That is the theme of the just published issue of Kontur Debatt that I spent most of last night to prepare — download it at kontur.tv.
In Norway, just like in Denmark there is one reformist socialist party and one revolutionary socialist party (in addition to the social democratic parties of course). While in Denmark the Red Green Alliance (Enhedslisten) has been sitting in the national parliament for many years, the Norwegian sister party does not seem to have been going anywhere for a long time. Partially this is simply due to different election laws, which favor small, urban parties in Denmark, while they do not in Norway. also the reformist socialist party in Denmark is quite a bit more hopeless than the Norwegian counterpart (for example, the Dansih Socialist People’s Party (SF) was FOR the very neo-liberal and pro-war EU constitution. But another part of it is the general direction the two revolutionary parties have: while the Danish party has left all references to the Soviet Union and Mao’s China, the quasi-Maoist fraction in the Norwegian sister party is still going strong.
Now the Norwegain revolutionary party will have its national convention this weekend, and many have been hopeful that the will be able to remove themselves entirely from the ideological left-overs of Stalinism. Unfortunately, rumors have it that the ex/quasi-Maoist fraction (AKP is officially organized as a party within the party) have managed ot accumulate at least 50 of the 120 delegates for the convention. In this issue of Kontur Debatt we will try to give to those party members who are not affiliated with AKP.
Monthly Archives: May 2006
Marxist anthropology
Antroplogi.info just published an interview in Norwegian, after earlier critisizing me for being “too engaged” in the way I conducted my study of Douglas, AZ. It seems that there were a few things I had to clarify: contrary to popular believe, I do in fact not believe that i hold the one and only key to the truth about what Douglasites should be doing, nor what goals they shoudl strive for. That does not mean that I do not have an opinion or that I believe that all options have equally much going for them. All it means is that I do not set myself apart from the “field” the way some intellectuals tend to do. But I believe the interview makes that pretty clear.
Right now I’m interested in the reactions the proclamation of “Marxist anthropology” as being a sort of study with the goal of undertstanding some local phenomenon better in order to be able to change things on a bigger scale will stir up. I know there are quite a few radicals studying anthropology here in Norway, but as far as I can get, most of those still follow the liberal model of anthropology (the one in which you are not allowed to say that A is better than B nor that you prefer A over B, but you have to tell about A, B and the totally outlandish alternatives C through Z). Let us see if we get a response from one of them.
Guantanamo activists facing court case
Tomorrow morning at 9am the trial against us six activists who walked out onto a major inner Oslo road wearing Guantanamo costumes in connection with the visit of US Secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld’s visit June 7th 2005. That day was the the 100th anniversary of Norway, and we happened to walk out onto Karl Johann’s Street just before the king drove by.
The reason why we were dressed up as Guantanamo prisoners was of course not to protest the king, but to protest the fact that the Norwegian government at the time welcomed invited a person such as Rumsfeld to celebrate the day here in Norway. Also, they had filled the Oslo harbor with war ships from all over the world (including a major hangarship the US) and had lined up soldiers on both sides of Karl Johann’s street the day when Norway celebrated 100 years of independence from Sweden — while the seccession bck then had been exceptionally peaceful.
<%image(20060503-militparade.jpg|379|284|A disturbance for the system? (picture: NRK))%>
What many people do not know is that several of us spent some of the other days on a similar street theatre as we had planned to do on the 7th as well.Up until then, everything had worked out fine. Now we’re facing a potential fine of 10,000NOK (ca 1600USD) + costs of the courtcase.
None of think we’re guilty, as we never really were a danger to the king. But this case is about so much more.The rather hefty fine is probably meant to deter others who might get similar ideas, and therefore I believe it is politically motivated.
See also:
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/iriks/article1055066.ece¦ http://pub.tv2.no/nettavisen/innenriks/article403556.ece ¦ http://www.spisderike.net/artikkel/3088/
We were finally fined 9000kreach for the incident. See the Norwegian article in Klassekampen below