The Role of the Temperence and Labour Movements and Churches in Norway from 1850
1. The Well-established Social and Political Structures of the 19th Century.
1.1 Norway under Swedish Rule
Norway was ruled by Sweden and had nothing resembling democracy as we understand it today. There was a well-functioning network of informants who reported to the authorities in Stockholm to ensure that Norway was held firmly under control. As in other European countries alcohol was used to keep the population subservient with alcoholism and alcohol-related violence rife, even in the higher levels of society.
1.2 Strongly Stratified Class System / Extreme Poverty
It is not uncommon to hear many Norwegians today claiming that Norway escaped the strong class system of, for example, that in Britain. This is far from the truth. Norway was a society built on massive exploitation of the vast majority of the population. Most of these were agricultural and industrial tenant workers. The chances of them improving their status were few. The class divisions were very visible. There were the bourgeoisie and their servants, the farmers and their tenants, the boat owners and the fishermen, property owners and those without a home of their own. Norway's first railway from Eidsvoll to Oslo had a special carriage for ordinary people without roof or benches. They sat outside on the luggage together with their farm animals in rain, sleet, snow and ice.
At this time Norway was among Europe's poorest countries. Foreign tourists visiting Norway described unimaginable poverty and people who did not live much better than the animals in a British barn. We can laugh at this today, but the truth is that most Norwegians lived worse than the cows on an average English country estate. People had hardly any education, few could read and write beyond the most primitive level and hunger and malnourishment was the norm. About half of all children died before they reached the age of five.
Around 1900, the Norwegian Football Association received its first visit from a foreign national team, Poland. The Football Association's leadership was ashamed of the conditions in the Norwegian capital, Christiania, so the match was moved to Fredrikstad, Norway's richest city at the time. The Polish national team with managers stayed in the city for a week. When they returned home to Poland, they left behind all their kit, balls, and other equipment along with gifts of money. The poverty in the city had shocked them to the point that they had to do something. Fredrikstad Football Club still plays in the Polish national team kit, white jersey and red shorts.
1.3 Exploitation of Women and Children
The proportion of women in industry in Norway between 1850 and 1900 was around 30% and they often had the most health-hazardous jobs e.g. matchstick workers. They were also in some occupations seen as the property of men and often sexually exploited. The famous Norwegian writer, Aleksander Kielland, lived in the centre of Stavanger. His kitchen maid was visited by a friend in her chamber in Kielland's house by Bredevannet. Then word came that Kielland's wife was indisposed that evening and the maid's services were required in Kielland's bedroom. To her friend's surprise, the maid said no. Kielland then announced that his wife had approved that she could be her stand-in, but the maid still said no. She told her friend that Aleksander Kielland was a gentleman; it was acceptable to say no. What does this say about the rest of Stavanger's fine families with house maids?
Children were also exploited; In the county of Agder, it was common for children aged 7 to 13 to walk from west to east every spring to be shepherds, help on farms, house maids, etc. The pay was 40 NOK (Norwegian crowns) for girls and 50 NOK for boys for 7 months work. At most, about 2,000 children walked, unprotected by adults, approx. 150 kilometers over the mountains from Kvinesdal to Arendal. The practice lasted from about 1820 to about 1900. The proportion of child workers in industry in Norway was higher than in England, about 10%.
1.4 The Position and Influence of the State Church
The Lutheran State Church was a mainstay in maintaining the structure status quo in society. In part this was a way of ensuring its own privileges and also a result of Luther’s 2 -regiment teaching that taught people to accept their position in the family and society and not to climb in status and riches or to challenge the political or church authorities.
2. Agents of Change
Fortunately, there was a chain of events during the 19th Century that gradually led to change and better conditions for the majority of the population, but these improvements were not made overnight.
2.1. Napoleonic Wars and the Quakers
An interesting development began during the Napoleonic Wars from 1800 to 1814. Norway was blockaded by the British Navy and importing food was almost impossible. As a result many people died of starvation and malnutrition. The conditions were not much better for the Norwegian sailors captured by the British. These were imprisoned in ships anchored in ports along the east coast of England and they had little food, poor clothing and no heating. Disease was rampant and there was a high mortality rate. The only help these sailors got was from the local Quaker congregations. They brought food, clothes, blankets and a quiet, contemplative, pacifistic Christianity that made an impression on the prisoners. In 1814 and 1815 they were allowed to go home to Norway and about 100 of them returned as followers of the Quaker movement. These formed a congregation concentrated in Stavanger in the southwest of Norway with members scattered across the country. The Quaker congregation was strongly opposed by the governmental authorities and the State Church priests, partly because the Quakers refused to keep membership lists as these lists formed the basis for conscription for military service. This, and church worship, was the responsibility of the priests who could see their authority being threatened.
