The debate post expresses the writer’s opinions.
The surprise was great for many when Rødt in NRK’s Debatten posed with a central board member who, in the middle of Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine, could tell that it is actually NATO that is the great danger to peace. This can at best be called an alternative view of reality.
It is not particularly surprising, however. There are not many election campaigns since the feminist party Red compared the Taliban to Max Manus. Nevertheless, since Bjørnar Moxnes’ entry into the Storting in 2017, the Norwegian press has created a narrative that they have now cleaned up.
Also read: Only nuclear weapons can make SV and Rødt’s defense policy credible
The old AKPs who dreamed of revolution, and eagerly supported any dictator as long as he came up with some anti-American vocabulary, had disappeared from the party. Red had become a kind of impatient SV who really only wanted Gerhardsen back, we should think.
The only problem is that they never were.
See the statement that makes Asheim look red:
The politics we do not usually see
I think no one is particularly intimidated by either Moxnes, Marhaug or the whole of Norway’s Friday communist; Mímir Kristjánsson. They appear to be (and are) nice people. But after Russia’s war of aggression, the part of Red we do not usually see in the press has been allowed to unfold in full public.
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In the party’s NATO debate, they seem more concerned with creating a broad circle of studies that can problematize 25-year-old NATO actions. As if it is more relevant to discuss than that Ukrainian civilians are executed with neck shots by Russian occupiers here and now. They are for a Nordic defense alliance, but vote against Finland and Sweden in NATO.
It all helps to cement an image of a self-proclaimed anti-imperialist party that is only concerned with imperialism that can be pinned on the United States and Israel. Otherwise, it’s spout-and-run.
Will abolish capitalism
The vast majority (including the majority of Rødt’s voters, I suspect) agree that the party’s NATO stance appears unrealistic. On the other hand, it has emerged less that the party also has what I would call “alternative” views on a number of issues in Norwegian society.
The most obvious is the view of society as a whole. The party wants to abolish capitalism. This is not “back to Gerhardsen”. Abolishing capitalism is a fundamental breach of the whole foundation on which the welfare state is built. The point is that in order to be able to afford generous welfare schemes, one needs income. They are best obtained through an open but regulated market economy.
Also read: Alliances and soup
But when Rødt talks about abolishing capitalism, they mean, among other things, an end to property rights. Mímir Kristjánsson himself has sat in Dagsnytt 18 on NRK and said that there is no problem with “the merchant on the corner”. The problem is groups like Norgesgruppen.
What is the solution then? Yes, that the state dissolves and takes over the group. In other words, in Rødt’s ideal world, all Kiwi employees work for the state.
Believing it will make Norway a better place is what I would call a very alternative view of reality.
Think people are tortured at work
The same applies to the view of private owners and employers in general. In Norway, we thrive at work. As many as 90 percent of employees think they are fine at work. At the same time, the number of accidents and other serious incidents in the workplace has been steadily declining.
Norway scores well on almost all parameters that measure how we feel at work. Nevertheless, we can read from Rødt’s program of principles that “In Norway, the capitalist class has become increasingly aggressive in the class struggle.” That people say they thrive at work is probably just nonsense, because the study circle in Rødt has come to the conclusion that no one at work in Norway is particularly well. We are tormented by our employers and dream of freedom.
Employers, for their part, are most concerned with making the most of those under them. Again, a very alternative view of reality.
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Should be confronted
Red is not just a slightly more left-wing party than the Labor Party and the Socialist People’s Party. Red is a party that has a fundamentally different view of society and the world around us.
Even though their spokespersons are no longer 68 years old, this is the policy that both Moxnes, Marhaug and Kristjánsson have been chosen to fight for.
The NATO debate has brought this to light, but the party should also be confronted with its alternative views on issues such as working life, welfare, school, health.
In general, all matters that have nothing to do with NATO.
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