Against War in Norway

Gegen Krieg Norway
Speech to the European Conference “European Liaison Committee Against War – Against Social War”
BERLIN – Germany November 2, 2024

First, I would like to say to those of you who were expecting our party leader, Marielle Leraand, that she sends her greetings of solidarity and regrets that she cannot be with you today. And both she and I apologise that we could not find a better replacement.

But I would like to thank you for the opportunity to talk about conditions in Norway.

Norway is a country of contradictions.

While everyone knows Norway has beautiful nature, there is a marked increase in illness attributed to long term environmental degradation. The soil and water used for both agriculture and fish industries have been polluted at such a rate that it can now be measured in serious illnesses in those who eat such previously healthy foods such as wild salmon and trout, not to mention farmed salmon.

High school students across Norway recently protested against school closures. Their protests fell on the deaf ears of the government coalition, the Social Democrats and the Centre Party, formerly the Farmer’s Party. Even the Farmer’s Party now is on board to depopulate the Norwegian countryside.

Healthcare spending is difficult to gauge due to the recent pandemic, but healthcare spending went from a 2016 pre-pandemic high of 10.5% of GDP to 8% in 2022, the most recent year for which such records are available. That is a cut of more than 20%. At the same time, organisations such as the International Monetary Fund have urged Norway to adopt reforms such as cutting sick leave and disability benefits. The government’s current budget adjustments show that they take these suggestions as commands.

A bright future in Norway is guaranteed, however, if you are involved in the so- called “defence” industries.

For 2025, the government proposes to increase the defence budget by nearly 20 billion NOK to 110 billion. That is an increase of more than 20%

On top of this on October 8, the Norwegian government proposed to increase the overall funding for Ukraine from 75 billion crowns to 135 billion. That is an 80% increase and amounts to more than 12 billion dollars. It should be noted, this is a minimum rather than a funding cap.

A week ago on October 24, the Norwegian financial press reported that the weapons manufacturer The Kongsberg Group had record results. The newspaper went on to explain, “The Kongsberg Group is this year’s clear winner on the stock exchange, with an increase of more than 140%.”

It added, “The war in Ukraine has increased demand for Kongsberg Group’s products, and the company’s order backlog is a record NOK 96.9 billion.”

Norway’s transformation into a nation of war can also be seen in the war it wages on its own environment. This same government recently gave dispensation to the explosives manufacturer Chemring Nobel to increase its nitrogen emissions by 400%. The headline in the Norwegian pubcaster NRK said it best: “Defense trumps environment”.

Reality makes clear these contradictions:

It is not enough with one of the world’s longest coastlines, Norway has to engage in the ecological disaster that is fish farming.

It is not enough to drill for oil, Norway has to ensure that much of the oil is used to further the war machine.

It is not enough that Norway has more than enough money to ensure a life of dignity for its citizens, it must ensure that as much money as possible is funnelled into products which, if used properly, will end life on earth.

It is not enough that nearly half of the Norwegian workforce is unionised, the government follows IMF recommendations to weaken the organising power of its own citizens.

It is not enough that Norway has an international reputation as a peaceful nation, it must use this reputation to bolster Nato and put a smiley face on collaboration with the world’s hegemon, the United States.

While other European countries have a similar trajectory no doubt, Norway carries a significant punch not because of the size of its population but the size of its oil fund. There is a wonderful English phrase, “money talks, bullshit walks”. I don’t need to point out that this is a phrase in American English, not the King’s English.

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The oil fund has significant investments in Israeli companies which makes Norway complicit in everything Israel does. And the story is not much different for Ukraine. The recent report of the California based Oakland Institute, War and Theft: The Takeover of Ukraine’s Agricultural Land, showed that the Norwegian oil-fund also owns a not insignificant amount of land in Ukraine. War is a blessing for Norway in this respect, as well.

Norway was once a land of peace, perhaps, but today it does not even bother to uphold the charade. On October 7, which marked the anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel, as well as the 76th year of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the King chose to don a kippa and pay visit to the ultra-zionist synagogue in Oslo, the Mosaiske Trosamfunn. The King has yet to say a word about the genocide in Palestine.

