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- I have never stopped harrowing in the soil

Ole Kopreitan is celebrating 70 years. Far more important for the fight against nuclear weapons is that, for 50 years ago, he spoke his headmaster at Eidsvoll gymnas opposite.




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

[street parliament] The year was 1956. Hungary's revolt against Soviet occupation ended in a massacre. At the high school in Eidsvoll, the headmaster stood in front of the students and proclaimed that everyone should go out and work on a day's worth of income for the hard-pressed people trapped behind the Communist iron curtain.

But among the students was Ole Kopreitan.

- I said that it was fine for me, but that Egypt had also been attacked by Britain with French and Israeli help due to the Suez crisis. Therefore, I said that I wanted my money from the charity to go to the Egyptians. The principal first tried to snatch me down. But another teacher stood up and agreed; there had to be a balance in the charity action. In the end, my money went to Egypt, Kopreitan recalls.

No to Nuclear weapons personally, the man who for many years has stood with a converted pram full of jacket brands and political messages on Karl Johans gate, sits for once in No to the nuclear weapons office premises in Youngsgate in downtown Oslo. 19. September he turns 70 years.

The victory against the headmaster's alignment for 50 years ago became a strong inspiration for what has become a lifelong extra-parliamentary work on the left in Norwegian politics.

- It was an active political environment in high school. Einar Førde went there. So did Sigmund Kvaløy Sætereng. But raising an issue that actually ended in victory was very satisfying. I do not know how many others who said they wanted their money to go to Egypt, but… By the way, I wonder where Einar Førde was right then, he might have run after the girls, Kopreitan smiles, or Ole Kopp as he is called among friends.

A provocation

To recap the jubilant's life after just two hours of talking is not easy. The replicas are loose and the associations are many. Kopreitan's fight against nuclear weapons since No to Nuclear Weapons was founded in November 1979 dares to be known to most. For today's Norwegians, and not least for Oslo's inhabitants, he has almost become a synonym with the stroller on Karl Johan and No for Atomic weapons.

But where does the dedication and perseverance come from? Really long before the victory at the high school in Eidsvoll.

- I grew up with my siblings and mother at Hitra. The people there were fish farmers, neither poor nor rich. It was about practical solidarity. People knew that for society to function, you must also be concerned about the neighbor's well-being. This probably created a basic attitude in me as a child, says Kopreitan, who has long since forgotten that the two slices of bread he greased for breakfast when Ny Tid came to the office are still untouched on the plate.

The transition was great when he and his mother and siblings moved to Eidsvoll at the age of ten or eleven. The mother bought a small farm where Kopreitan still lives today – "or sleeps at night, while I am in Oslo during the day", as he says.

- To Eidsvoll we came from an egalitarian society on Hitra to something resembling a feudal state. Landowner Mathisen owned the sawmill and large areas of land. The forest workers were almost "serfs", completely in Mathisen's hollow hand, says Kopreitan.

The injustice became a provocation and teased his social conscience.

Lived behind a closet

In 1957, after finishing high school, the young Kopreitan moved to the capital. He had just read Unknown Soldier by Väinö Linna. It was to influence his choice of path further.

- The book gives a My Lai-like presentation of the Winter War between the Finns and the Russians. It was hell for both sides. After reading it, I decided to refuse the military. You know, at that time, military conscientious objectors were seen as halfway traitors, says Kopreitan.

Civil service lasted a total of 27 months. He took it at the Norwegian Geographical Survey, which at the time was housed in the buildings that today house the Academy of Arts. As a householder for the conscientious objector, things were not strange.

- I lived on the third floor behind a closet. I was thin then, and there was an opening with a space behind a cupboard where I had my sleeping bag and my bread box. The gutter outside was the fridge, where I had the jam jar. This is how I lived for the next three years, he says.

The civil service became just a cover, so to speak, for an accelerating political activity. In addition to studies in psychology, history and language skills, Kopreitan was quickly drawn into the Student Society, where he wrote minutes from the meetings.

- The student community had the nation's attention at the time. The newspapers were very concerned about what was happening there. They even paid to get the minutes from the meetings. I think it was up to 25 kroner per minute, says Kopreitan, and is interrupted by a phone call that he will be on NRK radio a few days later to talk about Russian rearmament.

- But really there was no left-wing opposition at the time. It was a politically indeterminate landscape, a nomadic life. The Labor Party advised the ground all the way down to the caretaker and the cooperative team, he continues after the agreements with NRK are in place.

The solution for the radicals was actions. In the years that followed, there were demonstrations and actions, also illegal.

For example, no newspapers would cover articles against NATO and nuclear weapons.

