Fagopposisjonen av 1940 (Trade Opposition of 1940) was a grouping among Norwegian

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

 trade unionists in 1940, after the German invasion of Norway

Operation Weserübung

Operation Weserübung was the code name for Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign...

.

It had roots in a 1930s informal oppositional group within the Norwegian labour movement

Labour movement

The term labour movement or labor movement is a broad term for the development of a collective organization of working people, to campaign in their own interest for better treatment from their employers and governments, in particular through the implementation of specific laws governing labour...

. The informal group was led by Håkon Meyer, and was more radical than the mainstream labour movement. On 9 April 1940 Germany invaded Norway

Operation Weserübung

Operation Weserübung was the code name for Germany's assault on Denmark and Norway during the Second World War and the opening operation of the Norwegian Campaign...

, and subsequently occupied the country

Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany

The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany started with the German invasion of Norway on April 9, 1940, and ended on May 8, 1945, after the capitulation of German forces in Europe. Throughout this period, Norway was continuously occupied by the Wehrmacht...

. The mainstream labour movement was now engaged in fighting and opposing a German rule. However, the grouping around Håkon Meyer wanted to steer the labour movement in another direction; taking advantage of the occupation to make conditions for laborers more favourable. The grouping was soon supported by some members of the radical Communist Party of Norway

Communist Party of Norway

The Communist Party of Norway is a political party in Norway without parliamentary representation. It was formed in 1923, following a split in the Norwegian Labour Party. The party played an important role in the resistance to German occupation during the Second World War, and experienced a brief...

, and by non-partisan trade unionists such as Halvard Olsen.

Fagopposisjonen av 1940 was founded as a formal group on 15 June 1940. Meyer and Olsen were leading figures, Jens Tangen

Jens Tangen

-Career:Tangen chaired the trade union Norwegian Union of Building Workers from 1935, having been deputy chairman from 1933 to 1934. In 1940 he was a central member of Fagopposisjonen av 1940 , for which he chaired the executive committee...

 headed the executive committee. The other members of the executive committee were Meyer, H. Olsen, Erling Olsen

Erling Olsen (trade unionist)

Erling Olsen was a Norwegian trade unionist.He was a trade unionist before the war, a secretary in Norwegian Union of Municipal Employees. He was also a member of Mot Dag for some time.From 1940 Norway was occupied by Nazi Germany...

, Martin Brendberg, Adelstein Haugen and Albert Johannessen. It was staunchly opposed by the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions

Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions

The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions is a national trade union center, decidedly the largest and probably the most influential umbrella organization of labour unions in Norway. The 21 national unions affiliated to the LO have more than 850,000 members of a Norwegian population of 4.8 million...

 (LO) and official organs of the labour movement; LO officially denounced Fagopposisjonen av 1940 as "underminers" on 26 July.

Around August–September the group was split in two. One part, led by Håkon Meyer, started accepting the Norwegian Fascist party Nasjonal Samling (who had taken power for a few days in April) as a cooperation partner. The other part disassociated itself with the Nazi rule. In late September Fagopposisjonen managed to have the German powerholders remove acting leader of the Confederation of Trade Unions, Elias Volan

Elias Volan

Elias Karelius Johansen Volan was a Norwegian trade unionist.He was born in Inderøy as a son of crofter Johan Berent Johannessen Volvollan and Lise Eliasdatter Kjærbo. He attended Sund Folk High School from 1903 to 1904, but spent the rest of his youth as a worker. In 1908 he became chairman of...

. Jens Tangen was installed as leader. Erling Olsen became secretary. Both Tangen, Meyer, H. Olsen, E. Olsen and Kåre Rein

Kåre Rein

Kåre Trygve Rein was a Norwegian trade unionist.He was a trade unionist before the war, a secretary in the Union of Employees in Commerce and Offices. He was also a member of the Norwegian Labour Party, but together with people like Håkon Meyer he joined Fagopposisjonen av 1940 in 1940 and the...

came to hold leading positions in the Confederation of Trade Unions in the next years.