Iceland says no.

[tellyontellyon]

Icelanders have voted no in the referendum. They are unwilling to pay for a system that has shown itself to be broken.

*** What organisations have comrades in Iceland and what is happening on the political front? Any updates?

This seems like a critical time for raising consciousness in Iceland.

[vyborg]

(from the BBC) "With a third of results counted, 93% of voters said "No" in a referendum.
Iceland's prime minister says her government will remain in office and continue to seek a repayment deal."

That's a great news! A blow to European capitalists! 93% is incredible! This means not only workers or petty bourgeois but even many rich voted against!

[R_P_A_S]

(from the BBC) "With a third of results counted, 93% of voters said "No" in a referendum.
Iceland's prime minister says her government will remain in office and continue to seek a repayment deal."

That's a great news! A blow to European capitalists! 93% is incredible! This means not only workers or petty bourgeois but even many rich voted against!

It would make sense to believe that maybe 7% are the rich?

[vyborg]

It would make sense to believe that maybe 7% are the rich?

Well I suppose not 100% of the others voted no...

[Dimentio]

1,5% voted yes.

[Communist Pear]

Why would the rich vote yes? They don't want to pay extra taxes either.

[Dimentio]

Basically, Iceland has been reduced down to a colonial situation today, where the national bourgeoisie is forced to (temporarily) cut its alliance with the international bourgeoisie due to national survival. I imagine that those who voted yes are probably mostly people with dual citizenship who usually are living abroad.

[vyborg]

Why would the rich vote yes? They don't want to pay extra taxes either.

the rich never pay taxes in this world....the pay people to avoid this duty.

I dont know if in Iceland there is a trot group. In this situation I think they could grow by leaps and bound. Basically 90% of the population has rejected bourgeois legal order...

[Q]

The other day in the news, they featured two yes voters extensively here. Sad propaganda ...

93% is a huge victory indeed, now we need to put forward a socialist, democratic and trans-European alternative.

[Dimentio]

the rich never pay taxes in this world....the pay people to avoid this duty.

I dont know if in Iceland there is a trot group. In this situation I think they could grow by leaps and bound. Basically 90% of the population has rejected bourgeois legal order...

Al8 is Icelandic, and is a bit more pessimistic. Since this latest treaty which sucked was supported by the left, the right would probably increase in popularity now.

[vyborg]

Al8 is Icelandic, and is a bit more pessimistic. Since this latest treaty which sucked was supported by the left, the right would probably increase in popularity now.

in the website of the left organization of the world (broadleft) they state in Iceland there is a SWP group, but maybe it is no more so.

[Crux]

in the website of the left organization of the world (broadleft) they state in Iceland there is a SWP group, but maybe it is no more so.
Nope it is not. We have a CWI group though, we recruited a member there when we sent people to report on the protest movement. And supposedly there is like 7 more people, "around" so to speak. Iceland is a bit far way, so we can't really send people to back up all the time but yeah at least there is something.

There is an article on Icesave on the CWI-Iceland webpage, hopefully there will be an update covering the referendum result soon as well.

http://sosialisktrettlaeti.blogspot.com/

[cb9's_unity]

I've read a few things about this, but I can't understand the reason's why anybody would actually vote yes.

Would you like to pay for your bank bailout or would you like it for free? Isn't the latter the obvious choice?

[al8]

Well seeing as I am Icelandic I should report on this. I think I'll first begin with the a brake down of the final and complete referendum statistic and outcome according to the National Electoral Commission of Iceland:

Out of an electorate of 230.018 persons 144.231 voted. Which amounts to a 62,7% voter turnout. 136.996 where valid votes. 7235 votes where invalid there of 6744 blank and the rest; 491 invalid for "other reasons". 134.397 or 98,1% voted no. 2.599 voted yes or 1,9%.

It is important to note that this resounding no was in spite of massive propaganda by the social democrats of the Left Green and Coalition party downplaying the referendum. Finance minister Steingrímur and Prime Minister Jóhanna announced that they would not vote, i.e they sent the message that others should do the same. The ruling parliamentary parties also announced that there would be another agreement around the corner anyway so it wouldn't matter to vote on this 'already defunct proposal'. There has also been other attempts to skew the extent of what was up for referendum. The referendum was supposed to be just about a minor detail of rate of interest payment, which it was not. Those who did not vote of the electorate were 37,3%. Some did it by recommendation and propaganda of the government. Others, mostly right wingers, because of their principled opposition to presidential referendum powers.

