Communist Party of Norway
Encyclopedia
The Communist Party of Norway is a political party
in Norway
without parliamentary representation. It was formed in 1923, following a split in the Norwegian Labour Party
. The party played an important role in the resistance to German occupation during the Second World War, and experienced a brief period of political popularity after the war. However, after the onset of the Cold War
its influence steadily declined. Since the mid-1970s the party has played a marginal role in Norwegian politics. They are against the European Union
and other organizations the party view as neoliberal
.
(DNA) under the leadership of Martin Tranmæl
had joined the Communist International at the time of its formation. However, DNA was by no means ready to evolve into a Bolshevik
party on the lines that the International required. Moreover, Tranmæl was strictly opposed to ComIntern involvement in internal DNA affairs. At a national conference held in November 1923 the DNA decided to leave the International.
During that conference the pro-ComIntern elements gathered to constitute a new party, the Communist Party of Norway. The new party was founded on 4 November 1923. The founders of NKP came mainly from the youth league of DNA, with leaders such as Peter Furubotn, Eugène Olaussen
and Arvid G. Hansen
. The majority of the youth league followed them in joining NKP.
Sverre Støstad was elected chairman, Halvard Olsen vice-chairman and Peder Furubotn
general secretary of the party. Jeanette Olsen
was secretary of women's affairs. On 5 November the first issue of the party publication Norges Kommunistblad
was published, with Olav Scheflo
as its editor.
13 of the DNA members of the Parliament of Norway joined NKP, as did large parts of the trade union
opposition of DNA.
, Ny Tid
, Arbeideren
, Vestfold Arbeiderblad
, Glomdalens Arbeiderblad
, Bratsberg-Demokraten
, Fritt Folk
, Follo Arbeiderblad
, Gudbrandsdalens Arbeiderblad
, Hardanger Arbeiderblad
and Ny Dag
. The communist party also usurped Møre Arbeiderblad
, which had not yet achieved official Labour Party status. Nordlys
was acquired, temporarily lost in mid-November 1923, then published as communist again until 20 January 1924 when it again became aligned with Labour. Some newspapers, such as Østerdalens Arbeiderblad
had sympathized with the communist opposition while it was a part of the Labour Party, but after the actual split the Labour Party managed to turn the tide and retain them. The Communist Party also took over the ideological publication Klassekampen
(belonged to the Young Communist League of Norway) and started Gnisten
and Proletaren
. Newly established communist newspapers within the party's first year of existence were the main organ Norges Kommunistblad
as well as Akershus Folkeblad, Buskerud-Arbeideren
, Friheten
, Troms Fylkes Kommunistblad
, Dagens Nyheter
and Finnmark Fremtid
. Many became defunct after a short time.
The Communist Party also had a range of company newspapers, for laborers in specific companies or specific industries. In Oslo there were Arbeidersken, Brygger'n, Den unge arbeider, Hammer'n, Huken, Kommunarden, Nødsarbeideren (renamed Steinspruten), Skyttelen, Sporvekselen and Stemplet. In Bergen there were Byggeren, Hermetikboksen, Kommuneproletaren and Transportproletaren (renamed Havnearbeideren). In Trondheim there were Filkloa and Signal. Einhart Lorenz
has also registered seventeen other company newspapers from across the country. Nearly all were founded in 1925 or 1926, and nearly all went defunct between 1925 and 1928. The only exception as to foundation was Verksteds-Arbeideren, founded in Drammen in 1924, and the only newspaper which survived beyond 1928 was Kommuneproletaren, which existed until 1931.
the party got 59,401 votes (6.1%) and won six seats. In 1927
it got 40,074 votes (4.02%) and three seats (it briefly tried a unification strategy through Arbeiderklassens Samlingsparti
). In 1930
NKP lost its parliamentary representation, when it got 20,351 votes (1.7%). By 1936 it could only muster 4 376 votes (0.3%). In that election the party did, however, only contest in some districts.
Parallel to its decreasing electoral influence, the party was ravaged by internal strifes. Halvard Olsen and other trade union leaders left the party in 1924, in protest over the trade union policy of NKP. Sverre Støstad, Fredrik Monsen and Olav Larssen
were excluded from the party in 1927 because of disagreements surrounding the reunification of DNA (which merged with the Social Democratic Labour Party of Norway
). Jeanette Olsen, Emil Stang, Jr. and Olav Scheflo
left the party in 1928, as they were disappointed with how NKP reacted towards the first DNA government, Hornsrud's Cabinet.
In 1927 the Mot Dag
-group, a circle of leftwing intellectuals, joined the party. They would leave the following year, as NKP took an 'ultra-left turn'.
Another type of defections from the party were members who left for different reasons and at some point became Fascists. This group includes Eugène Olaussen, Sverre Krogh
and Elias Volan
.
between Germany
and the Soviet Union
. The DNA government on the other hand aligned with the United Kingdom
. During the Finnish Winter War, NKP supported the Soviet war effort, whereas DNA supported the opposing side. DNA-NKP relations reached a historic low.
