Iceland out of NATO, Iceland into Europe!
29th January, 2009
Police used pepper spray and arrested six protesters at a demonstration at the venue of a NATO meeting in Reykjavik, police said on Wednesday.
Posts Tagged ‘Revolution in Iceland’
Iceland Police Arrest Six At NATO Meeting Protest
Posted by seumasach on January 29, 2009
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Reykjavik-on-Thames
Posted by seumasach on January 28, 2009
“Iceland’s shift to the left on Tuesday marks the end of a 17-year experiment in free market economics. This promised – for a time – to transform a volcanic island on the mid-Atlantic ridge into a booming tiger economy. Such dreams have been replaced by a vicious rise in anti-capitalist sentiment and disgust at brash and aggressive young businessmen dubbed the “Viking raiders”. Whichever direction the new leftist government may take the country, Straumur is unlikely to hang around to find out.”
27th January, 2009
Straumur-Burdaras, the last Icelandic bank left standing, is seeking to move its primary listing to London or Stockholm, conditions permitting. On the face of it, Straumur’s decision to redomicile is the final insult for a country slipping fast into severe recession. But the bank, which has 85 per cent of its assets outside Iceland, has little choice but to adopt a sauve qui peut approach. De-icing or defrosting itself is its best hope of survival.
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Iceland- Social Democrats and Left-Greens entrusted with forming a government
Posted by seumasach on January 28, 2009
27th January, 2009
So Prez Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson summoned Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, head of the SDs, and Steingrímur J. Sigfússon, head of the LGs, to a meeting this morning, in which he entrusted them with the task of forming an interim minority government with the support of the Progressive Party. According to the president there is a possibility of one or two individuals from outside parliament taking a seat in the new government.
Posted in Revolution in Iceland | Tagged: Revolution in Iceland | 1 Comment »
Economy topples Reykjavik
Posted by seumasach on January 27, 2009
27th January, 2009
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Fedyashin) – The entire Icelandic government has become the first victim of the crisis in Europe.
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What’s Next for Iceland: Ensuring a Fair Election in May
Posted by seumasach on January 27, 2009
“Our only hope now is a peaceful transition from a corrupt plutocracy to the responsible liberal democracy we had fooled ourselves into believing we already had.”
Concealed within the forms and norms of Western democracy lurk “a small group of megalomaniacs” ,”a corrupt plutocracy” who subvert its workings. The revolution in the West consists in large part of the removal of these miscreants from all proximity to the reins of power.
Iris Erlingsdottir
23rd January, 2009
Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde, leader of the Independence Party, announced at a press conference today that he was stepping down for health reasons and called for parliamentary elections on May 9th. Foreign Minister Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir, leader of the Social Democratic Alliance, which formed the other faction in the ruling coalition government, also stated that she favored spring elections.
Posted in Financial crisis, Revolution in Iceland | Tagged: bankrupt iceland, Iceland, Revolution in Iceland | 1 Comment »
At last, Iceland’s coalition collapses
Posted by seumasach on January 27, 2009
Alda Sigmundsdottir
26th January, 2009
Shortly after 1pm today, Iceland’s prime minister, Geir Haarde, announced to reporters that the coalition between the conservative Independence party and the Social Democratic Alliance (SDA) had collapsed.
The Icelandic nation had been waiting for an announcement with bated breath since last night, when the leaders of the two parties declared that today would determine the future of the government, which has been under fire since reconvening last week after its Christmas recess.
The announcement comes hot on the heels of a series of dramatic events. Last Friday the prime minister announced that the public’s increasingly violent demands for elections would be met this spring. This was a remarkable turnaround from his earlier position, as a mere few days earlier he had stated that he had no intention of calling elections. At the same press conference on Friday he announced that he had been diagnosed with a malignant tumour of the oesophagus.
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Power to the people!!
Posted by seumasach on January 26, 2009
“This is history in the making, people. Momentous and incredible.”
Viva la revolucion bolivarista en Islandia! We are seeing the beginning of the pattern that unfolded in Bolivia and elsewhere in South America: sections of the corrupt elite crumbling away before popular pressure. Alda is right- Iceland is “at the very center of change” but not just in Iceland. Hopefully we can bring this model of protest to the UK where 60 million people are being left to the tender mercies of a vicious financier elite who have everyone in their pockets, most of all the government.
by on JANUARY 25, 2009
Please click on link to see videos
The Minister of Commerce and Banking announced his resignation this morning. He moreover announced that he had dismissed the director and board of the Financial Supervisory Authority.
wOOOOOOt!!!
Seriously, I feel like doing a frenzied African war dance in my living room. In fact …
[…]
wOOOOOOt!!!
