I came to the library this morning to pick up a book I had requested on the early postwar treason trials in Norway. The library building is housed along with the town’s movie theater, public art exhibition space, a children’s museum and a coffee shop in a well lit glass and steel complex known as the “culture house.” In front of this we have other important mass gathering places such as McDonoalds and an open space covered in cobblestones. Last week this housed a massive book selling frenzy amongst high school students eager to sell textbooks to younger victims.
Today the little open space housed some kind of political fair. While a band, dressed in typical Norwegian sweaters and old-fashioned pilot goggles (?) cracked jokes and sang songs in a mix of dialects that gave them a nice authentic sound of belonging to “the people.”
Surrounding the stage were three booths where political organizers could pass out brochures about their respective party positions in the upcoming September election. The scene struck me as somewhat unusual. I don’t think I have ever seen anything like it in Japan or the US – multiple, quite antagonistic parties gathering in a single public space only a meter or two distance from each-other, all trying to reach the same crowd of passing people and strays listening to the band.
This was an especially interesting scene given the three parties in question: the Christian Democrats (KrF. polling at 5%, might be called a center-right party, currently trailing badly in the polls but in the current coalition government of the “Right” party the “Left” party, and KrF), the Forward Marching Party (polling at 20%, a semi-fascist populist party, but maybe I’m a little harsh), and the Red Alliance (1% which I think is a coalition of the Communists and other hard-core socialist parties).
There was no presence of the three parties who have joined forces to form what might be called the ASS coalition in the morning. These consist of the powerful Labor party (Ap., polling at 35%) which has dominated Norwegian politics in the postwar period, the Socialist Left party (SV) which has made a surprising rise in popularity in the last few years to become mainstream contender with over 15% support, and the Center party (Sp, polling at 5.6%), which traditionally was supported by the agricultural sector. However, the booth battle shifted to the Right party and SV in the afternoon.
My award for the most entertaining election poster so far has to go to a small crowd of Socialist Left youth campaigning in Sandnes last week, who held a banner saying, “Let’s Kick Some Ruling Class ASS”
I’m interested in these changes on the left in Norway. Since the Labor Party has dominated Norwegian politics for so long, it has a “conservative” feel to it, despite the fact that it helped create the welfare state in Norway and if I remember correctly it is out of this party that the Norwegian communists and other socialists split decades ago. In social terms, it stands much farther to the left that the Democrats in the US and must take some credit (along with the incredible boon of the oil business) for creating the health benefits, educational system, child care, and other state structures which have helped Norway become yesterday…again, the United Nation survey’s “best place to live” this year. However, for the Norwegian electorate now on the left Labor is stained by its “big” mainstream feel, the various criticism and controversy from every policy it supported in its decades of rule, and its support for Norwegian NATO membership and US support…
With the Socialist Left party together with Labor though, SV will inevitably become embroiled in the realities of political compromise that it has been able to stay out of, for the most part. For example, they have traditionally been a strong anti-NATO and anti-US force. Indeed, their official party program apparently states that, “The United States is the largest threat to peace in the world today.” The Right party, sensing the threat from SV recently launched a full propaganda war on SV, noting SV’s close connections and support in the past to Communist parties, to the current president of Venezuela, and that (shock!) some six of its “sister parties” in the New European Left movement still have the word Communist in their name. SV has taken a drop to 12% in the last few weeks thanks perhaps partly to red scare tactics, but probably more for being somewhat flaky on the specifics of their policy goals.
According to recent Aftenposten articles for example, SV has been forced by criticism from within and outside the party to make various reconfigurations of their anti-NATO stance with the prospect of them going into a ruling coalition. They are still anti-US, they say, and anti-NATO, but I think they pretty much said that they could play a constructive and critical role from within the institution.
This is of course, how these kinds of compromises start, and indeed the kinds of compromises that Labor started making when it became a mainstream and then the dominant political force in Norwegian politics so long ago. It is fascinating to see it in action – it is the “maturing” (or “decaying” or “betrayal of principles” critics could just as well say) of a political power.
It happens, of course, on the right too, as the right wing Forward Marching Party (FrP) has grown immensely in Norway and suddenly found itself more powerful than the traditional right opposition to Labor, the conveniently name “Right” party (the “Left” party polling at 3.6%, on the other hand is just bizarre and I think they probably don’t change their name only due to historical reasons. I can’t figure out what they are: they are strong pro-environment, pro large-scale public education but on local level, want more cultural funding, pro-immigration, pro-small business, but are “anti-socialist” and want a flat tax?). Since FrP reached about 20% support in the electorate, this once racist and nationalistic party has tried to smooth over its rough edges and now effectively portrays itself as a harmless, rational, and calm mainstream populist opposition on the right. Most parties still smell that rotten fascist fish though and keep their distance from FrP, even though it is now the 2nd largest party. To give them a bit of credit, their party seems to have a greater diversity of types and positions among its politicians, and I have read articles saying that they are trying to stamp out some of the more explicitly racist and illiberal elements within. The Right party is even considering an alliance with them now but to be honest, their barely disguised ethnic nationalism and anti-immigration stances still disgust me.
While SV has not yet seemed to (judging from their brochures, banners, and party program) shed itself of its more radical oppositional politics, I think some time in a ruling coalition together with other moderates will take its toll. Who knows, however, it may lead to a loss of support and legitimacy for a recently popular SV, as with the fall of the Socialist left in Japan. However, there are important structural differences that make any comparison with Japan somewhat complicated (for example, the conservative LDP has dominated postwar politics in Japan while the marginally more conservative Right party has been the main opposition party in Norway for most of the postwar while Labor held power for decades).
During this process, of course, new parties step in to fill the vacuum. I took a brochure today from the Red Alliance (RV), and saw that given SV’s move to the mainstream and their joining forces with Labor, RV are portraying themselves as the new “opposition on the left” («Uten RV på Stortinget – ingen opposisjon fra venstre!») Interestingly, they are targeting SV voters directly in their brochure, saying that, unlike SV, they won’t sell their soul and join forces with a Labor party which, “Supports capitalism,” “Tries to get Norway to join the EU” “Made us join NATO and supports American imperialism” and “Works towards privatization.” This mirrors the kind of efforts I have seen by the Japanese Communist party to cannibalize the remains of the SDP.
RV, who are completely irrelevant in the polls, are portraying themselves as the new authentic voice of anti-NATO and anti-US left politics and just to add some spice, they also want a 6 hour work day?! Interestingly, their local man for the job is a 20 year old student, activist in an anti-racist organization (SOS Rasisme) and lead musician in the rap group, “Criminal Art” (in Norwegian it is the more alliterative Kriminell Kunst). And so radicalism passes on to another generation…
While I’m also a Norwegian citizen, I won’t be voting in the upcoming election here. While I have no respect for political voting rights based on concepts of an ethnic or otherwise unusually restrictive class of nationality, I do feel that we should only have and exercise political rights in those communities where we have some kind of stake in the policies made and the taxes collected and expended. Since I’m living in and paying taxes in Boston for the time being, I won’t be voting in Norwegian elections for now.