The enthusiasm is fading
Popular response to the centre-left government in Norway

by Asbjørn Wahl

Three years into its mandate period, the enthusiasm, which was created by the first ever centre-left government in Norway, is fading among its supporters. A government, which was elected for its promises of a political change to the left, has more and more turned into a mainstream administrator. Important parts of its initial programme have been given up, and the financial crisis has revealed its inability to act against the interests of capital.

The Norwegian centre-left government consists of three political parties: The Labour Party, the Centre Party and the Socialist Left Party. It won majority in the 2005 parliamentary election after an impressive mobilisation by the trade union movement. This is the first time that the Labour Party has joined a coalition government, and the first time ever that the Socialist Left Party has taken part in a government.

The circumstances under which this government was formed produced new energy and optimism on the left in Norway. After a long period of neo-liberal policies of different kind – whether it was centre-right, centre or social-democratic governments – a political change was in the air. The defeat which the Labour Party had experienced in the 2001 election, when its score was reduced from 36 to 24 percent, opened a possibility to press the party to the left.

This disastrous defeat was due to the Labour Party’s turn to neoliberal politics. During a short period in a minority government in 2000-1 the party carried through some of the most extensive privatisation and market-oriented policies in Norway over the last 20 years. The national telecommunication company (Telenor) was partly privatised, the same with the national oil company (Statoil), and a market-oriented hospital reform was adopted. At the same time the party developed a pragmatic approach to privatisation and competitive tendering of public services at the municipal level.

This development in the Labour Party spurred enormous discontent among its rank and file and its supporters in the trade union movement, and the party was heavily punished by the electorate in 2001. One effect of this was that the Socialist Left Party started to increase its scores in opinion polls. Usually a 10 percent party, it now scored up to 20 percent at the most, and the Labour Party’s worst polls fell to about the same level. It was in this situation that important parts of the trade union movement, with a centre in the municipal workers’ union, took a lead.

The trade unions started to increase the pressure on the Labour Party; to develop their own – more radical – political demands; to build alliances across and outside the trade union movement; and to develop alternatives to the privatisation policies. As a result, the Labour Party had to give up its privatisation policy, it was pushed into a coalition with the Socialist Left Party and the Centre Party and it had to campaign on a strong anti-privatisation platform during the 2005 election campaign.

The centre-right government, which had won power in 2001 (after the Labour Party government had paved the way for them), on the other hand, pursued an aggressive neo-liberal agenda. The Labour Law was strongly weakened, the government opened for an extensive privatisation of schools, it started the privatisation of railway operations etc. This made it possible to develop a strong and radicalised unity among trade unions and other social movements and organisations. Their demand was a full reversal of these policies, as well as a more profound political change to the left.

These core demands were taken up by the centre-left coalition in the election campaign in 2005, and as soon as it won power, the government started to carry out its promises. The government declaration became the currently most radical in Europe. Thus, during the first few months the government rectified the Labour Law, stopped the privatisation of schools, stopped the privatisation of the railways, withdrew Norwegian troops from Iraq, and followed up some other demands. The enthusiasm was still alive.

Then it seemed as if the government ran out of energy. The new political course that was promised turned more and more into a steady course. The social and economic inequalities prevail, as does the growing poverty, which the government promised to abolish. The government has also had a couple of direct confrontations with the trade union movement. A soft neo-liberal pension reform was introduced. The right wing regained the initiative in the Labour Party and the Socialist Left Party had neither the political ability nor the social anchoring to pose a counter-weight in the government. This party’s historic origin is more linked to foreign policy opposition and environmental concerns than to the social struggle. Its roots in the working class are rather weak.

However, the trade union and other movements, which in reality had brought the centre-left government to power, was not strong enough either to keep up the pressure. Internal contradictions came up again, and even though important parts of the trade union movement had developed increased independence from the Labour Party, it proved to be difficult for many trade union leaders to attack their own party colleagues openly when the government broke with its own progressive declaration. The result is that the enthusiasm has gradually faded and the right wing populist party is the winner in opinion polls.

The on-going financial crises have further revealed the political weakness of this centre-left government. Firstly, the government last June, under the leadership of the Minister of Finance from the Socialist Left Party, legalised hedgefunds in Norway for the first time – a telling symbolic act just as the crisis aggravated. Secondly, a support package to the banks of NOK350 billion in good loans were given without any conditions. “The most market-oriented solution in Europe”, said the Vice Chair of the Conservative Party. Thus, it was the right wing populist party that was given the opportunity to demand a ban on options to the bank bosses. This was opposed by the socialist minster, as was a demand from the previous Minister of Finance from the Conservative Party for stricter regulation of financial markets also at national level. Thus, the political world has been turned upside down.

The party political misery on the left is, in other words, still intact, and the enthusiasm for the centre-left government has more or less faded away. New attempts are now being made by trade union organisations. A regional trade union conference recently adopted a new election manifesto for the 2009 parliamentary elections. Its aim is threefold; firstly to push the centre-left government to the left again; secondly to focus on demands which can create new enthusiasm among workers and broader popular groups; thirdly to mobilise as strongly as possible to try to avoid the worst case scenario – which is a coalition government of the conservative and the right wing populist party in 2009. It will be hard to achieve, but not impossible.

(Published in the Italian version of the Transform magazine, November 2008.)