Germany invaded Norway on 9 April 1940. The NKP publication Arbeideren proclaimed that the war was an imperialist
war, and that Germany and the Western powers were equally responsible for its outbreak. According to that analysis the party should not take sides for one of the imperialist powers, a policy that was in clear opposition of the (now exiled) DNA government.
However, locally NKP cells in northern Norway began (without the consent of the party leadership) to mobilize resistance activities.
In August 1940, NKP was the first Norwegian political party to be banned by the German occupation authorities. The publication of Arbeideren ceased. The party then went underground. However, the party was poorly prepared for underground functioning.
In the ongoing confusion within the party, Furutbotn began to call for more active resistance by NKP against the occupation. Furubotn had spent several years in Moscow, but had returned to Norway just before the war. Now he was the leader of the party in Vestlandet
. On 31 December 1941, the party held a clandestine national conference, which adopted Furubotn's 'active war politics'.
NKP came to play a leading role in the resistance movement, organizing sabotage and guerrilla activities. However even though different sectors of the resistance showed a united front towards the occupants, the relation between NKP on one hand and the Home Front
, the government-in-exile and the clandestine trade union movement were not always smooth as government, only proponed peaceful resistance, like newspapers and intelligence support towards the allies, until the last years of the war, when these elements of recistance were to join actively. Generally NKP wanted to adopt more offensive tactics against the occupants. Still it also created an illegal newspaper "Friheten", or "Liberty", which is still in print.
in northern Norway, also contributed to the popularity of the party.
In the national unity government formed after the war, two communists were inducted (Johan Strand Johansen and Kirsten Hansteen). Hansteen was the first female minister of Norway. The party organ Friheten would reach an edition of about a 100 000 directly after the war. In the new postwar atmosphere of tolerance, discussions were raised over a possible reunification between DNA and NKP. During the war, discussions had taken place in the Grini concentration camp between captured DNA and NKP leaders (including Einar Gerhardsen
from DNA and Jørgen Vogt from NKP). However, these plans were discarded by Furubotn.
In the 1945 parliamentary election the NKP vote-share reached its historical peak. NKP got 176 535 votes (11.89%) and eleven seats in the Storting. In 1946 Furubotn was elected general secretary of NKP.
began, and the Norwegian government aligned itself with the Western powers. In the 1949 parliamentary election NKP had lost many voters. The party got 102 722 votes (5.83%).
The reason for the party's decline in popularity is often accredited to Labour Party
Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen
's famous speech at Kråkerøy
in 1948, four days after the communist takeover in Czechoslovakia
. In it, he condemned the actions in Czechoslovakia, but he also warned that the same thing could happen in Norway if the Communist Party was given too much power. The speech represented the start of an open and hidden campaign against the party and its members, with the purpose of scaring away voters, and reducing its influence in the labour movement.
On 24 October 1949, the MP Johan Strand Johansen publicly declared that a division existed within the party in a speech to the local party unit in Malerne. The following day Furubotn’s followers resigned from their positions in the party. On 26 October Furubotn and his followers in the party were expelled. The editorial of Friheten on 27 October proclaimed that "It has emerged clearly that this anti-party centre is a Trotskyist, bourgeois nationalist and Titoist centre, which has paralysed the central board with endless and futile discussions."
This process contributed to the ongoing political isolation of NKP. The expulsion of Furubotn, considered as a hero of the resistance struggle, is in many ways a political suicide. And the way the expulsions had taken place and the strong language used in the NKP press against the expellees, contributed to giving an image of NKP as a 'conspirational' party.
, although it now and then took independent positions opposing the Soviet line. This happened in 1968, when NKP condemned the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia
. The youth league, Young Communist League of Norway
(NKU), used to follow a somewhat more independent line than the party.
In the mid 1960s the U.S. State Department estimated the party membership to be approximately 4500 (0.2% of the working age population of the country).
In the parliamentary elections of 1973, the party participated in an electoral alliance with the Socialist People's Party
and other left-wing groups, known as the Socialist Electoral League, and had its leader, Reidar Larsen elected into parliament. In 1975, the Socialist Electoral League became the Socialist Left Party
, which is today Norway's largest left-wing party to the left of the Norwegian Labour Party
. The Communist Party took part in the process of transforming the electoral league to a new party, but in the end decided to remain a separate party after all. At the party congress in 1975 113 delegates voted to keep the party as an independent party, whereas 30 had voted for merging it into SV. Larsen did not stand for re-election, and Martin Gunnar Knutsen was elected as the new party chairman. After the congress Larsen and others left NKP to join the Socialist Left Party.
After Mikhail Gorbachev
gained power in the Soviet Union and started his reform program, NKP - as most other European Communist parties
started revising its views of past Soviet policies. The party started distancing itself from the practises of the Soviet Union, and focused on a "softer" communism. The term "democratic socialism
" is frequently found in party literature from the early 1990s onward.
they joined forces with Workers' Communist Party
(AKP), Red Electoral Alliance
(RV) and independent socialist to form Fylkeslistene for miljø og solidaritet (County lists for Environment and Solidarity). NKP also had joint lists with RV some places in the early 1990s, while at other places members of NKP campaigned for RV. This policy of unity was, however, abandoned around the mid-1990s.
