Jacob Laurentius Vidnes (1875 – 1940) was a Norwegian trade unionist, newspaper editor and politician for the Labour Party.
He was born in Vanylven. In 1900 he was a co-founder of Kristiania socialdemokratiske Ungdomslag, for which he served as the first chairman. In 1909 he founded the trade union Norges Socialdemokratiske Presseforening, for all workers in the press. From 1912 to 1918 he was the editor-in-chief of the Labour Party newspaper Social-Demokraten. He also represented the Labour Party in Kristiania city council from 1914 to 1919, and was a member of its central committee from 1912.[1]
In 1918 the radical wing of the Labour Party assumed control of the party at the national convention. Vidnes stepped down from the central committee, and from the positions as chairman of Socialdemokratiske Presseforening and chief editor of Social-Demokraten. In a piece published in the newspaper Tidens Tegn he denounced the "Bolshevism" in the Labour Party. As the Labour Party became more moderate in the 1930s, Vidnes was appointed editor of Norsk Tidend, the organ of the Norwegian cabinet-in-exile in London, in 1940. He died the same year.[1]
| Media offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Carl Jeppesen |
Chief editor of Social-Demokraten 1912–1918 |
Succeeded by Olaf Scheflo |