Norway was once a land of peace, perhaps, but today it does not even have a single political party that is anti-zionist, anti-imperialist and anti-Nato. This is – I believe – the most important development in Norway since World War II. It is important because the two parties that recently changed their platform in order to support Nato, now are also pro-zionist and pro-imperialist, by definition.

As everyone knows, Nato does not come with an ala carte menu. The next target for US imperialism was already announced by then President Barack Obama when he proclaimed the “pivot to Asia” – a none too veiled threat to China. China did not have much of a military at that time, but nonetheless posed a major threat to US economic hegemony.

In a furtherance of Obama’s “pivot to Asia”, Nato was brought into this conflict-to-be in 2016. According to Nato’s website, it “has increasingly engaged politically with its partners in the Indo-Pacific region – Australia, Japan, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand… at the level of foreign ministers…, to discuss the shift in the global balance of power and the rise of China.”

More importantly, while China can defend itself, other, more vulnerable peoples are also targets of Nato aggression (or are seen by Nato as “evil doers” who must be vanquished). One such group is the Palestinians.

While Nato does not have a direct policy against Palestinians, Nato has partnered with Israel in its “Mediterranean Dialogue”. According to Nato, the “dialogue” is a “partnership forum that aims to contribute to security and stability in the wider Mediterranean region…”. Israel is a firm member of this “partnership” along with other American vassal states such as Egypt and Jordan.

The world today does not need to be reminded of how Israel defines “security”. This means that, whether they like it or not, whether they are even aware of it or not, the two previous Norwegian anti-Nato parties are now in support of maintaining Israel’s “security”. So, while they may claim that they support Palestine, the action of supporting Nato helps Israel continue its genocide against Palestinians.

I am deputy chairperson in the foundation FOR – fred og rettferdighet (FOR is the acronym for Peace and Justice). We are on our way to become a political party, born out of the frustration of seeing most if not all of Norway’s treasure being diverted to instruments of war. This is being done with support from an ostensibly free citizenry which is, in fact, mentally incarcerated by an education system that limits critical thinking and a corporate press that presents a simple but inverted version of reality.

Faced with this, we at FOR have been active during the past two years doing as much as we can on as many fronts as possible. Our main goal right now is to collect the necessary signatures which will allow us to register the party for the upcoming national elections in the Fall of 2025.

We also take seriously our mission to inform the public of the betrayal of their so called democratically elected leaders.

In addition to having organised a meeting in Oslo with Gegen den Krieg – Gegen den Sozialen Krieg in June of this year where some of you were present, our other educational activities include 2022, 2023 and 2024 conferences on Julian Assange and Freedom of speech, with the participation of i.a. British politician Jeremy Corbyn, Pulitzer prize winning journalist Chris Hedges and actress Liv Ullmann; a conference on “Media in the shadow of war” with participants that included Gaza dr. Mads Gilbert, Professor Jeffrey Sachs, SOAS professor Haim Bresheeth, Dr. Ghada Karmi, Dr. Deepa Govindarayan, former British ambassador Craig Murray, U.S. Col Douglas MacGregor, and our friend professor Glenn Diesen; a two-part seminar with live on-line discussions with exiles from and political prisoners in Kiev-Ukraine; and most recently we have organised a lively conference, “Peace is a four-letter-word” with former Irish Members of the European Parliament Clare Daly and Mick Wallace, together with world armament expert and author Andrew Feinstein, both in Oslo and Trondheim.

Next month we are co-organising a conference, How To Stop The Current Militarisation, with the peace group Lay Down Your Arms and this year’s “The Real Nobel Peace Prize” laureate David Swanson, director of World Beyond Arms. And already in January next year, we will organise with the Institute for

the Public Interest (IPI) an international conference in Oslo, “Stop the Wars”.

Finally, I would like to end by assuring you that we place great value in working with our European counterparts, such as yourselves. We have faith that a truly cooperative effort between the peoples and cultures of Europe can be an antidote to the sociopathic mental illness that pervades the current European political landscape.

Thank you.