For good overview and introduction I recommend reading the English version of the pamphlet distributed to every home before the referendum by the Law Institute at the University of Iceland;


http://tjodaratkvaedi.is/images/stories/thjodaratkv_ENSKA_Vefur_m.pdf

It is a fairly balanced short wrap up of issues regarding the referendum. It contains a sample of the ballot form for those interested. Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icelandic_debt_repayment_referendum,_2010) has a good article on this as well.

[Y-Love]

Bloomberg News (yeah, ok, but still) was talking about how, basically, this is the first time that people were ever asked such a thing -- "do YOU want to, as a taxpayer, participate in a gov't bailout of this bank? are you cool with $15K in debt?" -- to which everyone responded "no".

The idea of, "we're the bank, we can do whatever we want" may be coming to an end. If this type of rejection of banking impunity were to happen worldwide -- if citizens EVERYWHERE were to say such a thing... could you imagine? If EVERYONE held big corporations accountable? Our countries would likely be drastically different places...

[Dimentio]

Bloomberg News (yeah, ok, but still) was talking about how, basically, this is the first time that people were ever asked such a thing -- "do YOU want to, as a taxpayer, participate in a gov't bailout of this bank? are you cool with $15K in debt?" -- to which everyone responded "no".

The idea of, "we're the bank, we can do whatever we want" may be coming to an end. If this type of rejection of banking impunity were to happen worldwide -- if citizens EVERYWHERE were to say such a thing... could you imagine? If EVERYONE held big corporations accountable? Our countries would likely be drastically different places...

Yes, its actually a pretty big event.

[al8]

Basically 90% of the population has rejected bourgeois legal order...

Mmmm, no. It really isn't framed in that way at all.

This issue, and the discourse on it isn't really centered around rejecting the captalist order of things. But rather do abide by the rules set forth to uphold this order. The Icelandic Depositors’ and Investors’ Guarantee Fund - and it's a fund not the people or the government of Iceland - was meant to cover, to whatever limited extent, depositors losses in saving should a bank go bankrupt. This means that there is a certain amount in the Guarantee fund that gets distributed "equally" to claimants seeking to get compensated. However the rich get preference in these matters of allotments as per order of the IMF.
The Guarantee fund is small and was and is found to deal 'inadequately' with the crash of an entire banking system.
The Netherlands and British governments (or more accurately the executive boards of the Dutch and British financial capitalists) want, with no legal basis, the tax base of the Icelandic state to become a Depositors' and Investors Guarantee Fund of sorts.

[Dimentio]

Mmmm, no. It really isn't framed in that way at all.

This issue, and the discourse on it isn't really centered around rejecting the captalist order of things. But rather do abide by the rules set forth to uphold this order. The Icelandic Depositors’ and Investors’ Guarantee Fund - and it's a fund not the people or the government of Iceland - was meant to cover to whatever limited extent depositors savings should a bank go bankrupt. This means that there is a certain amount in the Guarantee fund that gets distributed "equally" to claimants seeking to get compensated. However the rich get preference in these matters of allotments as per order of the IMF.
The Guarantee fund is small and was and is found deal 'inadequately' with the crash of an entire banking system.
The Netherlands and British governments (or more accurately the executive boards of the Dutch and British financial capitalists) want, with no legal basis, the tax base of the Icelandic state to become a Depositors' and Investors Guarantee Fund of sorts.

Would you say that this vote was on whether or not to keep national independence?

[vyborg]

Holland and UK saved Iceland and now wnat their money back. Icelanders refused to pay. That's very good. This is a start. The problem is wheter in the country there is a party that can move on from it

[Crux]

Holland and UK saved Iceland and now wnat their money back. Icelanders refused to pay. That's very good. This is a start. The problem is wheter in the country there is a party that can move on from it
Supposedly there is a left within the left-green party, that is currently in office, but they pretty much keep quiet. Al8 could probably tell you more about that. And as I said before the CWI does have a group, if very small, but the present time would seem ideal for making progress.

[vyborg]

Well in terms of population Iceland is like a small town of Europe. Proportionally, a group of 1000 should be considered almost an important party there.

