24.10.2025 at 16-18

Location: Työväenliikkeen kirjasto / The Library of the Labour Movement
Sörnäisten rantatie 25 A 1, 00500 Helsinki

Welcome to the talk programme of the exhibition Counter Libraries at the Library of the Labour Movement on Friday 24.10 at 16–18 hrs.

Historian Kasper Braskén will give a lecture “The Library of Burnt Books, Willi Münzenberg and Antifascist Publishing in Exile, 1933–1939”.

In addition, we will launch Olavi Laiho’s text “Katso Koota” (Look at K), which he wrote while in prison in 1944. The launch is joined by Päivi Penkkala, an expert on Laiho.

Counter Libraries is an exhibition at the Library of the Labour Movement that takes the antifascist collections of the Library as a starting point. The exhibition discusses the role of illegal and exile printing activities in the antifascist struggle. The exhibition’s main source is an uncatalogued collection of publications classified under ‘Fascism’, which was relocated to the library from the People’s Archives in 1987.

The exhibition addresses historical cases of antifascist libraries and publishing activities in the 1930s, as well as the burning of books, libraries and printing houses by fascists in Germany and elsewhere, including Finland; the role of oppositional publishing in educating people despite tightening censorship and illegality; the strategies used by writers and artists to resist rising fascism by using libraries as a platform for organising.

Counter Libraries is ongoing during the library opening hours until the 31st of October. It is organised by Sezgin Boynik and Minna Henriksson. Poster design by Otso Peräsaari.

The discursive programme of the Counter Libraries is the fifth in the series of Publishing as Scaffolding Talks organised by Rab-Rab Press.

Työväenliikkeen kirjasto / The Library of the Labour Movement
Sörnäisten rantatie 25 A 1, 00500 Helsinki

Opening hours:
Tuesday to Friday, 10 am–4 pm
Thursday, 10–19