Hello Zig Forums. I'm a regular lurker, but I never post here. I live in one of the more "leftist" countries (Iceland).
We have a strong people's movement that opposes the current media braindeath of hard-neoliberalism and soft-neoliberalism, but it really hasn't paid off, for decades now. I think that the Icelandic revolution started maybe 2009-2010? It depends on how you define the revolution?
We've been struggling here, arresting bankers, often illegally, of course the movements' voice is completely silence in state dossiers, but wtf? We have sent at least 500-600 messages to the French Yellow vests, it's exactly the same as with Greece, it's a complete blackout
Never happened. What is happening? How can you post 5000+ photos of an event and it never shows up on the news? Then it is made to disappear on the original media?
Fucking based. Makes me wonder why American leftists don't join the police force and arrest the rich on a regular basis..
Blake Garcia
Because they get fired/harrased by co-workers if they don't kick the nig.
Hunter Fisher
OP here, is this some joke?
Blake Nguyen
Infiltration is something that's been done plenty of times before.
Asher Taylor
Still OP here, trying to become a "good cop" and "sort things out" through the law is beyond delusional. Watch a single video on the Icelandic revolution, this one is ok youtube.com/watch?v=8-SiYQ8s_6I you will see that we are operating completely outside of bourgeois and capitalist law, it is completely forbidden territory. OF COURSE you don't hear about taking on the trillionaire banks, what did you expect?
But, how can we move on? How are we not just going to be swallowed and suffocated like Venezuela, who also tried to take these people on? How are you going to help us???? We need your help NOW!!!
We are approaching near universal support for the abolition of the capitalist property form, nationally, in Iceland. What are we supposed to suggest now? What sort of deals are we supposed to be making right now? Why are we being completely silenced? We are legally taking over the ownership of land, of national resources, of homes, guaranteeing work and livelihood to the people, WTF news are you people reading???!?!?
WHAT THE FUCK I KEEP TRYING TO FIND ARTICLES ON ALL THIS SHIT, WHY IS NO ONE REPORTING ON IT?
Jose Phillips
I only barely remember reading something along the lines of years ago. Thought it was pretty cool but never any follow up. Just thought a few banksters got tossed in the slammer along with a handful of politicians, maybe a few legal reforms and that was it. Please spoonfeed Iceland-user.
Aiden Walker
same user, here.
Yeah, the oldest shit I see is from 2016, "bankers thrown in jail" is all that pops up.
Engels said it was possible to do it legally. No one out there believes that seizing property NEEDS to be done illegally, it's just 9 times out of 10 it turns out that way.
This is honestly the first time I've heard about this. How much does Iceland import? Could Iceland be mostly self-sufficient? If not, then it would likely be crushed under the heel of the US if it tried anything major. However, if it could be self-sufficient, socialism could be a possibility. I would suggest reading Lenin's State and Revolution for a basic plan of action. As for the specifics, that should be developed in the course of the struggle. You can't just make a handbook that applies for every situation after all, each revolutionary situation is unique and follows a unique path.
The problem is of course this: Once the people have decided to reject capitalism; it must be "confirmed". The capitalist world order must "accept it" (of course it will never do this.)
This is just the history of the Icelandic Republic ad infinitum en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1949_anti-NATO_riot_in_Iceland How many decades must thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people try to raise a single point, for the true independence of nations, to refuse to be part of the war machine, before people listen?
Power will always override people! Override lives! Power is a cancer, a disgrace of the soul of man!!! We have been crying out since 2009!
Sæll venur, annar Íslendingur hér. I just wish the government would sign in the new constitution that already passed the national vote. It included a clause to nationalize all natural resources not currently in use which could push things a little further to the left.
