09/19/2026
Aika: September 19, 1902
FOGGY DAYS IN SOINTULA
Discussion of Hardship
Workers’ Groups Formed with Elected Leaders
Rome wasn’t built in five days and neither is Sointula ready yet, although its stone foundation was laid already on the fifth day of creation. The clear, hopeful days of summer, when the lack of food and the crowded dwellings are forgotten, couldn’t go on forever. Rainy weather and foggy days arrived.
Everyone knows, that one can’t build a whole life with mere knitting needles and bad tools won’t be able compete with the good. For this reason, especially our comrades familiar with American machinery have seemed to notice, that the average output per day on Malcolm Island is not as big as when working for capitalists. And they are probably right. If one has good gear and beats the horse from dusk till dawn then surely enough one will get a lot of work done. But who would drive his own horse in such a way? A tenant farmer’s horse can be driven hard, for who cares how long it will last. We also have our own, permanent work force, not foreign or hired for a certain period. We will be sparing our workers and not be chanting “hurry up” to each other.
We have learned a great deal from this. We have, however, also noticed another matter, which tried to take the clear summer days away from us. Everything had to be bought with money; machines, tools, animals, food etc., but as we were working, everything else was considered with more care than where to get the fastest income. So naturally the possibility has always loomed ahead that when we have to start paying our debts, we won’t have enough money.
The preliminary estimate we made in the spring held good: money from the shares has covered the running expenses well. But the main assumption of those estimates was that by August we could sell our first log raft. That estimate too seemed to go right. The raft was ready and the
buyer was on his way. But the first two buyers let us down and when we closed the deal with the third buyer, we realized that the raft was half the size that the representative of the company had reported.
That’s when the fog came! The men were afraid the company was going down and this was followed by unwillingness to work. The women were struck by instinctive worry that asks no reason, but ravels out wherever the safety valve is at its loosest. Some were cold in their tents,
others didn’t get enough milk for their babies. One had drunk coffee with chicory, the other without it. And sure enough the wind came blowing from the capitalist world, bringing rain, filth
and bitterness!
We then held a big gathering of the People. We studied the reasons for our foggy state of mind. The fog burned off and sunshine came back to liven our day. We held our general meeting on the first Saturday of September. The stone foundation of the KK was carefully examined and was found to be as unwavering as before. We saw that what Aristotle spoke of his ideal state was still true today. “Mankind already has the means to build everlasting happiness. These means,
however, are still in the possession of few and are therefore worthless. Once we learn to make the difference between useful and harmful, wrong and right, fine and ugly, we will be able to get rid of all that is harmful among us, all that is unfair and stands in the way of beauty and idealism. We will become good and be able to build ourselves and our children everlasting happiness and stand out as an example for others willing to build their happiness.”
During our meeting it became clear that all progress rests on order that can be found in every organism in the living world. In the animal kingdom we already see it developing to a social
order that takes care of the weak and tries to right wrongs. The civilization work of mankind rests mainly on this law. New cultural forms cannot be born without social order and even a steady culture shall die out from the lack of it. But order requires leadership and in differing conditions
leadership differs. In the animal kingdom, opposing the leader will in most cases lead to death. While rowing in a storm it can cause the death of everyone on board. An Englishman and an American knows the necessity of leadership and knows how unwillingly a leader submits to the
orders of others. Therefore he grants almost unlimited powers to the leader of common political issues.
There is other kind of leadership as well. A leader of a choir merely has to raise his baton if the choir is well acquainted with every note it is singing. The soldiers of Napoleon plunged to their death during the great battles before they were ever given orders.
There are therefore two types of people: a) those, who need to be ordered and b) those who insist on having a leader to keep order. Autocracy is the extreme form of the previous, a republic of the latter. Being without a leader, however, is anarchy.
At our meeting we came to the conclusion that some of us still craved for orders but the main elements among us crave for harmony. This
craving leads us to look for company, friends and co-operation, which in its turn helps us remember the rules. Pick the comrade you assume will be the most able and conscientious and name him as your leader. When you have done this, demand leadership and order from him! If you shall not do this, the most conscientious among us will decline leadership and in their place we shall have aspirants to power, looking out for their private benefits. We are then faced with either anarchy or autocracy. Either - or!
The meeting made us see the importance of organized work groups. Every group will choose a leader and hold its own meetings. The labour-organizer will have negotiations with all work group leaders and takes the most important issues for the board of directors to decide upon. From now on, on the first Saturday of every month we shall have the People’s negotiations, where everyone will have the chance to express their worries and criticize the running of the common cause. The board of directors will naturally gladly follow the will of the People expressed in these meetings, even though it wouldn’t be given official form.
And what has been the result of these negotiations? The log raft is being built to its full size at a furious speed, fog and rain has cleared off, a contented murmur can be heard from the tents, there is milk for every child and coffee tastes just fine, be it with chicory or without it.
Maaton Matti
Alias Matti Kurikka
This was the last published Aika for 1902. The press was moved from Nanaimo to Sointula and began printing again in the spring on 1903.
Read more of the Aika Pages: https://sointulamuseum.ca/september-191902/
Read the Aika newspaper collection—originally published in Finnish between 1901 and 1904. A total of 155 articles have now been translated, compiled, formatted, indexed, and digitized, opening this remarkable collection to researchers, community members, and readers around the world. https://sointulamuseum.ca/aika-newspaper-collection/
