Building a World Party of Socialists
A New Fighting Socialist Organization
(The following interview by Peter Lindgren is from the February 25 issue of Internationalen, the weekly paper of the Socialist Party, Swedish section of the Fourth International. The translation is by IV.)
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When the leadership voted to dissolve the organization and walk out of the hall, it left behind about 40 percent of the delegates to the conference of the Sosialistisk Ungdom (Socialist Youth, an affiliate of the Norwegian Socialist Left Party, a left Social Democrat formation with a strong Eurocommunist wing).
These 40 percent, who supported the left, came mainly from the big branches of the Sosialistisk Ungdom in Oslo, Trondheim, and Bergen.
This split in the youth organization of the Sosialistisk in Norway
Venstreparti occurred in mid-November. After that the left opposition formed the Workers Power Group (Arbeidermaktgruppa).
That was the way the development was described by Helge Ryvik, Torgrim Aartun, and Rune Soma, representatives of the new group. They talked with Internationalen during the convention of the Socialist Party, Swedish section of the Fourth International. Torgrim and Rune are sympathizers of the Fourth International.
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Helge. Over the last two years, the Sosialistisk Ungdom (SU) made a clear right turn. sure. It wanted an obedient opposition that formed the Arbeidermaktgruppa (AMG) had been active in the SU for two years. It was composed of two elements. One now forms the majority of the AMG, the other element were the Trotskyists grouped around the publication Internasionalen, who had been working inside the SU for a year and a half.
Torgrim. It was the Sosialistisk Venstreparti (SV) that provoked the split. The left was gaining influence steadily. The SU's old national leadership shared many of the criticisms raised by the left. It agreed that the SV was more and more neglecting trade-union work.
These leaders also agreed that the SV was a reformist party inclined to parliamentarism. But when they were forced to act, they chose to line up behind the party and to dissolve the organization. A day later, by unanimous vote, they set up a new SU.
Rune. The new SU is only a shell. In particular, all those
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with experience in trade-union work or youth work left the SU. It was the left that did the practical work--Polish solidarity work, Ungmob (a united front on youth issues), and trade-union work.
One of the main reasons for the split was in trade-union work. In contrast to the SV, we gave a clear priority to trade-union work. The AMG has begun modestly from the forces we have, first of all by supporting those working in industry and also by discussing how to achieve the preconditions for stable
Along with this, we are working together with many other ing what we call the Trade-Union Forum (Fagligt Forum), that is a discussion group for trade unionists. In this framework, we will discuss the various experiences of union work in the Oslo contacts throughout the country we are also publishing the Union Bulletin. Its purpose is to coordinate thinking on the main questions in trade-union work and try to analyze the situation in the class struggle.
We can say now that we have begun the first stage in building the new organization.
Helge. The SU left started very early to do support work for Solidarnosc in Poland. I and other comrades went to Poland during the big strikes in August 1980. We were strongly inspired by the workers' struggles in the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk. When we came back, we realized that the actions in Poland were an important example for workers
Quite early in the process, were able to build a trade-union solidarity committee with Solidarnosc, working together with the Maoists of the Communist Workers Party, Marxist-Leninist (AKPml). This group, for waged a campaign for "One Hour's Wages for Poland." Some unions joined the committee and many union delegations went to Poland and developed union-to-union contacts.
In the beginning, perhaps, the solidarity movement was not so big. It included ten, twenty, or thirty union locals.
As in other countries, we saw a strong upsurge in solidarity work after the coup in Poland. But already before the coup a lot had been done. The solidarity movement had sent 150 printing presses to Poland.
12 years, on the night of May 1, un to three or four thousand youth have gathered in the center of
They have done this to demonstrate opposition to police brutality, but also to protest the lack of jobs and housing.
After the first of May last year, many young people got heavy fines on charges of rioting. But many youth who were just standing on the sidewalks and watching were also clubbed down.
So, the SU in Oslo took the initiative to form the Ungdomsgruppa mot Botesterror (Ungmob, Youth Group Against Terror by
The group's objective was to collect money to pay the fines and to engage lawyers.
Before the elections in September, Ungmob organized a rock concert called "Rock Against the Election Hysteria. " About a thousand youth came. sentative of Ungmob took the microphone and called on all those who were interested in occupying a building to come to a rally.
About a hundred youth came to
There was a small group there that knew what building to occupy. building on Skippergatan that had fifty rooms. Quite a large The youth demanded a youth authorities knew that there was going to be an occupa-
But they did not know So, they positioned plainclothes cops in front of all the unused buildings. ties did not dare do anything. That would have only led to a new uprising of the youth. After
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we took the city building, we could negotiate directly with the authorities. The city officials refused first both to come to the building for discussions and to discuss in front of loud speakers. But we stood our ground and they gave in. So, we negotiated in our own building and all the occupiers could listen to the discussions.
We got strong support from the people in Oslo. Parents brought food and clothing. We got a refrigerator, a freezer, furniture, dishes and cooking utensils, all sorts of things. Many unions issued statements of support.
Many of the occupiers were astonished that the workers supported us. They did not expect that.
But we also had problems. Many homeless people squatted in the building.
These were more or less bourgeois individualists. They refused to accept the decisions of the general assembly, which they called the "dictatorship of the majority over individuals.". In only a week, we could see signs of breakdown.
Less and less people came to the general assemblies. They were held less and less often. By the beginning of November, very few people were coming to the building. A month before, youth were coming from all over the city. "Junk" (hashish) also started coming in.
But the occupation was successful. The Police did not dare to storm the building. The youth of Oslo got a center and we still have it.
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