STRONGER TOGETHER

As the world grows more uncertain, the climate continues to warm, and international law is increasingly openly questioned, movements are needed that bring people together to build a better world and create a brighter future.

By working and coming together, we create hope for tomorrow. Ensuring a good and decent life for everyone is at the heart of the Left’s policy. We are building a better world within the framework of ecological and planetary carrying capacity. A world, where even animals have inherent value. We treasure democracy, human rights and peace.

The Left Alliance’s policies for building a better world have been compiled in this target programme. The programme supplements the platform approved in 2022.

1. TAKING BACK
ECONOMIC POWER

Promoting equality and democracy are at the heart of the Left Alliance’s economic policy. The extreme concentration of wealth has also led to the concentration of power, which poses a threat to democracies. Our goal is to overturn this dangerous development in Finland, Europe and globally.

We want to increase employee influence and ownership in companies and power in the labour market. By strengthening the progressive tax system, we will make Finland more equal. By taxing the rich, we also reduce the concentration of political and economic power. Too much of our workload is being expended in enabling conspicuous consumption, when we could ensure a good life for everyone with less work. The Left Alliance is seeking full employment, less working time and allocating our resources in a more democratic manner that serves all of us. In our current situation, the needs of the rich are overemphasised, and their choices are overly determining how our collective resources are used.

We want to change the current societal system, which is detrimental for both humans and the environment. People need to get by with work, and social security must address changing working life needs. The Left Alliance is seeking a complete reform of social security. We want to implement a universal basic income supplemented by earnings-related and other benefits that secure people’s livelihoods in all life situations.

Left wing economic policies will prevent impoverishment, secure the basic needs of people and increase citizens’ economic opportunities. It aims to bring about tangible improvements in people’s living conditions, such as by stabilising the prices of basic commodities (food, energy, housing), raising wages and investing in public services and infrastructure. Left-wing economic policy is also the best antidote to right-wing populism and the rise of the far right, which is fuelled by uncertainty and poverty.

Finland’s economic environment is changing as a result of both internal and external factors. Significant trends that are immediately visible on the national scale include concentration of wealth, aging populations and weak productivity performance. All these developments require a political reorientation of economic resources since the market is either incapable of solving their problems or is reinforcing undesirable trends.

The concentration of wealth is part of an international trend, influenced by, among other things, tax relief for the wealthy, structural changes in the global economy, and the development of more capital-intensive methods of production. It is vital to stop the concentration of wealth. To this end, international solutions are needed, and Finland must be active and take the initiative in promoting them. Finland can also influence the direction of development at the national level by strengthening the progression of overall taxation. A good tax system treats all income as equally as possible, and therefore capital must be taxed progressively like earned income. The progressive taxation of capital and wealth should play a greater role than the current taxation of wages. Concentration of wealth can also be prevented by increasing public ownership in sensible areas and by enabling workers to take greater ownership of enterprises.

The Finnish economy is affected by global phenomena, which can be summed up in four entities: 1) the climate and environment, 2) geopolitics and geoeconomics, 3) macroeconomic conditions and 4) the fourth industrial revolution.

The Earth’s carrying capacity sets the tough economic boundaries within which the economy must operate. The green transition is not currently taking place at a sufficient pace or in a fair way. We need economic regulation and public investment. The scale of the investments required is so large that they require flexibility in the EU’s fiscal rules and in the public debate on deficits.

The same applies to the increase in international competition and tensions. To be able to compete and increase our independence, we need to grow domestic demand. The room for manoeuvre in public finances, European cooperation and strategic self-sufficiency must be increased.

Macroeconomic, i.e. broad economic conditions, are currently exceptionally uncertain. Both the Finnish and European economy must be developed to respond to uncertainties and the growing need of public goods. Member States’ economic independence must either be increased, which means making rules on debt more flexible, or European financing must be increased. This can be achieved, for example, through joint debt, the extension of the use of existing financial instruments or direct financing by the European Central Bank to Member States.

The fourth industrial revolution, on the other hand, means the swift development of AI and automation, which poses a challenge to our way of organising work and people’s livelihood. Without political intervention, the fruits of technological development have historically been reaped by the elite. We need new ways of sharing wealth, work and the right to consume within ecological limits.

The Left Alliance’s target programme seeks to respond to these major structural challenges, particularly from the point of view of national action. Finland can also take on a role that is bigger than its size when these common challenges are solved. This calls for a shift towards international cooperation and solidarity rather than reinforcing a right-wing, self-centred climate in favour of big business.

1.1 The national economy and taxation

Left-wing economic policy aims at a society in which everyone is well and able to realise themselves. We know that countries with low-income inequality have healthier and more educated populations, fewer mental health problems and fewer child deaths, as well as fewer prisoners, crime and drug problems. Low income and wealth inequality constitute good economic policy. The economic policy that supports ordinary Finns creates jobs at home instead of wealth flowing into tax havens or into conspicuous consumption.

A well-balanced fiscal policy is needed to promote a functioning economy and employment. Sustainable public finances are based on adequate tax revenues, good employment and productivity, and value-adding investment. A strong public economy enables developing a welfare state and high-quality services. Fulfilling people’s needs is a worthwhile investment. Investments in wellbeing often pay for themselves in the longer term.

The public economy is not strengthened through right-wing austerity politics. The framework rules must be linked to the economic situation and revenue must be considered in a balanced way. Tax reductions and increases in expenditure must be treated in a uniform manner: it must be possible to finance these increases with the corresponding tax revenues. The national economy is not strengthened by the sale of socially significant assets, such as state or municipal-owned natural monopolies. Privatisation weakens security and is detrimental to the people of Finland.

Stabilisation policy must support the economy in a timely manner. A well-balanced stabilisation policy prevents unemployment, the decline of skills and social problems. Austerity in a weak economic situation leads to an increase in the debt ratio and weakens the longer-term production potential. Therefore, public investments should be added in a poor economic situation. There is a debate going on in the EU about the huge need for investment, but in Finland the right-wing parties have cut public spending.

Tax cuts long sought by right-wing parties, such as reductions in inheritance and community taxes, do not support growth, according to the survey. Instead, well-targeted public investment, investment in education and active employment policies are effective ways of improving the state of the economy and the growth of sustainable sectors.

Both Finland and the EU need to break out of their overdependence on exports and strengthen domestic demand. In this way, we can use more of our natural resources and labour input to support human wellbeing and sustainability. We are pushing for changes to the EU and Finnish financial rules to support these objectives. Within the EU, excessive current account surpluses, which are detrimental to euro area demand and growth, should be sanctioned.

Finland is part of a negative international development where wealth is constantly accumulated by a small group of rich people. In Finland, the richest ten per cent of the population already owns more than half of the net wealth of Finnish households. The poorer half of households own only 4.2 per cent of household net wealth. A quarter of households have little or no net wealth. People are well aware of the growth of economic inequality, and it is currently seen to produce a wide range of problems. To change this trend, both domestic and international solutions are needed.

Fair taxation allows for prosperity in our society, but at the moment Finns are not treated fairly in taxation. At present, the state income tax is the only broadly progressive tax in Finland, i.e. one that equalises income differences. The progressive nature of our entire tax system has been eroded over the last 30 years as the share of income taxes has declined. This harmful effect is reinforced by the ability of wealthy people to convert earned income into capital income, which is taxed much more lightly. While capital taxation has been reduced for the highest earners, wealth has become increasingly concentrated among the richest. The taxation of all income in a single progressive taxation table broadens and simplifies the tax base. This reduces tax avoidance through, for example, an artificial change in income.

Large disparities in income and wealth are detrimental. In addition, taxation must be fair and proportionate to the ability of each individual to pay. Our goal is to shift the focus of taxation to ownership and wealth taxation. The taxation of environmental damage must also be increased, but in such a way that the progressive nature of taxation is maintained and that the impact is not concentrated on low incomes. Any increase in costs is compensated according to the level of income.

The left alliance’s goals

• Public investment needs to be substantially increased to strengthen domestic demand. This would also stimulate business investment and employment. Investments must focus on sustainable products and services.
• The taxation of large capital gains must be tightened so that capital taxation becomes truly progressive. At the same time, the tax burden on low-income earners must be reduced by increasing the basic municipal tax reduction.
• A large-scale investment programme must be launched, which will be evenly distributed between public infrastructure, public housing production, education and an industrial policy that supports the green transition and security of supply.
• The framework procedure for public finances must be reformed to take account not only of public expenditure but also of revenue. In terms of strengthening the national economy, revenues are just as important as expenditures. The reform incorporates tax changes into the framework procedure and facilitates the response to economic fluctuations and the investment required for a fair transition. 
• A carbon dividend model must be introduced, whereby the higher taxation of fossil fuels is reimbursed to people according to their level of income. The compensation is financed by a carbon tax, which makes the negative externalities of products more visible in their prices. A carbon tax would apply to all products and would be determined by their greenhouse gas emissions. 
• All income must be taxed on the same progressive scale. Personal income tax and capital yield tax must be harmonised. A wealth tax targeting millions of assets must be introduced. The reimbursement of the wealth tax strengthens the public finances and would also ensure a more equitable distribution of income and wealth in Finland. 
• The taxation of large inheritances and gifts must be tightened and the tax base tightened, for example by limiting large companies’ tax reliefs for generational transfer. Action must be targeted in such a way as not to cause undue inconvenience to people’s lives. The dividend tax relief for unlisted companies should be abolished. The relief reduces the willingness to invest, productivity and economic regeneration.
• The corporate tax rate in Finland must be increased moderately. 
• Real estate investors must be deprived of the right to a tax deduction on the capital expenditure charge of a housing company.
• Environmentally harmful tax incentives, such as lower tax brackets for wood fuels, must be eliminated.
• The deductions for commuting expenses between home and work must be complemented by a new commuting benefit supporting public transport, where it is reasonably possible to commute by public transport. Compensation must be paid for the loss of free time, if using public transport takes longer than travelling the same distance by car. The new form of aid must take account of regional differences. 
• The public disclosure of tax information must be extended to cover, for example, social security contributions, tax-exempt dividends and insurance cover.
• he global minimum corporate tax rate of 15% should be enhanced and broadened to reduce harmful tax competition and to increase global equity and the scope of national tax policies.
• A common minimum level of wealth tax and capital taxation on large assets must be introduced at the EU level.
• The natural monopolies of the state and municipalities should not be sold.
• A programme to combat tax evasion and corruption must be drawn up, covering all administrative sectors. 
• Money laundering, corruption and the grey economy need to be addressed by increasing the transparency of the register of beneficial owners. 
• Finland must promote the international implementation of the corporate tax reform achieved within the OECD. The reform improves the taxation possibilities of the digital economy.
• The taxation model of the EU’s digital economy must be promoted and a digital tax introduced.
• In the EU, it is necessary to increase the economic policy leeway both at the EU level and Member States in relation to a fair transition and digitalisation. The EU’s deficit and debt rules need to be better adapted to investment needs. The promotion of social and economic justice must be required as a criterion for increasing flexibility.

1.2 Economic governance

It is time for a fundamental overhaul of the principles of economic governance. We see that our current model is producing enormous unintended outcomes, such as ecological crisis and extreme accumulation of wealth. In the neoliberal market model, there is also a chronic investment deficit in investments that promote the wellbeing of people and the environment, because there is no immediate economic return. Social investment in human wellbeing and education, investment in the green transition and in halting the loss of nature, and investment in research and social innovation are all at a completely deficient level. The Left Alliance wants to reform economic governance so that it is defined by ecological sustainability, social justice and long-term public investment. The economy must serve the common good, not the other way around. Our starting points are the wellbeing of people and the environment, a more democratic economy and a more equal distribution of resources.

The state is best placed to influence overall economic development by regulating aggregate demand and by setting objectives and targets that are as consistent as possible with the environment in which it operates. However, it is not enough to publicly guarantee a sufficient quantity of demand; clear qualitative criteria must be set for the regulation of demand. The deficit, public debt and competitiveness are emphasised too much as indicators of the economy. Full employment, widely shared wellbeing, ecological sustainability and efforts to increase productivity must be set as the top goals of the economy.

It is high time to assess in public finances, which things are considered investments, and which are expenses. Investments in wellbeing, such as those in education, are long-term investments in those areas of society that can best enhance the long-term wellbeing of citizens and the environment. They are intended to strengthen the human, social and ecological resources which will help to prevent the prolongation of various crises.

While welfare is an objective in itself, welfare investment also contributes to economic sustainability and the medium-term prospects for a welfare state. Wellbeing investments prevent costs that erode public finances. By investing in wellbeing, such as adequate social and health care services and the promotion of wellbeing and health, it is possible, for example, to prevent more sever service needs, reduce morbidity, increase work ability and productivity, and people’s resources to care for and take care of common and environmental needs.

Gross domestic product, or GDP, is not a good indicator of welfare growth. GDP growth increases consumption of natural resources and emissions and does not consider the unequal distribution of income in society, or basic needs or employment. Unpaid care work, voluntary work and domestic work are also excluded from GDP, which is why work done by the majority of women and minorities is not included in the calculations affecting the economy. Humane work always carries a price that impacts the overall economy. For example, New Zealand currently bases its economic governance on a wellbeing budget instead of GDP.

The problems of GDP are already widely recognised and alternative composite indicators have been developed and put into use. The genuine progress indicator GPI takes a broader view of the monetary dimensions of wellbeing, i.e. it considers the costs of social and environmental problems caused by economic growth. It shows how widening income disparities, increasing environmental damage and many economic decisions have weakened wellbeing and people’s quality of life in Finland since the 1980s. This is also reflected in the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare ISEW, which measures the factors affecting the level of consumer wellbeing more closely than GDP. In Finland too, GDP must be abandoned as the primary measure of development.

In Finland, there is a need to broaden the picture of macroeconomics with welfare indicators that highlight the effects of economic policy on wellbeing. Instead of focusing on costs, the focus should be on how actions affect wellbeing. Particular attention should be paid to measuring the uneven distribution of health and wellbeing and to increasing wellbeing where it is lowest. Wellbeing indicators can be used to locate and prioritise these objectives and to measure the impact of wellbeing investments and economic policy decisions.

However, the promotion of the economy of wellbeing must be carried out in accordance with the principles of a reasonable economy, so that wellbeing investments respect the limits of the planet, both in municipal and regional policy and at the national level. This requires a radical reduction in the material needs of our society, increased energy efficiency and a large-scale circular economy, and the promotion of an ecologically sustainable transition, including in social, health and life-saving services. In addition to welfare investments, the emphasis on equity is on replacing global supply chains with local ones, which supports security of supply and promotes the emergence of new types of public and private service production ecosystems: the emergence of an economic system that supports welfare within the limits of the planet.

The left alliance’s goals

• Economic governance must be based on democratic planning and a broad knowledge base.
• The pursuit of material wellbeing must be limited by sustainable limits to avoid both a lack of wellbeing and harmful overspending. Boundaries must be determined democratically to be fair and acceptable.
• Consumption must be shifted away from unsustainable material consumption towards services, experiences and the reuse, repair, recycling and renting of goods.
• We must oppose unsustainable over-consumption by banning low-priced imports at the EU level, which destroy nature and infringe on workers’ rights.
• The economy of wellbeing must be consolidated as part of the cross-administrative strategic direction of the Government, and its coordination must be placed at the centre of the Government Programme work at the Prime Minister’s Office.
• The economy of wellbeing must be promoted as the main guiding principle of the Ministry of Finance in order to ensure that the wellbeing perspective is embedded in the governance processes of public finances and permeates the activities of all ministries. 
• Since social welfare and health care and Pelastustoimi, as well as the promotion of wellbeing and health, are key tools of the economy of wellbeing, wellbeing economics must also be embedded in the strategies of wellbeing services counties and municipalities as a guiding principle of the economy.
• We must build a way of working which brings together public authorities, organisations and citizens. This ensures that decisions on the welfare economy are both legitimate and effective. The aim is to give people and citizens a greater role in decision-making and the preparation of laws.
• The economy of wellbeing must be integrated into decision-making, preparation and evaluation in all areas of administration. Decision-making shall make use of up-to-date welfare information and multi-faceted analysis.
• Clear welfare indicators should be developed and introduced to guide ex ante and ex post evaluations, support effective investment and make visible the multi-dimensionality of welfare.

1.3 Livelihood and social security

Poverty in Finnish society has deepened and widened as a result of a consciously implemented right-wing policy. Massive cuts in social security in recent years have added to people’s anxiety, over-indebtedness and evictions. Even homelessness has rebounded after a long period of decline. Difficulties in entering the labour market affect not only the unemployed, students, pensioners, the long-term sick and other people outside the labour market, but also a growing proportion of workers.

The Left Alliance wants to stop the trend towards inequality and reform the social security system from the current jungle of bureaucracy to a basic income without compensation. In addition to basic income, it is necessary to strengthen earnings-based security and services tailored to the individual needs of people, which must be available at a low threshold without jumping from one gate to another. An active labour market policy must guarantee the right of everyone to work after 12 months of unemployment at the latest. Ensure that the 12-month employment period is equally applied to different groups, such as sign-language and other minorities.

The right to an adequate standard of living is a human right. Finland has repeatedly received comments from international monitoring bodies about the inadequate level of social protection for a decent life. The basic social security benefits must be significantly raised, and the general housing allowance must be increased to reflect the real cost of living. The starting point must be that basic social security and general housing allowance are sufficient to cover people’s livelihoods without the need for long-term social assistance. Poverty among families with children needs to be reduced decisively such as by returning the child supplement to unemployment security and increasing the basic amount of social assistance for children.

The growing poverty of the working population must be reduced by means of both labour legislation and social security. Social security must also better meet the needs of entrepreneurs, self-employed people and people working odd jobs. In addition to collective agreements, there is a need for a statutory minimum wage and a statutory supplement for part-time work. The protected amounts of unemployment security and housing allowance must be restored and increased to EUR 500. The production of affordable housing must be increased significantly, and public transport must be gradually made free of charge. Benefits paid during illness and rehabilitation must ensure a human standard of living without the need for social assistance.

The Finnish social security system is very complex, which is why underuse of social security is a bigger problem than misuse. Applications for social security benefits, in particular for social assistance as the last resort, should be further simplified and clarified, and the application instructions should be clear and easily accessible. Applying for social security benefits should be clear, smooth and easy, so that people do not go into debt or fall into poverty. The worsening crisis of over-indebtedness needs to be responded to by a comprehensive set of measures, including strengthening the security of people’s livelihoods and social lending, improving the position of those on the verge of foreclosure and tightening the regulation of consumer credit.

There needs to be an increase to the guarantee and national pension in order to guarantee sufficient livelihood for all pensioners. The situation of those receiving low employment pensions must also be improved by improving the coordination of employment and national pensions and by strengthening the internal fairness of the employment pension system. The poverty of families with children, students, the long-term unemployed, the partially disabled, the handicapped and the long-term ill must be addressed by means of increases in benefits and a flexible reconciliation of earnings and benefits.

The left alliance’s goals

• We need to move to a free and sufficient basic income, which combines labour market support, basic daily allowance, guaranteed pension, early old-age pension, basic sickness daily allowance and parental allowance, home care allowance, study grants and start-up grants for entrepreneurs. The flexible combination of earnings and social security must be possible. Dismantling the bureaucratic traps of social security makes it easier to accept a job.
• A job guarantee for the long-term unemployed must be introduced, where the public sector ultimately secures wage-subsidised work for all those who have been unemployed for more than 12 months. The possibility to accumulate earnings-related unemployment allowance with wage-subsidised work must be restored.
• The livelihood of low-income groups must be improved by increasing basic security and small pensions. Reductions in unemployment security and housing allowance must be cancelled and the waiting period for unemployment security must be waived.
• Social security must be increased by increasing the basic part of social assistance so that everyone has a genuine opportunity to meet the basic needs of living.
• The loss of pension accumulation resulting from the loss of earnings of working-age caregivers should be compensated.
• Before switching to universal basic income, a universal basic income experiment must be implemented. The experiment should target the unemployed, wage-earners, students, small entrepreneurs and those outside the labour force, so that the experiment truly reflects Finnish society. 
• Unemployment security must allow you to study, to work as a volunteer, to do other unpaid work, and to pursue secondary business activities. In principle, the evaluation of business activity or secondary employment in one’s own work must be based on the applicant’s own declaration and income register information. 
• A protected amount of EUR 500 must be set for unemployment benefits and general housing allowance.
• The income of sole proprietors must be displayed in the positive credit register to verify creditworthiness.
• We must give up on labour policies promoting waiting periods that deepen poverty. 
• Applying for social security benefits and the related bureaucracy must be simplified in order to correct the underutilisation of benefits. In principle, it must be possible to apply for Kela’s social security benefits with a single application, so that the person does not have to find out their right to different benefits and apply for them separately. 
• The debtor’s protected portion must be increased We must create a progressive foreclosure model that better considers people’s ability to pay and encourages work. The final time limitation for enforced debts must be shortened to 10 years and access to debt settlement made easier.
• The increase in the cost of living must be better considered in the national pension index. Index increases must be done at least annually and, if necessary, also in the middle of the year if the cost of living suddenly rises. 
• It is necessary to explore the possibility of implementing the next pension reform in such a way as to eliminate income disparities within the employment pension system and to improve the growth rate of small pensions without weakening the financial base of the pension system. Pension must continue to be accumulated during unemployment, parental leave and studying.
• Study grants must be significantly increased with more grant months added. Students must be returned within the scope of general housing allowance. Students’ monetary benefits must be linked to an index so that the level of benefits follows the increase in costs. The double-track system of study grants must be abolished and the emphasis on loans reduced. Study loans should not be the prerequisite for applying for or receiving social assistance. In the longer term, student loans should be waived and replaced with a social benefit for students consisting of housing allowance and a study grant. The requirement to complete 20 credits before being eligible to receive a study grant after the termination of the grant should be removed. Study grants should be transferred from the Ministry of Education and Culture to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.
• The special conditions for receiving unemployment security for people under the age of 25 should be removed.
• Poverty among families with children needs to be reduced by returning the child supplement to unemployment security and increasing the basic amount of social assistance for children. 
• When a child has joint custody in two homes, both homes must have the same opportunities for social security if the situation requires it. The most urgent change in social security is to take account of the child’s joint custody for both homes. In the case of the joint custody of children, the appointment of the other parent as a distant parent must be abandoned and the children must be able to be registered in two homes.
• The funding of self-employed person’s pensions needs to be promoted, and alternative funding models explored. The goal is to have a model that secures the sustainability of the self-employed person’s pension system and which does not place an unnecessary burden on entrepreneurs’ finances.
• The decision to limit home care allowance for persons and families who have lived in Finland for less than three years and moved from outside the EU and EEA must be revoked.
• The labour market subsidy, which entered into force at the time of the Coronavirus pandemic, must be permanently implemented in such a way that obtaining unemployment security does not require the cessation of business activity.
• Social security and pension cover for sole proprietors must be improved by reforming the self-employed persons’ pension and unemployment security systems. The self-employed persons’ pension system must be by listening to the challenges faced by micro-entrepreneurs and sole proprietors in such a way that pension payments are more clearly based on the actual income of the entrepreneur instead of estimated work income. In determining the premium, the seasonal variation of the entrepreneur’s income and the payment burden of the new entrepreneur must be considered, minimising the risk of underinsurance. This development work must be done at the same time as reworking social security for entrepreneurs.
• We must improve the coordination of invalidity pensions and wage income and cut the related bureaucracy. 
• A parent who has experienced the death of a child and a person who has lost a spouse must be supported with grief leave. The leave must apply to all parents who have lost a child, regardless of the age of the child. 
• National criteria must be specified for social lending, which would secure sufficient availability for it in all areas. 
• The amount of reception allowance must be raised to secure a life worth living.
• Calling the authorities must be free of charge. 

