Serve the People (Norway)

Serve the People – Communist League (Norwegian: Tjen Folket – Kommunistisk Forbund) is a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Norwegian political organization formed in 1998 by members expelled from the Workers' Communist Party.[1] Its main aim is to create a new communist party in Norway based on Marxism–Leninism–Maoism. Their youth wing is the Revolutionary Communist Youth, which was created after a split from Red Youth, the youth wing of Red, who they deem as revisionist.

Serve the People – Communist League
Founded1998 (1998)
Youth wingRKU
IdeologyCommunism
Marxism–Leninism–Maoism
Anti-revisionism
Revolutionary socialism
Party flag
Website
tjen-folket.no
Members at the 2013 May Day parade in Trondheim, Norway.
A tag that says "It is right to rebel".

The organization supports People's War and claims that this is the only means by which socialism and communism can be established. They are open to the use of violence as a means to protect the proletariat against reprisals from the bourgeoisie.[2] It regards Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong and Chairman Gonzalo as the six leading communists who developed Maoism.[3]

History

Serve the People – A Marxist–Leninist Group was established in 1998 as a splinter group from AKP. It is claimed that the cause of the split was rightism within AKP's leadership.[4]

Several members of AKP and its youth organization, Revolutionary Communist Youth (RKU) were consequentially expelled from AKP, Red Electoral Alliance (RV), Red, and/or Red Youth.[5]

Henrik Ormåsen, the spokesperson for Serve the People, was expelled from AKP and Red Youth in 1997 and from Red in 2008 when he claimed that Joseph Stalin was a great theoretician. According to Red leader Torstein Dahle, Ormåsen has "harmed the party and brought into question what the party stood for."[5]

Serve the People launched an ideological campaign with the task of starting a new communist party after the collapse of AKP and changed their subtitle from "A Marxist-Leninist Group" to "Communist League" in 2009.[6][7]

Political theory

Serve the People bases its political theory on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and claims that contemporary Marxism has been developed through three stages. The original stage of Marxism was developed by Marx and Engels in the 19th century. The second stage is Leninism as developed by Lenin and Stalin. The third stage is Maoism, "the most advanced form of revolutionary theory today", according to the organization's program.[8]

According to Serve the People, Marxism distinguishes itself from other forms of socialism (e.g. utopian socialism) by building on scientific theories regarding the development of human society, and the claim that through praxis, humans can influence this societal development:

Marxism is our science to make the world a better place. We need Marxism to understand how capitalism works and how to abolish it.[2]

On their website, Tjen Folket summarizes its "Marxism-Leninism" with three fundamental principles governing the communist party:

  • Well-organized and disciplined.
  • Open only for people who are willing to study communism, remain active in the party, and develop themselves to become good leaders for the struggles they must lead.
  • Based on democratic centralism, such that all members participate in developing the party's politics, but that the minority accepts the decisions made by the majority and work for them.[2]

The organization also claims that Maoism is not only "Marxism for China", but offers "many teachings for international communists."[2]

Other central sources of inspiration that the league refers to in its theoretical and political foundation besides AKP and the "five classics" are the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, the Communist Party of Peru, the Communist Party of India (Maoist), the Communist Party of the Philippines, the Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist, among others.[9][10][11]

Campaigns

Election boycott

Serve the People has called for a boycott of each local and parliamentary election held in Norway since 2009, including the parliamentary elections in 2009, 2013, and 2017, as well as local elections in 2011 and 2015.[12]

They offer three main reasons for boycotting the election:

  • People should opt for rebellion and socialism, and that the road to socialism is revolution, not elections.
  • The candidate parties are complicit in contemporary Norwegian imperialism and war-mongering.
  • Regardless of the outcome of the election, the important questions will be decided according to the interests of the bourgeoisie.[13]

Anti-revisionism

Serve the People has criticized several communist organizations in Norway, claiming that they are revisionists. The most notable example is their youth group's split from Red Youth. They have also criticized Hoxhaist tendencies within Marxist-Leninist Group Revolution (Norwegian: ML-Gruppa Revolusjon) and Communist Platform (Norwegian: Kommunistisk plattform, KP) for their reformist positions, and characterize their reformism and revisionism as a logical consequence of their anti-Maoism.[14][15]

Proletarian feminism

Serve the People has summarized their position on the women's liberation movement as follows:

