Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.12.2011, Page 10

The global Occupy movement seems to have some pretty weighty and worthwhile mes-
sages. Do you feel it's all just a bunch of hoo-ha, or are you feeling all 'inspired' by it?
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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 18 — 2011
On a cold November evening, a
large canvas tent lies half-collapsed
in front of parliament. Small crates
of food lie out in the open, and a
young man in coveralls is helping to
gather the tentpoles. This is Occupy
Reykjavík, part of the global Occupy
movement and formed a month pre-
vious, but already going on hiatus.
It wasn't pepper spray or tasers that
forced this group to stand down for the
time being, though, but rather a combi-
nation of poor logistics, the exhausting
grind of Icelandic bureaucracy, and a
deafening roar of indifference.
IT'S ALL AbOUT LOCATION
As the Occupy movement began to
gather momentum in the US and around
the world, Iceland wasn't entirely slow
on the uptake. Occupy Reykjavík began
organising on October 15, and had its
official start on October 30. Their cho-
sen location—Austurvöllur, the grounds
in front of parliament—would prove to be
the source of many of the group's dif-
ficulties.
While the parliamentary building is
itself a national structure, Austurvöllur
is land owned by the city. As such, any
permission to be on the property was
in the hands of City Hall. While Occupy
movements around the world had cho-
sen the direct action approach of simply
occupying public space and dealing with
the consequences later, Occupy Reykja-
vík chose instead to seek permits to be
on the property. Police told occupiers
that without such permits, their tents—
numbering around half a dozen at the
time—would be immediately removed.
Indeed, while the question of their legal
right to be on the property remained un-
answered, police did remove the largest
tent from the encampment, which was
later reportedly returned in damaged
condition.
The occupiers argued that being on
public space, they had a constitutionally
protected right to assemble there, but
this made little difference to authori-
ties. Eventually, city hall agreed to issue
permits to the occupiers to camp on
Austurvöllur, but these permits needed
to be renewed on a weekly basis. Re-
applying for a permit each week, while
police continued to doubt the legality of
the occupiers' presence, began to wear
the group down.
Austurvöllur also happens to be in
the heart of downtown Reykjavík. On
weekends, this means dealing with
passing crowds of drunks who may be
less than sympathetic to the cause. One
occupier, Sigurður Einarsson, told the
Grapevine, “The police have been ignor-
ing us very loudly. We had some drunk
people here the other night, we called
the police for aid, and they said 'Yes,
yes, yes, we will send someone', and
they never came. So we've had to take
care of security ourselves.” There was
also a theft of some speakers from one
of the tents. With a lack of manpower to
be able to stand guard, and police doing
little to protect the occupiers, the Aus-
turvöllur camp has been a vulnerable
target left to their own devices.
“There are very few people capable
of manning all the shifts, and winter is
coming,” adds Pétur Karlsson, another
occupier. “And we're also getting ha-
rassed by the police once in a while.
We're really undermanned right now.
There aren't a lot of people helping us.”
WHAT dO THESE PEOPLE WANT
ANyWAy?
One of the most frequent questions that
arises about the movement anywhere
in the world has been what, exactly,
the Occupy people want. In the case of
two members of the Occupy Reykjavík
movement, the emphasis seems less
about economics and more about de-
mocracy.
“The thing that we are striving for,
that is closest to my heart, is direct de-
mocracy,” Pétur says. “We don't want a
few people controlling the affairs of ev-
eryone else. Neighbourhoods could be-
come more active, there could be more
public referendums, but I would also like
to see changes to the economy as well.
I'd like to see cooperatives. We all come
here with our own ideas. We are all here
to contribute. I don't think it's advisable
to define it so narrowly. This is about the
99%. We want the community to get to-
gether and try to arrive at a consensus,
find solutions together.”
Sigurður echoes much the same sen-
timent: “I would like us to not dehuman-
ise other people with needless power. I
want a society that is egalitarian, instead
of having a hierarchy. I want people to
be able to get together, whoever they
are, to decide on things, instead of some
higher power that tells everyone what to
do. I want to see people brought more
openly into the decision-making pro-
cess.”
