Erling Falk

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Erling Falk (born August 12, 1887 in Hemnesberget, died August 1, 1940) was a Norwegian businessman and politician.

Falk attended school in Trondheim (1901), Mosjøen (1903 and high school in Stavanger (1905) before he moved to Duluth, Minnesota in 1907. In the United States he undertook varying forms of work and short-lived studies, including working as a land surveyer in Montana and as an accountant for Industrial Workers of the World in Chicago. In 1918 he moved back to Norway and established Mot Dag, a radical association which had its origin in the university environment, which until 1925 was associated with the Norwegian Labor Party and from 1927-29 was associated with the Norwegian Communist Party.

In 1928 he was a part of the Comintern World Congress in Moscow. He translated Karl Marx's Das Kapital to Norwegian, and wrote the book Hvad er marxisme? (What is Marxism?) in 1936. Mot Dag dissolved the same year, but in contrast to most of the other members he did not join the Labor Party. During the 1930s and beyond, Falk was weakened by bad health, and he died at 53 years of age from a congenital heart condition.