- We did it because there was no freedom of the press. For example, no newspapers would cover articles against NATO and nuclear weapons. But if we acted illegally, the newspapers wrote that we were arrested and why we were arrested. I remember one time Martin Nag – he still writes for Freedom by the way – was arrested. He is quite big and overweight, and shouted out: "Norwegian independence is heavy", when he was carried away by the police, Kopreitan laughs.

It was with the 13-group that the young Kopreitan was seriously drawn into the fight against nuclear weapons. The group, consisting of well-known intellectuals such as Bertrand Russel and Albert Sweitser, ran a campaign to end the test explosions that the United States and the Soviet Union contested. It was on the basis of this campaign that the annual Easter marches against nuclear weapons began in the early 1960s in England. At Easter, the British had time off, and thus time to participate in marches that lasted for many days.

- Some of those I knew, such as Hans Normann Dahl, Solveig Kulstad and others, went over to England to take part in these Easter marches. Then we started with Easter marches in Norway. 10-15.000 people participated. This was the first big wave against nuclear weapons, Kopreitan explains.

However, the wave was soon to descend into a valley. The Russians came forward and said that they had solved the problem with test explosions. Instead of blowing up nuclear weapons during the day, it could be done underground. Thus, it was no longer polluting and dangerous to health. The result was a test stand agreement in 1963 which meant full speed ahead with test explosions – well and truly underground.

- It became a lesson for all of us. At times, public opinion is naive and gullible. The whole protest movement disappeared overnight, it was believed that the battle had been won. I, too, have since admitted that I was fooled at the time. You want to celebrate something nice, says Kopreitan.

- Pick up Sigurd Allern

The fight against nuclear weapons was to remain dormant until the end of the 1970s. But Ole Kopp's commitment did not.

- The environment on the left was a political melting pot that helped prepare the political consciousness that created the Socialist People's Party, he explains.

A group around the forerunner of New Age Orientering, led by people like Finn Gustavsen, Berge Furre, Sigbjørn Hølmebakk, Guttorm Gjessing and Per Maurseth, founded the Socialist People's Party (SF) in 1961.

The background was dissatisfaction with the Labor Party's foreign policy, not least in relation to nuclear weapons. Kopreitan led the Socialist Youth County (SUF) from 1963-1965. He later was party secretary in SF, which previously overthrew Einar Gerhardsen's government in the Kings Bay case in 1963.

- At this time we were in SUF water and wood carriers for SF. We plowed new ground. I remember that Harald Berntzen, Carl Erik Shcultz, my wife Turid Evang and I boarded a small Austin Seven on a mission trip to northern Norway to recruit members. We had the addresses of people who subscribed to Orientering and sought these out at the door. Berntzen and Schultz pick up Sigurd Allern in this way, Kopreitan remembers.

But eventually party politics were pushed aside for extra-parliamentary actions and campaigns. The EU fight, the Mardøla campaign, the Alta fight and other purposes took more and more of his time. Until the neutron bomb was launched by the Americans in the late 1970s. If the Soviet Union invaded Europe with its large fleet of tanks, the use of nuclear weapons by the United States against such an invasion would destroy the entire continent. But with the neutron bomb, one would be able to target the attacks on the enemy and kill Soviet soldiers in the tanks – without destroying material values, the United States proclaimed.

- But the American neutron bomb met massive resistance in Europe. Here in Norway, it was actually the Christian People's Party Youth, together with, among others, Magne Hoem and Jon Grepstad who started a call against the new form of atomic bomb. In a short time, they had collected 60.000 signatures against it, Ole Kopp recalls.

On the basis of this, No to Nuclear Weapons was founded in November 1979. The development exploded; At the beginning of the 1980s, the organization had 300 local teams and 130.000 members.

If you want to have contact with people, you have to be where they are

- Must be on the street

Since then, Kopreitan has been true to the organization and the fight against nuclear weapons. And since then he has been out among the grassroots, almost daily with the pram on Karl Johan.

- For me it is a necessity of life, as important as it is for the whale to go up to the surface to breathe, he says.

It is 50 years since Kopreitan moved to Oslo and threw himself into political work. For 40 years he has taken to the streets with his political message.

- During these years I have become acquainted with thousands of people. Tens of thousands walk past my booth at Karl Johan on a Saturday. Not least, I meet the youth through the sale of brands with a political message. Folkehøgskole in miniature, I call it, says Kopreitan.

He can not understand that environmental and solidarity organizations are shutting themselves in their offices.

- I have never stopped harrowing in the soil, have worked on the ground floor. I have never had the urge for higher office. If you want to have contact with people, you have to be where they are on the street, the jubilee Ole Kopp concludes.

Then he gets ready to stroll over to Karl Johan with his pram, his perpetual mobile – the eternity machine.



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