A defining moment in this process came when the party opposed the Soviet coup attempt of 1991
against Gorbachev by the "old guard" of the Soviet communist party.
Today, the party's statement of principles explicitly acknowledges that the Soviet Union represented a violation of democratic principles and that the party acknowledge that it too have to take responsibility for its lack of criticism of these problems. The party does however still view these countries as examples of socialism and progress over the respective countries preceding regimes.
Even though NKP did survive the collapse of the Soviet Union, inner turmoil and particularly lack of recruitment amongst youth has since marginalized the party further.
In the early 1990s the party attempted to counteract some of this by electing younger leaders to the party's top positions. However this move failed to boost recruiting much, and subsequently is again dominated by older members who joined during the Soviet era.
and one in Vadsø
. The Åsnes branch, by far the party's strongest at that time, did, however, leave the party in 2004 to form Radical Socialists
due to disagreements over the questions of religion, Joseph Stalin
and cooperation with other leftist groups. In addition, an NKP-member was a member of the Porsgrunn
municipal council, elected on the RV-list until he joined RV. In later elections NKP has received about 1,000 votes. In the 2005 parliamentary election
, it won 1,070 votes - 0.04% of the national total. In 2007, they could not find enough candidates for a list in Vadsø, and do thus currently not have any democratically elected representatives.
In 2006-2008 NKP's youth league was changed from the old Young Communist League of Norway
to the new Young Communist League in Norway. The new league changed its name in 2008 to the Youth Communists in Norway
The party still publishes a weekly paper called Friheten
("The Freedom") which was started as a clandestine paper in 1941.
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
without parliamentary representation. It was formed in 1923, following a split in the Norwegian Labour Party
Norwegian Labour Party
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....
. The party played an important role in the resistance to German occupation during the Second World War, and experienced a brief period of political popularity after the war. However, after the onset of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
its influence steadily declined. Since the mid-1970s the party has played a marginal role in Norwegian politics. They are against the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
and other organizations the party view as neoliberal
Neoliberalism
Neoliberalism is a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that emphasizes the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the...
.
Foundation of NKP
The Norwegian Labour PartyNorwegian Labour Party
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....
(DNA) under the leadership of Martin Tranmæl
Martin Tranmæl
Martin Olsen Tranmæl was a radical Norwegian socialist leader.-Biography:Martin Tranmæl grew up in a middle-sized farm in Melhus, in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. He started working as a painter and construction worker. In the early 20th century, Tranmæl lived for a while in the USA where he came...
had joined the Communist International at the time of its formation. However, DNA was by no means ready to evolve into a Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
party on the lines that the International required. Moreover, Tranmæl was strictly opposed to ComIntern involvement in internal DNA affairs. At a national conference held in November 1923 the DNA decided to leave the International.
During that conference the pro-ComIntern elements gathered to constitute a new party, the Communist Party of Norway. The new party was founded on 4 November 1923. The founders of NKP came mainly from the youth league of DNA, with leaders such as Peter Furubotn, Eugène Olaussen
Eugène Olaussen
Ansgar Eugène Olaussen was a Norwegian newspaper editor, educated as a typographer, and politician. As a politician he started in Norges Socialdemokratiske Ungdomsforbund, and notably edited Klassekampen from 1911 to 1921...
and Arvid G. Hansen
Arvid G. Hansen
Arvid Gilbert Hansen was a Norwegian newspaper editor and politician for the Labour and Communist parties.-Early life and Labour Party career:...
. The majority of the youth league followed them in joining NKP.
Sverre Støstad was elected chairman, Halvard Olsen vice-chairman and Peder Furubotn
Peder Furubotn
Peder Furubotn was a Norwegian cabinetmaker, politician for the Communist Party and resistance member during World War II.-Early and personal life:...
general secretary of the party. Jeanette Olsen
Jeanette Olsen
Jeanette Martine Olsen was a Norwegian editor and politician for the Labour and Communist parties.She was born in Kristiania. Her first political position was as leader of the local women's branch in Skien Labour Party from 1907 to 1912. From 1911 to 1913 she was a national board member of the...
was secretary of women's affairs. On 5 November the first issue of the party publication Norges Kommunistblad
Norges Kommunistblad
Norges Kommunistblad was a daily newspaper published in Oslo, Norway.It was started on 5 November 1923 as the official party newspaper from the Communist Party, which was established that year after a split from the Labour Party. The first editor was Olav Scheflo...
was published, with Olav Scheflo
Olav Scheflo
Olav Scheflo was a Norwegian Communist politician and journalist.Olav Scheflo was a member of the Norwegian Labour Party from 1905...
as its editor.