1.4 Industrial policy

Left-wing industrial policy focuses on strengthening employment, emphasises corporate responsibility, supports fair transition, promotes technological development and productivity for the benefit of all, and ensures a level playing field for businesses in a legal and predictable environment. Social and ecological sustainability form the boundary conditions of our business policy. By providing a functioning basic infrastructure for society and by training a skilled workforce, the public authorities also strengthen the conditions under which firms operate. Companies must take social responsibility for working conditions, human rights and the environment. Responsible industrial policy also takes into account the regional dimension, promoting job creation throughout Finland.

The best industrial policy is to ensure that people are employed and educated throughout their working lives. In addition, the state can support industry and promote human and environmentally friendly productivity by investing in independent scientific research and product development. Business subsidies must be diverted away from those that are harmful to the environment. Instead, research, product development and innovation support must be increased. In the case of significant business subsidies, the possibility of the state owning shares in the company must be addressed. The distribution of dividends can be limited as a condition of business subsidies.

As an active owner, the state can generate income through its ownership of enterprises while also developing and diversifying the Finnish economic structure, supporting employment and ensuring Finnish ownership of critical companies in terms of security of supply. The establishment of state-owned companies and direct investments through instruments such as the Finnish Climate Fund and Finnish Industry Investment Ltd are examples of progressive economic policy. Industrial policy subsidies and especially RDI activities (research, development and innovation activities) must also be aimed at supporting the development conditions of public service activities. Technological development, productivity and the growth of sustainable sectors can be promoted with RDI policy. In addition to quantitative goals, Finnish innovation policy also needs strong qualitative criteria: a quantitative examination of public and private RDI investments alone are not enough. The most efficient use of public money is to direct the bulk of RDI investments to education and basic research. When deciding on procurements, domestic and local businesses must be supported, taking into account ecological aspects.

The Left Alliance is also the party of entrepreneurs. In Finland, entrepreneurs are often at the mercy of the market and capital where other people work. Many entrepreneurs earn less than the Finnish average. In Finland, statutory unemployment security is also extended to entrepreneurs, but it does not sufficiently respond to today’s needs. At its best, entrepreneurship combines the interests of both the entrepreneur and their employees. A properly implemented entrepreneurship policy benefits society as a whole and its members, develops the economy and promotes human wellbeing. However, this requires an entrepreneurship policy that recognises and acknowledges the plight, needs and potential of micro and individual entrepreneurs.

Over 90% of all Finnish enterprises are micro and sole proprietorships, employing over one fifth of the private sector workforce. Although micro and sole proprietorships form a significant ecosystem that supports the entire economy, they are almost completely excluded from business and RDI subsidies. The Left Alliance also wants to ensure fair pension protection for entrepreneurs and supports the development of the self-employed person’s pension insurance system by listening to the challenges of micro and sole entrepreneurs. The Left Alliance emphasises the role of micro and sole entrepreneurs in building a socially, ecologically and economically sustainable society and seeks to improve their position in a market environment dominated by transnational capital.
Before the impoverishing and unemployment-inducing economic policies of Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government, employment was boosted by small and medium-sized enterprises. Small businesses must be supported by simplifying social security and income taxation. Ownership management of state-owned companies must guide companies to act in an exemplary manner from the point of view of economic, social and environmental responsibility. The compensation system for corporate governance must be reformed and made completely transparent.

Industrial policy must support the transition to sustainability. By promoting the circular economy, the environmental impact of goods and services can be substantially curbed. Therefore, the position of the repair industry, i.e. the people and companies doing various maintenance, modification and repair work, must be improved. For example, the education system must be developed in such a way that the professional skills required in the field of repair are better available.

There are other companies on the market besides the traditional ones. Alternative ways of organising economic activities, such as co-operatives, social enterprises and non-profit associations, allow activities to be carried out without high profit requirements and without setting objectives other than the profit motive. The Left Alliance seeks to promote such economic activity.

The industrial policy of the Left Alliance aims to improve human welfare and to promote a competitive and ecologically sustainable industry. This task includes ensuring sufficient and skilled labour, adequate research, development and innovation (RDI) funding, investment in new production technology, safeguarding the position of workers in a disruption, as well as the implementation of a fair industrial transition. While the challenges are great, the risks of inaction are even greater. The Finnish industrial worker plays a crucial role in building a prosperous society and a viable world. In Finland, industry has played a key role in creating a welfare state – and it will also be decisive in building a sustainable Finland in the future.

The biggest challenges for Finnish industry from the point of view of a fair transition are sustainable use of forests and soil, curbing emissions from the steel industry and rebuilding the energy sector. In the future, the practice of industry must be based on the circular economy. Industrial processes that convert waste into new raw materials have great economic potential. Industrial production shall maximise the reuse and recycling of raw materials, increase the processing rate and minimise waste. It is also necessary to allow the reuse of waste materials and to minimise the use of raw materials from the environment.

The development of technology and the forms in which it is used depend to a large extent on the ideologies, objectives, resources and power relations underlying the technology. For this reason, technology is also a field of political struggle. If we want digitalisation, automation and artificial intelligence to enhance our common prosperity now and in the future, rather than enriching only a select few, we need to actively steer development through political decision-making, regulation and the participation of technology users. Otherwise, as we have already seen, the new technology tends to increase social and economic inequalities. The shift from work done by humans to work done by machines may be justified in some cases, but if the added value of technology flows to the owners of the machines, society becomes more unequal. The aim of left-wing technology policy is to share the fruits of technological development, to regulate the use of technology harmful to people and nature, and to guide and finance technological development that improves our quality of life.

The left alliance’s goals

• Improvements in labour productivity due to new technology must be compensated for by shorter statutory working hours for workers.
• In the case of industrial policy, the emphasis must be on real competitiveness, i.e. the conditions for producing high processing value. Competitiveness should not be sought by slashing wages and cutting welfare funding.
• Energy and industrial policies need to make a substantial financial contribution to promoting industrial projects that support the green transition.
• Tax subsidies which are harmful to the environment must be abolished. 
• Small businesses must be supported by raising the VAT turnover threshold to EUR 30 000.
• The general VAT rate must be reduced to 24%. In addition, the taxation of medicines, menstrual cups, diapers, goods repair services, sports services and art, as well as tickets for public transport by land and sea, must be reduced by 10%. VAT on books must be reduced to 0%.
• The diversity of entrepreneurship needs to be better recognised. The needs of sole proprietors and small entrepreneurs, worker cooperatives and immigrant entrepreneurs must be placed at the heart of entrepreneurship policy. 
• Hiring the first employee must be made easier by relating the employer’s fees to the company’s turnover and by offering advice to beginning employer-entrepreneurs. 
• The supervision of the Act on Payment Terms in Commercial Agreements must be increased, and an anonymous reporting channel must be established about delayed payments by companies, so that the illegally long payment times of large companies can be eradicated and entrepreneurs receive their money on time.
• Unfair competition must be eradicated through public procurement and business aid. Sole proprietors and small enterprises must be able to participate in all calls for tender and applications for business aid. This also applies to the status and treatment of cooperatives in relation to other forms of enterprise. 
• Competition policy must be strengthened to combat unfair market concentration. 
• The objectives and directions of a fair industrial transition must be defined as precisely as possible in order to improve the incentives for private operators to make long-term investments. Key steering mechanisms include binding emission reduction targets, circular economy targets, biodiversity targets and industrial low-carbon maps, as well as coordination to ensure their scientific consistency and compatibility. The planning unit for the fair transition of industry, which shall be established in the government, must monitor that the whole is sustainable in terms of the climate, the environment, and society, and coordinate the coordination of the goals and resource needs of different parties.
• The activity of state ownership must be strengthened. In state-majority-owned companies, a good employer policy, tax transparency and responsible environmental policy must be followed, taking regionalism into account. 
• All legislation must ensure the operating conditions of cooperatives and social enterprises. 
• Small-scale voluntary and organisational activities are to be excluded from the income register. This will safeguard the conditions for the operation of small voluntary organisations and prevent the welfare-generating activities of organisations from being undermined by government regulation and administrative burdens. 
• The level of funding for research, development and innovation shall be set at 5% of GDP. The share of basic research and universities in RDI funding must be strengthened. 
• Subsidies for innovation and product development activities of companies and universities must be increased so that they support the expansion of RDI activities and the diversification of the economic structure. 
• Strategic priorities for public RDI funding to support fair transition and social innovation must be defined. The financing must be effectively targeted so as not to be channelled into the shares of large companies. Micro and sole entrepreneurs must also be able to apply for RDI grants.
• The government’s research and investigation activities must be restored, and sufficient funding must be allocated to it.
• Support should also be provided to small and medium-sized domestic producers in agriculture to ensure self-sufficiency, security of supply and a fair transition. The basic producers must be guaranteed a livelihood, and the suppression of trade prices must be limited. 
• Entrepreneurs must be supported in giving up livelihoods that are harmful to the environment and animals. 
• Sustainable and responsible tourism must be developed and supported. Sustainable tourism must take into account environmental protection, social equality and quality of life, cultural diversity and Sámi rights, and a viable economy that provides jobs and prosperity for all. A regional tourist tax should be imposed on tourism.
• Regional procurement skills in public entities need to be strengthened. 
• The status, legal protection, safety and working conditions of adult entrepreneurs and self-employed sex workers must be improved in a way that strengthens the autonomy of sex workers and allows for collective support. Entrepreneurs doing sex work must be in an equal position in relation to other entrepreneurs. The provisions of criminal law on procuring should be updated to address more specifically the issue of forced sexual intercourse and to remove from the provisions those which make it difficult for adults to work on the basis of their consent and on their own terms. Prohibitions on advertising sex services and prohibitions on buying and selling sex services in public places in the Public Order Act must be removed. The Aliens Act must be amended so that a residence permit for a victim of trafficking in human beings is granted to a victim of trafficking in human beings if the system for helping victims of trafficking in human beings has established that the person has been a victim of trafficking in human beings in Finland or before arriving in Finland. In the preparation of laws on sex work, experts on the experience of sex work should be involved in the legislative process and ensure that they are consulted in the preparation of the law.
• We must invest in entrepreneurship services for immigrants. This would create opportunities for new growth, jobs and innovation, and promote social diversity and community.
• Gender quotas must be established for the boards of publicly listed companies.
• The ownership of the public investment company Solidium must be reallocated to the scaling-up phase of growth companies.
• The capital of the Finnish Industry Investment Ltd should be increased and the role of fair transition in its operations should be strengthened.
• Competition authorities shall be obliged and empowered to assess the significance and acceptability of individual acquisitions or other market actions, always in relation to the whole system, ecosystem or sector of activity concerned and its concentration.
• The EU’s competition authorities must be given the power to impose fines for abuses of such a high level, i.e. a sufficient percentage of companies’ turnover, that they have a genuinely significant impact on the activities of tech giants.
• Competition authorities must be given the power not only to prevent mergers and to impose fines for abuses, but also, and lastly, to crack down on companies that have become too large and dominant.
• The EU Commission must take action to ensure that cloud services are also examined and regulated in line with the Digital Markets Act and that smaller companies’ views are also heard in the implementation of the Act.
• The ability of platform companies or data giants to impose unreasonable contractual terms on the basis of their monopoly position must be further restricted.
• The public sector’s use of cloud and other digital services must gradually move towards a target space where the services are produced on a public ownership basis and where data is processed and stored in Finland. Office application services purchased from digital waste shall be replaced by open-source alternatives. Municipalities, associations of municipalities, universities and other public sector actors must be supported in achieving this objective.
• It is necessary to influence the fact that EU-level funding to strengthen sustainable and fair transition, digitisation and strategic autonomy is multiplied. The financing must include conditions that guide the activities, which guarantee that the technologies being developed serve jointly defined social goals.
• We must ensure globally competitive technological development in line with left-wing values ​. Open public digital infrastructures must be built to ensure the fair sharing of data and, for example, the publicity of computing power.
• The transparency and accountability of artificial intelligence must be increased with mandatory regulation, with an emphasis on EU-level regulation and its effective national implementation, as well as international cooperation within, for example, the UN and the OECD. Violations of the rules must be subject to significant sanctions. The transition to social ownership of the AI sector must also be promoted at the international level.
• Funding for public artificial intelligence research and the development of public, open artificial intelligence models must be increased in Finland and the EU. We must ensure that there is enough efficient shared computing capacity in Finland and the EU.
• A new public body must be established in Finland to monitor the ethics of the use of artificial intelligence and the implementation of the EU’s artificial intelligence regulation and other applicable regulations nationally, to interact with the EU’s artificial intelligence office and to provide the necessary advisory services.
• EU-level binding rules for the use of artificial intelligence in creative work must be promoted. It is necessary to ensure that authors of creative works are adequately remunerated for their work and to protect their rights in relation to their works.
• EU-level regulation must be promoted, in which attempts are made to curb the growing climate effects of artificial intelligence technology, for example by mandating or encouraging energy efficiency in models, the use of renewable energy and the geographical distribution of data centres so that times of low electricity consumption can be utilised, or even by limiting use.
• We must promote a labelling obligation that clearly states which cultural works are partially or completely produced by artificial intelligence. Copyrighted material may not be used as training material for artificial intelligence without the express permission of the author or the right holder. A compensation system must be introduced that enables compensation for artists and creators when their works are used in artificial intelligence training or productions.
• Promoting the uniformity and smoothness of environmental permit processes must not take place by relaxing the requirements for securing a good state of the environment or by facilitating deviations from environmental requirements. The realisation of the general interest regarding the environment must be safeguarded in the future. In order for the goal of streamlining environmental permit processes to be realised, sufficient resources must be reserved for the environmental administration.
• EU-level business policy must define strict conditionality criteria, i.e. the criteria for what kind of activities that exceed the basic level are granted subsidies. All regulation and investments must support social and ecological sustainability.
• It is necessary to influence the fact that EU-level funding to strengthen sustainable and fair transition, digitisation and strategic autonomy is also multiplied.

2. A BETTER TOMORROW WITHIN THE LIMITS OF THE PLANET’S CARRYING CAPACITY

The most important question of our time is how we manage to curb the man-made ecological crisis. It manifests itself in particular as climate warming, diminishing biodiversity and environmental pollution.

Human activity must be sized to fit within ecological and planetary boundaries. Our society must be rebuilt ecologically and a fair climate and environmental policy must be at the heart of all decision-making. This is especially the task of our era, because the next generations will no longer have time to do it. The eco-crisis is already underway and reversing the course must be a priority.

Loss of biodiversity poses a threat comparable to the climate crisis. Biodiversity is declining dramatically, leading not only to the loss of species but also to the loss of entire ecosystems. The biggest threat to biodiversity is the destruction of habitats. While it is necessary to adequately protect natural areas and exclude them from construction and human activities that alter the environment, systemic sustainability changes must also be targeted at the material economy. The most important are the changes in the food system, energy system, construction and transport system. In-depth and wide-ranging application of the circular economy can contribute to supporting natural diversity.

The Left aims to avoid the catastrophic consequences of the climate crisis with an active climate policy. However, man-made global warming is already leading to more extreme weather events. Adaptation to climate change therefore needs to be addressed at all levels of governance. The impact of the increase in extreme weather events and the emergence of new animal and plant species on nature, the urban environment and the functioning of society needs to be assessed in a broad way. The effects of climate change also need to be addressed in urban planning, for example by investing in stormwater management and urban greenery, which cools the micro-climate during warm periods.

The adverse effects of the climate crisis are felt and are continuing. In Finland, the direct health impacts arise from the increase in global temperature and the increase in extreme weather events. The indirect effects are mainly due to changes elsewhere in the world: food supply is becoming more difficult, refugees are increasing and conflicts are also reflected in Finland. The major causes of the problems are the loss of arable land and water scarcity, which in turn are caused by drought, heavy rains and the loss of land and increased flooding as sea levels rise. The melting of mountain glaciers is worsening the water situation, and the melting of continental and sea ice is raising sea levels. We also need to be prepared for changes in ocean currents, such as the weakening of the Gulf Stream.

While curbing the ecological crisis is absolutely essential, the transition it requires is also an opportunity to create a fairer and more prosperous society. Giving up fossil fuels reduces respiratory and heart disease. By eating plant-based and moving in unobstructed environments with our own muscle power or with unobstructed and accessible public transportation, we are doing climate actions while also improving our health. Reducing car traffic reduces the number of small particles, accidents and, combined with barrier-free public spaces, increases movement under one’s own muscle power and creates a more comfortable living space. By choosing sustainable building materials, recycled materials, reducing industrial emissions and emphasising renovation construction instead of new construction, the climate load of construction can be reduced. A more ecological consumption alone is not enough, total consumption must be reduced in general.

The starting point of the Left Alliance’s environmental policy is fairness. Fairness in environmental policy primarily means that the necessary ecological transition is implemented. Inaction and slowing down is the most unfair option of all. The transition must be carried out in a fair way, i.e. in such a way that it does not cause unreasonable costs for low- and middle-income earners and does not increase income differences. The implementation of the rights of the Sámi people and of the various minorities must also play a significant role in the transitional policy. Everyone must be involved in the implementation of the transition, so that people feel that the implemented change is their own and feel ownership of it. Social and health care and rescue operations must be on an ecologically sustainable basis, as the sector forms a significant part of Finland’s carbon footprint.

2.1 Fair transition – the economy and industry

In Finland, Europe and other parts of the world, steps have been taken in the direction of the green transition. There is still insufficient action to respond to the environmental catastrophe. Employment and welfare must be safeguarded and inequalities reduced, even in a changing economy. The ecological footprint of rich countries must be significantly reduced. It is not enough to go green here and there; we need an ecological reconstruction comparable to the post-war reconstruction at all levels of society.

A fair transition must be promoted in all sectors. Agriculture is of invaluable importance to Finland. Agricultural companies support security of supply, employment and the entire food chain. The Left Alliance supports farmers in building ecologically sustainable domestic agriculture and food production, which is also economically profitable for the producers. A fair industrial green transition means a planned shift away from unsustainable industrial production methods.

The fairness of the transition means that it is carried out in a socially just manner. The transition will require major investments in new production technology and research, which will create new jobs. Employees must be guaranteed a livelihood, new jobs and possible further and retraining. The cost of fossil fuels has to be compensated for by low-income groups. In order to ensure sustainable alternatives, affordable solutions for renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure need to be developed rapidly and supported by adequate public investment.

Taxation must be used more effectively to support, for example, sustainable structural change and the transition to an energy-efficient, smart and renewable energy system. As a precondition for guiding the state’s economic and operational planning, the emission and nature budgets must be raised alongside the Euro. The guiding principle of taxation is to combine the fight against inequality with environmental steering. The polluter and the environmentally damaging party must pay, and economically viable alternatives must be made to environmentally sustainable choices.

The implementation of the green transition can increase the share of industry in Finland’s industrial structure. An increase in the share of industry is desirable when it creates quality jobs, meets the needs of the green transition and focuses above all on high value-added sectors. Industrial policy must promote these goals. Investments in sustainable industry and the education and research that promote it generate a great deal of new work. In addition, as a country of high know-how and high technology, Finland is well placed to be a pioneer in the development of new industrial solutions. The development of new solutions also increases know-how, which has its own export potential. The share of industrial know-how and services in exports can be further increased.

To promote a circular economy, both production structures and consumption patterns need to be changed. The circular economy is based on consumption reduction, reuse and recycling, which can be supported, for example, by encouraging repair and rental and by encouraging consumers to choose recycled and used products over new ones. In order to make this change possible, both the consumer behaviour of citizens and the business models of companies must change. The state must take global responsibility and support this change, for example through taxation and by combating the consumption of low-quality, cheap goods, especially goods produced unethically, unecologically or with, for example, child labour. Public procurement must support circular economy solutions and create a market for sustainable products, and the development of new technologies must be invested in through research and innovation.

