Bjørnar Moxnes


Bjørnar Moxnes is a Norwegian politician. He is the leader of the Red Party, having succeeded Turid Thomassen on 6 May 2012. He is a member of Parliament from Oslo. He was formerly deputy party leader from 2010 to 2012.
In the 2017 elections, he was elected as the sole representative of the Red Party in the Norwegian parliament.

Biography

Moxnes was raised on Nordstrand in Oslo by a mother who was a nurse and a father who worked in a kindergarten. Later, while studying in the Oslo Cathedral School, he became a member of Red Youth.

Education

Moxnes did his higher education at the University of Oslo, where he studied sociology. In his Master's theses Med makt i bagasjen - En analyse av politikerelitens yrkesmobilitet, he analysed the tendency of politicians to change careers from politics to PR. Moxnes concluded that characteristics such as socioeconomic background and education have little direct effect on the probability of transition to high-earning jobs. Instead, according to Moxnes, this probability is influenced by political capital. He did not rule out that socioeconomic backgrounds and education indirectly affect occupational mobility, because high education or high socioeconomic status of parents make it more likely to get jobs which permit accumulation of the political capital.

Leader of Red Youth

In 2004, Moxnes became the leader of the Red Youth after having spent two years as secretary for the organization.

Politician and leader of Rødt

In 2010, he was elected deputy chairman of the party, and at the party's country meeting on 6 May 2012, he was elected new head after Turid Thomassen. In 2018, he nominated the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel for a Nobel Peace Prize.