Red Youth (; ;
abbr.
An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening, contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened form of a word, usually ended with a trailing perio ...
RU) is a
Norwegian youth organisation. It is the youth wing of the
Red Party, which was formed from a merger of the
Red Electoral Alliance
Red Electoral Alliance (, , RV) was an alliance of far-left groups formed into a Norwegian political party to promote revolutionary socialism ideals into the Norwegian parliament. The party dissolved itself on 10 March 2007, when it participated ...
and the
Workers' Communist Party in March 2007. The current leader of Red Youth is Amrit Pernille Kaur.
Politics
It is an organisation with three main principles:
revolutionary socialism
Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revo ...
,
feminism
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...
, and
communism
Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...
.
Their goals are typically communist; they aim to organise the working class in preparation for what they perceive as an eventual overthrow of the
capitalist
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...
system.
Red Youth believes that capitalism is primarily responsible for oppression, class divisions, and hunger. According to RU, a market economy leads to a situation where a minority gains the right to own society's most important resources, resulting in private profit being prioritized over human needs. They argue that the exclusion of the economy from democratic control means that important decisions in economic policy are left to the market rather than to elected representatives. Red Youth believes that a capitalist society leads to a situation where the ballot must yield to money, and democracy gives way to plutocracy.
For Red Youth, communism is a social system aimed at abolishing both the state and private property in favor of the collective. The organization views communism as a society where classes and social gender roles are unnecessary. Their vision is for society to be organized as a community of free interests, collectively deciding how humanity's creative potential can be utilized in the best possible way. As expressed in their program, they believe that such a society will not be without contradictions and problems. They argue that communism will not necessarily eliminate gender oppression, racism, and the waste of natural resources, but that the conditions for the structures that oppress people today will disappear. Red Youth does not believe that a communist society will mark the end of human development, but rather the end of oppression based on social and economic status.
Since the election of the
Red-Green government in 2005, Red Youth has been working to push the
Labour Party and the
Socialist Left Party in a communist direction. In August 2008, a faction of communist dissidents left the youth organization to form
Revolutionary Communist Youth, the youth affiliate of
Serve the People
"Serve the People" () is a political slogan and the motto of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). It originates from the title of a speech by Mao Zedong, delivered in September 1944.
The slogan became popular in the United States due to the strong ...
.
Activism
Red Youth is an
activist
Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...
organisation, and has performed political actions and media stunts directed towards Norwegian politicians. Red Youth interrupted the
Christian Democratic Party
__NOTOC__
Christian democratic parties are political parties that seek to apply Christian principles to public policy. The underlying Christian democracy movement emerged in 19th-century Europe, largely under the influence of Catholic social tea ...
's national meeting in 2004 in an attempt to expose and highlight what they perceived as the Christian Democrats' anti-homosexual attitude. Also in 2004, members attempted to 'arrest' the Conservative Minister of Education,
Kristin Clemet
Kristin Clemet (born 20 April 1957, in Harstad) is a Norwegian politician for Høyre, Norway's Conservative Party.
She was elected to the Norwegian Parliament from Oslo in 1989, but was not re-elected in 1993. She had previously served as a depu ...
, for allegedly breaking the Norwegian law that secondary education must be free since students were still required to buy textbooks.
The Red Youth also built a refugee asylum in the garden of the Conservative Minister of Local Government,
Erna Solberg
Erna Solberg (; born 24 February 1961) is a Norwegian politician and the current Leader of the Opposition. She served as the prime minister of Norway from 2013 to 2021, and has been the leader of the Conservative Party of Norway, Conservative Part ...
, in 2008, as a protest against her
immigration
Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as Permanent residency, permanent residents. Commuting, Commuter ...
policies. In 2010, the Red Youth launched a campaign to collect 100,000
NOK
Nok is a village in Jaba, Nigeria, Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. The village is an archeological site.
Archaeology
The discovery of terracotta figurines at this location caused its name to be used for the Nok culture, ...
to offer
Siv Jensen
Siv Jensen (born 1 June 1969) is a Norwegian politician who served as the leader of the Progress Party from 2006 to 2021. She also held the position as Minister of Finance from 2013 to 2020 in the Solberg Cabinet. She was also a member of the ...
, party leader of the
Progress Party, to leave the country in response to her own party's proposal to offer immigrants the same sum to go back to their own countries.
At the end of the 1990s and the early 2000s, Rød Ungdom (Red Youth) campaigned for free school textbooks. In the fall of 2001, Rød Ungdom made 14 school textbooks available for free download on the internet.
Rød Ungdom trosser namsretten - legger lærebøker på nett
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References
External links
*
Political platform
{{Norwegian Youth Leagues
1963 establishments in Norway
Anti-racism in Norway
Far-left politics in Norway
Organisations based in Oslo
Red Party (Norway)
Youth organizations established in 1963
Youth wings of communist parties
Youth wings of political parties in Norway