[Crux]

Well in terms of population Iceland is like a small town of Europe. Proportionally, a group of 1000 should be considered almost an important party there.Shit if we were to build a cadre of 1000 we would be a mass-party. Or at least pretty close. So yeah I have high hopes. For you CWI comrades that are going to the summer school in belgium there will be at least one comrade from iceland attending. He was already a pretty well taught marxist, self-schooled so respect to that, before he joined, and it takes a certain kind of person to be the first to join the CWI in a country, so his report will no doubt be interesting.

[ls]

It's true, there are only 300k people in Iceland, when you consider how many people came out in the protests you should appreciate that this was Iceland coming out.

There appears to me to be a relatively high class-consciousness there, all that seems to be lacking is a vanguard party to be purely honest with you.

[Crux]

Sadly the main political organization to come out of the movement yet are pure populists, called the reform party I believe. But I think hopefully there will be more to come.

[vyborg]

If Iceland is like Sweden most of workers will be unionised, so the work should start with them

[Dimentio]

the rich never pay taxes in this world....the pay people to avoid this duty.

I dont know if in Iceland there is a trot group. In this situation I think they could grow by leaps and bound. Basically 90% of the population has rejected bourgeois legal order...

UK and the Netherlands did not save Iceland, they marked Icelandic banks on their terrorist list following the collapse of IceSave and subsequently worsened the Icelandic crisis, leading to a collapse of the entire economy.

[vyborg]

UK and the Netherlands did not save Iceland, they marked Icelandic banks on their terrorist list following the collapse of IceSave and subsequently worsened the Icelandic crisis, leading to a collapse of the entire economy.

You dont have to convince me that banks are terrorist...it is quite trivial to me. But for the legal environment we all live in, when you have a debt..you have to pay it back.. (unless you are a big bank, then the state comes in to the rescue)

[al8]

Well Vyborg, it could well be argued that all banks are the real terrorists, but how come that the UK didn't use a terror legislation on the other banks that failed around the same time, f.ex. the Lehmans Brothers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehman_Brothers) or the small one that was based in the Isle of Man? That the UK terror legislation was used exclusively on Landsbanki is an important point to to keep in mind.

[ls]

al8 is completely correct. The UK has imposed draconian measures (and even some xenophobia too :rolleyes:) against Iceland for what it perceives as "damaging the British economy" and taking something like 1 billion out of local council funding, even though they have overspent in literally millions of other ways that I can't even dream of listing in a coherent post.

[Dimentio]

al8 is completely correct. The UK has imposed draconian measures (and even some xenophobia too :rolleyes:) against Iceland for what it perceives as "damaging the British economy" and taking something like 1 billion out of local council funding, even though they have overspent in literally millions of other ways that I can't even dream of listing in a coherent post.

There is a history of animosity between Great Britain and Iceland since the Cod Wars of the 1970's. Through very aggressive means, the Icelandic fishermen managed to expand their territorial waters at the expense of international waters and the British fishing industry, which subsequently collapsed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cod_Wars

[al8]

Supposedly there is a left within the left-green party, that is currently in office, but they pretty much keep quiet. Al8 could probably tell you more about that. And as I said before the CWI does have a group, if very small, but the present time would seem ideal for making progress.

There are some socialists within the party but the party is thoroughly dominated by a clique of left social democrats. It is more the trend that socialists are leaving the left social democratic party Left Greens. I don't think it's worth mine or anyones effort to wade in that quicksand of a left social democratic party. My life span is short an valuable and I'm not going to spend it on a dead end. I will only bet on a safe horse.

There are socialists here and there but there is no well established party, more a network of friends and acquaintances at this point. It's a mixed blessing - it means the lack of ability to harness events and effect a course but also mean that the there is not the same amount of sectarian shitbaggery and gripes or severe political persecution from the state and the field is more wide open. There were every kind of communist parties and groups around in the 70' but nothing of it survived the splits - people just gave it up it seems. Got families, jobs and other more rewarding interests to take care of or something.

I've been talking to old comrades on how these movements succeeded and failed. One point to remember is that people agreeing with you somewhat or even a 100% doesn't matter. If there isn't a material struggle that has appropriate tasks for everyone that is in agreement and fosters a rational and communal working spirit there will be no effective party. A lot of the old movement were just social clubs or churches. But what are these tasks concretely that should be engaged in - how can the short to medium term goals tie in with the long term goals - these are the headaches. Is it protests? But they have been done to death and it's common sense that it is unproductive to just stand around. One thing that seems to be an agreement on is to help out borrowers against lenders. Which seem to be where the main conflicts of interests at the moment in this system - discounting English and Dutch imperialism.

