Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.04.2013, Page 16

16The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 4 — 2013
I must admit that I, personally, am somewhat
responsible for the crisis. Long before it hit us,
I knew as a socialist that capitalism was unsus-
tainable and that it has a crisis built into it. This
I knew, but I did not do all I possibly could have
done to stage a revolution. This is my responsibil-
ity and it follows that I will not be co-dependent
with capitalism, but will do my utmost to replace
it with a society of equality and social justice. As
for government policy before the crisis, it didn’t
directly cause the crisis, but they made it proba-
bly a hundred times worse by endorsing the real-
estate bubble, by overheating the economy with
gargantuan construction projects and by selling
the banks to swindlers and usurpers.
Vice Chair Vésteinn Valgarðsson, The
People’s Front of Iceland
There were many reasons for the crisis, one of
them being government policy, no doubt. Our
party did not exist at the time. It would have
been better had we existed then!
Bright Future
Our party and affiliated parties were founded
after the crisis and in response to it, so we are
not responsible aside from our part in the Icelan-
dic nation’s general apathy prior to the crisis. The
blame for the crisis has been, in various reports,
deemed to be mostly that of the bank moguls
and the governments that led the country in the
years prior. Politicians are mostly to blame for
the ill thought out, neoliberal privatisation of the
banks and a poor auditing and surveillance sys-
tem. They are also responsible for several deci-
sions that were more in line of the interests of the
banks and other corporations than the interests
of the households and the public.
Dawn
“The Fourparty” is responsible for the crash
and its aftermath. Lack of banking regulations
and the lack of action when it came to helping
out the general public while select corporations
and individuals in society were bailed out, these
parties’ debts being written off while the gener-
al public is left with mutated loans. Is our party
in some way responsible for this? Not at all. The
Household’s Party was established in March
2013, we are here to clean up the mess left by
“The Fourparty.”
The Household’s Party
As the current Prime Minister Jóhanna Sig-
urðardóttir said after Icesave verdict was deliv-
ered, now is not the time to look for someone to
blame. However, deregulation in the years pre-
ceding the crash went a step too far and it would
have been sensible to enact laws and regulation
prohibiting the banks from overextending their
lending.
The Progressive Party
First, the Right Green People’s Party was cer-
tainly not responsible and was not even estab-
lished at the time. Secondly, the crash of 2008
can mostly be blamed on the banks and their
reckless and questionable practices. Thirdly, the
government was also to blame for not having
been active in their regulatory, oversight and
supervisory duties. This has already changed
and the party wants to continue constructive
reforms.
The Right Green People’s Party
The financial crisis was created by the neo lib-
eral financial system that controls the world
here and in all other countries on this planet. It
is the reason for the big crash here in Iceland.
The Humanist Party has nothing to do with this
and we have warned about this process and its
inevitable consequences for nearly 30 years.
The Humanist Party
Yes, the government was in large part to blame.
Specifically, the root source of the crash was
the incestuous relationship between the estab-
lished political parties and bankers, culminating
first in the corrupt, Russian-style privatisation
of the banks in 1998–2003 and then in the banks’
collapse like a house of cards in 2008. The IDP
is innocent in all this, having been established
only a few weeks ago. Most of our key members
and candidates have not been active in political
parties before.
The Iceland Democratic Party
We have no reason to refute the results of the
financial meltdown research committee. Their
report gave a detailed story about a severe lack
of transparency and democratic oversight, and
collusion between banks and the government.
The Icelandic Pirate Party did not exist then,
and none of our members were in power during
the crash. We bear only the same responsibility
for the crash as the general public: we ignored
a bad thing happening right in front of us. This
merely reinforces our commitment to bringing
transparency to a situation that was caused by
lack of accessible public information.
The Pirate Party
The Report of the Special Investigation Com-
mission states that decisions taken by Icelandic
governments at the beginning of the 21st Cen-
tury, not least in the years 2003–2006, set the
stage for the collapse of the Icelandic banking
system in 2008. The SDA bears full political re-
sponsibility for decisions and mistakes made
since 2007, the year we took seat at the govern-
ment table.

The Social Democratic Alliance
The financial crisis of 2008 was an internation-
al meltdown of the banking sector. There isn’t
any government policy that could have averted
the meltdown. It’s easy to look back and try to
point to things that could have been done dif-
ferently. Almost all of the party’s leaders in
power at the time have left politics and our fo-
cus is now to rebuild for the future.

