Norway: Kampkomiteen – Defend the welfare and rights of the people!
We hereby publish an unofficial translation of a statement of the Kampkomiteen, Norway:
In the face of new cuts to welfare and this autumn’s general elections, the Kampkomiteen states that only the working class and the people’s own struggle can defend our rights.
Workers and oppressed of all countries, unite!
Rise up against the attacks on the people’s welfare and rights!
In recent months, the state and municipalities have imposed new burdens on the working class and the people of Norway. Schools are being closed in the hinterland. Health services, social support and child welfare services are being cut in Trondheim and Bergen. Youth services and drug treatment are being destroyed in Oslo. Ticket prices are increasing across the country, while bus and train services are deteriorating, with chronic delays. Across the country, we see the same thing: cuts, cuts and more cuts!
The cuts in the people’s welfare are being implemented after four years of economic crisis (2020), falling krone exchange rate, increased electricity prices, increased loan interest rates and falling purchasing power. The masses in Norway can buy less for the wages they have today, and thus wages have in reality decreased, even though they look higher on paper. This means that the cuts hit extra hard, and the poorest in the working class are hit hardest. Politicians talk about “stagnant productivity”, “falling birth rates” and “a more troubled world”, and this is how they explain why they continue to ravage the people’s welfare. Politicians and business leaders also create a picture of escalating sick leave in Norway, in order to force through cuts in sick pay.
It is true that the imperialist and capitalist system has major problems. Imperialism on a global scale is in a deep general economic and political crisis, which constantly leads to new wars and new periodic crises. 2020 was a major crisis year, when the world economy entered its deepest crisis since World War II – perhaps the deepest ever in the history of capitalism, if one measures how much capital was lost. All of this is true, and it explains why politicians and the Confederation of Norwegian Employers are working diligently to create new economic growth.
But none of this explains why the people should accept that our real wages are falling, while welfare is being cut. Not as long as Norges Bank is running a record profit. Not as long as the oil fund is record-breaking. Not as long as the grocery chain Norgesgruppen, which owns the Kiwi stores, has never earned as much as it did in 2024. Not as long as Norwegian oil and gas are sold at record profits, due to the war in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russia. In short: as long as the state and capital rake in record profits, we will of course not accept wage cuts, price increases and welfare cuts!
The crisis of capitalism is the capitalists’ crisis. Norwegian imperialism has problems, but this is not the people’s problem, this is the problem of the rich and powerful. We do not need a larger oil fund, we do not need a richer Norges Bank, we do not need new frigates and fighter jets, and we do not need power cables to Germany and Britain. We need a living wage and a home to live in. We need safe neighborhoods. Our children need kindergartens, young people need community schools and we need support and treatment when we get sick. We need trains and buses that run on time, not a new government quarter. We need cultural offerings and meaningful lives, not imperialist war, parasitism on poor countries and a culture that rots away in individualism. In short: let the capitalists pay for their own crisis!
All over Norway, people have protested in recent years, against the closure of hospitals, maternity wards and schools, against wind farms, environmental destruction and attacks on the rights of the Sami people, against increased tolls and escalating electricity prices. Neither LO-pimps [Translator’s note: Norwegian union] nor parliamentary politicians, regardless of whether they call themselves “labor party”, “socialists” or “reds”, can or will fight these battles for working people. We only have one power to back our just demands, and that is our own organized struggle. The election is a circus and the bosses in the trade union movement are playing a game. Only the working class and the people’s own struggle can stop the attacks on our wages, our welfare and our rights.
This spring there will be wage negotiations. In the autumn there will be general elections, and after that new budgets will come – guaranteed with new cuts! All this year, the cuts that were adopted in December 2024 will be felt on the body of people who have already experienced empty bank accounts, interest rate hikes and price increases for four years, after the last election, when politicians promised that “now it’s the turn of the ordinary people”. Workers in this country must look to their class brothers and sisters in other countries, who are filling the streets and shutting down society in protest against unpopular governments. We need more struggle and resistance here too, otherwise we will continue to lose rights and welfare systems.
Struggle against welfare cuts!
Let the capitalists pay for their own crisis!
Struggle against increased prices and imperialist war!
Defend the rights of the people!
Struggle and resist!
Kampkomiteen
January 2025
