Martin Olsen Tranmæl (27 June 1879 – 11 July 1967) was a Norwegian

socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

leader from The Norwegian Labour Party.

Biography

Martin Tranmæl grew up on a middle-sized farm in

Melhus Municipality Melhus is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Trøndelag Counties of Norway, county, Norway. It is part of the Gauldalen Districts of Norway, region. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Melhus (village), village o ...

, in Søndre Trondhjem county, Norway. He started working as a

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and

construction worker A construction worker is a person employed in the physical construction of the built environment and its infrastructure. Definitions By some definitions, construction workers may be engaged in manual labour as unskilled or semi-skilled workers ...

. In the early 20th century, Tranmæl lived for a while in the United States where he came into contact with the American workers movement, and even though he joined the AFL, he was also present at the founding congress of the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), whose members are nicknamed "Wobblies", is an international labor union founded in Chicago, United States in 1905. The nickname's origin is uncertain. Its ideology combines general unionism with indu ...

, whose revolutionary syndicalist ideology he continued to be influenced by after returning to Norway. Upon his return, he eventually joined

Norwegian Labour Party The Labour Party (; , A or Ap; ), formerly The Norwegian Labour Party (, DNA), is a Social democracy, social democratic List of political parties in Norway, political party in Norway. It is positioned on the centre-left of the political spectru ...

where he soon became one of the main leaders of the Party's left wing and worked for many different socialist papers. Tranmæl became a

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

after learning of the

Russian Revolution of 1917 The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution, social change in Russian Empire, Russia, starting in 1917. This period saw Russia Dissolution of the Russian Empire, abolish its mona ...

, and he attended

Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

meetings in Russia and encouraged the Norwegian Labour Party to join the Communist International organization and accept the

Twenty-one Conditions The Twenty-one Conditions, officially the Conditions of Admission to the Communist International, are the conditions, most of which were suggested by Vladimir Lenin, to the adhesion of the socialist parties to the Third International (Comintern) cr ...

for membership. Eventually Tranmæl led the Norwegian Labour Party out of the Comintern after a conflict with its chairman Zinoviev in 1923. The Party was split in two and the

Communist Party of Norway The Communist Party of Norway (, NKP) is a communist party in Norway. The NKP was formed in 1923, following a split in the Norwegian Labour Party. It was Stalinist from its establishment and, as such, supported the Soviet government while oppo ...

was formed that year by people who wanted to stay in the Comintern. He participated in the Left Communist Youth League's military strike action of 1924. He agitated for it through the newspaper ''

Arbeiderbladet is a daily newspaper published in Oslo, Norway. The former party organ of the Norwegian Labour Party, the ties loosened over time from 1975 to 1999. It has borne several names, and was called ''Arbeiderbladet'' from 1923 to 1997. Eirik Hoff Lys ...

'', and was convicted for this crime and sentenced to 5 months days of prison. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and the

Nazi occupation of Norway The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany during the World War II, Second World War began on 9 April 1940 after Operation Weserübung. Conventional armed resistance to the Norwegian Campaign, German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, and Nazi G ...

, Tranmæl had to leave Norway and exiled in Stockholm, Sweden. He had many friends there like

Zeth Höglund Carl Zeth "Zäta" Konstantin Höglund (29 April 1884 – 13 August 1956) was a leading Swedish communist politician, anti-militarist, author, journalist and mayor (''finansborgarråd'') of Stockholm (1940–1950). Höglund can be credited as t ...

and Ture Nerman. After the war he returned to Norway, and while still a socialist, had more moderate views and supported the Norwegian membership in

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

in 1949.

Selected works

* ''De faglige kampmidler og organisasjonsformer'', (1911) * ''Hvad fagopposisjonen vil'', (1913) * ''Hvem vil borgerkrig?'', (1915) * ''Socialisme og de socialistiske fremgangslinjer'', (1918) * ''Revolutionær fagbevægelse'', (1920) * ''Cellebetragtninger'', (1922) * ''Arbeiderungdom! Et alvorsord fra fengslet, arbeiderungdommen og kommunismen'', (1925)

Sources

*Olsen, Bjorn Gunnar (1991) ''Tranmæl og hans menn'' *Zachariassen, Aksel (1979) ''Martin Tranmæl'' *Lie, Haakon (1988) ''Martin Tranmæl''

References

External links

Photographs of Martin Olsen Tranmæl
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tranmael, Martin Norwegian syndicalists 1879 births 1967 deaths Labour Party (Norway) politicians Norwegian communists Norwegian Comintern people Norwegian newspaper editors Norwegian temperance activists Members of the Executive of the Labour and Socialist International Norwegian prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of Norway People from Melhus Syndicalists Dagsavisen editors