Saga - 1978, Page 80

74
ÓLAFUR R. EINARSSON
crats while he was in Copenhagen, and the author shows how his
mission led to the acceptance by the leadership of the Alþyðuflokkur
of the ideas of common citizenship and a common foreign service.
On the other hand Ólafur managed to get the Danish parliamentary
party to agree that the solution to the union issue must be achieved
with sympathetic understanding of the wishes of the Icelanders. Thus
the mission designed to influence the Danish social democrats resul-
ted in a mutual influence that increased the danger of a rupture
within the Icelandic Alþyðuflokkur.
In the second part of the article the author describes Borgbjerg’s
part in the conversations held in Reykjavik in the summer of 1918,
and his dealings with the Icelandic socialists. He points out that
Borgbjerg urged the leaders of the party to accept the proposals of
6th July in which a common right by birth was treated as the basis
of a true union between the nations and the need for a solution of
the union question a condition of dealing with domestic problems
of national importance. The support given to these proposals by the
Federation of Icelandic Trades Unions central committee resulted in
protests by two member unions and threats by one of them to re-
sign from the Federation. Thus the danger of a split was aggrava-
ted and the proposals put the Icelandic delegates in a false position.
Agreement was finally reached on a union bill in which common
citizenship was not recognized, but mutual equality of rights of
nationals in both countries assured.
The author mentions Borgbjerg’s thanks to the Icelandic socialists
for their support, and shows that a close financial link between the
Danish social democrats and their Icelandic confréres followed.
In the conclusion of the article the author points out that the
special position of the Icelandic Alþyðuflokkur in the union law
conversations, and its link with the Danish Social Democratic Party,
gave opponents (on the basis of the old party system of indepen-
dence politics) the pretext to stamp the Icelandic socialists as a dis-
loyal pro-Danish party promoting class hatred. During the years
1916—29 the Icelandic party system changed from one based on the
issue of independence to one based on class politics. The events of
the year 1918 introducted certain political attitudes from indepen-
dence politics into the party system of class politics, and these became
part of it. The article thus deals with a delicate situation, inherited
from the politics of independence, that threatened the basis of a new
national political system based on class conflict.
The subject throws light on the difficulties of a socialist party
in a struggle for national independence that clashes with interna-
tionalist ideas of the period. trs.AB 10/78