The left alliance’s goals

• Economic growth as the primary goal of economic policy must be abandoned and replaced by economic equality and ecologically sustainable wellbeing. The development of society and the economy must be measured in a variety of ways with other metrics than gross domestic product growth, taking into account above all the wellbeing of people and the environment.
• We must support the creation of sustainable industrial jobs in Finland. The state must participate in the green transition with investments and maintain its own business activities, which benefits both the Finnish export industry and the national economy in general.
• Incentives for the consumption and production of services and products that strengthen the growth of the circular and sharing economy must be increased. 
• Machinery, equipment and supplies must be capable of being repaired.
• Temporary subsidies for the conversion of the fleet, such as scrapping or conversion grants, should be continued. Scrapping premiums shall be allocated in a resource-wise and achievable manner.
• Annual emission and resource budgets must be defined for the different sectors of the administration, society and the economy, which cannot be exceeded. All public procurement shall minimise emissions and environmental impacts and shall focus on domestic and local production. 
• Finland’s consumption-based emissions must be added to Finland’s carbon neutrality target. Emissions from consumption include not only emissions from the production of goods and services at home, but also emissions from the production chains and transport of imported products abroad. 
• The carbon footprint of construction and especially building materials must be reduced by promoting the circular economy. It is necessary to introduce regulations that reduce emissions from building materials. The existing building stock must be used primarily: old buildings must be maintained and repaired, and old building frames and building parts must be used for new construction. 
• Environmental education must be reinforced and integrated into education at all levels. In the next parliamentary term, a national Sustainable Schools project should be launched and adequate funding ensured. 
• A revenue-sharing mechanism must be set up to reimburse environmental taxes collected to the people on the basis of regional and social policy. 
• Pension funds must be obliged to divest from fossil fuels. 
• Agricultural subsidies need to be strongly developed to support a fair transition in agriculture. We need to move towards a plant-based, carbon-neutral food production system.
• Delays in the payment of agricultural subsidies must be corrected and the aid must be directed to active farmers. In addition, excessive bureaucracy in the payment and control of subsidies must be alleviated. The profitability of domestic agriculture and the livelihood and working conditions of producers must be improved. 
• Small energy and circular economy projects on farms must be supported to improve self-sufficiency. Incentives should also be provided for wider buffer zones in areas where manure is applied. 
• The agricultural methane recovery system must be developed, with state support if necessary.
• Silvoarable agroforestry must be supported as a new cultivation method. In silvoarable agroforestry, rows of trees or bushes are planted between the field strips. This method also supports biodiversity in large fields and has been shown to increase total harvests. 
• Transforming the food system into a sustainable one has to be seen in the context of the whole food chain. An action programme for plant-based food and a separate investment fund must be established.
• A cross-parliamentary and science-driven industrial transition planning unit must be established in the Prime Minister’s Office for producing interdisciplinary information for use by industry and society and coordinating the guidance of a fair transition. 
• A green industry management company belonging to the state sector must be established with a mandate to coordinate fair transition between relevant companies, coordinate resources and seek synergies between different sectors. 
• Housing associations’ shared goods and means of transport must be increased. We need to create a concrete incentive system for shared goods, such as VAT exemption. 
• The EU must set binding circular economy targets to moderate the use of natural resources and minimise the environmental impact of their deployment. The circular economy must also be promoted internationally through cooperation and financing.
• Finnish industry as a whole must be carbon neutral by 2035. 
• The recycling capacity must be increased by expanding the deposit system and the amount of recyclable materials.
• The state must organise a campaign to increase the recycling rate of scrap metal. Targeted research must be funded to make the steel manufacturing process as emission-free as possible.
• It is necessary to support the increase in the processing rate of metals in Finland with investments. Sustainability and competitiveness must be ensured with carbon-neutral products and production chains.
• The EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism must be developed to prevent carbon leakage, i.e. the transfer of carbon-intensive production out of the EU or the import of carbon-intensive products from outside the EU, as well as possible.

2.2 Energy production and transport

Energy production and the use of fossil fuels account for the majority of global emissions. Fossil gas also has a strong geopolitical dimension. We have to get rid of the dependence of authoritarian regimes on energy supplies. Finland needs to invest particularly in in wind, solar and geothermal power. Emissions from transport and housing must be reduced by replacing fossil fuels with alternative fuels and by expanding the charging network for electric cars and biogas distribution. Supporting the bioethanol and biogas conversion is a sensible and cost-effective way to support climate action.

Abandoning the current unsustainable electricity production together with the electrification of energy-intensive industry requires a significant increase in sustainable electricity production. Achieving the goal requires increasing solar, wind, geothermal and nuclear power from the current level. In order to ensure a domestic ownership base for potential new large-scale nuclear power plants and to prevent risks associated with overly complex subcontracting chains, a special state-owned company should be established to implement and operate them. The deployment of small nuclear power must be promoted while accounting for safety requirements and in the light of national and international developments in the sector. In order to maintain domestic nuclear expertise, investment in training and research in the field is required.

The electricity transmission network must be returned to public ownership. National infrastructure must not be a tool for profit-seeking. The costs of electricity transmission have gotten out of hand as a result of privatisation, and therefore the control of the network must be transferred back to the hands of society. Public ownership of electricity networks enables reasonable prices, better transparency and long-term development.

District heating is a key part of home heating solutions and energy-efficient community structure. Developing the system to be low-emission requires the ability to make long-term investments, transparency and local control power. Public ownership enables better consideration of the perspectives of residents, the environment and the region’s vitality in decision-making. Privatisation has led to an increase in prices and delays in investments. We want to keep the management and production of the district heating system under local ownership and support the transition towards decentralised heating solutions based on renewable energy sources.

The safety and adequacy of water services must be ensured in all municipalities in Finland. Water services require long-term financing for infrastructure investments and project finance to develop water services in the long term to meet future challenges. Future challenges include climate change and a sharp increase in the intensity of heavy rain. Water services, like electricity and district heating, are a part of critical infrastructure, for which adequate crisis preparedness and cybersecurity must also be ensured. Water services also have a strong impact on water quality, the state of water bodies and the protection of the environment. In addition to water services, stormwater management must also be taken care of, which especially causes urban flooding due to the intensity of the rains and the insufficient capacity of the old network. The lack of stormwater management causes impacts on cost and also bypasses the wastewater network because stormwater is not diverted correctly or sufficiently in the central streets. The water services sector needs strong cooperation with institutions, supervisory authorities and the public sector.

Energy taxation is changing. As the use of fossil fuels falls, so too does the resulting income from its taxation. Low-income households spend a relatively large proportion of their income on the basic necessities of life, such as food and energy. Moreover, energy taxation always impacts consumer prices. For these reasons, the taxation of energy is more painful for low-income earners.

The availability and accessibility of public transport must be increased throughout the country and transport poverty must be reduced. Public transport between county centres must be regular and serve the needs of commuting to work and service transactions. This can be achieved by improving the availability of transport, developing transport solutions for calls and services, including in sparsely populated areas, moderating ticket prices, coordinating ticketing systems, improving access parking, increasing the number of public transport interchanges and lanes, and reducing congestion. The state must support the organisation of public transport and keeping prices reasonable. Adequately supported accessible public transport also supports the independent movement of disabled people. The movement of disabled persons must be made smoother throughout the country, whether it is by means of transport services according to the Disability Services Act or by public transport. For disabled people and their assistants, public transport should be cheaper than others or free of charge. In addition, the ability of disabled people to function independently in society requires adequate transport services when using public transport is not possible.

Rail transport needs to be extended beyond the metropolitan area and cross-border rail transport needs to be further developed. Incoming traffic, such as bus traffic coming from outside the catchment area, must be flexible. Municipalities must be encouraged to use rail transport.

Passenger car traffic must be reduced, especially in those densely populated regions with comprehensive public transport connections. It should be noted that the same transport solutions do not work everywhere in the country. Passenger cars will also be needed in the future, especially in sparsely populated areas. Emissions from passenger cars can be cut, for example, by supporting electric, gas, hydrogen and shared car use.

Transport performance should be reduced by rational planning of the community structure: for example, by placing services, business premises and leisure activities together, both traffic performance will be reduced and people’s everyday life will be made easier. Reducing the number of parking spaces can reduce the construction time while increasing the greenery. Increasing teleworking will give people more choice of where to live when there is no absolute compulsion to move in search of work.

We have to stop the growth in air traffic. Airborne traffic is undertaxed in relation to other traffic. Air traffic regulation, like all climate policy, must be international, but also EU-wide and national. Public finance support for domestic air transport should be transferred to the development of sustainable public transport connections. Maritime transport emissions must be reduced by influencing international maritime transport emission standards and by supporting the development of new, more sustainable propulsion technologies in cooperation with the domestic shipyard industry and universities.

The left alliance’s goals

• Total energy consumption must be reduced. Even low-emission energy produces an emission and natural resource footprint.
• The energy transition must be carried out in a planned manner with the help of government investments, subsidies, taxation and legislation. When designing different forms of energy, account must be taken of the differences within the country and the rights of local residents and indigenous Sámi people. 
• Finland must invest in a decentralised and intelligent energy system based on zero-emission energy, energy storage and flexibility. People’s self-sufficiency in electricity production must be supported, and the utilisation of surplus electricity must be promoted.
• Electricity transmission connections between Finland and other Nordic countries must be strengthened. In the construction phase, the redemption of land must ensure fair compensation for landowners. 
• Energy renovation of old dwellings needs to be supported more, especially as energy efficiency requirements become stricter. 
• Natural monopolies such as water supply and electricity networks must be maintained in public ownership. The privatised electricity distribution networks must be returned to public ownership.
• The state must continue to increase financial incentives for moving away from house-specific heating systems using fossil fuels, for example by financially supporting changing the heating mode to geothermal heat, air source heat pumps or sustainably produced district heating. 
• The use of all oil originating from Russia must be stopped immediately. Fossil fuels should not be replaced by the unsustainable use of biomass. 
• The use of fossil gas for energy and hydrogen production must be phased out in a timely manner.
• The processing rate for the forestry industry must be increased and solid wood fuels taxed. Finland burns too much biomass for energy compared to other, more sustainable and higher value-added uses.
• We have to give up burning peat. War and geopolitical tensions must not be an excuse for abandoning climate action. Instead of peat, we must strongly invest in renewable and non-combustion-based energy. The use of horticultural peat must be phased out gradually. 
• The use of small nuclear reactors for the production of low-emission energy in Finland must be investigated on the condition that the small reactor projects meet all safety requirements, the production of uranium and the final disposal of nuclear waste are solved in a sustainable way, and the plant suppliers are from democratic countries. 
• The creation of energy communities, such as cooperatives, must be encouraged across municipalities. The citizen energy community enables energy-efficient, emission-free and local energy production in an accessible, affordable and reliable way. The state and municipalities should provide financial incentives, such as housing associations, neighbourhoods and farms, towards energy communities. 
• We must implement revitalising road and infrastructure investments in the main roads and rail network. The size of the investment package has to be assessed in the light of the existing production gap, but also in the light of a better demand situation, it is likely that resources will have to be redirected towards upgrading the infrastructure.
• Emissions from aviation must be reduced in accordance with the polluter pays principle. The aviation industry needs to be required to map the way to achieve these emission reductions. 
• Incentives for the transition to sustainable and low-emission modes of transport must be increased, including for mass and heavy-duty transport. The introduction of congestion charges must be made possible. 
• The current quantity and quality of driving instruction must be reassessed and modified in the light of traffic accident statistics.
• A kerosene tax and an aviation tax should be introduced, where possible, at the EU or national level. 
• Support for mass transport must be increased and adequately targeted also at sparsely populated areas. Ticket prices must be made reasonable and in the long term we must switch to free public transport in the local area. 
• A charging and refuelling network for electric and gas cars must be built throughout the country. 
• Investments in cycling lanes are needed in both urban and rural areas. In addition, urban bicycle systems, speed limits and pedestrian centres need to be promoted. 
• Train travel must be made financially possible for everyone by lowering ticket prices and improving rail connections within the country. 
• Public transport access parking must be increased and improved in the border regions of the dense public transport network. 
• Investment in rail transport must continue. The development of rail travel needs to be further funded, and the local railway networks extended. Rail connections should be improved across the EU and investment should be made in a comprehensive high-speed train network. 
• The structure of the community must be compacted to reduce traffic congestion and to make people’s lives easier.
• The functioning of the data connections of trains must be promoted at the national level.
• Wellbeing services counties must take into account the environmental effects in all their operations, such as procurement of supplies, energy efficiency of buildings, logistics and technology solutions.

2.3 The environment and biodiversity

Forests, farmland, wetlands and water bodies are crucial in the fight against the climate crisis and the loss of biodiversity. Increasing carbon sinks and stores will safeguard the Earth’s ability to trap carbon from the atmosphere and curb global warming. In addition to the climate, Finnish nature is of great importance for the diversity of ecosystems, for the wellbeing of people and for the economy. The Left sees that nature has inherent value.

Finnish nature can only be protected in Finland. For each nature type, such as forests, swamps, water bodies and traditional biotopes, a target level of diversity that safeguards the vitality of the species and ecosystems must be created based on research data. The aim should be to achieve a nature-positivity where the state of nature improves until the majority of species have been restored to viability.

The condition of the Baltic Sea must be improved by reducing its nutrient load, especially by addressing the nitrogen and phosphorus load caused by agriculture. Similarly, the introduction of microplastics and other harmful substances into water bodies must be prevented more effectively.

The amount of felling must be at a sustainable level in terms of climate and biodiversity, both in the short and long term. All the state’s old and natural forests must be excluded from felling, and the protection of private forests must be supported. The processing value of the forest industry and the ways of using wood must be developed in order to increase sustainability, and the most potential forest areas must be restored. Sustainable levels of forest use and sustainable forest regeneration and management practices should be defined on the basis of the best available scientific expertise in a way that supports the conservation and enhancement of biodiversity and the growth of carbon stocks and sinks. Increased pressure to use wood must not lead to an increase in the amount of felling but must be kept at a level that allows the swallow to be increased. A smaller amount of felling leads to an increase in tree growth and thus to the recovery of the carbon sink. Reducing felling could be facilitated by including the net emission effect of the forest sector in the EU emissions market.

Blocking or damming failed forest drainages can in most cases and in the long term have a positive effect on soil climate emissions and peatland water emissions. In swamps used for wood production, the groundwater level must be kept as unchanged as possible. This can be facilitated by covered forest management and by avoiding ditch cleaning and additional subsurface drainage. Fields located on peatlands produce more than half of Finnish agriculture’s climate emissions. Peat fields outside of active food production should be restored to wetlands or reforested.

Battery production requires massive amounts of minerals now and for several decades to come. Mining laws and regulatory requirements must ensure that mining does not cause significant damage to the environment, that the impacts are limited to a small area and that the beneficiaries of the mining activity in question also bear the costs of both compensating for the disadvantages of the mining activity during operation and restoring the area. Nature conservation areas shall be limited to the exclusion of mining activities, including ore prospecting.

The European Union must take the lead in the international arena in mitigating climate change and biodiversity loss. The EU must take its historic responsibility for its emissions and support developing countries, and for example the Arctic regions, where the effects of climate change are particularly acute, in mitigating and adapting to climate change.

The left alliance’s goals

• A nature act must be adopted. A nature act, like the Climate Act, defines the goals and the path to stop the loss of biodiversity.
• Natural disasters must be criminalised in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). 
• The surface area, coverage and connectivity of different types of nature conservation areas must be increased. In line with the EU Biodiversity Strategy, the aim is to achieve a conservation rate of at least 30%, covering a wide range of different types of sites. The EU biodiversity strategy should be implemented in such a way that at least 10% of the area in each region is strictly protected.
• We need to increase funding for nature conservation significantly. Funding for nature protection and restoration should be tied to GDP (0.5–1 %) until the nature goals have been achieved. The level and funding of marine and aquatic conservation must also be improved.
• New national parks must be established. The accessibility and accessibility of new and existing national parks and recreational areas shall be promoted in a manner that is environmentally sustainable.
• Different ecosystems must be restored to their natural state, and compensation for the destruction of endangered habitats must be made compulsory. The budget earmarked for the restoration of meadows and shelters must be increased to offset the effects of failed deforestation.
• Restoration of water bodies, especially forest drainage restoration works, must be increased considerably. Especially in Lapland, the drainage of forests is by far the biggest factor that burdens the state of water bodies. In addition, hiking obstacles should be removed from streams. Hydroelectric companies must build by-passes to power plants.
• The operational conditions and resources for environmental management and control must be safeguarded.
• The clearing of new peatlands must be stopped and action taken to prevent the release of carbon from existing peatlands. With the ownership guidance of Metsähallitus, clearing felling of peatlands is prohibited and a continuous cover cropping is switched to on peatlands used for forestry.
• Cities must be supported in increasing the diversity of green areas and emphasising the importance of nearby forests. The roof, wall surface and yard areas of public sector properties must be used to increase greenery and diversity. Property owners must be encouraged to increase green space and other activities that support diversity.
• The felling level of forests must be reduced so that the carbon sinks can be revived and Finland’s climate law will be implemented.
• All old, natural and natural-like forests on state lands must be permanently protected. Metsähallitus’ felling targets must be set for the next few decades. In economically exploited forest areas, felling shall be excluded from areas of natural state and forests of high natural value classified as endangered natural types. Forests intended for recreational use and areas of cultural and historical sites must be managed in accordance with their intended use. The forests in the Sámi area must be delimited from the scope of the Metsähallitus’ performance target, natural forests important for reindeer husbandry must be protected and the restoration of degraded areas must be initiated. 
• The Forest Act needs to be updated to ensure the sustainability of forest management and treatment methods. The Forest Act should provide for, among other things, the obligation to establish protection zones in the vicinity of particularly sensitive water bodies and the need for permits for the management of forests. The Forest Act should restore minimum requirements for the age and age of trees on the main roads.
• The level of protection of forests needs to be increased, especially in southern Finland. The criteria for old-growth forests shall be drawn up in accordance with scientific knowledge and with Finland’s biodiversity commitments. Adequate funding shall be made available for the restoration of protected areas where this is needed.
• The funding for forest protection must be secured. In order to achieve the sustainable conservation objective also in areas where there is little need for protection of natural forests, they must contribute to the restoration of the most valuable forests in terms of their structural and habitat distribution.
• For each logging area, 20–30 m³ of as robust as possible savings trees must be left in multi-species groups in order to secure the continuity of rotten wood in both periodic and continuous cover forestry. In all commercial forests in Southern Finland, the aim must be to permanently have 30 m³ of standing savings trees per hectare and 20 m³ in Northern Finland.
• A carbon price control mechanism should be set up, consisting of a carbon tax and a carbon levy support for forest owners. In this way, activities that weaken sinks are taxed and carbon sequestration is encouraged.
• A transitional support for continuous farming for forest owners should be introduced.
• The budget for environmental aid must be increased, and support for forestry management must move from compensation for losses to incentive payments, i.e. trade in natural values.
• Training and counselling aimed at forest owners and forestry operators must be increased nationwide so that these operators’ awareness of climate and environmental issues increases. This is an important part of achieving the sustainability objectives of the forestry sector.
• Land use must be minimised as it increases land-based carbon emissions. Land must be modified in situations where it ensures sufficient regeneration of the forest, but even then it must be done as lightly as possible.
• Unnecessary grubbing-up should be tackled by introducing a land-use change charge.
• We must support afforestation in the affected areas.
• The mining sector must be regulated in such a way that local democratic decision-making plays a stronger role in the decision-making process, that society receives a fair return on the profits of companies and that environmental considerations are better taken into account. The state must have the option, if necessary, to close private mines for environmental reasons. 
• Mining must be conducted democratically and responsibly. Mining minerals and groundwater must be publicly owned and exploited by the private sector only against reasonable compensation. The possibilities of establishing a state-owned mining company must be identified. If a mine is to be established in the Sámi region, it must have the support of the communities and inhabitants of the region. 
• We need to raise the mining tax. Mining municipalities must receive fair compensation through the taxation of mines for the cost of building the infrastructure required to open the mine and for the cost of providing other services. The property tax levied on private landowners for land taken over as part of the mining district must be transferred to the mines. 
• The Sámi people living in the Sámi area, Sámi Parliament and reindeer herders, as well as the reindeer herding association must have a special position as right holders in land use decisions in their area. The realisation of the principle of free, informed prior consent must be confirmed in all state activities in the home region of the Sámi people, and an assessment of cumulative effects must be made in all significant land use projects located in Sámi areas.
• The control of harmful invasive species must be strengthened. Information about control methods must be shared, good practices must be spread, and the state must be responsible for control on the footpaths of the state road network. The state must also offer financial support to municipalities to combat alien species.
• In public procurement, the amount of animal-based food should be halved and replaced by more sustainable, plant-based food. In public dining, vegetarian food should be freely available and available to all. Public catering must be in line with current nutritional recommendations. In public procurement, the quantity of local food must be increased. School meals must take into account the wishes of the pupils.
• The binding 2040 climate target required by the European Climate Law Regulation shall be set in accordance with scientific recommendations. The aim of the Left Alliance is to strengthen the objectives and to oppose any possible weakening of the regulation. 
• The outsourcing of wild fauna outside Europe must be prevented by regulation, including the setting of binding targets for the reduction of the EU’s ecological footprint. At the same time, the prevention of deforestation must be integrated as a key element of the EU’s trade and external policies.
• Agricultural emission reductions need to be accelerated at the EU level, in particular by reforming the environmental criteria for agricultural subsidies and supporting farmers in the transition.
• Strong, separate and sufficiently resourced funding for climate, nature and environmental measures must be ensured in the EU. The LIFE programme must be maintained as an autonomous and targeted instrument supporting the implementation of the EU’s climate and biodiversity commitments. Investments in climate and nature and the related financial contribution targets need to be strengthened from the current level.
• In addition to socially just and scientifically sound climate and environmental policies, the EU must push for the withdrawal of all measures that undermine the green transition. These are included, for example, in the European Commission’s Omnibus proposal.

2.4 Animal policies

Animals are sentient, experiential creatures with inherent value. Man is part of the animal kingdom. Legislation and social decision-making must be based on the inherent value of all animals, independent of their economic or other value to humans. Animals should not be treated as objects or property in legislation. A record of animal rights must be added to the Finnish constitution.

Animal legislation does not protect the welfare of animals on dairy and meat farms, fur farms or egg production. The efficient production of animals causes unnecessary suffering to the animals. Current animal legislation still allows animals to be kept in cages or tents. Animals are not able to live as a species and to realise themselves in a natural way. Pastures are micro-environments in which many animal and plant species that are not found elsewhere live. Their diverse species can be managed with respect for animal rights. In order to achieve animal welfare, the key measures will be to significantly reduce livestock numbers and support the transition to plant-based food production by re-targeting agricultural subsidies and actively developing the entire value chain of plant-based food.