Anthony Green
I think the big thing that's been going on right now is the current labour deal in process. For the outsider - Iceland's biggest unions all got a lot more radical recently and got new, more based leaders and are trying to increase the minimum wage by a very large margin. I know reformism sucks, etc… But this definitely moves the window way further left and makes things like the new constitution nationalizing a whoooole lot of shiet a lot easier to demand implementing ASAP. If it goes to shite we at least have a populace that's got a boner for protests so we all know what's in store if the talks don't go anywhere
Iceland has an unlimited supply of geothermal/hydroelectric energy and we are therefore capable if the need be, to grow produce to sustain ourselves in greenhouses without a drastic energy cost. I think it's something like the cheapest energy in the world. Right now with a social-democratic/capitalist economy, though, it imports a lot and people are really used to getting luxury goods so I think discontent would be strewn the second they are not getting the latest Iphone X-whatever.
That shit was great. I remember when I was 13-14 years old at the time and egging the parliament and the cops shielding it.
Easton James
Isn't Iceland one of the more liberal/right wing among the Nordics?
Post icelandic news mate. You should know that capitalist media will never cover shit like this.
Aaron Howard
Bump this is wild and is likely the most important thread we've had for a time. Iceland has the potential to become autarkic and is periphery enough that even as an experiment it's one of the most viable states to make a non-traditional transition without the problems that usually come with such.
Zachary Campbell
does not compute
Thomas Russell
Media is controlled by corporations that are controlled by neo-liberal international oligarchs. If socialism can be ignored they will ignore it, if it can be defamed they will defame it and so on.
Nathaniel Carter
Yeah and it might be enough to have those morons who claim that socialism 'always' fails. Despite it always arising in barely industrialized nations and almost completely being cut off by the capitalists.
Iceland could be the closest thing to modern day socialism in a "western" country since what? Italy in the 70/80s?
Luke Rodriguez
*show those not have those
Dominic Hughes
dump all thsi here fam?
Jace Parker
Hey man, say hello to the elves for me. Not a joke, Iceland is one of the last places on the material plane where the Elves commune with humans and that's rad as hell.
I remember when i was like 12 years ol looking at stuff about that in youtube, on how about the icelanders were pretty much real based and that spaniards should learn their way. Even then, they said that the icelanders got control of the goverment, and forced them to arrest bankers, not that you arrested them illegally. Then that revolution became a beacon of hope of what would become the 15-M in Spain, a movement that would stop the austerity imposed by the EU, specially germany, all started when the PSOE and the PP allied themselves to change the constitution, from "We will only care about giving to the population" to "Let's pay debts to german banks!". The 15-M movement occupied important places for months, even the police couldn't enter, and they organized in direct democracy and shit, I also remember a video I saw detailing how the 15-M movement spread around the world, and they called the "Occupy Wallstreet" as the spreading of the movement to america or something like that, I don't remember. Then it became Podemos and it became a never-ending hole of socialdemocracy and bullshit.
To ask your question, I would be entirely sure that they could've deleted it, entirely, meanwhile anyone was watching.
Can non-brits download this? I'll upload somewhere else if not.
Josiah Clark
Yes we can, thanks for posting
Christopher Lewis
Fam, if 10% of what you say is true, this is massive. You should start translating articles and news items into English and we'll spread that shit into our local leftospheres.
(me) Come to think of it, I haven't worked outside school for a while, and could use some income. I'll see if I can sell a piece to our local Leftist newspaper and start really digging into it.
Dylan Sanchez
who is this semen demon.
Justin Robinson
Bump.
Damn right we will.
James Campbell
Is your PM any good or nah? And tbh the Icelandic Bankers thing is well known in Britain: people were calling on people to do it back in 2009. youtu.be/ejC_0Yjz7kY Also tbh, if you want a great plan for island socialism look-up Maurice Bishop
Christian Mitchell
I went to Iceland last summer. Rented a camper van and drove around route 1. Climbed a mountain in the east fjords. It was pretty cool.
Maybe we should start our own online news outlet to report on leftist events around the world? I would volunteer my skills as a web designer, video editor and facefag if need be.
Juan Phillips
Send something to it to Jacobin: fuck it your english is great write them something about it. "Iceland's silent revolution" or some shit they'd publish tomorrow.
Cooper Brown
Literally this.
Jackson Murphy
I'd write it for you if you send me some info and pictures.
