Jeanette Martine Olsen (22 October 1873 – 23 September 1959) 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 ...

editor and politician for the

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

and Communist parties. She was born in

Kristiania Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

. Her first political position was as leader of the local women's branch in

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 ...

Labour Party from 1907 to 1912. From 1911 to 1913 she was a national board member of the Labour Party women's association. She was also a board member of the county branch in Bratsberg. In 1913 she was hired as manager of the newspaper '' Haugesunds Folkeblad'', and she became editor-in-chief in the same year. The family moved to

Tromsø Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø. Tromsø lies in Northern Norway. The municipality is the ...

in 1914, where she became manager in ''

Nordlys ''Nordlys'' is a Norwegian newspaper published in Tromsø, covering the region of Troms, and the largest newspaper in Northern Norway. History and profile ''Nordlys'' was founded in 1902 by Alfred Eriksen, who also was its first editor-in-ch ...

'' and then secretary of ''Nord-Norsk Fiskerforbund'' from 1917 to 1919. She was also a member of Tromsø city council from 1916 to 1919. In 1919 she was hired as manager in '' Fremover'', and sat for some time as a member of Narvik city council. While living in Northern Norway she was also involved in smuggling from the Russian SFSR. She was a national board member of the Labour Party from 1918 to 1923, and was a

delegate Delegate or delegates may refer to: * Delegate, New South Wales, a town in Australia * Delegate (CLI), a computer programming technique * Delegate (American politics), a representative in any of various political organizations * Delegate (Unit ...

at the Third Comintern Congress in 1921, but in September 1923 she was excluded for half a year for writing an "open letter" to

Martin Tranmæl Martin Olsen Tranmæl (27 June 1879 – 11 July 1967) was a Norwegian socialist leader from The Norwegian Labour Party. Biography Martin Tranmæl grew up on a middle-sized farm in Melhus, in Sør-Trøndelag county, Norway. He started working a ...

, in which she stated that if not Tranmæl subordinated himself to Comintern, he would pave way for Fascism. Before the exclusion was lifted, the Communist Party had formed as a splinter party, and she joined it. From 1923 to 1928 she led the women's secretariat in the party, succeeding Olga Andersen in that position. She was a

at the Fifth Comintern Congress, and also edited the party's magazine for women, '' Gnisten'', from 1925. In 1928 she resigned her party membership, together with high-profile politicians Emil Stang, Jr. and

Olav Scheflo Olav Andreas Scheflo (9 September 1883 – 25 June 1943) was a Norwegian Communist politician and journalist. Olav Scheflo was a member of the Norwegian Labour Party from 1905. After the October Revolution he fought hard to convince the Labor ...

, since the Communist Party was against the formation of Hornsrud's Cabinet. She joined the ''Revolusjonære fagopposisjon'', Clarté and the

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...

. She rejoined the Communist Party in 1936, but was excluded after three months (in September) for defending

Lev Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian M ...

. She was now a

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...

, and edited the periodical '' Oktober'' from April 1937 to September 1939. She also worked as a seamstress. She was married to Aksel Olsen (1869–1928), and had seven children. She died in September 1959 in Oslo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olsen, Jeanette 1873 births 1959 deaths Writers from Oslo Norwegian newspaper editors Norwegian women editors Norwegian magazine editors Politicians from Tromsø Nordland politicians Labour Party (Norway) politicians Communist Party of Norway politicians Norwegian Trotskyists Norwegian women writers Norwegian socialist feminists Women's International League for Peace and Freedom people Women newspaper editors Women magazine editors