2.2 The Act of Tolerance in 1845 and continued State Control
Those seeking change within the State Church also met opposition. The lay preacher Hans Nielsen Hauge had been persecuted and imprisoned in the first quaternary for his private meetings with a strong focus on preaching and prayer and his strong criticism of the clergy. After this, his descendants pushed for the easing of clerical control over their parishes, and a law that allowed religious meetings and worship outside the state church.
Thus, in 1845, Norway passed a law that ended the State Church monopoly and allowed non-conformist denominations to establish congregations. Thus, the Quaker Congregation and soon after the Methodist Church, the Lammer Free Church and several smaller communities became legal. The Lammer Free Church was a small offspring from the Lutheran State Church with a large congregation in Stavanger.
However, it wasn’t all plain sailing. Norway was no more free-spirited than that the existing power relations should be preserved with all the state's means of power, and they were formidable around 1850. Marcus Thrane organized ordinary people into Farmers and Workers Associations where the aim was to better their living conditions. About 10% of the adult Norwegian population joined. Thrane was imprisoned and the associations forcibly disbanded and zealous members threatened with prison. Marcus Thrane himself remained in jail for 7 years and chose to emigrate to America to find more tolerant conditions.
2.3 Total Abstinence Association from 1859
In the late 1850s, a renewal took place in Norway's only Quaker congregation based in Stavanger. Here their goal went far beyond the purely religious, it was quite simply to make a total change of social, economic, and political conditions in Norway. With their Christianity and the boldness of the Gospel they started their quest. At first, they took on the problem of drunkenness that stared them in the face every day and that kept the population more oppressed than anything else. Norway was a thoroughly alcoholic country, from the leaders of society to the poorest workers, both women and men, and this had no veneer of enjoying alcohol. For example, the small white houses in Stavanger accommodated several families. Everywhere you could hear, smell and see the results of drunken men and women who mistreated their spouses and children, drank up what should have gone to houses, food and clothes.
The head of the Quaker congregation was the skilled and well-educated Asbjørn Kloster (1826-1876). He brought with him the slightly older Peder Sunde (1821-1900) and several fiery zealots. The Quaker congregation financed a stay for Kloster among Quaker congregations in England. Here he had learned how they organized, lobbied, carried out social work and built a total abstinence movement. Peder Sunde was young, idealistic and would prove to be a God-given organizer. An 8-year-old Thorstein Bryne (1851-1941) was present at the founding meeting and was the association's most enthusiastic member for more than 80 years.
Stavanger housed a number of brothels where drunkenness went hand in hand with venereal diseases and human deprivation. Spirits were the social drink on a par with coffee today. Liquor and other alcoholic beverages were a common part of workers' wages. In 1860, 2 crowns and 2 drams was a normal daily wage. It wasn't hard to see where to start; if people were to have the slightest chance of improving their situation, they at least had to be sober. This had the added advantage that the civil servants, police and governing authorities could not ban and arrest an association that sought to combat alcohol abuse. They themselves saw all too well the need for a greater sobriety, even if most of them would never take a vow of abstinence.
The Stavanger Total Abstinence Association was founded by the Quaker congregation on Christmas Day 1859 with Asbjørn Kloster's personal motto as the association's goal: "From everyone's exploitation to everyone's benefit!". The motto was as timely, yet as far from realism as one could get in 1859. At a public meeting 200 people turned up and they founded the association on the same day. Most were not Quakers but were driven by the same cause. Although the association felt that recruitment of new members was slow, in reality, it had an almost explosive growth with 200 members in 1861, 440 in 1862 and up to 1,700 at most in the 1870/80s in Stavanger alone. It was led by Asbjørn Kloster and Peder Sunde from the Quakers and Peder Andreas Frøiland from the Lammer Free Church.
