Arbeideren (Hamar) - Communist Party Period

Communist Party Period

In 1923, the newspaper was renamed Arbeideren ("The Worker"), and the first issue with this name was released on 1 May 1923, the International Workers' Day. The change followed a letter in 1922 from the Comintern Executive, which stated that no newspaper belonging to a Comintern member organization should have "Social Democrat" or "Democrat" as a part of its title. The printing press of the party changed its name accordingly, to Arbeiderens trykkeri.

In the same year, 1923, the Labour Party broke out of the Comintern. Subsequently the Communist Party broke away from the Labour Party. The local chapter of the Labour Party in Hamar decided to side with the Communist Party in November 1923, in a 123–22 vote. Arbeideren was then taken away from Labour, as the supervisory council decided by a 65 to 5 vote that it should follow the Communists. Arbeideren was one of thirteen Labour newspapers that broke away from the party and followed the Communists (one, Nordlys, later returned to Labour). Since 15 February 1924 the newspaper was published under the name Arbeideren og Gudbrandsdalens Arbeiderblad, as the Communist Party had seen fit to merge Arbeideren with Lillehammer-based Gudbrandsdalens Arbeiderblad.

Editor Larssen and subeditor Solbakken both joined the Communist Party in 1923 and continued running the newspaper. As Olav Larssen was asked by the party to be the acting editor of Norges Kommunistblad in the winter of 1924–1925, Fredrik Monsen, Evald Solbakken, and Knut Olai Thornæs were acting editors between 1924 and 1925. Larssen eventually drifted away from the mainstream of the Communist Party. In late 1926 and early 1927 he voiced his opinion in columns that the Communist Party should contribute to the imminent merger of the Labour Party and the Social Democratic Labour Party. A local party convention strongly rebuked this opinion. Larssen was thus replaced in January 1927 and left the Communist Party, and Solbakken soon followed suit. Fredrik Monsen left the party at the same time.

Information differs as to who replaced Larssen. According to Evald Solbakken, and also to the reference bibliography Norske aviser 1763–1969, the replacement was Olav Scheflo, who needed a stand-in, Ingvald B. Jacobsen, for the first period. According to the encyclopaedia Arbeidernes Leksikon and historian Einhart Lorenz, Trond Hegna was the editor in 1927, before he took over Norges Kommunistblad in the summer of 1927. Hegna's main job was to edit the periodical Mot Dag, but in this period the people of Mot Dag had an informal influence on the Communist Party and several of their newspapers. Scheflo formally edited the newspaper from 1927 to 1928, with Eivind Petershagen as acting editor from late 1927. In 1928 Petershagen formally took over, only to have Jørgen Vogt become acting editor later that year. Vogt took over in 1929.

As many newspapers belonging to the dwindling Communist Party, Arbeideren would cease to exist before the end of the 1920s. It was still published six times a week, but had to give up its printing press in 1929, switching to Samtrykk in Oslo. The last ever issue of Arbeideren og Gudbrandsdalens Arbeiderblad was published on 4 October 1929.