13 of the DNA members of the Parliament of Norway joined NKP, as did large parts of the trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
opposition of DNA.
Press
The party won control of eleven of the Labour Party newspapers. These were (some with new names after the communist takeover): ArbeidetArbeidet
Arbeidet was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Bergen in Hordaland county.Arbeidet was started in Bergen as a socialist newspaper on 6 December 1893, by a grouping called . It was the first socialist daily newspaper in Norway...
, Ny Tid
Ny Tid (Trondheim)
Ny Tid was a Norwegian newspaper established in 1899 by the typographers Joh. Halseth and Alf Scheflo at the same time as they established their own printing office in Trondheim. The publishers meant to create a worker's newspaper, not a socialist paper...
, Arbeideren
Arbeideren (Hamar)
Arbeideren was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Hamar, Hedmark county. It was started in 1909 as the press organ of the Labour Party in Hedemarken and its adjoining regions, and was called Demokraten until 1923...
, Vestfold Arbeiderblad
Vestfold Arbeiderblad
Vestfold Arbeiderblad was a daily newspaper published in Tønsberg, Norway.It was established in 1909 under the name Vestfold Arbeiderblad. Politically it belonged to the Norwegian Labour Party, but in 1924 it was usurped by the newly established Communist Party...
, Glomdalens Arbeiderblad
Glomdalens Arbeiderblad
Glomdalens Arbeiderblad was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Kongsvinger in Hedmark county. It was named Glommendalen from 1885 to 1915 and Glommendalens Social-Demokrat from 1915 to 1923....
, Bratsberg-Demokraten
Bratsberg-Demokraten
Bratsberg-Demokraten was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Skien in Telemark county. From 1924 to 1929 it was named Telemark Kommunistblad....
, Fritt Folk
Fritt Folk (Communist)
Fritt Folk was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Høyanger in Sogn og Fjordane county.It was started as Sogns Social-Demokrat in 1919, as the first Labour Party newspaper in Sogn og Fjordane. It was published in Lærdalsøyri, and Erik Nordberg was the editor-in-chief. In 1920 Kr...
, Follo Arbeiderblad
Follo Arbeiderblad
Follo Arbeiderblad was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Ski in Akershus county.Follo Arbeiderblad was from 1923 as the Communist Party organ in the region Follo. It was issued twice a week. From January 1924 it got a new name, Akershus Folkeblad, tried to cover Akershus and was published three...
, Gudbrandsdalens Arbeiderblad
Gudbrandsdalens Arbeiderblad
Gudbrandsdalens Arbeiderblad was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Lillehammer in Hedmark county. From 1919 to 1923 it was named Gudbrandsdalens Social-Demokrat....
, Hardanger Arbeiderblad
Hardanger Arbeiderblad
Hardanger Arbeiderblad was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Odda in Hordaland county.Hardanger Arbeiderblad was started in 1919 as Hardanger Social-Demokrat. Its name was changed in 1923, the same year as a faction of the Labour Party left social democracy to form the Communist Party of Norway....
and Ny Dag
Ny Dag (Norwegian newspaper)
Ny Dag was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Gjøvik in Oppland county.Ny Dag was started in June 1913 as a Labour Party newspaper. It had no editor-in-chief right from the start, but an editorial committee. Eivind Reiersen was the editor from 1916 to 1919...
. The communist party also usurped Møre Arbeiderblad
Møre Arbeiderblad
Møre Arbeiderblad was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Ålesund in Møre og Romsdal county.Møre Arbeiderblad was started on 13 September 1923 as a newspaper with an unofficial affiliation with the Labour Party. Before the affiliation was made formal, the Communist Party broke away from Labour and...
, which had not yet achieved official Labour Party status. Nordlys
Nordlys
Nordlys is a Norwegian newspaper published in Tromsø, covering the region of Troms, and the largest newspaper in Northern Norway. Chief editor is Anders Opdahl. Nordlys was founded in 1902 by Alfred Eriksen, who also was its first editor-in-chief. Among the later editors are Ivan Kristoffersen, who...
was acquired, temporarily lost in mid-November 1923, then published as communist again until 20 January 1924 when it again became aligned with Labour. Some newspapers, such as Østerdalens Arbeiderblad
Østerdalens Arbeiderblad
Østerdalens Arbeiderblad was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Elverum in Hedmark county. It was named Østerdalens Social-Demokrat from 1915 to 1919 and Hedmark Fylkes Arbeiderblad from 1923 to 1925.-Pre-history:...
had sympathized with the communist opposition while it was a part of the Labour Party, but after the actual split the Labour Party managed to turn the tide and retain them. The Communist Party also took over the ideological publication Klassekampen
Klassekampen (1909–1940)
Klassekampen was a Norwegian newspaper. It was established in 1909 as an organ for the youth movement of the Norwegian Labour Party, Norges socialdemokratiske ungdomsforbund. Its editor-in-chief from 1911 to 1921 was Eugène Olaussen.At the Labour-Communist party split in 1923, the newspaper was...
