Mao

MODERN TIMES CONVERSATION: We hear from Pål Steigan about his political background, upbringing and thinking. Also about the establishment of the newspaper Klassekampen, and his time in the AKP (ML) and Rødt parties. He is contrarian and censored in Norway when it comes to many issues. We have chosen to let him speak with his own arguments, where we meet him in Italy at the Franciscan monastery he has furnished as a writing room and seminar venue.

AFRICA: The film series Tidløs reise, which is now staged in several of the country's cinematheques, shows films rooted in African culture and history – but also Africa's connection to Europe and China.

DESPOTER: The totalitarian regimes of the 20th century caused disasters and crimes of completely different dimensions than any pre-modern tyrants could have imagined. But what qualifies those in power over the centuries to become tyrants?

CHINA: Yu Hua shows how today's economically controlled China of 40 years has moved from peasant society to the most economically powerful country

ORIENTATION OCTOBER 1968: Hans Skjervheim's new book The Liberal Dilemma and other essays deserve a certain amount of circulation for close political reasons. Some will welcome it with insults, accompany it with a chorus of voices, and bury it with a parable or a political sketch. Others will declare it well-known, label it outdated, passé and thus confirm its criticism. Some will think that it is precisely for this reason a very useful book, Øyvind Østerud writes, among other things, in his review.