So I'm not that happy about the general atmosphere of the left-swing. It can just as well swing into fascism. The social democratic ass kissers of the rich are mischaracterized as communists by right wing populists. There is a somewhat similar sort of fermentation going and in Iceland now as it was in Germany after the grossly unfair Versailles treaty. In fact the 'debt' wrongfully being pushed on the Icelandic tax base by the English and Dutch finance capitalists is proportionally per capita-wise much higher than the conditions fostered on the Germans in money terms.

[Wakizashi the Bolshevik]

It was a stupid for a referendum of course.
Basically the government asked the People: "Do you want to pay a massive amount of money because the banks have wasted many billions on useless speculation, driving our nation to ruin and utter bankruptcy?":laugh:
Logical that 93% voted no. Still, it's a wonderful victory indeed.

[Dimentio]

Are there really any foundations for fascism on Iceland? The island has a tiny amount of foreigners who mostly are exchange students or businesspeople (thus no large immigrant groups which could become the focal point of aggression). Iceland has no real army either, and no capabilities of creating one, so it doesn't constitute a threat against anyone bar from maybe Greenland and the settlements on the Arctis (:lol:).

[vyborg]

Well Vyborg, it could well be argued that all banks are the real terrorists, but how come that the UK didn't use a terror legislation on the other banks that failed around the same time, f.ex. the Lehmans Brothers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehman_Brothers) or the small one that was based in the Isle of Man? That the UK terror legislation was used exclusively on Landsbanki is an important point to to keep in mind.

Lehman Brothers didnt had retail deposits. So what was the point to treathen it (before it collpase anyway)? The reason why UK attacked Iceland banks was that they failed to repay back clients in UK.
But of course these are all excuses. At the end of the day UK attacked small fishes and not the big ones as always

[vyborg]

There are some socialists within the party but the party is thoroughly dominated by a clique of left social democrats. It is more the trend that socialists are leaving the left social democratic party Left Greens. I don't think it's worth mine or anyones effort to wade in that quicksand of a left social democratic party. My life span is short an valuable and I'm not going to spend it on a dead end. I will only bet on a safe horse.

There are socialists here and there but there is no well established party, more a network of friends and acquaintances at this point. It's a mixed blessing - it means the lack of ability to harness events and effect a course but also mean that the there is not the same amount of sectarian shitbaggery and gripes or severe political persecution from the state and the field is more wide open. There were every kind of communist parties and groups around in the 70' but nothing of it survived the splits - people just gave it up it seems. Got families, jobs and other more rewarding interests to take care of or something.

I've been talking to old comrades on how these movements succeeded and failed. One point to remember is that people agreeing with you somewhat or even a 100% doesn't matter. If there isn't a material struggle that has appropriate tasks for everyone that is in agreement and fosters a rational and communal working spirit there will be no effective party. A lot of the old movement were just social clubs or churches. But what are these tasks concretely that should be engaged in - how can the short to medium term goals tie in with the long term goals - these are the headaches. Is it protests? But they have been done to death and it's common sense that it is unproductive to just stand around. One thing that seems to be an agreement on is to help out borrowers against lenders. Which seem to be where the main conflicts of interests at the moment in this system - discounting English and Dutch imperialism.

So I'm not that happy about the general atmosphere of the left-swing. It can just as well swing into fascism. The social democratic ass kissers of the rich are mischaracterized as communists by right wing populists. There is a somewhat similar sort of fermentation going and in Iceland now as it was in Germany after the grossly unfair Versailles treaty. In fact the 'debt' wrongfully being pushed on the Icelandic tax base by the English and Dutch finance capitalists is proportionally per capita-wise much higher than the conditions fostered on the Germans in money terms.

what do you mean with left social democrats? what their programmes? left SD to me means advocating socialism even if with many ifs...

does this party has a youth section? how many people do they have? is there a left tendency inside the unions?

[al8]

Are there really any foundations for fascism on Iceland? The island has a tiny amount of foreigners who mostly are exchange students or businesspeople (thus no large immigrant groups which could become the focal point of aggression). Iceland has no real army either, and no capabilities of creating one, so it doesn't constitute a threat against anyone bar from maybe Greenland and the settlements on the Arctis (:lol:).

