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Rødt’s program committee proposes to buy a number of companies in which the state already has ownership interests. It appears in the program committee draft, which will be presented Monday morning.
The goal is to ensure 100% state ownership in companies such as Equinor, Telenor, Norsk Hydro, Yara and DNB, Rødt MP Marie Sneve Martinussen explains to Dagbladet.
– The Labor Party and the Conservatives have been in a dogfight with each other for years for being the best seller. Thus, the community has lost both revenue and democratic control. We want to turn that around, says Martinussen.
Stock Exchange Toolboxes
When the acquisitions are completed, which Martinussen acknowledges will take time, the companies will be removed from the list, he says.
– This is how we can politically use business to expand industry and create green jobs in Norway. These are tools the state has deliberately refrained from using for years, but with the challenges we have now, we can’t just leave this toolbox in the basement, he says.
– We must move away from this passive and neutral policy from the business point of view that both the red-green governments and the bourgeoisie have followed, adds Red Top.
– Some will probably call this a pretty old-fashioned approach?
– This is a policy that once built Norway’s strongest and most important industry: the oil industry. The state and the community ruled Statoil to ensure industrial development in Norway, he responds.
Announce new course
Labor-driven sales boom
The state currently has direct ownership, managed through the ministries, in 72 companies. The state owns 67 percent of Equinor, 54 percent of Telenor, 36 percent of Yara and 34 percent of Norsk Hydro and DNB.
During his reign, from 2000 to 2001 and from 2005 to 2013, Jens Stoltenberg sold the status of seven state-owned companies and reduced his stake in ten state-owned companies.
Several of the companies have seen tremendous growth in the period after the Stoltenberg I government in 2000 launched the first round of public divestitures.
State fast food chain
Marie Sneve Martinussen, however, says that both the Labor Party and the bourgeois parties completely misunderstand what the meaning of state ownership should be.
– We must ask ourselves what is the objective of state property. In the stock market, the goal is maximum return, and if the government’s goal is profit, then we could just as easily start with government consumer loans or a government fast food chain, he says, adding:
– Or what about a state email scam? There’s probably a lot of money in it, says Martinussen and laughs.
She summarizes Rødt’s new program proposals as follows:
– There are many profitable things that are not the task of the state, and Rødt believes that the purpose of state ownership should be to guarantee the creation of value and jobs in Norway, through democratic control. Then we must increase ownership in more companies and take a more active ownership role. In the long term, these companies will have to go public, he says.
After next year’s elections, Rødt may end up on the cusp of Norwegian politics. A possible red-green government is guaranteed without Rødt’s involvement – Jonas Gahr Støre has been clear about this – but the Labor leader may still need Rødt’s support in the Storting to rule the country.
The terrorist probably released: – Difficult
Not from the Labor Party
Terje Aasland, Labor Party business policy spokesman, says the Labor Party will never be able to support Rødt’s proposed program to take companies like Equinor and Telenor off the stock market.
– The Labor Party must develop and strengthen state property. By that we mean that the state should be able to merge to a greater extent in partnership with private owners to secure long-term industrial property and capital as the basis for the development of companies with great potential for Norway. When it comes to the companies mentioned, it is not current policy for the Labor Party to buy up to one hundred percent and then take them off the stock market.
– Why not?
– A provision like the one proposed here by Rødt will probably mean, unfortunately, that the state reduces the room for maneuver to enter new companies with great potential, responds Aasland.