The association worked actively and founded associations from the south to the north of Norway. There were soon so many associations that a national Norwegian association had to be organized. The first General Meeting was held in 1862. Here we can clearly see that the Total Abstinence movement represented by ordinary men, woman, artisans and farm workers who stood outside the Norwegian Establishment. There were also denominations outside the State Church and representatives from Marcus Thrane's banned movement. There was a direct link from members and managers in Thrane's Workers Associations to the total abstinence associations and the management of the central Total Abstinence Association. There were also active members in Methodist churches around Norway who were leaders of local Total Abstinence Associations and the Central Board. This «motley crew» did not lack self-confidence and ambition. Kloster began publishing the monthly magazine "Menneskevennen" (Philanthropist) for Total Abstinence's members and friends. It focused on abstinence issues, local associations, strategy, and political goals. The journal became an important link for the associations and members all over Norway.
The Total Abstinence Movement and its journal introduced many radical innovations in addition to the abstinence work itself. Asbjørn Kloster emphasized that all members had equal rights; Women and men should have the right to vote and equal access to all elected positions in the associations. Children should have their own groups and be treated with the same respect as all others. The associations built their own houses with reading rooms for the betterment of its members. The association had tea parties, social gatherings, choirs, music groups, entertainment, trips etc. The goal was to offer a complete alternative lifestyle without alcohol. In addition, the associations emphasized social responsibility and initiatives, work for peace and a just society for all its inhabitants. The combination of abstinence and the Non-conformist Churches catered for all aspects of life from cradle to grave.
The association's success was founded on skilled leaders, enormous personal commitment, continuity, and discipline in management. The success among people was created by the fact that everyone could see the changes in the lives of those who joined the association and turned their lives around; the difference between having food or not, being able to live better, getting better work that you could keep, peaceful family relationships, no fear of drunkenness and violence in the home. In addition, you got a social network in which you were a valued member. It was emphasized outwardly that the Total Abstinence case was a civil issue, but inwardly there was never any doubt about the Christian foundation of the movement. Total abstinence, Christian preaching and social commitment were integrated and inseparable. "From everyone's exploitation to everyone's benefit" was for Asbjørn Kloster a religious and political goal and separating the two was unthinkable.
2.4 Influences of the Methodist Church from 1873 and External Opposition
The Stavanger Total Abstinence Association was the founder and leader of total abstinence work in Norway and the largest and most well-organized association in Stavanger. A natural goal was that those who previously were without influence in society slowly fought their way to influence and respect, first in the local community in Stavanger and then in Norway. This was not appreciated in all areas of society and not always in the State Church which was often an advocate for the status quo.
As the Association became more successful Kloster, together with the board of the association, believed that they needed to have a broader base for their control of a membership that was 20 times larger than The Quaker congregation. With success came pressure on the small group of Quakers in the leadership. As a result, Asbjørn Kloster first allied himself with the Lammer Free Church, but there were new developments in Stavanger that were to have a large influence on the Association.
The Methodist Church in Oslo started an outreach in Stavanger in 1873 under the Methodist pastor Andreas Olsen and by 1874 a Methodist congregation was founded in Stavanger. Olsen was often appointed for this type of congregational planting where the church's leadership in Oslo expected strong local opposition. He arrived in May 1874 and joined the Total Temperance Association the day after his arrival. Kloster first tested him as speaker in the association's regular public meeting and then in the children's group. When he had shown his abilities among the children, he was elected to the Association's board, the central board in Stavanger County and the central board of the Total Temperence movement in Norway. Asbjørn Kloster’s decisions were not questioned. Thanks to the Total Abstinence Association, the Methodists had a meeting room till their own church was built and the public attention meant that the congregation quickly established itself with around 100 members.
The Methodists were allowed to take over 2/3 of the Stavanger Association's property and built a church next to the Association's own building. In addition to the front entrances they also had doors facing each other in a narrow alley off the main street that provided easy access for both groups. They had joint members, speakers, actions, demonstrations, trips, fixtures and kitchenware. In the Methodist Church, women had the same rights as men, could act as speakers and sat on the church board.