(belonged to the Young Communist League of Norway) and started Gnisten
Gnisten
Gnisten was a Norwegian periodical published by the Communist Party.Gnisten was started in March 1925 after a lengthy fund-raising campaign. It was started by women in the Communist Party who were not satisfied with the coverage of women's affairs in the Communist Party newspapers, such as Norges...
and Proletaren
Proletaren
Proletaren was a Norwegian periodical published by the Communist Party.Proletaren was started in September 1923 during the fraction in-fighting in the Labour Party which resulted in the breakaway of the Communist Party. Its purpose was to deliver ideological articles to party members. The first...
. Newly established communist newspapers within the party's first year of existence were the main organ Norges Kommunistblad
Norges Kommunistblad
Norges Kommunistblad was a daily newspaper published in Oslo, Norway.It was started on 5 November 1923 as the official party newspaper from the Communist Party, which was established that year after a split from the Labour Party. The first editor was Olav Scheflo...
as well as Akershus Folkeblad, Buskerud-Arbeideren
Buskerud-Arbeideren
Buskerud-Arbeideren was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Buskerud county.Buskerud-Arbeideren was started on 5 December 1923 as the Communist Party organ in the county. It was published daily. However, the party struggled economically and the newspaper went defunct after its last issue on 13...
, Friheten
Friheten (Nordland)
Friheten was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Nordland county.Friheten was started on 6 December 1923 as the Communist Party organ in the county. It was published weekly; from 1925 twice a week. However, the party struggled economically and the newspaper went defunct after its last issue on 6...
, Troms Fylkes Kommunistblad
Troms Fylkes Kommunistblad
Troms Fylkes Kommunistblad was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Tromsø in Troms county.Troms Fylkes Kommunistblad was started in a complicated situation. It belonged to the Communist Party which broke away from the Labour Party in 1923, but the Communist Party originally managed to usurp the...
, Dagens Nyheter
Dagens Nyheter (Norwegian newspaper)
Dagens Nyheter was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Harstad in Troms county.Dagens Nyheter was started on 20 March 1924 as the Communist Party organ in the county—Troms Fylkes Kommunistblad had capsized a month earlier. Dagens Nyheter was first published twice a week, but this was cut to once...
and Finnmark Fremtid
Finnmark Fremtid
Finnmark Fremtid was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Vardø in Finnmark county.Finnmark Fremtid was started in January 1924 as the Communist Party organ in the county...
. Many became defunct after a short time.
The Communist Party also had a range of company newspapers, for laborers in specific companies or specific industries. In Oslo there were Arbeidersken, Brygger'n, Den unge arbeider, Hammer'n, Huken, Kommunarden, Nødsarbeideren (renamed Steinspruten), Skyttelen, Sporvekselen and Stemplet. In Bergen there were Byggeren, Hermetikboksen, Kommuneproletaren and Transportproletaren (renamed Havnearbeideren). In Trondheim there were Filkloa and Signal. Einhart Lorenz
Einhart Lorenz
Einhart Lorenz is a German / Norwegian historian, a professor at the University of Oslo. Among his publications are his thesis from 1978, in , in from 1989, and in from 1991.-References:...
has also registered seventeen other company newspapers from across the country. Nearly all were founded in 1925 or 1926, and nearly all went defunct between 1925 and 1928. The only exception as to foundation was Verksteds-Arbeideren, founded in Drammen in 1924, and the only newspaper which survived beyond 1928 was Kommuneproletaren, which existed until 1931.
Early years
The political fortunes of the new party dwindled. It could not challenge DNA over its hegemony over the Norwegian labour movement. In the 1924 parliamentary electionNorwegian parliamentary election, 1924
-Results:-References:*...
the party got 59,401 votes (6.1%) and won six seats. In 1927
Norwegian parliamentary election, 1927
-Results:-References:*...
it got 40,074 votes (4.02%) and three seats (it briefly tried a unification strategy through Arbeiderklassens Samlingsparti
Arbeiderklassens Samlingsparti
Arbeiderklassens Samlingsparti was a short-lived political party in Norway.-Establishment:It was a part of the tendency of unification among the workers' parties in Norway. From the Norwegian Labour Party, two splits had occurred: the Social Democratic Labour Party in 1921 and the Communist Party...
). In 1930
Norwegian parliamentary election, 1930
-Results:*...
NKP lost its parliamentary representation, when it got 20,351 votes (1.7%). By 1936 it could only muster 4 376 votes (0.3%). In that election the party did, however, only contest in some districts.
