Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.12.2008, Síða 10

10 | REYKJAVÍK GRAPEVINE | ISSUE 18—2008
ARTICLE By valur gunnarSSon — pHotoS By jÓi KjartanS
These words were spoken by a fictional President
in a, let’s face it, pretty terrible movie. Still, when
you learn that your economy is fiction and a bad
one at that, words from a crappy Hollywood film
can resonate pretty strongly. On our Indepen-
dence Day, December 1st, we started fighting
back. The people of Iceland got farther into the
halls of power than they have for a long time, right
into the Central Bank itself.
It was a long time coming, but now it’s here.

ThE gROwINg mOVEmENT
Ever since the Prime Minister’s so-called “Di-
saster Speech” on October 6, where he outlined
the crash of the Icelandic economy, a crowd has
gathered outside the parliament building every
Saturday afternoon to voice their discontent and
demanding the resignation of the government, the
Central Bank directors, and other key figures as-
sociated with the collapse. The turnout has grown
steadily, from 500 people at first, to roughly 7000
on November 22, the largest demonstration yet.
The crowd of Saturday afternoon protesters
is made up of people from all walks of life and
persuasions. Some carry the EU flag, others an
anti-EU flag. On November 22, representatives
from the Alliance Party Youth Movement invited
people to “throw away the króna” and brought
buckets for this purpose, while a group of women
who call themselves “The Women‘s Emergency
Government” climbed up onto the statue of found-
ing father Jón Sigurðsson and draped the statue in
a pink dress.
The protest ended, as usual, at 16.00. And for
the third week running, a group of mostly young
people then gathered outside the Parliament
building and pelted it with eggs and other food-
stuffs, including hamburgers and pasta. One win-
dow was broken. A young man who concealed his
face with a scarf climbed onto the Parliament bal-
cony and put up a banner with the words “Iceland:
Sold to the IMF for 2 Billion Dollars.”
So far, few policemen have been apparent
during the protests and have not intervened in the
egg throwing. Meanwhile the police task force,
known as “The Viking Squad”, have been on alert
just out of sight in the Parliament basement. They
have not provoked the crowd by a show of force,
perhaps because they know how little it would
take for them to lose control.
ThE FLAgS OF OUR FAThERS
One week earlier, a young man climbed up onto
the roof of the Parliament building and raised the
flag of the Bónus food chain where the Icelandic
national flag usually flies. Bónus is a part of Jón
Ásgeir Jóhannesson’s Baugur investment empire,
which owns the majority of the country’s food
stores as well as most of the media, and is widely
seen to be one of most powerful men in the coun-
try, and a key figure in the economic crash.
The man carrying the Bónus flag was Haukur
Hilmarsson, also a member of the Saving Iceland
group, which has carried out many direct actions
at the building site of the controversial Kárahn-
júkar dam. In 2005, Haukur was arrested for climb-
ing onto a construction site and sentenced to pay
a fine or serve 18 days in jail. He opted to be jailed
instead. After serving four days of his sentence, he
was released, since the jail was needed to host
more serious offenders.
Hilmarsson thus had 14 days left of his sen-
tence when he was let go and resumed his stud-
ies as a philosophy student at the University of
Iceland. A week after he raised the Bónus flag on
the Parliamentary Buidling, his class was invited
to visit the Parliament building on a school trip.
It was there he was arrested by the police, and
told he now had to serve the rest of his sentence.
Hilmarsson maintains that he has never evaded
authorities and no previous attempt has been
made to inform him that he was required to return
to finish his sentence.
ASSAULT ON ThE pRECINCT
The following day, November 22nd, Hörður Torfa-
son implored the authorities to set him free. After
the speeches, hundreds of people walked over
from the Parliament building to the police station,
demanding his release. They chanted the slogan
“Let Haukur out, put Geir in,” a reference to Prime
Minister Haarde. Eva Hauksdóttir, Haukur’s moth-
er, gave a speech on the police office steps, asking
for her son’s release.
With no apparent progress being made, the
demonstration soon escalated. Several people
started kicking at the doors of the police station.
Eventually, the outer door gave way and protesters
surged through. There, they were met by an inner
door. When the second door started to give way
to the force, police on the other side sprayed the
crowd with mace.
This dispersed the protesters away from the
door, while The Viking Squad in riot gear emerged
to clear the steps. The crowd initially fell back, but
then surrounded the policemen on the steps and
started pelting them with eggs. There, they stood
face to face for an hour.