The Independence Party
The financial crisis was a direct result of gov-
ernment policy, the same neoliberal policy as
Reagan and Thatcher implemented in the US
and UK in the ‘80s. The Left-Green Movement
is the only political party that always warned
and fought against this policy, a policy which
eventually led to the crash in 2008.
The Left Green Movement
Was the financial crisis in 2008 and the problems Iceland now faces in some
way caused by government policy and action or the lack thereof? Is your party
in some way responsible for this? Why or why not?
None
Pro negotiations, but the people should decide
The people should decide
www.xdogun.is
Pétur Gunnlaugsson
Up to the people when the time comes
Anti-Króna
www.flokkurheimilanna.is
Dögun (xT)
(“Dawn”)
Flokkur heimilanna (xI)
(“The Household’s Party”)
Who they say they are in one sentence: Dögun fights for
justice, fairness and democracy, as mandated in our core
policy statement.
3. Not per se, we harbour no formal connections. Partici-
pants in “the Pots and Pans Revolution” identify with many
movements, such as the global 99% movement. There
has been an increase in a variety of activism all over the
world, and the basis for this has been a call for democratic
improvements, social fairness, judicial and political justice
and less inequality, with a redistribution of wealth from the
super wealthy and powerful 1% to the rest of us, the 99%.
Dögun identifies with most of these movements.
7. We must take complex measures that increase national
production and secure that prosperity benefits all, not a
chosen few. Dögun places an emphasis on abolishing the
price indexing of household loans, decreasing the debt bur-
den of homes, putting a cap on interest rates and legalising
a minimum ‘standard of living’ index.
14. The nation should be the decider. Dögun does not
directly answer the question with a yes or a no. Dögun
believes that the application negotiations should first reach
an agreement that the Icelandic nation can then decide
upon. As for voting on whether to stop the negotiations or
finish them through, Dögun will respect the voters’ wishes
in accordance with relevant articles in the bill for a new
constitution.
15. Dögun is strongly behind the constitutional draft of the
Constitutional Assembly and demands that Alþingi enact it.
20. Before the coming elections, Dögun will state officially
with whom it is ready to work. Based on discussions over
the last months, it can be said that one party in particular is
unlikely to be on such a list: the right wing Sjálfstæðisflok-
kur (“Independence Party”), which should be out of power
at least one more term.
Who they say they are in one sentence:
The Household’s Party, X-I, will tackle the most pressing eco-
nomic issue at hand: the mutated consumer- and home loans
that the general public in Iceland was left with as a result of
the financial crash of 2008. This still has not been addressed
five years after the collapse of the banking system and the
country’s currency.
3. We believe that this party is unique in the sense that
nowhere in the world are debtors forced to accept mutated
mortgages and consumer loans due to the inflation index.
8. We need to revoke the banks’ license to print money out of
thin air. It is not fair in a free market environment to give one
type of private company the right to print money and others
not. In this case the power must rest with the Central Bank.
Furthermore private banks need to be regulated properly;
they must be prevented from finding themselves in the same
crash prone situation ever again.
9. Taxes must be lowered across the board on businesses
and individuals. You cannot raise taxes during a depres-
sion such as we currently find ourselves in. In the immortal
words of the wartime Prime Minister of Britain, Mr. Winston
Churchill: “For a nation to tax itself into prosperity is like a
man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the
handle.”
16. While protecting nature and land is very important it is
also important to utilise one’s resources. This must of course
be done in harmony. We do not believe that a more stringent
regulative framework is needed to protect the environment,
since most people already realise its importance and value
nowadays
20. The Household’s Party will work with any party that
shares our goal to free the citizens of this country from the
debt slavery in which they have been placed. Why? The an-
swer is simple. It is our duty to do whatever it takes to rectify
the mutated mortgages and restore justice to the people and
the economy of this country. Personal politics and feelings,
if any, do not matter at all. The only thing that matters is get-
ting the job done.
Party Chair:
EU:
Currency:
Website:
Party Chair:
EU:
Currency:
Website:
Katrín Jakobsdóttir
Anti
Pro-Króna, but open to other ideas
www.vg.is
Vinstri Hreyfingin - Grænt Framboð (xV)
(“The Left Green Movement”)
Who they say they are in one sentence:
Our movement is to the left and green—we emphasize
equality and social justice, the environment, pacifism and
women’s liberation. So the scale from left to right is not suf-
ficient.
2. Our movement was founded in 1999 and was the first
political force in Iceland to put environmental issues at the
core of its agenda. In addition, it has been the only party
that has focused on pacifism, feminism and social justice.
We have managed to bring all of these issues on the agenda
for voters, and have achieved some success in doing so. As
a result of our policy we were the only political movement
that warned and fought against the malignant growth of the
Icelandic economy that led to the crash in 2008. At the begin-
ning of 2009 we formed a new coalition government with
the Social Democrats with the task of leading the redevel-
opment of Iceland after the collapse. In this task, there has
been significant progress and now are brighter times ahead
in Iceland.
12. Yes, it was also a collapse of the ideology that life should
revolve around making money. I think we have changed our
way of thinking since then. For example, recent evidence
suggests that Icelanders now spend more time with their
family and enjoying arts and culture.
15. We support the draft. It is based on an extensive and
open dialogue and the basis of it has already been approved
by the people in an advisory referendum. Having said that,
we have been willing to find a way to reach a broad consen-
sus in the parliament on the outcome. Such resolution has
not been reached yet.
17. Gender equality will be a problem until it has been elimi-
nated, and therefore remains at the top of our agenda. Even
though the situation is better in Iceland than in most societ-
ies, we have not reached equality. The most visible injustice
is the gender wage gap and representation in business,
media and politics. We also have some way to go in eliminat-
ing less visible injustice like gender-based violence.

Party Chair:
EU:
Currency:
Website:
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