Parallel to its decreasing electoral influence, the party was ravaged by internal strifes. Halvard Olsen and other trade union leaders left the party in 1924, in protest over the trade union policy of NKP. Sverre Støstad, Fredrik Monsen and Olav Larssen
Olav Larssen
Olav Larssen was a Norwegian newspaper editor.He was a typographer by education. He edited the Labour Party newspapers Demokraten in Hamar from 1920 to 1927, and Hamar Arbeiderblad from 1927 to 1935. In 1935 he was hired as a journalist in Arbeiderbladet...
were excluded from the party in 1927 because of disagreements surrounding the reunification of DNA (which merged with the Social Democratic Labour Party of Norway
Social Democratic Labour Party of Norway
The Social Democratic Labour Party of Norway was a Norwegian political party in the 1920s. Following the Labour Party's entry into the Comintern in 1919, its right wing left the party to form the Social Democratic Labour Party in 1921...
). Jeanette Olsen, Emil Stang, Jr. and Olav Scheflo
Olav Scheflo
Olav Scheflo was a Norwegian Communist politician and journalist.Olav Scheflo was a member of the Norwegian Labour Party from 1905...
left the party in 1928, as they were disappointed with how NKP reacted towards the first DNA government, Hornsrud's Cabinet.
In 1927 the Mot Dag
Mot Dag
Mot Dag was a Norwegian periodical and a communist organization with the same name.It was established in 1921 under the initiative of Erling Falk, partly with origins in the debate forum in the Social Democratic student government in Oslo ; partly from a Falk-led study circle which from 1919...
-group, a circle of leftwing intellectuals, joined the party. They would leave the following year, as NKP took an 'ultra-left turn'.
Another type of defections from the party were members who left for different reasons and at some point became Fascists. This group includes Eugène Olaussen, Sverre Krogh
Sverre Krogh (Nazi)
Sverre Krogh was a Norwegian actuary, newspaper editor and politician for the Labour and Communist Labour parties. He later became a Nazi, working for Norwegian and German Nazis during the Second World War.-Early life and labour movement:...
and Elias Volan
Elias Volan
Elias Karelius Johansen Volan was a Norwegian trade unionist.He was born in Inderøy as a son of crofter Johan Berent Johannessen Volvollan and Lise Eliasdatter Kjærbo. He attended Sund Folk High School from 1903 to 1904, but spent the rest of his youth as a worker. In 1908 he became chairman of...
.
Second World War
At the onset of the Second World War, NKP subscribed to the Molotov-Ribbentrop PactMolotov-Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, named after the Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov and the German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, was an agreement officially titled the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union and signed in Moscow in the late hours of 23 August 1939...
between Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. The DNA government on the other hand aligned with the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. During the Finnish Winter War, NKP supported the Soviet war effort, whereas DNA supported the opposing side. DNA-NKP relations reached a historic low.
Germany invaded Norway on 9 April 1940. The NKP publication Arbeideren proclaimed that the war was an imperialist
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
war, and that Germany and the Western powers were equally responsible for its outbreak. According to that analysis the party should not take sides for one of the imperialist powers, a policy that was in clear opposition of the (now exiled) DNA government.
However, locally NKP cells in northern Norway began (without the consent of the party leadership) to mobilize resistance activities.
In August 1940, NKP was the first Norwegian political party to be banned by the German occupation authorities. The publication of Arbeideren ceased. The party then went underground. However, the party was poorly prepared for underground functioning.
In the ongoing confusion within the party, Furutbotn began to call for more active resistance by NKP against the occupation. Furubotn had spent several years in Moscow, but had returned to Norway just before the war. Now he was the leader of the party in Vestlandet
Vestlandet
Western Norway is the region along the Atlantic coast of southern Norway. It consists of the counties Rogaland, Hordaland, Sogn og Fjordane, and Møre og Romsdal and the region has a population of approximately 1.3 million people. The largest city is Bergen, second largest is Stavanger...
. On 31 December 1941, the party held a clandestine national conference, which adopted Furubotn's 'active war politics'.
NKP came to play a leading role in the resistance movement, organizing sabotage and guerrilla activities. However even though different sectors of the resistance showed a united front towards the occupants, the relation between NKP on one hand and the Home Front
Home front
Home front is the informal term commonly used to describe the civilian populace of the nation at war as an active support system of their military....
, the government-in-exile and the clandestine trade union movement were not always smooth as government, only proponed peaceful resistance, like newspapers and intelligence support towards the allies, until the last years of the war, when these elements of recistance were to join actively. Generally NKP wanted to adopt more offensive tactics against the occupants. Still it also created an illegal newspaper "Friheten", or "Liberty", which is still in print.
Postwar resurgence
After the war, NKP enjoyed a strong boost of popularity for its role in resistance struggle. The role the Soviet Union had played in defeating Germany, and in particular the Soviet liberation of FinnmarkFinnmark
or Finnmárku is a county in the extreme northeast of Norway. By land it borders Troms county to the west, Finland to the south and Russia to the east, and by water, the Norwegian Sea to the northwest, and the Barents Sea to the north and northeast.The county was formerly known as Finmarkens...
in northern Norway, also contributed to the popularity of the party.