OK, now that that’s out of the way it’s time to get cynical [because, you know, despite my empathy with people with cancer and suchlike I can get cynical with the best of you … er … them]…
The minister would have us believe that this is a “decision of conscience”, thereby exposing his own simple-mindedness as I don’t think any thinking person will believe that. If this was so, why didn’t he resign weeks ago? On the contrary it is evident that this is merely a well-constructed ploy [and not even that well constructed, really] to enhance his image now that elections have been called. With any luck [on his part] he will only have to be out of a job for about four or five months and will then be re-elected; had he not resigned, however, the chances of that would have been slim. He is a minister for the Social Democratic Alliance, which has plummeted in popularity over the last week or so, and I suspect he feels this is his – and their – only chance at re-election.
Still, he’s the first one to publicly shoulder responsibility for the economic implosion, despite not even having been in government when the whole system was engineered, so we can give him -1 point on the Bananarepublic-o-meter for that. And -2 points for kicking the fricking amateurs at the FSA out on their butts before he left. No, make that -3 points. Huzzah!!
Meanwhile, the Central Bank board operates under the auspices of the Prime Minister who has done nothing but declare his unfailing devotion to Davíd Oddsson and his cronies at the bank. We shall see if the Independence Party pulls a similar stunt as the SDA to raise its popularity, although with the unnatural power that Doddsson appears to wield over the PM and his people I don’t expect a great deal from that camp.
MEANWHILE, I PROMISED A REPORT
On yesterday’s demonstration, which was incredible. To be perfectly honest, I half-expected that with the government’s concession to the public, i.e. calling elections this spring, protester numbers would drop off and people would slink back into complacency. Not so. Yesterday’s demonstration was the most well-attended to date, with over 5,000 people participating. The energy was incredible – vastly different from the strong undercurrent of of anger, hopelessness and despair that has prevailed of late. It’s like our latest victory [the PM’s intention to call elections] has unleashed tremendous energy and elation and yesterday’s demonstration was almost like a celebration. It was fantastic to be there, at the very center of change and at such a momentous time in the history of our nation.
Here is part of an excellent speech by writer Guðmundur Andri Thorsson [unfortunately slightly truncated] which will give you small idea of the atmosphere and also protester numbers:
When the demonstration ended, the organizers announced from the podium that a choir would sing in front of the parliament building. This has never happened before. Happily we were standing nearby and so we got to hear them perform two of our most beautiful national songs: Land míns föður, landið mitt [The land of my father, my land] and Hver á sér fegra föðurland [Who has a more beautiful fatherland?]. It was very moving, and really lifted the mood. I managed to record a little bit of the former song, here:
As soon as they had finished, people started once more banging drums, pots, pans and whatever they had, and chanting Vanhæf ríkisstjórn![Incompetent government!]. It’s like a tribal chant that has been ongoing for the past week, and it’s fantastic.
This is history in the making, people. Momentous and incredible.
IT’S A CALM AND MILD SUNDAY
I suppose this is what is called “light air” according to the Beaufort wind scale [if you’ve been using the forums, you may have noticed the different ranks given to people according to number of posts – you start off calm and work your way up to a hurricane…] – and it sure looks nice out there. Gentle sunshine this morning but it is currently overcast in the capital, with temps at 2°C [36F]. Sunrise was at 10:28 am and sunset due for 4:53 pm. This afternoon at 3 pm there is yet another demonstration, this time on Lækjartorg square, to protest vandalism and violence against the police.
Posted in Financial crisis, Revolution in Iceland | Tagged: Iceland, Revolution in Iceland | 1 Comment »
A crazy, exhausting week- A great report on unfolding Icelandic drama!
Posted by seumasach on January 24, 2009
24th January, 2009
TUESDAY – major protests begin. People gather in front of the parliament buildings at 1.30 pm and bang pots and pans and drums and generally make as much noise as possible in order to disrupt parliament and get MPs to listen to the people. Rather than dissipating after an hour or two, protester numbers increase as the day wears on. There are clashes with police and people are incensed, particularly as parliament’s agenda has nothing to do with the economic situation but rather includes such relative trivia as selling liquor in supermarkets and what to do about smoking areas in restaurants. By eveningthere are around 3,000 people in front of the building. Protesters light a fire on the street in front and throw anything they can find to burn onto it. The riot police is out. Some protesters go out of their way to provoke a reaction from the cops, throwing eggs at them, banging wooden spoons on their helmets, spitting, etc. The building, too, is pelted with food and windows are broken.
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Iceland’s government is on the point of collapse as angry protesters stake out the parliament in Reykjavik
Posted by seumasach on January 23, 2009
Eirikur Bergmann
21st, January, 2009
While Barack Obama was being sworn in to office on Capitol Hill yesterday, the people of Iceland were starting the first revolution in the history of the republic. 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.
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In These New Times 