Owen Gutierrez
Oh btw, if you could give us some material in icelandic we can use google translate and spread it around.
this is just a giant fucking troll you guys. who the fuck comes in saying something this crazy and then just ghosts and refuses to post literally any sources. this is a joke
you mean this entire Iceland revolution thread or that user story about the people taking ownership of the land is fake?
Jacob Green
all of it, like unless user posts some sources then just forget this thread. the stuff about the bankers and all that is well known and documented but everything else about how there's some big revolution would definitely be documented somewhere credible. even bourgeois media would report it at least critically.
Jacob Price
We're all skeptical comrade.
Bentley Young
You must be new here
Landon Edwards
its never disappointing when we're right, and when we're wrong…
they did, op made it seem like the biggest fucking revolution the world is currently seeing tho and posted no sources
Justin Young
Its a problem to find good sources on a country with 300.00 people. Just browsing and googling a bit it seems one of their biggest unions has turned to the left after an election and they are currently threatening a strike while demanding a significant increase in the minimum wage
with that said I still have no idea what OP is really going on about with "revolution"
John Thompson
* 300k and not 30k people of course
Blake Jackson
After reading all the post on this thread, there a few things that need to be said. I can't be bothered to reply to all the individual posts so I'll try to be general. I was born and live in Iceland and have been following politics since before the protests shown in this picture known locally as "Búsáhaldabyltinging" which roughly translates to "The cookware revolution" This name is a reference to the fact that protesters would show up on Austurvöllur (location in the picture) and bang spoons on pots and pans. This was the main form of protest people engaged in. The cause of these protests was mainly outrage towards the mismanagement of Icesave and other similar projects as well as other matters related to the financial crisis of 2008. Anti-violence sentiment was strong among the protesters and most were in agreement that there was no need for violence. Not all of the protesters fully agreed on these matters however and there were some eggs and rocks thrown. In response to that a few dozens of the anti-violence protesters formed a human shield around the police line shielding them from possible projectiles, knowing that other protesters would be less inclined to throw rocks or eggs with the chances of hitting a civilian.
skipping ahead, a handful of bankers are jailed and the government agrees to pay the debts of the banking industry while taking over a considerable portion of one of the banks (but didn't actually nationalize it). Most of the people responsible never faced any consequences. Those who did get prison time did said time in kvíabryggja, an upper class prison reserved for financial criminals, those who are sentenced for other crimes anywhere from drug charges to murder to go the other prison. There are no bars on the windows or cells, and they were still allowed access to internet and the ability to continue working in the financial and banking industries through them.
There is currently a collaboration government with 2 parties, lead by the right-wing party that has been in power for most of my lifetime, the other party in government being Vinstri-græn(left-green) which is a soc-dem centrist party who are always willing to compromise with the right-wingers and find a middle ground between their own centrist ideals and the other's far-right ones. It's important to note that there have not even been any financial reform since any of this and it doesn't look like there will be any anytime soon.
So as you can see, claiming there was any form of revolution is a bit silly, just the fact that these protests were dubbed "The cookware revolution" shows how far away the populace is from revolutionary ideology, that to them this to them counts as a revolution. I don't know what OP is really talking about or that other Icelandic guy and i think spreading these myths is doing a disservice.
There is a considerable number of people who really do want to nationalize all industry and have true socialist sentiments, but we are still just a tiny minority, most are soc-dems who just want a less shitty same system, or outright ultra-right wingers, there are fuckton of those around.
One thing i must directly ask OP What "people's movement" are you referring to and who's been sending these messages to the french yellow vests? how would that even work? that part just plain confused me. and when you talk about the media blackout, are you referring to something happening here or in France? just so I understand
TL;DR There was no revolution and things have never been better for the bourgeois
Samuel Collins
This post is the best thing to come out of this thread, thank you.
Nolan Watson
Oh btw, the Right-wing party is called Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn if any of you want to look it up for some reason. also our government supports the coup in Venezuela. pic is literally the latest tweet for our minister of foreign affairs at the time of writing this.
