Trane, Marcus

Marcus Tranje (October 14, 1817, Christiania - April 30, 1890, Eau Claire , Wisconsin , USA ) is a Norwegian political and public activist of the labor movement, a journalist, one of the first agitators and leaders of labor protests in Norway (at that time being in union with Sweden).

He was born in the family of a merchant and director of a bank, who was convicted of embezzlement and imprisoned, because of which the family was put to shame and in a difficult financial situation. At the age of 15, he was orphaned and lived with relatives for some time. In 1837 he left Norway and went to France through Germany and Switzerland, but stayed in Paris for several months, having experienced the influence of utopian socialism there, and in December 1837 he returned to his homeland. In 1840 he graduated from the theater and entered the university to study theology, but was soon forced to leave school due to lack of money. On August 11, 1841, he married Marie-Josephine Buch, whom he taught French, moving to Lillehammer and founding a private school with her there; In marriage, they had five children. In 1846, the couple moved the school to Osgordstrand, but a year later they returned to their former place. In 1847, Trane moved to the village of Omot in Mudum, where he became a teacher at a school for children of workers in a glass factory. In April of the same year, he was dismissed along with 250 employees due to financial difficulties at the enterprise. The family then moved to Drammen, his wife’s hometown, where Tranet became editor of the local newspaper Drammens Adresse, but was fired after only five months of work because of his radical views. At this time, he had already begun his political activities.

On December 27, 1848, Tranet founded the Drammens arbeiderforening (Drammen Union), which included 160 workers. The following year, several other local unions were established within the framework of the national organization, after which Tranet began publishing the first trade union newspaper, Arbeiderforeningernes Blad; at that time he traveled extensively around Norway, contributing to the creation of unions. In May 1850, the union petitioned Oscar II, King of Sweden and Norway, and the Storting, signed by 13,000 members. The union demanded universal suffrage, universal military service (and not just for those who do not own property), equality before the law, better education and democratization of the courts, reduction or abolition of import duties on essential commodities such as grain, and support for poor farmers with allotments (Husmen) in the form of providing them with arable land on reasonable terms; also in the spirit of Christian socialism, he advocated the moral improvement of society. In November, the government rejected the request, in response to which in February of the following year many in the union began to speak out in favor of the uprising. Although Trana managed to prevent the rebellion, the authorities took the opportunity to arrest him, which happened on July 7, 1851. Tran and 132 other members were convicted on June 25, 1855; Tran was sentenced to four years in prison, in addition to the four years that elapsed before the final sentencing (in addition, until 1856 he managed to write articles in prison for his newspaper). Without the leadership of Tran, the labor movement in Norway broke up, and his attempts to recreate it after leaving prison were unsuccessful.

After the collapse of the movement, Tranet became a photographer, and when his wife died in 1862, he emigrated with his children to the United States. There he again began political activity among Scandinavian immigrants, continuing to work as a journalist in the Norwegian-language press. In 1865, he founded the Norske-Amerikanerne newspaper in Chicago. In 1866, he began publishing his second newspaper in Chicago, Dagslyset, which appeared until 1878. In 1883, he came to Norway for a short time to give lectures, but was disappointed by the reception and returned to the United States, where he lived until the end of his life and was buried there. In the 1880s he wrote several short satirical plays.

Tranet was known as a consistent critic of organized religion (but was not an atheist): he demanded a ban on Christian worship and requested that only free-thinking people be present at his funeral. In 1949, his remains were reburied in Norway. In modern Norway, streets in many cities are named after him.