Early elections on Iceland

[Crux]

http://alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LM211288.htm

And the paper this morning reported that the goverment coalition now is officially defunct with one of the parties leaving. The most likely government alternative is the Green Left.

[cyu]

Thanks for the news.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_Iceland

Last parliamentary elections in 2007:
36.6% Independence Party: right-wing, conservative / libertarian
26.8% Social Democratic Alliance: center-left, social democracy
14.3% Left-Green Movement: left-wing, socialist, environmentalist
11.7% Progressive Party: centrist, agrarian, liberal
7.3% Liberal Party: center-right, conservative / liberal

Current ruling coalition: Independence Party and Social Democratic Alliance
right-wing + center-left = center-right?

If Left-Green makes big gains and forms a coalition with Social Democratic Alliance
center-left + left-wing = leftish?

Hard to predict what coalitions will be formed though and how much the existing ruling coalition will be discredited.

[peaccenicked]

Here is a report from Iceland.
http://icelandweatherreport.com/2009/01/a-crazy-exhausting-week.html

[Crux]

Well, from what I gather it seems possible that the Green Left might gather as much votes that they would be able to form a majority goverment by themself.

[Crux]

Devastated by global crisis

Demonstrations of anger bring down government
Per-Åke Westerlund, Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna (CWI Sweden)

A few days of demonstrations, including protesters throwing eggs being met by riot police with teargas, have been enough to force a new election in Iceland. The mass protests in what is, to date, the worst hit country in the global economic crisis, have been referred to as a revolution – a ’fleece’, ’facebook’, or ’saucepan’ revolution. Among those who have come onto the streets, there are discussions about the need for a new political force.
On Monday 26 January, the government handed in its resignation. This was clearly an attempt to defuse the protest movement. So was the proposal from resigning pm Haarde of a "national unity government".
It is only three months ago, in early October, that Iceland went from being the fifth richest country in the world – based on GDP per capita – to experiencing the worst crisis of all countries, so far. The super-indebted Icelandic banks were nationalised in an attempt to limit the crisis. Today, 70 per cent of all companies and 40 per cent of households are technically bankrupt. GDP is expected to drop 10 per cent this year. Unemployment increased from six to nine per cent in December alone, inflation is close to 20 per cent, while interest rates are 18 per cent. The currency, the Icelandic krona, is hardly exchangeable.
Widespread hatred

There is a widespread hatred against the bankers who orchestrated the crisis and their friends, the politicians. While the top bankers seem to have left the country, however, the politicians remained in power. This changed last week.
From Tuesday, 20 January, when parliament restarted after the holidays, daily protests were organised. The main slogan was "incompetent government" and the demand was for new elections. Most people brought cooking pans and other improvised objects to drum on.
Last Wednesday, the protest took place outside a meeting held by the Social Democratic Alliance, a junior partner in the coalition government, demanding that the SDA resign. Later the same night, protesters surrounded the limousine of Prime Minister Geir Haarde, knocking on the car roof and throwing eggs and drink cans. Riot police were used to defend Haarde, who is also leader of the Independence Party. At that stage, he still ruled out any elections before those scheduled for two years’ time in 2011.
In protests late at night on Thursday, stones were thrown at the police, with two policemen injured. The police used teargas and pepper spray and 20 people were arrested in the first major attack on a demonstration since 1949, when Icelanders demonstrated against NATO membership. It has been reported that the government of Iceland, which has only a handful of soldiers, was considering calling in Norwegian forces.
The Icelandic website, Ice News, quoted one of the protesters:
"No one has resigned and no one has been fired. They are hard at work at getting what little is left here back into the hands of those who crashed our economy to begin with.
”The people here are afraid and at the mercy of ruthless criminals that have feathered their nests not only in our government, but also in the businesses and banks. These banks were given to them through a fake privatisation in 2005, they have literally done nothing but spend money since; now it´s all gone, and you want to give them more?".
The protester referred to the demand of the demonstrators that money promised from the IMF and governments should not be paid out to the present government. In total, ten billion US dollars has been promised in "rescue packages". The IMF deal includes severe demands for budget cuts and high interest rates, both measures that will deepen the crisis.
New elections

On Friday, Prime Minister Haarde suddenly declared new elections for 9 May. At the same press conference, he announced his resignation as leader of the Independence Party, revealing that he has cancer. Already, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, Foreign Minister Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir, is being treated for cancer. The following day, Minister of Commerce, Bjorgvin Sigurdsson, resigned at the same time as he sacked the boss of the state authority responsible for financial supervision.
These announcements, however, did not break the momentum of the protests. On Saturday, over 6,000 people gathered, demanding the government resign immediately.
"We will not allow more crap. The government must go. We've had enough of them controlling everything, just taking care of themselves and not caring at all for the people", said one of the speakers, Jakobina Olafsdóttir, to great cheers from the crowd. The Swedish daily, Dagens Nyheter, continued its report: "She and others in Iceland want to see a new society, without the cronyism and corruption they believe is prevalent and without the for so long so mighty Independence Party."
The same article continues: "Different protest movements have mushroomed. With the help of Facebook". [Ninety six per cent of 20-29 year-olds are on Facebook.] "They quickly gather thousands of supporters and can easily call meetings. Now, there are discussions between the different movements to form a common manifesto for a new society."
In opinion polls the opposition Left-Green Party has doubled since the last election two years ago, to 32.6 per cent. The two governing parties have lost a combined 22 per cent. The Independence Party’s ratings have fallen to 22.1 per cent and the Social Democratic Alliance to 19.2 per cent. A previous partner of the Independence Party, the Progressive Party, has also increased in opposition, from 11.7 to 16.8 per cent.
This is a clear indication that people are looking for a more radical alternative. The Left-Green Party are seen as the most anti-capitalist party, previously profiling themselves mostly on environmental issues. For example, the party advocates nationalisation of all natural resources. The Left-Greens also stand for re-negotiations on the IMF deal and for Iceland to leave NATO. Opinion in favour of joining the European Union, which surged when the currency collapsed last year, has already started to dwindle. Today, 38 per cent want to join, compared to over 50 per cent in October. Many have understood that foreign aid will not come without strings.
Revolution?