As long as the class system has existed, women have been especially oppressed. We support women’s rights against discrimination, against low wages based on gender and against the sexualization of women through media. We can only be fully liberated when we create a communist society, however women’s liberation does not happen by itself. Women must organize together and fight for liberation both today under capitalism and under socialism. It is therefore that we want a society where the socio-economic differences between both genders are abolished.[2]

The organization has participated in annual March 8 demonstrations, typically under the slogan of anti-imperialism and women's liberation through socialist revolution.[16]

They have also published criticism of liberal feminism and radical feminism, claiming that the former simply reinforces a class system that perpetuates the oppression of women and that the latter fails to recognize the primary contradiction in a class system and therefore does not address the core of the problem. In their stead, the organization offers proletarian feminism as a line for women's liberation. This divergence has manifested itself most prominently as a disagreement with other feminist movements on the question of prostitution, which Serve the People rejects as an oppressive practice.[17]

Controversy

The organization has been criticized on several occasions for being Stalinists and left-extremists,[18][19] which the organization has denied. In response to allegations of extremism levied by Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Tjen Folket wrote in an August 2017 editorial that "Violence can oppress, but it can also smash oppression and it can liberate", and that "If violence is extreme, then Valen and Solberg are the real extremists".[20]

Relation to other groups on the left

Serve the People's former spokesperson Henrik Ormåsen was a member of the Red Electoral Alliance (later Red Party for several years. In 2008, he was expelled due to the Serve the People's criticisms of the Red Party.[21] Ormåsen claims that the allegations were incorrect and that the decision to exclude him were wrong.[22] In June 2008, 12 others were expelled from Red Youth, also on the basis of their alleged association with Serve the People.[23] Later, other members of Serve the People would be excluded or freely withdraw from the Red Party.

After Communist Platform (KPml) was established in 2007, a polemic arose between the organizations. Serve the People claimed that KPml had never intended to work with Serve the People. The polemic ended shortly thereafter in what Serve the People described as a "public attack against Serve the People" by KPml.[24] A cooperation between Serve the People and Communist Group in Bergen (Norwegian: Kommunistisk gruppe i Bergen, KGB) ended a year later as a result of a difference of opinion regarding political platforms, including their positions on Stalin as a leader.[25]

Serve the People and SOS Racism

In 2010, several media outlets reported that many leaders and employees in the anti-racist organization SOS Racisme were associated with Serve the People.[26][27] Some outlets alleged that public funding allocated to SOS was being used for Serve the People's activities.[28] This has been denied by both Serve the People and SOS.[29]

All three persons registered as leaders of Serve the People in the Entity Registry as per 2017 were in the central leadership of SOS Racism: Henrik Ormåsen as the working committee's deputy between 2008 and 2010, Kjell Gunnar Larsen as the chief treasurer, and Bjarne Stokke as a national leadership member.[30]

Internal struggles

In 2011, former Serve the People member Nora Warholm claimed that Serve the People abused SOS Racism in order to advance their own interests. Another former central member in Serve the People, Bård Frantzen, harassed Warholm with sexist slurs and encouraged her to commit suicide.[31] Serve the People has since publicly apologized for the incident and excluded Frantzen from the organization.[32]

In 2012, a former spokesperson and member of Serve the People and RKU, Kim Kopperud published a harsh criticism of the organization with another former member. It outlined a lack of membership democracy, and Kopperud resigned from the organization in protest the same year.[33]

In October 2012, four former members of Serve the People, SOS, and the associated organization Indiasolidaritet reportedly engaged in a fist fight with members of Serve the People in a meeting room in the Oslo Public Library.[34][35] There are conflicting reports as to who started the fight.[36]

In Spring 2018, Serve the People published an article where they apologized for having provided a platform for dangerous persons.[37] In August 2018 the organization announced a continued rectification campaign and published an article outlining a "pervasive and thorough" rectification campaign, partially regarding methods of leadership and partially regarding their political-ideological line.[38]

Media

Serve the People has several media platforms for disseminating political news ranging from the organization's political line to Norwegian and global current events, including an official website, a YouTube channel, a Facebook page, and a Soundcloud page. The organization also has a podcast series entitled Ekkokammeret.

