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Red Youth (Bokmål: Rød Ungdom; Nynorsk: Raud Ungdom; abbr. RU) is a Norwegian youth organisation. It is the youth wing of the Red Party, which was formed from a merger of the Red Electoral Alliance and the Workers' Communist Party in March 2007. The current leader of Red Youth is Amrit Pernille Kaur.
| Red Youth Rød Ungdom | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Amrit Pernille Kaur |
| Deputy Leader | Halvor Bergkvist, Ahmed Al-Saedi |
| Secretary General | Syver Kleve Kolstad |
| Treasurer | Mina Rollag Torvik |
| Founded | 1963 |
| Headquarters | Oslo |
| Ideology | Communism[1] Revolutionary socialism[1] Feminism[1] |
| Mother party | Red Party |
| Nordic affiliation | Socialistisk Ungdom i Norden (SUN) |
| Website | rødungdom |
Politics
editIt is an organisation with three main principles: revolutionary socialism, feminism, and communism.[1] Their goals are typically communist; they aim to organise the working class in preparation for what they perceive as an eventual overthrow of the capitalist system.
Red Youth believes that capitalism is primarily responsible for oppression, class divisions, and hunger. According to RU, a market economy leads to a situation where a minority gains the right to own society's most important resources, resulting in private profit being prioritized over human needs. They argue that the exclusion of the economy from democratic control means that important decisions in economic policy are left to the market rather than to elected representatives. Red Youth believes that a capitalist society leads to a situation where the ballot must yield to money, and democracy gives way to plutocracy.
For Red Youth, communism is a social system aimed at abolishing both the state and private property in favor of the collective. The organization views communism as a society where classes and social gender roles are unnecessary. Their vision is for society to be organized as a community of free interests, collectively deciding how humanity's creative potential can be utilized in the best possible way. As expressed in their program, they believe that such a society will not be without contradictions and problems. They argue that communism will not necessarily eliminate gender oppression, racism, and the waste of natural resources, but that the conditions for the structures that oppress people today will disappear. Red Youth does not believe that a communist society will mark the end of human development, but rather the end of oppression based on social and economic status.
Since the election of the Red-Green government in 2005, Red Youth has been working to push the Labour Party and the Socialist Left Party in a communist direction. In August 2008, a faction of communist dissidents left the youth organization to form Revolutionary Communist Youth, the youth affiliate of Serve the People.
Activism
editRed Youth is an activist organisation, and has performed political actions and media stunts directed towards Norwegian politicians. Red Youth interrupted the Christian Democratic Party's national meeting in 2004 in an attempt to expose and highlight what they perceived as the Christian Democrats' anti-homosexual attitude.[2][3] Also in 2004, members attempted to 'arrest' the Conservative Minister of Education, Kristin Clemet, for allegedly breaking the Norwegian law that secondary education must be free since students were still required to buy textbooks.[4]
The Red Youth also built a refugee asylum in the garden of the Conservative Minister of Local Government, Erna Solberg, in 2008, as a protest against her immigration policies.[5] In 2010, the Red Youth launched a campaign to collect 100,000 NOK to offer Siv Jensen, party leader of the Progress Party, to leave the country in response to her own party's proposal to offer immigrants the same sum to go back to their own countries.[6]
At the end of the 1990s and the early 2000s, Rød Ungdom (Red Youth) campaigned for free school textbooks. In the fall of 2001, Rød Ungdom made 14 school textbooks available for free download on the internet.[7]
References
edit- ^ a b c d "Rød Ungdom". Store norske leksikon. 7 December 2014.
- ^ Tveranger, Ingveig; Hadland, Wenche Lamo (30 January 2004). "Ballettdansende rebell" [Ballet Dancing Rebel] (in Norwegian). Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation. Archived from the original on 8 July 2012. Retrieved 25 December 2009.
- ^ "RU aksjonerte mot KrFs landsmøte" [RU campaigned against KrF's national meeting] (Press release) (in Norwegian). Red Youth. 30 January 2004. Retrieved 25 December 2009.
- ^ "Rød Ungdom med arrestordre på Clemet" [Red Youth with an arrest warrant for Clemet]. Aftenposten (in Norwegian). 19 August 2004. Archived from the original on 10 October 2012. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
- ^ Viseth, Ellen Synnøve (2 August 2008). "Archived copy". Dagsavisen (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on 31 March 2022. Retrieved 25 December 2009.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Lilleås, Heidi Schei (15 October 2010). "- Vi gir 100.000 kroner til Siv om hun forlater landet" [- We give NOK 100,000 to Siv if she leaves the country] (in Norwegian). Nettavisen. Archived from the original on 16 October 2010. Retrieved 16 October 2010.
- ^ Rød Ungdom trosser namsretten - legger lærebøker på nett