Wild animals living in the wild must be guaranteed the opportunity to live their species-specific lives as part of the ecosystem. Each species has its own place and significance. All wildlife must be treated with respect for life and in such a way that no unnecessary suffering is caused to any species. The main threats to the welfare of wild animals are habitat loss, construction, hunting and poaching. The aim of the Left Alliance is the peaceful coexistence of humans and other animals and the prevention of risks. The poor state of wolf conservation in Finland is of particular concern. Wolves must also be given the opportunity to live a life that is unique to the species.

Animal abuse in animal farms and fur farms and poaching of wild animals demonstrate the inadequacy of animal welfare controls. Animals must be guaranteed a good life in which the right to behave in a species-specific manner is exercised. Without adequate resources and expertise, this cannot be safeguarded through law enforcement. The aim of the Left Alliance is to safeguard and stabilise animal welfare and rights as part of a just society.

The left alliance’s goals

• Animal rights must be added to the constitution.
• The Animal Welfare Act needs to be improved by directly recording the animal’s self-worth in the articles of the law, by shortening the transitional periods and by prohibiting all structures that impede movement, such as the existing cages for grazing animals and trailers, after a short transitional period. In addition, animal welfare needs to be improved by increasing the number of indoor spaces available per animal and improving opportunities for outdoor activities. In animal production, the mother and the offspring must be able to form a relationship.
• Production animals must be allowed to live a species-specific life in accordance with the spirit of the Animal Welfare Act. Intensive livestock farming must be prohibited. 
• Fur farming must be banned in Finland as well as in Europe. The transfer of fur farmers to other industries must be supported. 
• The keeping and rearing of production animals in cages must be prohibited.
• Animal breeding practices that cause suffering and structural defects in individual animals or that impair their species-specific behaviour must be discontinued. For example, the production of meat chickens bred for very fast growth should be abandoned.
• The killing of cockerels in the egg industry must be prohibited by law.
• The ban on surgical castration of piglets must be enforced immediately.
• The welfare of fish used in production must be increased and species-specific settings must be adjusted. The first regulation should be made for the production of rainbow trout.
• Fiscal means to increase the use of vegetable proteins need to be identified.
• The functions of the Animal Welfare Ombudsman and the Animal Welfare Officer must be established by law. Animal welfare must be added to the training of the police, members of the courts, rangers and border guards.
• The legal protection of animals must be improved by making them admissible before public authorities and courts. The animal’s right to speak is exercised by the animal’s legal representative. In addition, animal protection organisations must be provided with the right to appeal administrative decisions concerning animals.
• The transport of found animals shall be the responsibility of the municipality or wellbeing services county and 24/7 reception facilities shall be provided for found animals. 
• Zoos must focus on animal and nature conservation education and keep only endangered species. The use of animals in circuses must be prohibited. 
• The responsibility for managing hunting and fishing issues must be transferred from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry to the Ministry of the Environment.
• Hidden crime such as poaching must be tackled by expanding the regional authority of wilderness inspectors and intensifying supervision. 
• Finland’s highly endangered wolf population must be protected. In order to combat the harm caused by wolves, other means than hunting must primarily be used. These include, for example, livestock fences and other means of protection, as well as a compensation system and supporting projects that increase information about large predators and their behaviour.
• Small predator traps must be banned by law throughout the country.
• The import of trophies, i.e. hunting souvenirs, must be prohibited as part of the Nature Conservation Act in order to prevent the loss of animal species, especially predators. 
• Wild animals must be taken into account in urban planning, construction and logging. The needs of pets must also be taken into account in urban planning.
• Adequate resources must be guaranteed for the research and development of non-animal methods. The aim is to phase out animal testing as soon as possible and to strengthen the control of abuses.
• Reasonable access to basic veterinary services and to veterinary services of an on-call nature must be ensured. Veterinarians on duty must be accompanied within the framework of the Working Time Act.
• The promotion of animal rights should be seen as part of ecosocial education and animal ethics education should be part of the activities of schools and day nurseries.

3. A DECENT LIFE

In recent decades, our service system has become unequal, as a result of the weakening of the safety nets of society and of public services, cuts and privatisations.

Increasing inequality is reflected in the accumulation of problems and the extra generation of poverty and social problems. Inequalities are also reflected in exceptionally large health disparities in Finland, with people on low incomes getting sick more and having to queue for unreasonable lengths to get treatment. The wealthy use tax-supported private services and get sick less often. Health disparities are also reflected in life expectancy. Men with low incomes live up to 10 years less than men with higher incomes.

The pursuit of profit is not suitable for wellbeing services. This is also a question of democracy. By keeping services in the public domain, access to information about them is also secured. Municipalities and wellbeing services counties should therefore produce their services mainly on their own or in conjunction with non-profit-making bodies such as associations. The welfare state must take care of people at all stages of life. It must guarantee the right of every human being to live with dignity. The accessibility of society must be improved. Public actors must use understandable and non-discriminatory language in their communication and must contribute to multilingualism and clarity. The right of Swedish speakers to receive services in their mother tongue must be safeguarded and the exercise of these rights ensured. The use of expertise in decision-making on services creates a direct pathway for decision-makers and public authorities to take account of the status of end-users. 

Finland’s population is ageing faster than other EU countries because of low fertility and life expectancy. At the same time, older people and the elderly risk being marginalised in society and in political decision-making. The ageing population and the elderly are not just a social cost, a dependency problem and a source of sustainability deficit. Older people and the elderly are active citizens, consumers, volunteers and caregivers of the next generation. Their voices must be heard in the social debate and in decision-making, and they must not be excluded once they reach a certain age. The increase in the number of elderly people requires a comprehensive approach to the needs of ageing (e.g. the welfare programme for the elderly in Finland) in order to make a good and dignified life possible for all elderly people.

The basic values of the Left Alliance can only be promoted in a democracy in which every person is a member of society with the right to political action. Democracy and rule of law are vital for a civilised society. All public authority must be based on laws that all members of society can influence.

Fundamental and human rights must also be upheld, especially in difficult times when violent conflicts, pandemics and the phenomena of climate change are shaking our sense of security. Racism is a persistent and widespread problem in Finland, which requires determined action at all levels of society. 

Civilization, equality, equality and justice are at the core of left-wing education policy. Education, skills development and science have a significant role to play in building a sustainable and just society. It is important that everyone has equal opportunities to grow and learn at all stages of their life. Similarly, art and culture must be cherished in their own right and in their diversity and must be accessible to all. Finland produces art that is rich and vibrant in content and quality and that cannot survive without public support.

3.1 Working life

In recent years, the business elite and the right-wing have violently attacked workers’ rights and the trade union movement in Finland. As wage poverty and job insecurity increase, efforts are being made to dismantle the entire labour market system based on universal collective agreements and to replace it with the old-fashioned power of the employer. Instead of going back to the past, the Left Alliance wants to increase the power of workers in the workplace and to ensure decent pay and working conditions for all, regardless of the form of work and the nationality of the worker.

The Left seeks to reform working life through both parliamentary politics and trade unionism. This means strengthening the livelihood and status of workers both through the collective bargaining system and through legislation. Active efforts must be made to strengthen the degree of organisation of workers and the coverage of collective agreements in order to halt the development of inequalities in working life. The EU Commission has outlined that collective bargaining on minimum working conditions for the self-employed is possible without impeding competition law. The realisation of the right of collective bargaining must also be ensured in Finland. All reductions in the right of workers to strike must be repealed, and membership fees for collective industrial organisation must be tax deductible.

The Left Alliance believes that the position of workers should be strengthened by increasing democracy in the workplace. This means increasing both the direct and the representative power of workers in the workplace and in the management of businesses. Each worker must be able to influence the organisation of work, the planning of shifts and the development of working methods in their own workplace. The role of the trust officers and the representation of the staff in the management of enterprises must be strengthened. Democratic working life also involves continuous reform of labour legislation to strengthen the status and livelihood of workers and to combat abuses.

We support shortening working hours without reducing the level of earnings. As part of the transition to shorter working hours, an experiment of shorter working hours will be implemented with different working time and salary models in both the private and public sectors. Previous experiments have shown that shorter working hours lead to the employment of the unemployed, reduce the burden and stress on workers, and improve service quality, productivity and work-life balance.

In addition to permanent and full-time paid employment, many people work in part-time and fixed-term paid employment, on zero-hour contracts and in rented employment. Multiple sources of income have become more widespread, and non-wage labour, various forms of self-employment, temporary work of a casual or permanent nature, self-employment and subsidiary work have also become part of the labour market. The employee’s rights and protection are weak outside of permanent and full-time paid employment. The Left Alliance wants to improve the situation of all workers so that in the future the way in which they are employed does not determine their rights, protection or their realisation.

In the 2020s, hundreds of thousands of people will be employed in fixed-term and part-time contracts. It is necessary to provide for new disadvantageous situations in which flexibility is given to people’s employment relationships. The protected parts of unemployment security and housing allowance must be reinstated and increased to EUR 500 per month in order to make it profitable to take up part-time and short-term work. All fixed-term employment relationships, regardless of their duration, must be legally justified. A new conditional allowance should be paid for work whenever work is performed on a full-time or part-time basis. Payment of the new conditional allowance would encourage the employer to organise full-time and permanent work and to abandon unjustified fixed-term and part-time work.

The right to collectively agree on working conditions enables everyone to work under fair working conditions. The universality of collective agreements is a cornerstone of the Finnish labour market system which needs to be further strengthened. The trade union movement protects everyone’s right to work with dignity and fair conditions. Organising into trade unions and collective bargaining make it possible to improve everyone’s working conditions. Fairly implemented establishment-level agreements are in the interest of employees and employers, but in recent years, the right-wing and the employer side have turned it into a tool for wage dumping. Establishment-level agreements must take place fairly and within the framework of the shop steward/representative system, so that under the guise of it, it does not only end up undermining the employees’ opportunities to secure adequate and safe working conditions for themselves. Finnish education, from basic to higher education, must include a sufficient amount of teaching on the Finnish labour market model so that every future worker has sufficient capacity to participate in its maintenance and necessary development.

Abuses in the workplace must be tackled by increasing the resources and powers of the occupational safety and health inspectorate and by tightening the penalties for abuses. The right of trafficking in human beings to act as employers must be prevented and controls must be strengthened. The use of the tax number in the building and shipyard sectors needs to be extended and the Act on the Contractor’s Obligations and Liability when Work is Contracted Out tightened. In addition, underpayment must be criminalised and trade unions given the right to bring legal proceedings. The right of action means that the trade union will have the right to take matters relating to the employment relationship, equality and equal treatment of employees to court. Workers should also have a right of interpretation in the event of a dispute concerning terms and conditions of employment, in accordance with the Swedish model. The outsourcing and privatisation of public services must be stopped in order to prevent the suppression of working conditions and underpayment and to preserve democratic control of services.

Every Finnish person who is able to work or has a partial capacity for work must be guaranteed the right to work that is suitable for them. The state and municipalities must actively and systematically remove obstacles in their employment policies to the employment of people with difficulty in finding employment, such as the long-term unemployed, the disabled and the partially disabled. A 12-month job guarantee must be established for the long-term unemployed, where the public and third sectors act as employers of last resort. The coordination of pensions and salary income, as well as the functionality of personal assistance and assistive devices, care supplies, interpretation, rehabilitation and transportation services must be improved. People who are factually incapable of working must be freed from the bureaucracy of unemployment security and given access to retirement or rehabilitation.

The municipalities responsible for employment services must be provided with sufficient resources for employment management, which also requires a deregulation campaign. Mechanical job-search obligations, penalties and other unnecessary bureaucracy for the unemployed must be dismantled and the resources saved should be used for services that meet the needs of individuals. The free labour market must be dismantled and the right of disabled people in particular to gainful employment promoted.

The Finnish labour market is characterised by a gender divide, which means that the majority of sectors are clearly dominated by either men or women. Many sectors dominated by women, such as the service sector and care and education in the public sector, are suffering from a pay gap, which is a tangible sign of a lack of appreciation. This also shows that the importance of care in society and in human life is generally not recognised, but that these sectors can be cut in the name of competitiveness, for example. Women-dominated sectors in the public sector are threatened by a huge labour shortage and many already in the sector are also considering switching, which threatens the functioning of society.

In recent years, the right has further weakened the position of women-dominated sectors through a number of actions, including the introduction of an export-driven wage model that effectively imposes a wage ceiling on women-dominated sectors. In future, the role of the National Conciliator must be defined as the promotion of equal pay, and increases in export sectors must not serve as a cover for others. Equal pay is to be promoted by significant increases in equality and by enacting a law on the widest possible transparency of pay.

In the world of work, there is a greater need to understand the diversity of family structures, the different situations of families and the different types of work. For example, those who work irregular shifts often have greater difficulties in reconciling work and life than those who work regular office hours and those with flexible working hours. Combining care with work is not just a matter for families with young children; it can be relevant in many other life situations at different stages in life. In addition to gender, the coordination of the rest of life and work and its success are related to labour market status and class.

The debate on the labour market in Finland remains largely a domestic political issue, with international recruitment of labour treated as an exceptional and curiosity. However, labour has been recruited from the Finnish supra-national labour market for almost twenty years and this activity will accelerate in the coming years. The Left Alliance is a workers’ party that promotes the rights of all workers in Finland, regardless of their nationality and background. We are not asking whether Finland should recruit labour, but how and under what conditions it should do so, and how Finland should protect the rights of those who are employed in Finland internationally. Employers are obliged to provide language training for their employees recruited from abroad.

International recruitment should be guided primarily by international human rights law and ethical principles, not by the wishes of employers for cheap labour. Developing a responsible international recruitment model will improve Finland’s competitiveness in transnational labour markets, as skilled people choose a country where they are respected and where they feel safe to live and work. This will require stronger regulation and sanctions against the exploitation of foreign labour and their effective enforcement, from occupational safety and health enforcement to courts.

The Left Alliance promotes the development of non-discriminatory and anti-racist working life, including the recruitment of labour from Finland or abroad. The recognition and acknowledgement of skills and qualifications of internationally recruited labour and students should be developed. Adequate integration and settlement services, including language training, must also be guaranteed for those who move to Finland for work or study, and these cannot be left to the responsibility of Finnish trade unions.

The left alliance’s goals

• The purchasing power of workers must be improved by shifting a larger share of social security contributions to employers. This must begin with the reimbursement to employers of payments made to employees under the Competitiveness Pact.
• A law on a minimum hourly wage of EUR 15 should be introduced to complement the collective agreement system.
• Finland must commit to the objectives of the EU Minimum Wage Directive.
• Underpayment, or wage theft, must be criminalized. Adequate resources must be made available for the investigation and prosecution of labour abuses throughout the chain from the occupational safety and health authority to the police and the courts. 
• The income register must be developed in such a way that the employer indicates not only the salary but also the working hours for which the salary has been accumulated. This enables the data to be automatically cross-checked against collective agreements and working time regulations. The amendment strengthens the authorities’ ability to monitor and investigate labour offences. 
• Provision should be made for the courts to be obliged by the judicial authorities to appoint a legal representative for the plaintiffs in the case of industrial offences. Income limits on access to public legal aid must be raised to enable people on low incomes to obtain legal aid in labour disputes, for example. 
• Legislation should strengthen the status of shop stewards, regardless of the size of the job. Shop stewards’ operating conditions and access to information must be improved, especially in cases of wage discrimination. Shop stewards’ right to access information and representation should be extended to temporary workers used by the company.
• Gendered professional and trust titles such as shop steward, civil servant, speaker, lawyer, manager, agent and the like must be changed in legislation to be gender neutral when the laws are updated. Local agreements must always take place within the framework of the shop steward system, even in unorganised companies. If there is no shop steward at the workplace, it will not be possible to agree on weaker working conditions.
• Shop stewards, and in their absence, the trade union, must be guaranteed the opportunity and sufficient time to present organisation and its importance in the realisation of workplace democracy in the workplace as part of the orientation of new personnel, regardless of the number of personnel in the workplace.
• All restrictions on the right to strike must be dismantled. Legislation needs to be reformed to prevent the use of safeguard requests to unjustifiably restrict the right to strike.
• Strike subsidies must be made tax-free.
• Membership fees of collective industrial organisation must be tax deductible. Employer collection of trade union membership fees must be recorded as statutory. A high level of organisation and coverage of collective agreements must be promoted in line with the EU Minimum Wage Directive. 
• Regular working hours must be reduced to 30 hours per week as far as possible in the various sectors without reducing the level of pay. As part of the transition to shorter working hours, an experiment in working time with different working time and wage patterns will have to be carried out in both the private and public sectors.
• Employee ownership of companies and workplace democracy must be increased. The introduction of employee stocks that expand the ownership base must be promoted and the statutory representation of employees in the management bodies of companies must be increased.
• The application limit for employee representation must be lowered to the Swedish level of 25 employees. In companies employing at least 150 persons, the minimum number of employee representatives shall be set at two members of the administrative body. Legislation must guarantee representation in government if no solution can be found through negotiation. At the same time, more controls and sanctions must be introduced, because at present, in about one in two companies where employee representation is required by law, it is not organised. 
• In order to improve the functioning of the labour market, the right of workers to information must be strengthened. In cases of conflict, the right to interpretation shall be assigned to the employees until the court has ruled and a law on the right to allowances for employees shall be enacted.
• The amendments made by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government to the law on mediation in labour disputes must be repealed and the obligation on the conciliator to take into account the promotion of equal pay and non-discrimination in their settlement proposals must be enshrined in law.
• Collective redundancy protection must be strengthened by extending the notice periods and by strengthening the protection against change. Dismissals on personal grounds should not be permitted without good cause. 
• Fixed-term contracts should not be concluded, even for a short period, without a legitimate reason. Unjustified part-time work must also be restricted and any part-time work must be subject to a statutory helplessness supplement. 
• The weakening of the Co-operation Act must be reversed. Sufficient protection and negotiation times must be restored and the law’s application limit lowered to 20 employees. 
• In order to combat long-term unemployment and implement the job guarantee, it is necessary to increase the allocations of wage subsidies in all employer sectors and promote the use of wage subsidies in companies by automating it as far as possible. The restrictions on the use of wage subsidies by municipalities must be removed
• Everyone must be guaranteed the subjective right to study and careers guidance throughout their studies and working career. The unemployed should not be restricted from studying and pursuing entrepreneurship as a secondary activity, and this should not lead to the loss of unemployment security.
• The resources of employment services must be strengthened towards the Nordic level. The allocation of resources needs to be improved by abandoning mechanical job-search obligations and other bureaucracies. 
• The right to a month’s pay must be guaranteed. This will be done by increasing the wage security resources of the employment authorities. 
• Trade unions must be granted a right of action in disputes relating to the employment and settlement of employment relationships of their members. In addition, in matters relating to the interpretation and enforcement of collective agreements, trade unions must be given the right to bring a class action, in which trade unions would also be entitled to bring a case against non-unionised workers as part of a class action.
• An anonymous channel must be created for employees to report abuses to the authorities. 
• The exploitation of foreign labour in the labour market must be stopped, inter alia, by means of comprehensive employment contracts and by increasing the resources of the labour inspectorate and the supervisory capacity of trade unions. 
• Provision should be made for an employer recruiting from abroad to provide language training for employees in cooperation with the authority. Training must take place during working hours.
• Abuse in the labour market must be stopped with measures such as increasing controls by employers and by increasing the resources of the labour inspectorate and the supervisory capacity of trade unions.
• Further efforts are needed to strengthen the rights of wild berry pickers and tackle exploitation by assessing the impact of recent changes, further developing legislation and strengthening controls.
• We must develop a family leave model that allowing caregivers to take care of their relatives at home for a fixed period of time, if necessary, with the help of earnings-related support.
• The free and cheap labour market that has emerged in Finland must be dismantled. Work equivalent to paid work shall not be carried out by chaining or rehabilitating trainees and by open-working activities. 
• The flaws in work activity must be assessed and addressed. For work that fulfils the characteristics of an employment relationship, the wages provided for in the collective agreement must be paid and the protection of the work must be ensured. Work activities must be meaningful and aimed at the employment relationship. 
• We must improve the special-duty allowance received by unemployed persons during their participation in joint services that promote employment, such as rehabilitative work activities, work trials and workforce training.
• The disguise of an employment relationship as entrepreneurship must be prevented, both in the digital platform economy and in the wider labour market. This will require the introduction of a presumption of an employment relationship. 
• Sufficient resources must be reserved for the supervisory authority so that the employee can easily check the correctness of the form of their work. 
• The Holiday Act must be amended so that Saturdays do not count as holidays. The right to summer leave for new and temporary workers must also be strengthened. Those employed on short-term contracts must accrue the same amount of annual leave as those employed on contracts of more than one year.
• The conciliator’s role and resourcing must be strengthened, as well as the production of a common picture of the situation. 
• The low-wage sectors must be given the highest pay rises. The task of the National Conciliator must be to define the promotion of pay equality and the so-called the export-driven model must be abandoned.
• Work of equal value should receive equal pay. Salary information must be open at the workplace. Broad wage transparency must be regulated by law. 
• The obligation to draw up a gender equality plan and pay reform should apply to all sizes of jobs.
• Progress towards the equality objectives of the Family leave reform must be monitored. The reform of parental leave according to the 6+6+6 model should be continued.
• The employment opportunities of single parents must be supported through flexible working hours. Supporting part-time work also enables this for single parents financially and supports their efforts.
• The public sector must make recruitment anonymous by law. The aim must be to ensure the anonymity of the jobseeker in the private sector as well. Regulations for the use of anonymous recruitment in both the public and private sectors need to be developed.
• An equal pay programme with ambitious and concrete actions to which the social partners commit must be implemented. 
• Working life flexibility for caregivers must be increased. Labour legislation should, for example, enable part-time or reduced working hours for an employee caring for a loved one. 
• The recognition and acknowledgement of skills and qualifications of internationally recruited labour and students must be developed. 
• Adequate integration and settlement services, including language training, must also be guaranteed for those who move to Finland for work or study. 
• International students who have completed their studies in Finland must be granted a permanent residence permit upon application. The income requirement for students’ residence permits must be calculated.
• The employment of people who have moved to Finland for work, study, family ties or humanitarian reasons must be supported in the work corresponding to their training. Integration services must include training on the Finnish labour market system, worker’s rights and the importance of organising. 
• The assessment of the need for foreign labour must be considered as part of the preventive control of working conditions and the fight against labour exploitation. We must not give up on the means test without adequate compensatory measures to combat abuses more effectively than at present.
• The right of workers to separate their working time from their leisure time must be improved. The employee must have the right, for example, not to read work messages outside working hours.
• In order to support employees’ ability to cope, a substitute for the job alternation leave must be developed.
• The Labour Council should not be abolished and there shall be a cooperation ombudsman in Finland.
• The obligation for persons residing in the country on a work-based residence permit who have moved to the country to find a new job within three months at the risk of having their residence permit revoked should be abolished.

