Naftali Nilsen (1890 – 1968) was a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

newspaper editor and politician for the Labour Party. He was born in

Trondenes Trondenes is an old parish and former municipality in Troms county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1964. It was located along the western shore of the Vågsfjorden in what is now Harstad Municipality. T ...

. He was a brother of Alfred Nilsen and an uncle of Rolf Nilssen, both politicians. In 1910 he moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, returning to Trondenes in 1917, and becoming chairman in the local Labour Party. He was a member of Trondenes

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counci ...

from 1920 to 1924, and was a deputy representative to the

Parliament of Norway The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years bas ...

during the term 1922–1924. He was also acting editor of the newspaper '' Folkeviljen'' in 1922, while

Sigurd Simensen Sigurd Simensen (19 February 1888 – 27 April 1969) was a Norwegian newspaper editor and politician for the Labour and Communist parties. He was born in Vestfossen. He started his career as an iron and metalworker, working at Thunes Mekaniske Ve ...

was imprisoned for revolutionary activity. In 1923, when Simensen joined the new

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

, the Labour Party retained control over ''Folkeviljen'', and Simensen was replaced by an editing committee of Naftali Nilsen, Kristian Tønder and Alfons Johansen. Johansen took over as sole editor a few weeks later. From 1924 to 1932, Nilsen was the editor-in-chief of ''

Fremover ''Fremover'' is a regional newspaper published in Narvik, Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Sca ...

'' in

Narvik ( se, Áhkanjárga) is the third-largest municipality in Nordland county, Norway, by population. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Narvik. Some of the notable villages in the municipality include Ankenesstranda, Ball ...

. He chaired the regional party in Nordre Salten, and was a member of Narvik city council. At the 1927 national party convention he was the secretary. In 1931 he was indicted for breach of the Penal Law § 222, in that he had published the names of four

strikebreaker A strikebreaker (sometimes called a scab, blackleg, or knobstick) is a person who works despite a strike. Strikebreakers are usually individuals who were not employed by the company before the trade union dispute but hired after or during the st ...

s. Defended by

Theodor Broch Peter Theodor Broch (27 January 1904 – 26 April 1998) was a Norwegians, Norwegian lawyer and politician for the Norwegian Labour Party, Labour Party. He was born in Oslo, Kristiania as a son of Colonel Ole Jacob Broch (1875–1963) an ...

, he was acquitted. The editorship in ''Fremover'' was resigned in April 1932, but he eventually became chief librarian in Narvik from 1935 to 1937. In 1933 he was acting editor of ''Folkeviljen'' while Alfons Johansen was a member of Parliament. He later moved to

Lillestrøm Lillestrøm is a municipality in Viken county. It is located in the traditional district of Romerike. With a population of 85,757 inhabitants, it is the fourth most populated municipality in Viken. It was founded on 1 January 2020 as a merger be ...

where he lived the rest of his life.

References

1890 births 1968 deaths People from Harstad Norwegian expatriates in the United States Norwegian newspaper editors Labour Party (Norway) politicians Troms politicians People from Narvik Nordland politicians {{Norway-politician-1890s-stub