Not unexpectedly all of this was met by massive opposition from the city's priests, including Lars Oftedal. Oftedal was already at this time one of the leaders of the Lutheran chapel movement in Norway and one of Norway's most famous men. His position as priest in the Lutheran state church and leader of the Lutheran lay movement outside the state church made him very influential. Interestingly the Methodists had Stavanger's first mixed choir, which initially created a scandal, but was quickly copied by Lars Oftedal in his own chapel, Bethania.
Eager adversaries tried to have Anders Olsen evicted from of the apartment he lived in with his wife and children. No merchants would sell anything to him or his family and connections in the Total Abstinence Association had to be responsible for all purchases. There was so much unrest in front of the two buildings that the main entrance had to be blocked and the doors in the small alley had to be used with a solid guarded gate facing the street.
The leading priest in Stavanger, Albert P. Sagen, organized the resistance to the total abstinence associations by sending his priests out into the district to get the total abstinence associations dissolved. His ministers sought out local associations around the district and actually succeeded in having some shut down. Lars Oftedal was particularly effective. The total abstinence town of Sandnes had its association significantly reduced and the total abstinence groups in Soma and Høyland were shut down.
Coincidentally, Sagen had a meeting with his priests on the day Asbjørn Kloster was buried. 3,000 people out of Stavanger's 20,000 inhabitants followed his coffin in procession to the Quaker's graveyard. Sagen was taken aback by this respect for Asbjørn Kloster and this made him rethink his views regarding the total temperance movement to the extent that he changed his position and praised the work of Kloster and the Total Abstinence Association. The priests were told to stop the incitement efforts. The overall work quickly picked up again and, for example, in Sandnes the association had 1200 members in a town with 750 inhabitants. The surrounding rural areas contributed with members. Lars Oftedal also changed his mind and supported the abstinence work.
The Methodists warmly supported the total abstinence association and ensured that there were 100 loyal members voting for the nomination committee's recommendation to the board at each annual meeting. Thus, control over the association was secured, and Peder Sunde was able to continue his work when Asbjørn Kloster died far too young in 1876.
2.5 The strong influence of Lars Oftedal in Stavanger and Western Norway
It is impossible to understand anything about Stavanger without understanding Lars Oftedal’s enormous influence in the city with its surrounding areas from about 1870 until his death in 1900, aged 62.
Initially Lars Oftedal was employed in the Kristiansand Diocese and preached in churches from Arendal to Voss. As a result of an enormous amount of work he became the unofficial leader of the Lutheran revival movement in western Norway. He spoke to large gatherings, often outside the churches and the parish priest's control. He sought conflict and strife, and often saw himself as a victim of other people's resistance and wanted sympathy in conflicts that included feuds with several priests. Lars Oftedal had an interest in social work, the fight against gin (not total abstinence) and immoral life, but at that time no political orientation. Like many Lutheran priests he had no interest in changing fundamental power relations in society. On the contrary, it was more important than ever that people were led by the priest and that everybody knew their place in the flock to be shepherded by the priest.
Oftedal became chaplain in Hetland Church in Stavanger in 1874 where his clear voice and a combination of humour and seriousness made him an outstanding preacher. He focused on sin and salvation with the aim to strengthen the individual’s frail flesh so that the fire of hell was avoided. His songbook was called "Trumpets and harp tones". The message was the same for rich and poor, servant and master of the house, property owner and priest. He had a large following in Stavanger with his chapel Bethania housing up to 1500 people and established a number of social foundations as well as the magazine Bibelbudet (The Message of the Bible).
By January 1876 an enlarged Bethania opened with seating for 3000 people and the chapels Bethlehem at Jåttå, Nazareth and Capernaum the quayside warehouse in Strømsteinen, were also opened funded by gifts from a wealthy few and thousands of small contributions. Oftedal created the Bethania quarter which included the large chapel, a home for infants, printing house, work room for «fallen women», orphanage and more. Oftedal was personally very committed, especially to the children and orphans.
However, Oftedal’s very pietistic approach also created a lot of enemies. His sharp opposition to decorations, parties, alcohol abuse, dance, theatre, fancy dresses and any hint of vanity was not popular with the small upper class in Stavanger. The money for luxury was to be given to his social activities. He gained many powerful enemies with his continuous attacks on everything and everyone and emphasis on life on the narrow road that continuously became narrower and narrower. From Oftedal's point of view, everyone was against him; the rich did not want to contribute to his projects as they should, the priests were "cold and indifferent" like dead fig trees, almost all friends and collaborators ended up as bitter enemies often ruined. He took control over the previously main Lutheran lay organization, Stavanger Inner Mission, and shut it down in favor of his own organization, Jæren and Ryfylke Inner Mission.
