Pål Steigan

Pål Steigan (born 31 May 1949 in Oslo) is a Norwegian communist and former leader of the Maoist Workers' Communist Party, AKP (m-l), from 1975 to 1984, and jointly leader of the Red Electoral Alliance (RV) until 1979.[1][2] He is a writer and editor.

Pål Steigan
Pål Steigan lecturing at Parkteateret at a seminar about author Tron Øgrim in 2007
Leader of the Workers' Communist Party
In office 1975–1984
Preceded by	Sigurd Allern
Succeeded by	Kjersti Ericsson
Leader of the Red Electoral Alliance
In office 1975–1979
Preceded by	Sigurd Allern
Succeeded by	Hilde Haugsgjerd
Personal details
Born	31 May 1949 Oslo, Norway
Nationality	Norwegian
Political party	Red Party
Other political affiliations	Workers' Communist Party Red Electoral Alliance
Residence	Oslo, Norway

Workers Communist Party, AKP (m-l)

During his leadership of AKP (m-l), Steigan traveled to countries under communist regimes, such as China, Czechoslovakia, Albania and Cambodia (Democratic Kampuchea).[1] He met Mao Zedong, Enver Hoxha and Pol Pot.[3]

After meeting the Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot in 1978, he began to support the regime,[4] later admitting his support for the genocidal Khmer Rouge was a mistake explaining that he now believed it was not Marxist.[5] He has continued to be criticised for bearing a personal responsibility for his political support to the regime.[4]

In 1978, he told an interviewer from The Call, the newspaper of the American Communist Party (Marxist–Leninist), that since the foundation of the party five years earlier "we have been waging a struggle against two brands of revisionism" in Norway, "the Brezhnevist, Moscow revisionist type party, which is the old so-called Norwegian Communist Party, and a newer Eurorevisionist party."[6] According to Steigan in the same interview: "[I]t’s obvious that the Soviet social-imperialists are planning to take Norway in the initial stages of a war over Europe."[7]

He is a critic of capitalism, writing that it "has inflicted so many defeats upon the working class and people all over the world that it’s hard to give an account of them."[8]

Books

Steigan's memoirs En folkefiende (A public enemy) were published in 2013.[3]

Steigan, Pål, Veiskille: finnes det noen vei ut av miljøkrisa? Oktober Forlag, Oslo, 1990, 244 s.

References

1. "Pål Steigan", Store norske leksikon, 29.12.2012
2. Arbeidernes Kommunistparti in Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian)
3. "Pål Steigan: - Vi dro det for langt", Aftenposten, 17.09.2003
4. "Det unnvikende oppgjøret", Dagbladet, 17 July 2003
5. "Pål Steigan slår tilbake mot folkemord-anklager", Dagbladet, 17 July 2003
6. "Interview with Norway's Pal Steigan". The Call. marxists.org. 26 June 1978. Retrieved 16 February 2020.
7. The Call (marxists.org), 3 July 1978
8. Steigan, Pål (February 27, 2017). "Lessons from an oblivious enemy". Steigan.no. Retrieved January 3, 2021.