Dear Comrade Magnus,
First, thank you for joining in on the discussion on this theme. First, in
terms of Norway, let me say that I am in sympathy with the group Revolusjon,
though I know little about their practical activity. I have seen there
excellent article criticizing social democracy, which I have on my web-site
"Marxist-Leninist Translations and Reprints," at
http://www.geocities.com/acero.rm (I have not been able to update it
recently because of some problems connectiong - apparently due to the
takeover of geocities by yahoo).
My main comments are that first, for those of us outside of Norway (and
outside of Scandinavia), it is difficult to follow the list of parties and
abbreviations. But more importantly, I would be interested in knowing what
kind of relations and of the parties considering themselves ML have with the
working class movement, and for those that do have some relationship (even
small), and information you can give about how they developed this
relationship.
I would just add one other point on the role of the Trotskyites. Someone
mentioned in this discussion that the Trots pop up everywhere. I would agree
that that has been the experience in the US also, but with the addition that
they have very little influence, and are attracted mose as flies to honey,
with nothing to contribute. At their worst, they act to turn workers off to
Marxism in general by their antics; at best, they are irrelevant.
Fraternally,
George
----- Original Message -----
From: Magnus Bernhardsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, April 23, 2001 5:30 PM
Subject: [MLL]ML movement in Norway
> Jim, George, Charles, Per and others...
>
> I've been away from this list for a while, but I checked in from time to
> time, and decided to rejoin..
>
> I'll contribute first by fleshing out some of Per's points in regard to
> Norway.
>
> >Dear Comrade!
>
> >Just first fast answer - I will be back...
>
> >1. Strong working class and unions - Just going down for the last 10-20
> >years...
>
> This is in a way a doubleedged sword... the socialdemocrats have been VERY
> strong in Norway (and Sweden and Denmark, too).
>
> >2. Strong tradition in united in the working class.
>
> This is even more correct in Norway than Denmark. The major splits in the
> communist/socialist Parties have been:
>
> 192? Rightwing split form Labour Party (DNA) (Which was in the Comintern!)
> 1923 Norwegian Communist Party (NKP) established, split from Labour Party,
> retained many cadre and newspapers etc.
> 1949 Party crisis in NKP, many expulsions - significantly no new party
est.
> 1961 Socialist Peoples' Party (SF) est. Split from Labour Party.
> 1960's Marxist-leninist opposition in NKP leads to expulsions, creation of
> internal/external group Marxist-Leninist Front (MLF)
> 1968 The youth league of the SF, the SUF changes name to SUF (m-l), and is
> expelled from SF. This is very significant: in Swe and Den the ML-movement
> came out of the CP's, not so in Norway. SUF (m-l) establishes The
> Marxist-Leninist Groups (MLG) with the MLF. The MLF cadre split out/were
> expelled and made another group called Communist' Workers' League (KAF).
> KAF has more contact with KFML (r) (later KPML (R)).
> 1971 Socialist People's Party and NKP work towards a united left party,
> Socialist Left Party (SV).
> 1973 MLG establishes Workers' Communist Party (ML), AKP (m-l). SF and NKP
> stand together in elections. AKP (m-l) sets up election alliance Red
> Election Alliance.
> 1975 NKP breaks with SV.
>
> Well, since then KAF has turned in to a one-man crew, with a one-sheet
> publication on IWD and May Day. The group Revolution came out of the
> mergers and splits of the Hoxhaists, and also contain some elements who
> left the AKP / Red Youth around Sino-Albania split.
>
> In the early eighties some people sympathising with SWP (UK) were expelled
> from the SV youth org. They formed Workers' Power Groups (AMG). These
later
> split into International Socialists (Cliffites) and AMG proper. AMG joined
> the Red Election Alliance after it became a membership organisation in the
> nineties.
>
> In 1990 the AKP (m-l) went through a crisis and ditched the (m-l)+++ This
> led to a split in the leadership of the youth wing, Red Youth (RU), where
> the MAJORITY(!!!) of the leadership nationally and in the two largest
> regions left. They formed two new groups, Revolutionary Assosiation (RF)
in
> Bergen and (m-l) in Oslo and Akershus. They began publishing a paper with
> the Revolution group, but they soon broke ranks. The (m-l) group is now
> defunct, and some members have rejoined the AKP. The RF has joined with a
> split from the IS, the Socialist Working Groups (SAG) and the AMG to form
> the Association for the International, which is a part of FI.
>
> Ther is a minor split from the AKP, the Serve the people group (Tjen
> Folket). They adhere to the 1976 program of AKP.
>
> The main point of this is that although there have been some splits, the
> unity on the left in Norway has been exceptional compared to Sweden and
> Denmark, and more so o the UK/Germany/France etcetera.
>
> >3. More kids form the working class in higher schools...
> >4. The nationalism is not so strong = hateful...
>
> I don't know what Per means by this.
>
> >5. Self-criticism
> >6. In Scandinavia Comintern was strong.
>
> Yes, the Labour party was one of the largest sections, both relatively and
> absolute, in the Comintern.
>
> >7. It was mainly working-class kids who went from anti-imperialism to the
> >"new" ml-movement in the 70th.
> >8. The "last stupid split" between the China and Albania was not so
> hateful
> >in Scandinavia as in other countries.
>
> Well, the sino-albanian split wreaked havoc on the inter-nordic unity. EIK
> (m-l) (Iceland), Oyggjaframji (m-l) (Fareo islands) went with Hoxha and
> disintegrated, SKP imploded (more due to extreme right-opportunism), MLG
in
> Finland went quite strange. KAP (Denmark) and AKP stayed close, but KAP
> dwindled fast and dissolved into Enhedslisten in 1990, because of the DKP
> refusing them to join as a party, I believe.
>
> >9. In Denmark, Sweden and Norway we had strong tradition to want to learn
> >form the people.
>
> Well, yes. The "turn to industry" in fact worked quite well in Norway.
> Probably because of point 3 and 7.
>
>
> Magnus Bernhardsen
>
>
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