged to the majority opposing the communist demands. The communist side of the case was described by William Marttila in his book (in Finnish), "Cooperatives and Their Significance in the Class Struggle," and the official point of view of the Cooperative Central was described in a book (also in Finnish) by George Halonen, "The Battle on the Cooperative Front." The final result was that, the communists having lost ground, which had already become apparent in the Central's annual meeting in the spring of 1930 where the communists held only 46 out of the 279 votes, they ended in complete defeat. Before the end of 1931 there disappeared for good from the labels on cooperative products the red, blue and white stars, and what had appeared later, the hammer and sickle, and they were replaced by a new trade mark: two pine trees. 29 Neutrality, from that time on, was endorsed by the whole movement. In accordance with this neutrality, the board of directors gave a stern warning to the Työväen Osuustoi

28. Kolehmainen and Hill, op. cit. p. 136

29. Voice of America, radio broadcast, 15 October 1952

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