(Nettavisen): – Using age and skin color as an argument shows how weak you are, says Bernt Hagtvet (78) to Nettavisen.
He is professor emeritus in political science at UiO and professor at Oslo’s Nye Høyskole. This week he threw himself into the debate surrounding the row in Rød Ungdom.
In an article in Aftenposten, Hagtvet writes that NRK Dagsrevyen has reached a “preliminary bottom”.
He is referring to a feature on the channel on 20 April where Amrit Kaur (20), the newly elected leader of Rød Ungdom, is portrayed. Kaur declares herself a communist and talks about taking the youth party in a new direction.
According to Hagtvet, the feature was “brain dead babble about the right to use violence”.
He receives immediate feedback from the new RU leader.
Shut up old white man
“Well-grown white men”
– A political and intellectual striptease that you have to go back to the AKP’s glory days to see the match for, writes Hagtvet in Aftenposten.
In particular, the professor reacts to Kaur calling herself a “communist”. He believes the leadership in Red Youth stands for a left-wing totalitarian view of society where violence is inevitably the result.
Kaur does not recognize that description. She points out that she was not born when the Soviet Union fell and that the AKP was closed down before she learned to read.
– I don’t have the same relationship with communism that many older people have, she says to Aftenposten, before slamming Hagtvet:
– Well-grown white men hate to see young, brown women enter politics.
Reacts to the use of words
Hagtvet reacts to the rhetorical shift in the youth party. Kaur is clear that she is a communist and when RU got a new leadership, this term was also reintroduced in the party programme.
Former party leader Bjørnar Moxnes argued for taking the word out of the programme.
– It’s a suicide, because they don’t understand the intellectual legacy they’re playing with, says Hagtvet.
In addition, he responds to Kaur’s suggestion that well-grown white men hate to see young, brown women enter politics.
– Using age and skin color as an argument shows how weak you are, says Hagtvet.
– Obviously feels hit
Kaur explains to Nettavisen that the statement about “well-grown, white men” was aimed at all the inquiries she has received recently.
She believes that much of the criticism she has received “does not consist of real arguments”.
– I think it is remarkable, because I have made it clear that my target group is minority youth. Still, well-grown, white men obviously feel very offended, says Kaur to Nettavisen.
The RU leader believes that people who express themselves politically in favor of others than this group are being tried to be trampled on.
– It is the same people who roar the loudest against the “woke hysteria” and “cancellation culture” who are the first to try to disempower and ridicule political opponents.
Armed revolution?
Kaur also does not recognize herself in the Hagtvet’s descriptions of violence. He believes the leadership in the youth party stands for a social view where violence is inevitably the result.
According to the father of communism, Karl Marx, armed revolution was necessary to create the classless society. But to Nettavisen, Kaur is crystal clear that she does not see violence as a legitimate political tool.
– Red Youth stands for a democratic upheaval of the social structure we see today, says Kaur.
She says that her communism is inspired by activists such as Fred Hampton, Angela Davis, as well as former AKP leader Jorun Gulbrandsen.
Kaur has come under fire for saying that deputy Ahmed Al-Saedi “loves Lenin”. Later, comments from Saedi have appeared in which he defends Stalin and the Berlin Wall.
The Berlin Wall was a wall and fortification the authorities in East Germany built around West Berlin to prevent their population from fleeing there.
Nettavisen has written about the conflicts that ravage the youth party. You can read more about that here and here.
