This is something I have posted here from another message board.
You may agree or disagree with the nature of this, but I do think it is very amazing.
This is a first hand account of the protests and revolution underway in Iceland right now. This story is very fascinating and resonates perfectly with the global situation right now. Call me hippy or whatever, I could care less. I find this to be truly amazing and I support the people of Iceland 100%
-A
You may agree or disagree with the nature of this, but I do think it is very amazing.
This is a first hand account of the protests and revolution underway in Iceland right now. This story is very fascinating and resonates perfectly with the global situation right now. Call me hippy or whatever, I could care less. I find this to be truly amazing and I support the people of Iceland 100%
-A
Today is a good day for the people´s revolution of Iceland. The government has disbanded and in May we will have new elections.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7851415.stm
Too achieve this Icelanders have put to use time tested tactics of civil disobedience, political satire, direct activism and mass e-mail and letter campaigns aided by the online community. Needless to say the internet has been an important factor in all of this. I want to share my experience of these interesting times in Iceland so some of you can use them where they would apply in your country.
Of course the fight is not over yet, and most people here are well aware of that. Right now it is very important to stop the EU agenda, the media here is bombarding the nation with EU propaganda and in a classic Problem Reaction Solution it is being offered as a solution to the economic crisis.
The independence party has stepped out of government but they have been in power for 17 years and are the equivalent of republican ultra right wing free market fanatics committed to bringing about destruction and chaos for everyone but themselves. They will not be missed.
The coalition party, Samfylkingin however is pretty much like the fake democrats of Iceland. They will pretend to be for the people and against the fascists but in the last elections when they managed to score a lot of votes by claiming to be against the independence party, they turned their backs on these people and joined the fascists to form a government which has not been any different than the ones we´ve had before.
They are now still in government and are extremely pro EU so we must be vigilant to counter the propaganda meant to take us there.
The third party is the left green party. They have been consistently anti-war, anti environment massacre, anti-eu and usually anti-bullshit party. They´re not perfect but I genuinely feel they are honest and not part of any agenda.
They are now the biggest party according to polls as the nation saw the theories of the free market fanatics were nothing but empty words and that money was artificially created with nothing behind it (as it is in all cases) They will now be in government with the democrat cowards until May and might well keep them in line.
I want to keep this thorough as the situation here is different from other countries in so many ways and often people will misunderstand it.
First of all, we have a population of roughly 320.000, in other countries that is a small town. It does not mean that everyone knows everyone, but there´s usually some link between people.
When the banks crashed we had not had any massive protests since 1949 when we joined NATO. We had some pretty big ones recently because of the Kárahnjúkar dam project where the largest unspoiled wilderness in Europe was turned into a cesspool of toxic waste for the benefit of the corrupt CFR company Alcoa. They did not however manage to stop the project.
We have now however, succesfully toppled the government, which had made it clear they were going nowhere, despite their obvious catastrophic failures. Or more accurately crimes.
After the banks crashed, people started gathering in small groups and bigger groups and things started to happen. Initially we weren´t sure if it would prove pointless but it was crucial that we keep trying.
This government is one of the most blatantly and openly corrupt institutions this world has ever seen. They would privatize banks and hand them over to their fellow party members, politicians routinely act as board members for major companies and families and friends juggled businesses and political appointments around as if noone was watching.
Which for a while seemed to be true.
Here are some of the highlights of the campaign.
On the 6th of October, emergency laws were put in place allowing the government to make sure that the elite business clique would not have to suffer from the collapse of their house of cards, but the debts could instead be nationalized making sure they would cripple society and leave us and generations to come with debts that would enslave our country indefinitely
The following Saturday was the first organized saturday protest which have been a weekly occurrence since then. A few hundred showed up demanding the resignation of the former prime minister for the independence party and current head of the Central Bank, Bilderberger David Oddson.
He laughed it off, saying arrogantly he was surprised at how few the protesters were.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StK1sqQ12Ns
There we can see the burning of the Glitnir and landsbanki flag.
Well, the next Saturday a few more people showed up. People were still confused and weren´t really sure what had happened. On november the 9th, people were really starting to show up in numbers as more and more was being uncovered about the scale of the fraud perpetrated on us and no answers or explanations were being offered from the authorities except that we needed to borrow a lot of money and turn to the IMF.
One sign read "I-M-F = International Mother Fuckers" but the deluded prime minister proclaimed that people were understandably upset because they hadn´t yet secured the loan from the IMF.
