Jeanette Martine Olsen (22 October 1873 – 23 September 1959) was a Norwegian editor and politician for the Labour and

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

parties. She was born in

Kristiania Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022, an ...

. Her first political position was as leader of the local women's branch in

Skien Skien () is a municipality in Telemark county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Grenland, although historically it belonged to Grenmar/Skiensfjorden, while Grenland referred the Norsjø area and Bø. The administrative ...

Labour Party from 1907 to 1912. From 1911 to 1913 she was a national board member of the Labour Party women's association. She was also a board member of the county branch in Bratsberg. In 1913 she was hired as manager of the newspaper ''

Haugesunds Folkeblad ''Haugaland Arbeiderblad'' was a Norwegian newspaper, published in Haugesund in Rogaland county. It was affiliated with the Norwegian Labour Party. ''Haugaland Arbeiderblad'' was started in 1907 under the name ''Arbeiderbladet''. It stopped in 190 ...

'', and she became editor-in-chief in the same year. The family moved to

Tromsø Tromsø is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tromsø Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality as well as the administrative centre of Troms county. The city is located on the is ...

in 1914, where she became manager in ''

Nordlys ''Nordlys'' is a Norwegian newspaper published in Tromsø, covering the region of Troms, and the largest newspaper in Northern Norway. History and profile ''Nordlys'' was founded in 1902 by Alfred Eriksen, who also was its first editor-in-ch ...

'' and then secretary of ''Nord-Norsk Fiskerforbund'' from 1917 to 1919. She was also a member of Tromsø city council from 1916 to 1919. In 1919 she was hired as manager in ''

Fremover ''Fremover'' is a regional newspaper published in Narvik, Norway. It has been published for more than 100 years, having been founded on May 27, 1903. ''Fremover'', which has no party affiliation, is read daily by approx. 29,000 people. Each editio ...

'', and sat for some time as a member of the

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, borough cou ...

Narvik Municipality () is the third-largest List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Nordland Counties of Norway, county, Norway, by population. The administrative centre of the municipality is the Narvik (town), town of Narvik. Some of the notable villag ...

. While living in Northern Norway she was also involved in smuggling from the Russian SFSR. She was a national board member of the Labour Party from 1918 to 1923, and was a

delegate Delegate or delegates may refer to: * Delegate, New South Wales, a town in Australia * Delegate (CLI), a computer programming technique * Delegate (American politics), a representative in any of various political organizations * Delegate (United S ...

at the Third

Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...

Congress in 1921, but in September 1923 she was excluded for half a year for writing an "open letter" to

Martin Tranmæl Martin Olsen Tranmæl (27 June 1879 – 11 July 1967) was a Norwegian socialist leader from The Norwegian Labour Party. Biography Martin Tranmæl grew up on a middle-sized farm in Melhus Municipality, in Søndre Trondhjem county, Norway. He ...

, in which she stated that if not Tranmæl subordinated himself to Comintern, he would pave way for Fascism. Before the exclusion was lifted, the Communist Party had formed as a splinter party, and she joined it. From 1923 to 1928 she led the women's secretariat in the party, succeeding Olga Andersen in that position. She was a

at the Fifth

Congress, and also edited the party's magazine for women, '' Gnisten'', from 1925. In 1928 she resigned her party membership, together with high-profile politicians Emil Stang, Jr. and

Olav Scheflo Olav Andreas Scheflo (9 September 1883 – 25 June 1943) was a Norwegian Communist politician and journalist. Party activities Scheflo was a member of the Norwegian Labour Party from 1905. After the October Revolution he fought hard to convin ...

, since the Communist Party was against the formation of Hornsrud's Cabinet. She joined the ''Revolusjonære fagopposisjon'', Clarté and the

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...

. She rejoined the Communist Party in 1936, but was excluded after three months (in September) for defending

Lev Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

. She was now a

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

, and edited the periodical '' Oktober'' from April 1937 to September 1939. She also worked as a seamstress. She was married to Aksel Olsen (1869–1928), and had seven children. She died in September 1959 in Oslo.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olsen, Jeanette 1873 births 1959 deaths Writers from Oslo Norwegian newspaper editors Norwegian magazine editors Politicians from Tromsø Nordland politicians Labour Party (Norway) politicians Communist Party of Norway politicians Norwegian Trotskyists Norwegian women writers Norwegian socialist feminists Women's International League for Peace and Freedom people Norwegian women newspaper editors Norwegian women magazine editors