Workers strike for Palestine in Oslo, Norway
Thousands of workers in Norway walked out of workplaces on Thursday as part of a two-hour political strike for Palestine.
Union members took action in three major cities, the capital Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim. They demanded Norway’s “Oil Fund”—a state investment company worth around £2 trillion—cut its ties with Israel.
The political strike was organised by the Oslo region of the LO union federation.
John Thomas Suhr is leader of the Oslo-Askerhus branch of the HK union for shop and office workers, which has over 19,000 members. “Today is a historic moment in Norway,” he told Socialist Worker.
“For as long as I’ve been active in the union, we haven’t had a political strike as part of an international solidarity movement.”
He added, “There was broad participation from all the public and private sector unions for the strike.
“But what is most significant is that there were lots of local unions across different workplaces discussing this and building for it.”
Mathis is on the shop steward committee at a building firm. He told Socialist Worker, “The Norwegian government was one of the first to recognise the state of Palestine and call for Benjamin Netanyahu to be arrested.
“We were quite proud of that, but at the same time it’s one of the biggest financial investors.”
Norway’s “Oil Fund” is a major investor in companies linked to Israeli occupation and apartheid, according to the Don’t Buy Into Occupation report. A total of 1,115 European financial institutions is involved—and the Oil Fund is at the top of the list.
John added, “They had a lot of sanctions on Russian companies when Russia invaded Ukraine.
“We want these sanctions on Israel, full withdrawal of the oil fund from Israel now.”
Mathis said, “Workers on strike included those working in schools, in hotels, universities, stores and people working in construction.
“All kinds of trades were there because the strike was called by the central union. That allows you to organise all those people who are interested in social justice, not just people on the left.
John said he felt that the labour movement in Norway had been “inspired” by the general strikes for Palestine in Italy. “Something is spreading,” he said. “A political strike is not something that happens in the union movement in Norway.
“It’s been a fight within the unions to make this happen, but we are pushing forward.”
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