ThE ONION
Protesters called for an ambulance to take away
those who had been injured by the mace. It took
the ambulance half an hour to arrive. Protesters
claim this was because calls for help had been
rejected by police. Meanwhile, some protesters
passed onions among the crowd, as this suppos-
edly helps people breathe after a mace attack.
One of those hospitalised was Eva Hauksdóttir.
Another was a 16 year-old girl.
Just as Channel 2 was starting a live broad-
cast from the demonstration, Haukur Hilmarsson
suddenly emerged on the police steps. An un-
known person had paid his fine and he was free
to go. On the police office steps, Haukur said that
even though he was opposed to paying the fine,
he had agreed to the release as he did not want
people to be injured.
“If people want to protest, it has to be in or-
der to change the government, not to rescue one
man,” he said.
A VISIT TO ThE BANk
The following Saturday passed quietly, even as
thousands of people gathered outside of the Par-
liament building. Perhaps this was because of
the biting cold, or because there was no real fo-
cal point for people’s anger apart from the empty
building. The MP’s were away and no one was be-
ing held prisoner.
December 1, was a different story. That day
marked the 90 year anniversary of Iceland as an
independent state, even though it did not become
a republic until 1944. Thousands of people gath-
ered on Arnarhóll, by the statue of first settler
Ingólfur Arnarson, right between the real palaces
of power, the Seat of Government and the Central
Bank.
Which one is the bigger culprit? People voted with
their feet, and once the speeches were over, they
headed for the Bank. They crowded into the foyer,
and stood there face to face with three policemen.
In between pelting them with eggs, the crowd
made attempts to win them over.
Surprisingly enough, this seemed to work,
and the crowd erupted into applause when the
policemen left their posts. The crowd surged
through the second door and into the bank. It was
only here that they realised that they had in es-
sence been trapped. Behind glass doors, around
30 policemen in full riot gear stood waiting.
The police declared the proceedings to be
an illegal protest, and an officer with a bullhorn
said they would use mace to disperse the crowd.
So far, the police has shown remarkable restraint
in the face of angry crowds, but here they seemed
about to resort to sterner measures. It was a long
way back out into the open air, and unleashing
teargas here on people trying to get out of harm’s
way would undoubtedly have resulted in severe
injuries and possible fatalities.
OddSON hAS LEFT ThE BUILdINg
The crowd put their hands in the air to show that if
they were to be rushed by police, they would do so
unarmed. They then sat down, and this seemed to
avert the attack. The police put their shields down.
Another standoff started on each side of the glass,
each side trying to stare the other down. Almost.
“They won‘t look into our eyes,” said one of
the protesters.
The crowd burst into spontaneous song of a
verse of “The Times They Are a-Changing,” among
other numbers. This was interrupted when Police
Chief Geir Jón Þórisson entered the crowd and
tried to induce them to leave, but to no avail. “We
won‘t leave without Davíð Oddsson,” responded
the crowd. Former Prime Minister and current
Central Bank director Davíð Oddsson had by then
long since left the building.
The Police Chief left and on the other side
of the glass, the Viking squad lined up again. It
seemed the volcano was about to erupt. People
tried to cover their faces as best they could, in the
event of teargas.
A hERO FROm mOSó
Then, a young man from Mosfellsbær defused the
situation. “We‘ll leave if you will,” he said. It did
not take the cops long to take him up on his offer.
The police stood down and evacuated their side
of the glass. On the other, the protesters filed out
into the cool Reykjavik night. The danger of being
maced in cramped spaces had abided for now. A
token victory had been achieved, even if the pro-
testers’ goals were no closer to fulfilment.
What next? It seems that every other protest,
things start to happen. Things were building up
for a month. On the fifth Saturday, people started
throwing eggs at the Parliament building, a then
striking event that has now become common-
place. On the seventh, the crowd raided the police
station. The eighth passed uneventfully, but the
first of December did not. Perhaps this pattern will
continue. There is the possibility that the coming
of what seems to be a very cold winter will put a
damper on things. But the economy is only going
to get worse, and this might make tempers flare in
spite of the creeping frost.
The Day We Started Fighting Back
tHere iS tHe poSSiBility tHat tHe
coMing of wHat SeeMS to Be a
very cold winter will put a daMp-
er on tHingS. But tHe econoMy iS
only going to get worSe, and tHiS
MigHt MaKe teMperS flare in Spite
of tHe creeping froSt.
"We will not go quietly into the
night! We will not vanish without a
fight! We're going to live on! We're
going to survive! Today we cel-
ebrate our Independence Day!”