That day saw the beginning of the satirical action, the day started with roaring motorbikes in front of the parliament covering the building with smoke:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M5JTObHSf8
A great spectacle and the footage also includes the escape of the person who drew the Bónus flag up the parliaments flag pole, the flag represented the supermarket chain representing Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson´s Baugur group empire, and the action it´s dominance of the Icelandic parliament. (I´m somewhere in the crowd wearing a red scarf)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyu3-KcRyik&feature=related
The flag pulling can be seen here, excellent satire. And one that got him arrested two weeks later on Friday, before the weekly protest scheduled for the 22.november.
The people wouldn´t have any of it, especially as the criminals in power were still running amok. The police plan backfired as the next saturday about 500 people went to the police station to demand his immediate release. The arrest was also unconstitutional as he did not get any advance notice as required by law.
When they refused to let him go the people broke down the front door to try to get him out by force. People got pepper sprayed and riot police showed up to defend the entrance.
This is the scene that followed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdhrRy5GMP8
They released him just before this would have made the evening news on the fear that thousands would join the cause when they heard of it. A high ranking lawyer payed his fine and we celebrated the first of many victories that would follow. I´m also there wearing a green shirt...
The next Saturday the weekly protest wasn´t as strong, the sense that more direct action was needed as this felt more and more like people simply giving speeches on things most people already knew and noone was seemingly listening or responding to the demands.
Protesters had been labeled by media and authorities as rowdy and even violent, even though not one car had been turned over nothing burned and the only "violence" was throwing eggs and "skyr" an Icelandic dairy product at the parliament.
Now it was time for direct action. On 1st of december an action was planned to go to the central bank, to at least symbolically remove David Oddson from his post. This is Icelands day of sovereignty and after a few speeches people made there way to the central bank. We were let inside but only to be met by riot police threatening tear gas.
There I witnessed the strength and determination of the people protesting. Even though the room was small and closed off and they had threatened pepper spray, which usually is just a formality before they actually sprayed it, not one person left the room. Everyone raised their hands to show they were unarmed and shut up. Noone left and the police now had their hands tight. There was too much media inside the room for them to spray protesters with hands raised in the air.
After they had realized this and we had realized that they had we sat down and started singing. The atmosphere was beautiful, we were determined to show them that we were having fun, but at the same time that we would not stand down.
They declared the protest illegal, I replied that it also used to be illegal to protest against Hitler... one stated that if they beat us up, it will hurt today but we will now forever that we did not allow them to bully us into submission.
After a few hours we were notified that David had left the building and we negotiated peace with the police, saying we would leave if they would.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLi4_eQtbhM
(here we are being let in, I am the one wearing ski googles for eye protection)
Here we are sitting down inside the lobby of the bank, at the time of the stand off, and the final negotiation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf9RQEfeJJI&feature=related
The next days people returned to their bunkers planning further action.
Now things began to happen almost daily:
On the 9th we interfeered with a ministerial meeting.
On 11th of december, there was a small protest here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd0VedAlar4&feature=related
On the 13th of December, there was a silent protest, where people were silent for 17 minutes, symbolising each year the independence party had been in power.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kOa_2q-srQ&feature=related
On the 16th we interrupted another ministerial meeting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kOa_2q-srQ&feature=related
Bank protest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKoDaUtgVKQ
The same day, a reporter stepped up with allegations that he had been censored when investigating a story about one of the bankers. The story was pulled as the editor explained that powerful individuals had threatend to "kill" the paper. The editor denied the allegations calling the reporter inexperienced and that he´d threatened the paper with unsubstantiated stories.
The reporter was clever enough to have recorded a conversation with the editor that he played on national TV the same night. The story was huge and further convinced people and confirmed to people what sort of mafia tactics were being emploeyd by those in power.
The next day I was lucky enough to run into Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson in person. I asked him if he´d censored the story (the baugur empire owned the paper in question) he did not reply so I threw a snowball at him saying "censor this". He called his media empire and they covered the alleged attack on him... I posted a blog admitting my crime, at which the media jumped on it and the snowball was eventually covered in Forbes, Financial Times, AP and many other international media outlets.
The aim of it was three fold, to highlight his involvement in censoring the news, to show that he was not welcome to walk around downtown reykjavík as if nothing had happened and to expose the hysteria that was being generated in Iceland where a snowball would be turned into a grenade and referred to as violent action. The protests here in Iceland have been and especially had been extremely peaceful at that time.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b371c3a4-cca3-11dd-acbd-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1
The next few weeks saw a number of direct actions directed against the banks and financial regulatory board. One ambitious plan was unsuccessful in the meantime that I will not go into but the planning continued.
On the last day of the year we made a clear statement. The government would not be allowed to carry on as usual. There was an annual TV show featuring all the heads of the political parties in which they eat fancy fish and drink alcohol while discussing the year.