The biggest foreign groups in Iceland are Polish people and to a smaller extent Thai. Racist normally try to foment an anti-Polish sentiment, despite them being white. The total amount of immigrants settled in Iceland according to official statistics in 2009 is 28.644 persons or 10,6% of the population. Most of them are polish. The amount of polish born people residing in Iceland 2009 is 11.611. Here (http://hagstofan.is/?PageID=626&src=/temp/Dialog/varval.asp?ma=MAN12103%26ti=Mannfj%F6ldi+eftir+f%E 6%F0ingarlandi%2C+kyni+og+aldri+1%2E+jan%FAar+1998 %2D2009+++++%26path=../Database/mannfjoldi/Faedingarland/%26lang=3%26units=Fj%F6ldi) are the detailed statistics. It's in Icelandic but nothing so complex that google translate couldn't handle it.

There already is a fascist movement of sorts in Iceland at the moment called New Iceland or Nýja Ísland. They have held protests in front of the Althing during Saturdays. Have webpage which has a bizarre program which calls for, among other things; increased amounts of prisons, strengthening of the police, a draft on those that are jobless more than 3 month to work for the state. The leader of that org is rumored to be very misogynistic and on a mission to eradicate people with disabilities. Some of the more active part of this political group are on the executive board of one of the larger unions, VR.

Iceland does not pose a threat to other nations as Germany did. It is a mere outpost. However it is position strategically vis-a-vis Atlantic shipping routs, flight routs and potential oil drilling sites in the Dragon area and Arctic. But all the same the Icelandic state is a national capitalist security state and has a monopoly on violence. It has a small navy (Landhelgisgæslan) and a special force unit (Víkingasveitin), in addition to the regular police. It also has a secret service that used to spy a lot on radicals, and probably still does.

[Dimentio]

How big is "New Iceland"? Does it pose any immediate threat?

[al8]

what do you mean with left social democrats? what their programmes? left SD to me means advocating socialism even if with many ifs...

does this party has a youth section? how many people do they have? is there a left tendency inside the unions?

I'm talking in terms of electoral parliamentary parties. The Coalition party are a party of EU-admiring social democrats. The Left Green party is slightly more to the left on some issues, hence left social democrats. Some of the people who are at the left in the left-social democratic party the Left Greens are quite likable. Some of them are active in the unions, f.ex Ögmundur Jónasson was a union leader of the Union of state employees. The Left Green have a youth section The Young Left Greens. It is mainly a venue for potty training groveling little careerist on how to climb the party latter. I'm not sure on their numbers, real or inflated.

For more information you can read the English section of their website; http://www.vg.is/tungumal/english/
or send them an inquiry directly.

[al8]

Comrades might want to read this relevant article I translated for Revleft; A ponteration on IceSave and the class struggle (http://www.revleft.com/vb/ponderation-icesave-and-t130632/index.html)

And also a previous thread (http://www.revleft.com/vb/icesave-drama-t126244/index.html?p=1643073#post1643073) on this matter.

[al8]

Lehman Brothers didnt had retail deposits. So what was the point to treathen it (before it collpase anyway)? The reason why UK attacked Iceland banks was that they failed to repay back clients in UK.
But of course these are all excuses. At the end of the day UK attacked small fishes and not the big ones as always

Why should the Icelandic state pay out more than was in the Depositors' and Investors' Guarantee fund alloted for this private bank in the event of it's bankruptcy? The Icelandic state has no other obligation than this according to rules and regulation. And the 'National Bank' or Landsbanki hf. was not a national bank it was a private bank that I'm not sure was even owned so much by Icelandic citizens. It had multiple owners from all over the world.

[Dimentio]

Why should the Icelandic state pay out more that was in the Depositors' and Investors' Guarantee fund alloted for this private bank in the event of it's bankruptcy? The Icelandic state has no other obligation than this according to rules and regulation. And the 'National Bank' or Landsbanki hf. was not a national bank it was a private bank that I'm not sure was even owned so much by Icelandic citizens. It had multiple owner from all over the world.

It is obvious that Iceland is a weak prey for British and Dutch capital. What would happen is that the island state is going into a bad cycle of debt slavery, with debtors offering more debt to repay existing debts which only exist because bankers screwed up.