One opponent received the following letter: "If you do not stop now, I forbid you in the name of Him who has said: do not touch my anointed and do not harm my prophets, because then God's Punishment awaits you. For it is not me you mock, but it is God who has sent me; it is not me you are persecuting, it is Jesus of Nazareth”. With this perception of himself and control over a newspaper and a religious magazine that promoted his views, Oftedal became so powerful that he could not be stopped by either the bishop or Stavanger’s famous author Aleksander Kielland.
The Quakers and the Methodists had considerable sympathy for Lars Oftedal, even though he did much to shut them down. Confession of sin and personal repentance leading to a better life and being faithful to the congregation were important to both churches. But the theological differences were fundamental and important. For the Quakers and Methodists, the purpose of a Christian conversion was more than just avoiding hell. Salvation was followed by a changed person who took hold of his life, became a better person for himself, his family and, in turn, society. The converted should not just be an obedient contributor to charitable foundations governed by an official priest in the State Church, but by changing society itself. The Christian conversion was expected to change society and the politics of Norway by changing those who were saved.
2.6 Political upheaval in the 1880’s
In the 1880s, Norway had its major political upheaval and essentially a revolution in the political system with the introduction of parliamentarism in strong conflict with the Swedish authorities and the Norwegian bureaucratic state. Politics became polarized into two political parties; Liberal (Venstre) and Conservative (Høyre). For the first time since 1814, large sections of the population mobilized for a political cause. Liberal became a broad alliance with many different groups in which the Total Abstinence Associations and the dissenter churches formed significant elements. Locally, several of the leaders in the abstinence associations had already been elected to the city council, but with no influence in the parliament.
The Liberal party nominated Lars Oftedal as one of two Stavanger candidates at the parliamentary (Storting) election in 1882. He mobilized his supporters and potential partners to the maximum. 1,100 of his followers joined the Stavanger Total Abstinence Association and the association received free advertisements in Oftedal’s newspaper Vestlandsposten. Oftedal was enormously important for the Liberals and was pushed forward as a leading figure in their election campaign. The party distributed posters with a picture of Lars Oftedal all over the country. He was the guarantee that the party was both Christian and credible. The Liberals won by a good margin in Stavanger and the rest of the country. For the first time in 72 years, the victory party in Stavanger was alcohol-free. Lars Oftedal represented Stavanger and parliamentarism was implemented in Norway by the country's first government elected by "the people".
Groups that had been without political influence discovered that they could have influence locally and nationally. The total abstinence people and the dissenters not only got political power, but discovered what they could achieve when they stood together as a united movement. Lars Oftedal himself was not very interested in the Storting's politics and rarely attended the debates. He traveled around as a speaker in the Lutheran lay movement instead.
In 1885, Lars Oftedal wanted to extend his stay in the Storting for one more period. His program was opposition to denominations outside the state church and poet's salary to Aleksander Kielland. In Stavanger, the abstinence people, the Non-conformists and other more radical groups were mobilized to fight against Oftedal being elected from Stavanger. There were a number of very lively campaign meetings in the Liberal party where, among others, the priest in the Methodist Church, Anders Halvorsen, was heavily critical of Oftedal. Oftedal did not react when his supporters tried to beat up Halvorsen in one of the meetings. The party's chairman Johannes Steen who was headmaster at the Cathedral School had to step in to save the priest. Oftedal handed out free memberships to the party to his followers in Bethania with the result that the total abstinence association's members, Non-conformists and radical members were pushed out of the Liberal party.
This ended with the Liberal party being split into two factions, the Radical and the Moderate. Rene Venstre, the radicals, included everyone in Stavanger who did not want Oftedal as their representative in the Storting. The group organized an alternative list for the election. To everyone's surprise, Lars Oftedal was not elected in the 1885 parliamentary election. The alternative list won a majority. This was a national humiliation and great personal disappointment for Oftedal, and he did not take it well. He mobilized his 1,100 followers and took over the entire Stavanger Total Abstinence Association, including the board, premises, meetings and funds. The old management was thrown out.
