Einar Li (20 June 1880 – ??) was a Norwegian newspaper editor and politician for the Labour and Social Democratic Labour parties. He was also known as a conscientious objector, for which he received prison sentences.
He was born in Bergen as a son of a Lieutenant Colonel. He became known as a conscientious objector, a pioneer as such in the non-religious community.[1] For refusing to enter military training in the summer of 1906, he was sentenced to ninety days of prison in November 1906. He appealed to the Military Supreme Court, but the sentence was upheld on 15 February 1907. Later in 1907 he refused again, and was arrested in November. This time he received a sentence of one year in prison, the most harsh sentence to any conscientious objector in Norway at the time. When he refused to enter the military service for the third time, in the spring of 1908, the prosecuting authority gave up.[2] About 1,400 people honored him in public when he was released.[3]
He was a journalist in the Kristiania newspaper Social-Demokraten from 1901 to 1909,[1] and sat on the editorial board of Det 20de Aarhundre.[2] He edited Den 1ste Mai in Stavanger from 1909 to 1916. While living in Stavanger he was a member of the city council's executive committee from 1914 to 1916. He was also a delegate to the International Socialist Bureau.[1]
In 1916 he was hired as office manager in Stavanger municipality. He later became the director of the Union of Norwegian Cities. When the Labour Party split in 1921, Li joined the more right-wing Social Democratic Labour Party. When the parties reunited in 1927 he rejoined the Labour Party, but later resigned his membership.[1]