organizations in Norway

[RGacky3]

So considering I've been out of the states for a long time now and that I pretty much live here now, I'm gonna have to let go of the IWW, I hav'nt really looked at any local organizations or movements here, things here are way way different from LA, the motivation for getting involved in the US was really my own interests, i.e. organizing my work place, and then after that I wanted to also get involved with other things like immigrant rights and so on.

Here in Norway you really don't have any serious class problems, for you guys that live here you don't know how good you guys have it, I mean seriously, people here complain about dental not being public, most of the issues of the left don't have to do with national class struggle, it has more to do with the war in afghanistan, immigrant rights and others. I mean comming from the states its a huge difference, labor actually has real power, most of the economy is publically controlled, which also means that the democracy is actually meaningful, hav'nt seen cops harrasing anyone, hav'nt been harrassed by a cop, infact they seam pretty polite, no poverty ... literally NONE. Anyway, I know there are problems here too, its just a shock or someone coming from LA.

Anyway, for any of you familiar, what organizations are there around that I might find interesting? Back in LA most of what I was involved with was labor struggle through the IWW, and immigrant rights struggle.

[Bud Struggle]

Here are the trade union membership numbers by country.

Rank Countries Amount
# 1 Sweden:82%
= 2 Denmark:76%
= 2 Finland:76%
# 4 Norway:57%
# 5 Belgium:53%
# 6 Ireland:45%
# 7 Austria:37%
# 8 Italy:35%
# 9 Canada:30%
# 10 United Kingdom:29%
# 11 Germany:26%
= 12 Australia:25%
= 12 Netherlands:25%
= 14 Switzerland:22%
= 14 New Zealand:22%
= 14 Japan:22%
# 17 United States:13%
# 18 France:9%
Weighted average:38.0%

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/la...ion-membership

It seems like most people that need to be in unions in Norway are already in them.
Isn't the IWW active there?

[Demogorgon]

I don't think those figures are very accurate, French Union membership is certainly higher than 9% for instance. I seem to recall reading it was one of the more unionised countries.

[RGacky3]

Yeah I don't think those figures are accurate at all.

THe IWW is'nt in Norway, the IWW is mostly a north American, British and Australian Union.

[Bud Struggle]

I don't want to derail the thread but you guys are delusional as usual when it comes to union membership. About 9% of the French workers are indeed in the uniuon.

[ComradeMan]

I don't want to derail the thread but you guys are delusional as usual when it comes to union membership. About 9% of the French workers are indeed in the uniuon.

Are there any other sources?

[Bud Struggle]

Are there any other sources?

Glad you asked!

Union members make up under 10 percent of French workers,

http://socialistworker.org/2010/10/1...rs-strike-back


For whereas only 8 percent of workers are trade-unionized in France

http://hnn.us/articles/133223.html

etc.

[RGacky3]

I don't want to derail the thread but you guys are delusional as usual when it comes to union membership. About 9% of the French workers are indeed in the uniuon.

Its not us, its American conventional wisdom that is always thinking france is a socialist workers state.

[Tavarisch_Mike]

Tlking about France, isnt the thing that the workers there will rather go out in a wild cat strike organized by themselves rather then waiting for some beurocrat to give them theire permission?

About Norway, i have some mates working there and they say that the biggest difference between working in Sweden is (exept that they get paid way better) that there is no stress, ofcourse it depends which work you have, but compare to the same profession in Sweden they say that its more chill.

[RGacky3]

I've definately noticed that combared to LA, its HUGE difference in stress level, it makes sense that strong unions and a more democratic economy would end up that way, lots of sweedes have been coming to Norway lately over the years (hows that "liberalization" of the economy going for you sweeden?), because of the pay and work here.

[RGacky3]

No one?

[Robert]

About 9% of the French workers are indeed in the union.

versus ...

French Union membership is certainly higher than 9% for instance. I seem to recall reading it was one of the more unionised countries.

WTF?

[Sentinel]

OP: Shame that you aren't in Sweden, the SAC* would have been your natural choice.

Bud Struggle: are your workers unionised?

* SAC = Central Organisation of Sweden's Workers, a large syndicalist union (at least used to have around 7000 members).

[NoOneIsIllegal]

Try checking out the Norsk Syndikalistisk Forbund (Norwegian Syndicalist League, also goes by NSF-IAA)
The only (quick) information I could gather on them was their wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norsk_S...istisk_Forbund
It lists their address, just in case you happen to live nearby.

I hope this helps you

[Bud Struggle]

Bud Struggle: are your workers unionised?

No, but we go out for beers once or twice a week and they have ample opportunity to ***** at me. I mentioned the IWW to them on a couple of occasions--but it never went beyond a polite "what the fuck are you talking about?"

[Kamerat]

So your looking to join an organization in Norway. Since your an anarchist you have the option between:
-Blitz no politics, likes to play dress up, lifestyleist, basically punks who run a youth center which they got from the municipality after occupying it for 20-30 years.

-Motmakt they/he seems more reasonable, downside is the number of members is about 1-5 people.

-Norsk Syndikalistisk Forbund never heard of them before, probably not active

The anarchist scene in Norway is a sad chapter.

[RGacky3]

-Blitz no politics, likes to play dress up, lifestyleist, basically punks who run a youth center which they got from the municipality after occupying it for 20-30 years.

-Motmakt they/he seems more reasonable, downside is the number of members is about 1-5 people.

-Norsk Syndikalistisk Forbund never heard of them before, probably not active

The anarchist scene in Norway is a sad chapter.

I've noticed that.

[Meridian]

Yes, there is a complete absence of organized anarchism in Norway. Blitz is more of a cultural entity.

The situation in Norway is that a large portion of the working class is more willing to identify with the most reactionary party (FRP) than with the social democratic or socialist parties, and there are several reasons for this. One is that the social democratic parties offer no alternative at all in the context of Norwegian political history.

They are not anarchist, but I think Rødt is perhaps the most interesting party up here.

[RGacky3]

As far as I've noticed the working class in Norway is the middle class in the rest of the damn world :P, there arn't any poor people here, the worst off here are immigrants, but they still do pretty damn good.

As far as I know the labor party still is the dominant party by a pretty large margin, and as far as I know the center left is split between labor and the socialist left party, but I'm far from an expert.

I'm not really interested in political parties, but honestly, I kind of get why there is'nt any radical left here, things are pretty damn good.

[Kamerat]

Things are not pretty damn good. We live in a capitalistic society with social-liberal/centrist party's running the show. Lots of junkies and Romanians/Romani people live on the street. Polish immigrant workers are being payed way belove minimum wage. The government sends Kurds who are fleeing from persecuting back to their homecountry so they can be tortured. And we are still in Afghanistan.

Rødt (Red) is a reformist and social democratic party. Not a party which should interest revolutionary's.

Tjen Folket (Serve the People) is the only revolutionary organisation in Norway.