3.2 Social and health policy

In recent years, public health and social services have been deliberately undermined by austerity policies and the increasing use of taxpayers’ money for the profit-making purposes of health care giants. Increasing customer fees and the inequality of a multi-channel health care system have already resulted in services being hardest to access for the people who need them most. Without a change in policy direction, Finland is moving towards a health care system in which the role of multinational care companies and insurance companies is emphasised. This is an extremely discriminatory, costly and ineffective trend.

The goal of the Left is both to improve the wellbeing and health of the entire population and to narrow the gaps in wellbeing and health. We want to shift tax money from the focused health business to public health and social services, so that access to care can be accelerated equally and continuity of care strengthened. By investing in prevention and improving access to basic services, we will secure the financing of health and social services for our people in the future. 

The role of social welfare is to bridge the gaps in wellbeing between groups of people and to promote the participation of residents in their communities. Adult social work and community social work support people’s ability to influence their own lives and support people in difficult life situations. Individual work cannot prevent or eliminate large-scale structural problems. In addition, wellbeing services counties must ensure adequate services under the Social Welfare Act for all those who need them. Specialised, expensive services should not be used to compensate for the shortcomings of basic services.

The state must continue to have the primary responsibility for the adequacy of the financing of social and health services, but in order to implement regional democracy, wellbeing services counties must be given the right to tax. State financing must also be reformed to take better account of the increase in costs and the need for services. The Kela reimbursement for private medical care, which focuses on the profits of the health business, must be abandoned and directed to the growth of public health care. 

The division of social and health services between public services which are increasingly underfunded and private services used by the well-off must be stopped and reversed. The privatisation and corporatisation of social and health services must be stopped and the public service system strengthened and better resourced. Private social and health services, which are generated from public funds, must not be pursued for financial gain. For example, profit-making practices in the field of child protection must be completely prohibited.

Guarantees of access to service needs assessment, access to treatment and continuity of care should be extended and strengthened, and deadlines should be shortened in both physical and mental health services and social services. Guarantees must guarantee the rights of those in need of services to the services they need and the financing of wellbeing services counties for the provision of services. In the area of primary health care, models of personal doctor, caregiver and one’s own team must be developed to ensure continuity of care, with free access to urgent care within a week. The integration and multidisciplinary nature of social and health services need to be further strengthened. Social work services must be available alongside health services in health and social services centres so that people can receive help and support for their problems quickly and at a low threshold. Social services must offer low-threshold face-to-face counselling for those who need services. This ensures equal and accessible access to services.

The service system must be based on the promotion of wellbeing through the prevention of problems, disadvantages and diseases, customer-oriented, equitable and supporting human resources. In social and health services, people must be faced and given comprehensive and, if necessary, multidisciplinary assistance. The service system must support the person in different life situations, and customer fees or bureaucracy must not be an obstacle to seeking care and support. Instead, the costs of illness must be significantly reduced by extending the free provision of services, reducing the cost of medicines and improving the quality of life during illness. 

Finland will need an estimated 200,000 new health and social service workers by 2035, which will require strengthening the sector’s retention and attractiveness. Therefore, there is a need to systematically improve the remuneration, working conditions and working conditions of nursing and care workers. Adequate staffing and stable employment relationships must be the basis of the employers’ policy of municipalities and wellbeing services counties. Social and health services associations must be given sufficient autonomy, power and influence in the organisation of care and service work, including in the planning of work shifts and the content of continuing training. Responsibility for international recruitment practices in social and health services should be ensured in wellbeing services counties and practices should be monitored at the national level.

The right to a dignified old age belongs to every elderly person. Finland needs to prepare for the growing need for care by providing adequate resources, staffing and supervision for elderly services. The care of the elderly must not depend on the financial resources of the elderly person or their family. The Left supposes that every elderly person has a subjective right to the care and treatment they need. The subjective right to care is necessary for the elderly to receive timely and high-quality care and care according to their needs. 

All disabled people must be guaranteed the right to the disability services they need, and exclusions from services must not be limited based on age or other irrelevant reasons. The right to self-determination must be the basis of disability policy and disability services. Disabled persons and their family members must be able to participate in decision-making that affects them.

At the moment, mental health services are focused on specialised medical treatment, and it is too difficult and slow to get the necessary and timely help. Access to low-threshold psychosocial services and therapies must be improved. Primary health care mental health services must be strengthened to improve the accessibility and equality of treatment. In addition to low-threshold mental health services, the right of those who need long-term and demanding care to psychiatric care and housing services that support rehabilitation and independent survival must also be secured. In order to protect mental health, special efforts must be made in preventive measures in cooperation with the third sector. 

The starting point of substance and addiction policy should be to reduce harm, remove the stigma against users and lower the threshold for seeking treatment. The harm of alcohol is measurable in human terms for individuals and families, as well as in public health and the national economy. Wellbeing services counties should resource drug and addiction services to meet the real needs of the area and tailor services accordingly. People should not be pushed from one office to another, and mental health problems should not be a barrier to access to addiction services or vice versa. 

The left alliance’s goals

• Wellbeing services counties must be given the right to tax, supplemented by a central government transfer to municipalities to compensate for regional disparities. In order to prevent savings in the wrong place, the duration of the deficit procedure under the Act on the Financing of Wellbeing Services Counties should be shortened. The Act on the Financing of Wellbeing Services Counties must be reformed so that the financing provided by the state is more responsive to the increase in costs and the need for services. 
• The Kela reimbursement for private medical care must be phased out while strengthening access to and financing of public health care.
• Publicly funded social, health and life-saving services must be returned to public production. The main purpose of providing services essential to people cannot be profit-making. The possibility for private social and health care enterprises financed by public funds to make a profit and the concentration of the health care market must be restricted by law.
• Basic health care must be strengthened nationally through a self-practitioner and self-care model, whereby patients in need of urgent care are, in principle, provided with their own doctor and nurse. For patients requiring a large number of services, a dedicated model should be used. 
• Everyone must have access to their own health centre doctor or nurse free of charge within a week of contacting them. In addition to basic health care, treatment time guarantee periods must be shortened in all health services. 
• Provision should be made for a temporary obligation to work in public primary health care for doctors in training in order to ensure uniform medical services throughout the country.
• Oral health care and its charges shall be treated in the same way as other health care. Oral health care lines need to be dismantled. 
• The concentration of specialised care, which increases regional inequalities and undermines patient safety, must be abandoned. Wellbeing services counties should be allowed to decide on the development of the hospital network.
• It should also be possible to arrange regular consultations with specialists in the smaller health centres in the wellbeing services counties, in which case the doctor will move in place of the patient. The operating model reduces unnecessary movement of people, improves service levels at low cost and promotes health.
• Even in sparsely populated areas, maternity wards must be secured at reasonable distances. In addition to publicly funded fertility treatments, resources must be made available to reduce queues. The freezing of the ova must be free of charge. Fertilisation treatments should be equally available to all family forms.
• We must reduce customer fees for social, health and rescue services and health centre and emergency room fees must be waived. Indebtedness of groups using social and health services must be prevented by improving the customer fee reduction and collection practices of wellbeing services counties. Payments must not end up in collection. 
• Medicine expenses refunds must be increased to alleviate the costs of long-term illness and those who need a great deal of medicines. The initial deductible for medicines must be removed. The price of medicines must be significantly reduced. 
• The staffing ratio for the 24-hour care of the elderly shall be at least 0.7 employees per customer. Community housing and informal care for the elderly should not be used as a means of saving to reduce 24-hour care. 
• We must prepare a national programme for the welfare of the elderly. The aim should be to promote social, cultural and health wellbeing and active citizenship.
• The resources for home care must be strengthened so that caregivers have genuine time to face the elderly. The number of visits should be increased, and the use of technology, for example, should not be used as a justification for reducing them. 
• In order to ensure the ability of caregivers to cope, it is necessary to invest in high-quality services that support caregivers and family care and to increase free and substitute arrangements for caregivers. The support for family care must be raised to such a level that the family caregiver can live on the remuneration they receive. The appropriation-boundedness of informal care support must be removed.
• Palliative treatment and terminal treatment are the right of every terminally ill person. Terminal treatment units and homes must also be set up outside the major cities. 
• A terminally and seriously ill person should have the right to an assisted death. The preparation of legislation to allow active euthanasia must therefore be promoted. In the preparation of legislation, care should be taken that active euthanasia is not used to address the lack of resources in the care system.
• In order to safeguard the quality of social work, it is necessary to define maximum numbers of clients for social workers. Social workers or advisers must be available for contact within a week. Adequate qualification requirements for social workers must also be respected for temporary agency workers. 
• Wellbeing services counties must add their own child protection units and invest sufficiently in working conditions and pay to be able to recruit permanent workers. Profit-seeking in the area of child protection should be prohibited. 
• Extensive medical rehabilitation should also be extended to persons over 65 years of age.
• The amount and quality of supervision in elderly and disabled services and child protection must be significantly increased. It should always be possible for official visits to establishments to be carried out without prior notification. The public sector has to control both self-produced and purchase and service voucher services. Quality control centres must be set up in cooperation with wellbeing services counties for the purpose of systematically improving the quality and self-monitoring of the counties’ own establishments. 
• We must take care to ensure the adequacy of interpretation, care supplies, assistive devices, elderly and disabled services for all people who need them. It should be easier to have a personal assistant than it is now. Housing modifications must be guaranteed for disabled people who need them.
• Reductions in the scope of the Disability Services Act for economic reasons must be repealed, and elderly disabled persons must not be excluded from services. The scope of the law must be sufficiently wide to prevent the emergence of interventionist groups. The relationship between the Social Welfare Act and the Disability Services Act needs to be clarified and it must be ensured that the interpretation of the Act does not give rise to ambiguities. Wellbeing services counties must guarantee adequate services for all age groups in accordance with the Social Welfare Act.
• The low-threshold social and health services for children and young people need to be strengthened. There is a need to increase the number of professionals in primary and upper secondary education. 
• Child and family social work resources must be secured. Support and services shall be extended to all minors and, where appropriate, to those over 18 years of age. Mental health and addiction services also need to take the whole family into account. 
• Low-threshold free childcare services must be secured for single-parent families to support the parent’s ability to cope.
• University students must be guaranteed timely access to treatment by increasing the resources of the Finnish Student Health Service FSHS without increasing the students’ health care fees. Students’ health care fees may not go to collection. 
• The availability of psychotherapy and low-threshold psychosocial services in public health care must be increased, and therapeutic protocol must be strengthened. The integration of substance abuse and mental health services must be strengthened. Substance users must also have an equal right to receive mental health services. Kela-supported rehabilitation psychotherapy must also be granted on the basis of criteria other than the maintenance or restoration of the ability to work or study. 
• The availability of psychiatric wards throughout the country must be ensured. We need to strengthen cooperation between child welfare and youth psychiatry.
• The resources of psychiatric outpatient care must be increased so that outpatient care can also meet the need for treatment of more severe psychiatric illnesses and persons with dual diagnoses. 
• Kela’s rehabilitation psychotherapy must be free of charge for low-income students, those outside the working life and students under the age of 30. Kela’s support for rehabilitation psychotherapy should also be increased for other groups of people. The artificial five-year support break at the end of three years of rehabilitation psychotherapy should be removed. In addition, it must be possible to increase the number of times the support is granted on a discretionary basis on an individual basis, giving priority to the wellbeing and treatment needs of the patient.
• The training of psychotherapists and sex therapists must be converted into free specialised training. 
• We must ensure that social and health services are aware of the impact of different neuropsychiatric characteristics and disorders on individuals and families of all ages. People with neurodegenerative disorders must be provided with adequate support throughout their lives.
• The right to free contraception throughout the country must be guaranteed to those under 25 years of age, to those who have given birth within one year and to clients of drug services regardless of age.
• The right to a vasectomy and sterilisation must be guaranteed to all on a voluntary basis, even without a medical basis. The Finnish sterilisation law should be updated to respect the right of self-determination and modernise it to match the sterilisation laws of the other Nordic countries.
• The financing of social and health organisations must be strengthened by both national and regional funding instruments. In order to safeguard the independence of civil society, emphasis must be placed on general subsidies. Wellbeing services counties and municipalities must develop and deepen their cooperation with the third sector.
• The inequalities created by the multi-channel financing of health care must be addressed. The number of reception and rehabilitation services provided by wellbeing services counties, for example in the fields of gynaecology, psychiatry, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, paediatrics and geriatrics, needs to be increased in order to ensure that access to services is based on need rather than ability to pay. 
• Access to a gynaecologist in public health care must be facilitated. Health centres need expertise in gynaecology and pre-menopause and menopause.
• It is necessary to provide better opportunities for small businesses and professionals to provide health services by developing procurement procedures, despite pressure from large multinational companies. In procurement, emphasis must be placed on effectiveness.
• The views of workers must be taken into account in the planning of the health and social work shift. This is not necessarily the case in action-oriented shift planning. For example, nursing staff have good experiences with community-based shift planning, which improves job satisfaction and life management.
• International recruitment for social and health services should be carried out in accordance with international human rights standards and ethical guidelines. Wellbeing services counties need to develop their competitive skills in the procurement of recruitment services and focus on quality rather than price. Employers must ensure that foreign recruits receive adequate language training and integration services, as well as pathways to recognition and validation of qualifications, in order to avoid the invalidation of skills. If the recruitment processes reveal exploitation at different stages of the supply chain, such as the collection of thresholds, the employer should take responsibility and provide support and assistance to internationally recruited workers.
• The right of the undocumented to the necessary medical care must be guaranteed by law. 
• Improve interpretation services and ensure the right of users of multilingual rehabilitation services to interpretation in rehabilitation through legislation. Social and health services must employ on-duty interpreters. Remote emergency interpretation services must be officially put into use. 
• Work against violence and discrimination among men must be increased and targeted at boys and young men as well. 
• The necessary resources must be allocated to the implementation of a suicide prevention programme.
• The regulation of alternative treatments must be provided for by law in such a way as to enhance the legal protection of patients and support their right to self-determination, and to strengthen the supervision and protection of those in a particularly vulnerable position. 
• Gender and sexuality diversity should be taken into account in the development of social and health services, and training should be provided for workers on these themes. Social and health services must be gender sensitive and must recognise, for example, the specific needs of women. If necessary, there should be services specifically for women. 
• The social and health services of municipalities and wellbeing services counties must employ peer and experience specialists. 
• In the case of low-income groups, free menstrual cups and incontinence cups should be guaranteed, even for mild urinary incontinence. 
• The prevention of pregnancy and childbirth-related incontinence should be promoted by integrating pelvic-based physiotherapy services into the maternity services, ensuring the wellbeing of the mother before and after childbirth. 
• We must continue to increase the number of shelters. Shelters must be accessible everywhere in Finland, regardless of place of residence, disability, age, gender, substance abuse or other factors. In addition to shelters, there is a need to increase and develop Seri Support Centers, online shelters and other services for survivors and prevention. The training of social and health care personnel, rescue services, police and other operators must be increased to improve the recognition of intimate partner violence and the encounter with victims. Training shall take into account the specificities of violence against women, as well as violence against minorities, honour-based violence and intimate partner violence in multicultural relationships. Efforts must also be made in the period after the shelter period, for example from the point of view of safe housing and children’s wellbeing. We need to increase the number of shelters where people fleeing intimate partner violence can also bring their pets to safety.
• The identification of mental violence must be improved and the gaps in the criminal law must be closed by criminalising compulsory control, as the study of the Ministry of Justice and human rights organisations have suggested and as the Istanbul Convention requires Finland to do.
• The use of cannabis must be legalised and its sale transferred to state-owned stores. In addition, small-scale cultivation of cannabis must be allowed.
• The criminalisation of the use of other drugs must be removed. Drug use should be tackled with social and health policy, not with sentences. Even after the decriminalisation of use and possession of small quantities, the manufacture, import and export, transport and sale of drugs would still be punishable offences. 
• Finland does not have a functioning treatment pathway for stimulant addiction. Finnish substance abuse care should introduce stimulant replacement therapy and/or detoxification treatment for stimulant addicts, as well as other research-based methods in the treatment of people suffering from stimulant addiction. Experienced experts should be consulted in the creation of functional services.
• The possibility of testing and possession of substances must be released to parties other than the police and customs who investigate them. 
• We must prepare a national programme to prevent drug-related deaths.
• We must prevent deaths caused by drug use by facilitating access to opioid replacement therapy, by enabling a substance identification service and the possibility of safer drug use, e.g. in operating rooms. In addition, the possibility of distributing naloxone, an anti-overdose agent, should be investigated and the target group should be informed that there is no criminal liability for calling for help. Immediate access to mental health services, interruptive care and rehabilitation should be provided if the person so wishes. In addition to medical treatment, non-medicinal alternatives and psychosocial support must be available. 
• A total ban on the marketing of games of chance is necessary to prevent and reduce the harmful effects of gambling and to protect particularly vulnerable groups. Research and WHO recommendations support the effectiveness of the marketing ban, and several European countries have already strictly restricted marketing following the introduction of the licensing system.
• Suitable care and support must be provided for those with gambling disorders and other addictions and for their relatives. All social and health workers must be provided with training on addressing the harmful effects of gambling and on providing treatment. 
• The harmful effects of products on health must be addressed by taxation and restrictions on advertising. Healthy food and sustainable forms of transport must also be cheaper.
• The number of rescue training start-ups must be increased to ensure that there is a sufficient number of qualified personnel throughout the country.
• Women should be encouraged to enter the rescue sector and to move up to senior management. Harassment, discrimination and inappropriate treatment of women workers in the rescue sector must be addressed. Gender and equality schemes should be introduced in rescue institutions in all wellbeing services counties.
• The financing of the activities of the contract fire brigades must be ensured in order to ensure continuity.
• The linguistic accessibility and availability of social and health services must be strengthened so that the right of Swedish-speakers to receive services in their mother tongue is realised in bilingual areas.
• There is a need to clarify the legal status of non-medical circumcision of boys. The aim should be to put an end to the measures that infringe the right to self-determination.

3.3 Education, culture and exercise

For the Left Alliance, education is an absolute value and expertise and culture are the cornerstone of critical thinking and democracy. The decline in literacy poses a threat to the entire democratic system. In the coming years, the Finnish education system will be particularly challenged by the diversification of Finnish schools and municipalities due to the shrinking age groups and urbanisation. At the same time, the socioeconomic background and resources of families are increasingly influencing children’s and young people’s school achievement and the growth of learning gaps. Inequalities are occurring nationwide, but also within large cities. For the Left, the most important thing is to ensure that every child has the equal right to learn and attend school, regardless of gender, mother tongue, parental wealth or educational background, or the student’s need for support for learning. Every child’s neighbourhood school must be the best school in the world, and the teachers must be the best trained in the world. Schools must have sufficient safe adults, individual support and small enough group sizes to ensure peace of learning. Adequate resourcing of training ensures the safety and wellbeing of teachers and ensures that education and training facilities are safe and healthy. 

All children benefit from a high level of pedagogical early childhood education, but especially those whose family is unemployed, destitute, ill or otherwise short-sighted. As proven by research, high-quality early childhood education narrows the differences caused by socio-economic background and supports later learning and the skills to succeed in life. The goal of the Left is to increase the level of participation in early childhood education by investing in quality and equality, as well as the coping skills, salary and wellbeing of the personnel. The demanding nature of the work must be considered when hiring. Staff shortages and staff attrition are currently the main threats to the delivery of quality early childhood education. The growing use of vouchers in early childhood education is increasing the power of large multinational daycare companies in particular. This leads, among other things, to higher fees and the fact that daycare centres can select their customers. This undermines the equality of early childhood education.

Basic education must be strengthened so that adequate basic knowledge and skills can be secured for every child and young person and that all have sufficient capacity to move on to secondary education. In order to make education more equitable than it is today, the resources for basic education must be strengthened, in particular to better support learning and growth. 

The reduction in age groups and urbanisation is putting pressure on access to secondary education. The aim of the Left is to provide quality upper secondary education throughout the country, meeting the needs of both compulsory and continuing education. No young person should be forced to move away from home for secondary education.

The extension of compulsory education and the introduction of free upper secondary education have reinforced the equality of education. In order to raise the level of education and strengthen the level of competence, upper secondary education must provide a strong general educational foundation, the necessary knowledge and skills for participation in society and the ability to continue studies in higher education. Vocational upper secondary education is a more vocationally oriented education pathway than upper secondary education, but the professionals of the future will also need to be better equipped to update their skills. The changing skills needs of working life require that students have the flexibility to choose between secondary and vocational education. While developing teaching methods and content, care must be taken not only for the availability of adequate distance learning and the ability of young people to cope with their studies, but also for their wellbeing. Support for learning should continue to the second stage according to individual needs, so that everyone is equipped for working life and further education. There must be a sufficient number and diversity of places for students with special needs in the region to ensure that young people with disabilities are able to discover their own strengths and receive an education. Support and measures should continue to be devoted to the prevention of school dropouts, particularly in vocational training.

