Pål_Steigan

Pål Steigan

Pål Steigan

Norwegian writer and politician

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]

Quick Facts Leader of the Workers' Communist Party, Preceded by ...

Workers Communist Party, AKP (m-l)

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

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

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

  1. [1]
    "Pål Steigan", Store norske leksikon, 29.12.2012
  2. [2]
    Arbeidernes Kommunistparti in Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian)
  3. [3]
    Færseth, John (2021). Fyrtårnet i øst: Putins Russland og vestlige ekstremister. Humanist forlag. ISBN 9788282821704.
  4. [4]
    "Propaganda-påstander: Tok ikke kontakt". Dagbladet. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  5. [5]
    "Ikke alle liker at Moxnes tar oppgjør med Steigan.no". Aftenposten. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  6. [6]
    "Pål Steigan: - Vi dro det for langt", Aftenposten, 17.09.2003
  7. [7]
    "Det unnvikende oppgjøret", Dagbladet, 17 July 2003
  8. [8]
    "Pål Steigan slår tilbake mot folkemord-anklager", Dagbladet, 17 July 2003
  9. [9]
    "Interview with Norway's Pal Steigan". The Call. marxists.org. 26 June 1978. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
  10. [10]
    The Call (marxists.org), 3 July 1978
  11. [11]
    Steigan, Pål (February 27, 2017). "Lessons from an oblivious enemy". Steigan.no. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  12. [12]
    "Flere norske alternativmedier fungerer som «kanaler» for russisk desinformasjon og propaganda". Journalisten. Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  13. [13]
    "Bonzo goes to Oslo: Christian fundamentalists and the far-right strike a new pose". Retrieved 19 March 2022.
  14. [14]
    "SIAN sentrale i spredningen av innhold fra alternative medier". Faktisk. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  15. [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. [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. [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. [18]
    "Full splid i Raudt om Steigan.no". NRK. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  19. [19]
    "Innkaller til møte om Harstad-politiker: – Ødeleggende for demokratiet og klassekampen". iHarstad. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  20. [20]
    Steigan.no fikk avslag på søknad om medlemskap i Norsk Redaktørforening: – Patetisk
  21. [21]
    "– Gruppering samles i hemmelighet rundt antisemittisk budskap i Oslo neste uke. Jeg håper flest mulig protesterer". Vårt Oslo. Retrieved 3 May 2022.
  22. [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.
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