The protesters showed up in numbers making a lot of noise, they moved the set that was originally and had traditionally been in front of the austurvöllur main square. But they didn´t move it far and the protesters made their way inside the back door.
They almost made it inside but police arrived blocking the studio.
I wasn´t there at the time, I was at work but I managed to watch the show, it was exciting and the yelling and firecrackers were clearly audible in the show. As was the distress in the eyes of the politicians.
The protesters were eventually pepper sprayed while sitting down and singing inside the hotel and dispersed into an alley behind the hotel. There more people were pepper sprayed, even as they were walking away with hands in the air.
A rock was thrown injuring a policeman which obviously was the main story for the media. But the protesters effectively shut down the show by burning some cables outside the hotel. The message was clear, the end of the year would be remembered by the fact that this government would not be allowed to run the country in the coming year.
Great footage here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKoDaUtgVKQ
Now the channel in question, owned, like everything else in this country by Baugur group, went full force after protesters, overtly villifying them when they had previously just done so covertly.
The beginning of the year saw the continuation of the trends. On the 6th of january there was a historical meeting where the activist groups, and organizations that had been arranging the saturday protests and others, met with two of the police chiefs on a citizen meeting.
The citizen meetings are another aspect of this revolution that proved really effective. The people we had clear questions for were invited to speak and answer questions from organizors of protests giving direct communication between them. This put the people in question in a tough spot. They could either refuse the offer proving they had no answers or no interest in defending themselves or having to answer for their lies directly.
The mood was intense as Eva Hauksdóttir gave an excellent speech on the effectiveness of direct actions and breaking unjust laws. The police admitted to spying on protesters amongst other things. They were also pushed for answers as to their plans for getting tazers to protect the corrupt powers that be.
Then there were a few bank protests, and also we protested against the massacres in Gaza, demanding that the government cut ties with the Israeli government completely.
Now, I am getting to the recent historic events that effectively collapsed the government.
On the 20th of January 2009, the parliament was set to start it´s year of "governing" over us. We wouldn´t have it.
Thousands showed up that day with anything that could make noise, pots, pans, referee whistles, horns, instruments and you name it. A number of protesters even brought entire drum kits. And so the beat started at 13.30 pm. This was the "dawning of the revolution" and you could feel it just being there.
This day also saw the most police brutality to date in Iceland, pepper spray was used like water guns and later during the day they brought out batons breaking at least one arm of a peaceful protester.
The mp´s had to be evacuated through secret tunnels and those arrested as well. The meeting was cut off at around 4 pm. The arrests were made randomly when people refused to leave the area. Note that noone tried to storm the building, just disrupt it with noise.
Unlike most other protests, this one did not stop.The beat went on and on and around dinner time, I saw a few guys starting a fire outside the parliament. It seemed like a good idea and soon more and more people started adding to the fire. Like flies attracted to lamps the people surrounded the fire and started dancing around it to the beat. The police who at that point had already pushed the limits of their brutality knew that stopping it would be a waste of effort, there were too many of us and we would just start a new one. After dinner time instead of the protests dying down, like the fire it burned one and more and more people came to the fire.
At this point it was clear, the mob had spoken. You were not welcome and we would stay until you realized it. The fire burned on long through the night as people took turns going for more lumber on nearby construcion sites. The police tried to arrest people bringing more lumber to the site but it was futile. The fire raged and we danced and celebrated, knowing that nothing could stop us now.
It wasn´t until around 2 am that the police figured there were few enough people for them to put out the fire. At which point some started new ones that were also put out after some minor fighting.
At around 3 am the party was postponed until morning. Then it started again.
Here are some of the footage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlFMl8klD-Y&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRpOgvzj_ZY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU8MrY-2rgc&feature=related
And there are tons more, as this was going on strong for over 13 hours, just the first day.
The next day people showed up again, in the thousands. Some found out that the prime minister was nearby so they went to say hi:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1j_-92-d5I&feature=related
We lit another fire, it was put out. So we lit two more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLGenQiDmQw&feature=related
This went on until a few hooligans threw rocks and heavy bricks at police (and I rarely used that term as it´s usually used in reference to peaceful protesters) mad after the brutality from the day before and not understanding how effective this massive civil disobedience was. There was a consensus amongst most of us to stop that from happening but it was hard. I saw children around 15 years old grabbing rocks and some threw fireworks.
