SAK begins centenary celebrations with a cruise

The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions - SAK will be one hundred years old this year. The founding congress of SAK's predecessor organisation the Finnish trade union movement (SAJ) took place in Tampere Labour Hall on 15-17 April 1907. The congress was attended by 365 delegates claiming to represent some 40,000 workers. Nowadays the affiliated trade unions of SAK have a total of more than one million members.

The slogan of SAK&#;8217s jubilee year will be the same as the organisation's last congress: A Movement for Change. The idea is to remember and respect the past while focusing firmly on the future.

The programme of special centenary events will begin with a cruise for SAK activists at the end of January. Some 1,600 shop stewards and other union branch activists will board the M/S Viking Mariella for this occasion. While mainly a chance to have fun, the cruise will also include debates on such topics as features of the ideal job and the changing role of workers' representatives with restructuring of the world of work.

The celebration weekend proper will be 13-15 April, when a Jubilee Congress of SAK will convene in the same way as the founders' congress in Tampere. Over this weekend union branches and local SAK organisations will serve coffee and cake at workplaces and city squares throughout the country.

In June SAK's younger members will celebrate their own Jubilee in Lahti. This will include Arvorokki, a grand free admission outdoor event for all young adults.

Local SAK activists will arrange five regional celebrations between August and October in Helsinki, Joensuu, Oulu, Kemi and Vaasa. The last of these will be the main Swedish language event of the jubilee year.

Culture has traditionally played a prominent role in the work of the labour movement, and this will continue during the jubilee celebrations. In November 2006 SAK and the annual Festival of Workers' Music arranged a songwriting competition "Song snippets for casual work", inviting suggestions for new songs about casual work and casual workers. The best song snippet will be chosen on the Burning Song cruise in February 2007. The finest pieces from the competition will be performed by leading artists in July 2007 at the Festival of Workers' Music in Valkeakoski.

The Finnish Post Office will mark the centenary by releasing an SAK postage stamp at the beginning of March. The SAK centenary exhibition will open in April at the Workers' Museum in Tampere. This will coincide with publication of the fourth part of Tapio Bergholm's history of SAK, covering the period from the end of the 1950s to the start of the era of comprehensive incomes policy settlements in the 1970s.

SAK centenary events in 2007

27-28 January: Cruise and seminar for activists
- Seminar: Marina Congress Center, Helsinki
- Cruise: M/S Viking Mariella

13-15 April: Official jubilee weekend
- 13 April: stakeholder reception, Paasitorni, Helsinki
- 14-15 April: Jubilee Congress and fringe programme, Tampere

13-14 April: SAK centenary coffee and cake
- At workplaces on 13 April (union branches)
- In city squares on 14 April (local organisations)

1 May: Mayday celebrations

8-10 June: SAK youth festival and Arvorokki music event, Lahti

18-19 August: Regional celebration in Helsinki

22-23 September: Regional and Swedish language celebration in Vaasa

29-30 September: Regional celebration at Joensuu Arena

20-21 October: Regional celebration at Madetoja Hall, Oulu

27-28 October: Regional celebration in Kemi