Iceland protests
Nov 23 2008 21:01
anyone been following these?
Nov 24 2008 05:29
#2
I heard from a few anarchists there who think that there is good potential to build something out of this. As to Sat.'s protest the "clashes" apparently started when some people went to the police to demand the release of a protestor taken in the night before and some people tried to go inside the station. One of the main things people are protesting against is the IMF loan, which is given on the condition that "reforms" be made, and it seems many people know what this means. Of course this doesn't mean that most people have a radical idea about what can be done, but there is opportunity there for the anarchist movement to make a point.
Nov 24 2008 15:05
#3
Apparently an anarchist went on top of the parliament and replaced the national flag with the flag of a supermarket chain. He was arrested and as there was some outstanding warrant on him, he's to spend two weeks in jail.
Nov 25 2008 00:49
#4
There's anarchist flags or symbols prominently in all of the BBC videos as well. I can't don't know of any icelandic anarchists though apart from the people around Save Iceland and a group that has translated a crimethinc book. I'm a bit puzzled by it.
Nov 26 2008 13:42
#5
Nov 26 2008 14:03
#6
Quote:
“I didn’t want people to get hurt by rescuing some punk. I’d rather they use this energy to bring the government to their knees,” Hilmarsson said. “Launch a complete and general and immediate revolution.”
Why is he referring to himself in the third person? And thought he meant punk in the original sense not the fashion sense. The last sentence is a bit over the top through, but I get what he means.
Nov 28 2008 11:53
#7
The recent weeks in Iceland seem to speed up the dynamics of the anarchist movement extremely rapidly. When the crisis started in the first week of October, some opposition parties/organizations started to organize weekly demonstrations in front of the Icelandic parliament, initially the demands were pretty lame, people were naming some government officials responsible for the crisis etc. Lack of protest culture in Iceland makes it super easy to "hijack" the demo with some more radical slogans though. Just after seeing the boring protests anarchists from Iceland started to make their own actions during those demos. On one of them they burned the flags of the banks which went bankrupt, seeing random people standing around shouting "Burn the banks!" which was pretty much of an inspiration for next, more spectacular actions. Next weeks, anarchists went in front of the demo with their huge banner, basically taking over the demo, some of them hang a big doll of a capitalist on the gate below which the demonstrators were walking. During all those protests it turned out that they are more people supporting or having anarchist ideas so the anarchist bloc grew stronger and stronger (I have to add that anarchists there are basically hanging out with all kinds of lefty people, since any movement there is so small). Then in the beginning of November the flag busting incident took place. One of the guys who did it was arrested, the other one (Haukur - the one arrested last week) managed to escape after a spectacular action of people gathered around who pushed the cops away and let him run away. You know the rest of the story afterwards.
It's hard for me to say what's going on over there right now because I already left Iceland, but from what I've seen few weeks ago was an unbelievable amount of anger amongst people and incredible amount of inspiration and energy amongst anarchists. Iceland is a very good ground for radical ideas nowadays, and thanks to the fact that anarchists are the most creative protesters in that country, it is really hopeful that they will get more and more support. For me personally it was an extreme shock to hear about HUNDREDS of people gathered in front of the cop station to defend Haukur + so many of them smashing the door, I wouldn't have imagined these things to happen few weeks ago, it is a sign that the dynamics of people's anger are full on and we can expect beautiful moments in Iceland.
About the anarchists there, these are basically people gathered around Saving Iceland campaign, kind of green anarchists but they're involved in many other things, very very creative and inspirational people. I recommend visiting Iceland, it's really cheap now, no jobs though.
Nov 28 2008 12:21
#8
Chatting to my housemate from Rekyjavik (sp?), it turns out that the original flag replacement incident was actually a stroke of symbolic genius. The kid replaced the flag on top of Iceland's parliament with the logo of a leading supermarket chain, who's owner borrowed a ridiculous figure (like £10bn or something) off an Icelandic bank and is one of 10-15 leading businessmen who are being blamed fo Iceland's economic meltdown.
general consensus is noone probably actually paid his fine and the police just made a practical decision to let him go before the protestors "liberated" all those in their custody. Tear gas was thrown inside the cop shop.
It could get interesting this one, I see class lines drawing...
Nov 28 2008 13:12
#9
Yes, looks very interesting !
Anarchists in Iceland, I don't have contact with any, but I know some foreign anarchists went there to help protect some environmental resources, and some people there publish translations of Freedom press texts.
Nov 28 2008 13:23
#10
Yes, but being the most creative and fun people on a demo is one thing, steering things in a revolutionary direction is another. The only organised group there I am aware of is some people who translated Days Of War?
Nov 28 2008 13:23
#11
Steven. wrote:
I know some foreign anarchists went there to help protect some environmental resources
one of them is speaking at this tomorrow; they went there to 'save iceland' and found themselves in the middle of a financial collapse, and the subsequent popular reaction. could be interesting.
Nov 28 2008 13:50
#12
well, if you talk about any anarchists in Iceland you can't really talk about different groups, because at this point there are maybe 10 of them in total, so they are basically one group and they are all involved in the same projects etc. From what I've seen the most active people there are the flag busting guys plus some of their comrades, they' re all experienced in Saving Iceland campaign.