This only revealed the great organizational weakness of Oftedal's followers. The women in the total abstinence association terminated their work in protest and that led to the association actually going bankrupt after about 6 months. The old leaders with Peder Sunde and the Methodists then had to take charge again and here they discovered something significant; Oftedal’s followers knew little about managing an organization. They hadn't taken minutes of any meetings, not even board meetings, they hadn't kept accounts or taken care of receipts, they didn't know how to manage meetings and were in reality incapable of leading a large association with almost 2,000 members.
The party Radikale Venstre, Radical Liberals, was formally founded in Stavanger Total Abstinence Association building in 1888 with headmaster Johannes Steen as local leader.
In 1889, Lars Oftedal made his famous confession about an adulterous relationship with a woman other than his wife and he lost «everything» overnight, office, income, property, funds, friends and colleagues. Many of his old disciples turned their backs on him and those he thought were friends almost fought each other to tear him down. He could, among other things, not rent any premises in Stavanger. As a last resort he then approached the Total Abstinence Association and asked if he could borrow their building to hold his meetings. He was met with the same respect as when he was at the height of his power, and with a base in the abstinence building he quickly managed to rebuild himself locally in Stavanger. His faithful followers were loyal to him and not the people trying to take over his “empire”. In two years, he was able to build his own meeting house, Salem, with space for 3,000 people and founded the newspaper Stavanger Aftenblad in 1893. This time Lars Oftedal did not forget his true friends. He was a rock-solid supporter of the Total Abstinence cause, the Stavanger Abstinence Association and the Methodist Church and all received abundant publicity in Stavanger Aftenblad.
Beyond the 1890s, the mood changed completely in all leading parts of Norway and the Total Abstinence cause won great support also in the upper echelons of society. The abstinence organizations in Stavanger showed their strength at an annual «demonstration day» from 1894 in which thousands of children and adults participated. The symbol of the city's recognition was that at the General Meeting of the Total Abstinence Associations in Stavanger in 1895, they were allowed to borrow the Stavanger Cathedral and the main speech was given by a priest from the Methodist Church. One of the association's leading members, Johannes Steen, became prime minister in 1891 and 1898. His government abolished, among other things, the luxury tax on paraffin and made paraffin lamps affordable for ordinary people.
4. Labour Party Hegemony and the Welfare State
By the end of the century, the Total Abstinence Associations had long since created many similar associations, some in the form of lodges (IOGT), and associations that ran total abstinence work alongside the original association. Together, all of these became the total abstinence movement. The total abstinence movement had remained within the established political parties; mainly the Liberals but also in the new and growing Labour Party. Through these, the association's leaders entered local and national political positions. Total abstinence work was a cornerstone in the life and development of the city of Stavanger.
In south-west Norway, John Tanke Sviland, who started the Arbeidernes Ring association (the workers association), is regarded as the father of the labour movement. What is less known is that Arbeidernes Ring was a subdivision of the Stavanger Total Abstinence Association designed to reach the increasingly larger group of workers in the city's industrial enterprises. John Tanke Sviland was paid via the association and in this case mainly by Peder Sunde personally. Arbeidernes Ring was essentially an integral part of the Stavanger Total Abstinence Assosiation. This led to the labor movement in Rogaland getting an even stronger relation with the total abstinence movement than elsewhere in the country. The local Labor Party and trade unions remained warm champions of total abstinence until long after 1945.
Despite its political influence via other parties, the abstinence movement felt the need to form their own political party, the Abstinence Party. From the municipal elections in 1898, the electorate could vote for the Abstinence Party and representatives from their organizations. However, the most significant result of political influence came with various referendums limiting the sale of alcohol and eventually a total ban on sale of alcohol in Norway. In 1910, a total of more than 200,000 adults participated in the total abstinence movement in Norway, which was more than 10% of the adult population and the electorate.
Production of spirits became prohibited in Norway during the First World War as all potatoes and corn had to be used for food. After the war Norway had a series of referendums on limiting and prohibiting the sale of alcohol. The referendums all came out in favor of prohibition with the majority vote especially high in Rogaland. The Labor Party and unions came out in staunch support of prohibition in all referendums with Martin Tranmæl as a forceful speaker at rallies in Stavanger. The result was that Norway was «dry» from 1916 till 1945. The exception was moderate sale of wine via the state monopoly called Vinmonopolet after 1930.
