Norway

Ingrid Wergeland — For the first time in a century, Norway’s Labour Party failed to top the country’s local and regional elections, pipped to the post by the centre-right conservatives.
Ingrid Wergeland — The first two years of Norway’s Labour Party/Centre Party coalition government have seen the challenges mount up, with debates about solidarity dominating at the international level, while domestic economic inequality has increased.
Tobias Drevland Lund, an MP for Norway’s radical left party Rødt (Red Party) speaks to Federico Fuentes about the party's rise, Norwegian politics and Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Chris Maisano surveys the views and policies of left-wing parties in Europe regarding the Ukraine war.
The following statement on Ukraine was adopted at the Red Party's national conference in April 2023.

Interview with Tobias Lund by Duroyan Fertl

July 5, 2022 — Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung — The impact of the war in Ukraine in the Nordic countries has been largely viewed with reference to Finland and Sweden and their possible accession to NATO. But what have been the reactions of other Nordic countries to Russia's war of aggression, what are their most important demands, and what role are left parties playing in this response? Tobias Drevland Lund, an MP from the Norwegian left party Rødt, outlines the experience in Norway, and the prospects for a progressive and sustainable security infrastructure in Europe. Lund is an MP representing Telemark in Norway's Storting, and currently sits on the Nordic Council. From 2018-2020 he was leader of the party's youth wing, Rød Ungdom.

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By Florian Wilde May 6, 2017
 Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal reposted from Jacobin with the author's permission Is it a shortcut, if it’s seemingly the only path on offer? Many left parties in Europe today see participating in a center-left coalition government as the only realistic way to win reforms. They often justify joining these administrations by reasoning that having a left party in government will at least block the most regressive policies and keep a more reactionary formation from taking power. These parties also believe government participation will increase their credibility in the eyes of voters and members, ultimately strengthening their prospects to govern on their own. Twenty-five years of history, however, suggest that these expectations are rarely met.

 

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Grameen Bank's Muhammad Yunus (right) with Bangladeshi women. The promised empowerment and poverty reduction failed to eventuate.

By Patrick Bond

April 27, 2011 -- Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal -- Bangladesh’s once-legendary banking environment is now fatally polluted. The rot is spreading so fast and far that the entire global microfinance industry is threatened. Controversy ranges far beyond poisonous local politics, the factor most often cited by those despondent about Grameen Bank’s worsening crisis.