[Crux]

93% say ‘No’ to bail-out for investors

www.socialistworld.net, 09/03/2010
website of the comitee for a workers' international, CWI
The IMF is the problem: They are trying to dictate the policy of the country
Interview with Skúli Jón Kristinsson, CWI Iceland
http://www.socialistworld.net/img/20100309Grafik1868451389740423140.jpg
We have seen recently some angry protests and demonstrations on the streets of Reykjavik. What is this “Parliament of the street”?

People in Iceland are very angry about having to bail out it’s financial elite by paying for their debts abroad. There is strong indignation among them also about how the country is being bullied by the institutions of global capitalism. Support for EU membership has declined greatly among Icelanders because of how the “Icesave” dispute is being handled by the ruling powers of the European Union. A climate of anger and distrust among Icelanders towards institutions such as the EU or the IMF has developed. Another significant issue for many working class and middle layer households is the monstrous rise of their personal mortgage debts since the collapse of the bank system and decline of the national currency. A large part of Icelanders face serious problems now with paying their mortgages and making ends meet. In Iceland the debts automatically rise with inflation, and the consequence of that is that many households are facing bankruptcy, or are unable to make ends meet after paying of their loans.
Large sections of the population are therefore quite desperate and feel helpless. The government has done next to nothing in helping those people. They haven’t taken any steps to solve those problems facing ordinary people, while spending billions of Icelandic kronur in bailing out the bankers. So there is a very strong demand now in Icelandic society for some action to be taken, such as debt cancellation.
There have been demonstration meetings since December last year, where people have been calling for the cancellation of mortgage debts and protesting against having to pay the debts of bankers. These demonstrations have been taking place more regularly and with more people participating since January. A new protest movement seems to be developing and escalating. The so-called “Parliament of the Street” is a newly formed umbrella organisation of different activist- and grass-root organisations who have united in organising weekly demonstration meetings in the centre of Reykjavik. The organisations involved include the Icelandic section of Attac, the organisation for the defence of households, The Red Platform, the Icelandic Humanist Association and a group which fights for the interests of disabled people.
The demands they put forward are: for at least partial cancellation of debts on mortgages and households, abolition of the debt index, abolition of debts when people go bankrupt, the IMF out of the country, the “risk investors” who bankrupted the country to be held responsible for their actions, human values be be put before profits and more opportunities for the general public to have a say in how society is run. The first demonstration this alliance organised was last Saturday, the same day the referendum was. More than 600 people were there to protest the “Icesave” deal. You could feel a lot of anger and indignation from the people present against the bullying that is now taking place against Iceland.
What was the ‘Icesave referendum’ in Iceland – on Sunday, 7 March 2010 – all about?

We were voting on the law passed by the Icelandic parliament which would make taxpayers guarantee the repayment of the massive debts, caused by Icelandic bankers, to the British and Dutch states. Icesave was the name of the online banks set up in Britain by Landsbanki, one of the big 3 banks of Iceland. When the Icelandic banks collapsed in October 2008, the government passed emergency legislation to rescue their deposits. But those outside Iceland were not included. So the British and Dutch governments jumped in and paid €3.8bn to bail-out the depositors in their countries. Afterwards, they tried to claim it back from Iceland.
The majority in the Parliament led by Social-democracy and the Left-Green Party accepted that and passed the ‘Icesave law’. The opposition, right-wing parties, don’t oppose paying in general, but only argued that a better deal with the governments in Britain and the Netherlands would be possible.
But the president, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, didn’t sign this into law. Even though his position is largely symbolic, with little power, he has to sign all legislation which passes through parliament. According to the constitution, he can refuse to sign legislation and if that is done, it triggers a referendum. This is the first time it has ever happened, however. The Icesave law is very unpopular and controversial. So, Grimsson refused to sign it, presenting himself as a real representative of ‘democracy’, even though, because of his previous policies, he was more seen and known as a representative of the bankers.
What was the result of the referendum?

Ninety three per cent said ‘No’ to this bill and the turnout was 62 per cent, much higher than expected. This marks a clear defeat for government policy. The people who voted ‘No’ did so for a mixture of reasons. Some people completely oppose the idea of paying this money at all. Others hoped for a better deal with the British and Dutch governments.
The prime minister and the minister of finance said that the result didn’t surprise them because they knew that the issue was unpopular. But they also claim that the referendum was meaningless because new negotiations with the British and Dutch governments had already started before the referendum took place! They aim to present a new deal with the British and Dutch governments soon.
The 5 October 2008 turned Iceland from one of the richest countries to a bankrupt state. What did the government do?

