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Pål Steigan

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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 bySigurd Allern
Succeeded byKjersti Ericsson
Leader of the Red Electoral Alliance
In office
1975–1979
Preceded bySigurd Allern
Succeeded byHilde Haugsgjerd
Personal details
Born (1949-05-31) 31 May 1949 (age 75)
Oslo, Norway
Other political
affiliations
Workers' Communist Party
Red Electoral Alliance
Residence(s)Oslo, Norway

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]

Workers Communist Party, AKP (m-l)

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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.no

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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]

Books

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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.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Pål Steigan", Store norske leksikon, 29.12.2012
  2. ^ Arbeidernes Kommunistparti in Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian)
  3. ^ a b Færseth, John (2021). Fyrtårnet i øst: Putins Russland og vestlige ekstremister. Humanist forlag. ISBN 9788282821704.
  4. ^ a b "Propaganda-påstander: Tok ikke kontakt". Dagbladet. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  5. ^ a b c "Ikke alle liker at Moxnes tar oppgjør med Steigan.no". Aftenposten. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  6. ^ a b "Pål Steigan: - Vi dro det for langt", Aftenposten, 17.09.2003
  7. ^ a b "Det unnvikende oppgjøret", Dagbladet, 17 July 2003
  8. ^ "Pål Steigan slår tilbake mot folkemord-anklager", Dagbladet, 17 July 2003
  9. ^ "Interview with Norway's Pal Steigan". The Call. marxists.org. 26 June 1978. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  10. ^ The Call (marxists.org), 3 July 1978
  11. ^ Steigan, Pål (February 27, 2017). "Lessons from an oblivious enemy". Steigan.no. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  12. ^ "Flere norske alternativmedier fungerer som «kanaler» for russisk desinformasjon og propaganda". Journalisten. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  13. ^ "Bonzo goes to Oslo: Christian fundamentalists and the far-right strike a new pose". Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  14. ^ "SIAN sentrale i spredningen av innhold fra alternative medier". Faktisk. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  15. ^ "Slik spres russisk propaganda i norske alternative medier" [How Russian propaganda is promoted in Norwegian alternative media]. Faktisk.no. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  16. ^ "Hevdes å spre russisk propaganda: Kari Jaquesson medeier" [Accused of spreading Russian propaganda, Kari Jaquesson a co-owner]. Dagbladet. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  17. ^ "Ap-Raymond om Rødt-bråket: Kast ut Steigan-tilhengerne!". Verdens Gang. Retrieved 30 April 2022. 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.]
  18. ^ "Full splid i Raudt om Steigan.no". NRK. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  19. ^ "Innkaller til møte om Harstad-politiker: – Ødeleggende for demokratiet og klassekampen". iHarstad. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  20. ^ Steigan.no fikk avslag på søknad om medlemskap i Norsk Redaktørforening: – Patetisk
  21. ^ "– Gruppering samles i hemmelighet rundt antisemittisk budskap i Oslo neste uke. Jeg håper flest mulig protesterer". Vårt Oslo. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  22. ^ "Kan diskuteres om boken i det hele tatt fortjener omtale" [It is debatable whether this book deserves any discussion at all]. Morgenbladet. 16 July 2021.