The Menstad conflict ( no, Menstadkonflikten) or ( no, Menstadslaget) "The Menstad battle" was a Norwegian policing and political débâcle on 8 June 1931 at

Norsk Hydro Norsk Hydro ASA (often referred to as just ''Hydro'') is a Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. It is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide. It has operations in some 50 countries around the world a ...

's Menstad plant, near

Skien Skien () is a city and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county in Norway. In modern times it is regarded as part of the traditional region of Grenland, although historically it belonged to Grenmar/Skiensfjorden, while Grenland referred the ...

in the Norwegian province of Telemark. Since March, Norway had been feeling significant industrial tension as the full effects of the Great Depression began to be felt in Norway. It was in this atmosphere that the

Norwegian Employers' Confederation The Norwegian Employers' Confederation ( no, Norsk Arbeidsgiverforening, NAF) was an employers' organisation in Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comp ...

(NAF) announced a pay cut of 15 and 20 percent. When the Workers' National Trade Union rejected this suggestion and counter-proposed a reduction of working hours, the NAF responded with a programme of lockouts. During the lockouts, two companies,

and

Norske Skog Union Norske Skog Union was a paper mill located in Skien in Norway. The mill was part of the Norske Skog Corporation and opened in 1873 with the name Union Co. The mill had two paper machines that produced 240,000 tonnes of newsprint and book paper. I ...

, chose to allow some contract workers to perform some work. This was perceived as strikebreaking and led to an escalation of the conflict level. It was an angry mood in which the Secretary of the Labor party (and later Prime Minister)

Einar Gerhardsen Einar Henry Gerhardsen (; 10 May 1897 – 19 September 1987) was a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party of Norway. He was the 22nd prime minister of Norway for three periods, 1945–1951, 1955–1963 and 1963–1965. With totally 17 years in ...

called

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 "skabbdyr" (scabs) and director of Norsk Hydro Bjarne Eriksen described the dispute as being one between Labour and the community. In the afternoon of 8 June 2,000 workers marched to the Norsk Hydro trans-shipment port and warehouse at Menstad, where 100

police officers A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

guarded the contract workers. The brief "battle", between police and strikers, saw law-and-order forces overwhelmed by demonstrators, who threw stones and iron piping before the protesters retreated. The government response (passed on by Minister of Defence,

Vidkun Quisling Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling (, ; 18 July 1887 – 24 October 1945) was a Norwegian military officer, politician and Nazi collaborator who nominally list of heads of government of Norway, headed the government of Norway during t ...

) was to send the army into the province with the stated aim of protecting nearby weapons depots. Although there was no further incident and law and order in the area was duly restored, the government response was heavily criticised by the Communist party, who had led the original demonstrations.

References

{{Norway-hist-stub 1931 riots 1931 in Norway June 1931 events

See also

References