Ole Kopreitan

Who was Ole Kopreitan?

Ole Andreas Kopreitan was a Norwegian political activist, best known as an anti-nuclear activist. For 30 years he led the anti-nuclear organization "No to Nuclear Weapons".

He was born in Stavanger as a son of Christian missionary Ole August Kopreitan and clothing worker Anna Ottervig. He grew up at Hitra, but moved to Hurdal when he was nine years old. He was educated at the teacher's college in Sagene.

He became a political activist in Oslo, and was among others known for storming Madserud tennis court on 13 May 1964, with 50 others, to halt a tennis competition between Norway and South Africa, in protest of apartheid. For this he was convicted for civil disobedience. At that time he was also involved in partisan politics, as chairman of the Socialist Youth Association. He was a party secretary of the Socialist People's Party from 1967. He later drifted away from partisan politics, mostly due to internal strife in the Socialist People's Party. He instead joined the popular movement Folkebevegelsen mot EF, which worked, successfully, to prevent Norwegian membership in the European Communities.

For 30 years Kopreitan led the anti-nuclear organization Nei til Atomvåpen. Aside from managing organizational affairs in Nei til Atomvåpen, he was very well known for spreading leaflets and selling campaign buttons from a cart on Norway's main street, Karl Johans gate. In 2002 he was awarded the Nuclear-Free Future Award.