The mass demonstrations in Iceland, like recent protests in other European countries, show the willingness of people to try and take control over their own lives. They no longer trust politicians or capitalists. At the demonstrations in Reykjavik, the boss of the Central Bank, David Oddsson, a previous prime minister, has been compared to Adolf Hitler!
It is clear that the protesters have had enough and that they are representative of the generally-held feelings in Iceland. This has given rise to a lot of discussion about whether what is happening is a revolution.
“The word ‘revolution’ might sound a bit of an overstatement, but given the calm temperament that usually prevails in Icelandic politics, the unfolding events represent, at the very least, a revolution in political activism", Icelander Eirkur Bergmann wrote in the British paper, The Guardian.
Another recent visitor to Iceland, London School of Economics professor Robert Wade, commented, "The situation is very tense and very unstable". He compared the situation with other sometimes-violent street demonstrations in Bulgaria, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Greece over the last month.
A third commentator, Fredrik Erixon of the Brussels-based European Centre for International Political Economy, said the situation was reminiscent of "the French Revolution of 1789", rather than that of 1968. The anger is certainly there, but capitalist Iceland is far different from feudal France.
The lesson from mass movements in other countries in recent years is that unpopular regimes can be overthrown. But to alter the economic and political conditions in society the working class and its allies need their own party with a programme for socialist change.
In Iceland there will be a concerted campaign from national and global capital to submit to the IMF conditions, including economic blackmail. Any government that is not prepared to challenge the capitalists who have caused the crisis will come under enormous pressure to make huge cuts in living standards for working people. This is the case even if a Left-Green government is established, or a government of "experts", as some of the protesters have proposed.
Workers and youth in Iceland have already drawn important conclusions. New experiences will force them to look hard for alternatives. Transforming the situation in Iceland would need a fully socialist programme of nationalisation of all major parts of the economy, under democratic workers’ control and management. The crisis has shown that bankers, capitalists and today's top politicians are not wanted; democratically elected organisations of workers, youth, pensioners could run society without them. The beginnings of a movement against capitalism in Iceland must be welcomed and encouraged by workers and activists internationally. This is just the first indication of what is to come as more and more countries fall into recession and mass revolt begins to develop.

[KC]

It is very likely that, given revolutionary organization, Iceland could be the first to fall. Unfortunately, I haven't heard of any such organization taking place. It all seems to be pretty disorganized and spread out. While the sentiment is there, it isn't being focused.

[Crux]

We have a handfull of contacts there and one of our fulltimers is going there tomorrow. So I'll get back to you on that.

[KC]

We have a handfull of contacts there and one of our fulltimers is going there tomorrow. So I'll get back to you on that.

So what happened with this?

[Dimentio]

If all of revleft emigrated to Iceland, we could probably overthrow the government tomorrow. :D

[Crux]

So what happened with this?
http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2009/01/3004.html

There are more articles up on theswedish website I could make some translations later this week.

[Crux]

Iceland:

Protest at NATO meeting

"Snowballs are lighter than bombs!"
Kristofer Lundberg in Reykjavik

Last Wednesday, the 28 January, a NATO cocktail party was held at the Hilton Nordic in Reykjavik, Iceland. These war-mongers tried, up until the final hour, to hold their meeting place secret in order to avoid protests, which made it more difficult for the demonstrators to mobilise.
But late in the afternoon a message about the meeting was received and the protestors had gathered by 18:30. An hour previously the first protestors had arrived banging pots and pans and holding placards such as “No to NATO” and “NATO murderers” as well as rainbow peace flags.
When the generals arrived at the entrance they were greeted by chants of “NATO murderers” and snowballs flying in the air. The police searched confusedly in panic to locate where the snowballs were being thrown from. The demonstration continued for a long while afterwards.
Around 60 masked police guarded the meeting and it was obvious that the longer the demonstration went on and the colder it got, the more the police wanted to make some arrests, but they didn’t have just cause. After a few hours, when a young man burnt a NATO flag, the police seized their chance and stormed violently in and grabbed the flag from the man’s hands. Another man then rushed forward to retake it resulting in some chaos and the two were arrested.
The police are prone to overreaction at Icelandic protests and it is clear that people are provoked but they do not rise to more than throwing a few snowballs. After another hour or so the protest had shrunk to around 80 people who confused the police by going around the back of the hotel. There, they rallied to shouts denouncing the cocktail party and threw snowballs at the windows. A policeman who had previously acted threateningly ran in with his baton at the ready and for the first time the crowd struck back. More police arrived waving their batons and one person was arrested. The police photographed all the participants in the demonstration in another attempt to rile the crowd. One man says to CWI/socialistworld.net: “no matter how provoked the police are by the snowballs they are lightweight compared to NATO’s bombs.”
This was a small demonstration but including participants of all ages: youths, pensioners, children - showing the antiwar movement in Iceland is alive and well. If the meeting hadn’t been surrounded by so much secrecy then the turnout would have been much larger.