1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970

1960

March, 1960 - April, 1960 The youth organization Student’s Refugee Aid Organization (Ylioppilaiden pakolaisap), is established in Helsinki. The network consists of student union based groups dedicated to radical political debate. The main goal is to raise awareness of refugees and apartheid, support refugees in their local communities, as well as campaign for the rights of refugees everywhere. The main focus is the wars in Algeria and Congo, and later during 60s South-Africa.
May, 1960 A pamphlet, “For Fatherland and Mankind” (Isänmaan ja ihmiskunnan puolesta) is published by the young philosopher Pentti Linkola. It discusses the role of war memoirs and military traditions in Finland, and marks the start of the Finnish non-communist pacifist movement.

1961

June, 1961 A new youth organization, The Student’s International Aid (Ylioppilaiden Kansainvälinen Apu) is established in Helsinki. It becomes a nationwide organization working working with students on issues in the Third World and foreign aid. The organization supports international help efforts and gathers money in Finland for large scale aid in underdeveloped countries. Its is active until 1968 before it is torn apart by radicalist factions.

1962

January, 1962 President Kekkonen is re-elected by an overwhelming 199 out of 300 Electoral College votes. Genuine opposition to Kekkonen has disappeared, and he acquires a strong - later even autocratic - status as the political leader of Finland. Kekkonen, a former student radical from the 1930s, has been viewed as the main supporter of youth and student radicalism in 1960s Finland.
July, 1962 10,000 delegates from all over the world participate in the World Youth Festival in Helsinki. The festival is planned from Moscow. After Soviet pressure on the Finnish president, U. K. Kekkonen, Helsinki's Olympic Stadium is made available for the opening session. Local and international anti-communists try to host counter-events. The festival contributes to make the Finnish establishment   opinion more negative towards Soviet, youth movement and global revolution.

1963

February, 1963 The Students United Nations Committee (Ylioppilaiden YK-yhdistys) is founded. The committee plays an integral part in debating international affairs and promoting foreign policy debate. The association is radicalized during 1968 and plays a key role in student politics.
April, 1963 Demonstration in Helsinki against the proposed value added tax (books, publications).
August, 1963 The Committee of 100 (Sadankomitea) against war and nuclear armament is established, inspired by its British predecessor. Its supporters come from leftist youth and student groups, and advocate civil disobedience to achieve their aims. Many of its members have been key radicals during the 1950s in Finnish society.The committee’s political manifesto promotes the idea of nonalignment and peaceful development. The Committee of 100 also develops the idea of establishing a peace research institute in Finland.
October, 1963 Student union elections in Finland. For the first time the political student associations made alliances and gain support in an election. Although student unions have previously been dominated by traditional student organizations, several communist representatives are now elected for the first time.

1964

April, 1964 A large student demonstration in Helsinki in protest against bad student housing conditions.
06.12.1964 The Committee of 100 arranges its first political matinee on the Finnish Independence Day. Receiving a lot of public attentions, young leftist artists and scholars present an alternative vision of Finland’s independence, emphasizing the values of peaceful development.  

1965

February, 1965 An agreement between the student unions of Universities of Helsinki and Moscow is signed, opening new possibilities for exchanges.
March, 1965 - April, 1965 130 demonstrators participate in the first Finnish demonstration against the American war in Vietnam outside the U.S. embassy in Helsinki. The demonstration is organized by the Committee of 100.  Many teach-ins about the war are held within student and youth organizations. Although people have previously been hesitant, Finland’s foreign political position is now discussed openly. Student theater in Helsinki performs anti-Vietnam war cabaret and triggers a lot of publicity in television. 
April, 1965 The Student Unions of Finland take on a more radical position in university politics. The first national seminar on high school politics is organized in Tampere, promoting new radical educational reforms.
October, 1965 Nationwide student union elections. Social democratic student’s gain a lot of support. A new generation of radical student leaders come to more powerful positions within previously conservative student unions. Discussion on radical cultural policy start.
October, 1965 Radical female association “Group 9” is established. Activists include male and female members, who focus on academic inequality, the lack of student family apartments and day care services. Abortion, gender equality and sexual freedom are now openly discussed.

1966

March, 1966 - April, 1966 The Student Theater in Helsinki (Ylioppilasteatter) is widely recognized for staging the the Lapulaisooppera, produced by the director Kalle Holmberg. The play takes the theater to the forefront of the political youth movement. National and historical class tensions are dealt with in powerful theatrical language, inspired by German theater, particular by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.
September, 1966 - October, 1966 A “peace week” is organized in Helsinki as a large youth and student action under the headings “Peace Research – World Peace Movement – Security Policy -  North and South – Peace Work.” Many teach-ins and street demonstrations.