Yes, they are the most creative ppl there plus they are trying to make a big impact on the public, as for the course of events we can observe, they are pretty much successful, and the fact that so many people were ready to defend one of them in prison means A LOT.
Nov 28 2008 15:21
#13
I remember an article in the Guardian about a year or so ago that said that Iceland was a miracle country where everyone was middle class.
Nov 28 2008 15:24
#14
was it written by tony blair?
Nov 28 2008 16:00
#15
jef costello wrote:
I remember an article in the Guardian about a year or so ago that said that Iceland was a miracle country where everyone was middle class.
sounds like good potential breeding ground for anarchism then!
Nov 28 2008 19:30
#16
Steven. wrote:
jef costello wrote:
I remember an article in the Guardian about a year or so ago that said that Iceland was a miracle country where everyone was middle class.sounds like good potential breeding ground for anarchism then!
Speak for yerself 
Nov 29 2008 01:17
#17
jef costello wrote:
I remember an article in the Guardian about a year or so ago that said that Iceland was a miracle country where everyone was middle class.
Wow, that really would be a miracle, a capitalist country with no capitalists and no workers!
Dec 1 2008 14:03
#18
Further protests against the police reported in Iceland yesterday. Also Hungary and Turkey - any news from them?
Dec 1 2008 14:34
#19
waslax wrote:
jef costello wrote:
I remember an article in the Guardian about a year or so ago that said that Iceland was a miracle country where everyone was middle class.Wow, that really would be a miracle, a capitalist country with no capitalists and no workers!
you can always outsource
Dec 15 2008 00:31
#20
Here's an article with lots of information about struggles in Iceland at the moment. It would be good to have it in our library, but I suppose there is an issue at the moment because there are so many images in it.
If anyone had time to put in the library without the images that would be cool. We could try and create a general Iceland image Gallery separately.
Dec 15 2008 18:55
#21
On Iceland the ‘capitalist economic miracle’ there has been some more recent stuff than last year
Special report by John Carlin The Observer, Sunday 18 May 2008
No wonder Iceland has the happiest people on earth
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/18/iceland
With;
Quote:
Oddny Sturludottir, a 31-year-old mother of two, told me she had a good friend who was 25 and had three children by a man who had just left her. 'But she has no sense of crisis at all,' Oddny said. 'She's preparing to get on with her life and her career in a perfectly optimistic frame of mind.' The answer to why the friend perceives no crisis in what any woman in a similar predicament anywhere else in the western world might consider a full-blown catastrophe goes a long way towards explaining why Iceland's 313,000 inhabitants are such a sane, cheerful, successful lot.
There are plenty of other, more obvious factors. Statistics abound. It is the country with the sixth highest GDP per capita in the world; where people buy the most books; where life expectancy for men is the highest in the world, and not far behind for women; it's the only country in Nato with no armed forces (they were banned 700 years ago); the highest ratio of mobile telephones to population; the fastest-expanding banking system in the world; rocketing export business; crystal-pure air; hot water delivered to all Icelandic households straight from the earth's volcanic bowels; and so on and so forth.
And so forth
And from elsewhere, fairly typical of the time.
The Laissez Faire Welfare State
by Will Wilkinson on February 22, 2008
Quote:
Responding to my colleague Dan Mitchell, Matt Yglesias writes:"Iceland is known as the Nordic Tiger because of rapid economic growth," writes Cato's Daniel Mitchell, "much of the nation's prosperity is the result of free-market policies." When I visited Iceland it struck me as more a Scandinavian social democracy than a free market paradise. And indeed the OECD stats back me up.
Matt then shows a chart of taxes as a percentage of GDP. Taxes in Iceland are high.
Can't they both be right? Iceland, much like Denmark, is more or less Hong Kong with a huge welfare state. High personal tax rates and redistributive policies certainly do affect incentives to work, save, etc. And certain state-provided services do tend to crowd out private alternatives. That said, it is possible to have high tax rates, lots of redistribution, and no other policies regulating the operation of the market. Neither Iceland nor Denmark leave their
markets that unfettered, but it is simply undeniable that they are extremely wealthy, free-market capitalist countries. Indeed, the relative success of countries like Denmark and Iceland is outstanding evidence that the best way to ensure high levels of welfare spending (in tiny, ethnically homogeneous countries) is to let the capitalism rip.According to Heritage, Iceland ranks 14th in the world in terms of economic freedom. It has no minimum wage. Denmark, which comes in 11th, has one of the world's least regulated labor markets and is one of the world's easiest places to start a business. If you consider that both take a huge penalty in these rankings for their high personal tax rates (but check out the super-low corporate and capital gains tax rates!), you can get a sense of just how
unregulated and conducive to business these economies really are.Perhaps the greatest unheralded discovery of the late 20th/early 21st century is that relatively unfettered capitalism is a much better complement to the comprehensive welfare state than is
dirigisme. I for one plan to herald this.
http://www.willwilkinson.net/flybottle/2008/02/22/the-laissez-faire-welfare-state/
Dec 16 2008 19:29
#22
Steven. wrote:
Here's an article with lots of information about struggles in Iceland at the moment. It would be good to have it in our library, but I suppose there is an issue at the moment because there are so many images in it.If anyone had time to put in the library without the images that would be cool. We could try and create a general Iceland image Gallery separately.
don't know much about them, sounds a bit 'que se vayan todos'