In the national unity government formed after the war, two communists were inducted (Johan Strand Johansen and Kirsten Hansteen). Hansteen was the first female minister of Norway. The party organ Friheten would reach an edition of about a 100 000 directly after the war. In the new postwar atmosphere of tolerance, discussions were raised over a possible reunification between DNA and NKP. During the war, discussions had taken place in the Grini concentration camp between captured DNA and NKP leaders (including Einar Gerhardsen
Einar Gerhardsen
was a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party of Norway. He was Prime Minister for three periods, 1945–1951, 1955–1963 and 1963–1965. With 17 years in office, he is the longest serving Prime Minister in Norway since the introduction of parliamentarism...
from DNA and Jørgen Vogt from NKP). However, these plans were discarded by Furubotn.
In the 1945 parliamentary election the NKP vote-share reached its historical peak. NKP got 176 535 votes (11.89%) and eleven seats in the Storting. In 1946 Furubotn was elected general secretary of NKP.
Onset of the Cold War
However, the growth of the party proved to be brief. The Cold WarCold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
began, and the Norwegian government aligned itself with the Western powers. In the 1949 parliamentary election NKP had lost many voters. The party got 102 722 votes (5.83%).
The reason for the party's decline in popularity is often accredited to Labour Party
Norwegian Labour Party
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....
Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen
Einar Gerhardsen
was a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party of Norway. He was Prime Minister for three periods, 1945–1951, 1955–1963 and 1963–1965. With 17 years in office, he is the longest serving Prime Minister in Norway since the introduction of parliamentarism...
's famous speech at Kråkerøy
Kråkerøy
Kråkerøy is an island and a former municipality in Østfold county, Norway.The island of Kråkerøy was separated from Glemmen as a municipality of its own January 1, 1908. At that time Kråkerøy had a population of 3,311. The rural municipality was merged with the city of Fredrikstad January 1, 1994...
in 1948, four days after the communist takeover in Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. In it, he condemned the actions in Czechoslovakia, but he also warned that the same thing could happen in Norway if the Communist Party was given too much power. The speech represented the start of an open and hidden campaign against the party and its members, with the purpose of scaring away voters, and reducing its influence in the labour movement.
Great Purge
At the same time the party would experience its most traumatic internal division. In 1946 some of Furubotn’s closest associates during the war, Kjell G. Kviberg and Ørnulf Egge, had been expelled. In 1949 Furubotn's enemies within the party began a campaign to expel him.On 24 October 1949, the MP Johan Strand Johansen publicly declared that a division existed within the party in a speech to the local party unit in Malerne. The following day Furubotn’s followers resigned from their positions in the party. On 26 October Furubotn and his followers in the party were expelled. The editorial of Friheten on 27 October proclaimed that "It has emerged clearly that this anti-party centre is a Trotskyist, bourgeois nationalist and Titoist centre, which has paralysed the central board with endless and futile discussions."
This process contributed to the ongoing political isolation of NKP. The expulsion of Furubotn, considered as a hero of the resistance struggle, is in many ways a political suicide. And the way the expulsions had taken place and the strong language used in the NKP press against the expellees, contributed to giving an image of NKP as a 'conspirational' party.
Cold War years
The NKP was always considered to be a very loyal follower of the Communist Party of the Soviet UnionCommunist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
, although it now and then took independent positions opposing the Soviet line. This happened in 1968, when NKP condemned the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...
. The youth league, Young Communist League of Norway
Young Communist League of Norway
Young Communist League of Norway was until April 2006 the youth league of Norges Kommunistiske Parti . April 1st 2006 NKP declared that NKU was no longer its youth organization, and that all youths interested in joining the movement should contact the party directly...
(NKU), used to follow a somewhat more independent line than the party.
In the mid 1960s the U.S. State Department estimated the party membership to be approximately 4500 (0.2% of the working age population of the country).
In the parliamentary elections of 1973, the party participated in an electoral alliance with the Socialist People's Party
Socialist People's Party (Norway)
Socialist People's Party was a splinter group of the Norwegian Labour Party . SF was principally dissatisfied with the pro-NATO/European Economic Community external policies of DNA. A group centered around the magazine Orientering had been expelled from DNA...
and other left-wing groups, known as the Socialist Electoral League, and had its leader, Reidar Larsen elected into parliament. In 1975, the Socialist Electoral League became the Socialist Left Party
Socialist Left Party (Norway)
The Socialist Left Party or SV, is a Norwegian left-wing political party. At one point one of the smallest parties in Parliament, it became the fourth-largest political party in Norway for the first time in the 2001 parliamentary election, and has been so ever since...
, which is today Norway's largest left-wing party to the left of the Norwegian Labour Party
Norwegian Labour Party
The Labour Party is a social-democratic political party in Norway. It is the senior partner in the current Norwegian government as part of the Red-Green Coalition, and its leader, Jens Stoltenberg, is the current Prime Minister of Norway....
. The Communist Party took part in the process of transforming the electoral league to a new party, but in the end decided to remain a separate party after all. At the party congress in 1975 113 delegates voted to keep the party as an independent party, whereas 30 had voted for merging it into SV. Larsen did not stand for re-election, and Martin Gunnar Knutsen was elected as the new party chairman. After the congress Larsen and others left NKP to join the Socialist Left Party.
After Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
gained power in the Soviet Union and started his reform program, NKP - as most other European Communist parties
Eurocommunism
Eurocommunism was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties to develop a theory and practice of social transformation that was more relevant in a Western European democracy and less aligned to the influence or control of the Communist Party of the Soviet...
started revising its views of past Soviet policies. The party started distancing itself from the practises of the Soviet Union, and focused on a "softer" communism. The term "democratic socialism
Democratic socialism
Democratic socialism is a description used by various socialist movements and organizations to emphasize the democratic character of their political orientation...
" is frequently found in party literature from the early 1990s onward.
After the fall of the Socialist Bloc
Around 1990 there were also tendencies within NKP working for regroupment. In the 1989 parliamentary electionNorwegian parliamentary election, 1989
A general election to the Storting, the parliament of Norway, was held on 11 September 1989.-Results:1 This list was a cooperation between the Norwegian Communist Party, Workers' Communist Party, Red Electoral Alliance and independent socialists....
they joined forces with Workers' Communist Party
Workers' Communist Party (Norway)
The Workers' Communist Party was a Norwegian communist party . AKP was a maoist party and one of two communist parties in Norway; the other was the older Communist Party of Norway which has remained pro-Soviet. The relationship between the two parties was characterized by strong hostility.AKP was...
(AKP), Red Electoral Alliance
Red Electoral Alliance
Red Electoral Alliance was an alliance of left-wing groups formed into a Norwegian political party to promote revolutionary far-left ideals into the Norwegian parliament...
(RV) and independent socialist to form Fylkeslistene for miljø og solidaritet (County lists for Environment and Solidarity). NKP also had joint lists with RV some places in the early 1990s, while at other places members of NKP campaigned for RV. This policy of unity was, however, abandoned around the mid-1990s.
A defining moment in this process came when the party opposed the Soviet coup attempt of 1991
Soviet coup attempt of 1991
The 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt , also known as the August Putsch or August Coup , was an attempt by a group of members of the Soviet Union's government to take control of the country from Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev...
against Gorbachev by the "old guard" of the Soviet communist party.
Today, the party's statement of principles explicitly acknowledges that the Soviet Union represented a violation of democratic principles and that the party acknowledge that it too have to take responsibility for its lack of criticism of these problems. The party does however still view these countries as examples of socialism and progress over the respective countries preceding regimes.
Even though NKP did survive the collapse of the Soviet Union, inner turmoil and particularly lack of recruitment amongst youth has since marginalized the party further.
In the early 1990s the party attempted to counteract some of this by electing younger leaders to the party's top positions. However this move failed to boost recruiting much, and subsequently is again dominated by older members who joined during the Soviet era.
Current situation
NKP won three elected posts in the 2003 municipal election, two seats in the municipal council in ÅsnesÅsnes
Åsnes is a municipality in Hedmark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Solør. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Flisa, which is also the largest town in the municipality with around 2,100 people.-Name:...
and one in Vadsø
Vadsø
is a city and municipality in Finnmark county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality and the county of Finnmark....
. The Åsnes branch, by far the party's strongest at that time, did, however, leave the party in 2004 to form Radical Socialists
Radical Socialists
Radical Socialists is a political party in Åsnes, Norway. RS was formed when the Åsnes local unit of Communist Party of Norway broke away on December 15, 2004. RS was constituted two months later.RS holds two seats in the municipal council of Åsnes....
due to disagreements over the questions of religion, Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and cooperation with other leftist groups. In addition, an NKP-member was a member of the Porsgrunn
Porsgrunn
is a town and municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Grenland. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Porsgrunn....
municipal council, elected on the RV-list until he joined RV. In later elections NKP has received about 1,000 votes. In the 2005 parliamentary election
Norwegian parliamentary election, 2005
Parliamentary elections were held in Norway on 12 September 2005. More than 3.4 million Norwegians were eligible for vote for the Storting, the parliament of Norway. The new Storting has 169 members, an increase of four over the 2001 election....
, it won 1,070 votes - 0.04% of the national total. In 2007, they could not find enough candidates for a list in Vadsø, and do thus currently not have any democratically elected representatives.
In 2006-2008 NKP's youth league was changed from the old Young Communist League of Norway
Young Communist League of Norway
Young Communist League of Norway was until April 2006 the youth league of Norges Kommunistiske Parti . April 1st 2006 NKP declared that NKU was no longer its youth organization, and that all youths interested in joining the movement should contact the party directly...
to the new Young Communist League in Norway. The new league changed its name in 2008 to the Youth Communists in Norway
The party still publishes a weekly paper called Friheten
Friheten
Friheten is a biweekly newspaper, published by the Norwegian Communist Party .It was founded illegally in 1941, during the German occupation of Norway due to World War II. After the liberation in 1945, it emerged as the official party newspaper....
("The Freedom") which was started as a clandestine paper in 1941.