In trying to bring people into the fold,
Pétur admits there have been logistical
problems: “We don't really have a lot of
resources to network, but I think that our
best tool is the internet. We are trying to
contact the media and let them know
what's going on, but there are some dif-
ficulties there. If we want to get them
to cover us, they demand stuff like free
pictures or they're just not interested. So
not a lot of them are coming here to see
what's going on.”
Sigurður is a bit more optimistic on
this point: “We've had some support
from the general Occupy movement
around the world by having them come
here to check us out and offer their as-
sistance. We've also had some good
conversations with journalists from
around the world. Journalists in Iceland?
Mostly freelance journalists who are al-
ready deep in the grassroots movement
themselves.” In fairness, he admits that
it was the presence of a camera crew
from RÚV that kept police from taking
away their tents on their first night, and
that Morgunblaðið was there to take
photos when police eventually did seize
their tents.
LOUdLy IGNOREd
On top of this, support from public of-
ficials has been lacking.
“I would not be aware of any other
public figures showing us support,” Pé-
tur says. “Some people support us in
spirit, but for the most part we're on our
own. They give us the thumbs-up, but
they don't do anything.”
The strongest show of support from
any public figure has been from Move-
ment MP Þór Saari, who earlier this
month submitted an official proposal
that parliament allow the protesters to
have access to the building's toilets, and
to provide hot soup in the evenings. His
motivation is pure altruism.
“I think that parliament should do
as much as possible to try to heal the
rift between itself and the people,” he
told the Grapevine. “Parliament has be-
come an ivory tower whose occupants
are afraid of those outside and refuse to
speak to them. In general parliamentar-
ians have contempt for the public and do
not consider them as important as the
special interest groups.”
MP for the Independence Party
Ragnheiður Ríkharðsdóttir, posted this
status on Facebook: "Terrible view of
Austurvöllur which shows unbelievable
disrespect from the city of Reykjavík
towards the Icelandic parliament." She
also expanded her criticism to include
the Occupy movement itself. "Do people
think this is some kind of performance
piece?," adding that Occupy protests
elsewhere have been in front of financial
institutions rather than legislative bod-
ies. "So can any kind of performance
piece be held in Austurvöllur, or any
other public space then?"
But Þór is convinced that the Occupy
protesters are exactly where they're
supposed to be: “Parliament is the origi-
nator of all things and the most powerful
institution in Iceland. As long as it does
not change its ways or remake legisla-
tion favouring the people instead of spe-
cial interest groups, it remains the cor-
rect and in fact the only relevant target
for protest.”
MOVING ON, MOVING FORWARd
The logistical problems and public indif-
ference have unfortunately compelled
the group to pull up their tent stakes
for the time being, but their optimism
remains.
“I'm optimistic for change overall,”
Pétur says. “I don't know about the path
of this movement. We pretty much cop-
ied it raw from America. There may be
different tactics that we'll have to take.
Whatever happens, we're going to de-
velop new methods, adapt to the situa-
tion, and we're going to go on.”
Sigurður tells us the movement plans
to expand its horizons. “Taking down the
tent seemed the next logical step, so we
can conserve our strength to do other
activities that we want to do: organise
protests and sit-ins, go to places other
than Austurvöllur, such as the commer-
cial districts. The camp is coming down
until we've re-assessed our strengths,
focused our abilities elsewhere, and
then when we feel the need to put up the
camp again, we're going to do it more
organised, with all the equipment we
need.”
Occupy | Where did you go now?
How the occupy movement takes shape in Iceland
Tents Around The Tower
Heavenly pizzas!
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Lækjargata 8
“The thing that we are striving for, that is closest to my
heart, is direct democracy,” says Pétur. “We don't want
a few people controlling the affairs of everyone else.”
Words
Paul Fontaine
Photos
Páll Hilmarsson