Mrs. Gundersen's 1. May demonstration

Orientering 1. May 1968

They can meet her in the newspapers every day. Mrs. Gundersen is not anyone. Mrs Gundersen owns Den norske Creditbank. At least that tells the ads from Creditbanken.

Although Mrs Gundersen does not own the bank alone, it is possible to read with several smaller types further down in the ad text. "There are 12 902 other individuals who each own some of it, but she then has 38 shares and is not so proud of it. Her shares are worth 5320 and gave her last year 323 in dividends. ”

This is of course nice for Mrs Gundersen, the bank thinks. And we must believe that. The exchange gives her the opportunity to sit even longer at Halvorsen's Conditori in the morning – or to pose a little extra when the Women's Right Association comes to visit.

Mrs. Gundersen feels a strong social responsibility: “She also thinks that her shares are of help to others. If there were no banks that could lend money, business would stop and many people would become unemployed. Mrs. Gundersen knows this. That is why she saves in the bank and also uses the opportunities she gets to buy more shares in DnC. ”

Mrs. Gundersen certainly does. But this Mrs. Gundersen is an advertising trick: the makeup face of capitalism. And make-up has been Creditbanken's PR manager.

Behind the facade, behind thick layers of ink and makeup, we find quite different and more bone-hard realities.

For example: During the post-war period, commercial banks have more than six times their capital – from 1,855 billion in 1939 to over 13 billion today. At the same time, the number of banks over the past 25 years has been reduced by half.

So we are gaining an ever-increasing concentration of power in few hands. The four big ones, namely the Norwegian Credit Bank, Bergens Privatbank, Christiania Bank and Kreditkasse and Andresens Bank / Folke-Realbanken alone have a sum of 8 billion. Of these, the Norwegian Creditbank is again the largest with 22 percent of the commercial banks' total capital.

In Kiærulf's Handbook for 1966 we find 109 names that fill the boards of directors and representatives in these four commercial banks. We can find the 82 of the members in leading positions within other of the companies the directory provides. In the insurance, trade and industry sectors they are represented with a total of 260 seats (cf. Ulf Arnesen in Orientering No. 45 / 67).

For example, CEO Alf Ihlen, chairman of the Norwegian Credit Bank, is also chairman of Strømmens Verksted, board member of IBM (Norway) and Det norske Zinkkompani, vice chairman of the board of directors of Norsk Hydro, board of directors of Borregaard, deputy chairman of the board of the Norwegian Trade and Maritime Administration, etc. .

In other words: Business men exert an influence that far exceeds what their number should indicate. A small circle of shipowners, forest owners, lawyers, business owners and directors today manage a lion's share of the country's capital and thus have the real control over the investments, the development of the country and consequently again important fields of Norwegian domestic policy.

Our requirement is a comprehensive investment plan for the whole country to replace the accumulation of bank capital with short-term investments in the Oslo pot. We want to bring the banking and credit system under social control so that the elected bodies can direct investment to those parts of our country that really need it – and in this way make Norway a country where all regions can offer their citizens the same living conditions and opportunities, socially, economically and culturally.

Today, an estimated 200 million is invested in new office and business buildings in the metropolitan area, the banks have the same administrative expenses as the total state administration, and it is used as much for one bank palace in Oslo as the Districts Development Fund has available to the entire country during one year. And Oslo has bank branches before 250.

But these capital forces do not just have a decisive influence on our economic policy. By virtue of their financial power, through a purchased and paid press, they can also exert a significant influence on opinion formation.

But democracy remains illusory as long as a cash-strapped minority is given more opportunity to assert its views than the overwhelming majority.

Only by cleaning up property conditions, by expanding democracy to include economic life, can one therefore create the conditions for a real meaning-breaking, a true democracy. And so the struggle for democracy ultimately becomes a socialist act.

There are also the same small but powerful capital groups that boycott Cuba and North Vietnam, seeking economic links with reactionary regimes such as Portugal and Brazil where they can benefit from the powers of the power and their underpaid labor, and who otherwise in practice fight the countries that waging a life-and-death struggle to break today's imperialist world structure as it engages with the rich countries' exploitation of the poor.

It is not Mrs. Gundersen who decides this policy. Just as the ordinary employee has a minimal influence on the management of the company, in practice the ordinary shareholder has no influence on the operations of the major banks.

The head of advertising at Den norske Creditbank wants us to believe something else: “According to the Bank Act and DnC's own articles of association, no one can vote at the general meeting for more than 0,1 percent of the share capital. Therefore, no group or individual can influence the bank's operations in narrow self-interest, ”he says.

But this is a very formal circumvention of the facts. The Norwegian Creditbank has 13 599 shareholders (12 903 individuals and 696 others – banks, insurance companies, foundations, companies etc.) The predominant part of these are small shareholders, Right voters and small savers like Mrs Gundersen, scattered around the country.

In practice, it will be impossible for these to organize the relations between themselves so that they can act together with their share amount at the general meeting, and thus have some real influence. Such a thing has hardly occurred, it is an exception that small shareholders at all attend the general meeting of a large corporation.

But Mrs. Gundersen believes she is helping to decide. And because many believe like Mrs. Gundersen, so does Mrs. Gundersen and the many.

For her, 1 has. may always have stood as something alien and hostile, almost vulgar. That is why Mrs Gundersen will also be staging flowers this year, raking in the garden and burning her litter in a silent announcement 1. May.

Others will demonstrate their indifference in long car queues out of the capital that day.

However, some suggest that 1. May is regaining its position as a political demonstration day. Around the world, the ranks of fierce struggle against the ruling power structure, against imperialism and distress are joined.

We don't have to go out of the country here to find enemies.