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 | Oslo, Norway | 31 May 1949
Other political affiliations |
Workers' Communist Party Red Electoral Alliance |
Residence(s) | Oslo, Norway |
Part of a series on |
Nordic M-L Movement |
---|
![]() |
Organisations |
Denmark:
KAP |
Personalities |
Nils Holmberg |
Ideologies |
Maoism |
![]() |
Pål Steigan (born 31 May 1949) is a Norwegian writer and politician, best known as founder of the newspaper Klassekampen and the website Steigan.no. He was leader of the Maoist Workers' Communist Party, AKP (m-l) from 1975 to 1984, and co-leader of the Red Electoral Alliance (RV) until 1979. [1] [2] Both parties were small fringe parties that were never represented in parliament during his tenure. He co-founded Klassekampen as a monthly periodical in 1969, and during his leadership AKP developed the periodical into a newspaper in 1977. He later founded the alternative news website Steigan.no that is described by mainstream Norwegian media as a platform of Russian propaganda, conspiracy theories, racism and transphobia. [3] [4] [5]
He co-founded Klassekampen as a monthly periodical in 1969, and during his leadership AKP (m-l) developed the periodical into a newspaper in 1977.
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. [6]
After meeting the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot in 1978, he began to support the regime, [7] later admitting his support for the genocidal Khmer Rouge was a mistake explaining that he now believed it was not Marxist. [8] He has continued to be criticised for bearing a personal responsibility for his political support to the regime. [7]
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." [9] 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." [10]
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." [11]
Steigan founded the self-proclaimed " anti-globalist" alternative news site Steigan.no that has been widely criticized for promoting Russian propaganda, conspiracy theories, racism and transphobia. [4] [5] The website has been described by extremism researcher John Færseth as a platform of conspiracy theories and pro- Kremlin disinformation and propaganda, [3] [12] and as an example of " red–brown convergence" with links to the alt-right. [13]
According to the fact checking website Faktisk.no, Steigan is part of an alternative and far-right echo chamber that also includes Document.no, Rights.no, Resett and Lykten.no, and where individuals linked to Stop Islamisation of Norway play a prominent role. [14] In 2022 Faktisk.no wrote that Steigan is the main promoter of Russian propaganda among alternative media in Norway. [15] [16] [17]
The secretary-general of the left-wing Red party Benedikte Pryneid Hansen said the leadership of the party shares the view that Steigan is a platform of "onesided Russian war propaganda, conspiracy theories, racism and transphobia", [5] and that the blog is increasingly characterized by "extreme conspiracy theories." [18] Anne-Marith Rasmussen, the president of Red in Troms and chair of the party’s LGBT committee, said Steigan is a "blog that promotes racism, homophobia and transphobia" as well as Russian propaganda, and that is a threat to democracy. [19]
Steigan was denied membership in the Norwegian Association of Newspaper Editors (Norsk Redaktørforening), with the rationale that Steigan.no is not a journalistic medium, but rather an activist website that disregards accepted journalistic principles. [20]
Some of the blog's writers include prominent Norwegian anti-semite [21] Hans Olav Brendberg and Swedish anti-transgender activist Kajsa Ekis Ekman. [22]
Steigan's memoirs En folkefiende (A public enemy) were published in 2013. [6]
Steigan, Pål, Veiskille: finnes det noen vei ut av miljøkrisa? Oktober Forlag, Oslo, 1990, 244 s.
Faktisk.no skrev i mars i år at steigan.no skiller seg ut som den aktøren som sprer klart mest russisk propaganda blant norske alternative medier.[Faktisk.no wrote in March this year that steigan.no stands out as the outlet that is by far the largest promoter of Russian propaganda among Norwegian alternative media.]
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 | Oslo, Norway | 31 May 1949
Other political affiliations |
Workers' Communist Party Red Electoral Alliance |
Residence(s) | Oslo, Norway |
Part of a series on |
Nordic M-L Movement |
---|
![]() |
Organisations |
Denmark:
KAP |
Personalities |
Nils Holmberg |
Ideologies |
Maoism |
![]() |
Pål Steigan (born 31 May 1949) is a Norwegian writer and politician, best known as founder of the newspaper Klassekampen and the website Steigan.no. He was leader of the Maoist Workers' Communist Party, AKP (m-l) from 1975 to 1984, and co-leader of the Red Electoral Alliance (RV) until 1979. [1] [2] Both parties were small fringe parties that were never represented in parliament during his tenure. He co-founded Klassekampen as a monthly periodical in 1969, and during his leadership AKP developed the periodical into a newspaper in 1977. He later founded the alternative news website Steigan.no that is described by mainstream Norwegian media as a platform of Russian propaganda, conspiracy theories, racism and transphobia. [3] [4] [5]
He co-founded Klassekampen as a monthly periodical in 1969, and during his leadership AKP (m-l) developed the periodical into a newspaper in 1977.
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. [6]
After meeting the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot in 1978, he began to support the regime, [7] later admitting his support for the genocidal Khmer Rouge was a mistake explaining that he now believed it was not Marxist. [8] He has continued to be criticised for bearing a personal responsibility for his political support to the regime. [7]
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." [9] 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." [10]
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." [11]
Steigan founded the self-proclaimed " anti-globalist" alternative news site Steigan.no that has been widely criticized for promoting Russian propaganda, conspiracy theories, racism and transphobia. [4] [5] The website has been described by extremism researcher John Færseth as a platform of conspiracy theories and pro- Kremlin disinformation and propaganda, [3] [12] and as an example of " red–brown convergence" with links to the alt-right. [13]
According to the fact checking website Faktisk.no, Steigan is part of an alternative and far-right echo chamber that also includes Document.no, Rights.no, Resett and Lykten.no, and where individuals linked to Stop Islamisation of Norway play a prominent role. [14] In 2022 Faktisk.no wrote that Steigan is the main promoter of Russian propaganda among alternative media in Norway. [15] [16] [17]
The secretary-general of the left-wing Red party Benedikte Pryneid Hansen said the leadership of the party shares the view that Steigan is a platform of "onesided Russian war propaganda, conspiracy theories, racism and transphobia", [5] and that the blog is increasingly characterized by "extreme conspiracy theories." [18] Anne-Marith Rasmussen, the president of Red in Troms and chair of the party’s LGBT committee, said Steigan is a "blog that promotes racism, homophobia and transphobia" as well as Russian propaganda, and that is a threat to democracy. [19]
Steigan was denied membership in the Norwegian Association of Newspaper Editors (Norsk Redaktørforening), with the rationale that Steigan.no is not a journalistic medium, but rather an activist website that disregards accepted journalistic principles. [20]
Some of the blog's writers include prominent Norwegian anti-semite [21] Hans Olav Brendberg and Swedish anti-transgender activist Kajsa Ekis Ekman. [22]
Steigan's memoirs En folkefiende (A public enemy) were published in 2013. [6]
Steigan, Pål, Veiskille: finnes det noen vei ut av miljøkrisa? Oktober Forlag, Oslo, 1990, 244 s.
Faktisk.no skrev i mars i år at steigan.no skiller seg ut som den aktøren som sprer klart mest russisk propaganda blant norske alternative medier.[Faktisk.no wrote in March this year that steigan.no stands out as the outlet that is by far the largest promoter of Russian propaganda among Norwegian alternative media.]