This is a sort of natural reaction that is to be expected but should be avoided at all cost. One policeman had a concussion and this was more than the justification they needed to pull out the tear gas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK9-BkF6cKI&feature=related
The crowd was dispersed at around midnight and regrouped in front of "stjórnarráðið", the ministers office. At that point the tensions was building, people had been gassed and now some were losing control. The response time proved a bit slow for the police and at one point just about 7 policemen were protecting the building against 500 protesters (who had not however tried to enter it, even before police arrived). And now the rocks started raining. I remember trying to speak to people and put a stop to it but it seemed impossible.
It wasn´t until me and a few others came up with the idea of simply using ourselves as shields for the police. We lined up in front of them and put our hands up, pleading with people to stop throwing rocks. Many joined and it became one of the most effective stunts for peaceful activism I´ve witnessed.
It made clear that we were not accepting this as a tactic and that most of the protesters were against the violence. It also served the moral point of protecting the police members in question from being severely injured or even killed. This proved essential, as public opinion might have labeled the entire group as being violent, but it proved that we were even willing to put ourselves on the line to protest against violence.
That is why we were there, to protest against violence. Not to take our anger out on policemen, many of whom were also affected by the governments corruption and simply did not have the courage to quit their jobs, and hence followed whatever orders they would get.
This was covered extensively by the media and demonstrated visibly that we understood that individual policemen were not the enemy. Harming them would bring nothing about but condemnation. It was the people pulling the strings of the police-men who we were against and they were nowhere near.
This rule/divide tactic has been used far too often to pit the bottom ranks of the pyramid against each other while the elite sit on top and smoke cigars.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QsXuZ_koEg&feature=related
The day had also been succesful as the protesters moved to a place nearby where party members of "samfylkingin" (democrats...) were having a meeting and influenced them to demand that the coalition with the independence party would stop.
So, we continued showing up, making noise, but really just waiting until the government would give in to the pressure.
Today they have. Yesterday the minister of commerce resigned and fired the heads of the financial regulatory board (including Jón Sigurðsson, a bilderberg attendee). Now the parties are split and there is essentially no government here.
A lot of people are now starting movements demanding a completely new society, based on sustainability and value instead of the free market fairytale that went so wrong. There is talk of new forms of democracy and even a constitutional paragraph guaranteeing every resident food shelter and water.
Of course this is just the start but it once again proves that the resolve of the people can effectively alter the nwo plans, as the people we ousted were clearly their candidates of choice (three bilderbergers were in influencial positions within the government).
The problem is that pro eu propaganda is working on many but not so well that it cannot be countered. Especially if better alternative ways of operating are invented and presented to the public at large.
The beauty of witnessing the persistence of these people is overwhelming. I´ve lived here my entire life and protesters have usually been met with disdain. Now, without really any prior experience of ousting a universally condemned government, we have, despite their clear stated intentions of not showing any responsibility for their actions.
There is a chance that the deal with the IMF will be deemed invalid and that their stranglehold will not suffocate the country. There is also the possibility that the population will fall for some sort of "change" type phony figure, but they will be skeptical of anyone with certain ties.
I just wanted to share with you these historic events, as this has to be the first successful non-violent revolution of our times.
We did it with non-violence, we let the police and authorities do the bullying, violence and lying about it. Eventually people see through it. We stoud together and kept going on despite media condemnation and general frustration.
And it´s no different here than anywhere else. The proportions are just different.
Now we need things like this to start happening globally. The people must gather, make noise, disrupt, interfere. When you are met with violence let it strengthen your resolve, not fuel your hatred. Keep going. Light fires to keep you warm and let the police have to put it out. Give the police the hard decisions. Keep defying their orders. Be arrested if you have to, it is nothing against the prison we will all live in if their plans continue.
In Iceland we have a population of 320.000 so getting large numbers is difficult for us. Use your numbers, organize over the internet. Be clever, funny and persistent. Annoy, bother, disturb but don´t fight!
Put your hands up when threatened with violence, film things and post them on youtube if abuse happens. Remember that we´re battling for hearts and minds, if people think you are being violent they will often support brutality against you and accept fascism. If they see that the police is being violent they will be similarly outraged.
Use their mask of goodness against them. Expose their lies at every turn. Send mass e-mails. Infiltrate message boards, blogs, news sites. Do whatever you can! It is not impossible!
The tide truly is turning and we need to keep at it. I may have had my doubts at times but I´ve witnessed it first hand. Eventually it will work!
So, now I´m off, people are celebrating here in Iceland but we have major tasks at hand. Of course I couldn´t cover everything that´s happened here in this one thread, but I hope it´s informative to those curious about the development here.
And if you really think it´s impossible where you live, come to Iceland. We can always make good use of people aware of the global conspiracy we are facing, and Iceland could well be a good starting base for effective resistance.
- Cujo.
(I wrote this fast and didn´t nenn to review it for typos or other mistakes)
