Pål Steigan
Pål Steigan | |
|---|---|
 Pål Steigan lecturing at Parkteateret at a seminar about author Tron Øgrim in 2007 | |
| Leader of the Workers' Communist Party | |
| In office 1975–1984 | |
| Preceded by | Sigurd Allern |
| Succeeded by | Kjersti Ericsson |
| Leader of the Red Electoral Alliance | |
| In office 1975–1979 | |
| Preceded by | Sigurd Allern |
| Succeeded by | Hilde Haugsgjerd |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 31 May 1949 Oslo, Norway |
| Nationality | Norwegian |
| Political party | Red Party |
| Other political affiliations | Workers' Communist Party Red Electoral Alliance |
| Residence | Oslo, Norway |
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 Communism Portal |
Pål Steigan (born 31 May 1949 in Oslo) is a Norwegian communist and former leader of the Maoist Workers' Communist Party, AKP (m-l), from 1975 to 1984, and jointly leader of the Red Electoral Alliance (RV) until 1979.[1][2] He is a writer and editor.
Workers Communist Party, AKP (m-l)[]
During his leadership of AKP (m-l), Steigan traveled to countries under communist regimes, such as China, Czechoslovakia, Albania and Cambodia (Democratic Kampuchea).[1] He met Mao Zedong, Enver Hoxha and Pol Pot.[3]
After meeting the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot in 1978, he began to support the regime,[4] later admitting his support for the genocidal Khmer Rouge was a mistake explaining that he now believed it was not Marxist.[5] He has continued to be criticised for bearing a personal responsibility for his political support to the regime.[4]
In 1978, he told an interviewer from The Call, the newspaper of the American Communist Party (Marxist–Leninist), that since the foundation of the party five years earlier "we have been waging a struggle against two brands of revisionism" in Norway, "the Brezhnevist, Moscow revisionist type party, which is the old so-called Norwegian Communist Party, and a newer Eurorevisionist party."[6] According to Steigan in the same interview: "[I]t’s obvious that the Soviet social-imperialists are planning to take Norway in the initial stages of a war over Europe."[7]
He is a critic of capitalism, writing that it "has inflicted so many defeats upon the working class and people all over the world that it’s hard to give an account of them."[8]
Books[]
Steigan's memoirs En folkefiende (A public enemy) were published in 2013.[3]
Steigan, Pål, Veiskille: finnes det noen vei ut av miljøkrisa? Oktober Forlag, Oslo, 1990, 244 s.
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Pål Steigan", Store norske leksikon, 29.12.2012
- ^ Arbeidernes Kommunistparti in Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian)
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Pål Steigan: - Vi dro det for langt", Aftenposten, 17.09.2003
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Det unnvikende oppgjøret", Dagbladet, 17 July 2003
- ^ "Pål Steigan slår tilbake mot folkemord-anklager", Dagbladet, 17 July 2003
- ^ "Interview with Norway's Pal Steigan". The Call. marxists.org. 26 June 1978. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
- ^ The Call (marxists.org), 3 July 1978
- ^ Steigan, Pål (February 27, 2017). "Lessons from an oblivious enemy". Steigan.no. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
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