Finland lives on knowledge, so investing in higher education, science and innovation is important not only for the intrinsic value of science but also for the national economy. In the future, the aim is that at least 50% of the age groups of young adults complete a university degree. When adding higher education qualifications, care must be taken not to dilute the content of the qualifications. In order to reach the goal, it is necessary to continue to increase entry places and raise the basic funding of higher education institutions to a level corresponding to the number of entry places. Achieving this objective requires, in particular, the strengthening of the capacities of those graduating from vocational training and stronger support towards higher education. The current low level of tuition support and the imbalance of loans differentiate young people. The welfare of students and their ability to concentrate on their studies on a full-time basis should be ensured through adequate tuition, housing and investments in student health services. The main task of a student is to study, and no one should be forced to work because of problems of earning a living. Raising the level of education and improving the level of skills means that the resilience, wellbeing and recruitment of staff in higher education institutions must also be considered. Increasing the number of places without full funding has already led to a burden on higher education staff and a deterioration in the quality of degrees. Retraining and updating skills are also an important part of a high level of education. It must be possible to do several degrees. Applying for a degree must be open and equal.

Investing in equality in education dismantles gender segregated labour markets. Study and career guidance must be developed in such a way that each learner can make individual choices about education and career. Study and career guidance shall account for discriminatory structures in the education system and support minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged learners to realise their full potential. In addition, special attention must be paid to the welfare of students who have applied for employment in a gender-atypical field, to tackling discrimination in education and training, and to preventing dropouts. Secondary vocational education and training and upper secondary schools must provide everyone with adequate general education and work skills. Democratic education at all levels of education must be increased in order to increase people’s participation. In recent years, there has been a dramatic decline in the amount of distance learning in both secondary and higher education. This significantly impairs young people’s competence but also their wellbeing, as they do not become attached to the student community. It is therefore necessary to ensure that sufficient contact teaching is provided. 

Strengthening the basic funding of higher education institutions is key to conducting high-quality and free science and research, as well as training experts for the needs of working life. Freedom of science and research, and of education and training, is a prerequisite for the whole of civil society and democracy, but it has been seriously undermined in recent years by higher education reforms, performance-orientation and funding cuts. The global decline of democracy and the rule of law is also reflected in the academic world, for example in the censorship of science. The freedom of science, art and higher education, as required by the Constitution, is not sufficiently achieved in the current situation. University democracy must be fully restored, and administrative systems must also be reviewed in universities of applied sciences. Governments driven by business and administration, and submission to business and political guidance, are not part of universities and other institutions of higher learning. The administration of research policy in universities should be in the hands of the academic community itself, i.e. those who study, teach and study there. Administrative and support staff must also be represented in the universities’ decision-making. Universities of applied sciences will continue to play an important role in regional development and as a promoter of employment in the future. The development of cooperation between universities and universities of applied sciences must not lead to a reduction in the autonomy of universities of applied sciences and the dual model.

Complementing a skill or learning a new profession in the middle of a working career will be much more common in the future, and society will also have to encourage it. This is why we need an education system that is able to provide degrees, parts of degrees and individual skills to anyone at any stage of life. Lifelong learning must be accessible to all and not dependent on individual resources.

 A functioning training system is a prerequisite for meeting the skills shortage. Especially in working life, we need to invest more in people whose basic skills are lacking.

Free cultural work is part of the Finnish education system. Open educational institutions enable lifelong learning at a low threshold by providing education across the country, also reaching groups that are not reached by formal education leading to qualifications. The tasks of the educational establishments of the liberal arts include promoting the integrity of society, equality and active citizenship. Among the educational institutions for liberal cultural work, the study centres train a large proportion of Finnish volunteers and organisers. The educational institutions of liberal culture do not educate people primarily for working life, but for culture and democratic functioning. Free culture work supports people’s community and inclusion and improves wellbeing. The importance of free cultural work as part of the Finnish educational system must be recognised and the conditions for its operation must be safeguarded.

A diverse artistic and cultural life and a vibrant civil society are basic conditions for a functioning democracy and part of a civilised society. Art also plays a central role in a democratic society. The freedom of the arts, which guarantees a critical examination of society from different perspectives, must be safeguarded. This requires respect for the principle of non-interference in decisions on the funding of art and the securing of public funding for art.

Art and culture are basic needs of human life and social interaction and should be fundamental human rights. The Left believes that the opportunity to enjoy culture and to develop one’s own creative abilities and self-expression skills is a right that belongs to everyone. Art and culture need to be taken more and more to the places where people live and move. Artists’ livelihoods must be guaranteed. The financial base of national and supranational arts organisations and cultural professional associations should be strengthened.

The pursuit of culture, the arts and sport are of great importance for human wellbeing and health. Timely physical and cultural services for the elderly prevent physical and mental illness. Society must ensure that everyone, including the disabled, the long-term ill and the elderly, has access to culture, the arts and sport. All sectors of government should increase measures to reduce the cost of leisure activities for children and young people. Every child or young person in Finland must have the right to at least one free activity, including more long-term and purposeful activities. VAT on cultural and sporting services is to be reduced to 10% and VAT on books to 0%.

The voluntary work carried out by organisations, volunteers and parishes is valuable and the conditions for the functioning of NGOs must be safeguarded. The funding of the study centres should be strengthened in order to support the continuity and effectiveness of their activities. The state, municipalities and wellbeing services counties must genuinely involve non-governmental organisations, employees and residents in decision-making. The public sector must also support the work of NGOs. Club activities are the core of active civic activities. Sports clubs are required, on the one hand, to provide professional coaching and guidance and, on the other hand, to be free of charge. This equation is too difficult for many clubs running on volunteer work. The conditions for civic activities of general interest must be supported more strongly than at present. Study centres train volunteers, trustees and decision-makers. Ensuring the functioning of the study centres is a matter of safeguarding the democratic skills of citizens. The library is the cradle of our civilization. It is our duty to make sure that the library’s funding is at a level where it can guarantee its high-quality service in the future as well. Libraries must be kept free of charge. Cooperation between libraries and schools must be supported.

The left alliance’s goals

• We must ensure adequate funding for education at all levels from early childhood education to higher education and for science and research in a comprehensive manner throughout the country. We must increase the share of needs-based funding in early childhood education and pre-primary and primary education. Equity financing must also be extended to the second grade. 
• Group sizes in primary schools, secondary schools and kindergartens need to be reduced. Binding staffing ratios, such as teacher staffing ratios, must be introduced. 
• The results of the two-year experiment in early childhood education must be utilised and the extension of early childhood education to the entire age group of 5–6 years must be continued. We must also develop nationally flexible pre-primary and primary education for children aged 5–8 years.
• A plan must be drawn up for the transition to fully free early childhood education.
• The staffing ratio of part-time early childhood education shall be raised to the same level as full-time education. 
• Early childhood education must be provided by the municipalities as a service to themselves. In early childhood education, profit-making shall be abandoned in the same way as in basic education, and municipal service voucher practices shall be addressed. If a municipality uses a service voucher, it should be noted in the regulations that the service provider is not entitled to charge fees exceeding the value of the service voucher. 
• The municipalities must organise morning and afternoon school activities for pupils in grades 1 to 4. In the morning and in the afternoon, the activity shall be carried out free of charge. 
• School afternoon club activities must be extended to all 1st and 2nd graders and made free of charge. Municipalities have the task of guaranteeing a free afternoon club for each pupil in the first and second classes, and the State has to support the municipalities financially in this task. The club activities of the so-called Finnish model must be developed in such a way that every preschool child has the opportunity to choose a preferred, free hobby.
• The subjective right to early childhood education must also be extended to vulnerable children who do not have a permanent place of residence in Finland, such as asylum seekers and undocumented children. Preparatory education must be made a subjective right for newly arrived children. 
• The reform of support for learning must continue. The aim is to build a continuum of support for learning from early childhood education to higher education. The starting point should be a clearer resourcing and targeting of support. As part of the reform, staffing ratios in early childhood education and pre-primary and primary education should be examined. Municipalities must ensure that the increase in the central government transfer to municipalities to the reform of support for learning is allocated to group-specific forms of support.
• Each pupil must be given the opportunity to choose their own life beliefs, regardless of the religious affiliation of the pupil or of the guardians. The aim is to abandon the separate teaching of religion and theology and to move towards a new doctrine based on theology. 
• In vocational education, additional resources must be directed to distance learning to ensure learning outcomes and to ensure full school days. Quality and personalised guidance for work-based learning shall be provided, including through the training of on-the-job trainers. 
• A strong general education must be obtained from the university degree. Instead of overemphasising student writing, teaching should aim at a more comprehensive approach to learning and at increasing student readiness for study.
• Physical printed learning materials must be secured from primary to secondary education. 
• The teaching of minority languages must be strengthened. Efforts must be made to improve the quality and methods of teaching the second national language. Those who speak Sámi languages should have the right to be taught in their mother tongue throughout compulsory education. The availability of Sámi learning materials and teacher training must be promoted in cooperation between the Nordic countries. In addition, those who belong to the language community must be guaranteed the opportunity to study Sámi languages, Finnish and Swedish sign language, the Romani language spoken in Finland, and the Karelian language for the entire period of compulsory education free of charge. The learning of the languages of those who have lost their languages must be strengthened. The funding of language centres operating in different Sámi languages ​​must be secured and the supply increased.
• Certificate-based admission must be abandoned as the primary route to higher education. The field-specific admission exam or joint admission exam that measures the applicant’s suitability must be the primary route to the university. The quota for first-time students in higher education institutions must be removed and the reasons leading to suspensions of higher education degrees must be investigated. 
• The cooperation between upper secondary schools and vocational educational institutions must be developed to meet each individual’s competence needs. Regional access to upper secondary and higher vocational education and training must be ensured. Increased cooperation between training providers will ensure a comprehensive regional coverage of the operational conditions. The financing of vocational training must be designed to ensure the quality of education for those who are required to do so and to meet the needs of continuing learning. The financing of secondary schools must be ensured, as must the possibility of obtaining a secondary school diploma in all secondary schools. 
• Gender-sensitive and anti-racist education must be accounted for at all levels of education. Gender-sensitive education and training must be more strongly integrated into teacher training. Parents must also be offered support in gender-sensitive education from the counselling stage onwards. Gender-sensitive and anti-racist work must be made mainstream in all pupil and student care. 
• Increase and improve age-appropriate consensual sex education at all levels of schooling. Sex education must be based on the principles of comprehensive sex education defined by the WHO, according to which sex education covers the entire human life cycle, is based on scientifically valid knowledge of the different dimensions of sexuality, taking diversity into account, promotes a responsible and open-minded approach to human relationships and sexuality, and helps to develop more just societies in which discrimination, harassment and violence are fought against.
• The availability of student welfare services and the staffing ratios of school psychologists and curators must be improved, and the opportunity for school psychologists and curators to do preventive and community-based work in educational institutions must be ensured.
• We must ensure equal access to educational services for higher education students by enacting a law on educational services for higher education students. The law must provide for a ratio to ensure adequate psychological and curatorial resources.
• Binding plans for equality and non-discrimination, covering the entire educational path, must be implemented both in municipalities and in educational institutions. They shall take particular account of access to higher education for under-represented groups such as people with disabilities and the Roma and Sámi people. 
• Ensure that sign-language children in inclusive education receive instruction and support to strengthen their own linguistic and cultural identity.
• We need to provide shift care for younger students. The accessibility of early childhood care should also be improved throughout the country. 
• Legislation and funding regarding the teaching of Sámi languages ​​must be developed so that even Sámi students living outside the Sámi home region have an equal right and opportunity to learn the language of their family.
• The renovation of educational institutions must be accelerated so that safe and healthy working spaces are secured for both students and staff. 
• The starting places for higher education must be increased and the increase in the level of education must be supported so that half of the age group completes a university degree. The basic funding of higher education institutions must be increased to a level corresponding to the number of students. At the same time, sufficient resources must be ensured to secure high-quality teaching and guidance. In particular, there is a need to support further education opportunities for those who have completed a vocational qualification. Education leading to a degree must be free of charge. The basic funding of higher education institutions must be increased and the start-up grants fully funded.
• In higher education, group co-ordination shall ensure that e-learning as a method does not lead to the exploitation of the teaching staff and the impairment of student learning.
• The title of UAS Master’s Degree should be changed to Master’s Degree in order to give it a recognisable and equal status with that awarded by the university.
• The Universities Act needs to be reformed to strengthen the internal democracy, autonomy and working environment of universities. A parliamentary model of university governance must be established, in which supreme power is exercised by a multi-member body elected by the university community in general and equal elections, in whose confidence the university’s governing body and the rector must act.
• The representativeness of the management of universities of applied sciences must be strengthened by increasing the number of staff and student representatives on the boards of universities of applied sciences. The representation of staff and students shall be guaranteed at every level of management in the universities of applied sciences. 
• Tuition fees for students from outside the EU and EEA countries must be waived.
• The operational principles of contract training subject to a fee must be addressed in such a way as to prevent the exploitation of students for financial gain. 
• The Open University and the Open UAS must increase the number of free courses for all. Studies at the Open University and the Open UAS should be free of charge for people who do not have a university degree or a place of study. The maximum level of payments must be returned to EUR 15. Studies carried out exclusively through an open university may not lead to a degree and thus to the development of higher education in Finland.
• We must ensure adequate mental health services for pupils and students and monitor the adequacy of student care staffing ratios and the accessibility of services.
• Models for lifelong learning must be developed at all levels of the education system in cooperation with training providers and employers. A system of financing continuing learning involving society, employers and individuals must be established.
• The financing of students’ associations in universities of applied sciences must be guaranteed by a central government transfer to municipalities.
• Vocational training for the workforce must be added. 
• Free educational work must be resourced better than at present.
• The adult education subsidy must be reinstated. Eligibility for the adult education subsidy must be extended to those without a long-term employment relationship. 
• All unemployed jobseekers must be guaranteed the right to independent study. Degree studies during unemployment must be made more flexible. 
• A high-level scientific panel or panels must be appointed to support the government’s decision-making. The expertise of researchers in different fields must be utilised, especially to support the development of legislation.
• Foreign degree students must be given a sufficient number of lessons in domestic languages ​​so that they have better conditions for employment in Finland after graduation.
• The promotion of student wellbeing and physical activity must continue to be part of the funding of higher education institutions.
• The mobile school operating model must be expanded nationwide for all levels of education, from early childhood education to universities. The goal is to bring physical activity to school days for all school grades. 
• Everyone must have the right to exercise. Hobby facilities must be barrier-free and accessible. Gender-neutral dressing, washing and toilet facilities must also be found in the hobby facilities. 
• The Finnish model of recreation must be extended to secondary and higher education and implemented in such a way that smaller clubs can also act as organisers. It is necessary to identify ways of increasing basic art education as part of the Finnish model of hobby.
• In order to increase accessibility to cultural and sport services, municipalities must provide sport and cultural activities to low-income groups such as people on guaranteed and national pensions, those on a small guaranteed pension and the long-term unemployed. 
• Incentives must be created to account for disabled and special/under-represented groups in general leisure and cultural services. 
• The municipalities must provide basic seats free of charge, especially for children and young people. The criteria for the allocation of shifts for the use of sports facilities must be drawn up by the municipalities and officially approved. 
• The financing of youth work and the status of the youth work profession must be strengthened. The importance of youth work in promoting the welfare of young people should be recognised and the provisions in the Youth Act on the obligation to organise youth activities should be specified and made more concrete. Models of action and occupational titles for school youth work must be harmonised and continuity of national development work ensured. A separate Ombudsman for Young People should be designated to oversee youth welfare issues, with the responsibility of looking after the welfare of young people in the same way as an Ombudsman for Children.
• The state’s budget funding for culture and sports must be increased and tied to the budget. The minimum funding for art and culture (1%) and sports (0.5%) from the state budget during the period of government must be written into the law, and it should not be subordinated to short-sighted cuts or stabilisation policies.
• The emphasis on the promotion of wellbeing and health in the central government transfer to municipalities and wellbeing services counties must be increased by raising the Health and Welfare Promotion Coefficient and allowing the coefficient to specifically reward municipalities and wellbeing services counties for concrete measures. The Health and Welfare Promotion Coefficient shall be developed in such a way that the coefficients of an individual municipality or wellbeing services county accounts for the wellbeing and health of disabled people, the long-term unemployed and the long-term sick and the actions of the municipality or wellbeing services county to improve them.
• The state and municipal MAL agreements must include comprehensive nature access points close to residential areas and emphasise the transport accessibility of recreational facilities.
• The tax-free employment-related bicycle benefit must be reimbursed.
• The ceiling for the exemption for voluntary cultural and sports activities for employees should be increased.
• We must strengthen the independent arts sector by increasing the number and coverage of artist grants, target grants and general art and culture grants, and by raising their level. The field of arts organisations, as well as national and local artists’ associations, must also be strengthened. Application procedures for funding need to be developed in a clearer and more accessible way so that funding covers a wider and more diverse range of people and art.
• Unemployment security of artists and other professionals in the arts and sports must be developed to better match the protection of the worker in a full-time, permanent employment relationship by changing the legislation to make it more predictable as regards the interpretation of employment in one’s own work. The unemployment and pension security of artists and professionals in the arts, culture and sport must be strengthened by introducing a combination insurance model that allows for the inclusion of grants, salaries and business income at the same time.
• New art forms’ access to subsidies must be facilitated.
• In order to ensure the autonomy of the arts, the principle of an adequate ‘arm’s length’ and the role of peer evaluation in the evaluation of grant applications must be maintained in the context of the reform of public administration.
• The percentage principle in the arts, culture and sports must be enshrined in law. In addition to the construction costs, a separate percentage principle must be established for activities in the social and health services. 
• We need to make the law on cultural activities more binding.
• Cultural education programmes must be made compulsory as part of the curriculum.
• The financing of basic education in the arts must be strengthened and its economic, linguistic and regional accessibility as a service organised by the municipalities must be improved.
• An equality fund must be added to the state funding of basic art education, which will strengthen the socio-economic and regional accessibility of basic art education.
• Support for domestic films must be gradually raised closer to the level of the other Nordic countries. The law on state funding for the promotion of film culture must be changed so that the film foundation’s support money must be used mainly in Finland. The payment obligation in accordance with the AVMS Directive must be introduced in Finland, and its criteria must be set, for example, for filming to take place in Finland. The payment obligation in accordance with the AVMS directive must be introduced in Finland, and its criteria must be set, for example, for filming to take place in Finland. 
• The level of lending allowances for authors and translators must be raised, and online bookshelves must be included in the scope of e-lending allowances. 
• The availability of library services must also be guaranteed in sparsely populated areas, for example with extensive service library cars. Cooperation between libraries and schools must be supported. 
• We must take care of high-quality education in the library sector.
• The vital role of non-governmental organisations in providing low-threshold support and connecting to society must be recognised. The level of state grants for organisations must be predictable in the long term and at a permanently sufficient level.
• Support for low-circulation quality literature must be restored. In addition to purchasing support for libraries, support should also be given to publishing houses, for example publishers of Finnish-language information and scientific literature, in order to ensure the existence of such literature in Finnish. The financing of open scientific publishing must be resolved in such a way that the operating conditions of domestic scientific publishers are secured.
• Public funding of art and culture must be directed primarily to the creative work done by people. Publicly funded actors should only use artificial intelligence as a complementary tool, not to replace creative agents.

3.4 Regions and housing

Finland has many different resources and strengths, both in cities and in rural areas. Urbanisation is a global phenomenon, with people moving from sparsely populated rural areas to growth centres in search of work and education. Already 70 per cent of people in Finland live in cities or in their surrounding areas. At their best, cities offer residents climate-wise living, jobs and educational opportunities, diverse culture, and opportunities for hobbies and sports.

Rapid urbanisation has led to a situation in which sparsely populated frame communities, especially around regional centres, have suffered from a decline in population. Despite the changing situation, it is important that national policymaking also aims at supporting the vitality of less populated areas, the quality of services and the opportunities for residents to live a good life. Rural living must be possible in the future. Cooperation shall lay the foundations for a vibrant urban and rural environment, accounting for the specific characteristics of the regions.

Everyone should be able to live in the area or city of their choice, regardless of their income level. We cannot create a society where wealth defines the neighbourhood and where those on low incomes who cannot afford to live in the growth centres have to travel very long distances for work. 

Regional development can be influenced by infrastructure, education and economic and housing policies. In Finland, the needs of the metropolis in the metropolitan area, the provincial centres and the sparsely populated countryside differ in this respect. There is no need to create a conflict between them. In addition, the needs and strengths of Swedish- and bilingual-speaking regions must be considered. A left-wing regional policy develops a country on the basis of each region’s own strengths, recognising the characteristics of the regions and accounting for the country’s overall security of supply. 

Right-wing housing policies based solely on market conditions will lead to a more rapid increase in inequalities and a deterioration in the quality of housing. Housing subsidies are being cut, and affordable housing is being driven down. The aim is to reduce housing subsidies and publicly funded housing production and to push more and more Finns into poverty and dependence on social assistance. The housing subsidy reductions must be repealed.

Every person has the right to affordable housing. The high cost of housing and the rapid decline in housing values in areas with a high migration rate are preventing people from moving within the country in search of work. Especially in large urban areas, there is a need to build more affordable housing. A housing guarantee and an interim rental model, where instead of the tenant, the apartment is rented by the tenant on behalf of, for example, a municipality or a wellbeing services county, must be introduced. There is a need to build more assisted and primary housing and temporary accommodation. To end homelessness, both more affordable housing and more subsidised housing are required. Investment must be made in investigative homelessness work, housing counselling and debt counselling, as well as substance abuse and mental health services. More resources must be directed to multidisciplinary support and preventive services for the homeless and those experiencing homelessness. In services for the homeless and in work to prevent homelessness, special attention shall be paid to gender gaps and to LGBTQ+ homelessness. Women’s homelessness is often referred to as ‘hidden homelessness’ and the high risk of homelessness of sexual and gender minorities is not generally recognised in the service system.