1967

March, 1967 - April, 1967 The Student South Africa Committee is radicalized and harshly condemns racial discrimination. Mozambican freedom fighters visit Finland.
September, 1967 - October, 1967 1,000 protestors participate in a demonstration against the American war in Vietnam outside the U.S. embassy in Helsinki during the Academic Helsinki International Student Week. Visiting American peace activists are among the demonstrators.  
November, 1967 The November Movement (Marrsakuun Liike) is established to help the underprivileged in Finnish society. It becomes one of most famous single purpose movement in Finland during the 1960s. The movement’s active members visit mental hospitals, prisons, and help alcoholics and homeless.
06.12.1967 The Committee of 100 holds its first Day for International Human Rights in Helsinki.

1968

March, 1968 - April, 1968 The Finland-Vietnam Society is established.
April, 1968 Demonstrations in sympathy with the German student movement outside the West German embassy in Helsinki and in front of the greatest publishing house Sanoma Osakeyhiö. It is the first demonstration inspired by German student movement. German SDS leader K. D. Wolff participates in it.
April, 1968 The Majority Association (Enemmistö ry) is established in Helsinki to work against the prevailing monumental form of traffic planning. The organization represents a new way of looking at urban city center with a focus on pedestrians.
01.05.1968 2,000 students participate in a march against war, capitalism and “bourgeois” values in the university city of Jyväskylä. Student caps and traditional academic symbols are set on fires on the central market place. Student actions in different university cities all over the country.
June, 1968 - July, 1968 Frequent demonstrations against the American war in Vietnam in Helsinki and other university cities. “Red Saturdays” and Vietnam happenings in Helsinki during the summer months.
June, 1968 - July, 1968 The first democratic Idelogy –Forum in the University City of Jyväskylä is held with New Left representatives from different European countries.
21.08.1968 Demonstration against the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in front of the Soviet embassy. The radical Finnish student movement is divided between those who condemn the Soviet occupation and those who tolerate it.
September, 1968 A radical research and information group on the Third World (Tricontinental, in short: Tricont) is established, based on the programs of the Committee of 100 and Students South Africa Group. Mainly inspired by the example of Cuba, Tricont supports freedom movements in the underdeveloped countries.  
September, 1968 The student opposition establishes the “spontaneous” movement “The Students” (Ylioppilaat – Studenterna).
October, 1968 Finland’s National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam is established.
24.10.1968 Celebration of the United Nations-Day with nationwide demonstrations for human rights. During the “pop-youths evening party” young artists perform nude and attract media attention.
November, 1968 A “Third World Week” is organized in Helsinki by Tricont with discussions on peace, U.S power structures, the situation in Biafra, Franz Fanon, etc. An international panel discusses the “Violent Student of Today” and possibility of students to change the world. Belgian revolutionary Ernest Mandel and New Left Review chief editor Perry Anderson visit Finland at this occasion.
25.11.1968 - 27.11.1968 Students occupy the Old Student House in Helsinki, the venue for the Student Union’s 100th anniversary. The occupation becomes a new kind of political statement / expression / decisive event in Finland, although the radical opposition was still without a political home and internal ideological divisions are strong.. After the occupation no political party wants to welcome these left wing students, many of whom advocate socialist strategies.

1969

March, 1969 - April, 1969 Strong desire for an active extra-parliamentary movement. Many spontaneous democratic, Marxist, Maoist and Communist groups are organizing student strikes, anarchist student cells and street demonstrations in different part of Finland. A common goal: to form an anti-front against “bourgeois academic tradition” and to unite the student movement with the efforts of working class parties and trade unions.
01.05.1969 Demonstrations outside the U.S. embassy in Helsinki.
July, 1969 A large congress on Latin America is held during the Jyväskylä summer festival.
October, 1969 Student union elections. The political student parties take the power and the  leftist groups takes over the hegemony in the Student Union.

1970

January, 1970 - January, 1977 Massive demonstrations for peace and against the American war in Vietnam in university cities across the country.
March, 1970 - April, 1970 Student strikes start in several university cities, first in Tampere and Jyväskylä, then in Helsinki. The student movement in Finland moves closer to the Communist party and its minority Stalinist group.
June, 1970 Massive demonstration against the Persian Shah Mohammed Peza Pahlavi in Helsinki during his state visit to Finland.