Perhaps the total abstinence movement's most important contribution to the development of Norway was that they taught thousands of people how to create and lead an organization. The Labor Party derived its organization and day-to-day administration from the Total Abstinence Associations through its meeting management, elections, accounting, auditing, agitation, songs and activation of members in choirs, theater groups, musical bands, sporting clubs, women’s groups, children’s groups, youth activities etc. This also applies to many organizations in Norway, and without this training the development of “organizational Norway” would not have been possible.
Although the Labor Party grew quite slowly between 1900 and 1920 it had a backbone of skilled idealists from the Methodist churches, the Pentecostals, the Salvation Army, parts of the Lutheran lay movement and the total abstinence movement. In 1911, the party added total abstinence to its program with Martin Tranmæl as the great organization architect in the party from then to 1940. He grew up in Melhus, where from childhood onwards he learnt his trade in the Total Abstinence movement, and it was here he started his career as a paid full-time agitator for Total Abstinence movement. Under his rule the Labor Party and many unions became organizational blueprints of the Total Abstinence movement and Oslo Labor party took the initiative to form total abstinence lodges within the labor movement throughout Norway. Martin Tranmæl, Einar Gerhardsen (Prime minister and leader of the party) and Børge Olsen-Hagen from Stavanger sat on the first board for this local lodge.
In 1912, Norway experienced its first major strike in protest against miserable conditions for ordinary people. Aftenposten, the biggest newspaper, described it as a communist revolution and demanded that the army intervened. King Haakon VII perceived the strike as a hunger protest and claimed that the workers had just demands. The authorities showed restraint, and the strike ended with a giant meeting at Youngstorget, the main square, in Oslo. At the end of the meeting sentiments ran high and the leaders realized that a song should end the demonstration. Thus 20,000 people sang in unison with full throat; "When the fjords turn blue like the violets in the fields and the trees glisten in the glittering sun". They did not know much about ideology and socialist hymns, but they knew everything about hunger, disease, tuberculosis, coughing, drunkenness, violence, cold, poor clothing, no shoes, and miserable living conditions. They mobilized against that.
In Stavanger, being active in the labour movement was synonymous with being active in Total Abstinence, with the Olav Kyrre lodge the labor movement's own abstinence lodge in Stavanger. The Association's premises, Totalen, were the gathering place for the labor movement, its political party and unions. Here they had both large meeting rooms and a smaller room for the leaders. During the Great Strikes of 1921, Totalen was the headquarters and starting point for demonstrations and attacks on strikebreakers. On Maundy Thursday 1922, Stavanger Labour party organized a celebration in Totalen for members with families on the occasion that editor Børge Olsen-Hagen (Rogalands Avis / the newspaper for the local labor movement) had recently been released from the Penitentiary in Oslo.
In 1925, the city of Stavanger marked its 850th anniversary with a large exhibition visited by King Haakon and the Prime Minister with a big official celebration in Bjergsted. The Labor Party organized its own party in Totalen. Børge Olsen-Hagen wrote in his editorial: "Recently there was a large exhibition in the city visited by 40,000 people. There were large celebrations in the town like on the old market days and many were waiting to get evidence of the failure of prohibition. They were disappointed. The jails were empty, and you didn't see any drunk men in the streets."
In October 1925, the Labor party held a big celebration in Totalen on the occasion of the good election results that year, but by 1931 the Labor movement had built Folkets Hus (the people’s house), and it became the natural gathering place for the trade unions and Labor Party.
"Tillitsmannen (The elected representative)" was written by Einar Gerhardsen and Martin Tranmæl in 1930 and contains the recipe for how the labor movement should be organized and led. All shop stewards in the party and the trade unions had to know this book by heart. The book barely mentions the word socialism, but taught how to make speeches, lead meetings, write minutes, organize elections, collect money, accountancy, auditing. Women's and men's rights are equal in all areas. There are chapters on peace work, children's groups, education, theatre, songs and singing, total abstinence, sports associations etc. Asbjørn Kloster and Peder Sunde would have nodded approvingly. When the General Meeting of Total Abstinence Associations for Norway was held in Stavanger in 1949, 10,000 people came to hear the Labor Party Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen give the opening speech.
