Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.08.2004, Blaðsíða 5

EDITORIAL
SIRE, IT’S ONLY A PROTEST
by Valur Gunnarsson, editor
Leftists everywhere, and particularly
here, have a thing for lost causes.
They´ve been fighting for them all
their lives. It seems they´re all on
an eternal march from Keflavík to
Reykjavík, protesting against the
army base. Well, guess what? The
base is still there.
It seems there have been more visible
protests in the past couple of years
than in the last couple of decades.
Kárahnjúkar, the media law, the war
in Iraq and the plight of the Pales-
tinians are some of the most popular
ones. It seems people are more
concerned with what is happening
in the world around them than they
have been at any point since the 60s
or early 70s. And yet things aren´t
changing. The more people protest,
the more things stay the same. What
are we doing wrong? Why are we
being ignored?
Because we let ourselves be. The
average protestor goes out, sings a
song or lights a candle, holds up a
banner, and then goes home think-
ing he´s done a good day’s work.
It´s not enough. A few weeks ago a
group of protestors gathered outside
Landsvirkjun, the corporation that is
responsible for the Kárahnjúkar dam.
The head of the company came out
and listened to their complaints, the
protestors went home in time for tea
and the manager went back to work.
We need to stop thinking in terms
of lost causes. We need to start
thinking in terms of winning. How
do we go about doing this? First of
all, we need to pick a cause. The
media law has been shelved for now.
It is tempting to think that people´s
protests had something to do with
this, but it seems more likely divided
interests between the political and
financial elite pulled the plug.
Opposing the occupation of the
Palestinian people is a very worth-
while cause. But let´s face it, we
aren´t going to change that. Not by
protesting, anyway. Sharon won´t
listen. Neither will Arafat. I person-
ally believe Iceland should cut all its
ties with the terrorist state of Israel
until they end the occupation of
Gaza and the West bank. But even if
the Prime Minister were to do this,
it probably wouldn´t matter much
anyway. If you really want to help,
check out www.palestina.is and go
down there.
Being anti-Sharon is a very safe
opinion to have. So is being anti-
Bush. Almost everyone around you
will agree with you. It won´t affect
your relationships or your career
prospects the way having an opinion
usually does in this country. It´s tak-
ing a stand on local issues that´s the
challenge. As always, the trick is to
think globally and act locally.
What can we do about issues right
here in our backyard? It´s always
too easy to present people with a
fait accompli. I was in the UK when
the bombing of Iraq started. Once
the campaign was under way, the
protesting petered out. The war there
still goes on, but after Bush an-
nounced it was over, people haven´t
been taking to the streets. It´s the
same with Kárahnjúkavirkjun. When
construction began, the protests
stopped. But it´s not too late. It´s
never too late. Pick a cause, and stick
to it. It´s the only way you´ll win.
Icelanders are not ones to
protest. In a history stretching
back more than a thousand years,
and including 700 years of foreign
domination and famines that came
like clockwork every 40 years, hardly
anyone ever raised his voice. For
Icelanders, complaining has a touch
of unmanliness about it. “Real men
don´t complain” seems to be the at-
titude. It follows from this that they
rarely do anything to improve their
conditions. But there are exceptions.
In 1851, Iceland´s MPs raised their
voices to the kings representatives
and said: “We all protest.” It´s about
time we took their lead.
A Very Icelandic Protest
One evening last summer a banner
made out of a sheet was strung be-
tween two poles and draped against
the pedestal of the statue of Jón
Sigurðsson in front of the parliament
house. On the sheet the words ‘Say
No To Alcoa’ had been written and
beneath it, a small group wired up
the public address system set up a
microphone on a stand. It was 5.55
pm and the demonstration was due
to start at 6.00. It seemed for a while
that the event would be a wash-out,
but during the next ten minutes a
small crowd of 150 materialised and
huddled around the statue.
A policeman peddled up on his
bicycle and pulled a notebook out
of his pocket. As is the custom with
all protests here, a letter had been
sent earlier to the police stating that
they would be holding this demon-
stration; the letter worded in such a
way that the police were not put in
a position where they were asked to
agree or disagree with the meeting.
The policeman looked around and
peddled off, happy that there would
be no disturbance. Meanwhile,
Elísabet Jökulsdóttir addressed
the meeting. She had just returned
from an expedition to the site of the
Kárahnjúkar dam where she and a
group of protesters walked the area
that was to be swamped when the
dam was finally constructed and the
lake flooded.
It was the end of the summer holiday
and the meeting was designed to
encourage continued protest against
the dam and its attendant smelter.
Although the talk was of not giving
up and continuing the protest, that
the government could be stopped
even at this late stage, there was a
sense of resignation in the air. A
poet, the only male to speak, read
a poem; a lament for the valleys,
ravines and gorges that would soon
be lost to the flood water. The square
echoed his voice and two women
wept. As quickly as it had gone up
the banner came down, the wires
were unplugged and the protestors
returned to their homes. It was seven
o’clock.
by Robert Jackson, co-editor
“Is it an uprising?” asked king Louis XVI in 1789. “No sire, it’s
a revolution,” came the reply. Two years later, the king´s head was
in a basket. What then, is the difference between an uprising and a
revolution? An uprising is a revolution that fails, a revolution is an
uprising that succeeds. As in most things, success is the only criteria.
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