It put forward this emergency legislation and brought in the IMF. The IMF demands that the Icelandic state should ‘honour its obligations abroad’, including paying the so-called ‘debt’ to British and Dutch governments. But this debt was caused by the Icelandic financial elite and working-class and middle-class Icelanders should not have to pay it. The IMF demanded that the federal bank lowered interest rates, and wanted it to abolish restrictions on currency trading, and other technical economic measures. The federal bank is now running low on its currency funds.
If Iceland pays the money to the British and Dutch states – as the IMF demands – it would be an equivalent of €48,000 per head of the population in Iceland. To be able to pay this money, the government has started to attack living standards, with cutbacks in healthcare and education.
Moody’s rating agency has threatened to lower Iceland’s rating to that of junk bonds. What would be the result?

Many people fear that. A lot of people fear that Iceland could be reduced to a pariah status internationally if we refuse to pay the full amount. On the other hand, people are also afraid of the consequences for the economy and living standards if we pay the debt. I think it is too soon to say what will happen exactly. But I think paying the so-called debt will have more serious consequences for workers and youth in Iceland than if we refused to be bullied by the institutions of global capitalism. I don’t have any illusions in the government or the new negotiations. The best thing would be to mobilise people now for a generalised mass movement against paying these debts and against the power of the financial institutions like Moody’s.
The trade unions are very passive. The official left parties, like the Social-democracy and the Left-Green Party, are not working-class parties. So we have to attempt to win back the unions as tools of struggle in the interests of the workers and build a new workers’ party. This will take time and effort, but it’s the only plausible alternative.
The governments of Sweden and Finland have hinted that they could stop their financial help for Iceland because of a No majority in the referendum. What results will this have?

The Swedish and Finnish governments are loaning Iceland money through the IMF. Unfortunately, these sorts of threats can be effective in restraining the people from fighting for their own interests. The IMF is not acting to help Iceland maintain its healthcare or defend living standards. The loans from the IMF are only to increase the currency funds of the federal bank and get the currency floating again. As far as I can see, the IMF is the main problem: it is trying to dictate the policy of the country.
After protests in the street, the old government had to resign in January 2009. After new elections in April 2009, a government of the Social-democracy and the Left-Green Party was formed. Did anything change?

Not really. There were big hopes and illusions in the beginning. The new government continued the attacks on living standards and public services, but presents them in a milder form. For example, in the health care system, they ‘only’ intend to take smaller steps than the previous government in implementing the cuts, postponing them a bit but implementing them nonetheless. The governmental policy hasn’t changed much. The ‘Left-Green’ minister of finance, Steingrimur Sigfusson, has now re- privatised the banks, which means he is responsible for the biggest privatisation in Icelandic history!
When people went onto the streets last year, they demanded the resignation of the government and new elections. They also demanded that the board of the federal bank should resign. Now a lot of people are disappointed because nothing has really changed after those goals were achieved. The problem was that this movement was very spontaneous. It had no long-term goals. The unions were very passive – in fact, they were absent. So the movement brought down the government, but no social change has followed. We should be asking ourselves in Iceland and anywhere else, what changes do we want to see? The discussion should not be about whether we support the government or not, because the government does not support the workers and youth.
And, what changes do you want to see?

I’m in favour of an automatic rise of wages to keep pace with inflation. A cancellation of the debts of working people’s households should be implemented. Iceland should stop paying all foreign debts and defend their health care and education. The books of the financial institutions should be opened. We want to see where the money went to. The nationalisation of the fishing industry and aluminium industry is necessary, under workers’ control and management, to use the wealth of the country in the interests of workers and youth. The banks should be re-nationalised under workers’ control.
How can this be achieved?

The only alternative is to put pressure on the government and fight the government by street demonstrations, strikes, and other forms of protest. We should stop the cut backs and struggle to get the IMF out of the country.
The most important thing is that, if Iceland refuses to pay for that Icesave money, it can act as a model for resistance in other countries in the neo-colonial world, or other countries in Europe, like Greece, which face similar problems and bullying. We need a global perspective of linking the struggle to that of other countries.
The working class and the youth should not have to pay for the crisis of the capitalist system. If we struggle together, European-wide and internationally, we can defend our standards of living against the onslaught of the capitalists.
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[cyu]

The other day in the news, they featured two yes voters extensively here. Sad propaganda ...



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