– I am still a communist

RU’s national meeting last weekend, where she was elected as the new leader, was the start of a dirt storm.

– I have been almost harassed by several well-grown men, says Amrit Kaur (20).

There has been a hail of criticism on social media.

– I have locked my Twitter account.

She admits to having posted a lot of nonsense “… when I was 17”, and says she has received a lot of heat for things she has posted online before.

This week, professor emeritus in political science, Bernt Hagtvet (78), threw himself into it.

The feature NRK Dagsrevyen had with the new RU chief on April 20 was, according to him, “brain-dead ramblings about the right to use violence” and “a political and intellectual striptease that you have to go back to the AKP’s glory days to see the extent of.”

according to him The leadership of RU also stands for “… a left-wing totalitarian view of society where violence is inevitably the result”.

If that happens, RU’s new leaders will not stand behind it. Are you to believe what they say.

Different relationship with communism

For Kaur is crystal clear that she does not see violence as a legitimate political tool:

– I think it is completely reprehensible, completely undemocratic and I am for peace in every way. I have spent the last few months being a peace activist, says the RU leader, who has participated in and organized demonstrations in solidarity with the Palestinians.

The deputy leader of Rødt’s youth party, Ahmed Al-Saedi (22), has also told Aftenposten that he “distances himself from the use of violence and has no need for violence”.

Hagtvet is not the first to lash out at the RU management in recent days. Kaur says she thinks many critics display “… quite childish behaviour”.

In all seriousness, she makes a bit of a joke:

– Well-grown white men hate to see young, brown women enter politics, she says.

Kaur believes that Hagtvet attributes to her opinions she does not have and calls the professor’s claims about the RU management “unqualified”:

– I wasn’t even born when the Soviet Union fell. AKP was shut down before I learned to read. I don’t have the same relationship with communism as many older people do, she says.

So what kind of communism does the RU leader stand for?

One communist, more communists?

For Kaur, communism is “…a very broad movement with many tendencies”:

– What we stand for has nothing to do with the AKP, the Soviet Union or China. I do not agree with the ideologies of any of these. We are for peace and democracy, she claims.

Kaur says it was primarily American left-wing radicalism that was the source of inspiration when she became politically active three years ago. She mentions Black Panther Party Black Panther PartyThe BPP was a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary grouping, originally founded to protect black Americans from police violence. Members of the BPP were involved in several shootouts with the police. Sources: Britannica, Wikipedia. the activist Fred Hampton Fred HamptonFredrick Allen Hampton Sr. was a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist and heavily involved in the fight against racial segregation and police violence against African Americans. Was involved in a number of, occasionally violent, clashes with the police during demonstrations and gatherings. Hampton was killed during a police raid in Chicago in 1969. Source: Britannica. and the persecution they were subjected to by the United States authorities.

– There was a group of people who made hospitals for black Americans and helped women to have abortions.

– That is the type of communism Red Youth stands for, she claims.

Now Kaur, by her own admission, works to reduce injustice and not be indifferent to what is happening in the world.

– We live in an unfair world society. We can feed the whole world, but almost 10 million die of hunger every year. What I find totalitarian, extreme and violent is the liberal democratic indifference to this, she says.

The new “red peril”

Kaur says it is “absurd” that a word she has uttered, communism, has caused such strong reactions.

“Today’s neo-Nazis, like today’s neo-communists, share the same contempt for democracy and the same glorification of violence”, claims Hagtvet in his debate post.

– Hagtvet compares me, a 20-year-old girl, to Nazis. An ideology that advocates that some people are inherently less valuable than others. I don’t think anything of that. I am against genocide and economic exploitation, she says.

She calls much of what Hagtvet writes about RU “assumptions based on red fear”.

– I wish a professor could be more matter-of-fact. I could suggest that he read Marx, instead of clicking on 20-year-olds.

Before she adds:

– I am still a communist.