As the rental level of self-financed rental housing, especially in the metropolitan area, has fallen beyond the reach of ordinary people, increasing the volume of housing production is the key means of containing the pressure on rents caused by supply. However, there is also a need for more affordable and price-regulated housing. The increase in the VARKE (formerly ARA) subsidised building stock also contributes to curbing the general rental trend and thus to the overall health of the housing market. Cities and municipalities’ own number of home ownership must be increased in order to guarantee the adequacy of affordable production. The income verification limits that prevent the residents of VARKE apartments from changing apartments must be removed, so that structurally, a situation is not created in which, when the living situation changes, the residents live in the wrong sized apartments.

Society must ensure that affordable and suitable housing options for different life situations are available for the elderly in different parts of the country. We need both barrier-free rental apartments, communal living and serviced housing that supports everyday survival. The importance of community and safety must also be taken into account in the planning.

Balanced development of the urban structure and prevention of social segregation is important. Segregation can be prevented by investing in the comfort of the areas, nearby services and schools, by building a mix of rental and owner-occupied housing and different types of housing in different areas, and by directing special investments to the development of low-income residential areas. 

In the next parliamentary election period, the Central Agency for Housing Affairs must be re-established, which would also be responsible for the development of housing and construction. Interest subsidy loans guaranteed by the state (EUR 21 billion) should not be counted as part of the public debt in the future. This requires influence in the EU and reform of the current support system.

The left alliance’s goals

• The abolition of the state housing fund must be cancelled. The Central Agency for Housing Affairs must be re-established, which would also be responsible for the development of housing and construction. Interest subsidy loans guaranteed by the state (EUR 21 billion) should no longer be counted as part of the public debt. This requires action within the EU and reform of the current support system.
• Significantly more needs to be invested in public housing. 
• Rental growth must be curbed by setting a brake on rent increases: rent must be raised only in proportion to the cost-of-living index or the costs incurred in VARKE (formerly ARA) -funded sites. 
• Finland must implement age-friendly and barrier-free urban development, encouraging regional innovation and development. The synergy of services, the territorial cohesion and the accessibility and accessibility of recreational and other areas must be taken into account. We must draw up growth agreements to improve the accessibility of the areas and to develop the provincial urban areas. For example, railway projects are of paramount importance for the vitality of many areas. 
• In every province of Finland, the survival of the higher education institution must be secured, and there must also be enough places for secondary education in each province. 
• Funding for basic road maintenance in sparsely populated areas must be secured. Special attention must be paid to the level of winter maintenance. 
• Public transport, including public transport, must be developed as a valid alternative to private driving. 
• A high-speed broadband network must cover the whole of Finland.
• The system of central government transfers to local government must be comprehensively reformed to meet current needs. The goals of the reform should be to curb the polarisation of municipalities, to secure a high-quality and comprehensive service network throughout the country, and to strengthen the vitality of municipalities. In the reform, the social security transfer items of state shares should be removed, and it should be ensured that it is not possible to receive a negative state share.
• The funding models distributed by the state to cities must be developed to be more equal. We must also explore the possibilities of expanding land use, housing and transport (MAL) contract procedures to urban areas with less than 100,000 inhabitants. 
• A Housing Guarantee Act is needed to guarantee everyone the right to safe and affordable housing. If necessary, housing must be supported with individual services. 
• Sufficient resources must be secured for Housing counselling to combat evictions and homelessness.
• The amount of VARKE (formerly ARA) production in the growth centres must be increased by increasing the interest subsidy and developing its terms so that its use is attractive at the current interest rate level. This will enable new genuinely public-interest players to enter the market. VARKE funding should be directed not only to cities but also to smaller towns suffering from housing shortages. 
• It is necessary to target support for the construction of affordable rental apartments through start-up grants and direct additional investments to the state-owned A-kruunu, which offers affordable apartments, so that it can increase its production volume. 
• Legislation must be put in place to ensure that the rights and protection against dismissal of the weaker party to the tenancy agreement, i.e. the tenant, are better protected, particularly in situations of rent increases. The share of affordable rental housing production in land-use, housing and transport MAL agreements shall be increased. 
• The State must guarantee the basic improvement loans of housing cooperatives in depreciating areas when it is not possible to apply for a loan on the market. 
• The public sector must build itself and support the construction and accessibility of accessible housing. 
• The investment subsidy for special groups must be increased and returned to be distributed also for housing production intended for young people, students, the elderly and people undergoing mental health rehabilitation.
• In order to guarantee more affordable housing, it is necessary to recommend zoning on land acquired or transferred to the ownership of the municipality. Under the leadership of the Ministry of Justice, it is necessary to map out how people living in groups and institutions are treated. Based on the report, a plan must be made to improve the living conditions of people living in institutions and groups. 
• The state must compensate for the deterioration of the situation on all sides of the areas affected by the closure of the eastern border by measures and investments that support the sustainable growth and vitality of the areas.

4. A WORLD THAT RESPECTS HUMAN RIGHTS

The rules-based international order is threatened by the power politics through arms, the intensification of great-power competition, and the rise of international populism and nationalism. The security situation in Europe has deteriorated significantly in recent years.

Russia’s large-scale aggressive war in Ukraine in 2022 and its prolongation also pose a threat to wider global peace and stability. Within the European Union, the breakdown of the rule of law is reflected, for example, in the authoritarian development of many Member States.

The unpredictability and uncertainty of the international environment have also been heightened by the return of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States and by the new federal administration’s critical approach to transatlantic cooperation and Europe as well as to the rule of law, freedom of expression and democracy. The international rules-based system is being called into question and world peace is being undermined on an unprecedented scale. 

While world politics are undergoing a historical change, a number of changes are taking place that are undermining human health and wellbeing globally: climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and antibiotic resistance. The problems are interdependent and have important common denominators in over-exploitation of natural resources and disturbance of the material cycle. At the same time, and in interaction with the physical environment, dangerous social phenomena are taking place: conflicts and wars, concentration of wealth and increasing poverty.

4.1 Democracy, rule of law and human rights

Human rights, democracy and the rule of law are fundamental values of Finnish society and the Left. The welfare state must guarantee the fundamental and human rights of everyone and the genuine and equal opportunity to enjoy them. In recent years, we have witnessed a development in Finland and globally, where politics is becoming more hierarchical and democracy is weakening. Around the world, the rule of law, the rule-based system, international agreements and fundamental human rights are increasingly openly and broadly challenged, including at the legislative level, on grounds such as national security. In Finland, the most blatant example of this is the so-called Act on Temporary Measures to Combat Instrumentalised Migration, which violates the Finnish constitution, international treaties and EU law. The Finnish rule of law and the current model of constitutional control are fragile. Finland is not immune to the worrying developments in the rule of law in many countries, and there are warning signs in the air here too.

The struggle for the rule of law and democracy will have to be fought in a very different way than it has been for decades. Minorities are experiencing more and more open hatred from within the parliamentary system, and progress towards equality has backfired in Finland and around the world. Gendered and racist hate speech has been shown to reduce the willingness of women and minorities in particular to participate in societal debates. The unprecedented cuts in funding for Finnish civil society and organisations in recent years are not only reducing the opportunities for Finnish citizens to participate in society but are also undermining the prosperity generated by the third sector.

Democracy is also undermined by attacks on free media. Independent media and journalists in Finland have also faced criticism from representatives of the parties in power, which has reduced the freedom of journalism and endangered freedom of expression and opinion. The smearing of people such as journalists, authorities, the judiciary and researchers should be recognised as a crime that threatens the rule of law and democracy.

A vibrant, participatory and functioning democracy requires a multi-voiced and vibrant civil society and an independent multi-voiced journalistic media. The Left Alliance is pushing for the strengthening of democratic culture. In addition to defending the basic pillars of democracy, such as the rule of law, free science and freedom of the press, we must also take care of the possibilities for civil society and the right to express one’s opinion, the conditions for the production of culture and art, and the accessibility of education. The status of the Swedish language must also be defended and access to Swedish-language services must be safeguarded, as they are particularly vulnerable to aggressive austerity policies.

The hostile and violent anti-gender movement threatens the democratic civil rights of women and gender and sexual minorities, which must be recognised at all levels of government, in working life, education and training. The Left Alliance promotes the realisation of equality in order to strengthen the democratic rights of every person to participate and participate.

The Left Alliance believes that every human being is equally valuable, regardless of their background, such as age, disability or state of health. The welfare state must ensure that everyone has the services and support they need at different stages of life, with emphasis on supporting the individual’s own resources and abilities and the realisation of the right to self-determination. Discrimination, harassment and violence against minorities must be prevented and effectively addressed.

The prevalence of violence against women in our country is a flagrant human rights problem. Violence against women occurs mainly in intimate relationships. Children and minorities are also at risk of violence. Women and girls with disabilities are particularly at risk of being victims of intimate partner violence. Honour-related violence must be prevented both in Finland and internationally. Low-threshold services for victims of domestic violence need to be strengthened and developed throughout the country.

The justification for the use of force comes from the people. The democratic system must be continuously developed and new forms of participation created. The possibilities and conditions for participation must be guaranteed for all. Finland should promote measures to better involve under-represented groups in democratic decision-making. Participation in parliamentary elections cannot depend on resources and education. A development in which the chances of being elected to the various political bodies are increasingly dependent on resources is deepening the polarisation of society, as decision-making becomes more and more distant from people’s daily lives.

The Left Alliance supports the development of tools for direct and participatory democracy, such as citizens’ forums, citizens’ initiatives and referendums, alongside representative democracy. Participatory budgeting must be implemented in such a way that it not only strengthens the already active inhabitants of the municipality but also strengthens the collection of the opinions of groups in a particularly vulnerable position. Children, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, have the right to be heard at all ages in decisions affecting them. The Left Alliance seeks to promote forms and mechanisms of participation and participation of children and young people as part of social democratic education and the realisation of the rights of the child.

In a state governed by the rule of law, the exercise of public authority is based on the principle of equality before the law and the protection of the rights of individuals and minorities. In a state governed by the rule of law, everyone has the opportunity to find justice. The strength, stability and predictability of our rule of law must be safeguarded in the future and confidence in the various actors of the rule of law must be ensured. The rule of law and human rights must be defended against undemocratic tendencies.

The Sámi population in Finland has historically faced discrimination, prejudices and assimilation policies. The consequences of discriminatory policies must be recognised and corrected, and the constitutional rights of the Sámi people to maintain and develop their own language and culture must be protected. The work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission must be completed.

Ensuring safety is an important task for society. The operational capacity of the police and other security authorities must be safeguarded throughout the country. Security must be seen as more than just the powers and capacity of the police and other public authorities. Promoting social justice and preventing exclusion are key ways of increasing security. The freedoms and fundamental rights of citizens must be strengthened without excessive control and surveillance. The police must also enjoy the trust of minorities and vulnerable members of society, and the police must work diligently to earn this trust.

The left alliance’s goals

• The rule of law safeguard mechanisms needs to be strengthened. The role of the Committee on the Constitution as a body free from political influence and independent in its judicial deliberations needs to be clarified. The independence of the courts and judges and the permanence of the essential elements of the Constitution must be strengthened. The possibility for the courts to overrule an unconstitutional law must be extended by removing from the Constitution the requirement of manifest unconstitutionality. It is necessary to clarify the strengthening of constitutional review by new means, such as a special court or a body of experts.
• The effective influence of municipalities and wellbeing services counties, such as disability and elderly councils and youth councils, needs to be enhanced. Municipalities and wellbeing services counties must organise workers to ensure that their lobbying mechanisms are effective. Municipal lobbying bodies must be granted the right to be present and to speak in municipal councils, boards, divisions, committees and the municipal government. Correspondingly, the influencing bodies of wellbeing services counties must be granted the right to attend and speak in regional councils, regional boards, committees, boards and divisions.
• It is necessary to increase the awareness of public sector officials, decision-makers and employees about basic and human rights, minority rights, equality and equality. 
• The quality of law preparation must be improved by strengthening basic and human rights assessment, developing impact assessment and increasing the investigation of the joint effects of legislative changes.
• The voting age must be lowered to 16 in all elections and referendums.
• In wellbeing services counties and municipalities, reporting channels must be promoted to deal with improper and illegal treatment. 
• The duration and cost of trials is a human rights problem. Everyone must be able to get justice regardless of wealth, place of residence or background. The strengthening of justice administration funding must be continued, and the duration of trials must be shortened. The unreasonable cost of litigation and the risk of expense in private litigation must be reduced by making court mediation compulsory before the actual trial and by establishing a fixed, reasonable fee for legal aid lawyers in rent, consumer and debt matters, the amount of which is not affected by the workload of legal aid lawyers. Taxation shall be based on the reasonable amount of work and cost of public legal aid in each type of case. Income thresholds for access to public legal aid must be raised and linked to the cost-of-living index.
• A citizen’s forum for climate policy must be established to prepare measures enabling system change for decision-makers in government bodies. Parliament must be obliged to process the resolutions of the citizens’ forum. 
• In order to ensure equal and democratic candidacy and representative democracy, Euro-denominated limits for electoral campaigns should be set. Advance notification of election financing must be made mandatory, loopholes in the election financing law must be patched, and the monitoring of the law must be strengthened.
• The electoral system must be further developed to strengthen the proportionality and democracy of elections. The advantages of different election systems compared to the current one must be clarified. 
• Operating models such as participatory budgeting and citizens’ assemblies must be promoted in all institutions of municipalities and wellbeing services counties, as well as at the national level, and their decisions must be more binding than at present. Participatory budgeting shall focus on reaching vulnerable groups.
• The citizen initiative has proved to be a viable form of direct democracy and needs to be developed. The rules governing the processing of personal data should be laid down more precisely in the law. Citizen’s initiatives should not be suspended when the electoral period changes, nor should a formal error in an initiative be used as a reason for rejecting it. The responsible minister shall be obliged to submit to Parliament, within a reasonable time-limit, a draft law drawn up on the basis of a citizen initiative supported by Parliament.
• The public functions conferred by the law of the Chamber of Commerce Act are to be delegated to the public authority.
• The victims of hate crimes must get justice. The investigation of hate crimes must be made more efficient by securing sufficient resources and developing the competence of the authorities. Targeted online harassment should be criminalised, and the Criminal Code should be checked for up-to-datedness regarding hate crimes. 
• The section of the criminal law on incitement against a national group must be reformed in line with the Council Framework Decision on combating certain forms and expressions of racism and xenophobia by means of criminal law and other international obligations, as called for by the European Commission. 
• The multi-disciplinary preventive action of the police must be reinforced, in particular with regard to the prevention and response to juvenile delinquency.
• Independent external control of the legality of police actions must be strengthened. The purpose of independent supervision is to provide credible oversight and to ensure effective remedies for the individual, and it must be guaranteed effective powers. The aim is to reduce the culture in which the police largely decide on the legality of their own actions.
• Citizens’ legal safety and trust in the police must be safeguarded by competence and equal treatment, regardless of the type of crime and the background of the person. The police must be extensively trained in respecting the treatment and referral of victims of crime to the various social and health services. The police must have specifically appointed and trained persons to investigate sexual offences. Police oversight of the law must be strengthened and the legal protection of citizens developed. The police must recruit from a variety of backgrounds. 
• The fundamental and human rights of the individual must also set limits to the powers of public authorities when the extension of powers is justified on security grounds. In the context of competences that interfere with the protection of privacy and other fundamental rights, strict regulation, limitation to what is necessary and adequate means of control and redress shall be ensured.
• The Left Alliance must take a stronger stance on strengthening the rule of law and democracy in Finland and encourage the government and parliament to establish a permanent constitutional court.
• Instead of punitive populism, criminal policy must be based on researched knowledge, harm reduction and the promotion of a life free of crime by effective and efficient means. Instead of increasing costly and harmful prison sentences, efforts must be made to improve prison conditions and develop rehabilitation activities.
• The right of people with Romani background to their own language and culture must be guaranteed by legislation. We must be determined to develop ways of promoting the employment of the Romani people. 
• The operating conditions for self-government regarding the language and culture of the Sámi and the realisation of the indigenous people’s right to self-determination must be promoted by ratifying the ILO 169 agreement on the rights of indigenous peoples. 
• Linguistic rights must be secured, and the necessary resources must be reserved for them. Those who speak Sámi languages ​​and sign languages ​​must have the right to public services in their mother tongue. The availability of services in all minority languages ​​must be supported, and native language must be supported, starting with counselling services. The forms used in the services must also be available in minority languages. 
• The status of the Karelian language, alongside other minority languages, must be recognised and protected by legislation. The programme for the revival of the Karelian language published in 2025 must lead to concrete measures to support the revival of the language. The revival of the Karelian language must be supported and actively monitored. 
• In order to promote the transparency of lobbying, the functioning of the transparency register introduced in 2024 must be assessed and its scope extended from the parliament and the government to the municipal level.
• We must tighten regulations on the impartiality of wellbeing services counties, municipalities, municipal associations and persons in a leading position in the employment or official relationship of the state in outsourcing projects, as well as draw up regulations on the waiting period of the aforementioned. 
• It is necessary to increase the transparency of large companies in the use of personal data and that citizens themselves have the opportunity to decide on the use of their own data and their transfer between different service providers. 
• The special state-sanctioned law status of the Evangelical Lutheran and Orthodox churches must be repealed. The public authorities must move to treat religious communities and non-religious associations equally. 
• Provision should be made for the transfer of the social functions of the Church, such as funerals, cemetery maintenance and the maintenance of the population register, to municipalities or wellbeing services counties in a controlled manner, without imposing an unreasonable financial burden on them or on individuals.
• The accessibility requirements of the Non-discrimination Act and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as well as the supervision of discrimination crimes and effective legal remedies must be strengthened.
• Municipalities and wellbeing services counties must employ accessibility, disability, elderly and association coordinators to ensure accessibility and accessibility of the area, as well as to represent residents and cooperate with organisations. 
• Public bodies need to improve the accessibility of their communications. Public authorities are moving towards multilingual, multi-channel and accessible communications. They move to clear, common language in their communications and documents. They also communicate things in plain and sign language. As digital services proliferate, particular attention should be paid to the effective access of older people, persons with disabilities and other persons with reduced mobility to services. There must be an opportunity for personal service.
• The funding of the Finnish Broadcasting Company must be increased, and sufficient resources must be made available for independent and high-quality journalism.
• The position of Disability Ombudsman is to be established in Finland. The main responsibility of the Disability Ombudsman is to oversee that the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is implemented in practice in the everyday life of disabled people in Finland. 
• Consent-based sex education and safety skills training must be organised more widely in schools and low-threshold services related to these themes must be offered. Dating violence among young people must be learned to be recognised as part of youth work. 
• Central government should draw up an LGBTQ+ political action programme to promote the rights and equality of sexual and gender minorities. The action programme should contain concrete legislative and other measures in the various administrative areas.
• The shortcomings of the law on gender determination must be corrected. The Transgender register and the application process must be deleted. Correction of the gender labelling shall be possible for persons aged over 15 years with their own notification and for persons under 15 years with the permission of the guardian or child protection services. The law and the service system must also recognise non-binary people. A third gender label should be introduced. The abolition of legal gender registration must also be investigated and promoted.
• Treatment of juvenile gender dysphoria should be based on international standards and treatment recommendations. We must facilitate access to treatment and hormone blockers that slow down puberty. In Finland, a valid treatment recommendation based on the international recommendation for good treatment of gender dysphoria must be created, according on which gender dysphoria is diagnosed and treated in all wellbeing services counties or in private health care. Wellbeing services counties provide the skills and resources needed to diagnose and treat gender dysphoria. Treatment should be based on informed consent.
• The physical integrity and autonomy of children must be safeguarded. Treatments aimed at modifying the sexual characteristics of the body, which are medically unnecessary and are carried out without the consent of the child, shall be prohibited and it shall be ensured that those who have been subjected to such treatments are able to obtain compensation for the injuries suffered.
• Childcare vacancies and divorce counselling must be increased. Child supervisors who confirm the agreement on the arrangement of the children’s residence after the divorce of their parents should be better informed about and promote joint custody. 
• The ability and resources of the authorities, the judiciary and other actors to identify, prevent and combat honour-related violence and female genital mutilation must be improved. 
• The self-determination of birth mothers must be strengthened by expanding childbirth training, training employees and developing operational guidelines. 
• Surrogacy regulated by law, non-commercial and equally accessible regardless of gender, must be allowed in such a way that the interests and wellbeing of both the unborn child, the birth mother and the intended parents are protected. 
• Spouses must be treated equally regardless of background, such as sexual orientation or gender identity. The spouse of the person who gave birth to a child in marriage must also automatically be the child’s parent, as it is currently the case in marriages between persons of different sexes. 
• The Truth and Reconciliation Process for the Deaf and Sign Language Users must be completed. The Truth and Reconciliation Process must fully involve the deaf and sign language users. Adequate resources must be allocated to the process, and care must be taken to ensure that the process provides an overall picture of discriminatory structures and suggests changes that improve the position of deaf and sign language speakers in society. The process provides an opportunity to address past and present injustices and violations of justice and to build a more just future together.
• Legislation must recognise the diversity of families and allow for more than two legal parents. 
• The Adoption Act must be reformed so that no one has to renounce parentage in intra-family adoption. 
• As the Finnish Parliament is also proposing, the European Parliament should be consulted on the draft directive on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens at work.
• Age-friendliness must be promoted, and age discrimination and loneliness must be prevented in public services, housing and living environment, and decision-making.

4.2 Internationality and solidarity

International cooperation is needed to solve the world’s great problems. Wars, climate change, the rise of corporate power, the accumulation of wealth, the pollution of the seas, pandemics, the dangerous escalation of tensions between great powers and involuntary migration can only be resolved by cooperation between countries and people. The leftist worldview includes the recognition that human rights belong equally to all the people of the world. We do not want to build boundaries and mistrust between people, we want to dismantle them. 

In many ways, the world is smaller than it has ever been. With the development of information and the Internet, people can connect with each other and know what is happening in the world. On the other hand, fake news, terrorism and propaganda are also spreading effectively from one country to another. Digital power is concentrated in the hands of a few global tech giants who control vast amounts of data and thereby wield considerable economic and political power. Technology giants can control the operations of companies as well as people’s opinions and behaviour. The closer relations between Donald Trump and tech companies have brought the platforms deeper and deeper into the core of geopolitical and geoeconomic struggles.