The Labor Party won a majority of votes in the parliamentary elections from 1935 to 1965. In 1936, a law was passed on old-age benefits and there was a law on rights to vacations, regulation of working life and many other things. Over the course of 30 years, the ideas were integrated into the Norwegian people's psyche to such an extent that when more conservative parties took over the government in 1965 there were no thoughts of change, merely continuation. The leader of the Conservative Party, John Lyng, called his autobiography "Changing of the Guard", not "Back to the Good Old Days". The coalition government introduced the National Insurance Scheme in 1967 and when the oil revenues started to flow after 1975, they did not end up in the pockets of shipowners or banks as in most other countries. The policy was about an equitable distribution and "everyone's good" in the long run. The creation of the oil fund in the 1990s is the clearest example of a policy that distributes wealth not only for the present few, but also for future generations.
5. Post-war Changes and legacy from the past
After the Nazi occupation from 1940 to 1945, there was a revolt against the idea of prohibition and central management of private life. This led to major changes in attitudes and culture and banning the production and sale of alcohol slowly became almost impossible. The Total Abstinence organizations gradually lost ground in the political arena and the local associations also lost ground in support of their daily work. Similarly the denominations outside the State Church had their heyday from 1900 till 1970 with large memberships and activity in the Methodist Church, the Salvation Army, the Pentecostal Movement, the Baptist Church and others.
6. Summary
In the first half of the 19th Century in Norway extreme poverty, drunkenness and domestic violence went hand-in-hand for most of the country’s inhabitants. Those privileged few had no desire to change the status quo. Through Quaker influences on former prisoners of war and then after 1845 the advent of Non-conformist Christian organizations there was an increasing climate for change.
In 1859, a handful of idealists with a clear Christian ethic chose the impossible and utopian slogan "From everyone's exploitation to everyone's well-being". In the next 60 years, the Total Abstinence Movement achieved their social goals with a halt in alcohol sales and an improved standard of living. In the following 100 years their ideals penetrated the core of Norwegian society beyond their ideas of prohibition. The ambitious visions, idealism, hard work, faithfulness, perseverance and effort of a few people produced great results, perhaps even more than they envisioned.
Asbjørn Kloster and Peder Sunde are probably the best examples in Norway that show how a few idealists manage to rise above the narrow boundaries between people and special interests. Their strong values united and totally transformed the Norwegian society into a more equitable and better place. In Norway today, it is taken for granted that prosperity and welfare should apply to everyone. During the Corona epidemic there were no divisions, vaccines were available for everybody, based on need and not status in society. It was so natural that no one even questioned why the king himself was in the vaccination queue. Such a society has not come about by accident but has been created by ardent idealists. We should all be grateful for their achievements and hope that more idealists like them will help shape our future.
Sources and Literature:
Kampen om alkoholen i Norge 1816 – 1904, Per Fuglum, Universitetsforlaget 1972
Soga om Lars Oftedal, Berge Furre, Det norske Samlaget Oslo 1990
Vår sak er rettferdig, Arbeiderbevegelsens historie i Rogaland 1850 – 1905, Kristian Sunde, Dreyer Bok Stavanger 1981
Fra Botsen til Løvebakken, Agitatoren, redaktøren og stortingsmannen Børge Olsen-Hagen, Commentum 2023
Martin Tranmæl, Et bål av Vilje and Veiviseren, Tiden Norsk Forlag, Oslo 1991
Utviklingen av Metodismen i Stavangerområdet fra 1874 til 1898, Per Skarung, Universitetet i Bergen 1983
Stavanger Totalavholdsforening, Privatarkiv 106, Statsarkivet i Stavanger, Forhandlingsprotokoller, Forhandlingsprotokoller Ungdomslag, Bidragsbok, Regnskap 1859 – 1902
Vennenes Samfunn, Privatarkiv 160, Statsarkivet i Stavanger, Årsforsamlings og to-månedersforsamlingsprotokoll, Disiplinprotokoll, Vennenes Samfunns protokoll 1859 – 1910
Asbjørn Klosters Brevkopibok 1868 – 1875
Asbjørn Kloster, 2 notisbøker 1866 – 1875
Metodismehistorisk Selskaps arkiv, Brevkopibok 1874 til 1881
Vestlandsposten 1878 – 1898
Stavanger Aftenblad 1893 - 1900