References
  1. Astrid Meland (24 April 2008): Stalin var en stor teoretiker (in Norwegian) Dagbladet, retrieved 6 July 2013
  2. "What are our opinions?". Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  3. Ragnar Røed (September 26, 2019). "Hvorfor maoisme - hva er maoisme?" [Why Maoism - What is Maoism?] (in Norwegian). Retrieved August 2, 2018.
  4. "Tjen folket starta opp som en konsekvens av at AKP degenererte politisk, sklei til høyre, og slutta å være et kommunistparti". Til Kamp (in Norwegian) (1). 2008. p. 6. From an interview with Henrik Ormåsen
  5. "Og der var han ekskludert". Dagbladet.no (in Norwegian). 2008-04-24. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  6. "Nytt parti" [New Party]. Oppland Arbeiderblad (in Norwegian). March 31, 2009.
  7. "Fra TF -em-lg til TF - kf" [From TF-em-lg to TF-kf]. Dagens Næringsliv (in Norwegian). March 31, 2009.
  8. "Program for Tjen folket" (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  9. "MLM-teori fra norge" [MLM Theory from Norway] (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on July 13, 2018. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
  10. "Lenge leve marxismen-leninismen-maoismen!" [Long Live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!]. Archived from the original on July 13, 2018. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
  11. "Solidarity with Indian Comrades". Archived from the original on July 13, 2018. Retrieved December 14, 2018.
  12. "Boikott valget" [Boycott the Elections] (in Norwegian). Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  13. "Why boycott the election?". Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  14. "MLM mot hoxhaistenes dogmatisme og opportunisme" [MLM Against the Hoxhaist's Dogmatism and Opportunism] (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 2018-09-22. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  15. "KPml hyller reformismen" [KPml Praises Reformism] (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 2018-09-22. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  16. "Rød Blokk" [Red Block] (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 2018-09-22. Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  17. "Class Position Against Prostitution". Retrieved 2018-04-07.
  18. Snorre Valen (2014-08-04). "Stokk reaksjonært, menneskefiendtlig tullprat".
  19. Hans Petter Sjøli (2008-05-29). "Søppel og skrot" (in Norwegian). Klassekampen.
  20. Henrik Ormåsen (2017-08-29). "Tjen folket: det er Snorre Valen og Erna Solberg som er ekstremistene".
  21. Vedtak i Rødts landsstyre 29. mai 2008; Retrieved 25. May 2010. Vedtaket er anket inn for Rødts landsmøte, og vil bli behandlet der ultimo mai 2010.
  22. Tjen folket om eksklusjonen Archived 2018-10-06 at the Wayback Machine, Dated 29. May 2008; Retrieved 25. May 2010.
  23. «Tjen Folket ekskludert fra Rød Ungdom», Dated 19. June 2008; Retrieved 25. May 2010.
  24. «KPml bryter sammen foran øynene våre» Archived 2013-10-21 at the Wayback Machine Serve the People's website, Dated 6. November 2007; Retrieved 29. January 2013.
  25. «Mot opportunisme og kritisisme» Archived 2013-10-21 at the Wayback Machine Serve the People's website, Dated 1. April 2009; Retrieved 29. January 2013.
  26. «Dekknavn: «Joe»», Dagbladet 12. May 2010; Retrieved 25. May 2010.
  27. Tjen folkets «Smørbukk» - Klassekampen 12. May 2010
  28. «Ber SOS Rasisme ta regninga», Dagbladet 12. May 2010; Retrieved 22. May 2010.
  29. «Svar på angrepene mot oss» Archived 2014-02-22 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved 25. May 2010.
  30. "SOS Rasisme: Landsstyret i SOS Rasisme 2008 – 2010". Archived from the original on 2008-06-20. Retrieved 2018-10-05.
  31. - Grov hets av 16-åring - Haugesunds Avis
  32. Nora (16) ble oppfordret til å begå selvmord og kalt hore etter oppgjør med Tjen Folket - Dagbladet
  33. - Nå har jeg fått nok av SOS Rasisme og Tjen Folket - Dagbladet
  34. "Hurdal-dagbøkene" (in Norwegian). Dagbladet. October 21, 2012.
  35. Masseslagsmål etter politisk møte - NRK
  36. -To menn holdt ham nede, mens tredje tok fart og sparket i ansiket - Dagbladet
  37. "Overgripere må isoleres" (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on July 13, 2018. Retrieved July 13, 2018.
  38. "Om pågående oppgjør med en høyrelinje i Tjen Folket" (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on September 22, 2018. Retrieved September 22, 2018.
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