As a result of various conflicts and disasters, there are now more refugees in the world than at any time since the Second World War. In addition to war and violence, the conditions for a good life are also threatened by the climate crisis, loss of nature and growing social tensions. At the same time, attitudes towards people fleeing danger and seeking refuge are tightening at a record pace in Finland and elsewhere. The tightened attitudes are directly reflected in immigration policy, and the goals of right-wing populists have been pushed through both Finnish legislation and the EU’s immigration and asylum system. 

The European Union is Finland’s main reference point. By influencing the direction of the EU, we are influencing the direction of both Finland and the entire international community. Rather than endlessly emphasising market freedoms, the EU must focus its action on solving the great transnational problems of our time and on promoting human wellbeing. 

The left alliance’s goals

• A binding corporate responsibility law extending the duty of care to the entire supply chain should be introduced. 
• Social rights, environmental issues and human welfare must be put at the centre of EU policy rather than neoliberal market policies. Social rights need to be made more binding in the EU. 
• Finland must defend the nature and climate measures that have already been decided at the EU level and strive to increase their level of ambition.
• The crackdown by Prime Minister Petteri Orpo’s government on immigration and asylum legislation must be reversed in its entirety. Legislation must be reformed on the basis of human rights. 
• The asylum system in the EU must be developed based on human rights. The right to seek asylum and access to a fair asylum procedure must be secured throughout the EU, and safe routes must be increased. The EU must assume its global responsibility, and a fair and binding mechanism for shared responsibility must be created between member countries. 
• The negative development of the rule of law and human rights in the EU Member States must be strongly addressed. As a last resort, the suspension of payments to a member country and the withdrawal of the member country from the Union should be considered. 
• Sexual and reproductive rights must be enshrined in the EU Treaties. The right to free and safe abortion must be enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The right to contraception and reproductive and sexual health services must be guaranteed throughout the Union.
• European minimum standards for working conditions must be established and European minimum standards for social security defined. 
• EU funding shall be directed towards strengthening the financing of the social pillar, environmental issues, mobility promotion, training and R&D investments to promote sustainable structural change. 
• The EU must also support the development of democracy in the EU’s candidate and neighbouring countries, take a stand against human rights violations and support civil society in these countries. Finland must be an active player in this regard.
• Turkey’s commitment to democracy, human rights and the peaceful settlement of the Kurdish question must be a precondition for cooperation between Turkey and the EU. Imprisoned opposition MPs, journalists and other political prisoners must be released as a matter of urgency.
• The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) must be removed from the EU list of terrorist organisations. Although the PKK has decided to end its activities in 2025, the EU’s terrorism classification still gives Turkey the right to violate the rights of the Kurds.
• Finland must comply with the international treaties it has ratified, such as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In addition, Finland must promote the compliance of other countries as well. 
• Climate action must not increase the Global South’s dependence on rich countries. Finland should promote climate finance in the form of subsidies in international organisations, especially for the poorest countries. The conditions for climate finance in the form of credit must be fair and flexible.
• Green colonialism must be opposed. The fight against climate change must not be fought with projects that threaten the rights of indigenous peoples.
• Finland and the European Union shall promote the phasing-out of fossil fuels in a controlled and gradual manner at both the European Union and global levels.

4.3 Peace and security

The precondition for all development and humanity is a peace based on respect for human rights and a just distribution of power. The Left Alliance opposes war and militarism. 

The Left Alliance stresses that Finland must defend the sovereignty of Ukraine and all states and support peaceful solutions based on the right of self-determination of states and peoples who have been victims of aggression. Ukraine continues to need strong and united international support, which must continue during a period of ceasefire and peace. The peace must be just and lasting from the Ukrainian point of view and its terms can only be decided by the Ukrainians themselves. The aid to Ukraine must be mainly in the form of grants, and Finland must also contribute to the alleviation of Ukraine’s debt burden. In addition, promoting Ukraine’s EU membership is important. 

Russia has demonstrated that it has the will and the ability to use aggressive warfare as an extension of its foreign policy to pursue its objectives. This has also changed Finland’s security environment and the conditions for the functioning of its foreign and security policy. There are no risk-free alternatives. Trump’s United States has eroded federal support for Ukraine as it is on a path to increasing authoritarianism. Europe must take greater care of its own security by showing unwavering support for Ukraine and reducing its dependence on the United States. We must respond to wars of aggression by imposing strong sanctions on the political and economic elites of the oppressive powers. Finland must act for a lasting peace, both in the EU and the UN and through its own actions.

Finland must promote human rights in its foreign policy with no double standards. Human rights and international law cannot be promoted on a selective basis, but consistently. Finland must have the courage to criticise all the states which, in word and deed, commit violations of international law and the UN Charter. The advantage of a small country is that it can defend the multilateral rules-based system and act globally, strengthening international law, democracy and human rights. 

Israel is carrying out a ruthless genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians by completely destroying the living conditions and infrastructure in Gaza, blocking humanitarian aid and starving the population. At the same time, Israel is expanding its illegal settlements in the West Bank. Despite increasing international condemnation of Israel’s genocide and violation of international law and human rights, the EU remains Israel’s largest trading partner and maintains warm diplomatic relations with the country. 

The Left Alliance demands that the EU freeze the association agreement between the EU and Israel, impose trade sanctions on Israel and fully commit to the arrest warrants issued by the international court, the ICC. The EU must also use all the means at its disposal to put pressure on Israel to end the illegal occupation and to exercise the right of self-determination for the Palestinians. Finland must end all arms trade with Israel, promote the imposition of a trade embargo on Israel and recognise Palestine. 

Finland must contribute to the consistent pursuit of a lasting and just peace and equal human and civil rights for all the region’s inhabitants. The Left Alliance recognises that, in addition to the recognition of the Palestinian state, a viable means to achieve the goals is also, for example, the so-called one-state model, in which all residents of the region are guaranteed equal political and democratic rights without ethnic discrimination. In addition to the two-state model, the one-state model is also recognised as an alternative in line with the values of the Left Alliance.

The Left Alliance believes that Finland’s security requires international cooperation that reduces the threat of military aggression and military pressure against Finland. The Left Alliance is pushing for the clarification of the EU countries’ solidarity clause, i.e. Article 42.7, so that the mutual aid of the member countries in a crisis situation would be defined more precisely. Finland applied for NATO membership to raise the threshold to attack Finland. The Left underlines that membership of NATO is defensive and that no nuclear weapons, permanent NATO military bases or permanent NATO troops will be brought into the country. The Left Alliance opposes the use of NATO as an instrument of great power politics and the linking of member states to make nuclear disarmament more difficult. The Left Alliance considers it important that NATO focuses on defending the territorial integrity of its member states. Finland’s participation in military operations abroad is always decided on a case-by-case basis in Parliament. In addition, ensuring that Parliament’s influence is maintained must be at the heart of Finland’s NATO policy. As a member of NATO, Finland must also make every effort to ensure its external policy mobility and influence by adopting a rules-based system and the full scope of international law.

The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is a serious threat to the future of mankind. Finland shall take active steps in international cooperation to promote nuclear disarmament and strengthen arms control agreements. The export and import of defence material must be regulated even more precisely. The Left will not allow arms trade with countries engaged in aggressive warfare or with countries that systematically violate human rights. 

Whatever the state of international cooperation, it is important for Finland to take care of its own strong defence. The level of the defence budget should be based on the needs of Finnish defence. Broad public acceptance and a national consensus that Finnish society and our social order are worth defending are the necessary conditions for maintaining national defence. A credible national defence is the basic line of the Finnish defence solution, which must be adhered to. Finland must deepen defence cooperation, especially with Sweden, the Nordic countries and the EU Member States, with whom we share the deepest common interests in all situations.

The Left Alliance is pushing for a change in the compulsory military service in order to safeguard Finland’s national defence capability and treat the entire age group equally. All age groups, regardless of gender, are invited to participate in the electronic invitation. This first stage shall involves a preliminary screening, after which a large number of conscripts shall attend the actual conscription ceremony. The number of reservists required for military service shall be selected on the basis of suitability and motivation on the basis of opportunity. At the same time, the duration of the civil service must be reduced to six months, and the punishment of conscientious objectors must be abandoned. Continuing service training for reserve objectors should be waived. An increase in the daily allowance and the food allowance should ensure that civil servants have an adequate livelihood during their service. The reform must be carried out in such a way that it does not reduce the number of people to be trained but improves the performance of our reserve army. Land defence must also be developed to support overall security and to respond to the non-military threats posed by climate change.

The Left Alliance considers it necessary to strengthen the United Nations system and its basic principles. The UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, as well as international human rights treaties, express the political will to build a world community on the basis of peace, human equality and democracy. The veto power of the permanent members of the UN Security Council must be abolished in order to enable the UN to promote peace and human rights effectively, as required by the UN Charter. Women are under-represented, for example, in peace negotiations and in the security policy debate. It is important to hear the voices of all genders as part of these discussions, as a commitment to gender equality and a broad understanding of security are effective means of building and sustaining peace. The UN Security Council should be enlarged with more permanent members, not only to reflect the post-World War II situation but also to better reflect the roles of different countries in contemporary world politics and the key players in it. This is necessary to increase the legitimacy of the Security Council and the UN in general. The role of the UN General Assembly must also be strengthened.

The Nordic countries are a key reference group for Finland. The Nordic countries’ multifaceted cooperation brings security to Finland. It has long been understood in the Nordic countries that peace is promoted by an equal society and active and proactive international cooperation. Nordic cooperation in the field of social security and defence must be increased. The Left Alliance believes that it is essential to build up Nordic cooperation in nuclear disarmament and jointly promote the Nordic region as a nuclear-weapon-free area. Nordic cooperation is also essential for the protection and defence of the Arctic regions, considering the rights of indigenous peoples. 

People in conflict zones suffer from wars and other conflicts directly as a result of the use of weapons. Conflict also harms the environment, health care, food production, and other sectors of the economy. Wars also affect non-belligerent countries through changes in trade and economics, migration, military preparedness, and increased insecurity. 

The use of force by the great powers and their supporters and the violation of international law must not be tolerated by any great power or in any geographical area. Every violation of international law, whether at home or abroad, and the resulting acts of war not only cause suffering in crisis areas, but also undermine international multilateral cooperation based on treaties. At worst, it will only increase the threat of nuclear war.

The left alliance’s goals

• Finland must pursue an active and proactive foreign policy based on broad international cooperation and emphasising international law, human rights and peacebuilding, without double standards, and strengthen the international rules-based system and the structures of multilateral cooperation. The principles of sustainable development must guide all foreign, security, trade and global policies. 
• We need to move towards gender-neutral conscription for all age groups, the first stage of which is universal conscription. The number of conscripts to be recruited is determined on the basis of suitability and motivation. The duration of the civil service must be shortened, and the punishment of total conscientious objectors must be abolished. 
• The Finnish Defence Forces shall have a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of harassment and non-interference. Anonymous means of reporting harassment shall be ensured for service providers and members of the management staff.
• The daily allowance of conscripts and those who voluntarily perform military service must be doubled.
• The EU must commit itself to comply without exception with all arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court.
• The EU must freeze the Association Agreement with Israel and impose a trade embargo on Israel.
• Finland must recognise the State of Palestine and Western Sahara and support the right of the Kurds to self-determination. 
• The importation of products of an occupying state originating from illegally occupied territories must be prohibited.
• We need to end trade in arms and defence equipment and defence cooperation with Israel.
• Finland must not export defence equipment to countries that violate humanitarian law or commit systematic human rights violations. The control of arms exports must also extend to arms imports, and consideration of human rights assessment and humanitarian law objectives must be part of all arms trade. Finland must also actively monitor and immediately ban all arms exports to countries that violate human rights.
• EU countries must introduce the ‘buy European’ principle in defence procurement and direct resources to European industry and the strengthening of European defence capabilities.
• The development, production and use of autonomous weapons must be prohibited by an international treaty.
• We must promote active disarmament and include Finland in the treaties banning conventional and nuclear weapons. Finland must return to the Ottawa Treaty banning antipersonnel mines.
• The financing and operational capacity of Finnish peace organisations must be supported and secured. The role of women in peace negotiations, in the security policy debate and as part of peacekeeping must be increased. Finland should work more actively to strengthen democracy in the UN, so that the UN can effectively promote peace and human rights as required by the UN Charter. 
• The so-called EU solidarity clause needs to be clarified, so that the mutual assistance of the Member States in a crisis situation is more precisely defined. 
• Finland must aim for a NATO policy which is democratic, based on human rights and openness, and in which the parliament’s influence is exercised. 
• Finland must cooperate closely within NATO, in particular with the Nordic countries, in order to highlight the human rights problems of the various member countries and to defend human rights, to promote nuclear disarmament and to maintain the Nordic region as a nuclear-free zone. 
• Finland must pursue a foreign and security policy based on a broad concept of security and human rights and act as an active mediator of peace and promoter of disarmament in the world. 
• Finland shall endeavour in advance to prevent conflicts over natural resources linked to the potential exploitation of space resources by joining the UN Six-Party Agreement and supporting the establishment of an international space administration to oversee the sustainable use of space and its natural resources for the benefit of all mankind.
• Finland must join the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
• No nuclear weapons should be placed in Finland. The current Nuclear Energy Act prohibits the import of nuclear explosives. This important law must be upheld. 
• No foreign permanent troops or bases shall be stationed in Finland during peacetime.
• Finland should strengthen the implementation and implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions on Youth, Peace and Security (2250) and Women, Peace and Security (1325), as part of its foreign and security policy.

4.4 Immigration, world trade and cooperation

Global developments, and in particular the second term of Donald Trump’s administration, are questioning the value of development cooperation more openly than in decades. In addition to the United States, many other countries, including Finland, have dramatically reduced development funding and significantly changed the direction of development cooperation. In Finland, the objectives of development cooperation are no longer linked to the eradication of poverty and inequality but are linked to the export potential of Finnish enterprises.

The Left Alliance stresses that the development cooperation offered by Finland must aim to reduce the Global South’s dependence on the North and to combat poverty and inequality. The massive cuts in development cooperation in recent years must be reversed. Global cuts in development funding will hit the world’s poorest people hardest, but they also have a direct impact on deepening conflicts. 

International trade currently operates on the terms of the developed countries and does not treat developing countries fairly, and they are not able to rise out of poverty in the current system. The economic policies and practices of international economic institutions such as the IMF, the WTO and the World Bank must be reformed to democratise and strengthen the economies of developing countries. Developing countries must be able to protect their young industries and strengthen their public sector and services. They must also be given facilities to enforce intellectual property rights. In addition, debt relief for developing countries must be brought back on the international community’s agenda and tax havens must be eliminated. Finland shall promote these objectives in international forums.

Finland should actively promote the ratification of the UN International Tax Convention, which democratises the current tax rules of the OECD. In addition, an inclusive, fair, transparent and efficient global tax system must be built to support sustainable development. This requires a fair distribution of the right to tax, for example by abandoning the current residence-state-of-source principle, moving away from the problems of transfer pricing and combating illegal capital flows. In development policy, this means that global tax rules must support strengthening the tax base of developing countries so that they can finance their own public services and reduce dependence on external aid.

Human rights apply to all of us, including refugees and asylum seekers. Immigration policy needs a change of direction based on human rights. In the light of increasingly tense attitudes towards migration on a global scale and the fact that anti-immigration policies are gaining ground within the parliamentary system, the Left must stress even more strongly that the human plight and the roots of refugees cannot be solved by closing borders. Finland must make a long-term effort to resolve the root causes of refugees in bilateral relations, in the European Union and in the United Nations through development policy, human rights policy and peace policy. 

The lack of documentation created in Finland by the failed and inhumane asylum policy and the pushing of people into a vulnerable position outside the safety nets of society is in no one’s interest. In the European Union, Finland must promote a high level of asylum procedure and international protection and safe routes and enhanced cooperation between Member States. Finland’s own asylum policy must implement the principles of human rights, international agreements and the rule of law. 

Everyone who has moved to Finland is a full member of society in all areas of life. Finland needs immigration and immigrants as part of the workforce. Every immigrant has the right to a decent life in Finland. Finland is currently wasting a huge amount of human potential with its tight immigration policy. Labour processes need to be facilitated and integration services for migrant workers need to be expanded and improved. Those moving to Finland from elsewhere are over-represented in both fixed-term and part-time employment, and controls have shown considerable shortcomings in, for example, pay. The occupational safety and health authority must increase its monitoring of working conditions and take responsibility for ensuring that everyone who moves to Finland becomes aware of their rights in working life.

There is currently no comprehensive legislation in Finland on the international recruitment of labour. International labour recruitment is often associated with long, complex and difficult-to-control subcontracting chains and significant risks of labour-related exploitation and trafficking. Nevertheless, international labour recruitment is not a permitted activity in Finland, and the authorities do not systematically monitor recruitment projects. The unregulated field is wild and the problems are many. Abuses happen all the time, and only a fraction of them make the news. Because of the inadequacy of the law, victims of work-related abuse have difficulty in obtaining help, justice, protection and compensation. There are also significant problems in the field of so-called education exports, where Finnish educational institutions sell degrees or non-degree-leading custom training through intermediaries at high prices to students from poorer countries, which drive students who come to Finland into poverty without support networks. Current human trafficking and labour market legislation is not sufficient to protect people exploited in international recruitment of labour or students, who are left without legal protection in Finland. The lack of regulation also makes it difficult to prevent work-related exploitation and trafficking in human beings and weakens the legal protection of workers recruited internationally to Finland.

The left alliance’s goals

• Residence permit procedures must be accelerated and streamlined by securing sufficient resources for the Finnish Immigration Service and by revising the legislation. The control of the Finnish Immigration Service’s operations must be strengthened, and the transparency of operations must be increased. 
• We must increase integration and language training for those who have come to the country on the basis of work and study. More should also be done to integrate people who have come to Finland for the purpose of marriage. 
• The annual refugee quota must be increased substantially. Action must be taken to significantly increase the number of quota refugees admitted to the EU. 
• The fairness of the asylum procedure and the inviolability of the return ban shall be ensured. The numerous restrictions imposed on the Aliens Act in recent years must be repealed and the Aliens Act must be reformed in its entirety on the basis of human rights, due process and legal certainty. It is necessary to ensure that the official colours are in line with and in harmony with the guidelines of the UNHCR. 
• The additions to the Nationality Act must be repealed. Integration must be supported by offering a view of the future as part of Finnish society.
• The right to family life, the rights of the child and the fulfilment of the child’s best interests must be promoted by facilitating family reunification. Barriers to family reunification must be identified and removed.
• In particular, the detention of children and families must be prohibited. There are several options for detention, such as compulsory reporting, electronic monitoring and supervised living. 
• Asylum seekers and those who have arrived as asylum seekers need to find work more easily. Returns of workers with negative asylum decisions should not be implemented in the midst of the labour process. Work permits must be issued on the basis of an alien’s travel documents even if the person does not have a travel document. 
• The lack of documentation must be addressed by restoring the previous legal status under the Aliens Act by removing from Article 51a the provision that a residence permit shall not be granted if the return of the alien is not carried out because they do not agree to return to his country of origin or habitual residence or because they make arrangements for their return more difficult.
• A law on international labour recruitment should be enacted, making international labour recruitment a licensed, registered and trained activity. The law should also provide for the responsibilities of employers who recruit internationally to monitor transnational subcontracting chains for the recruitment of labour and to prevent labour-related exploitation and trafficking in human beings. It is necessary to increase the supervision and resources of labour-related exploitation and human trafficking, and to develop the support system and legal protection for victims of labour-related exploitation and human trafficking. Legislation regarding the export of education must also be developed in such a way that foreigners recruited to study in Finland do not end up in debt and poverty because they decide to apply to study in Finland.
• In accordance with Finland’s international obligations, the goals of development policy must be to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality, and to strengthen sustainable development and human rights. Development assistance funding must be increased to 0.7 percent of the gross national product and 0.2 percent must be allocated to cooperation and aid with the least developed LDCs. The share of funding for the development assistance of non-governmental organisations must be increased. In order to ensure a coherent development policy, it is necessary to establish a law on development assistance. 
• Development cooperation and assistance shall take particular account of particularly vulnerable groups such as the disabled, the long-term ill, children and the elderly. 
• International trade policy must be made more equitable and developing countries must have a greater say. Finland must play an active role in the international arena in the democratisation of the IMF, the WTO and the World Bank. International investment protection must not take precedence over climate action or human rights. In order to resolve the debt crisis in the Global South, fair and transparent debt relief mechanisms, including debt cancellation, should be promoted. The establishment of an African credit rating agency, as proposed by African countries, should be supported in order to bring the interest paid by the countries of the continent down to a sustainable level. 
• Developing countries must be guaranteed the opportunity to develop their economic structures, for example through public subsidies and the protection of young industries.
• A growth strategy based on services and a green transition needs to be supported in developing countries. At the same time, efforts must be made to reduce the global South’s dependence on the global North.
• The Global South also needs economic growth that increases material consumption. To achieve this, the Global North must significantly reduce its use of natural resources and its emissions to the atmosphere in a coordinated manner.
• The EU and the UN, as well as other international forums, need to work to tackle tax evasion and promote tax transparency. 
• An international minimum tax for the wealthiest individuals should be introduced.
• Dependence on the US dollar in international trade and finance must be reduced. There is a need to promote a more multipolar monetary system where there is not just one dominant currency.
• The solvency of developing countries needs to be supported in order to avoid a debt crisis and enable an ecological transition. Wealthy countries need to take responsibility and ensure the financing of nature and climate action.
• The dollar’s hegemony and lack of coordination make the world economy unbalanced and prone to crises. It is necessary to examine the possibilities of establishing an international clearing union and a global currency which are not based on the monetary policy of a single country. The solutions must democratise the way the economy works.
• The role of the Euro in the international economy needs to be developed, for example by increasing the number of euro area common bonds.