Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.11.2015, Side 16

16 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 17 — 2015
“They fight for civil rights, like they said
on TV yesterday, but I want to point out
that their battle involves a certain double
standard, in that they are fonder of some
civil rights than others—this includes, for
example, the ones I think are the most im-
portant ones, property rights. It is, or was,
a left-wing idea, to think of the individual
and their property as irrelevant, as part of
the greater whole. This is just the old left
and right politics. Their most experienced
MP [Birgitta Jónsdóttir] says, and has been
quoted as saying, that property rights are
part of society’s ills. She has said that re-
peatedly, and people are obviously aware
of [the party's] opinion on property rights.
That's why I say they’re really just a normal
left-wing party.”
-Brynjar Níelsson, Independence Party
MP, radio X-ið 97.7, April 8, 2015
“If people's resentment were to lead to rev-
olutionary parties—and parties with very
unclear ideas of democracy, and parties
that want to revolutionize the foundations
of society—to come to power, it would be
cause for concern for society as a whole
[…] it would lead to society going on a com-
pletely different course, in which it would be
difficult to preserve the values that we've
championed in the past few decades.”
-Prime Minister Sigmundur Davíð
Gunnlaugsson, Progressive Party, DV,
June 25, 2015
“You're really asking me if the Pirates are
a party that can govern. I don't think any-
one is in a position to disqualify those with
a strong democratic mandate. But I feel
certain individuals in the party are not well
grounded […] for example, I believe Birgitta
was first seen in Parliament as an employ-
ee of the Left Greens. Then she went to
Borgarahreyfingin as an MP, but that party
didn't live long so she started working with
Hreyfingin. Then she ran with the Pirates.
To run the country with any integrity you
of course need some grounding. The big
question regarding new parties like the Pi-
rates is: What do they stand for? Do they
have any grounding? I think the Pirates are
mostly a blank page.”
-Minister of Finance Bjarni Benedikts-
son, Independence Party, DV, August
28
How Do You Like
Those Pirates,
Government?
Compiled and translated
by Gabríel Benjamin
WHO ARE THOSE PIRATES?

Former occupation:
Software engineering
Political hero: Edward Snowden
Favorite book, band, pool: “I have no
answers to the remaining questions.”
Top 3 problems that we most ur-
gently need to solve in Iceland:
1. Adopt a new constitution, as has
been the intention since the founding
of the so-called Republic. The current
constitution is a royal constitution,
and this fact is not merely symbolic
but actually permeates all the way
down to how elections are confirmed.
2. Figure out how on Earth we're going
to retain any semblance of a sane
economy alongside a floating króna.
3. Find ways for people whose rights
are fragile to seek and defend their
rights, most notably the elderly and
handicapped people. It's extraor-
dinarily difficult for these groups to
seek and defend their rights under the
current system.
Former occupation: Poet, web de-
veloper, journalist, graphic designer,
translator, maker of books
Favourite band of the moment:
Muse
Favourite book: ‘The Master &
Margarita’, and most recently, ‘The
Dispossessed’
Political hero: “I can't think of any-
body I'd define as political hero, but
I seek inspiration from fellow writer
Vaclav Havel—and I think the current
Pope is a rock star.”
Favourite Reykjavík
swimming pool: Seltjarnarnes
Top 3 problems that we most ur-
gently need to solve in Iceland:
1. We need the new constitution to be
made into law.
2. We need to show with legislation
that we learned something from
the banking crisis so that we will not
repeat history (very soon).
3. We need to make the Heart of
Iceland into a national park, before it’s
too late to conserve it.
Former occupation: Student, and
then working for the Democratic Soci-
ety and The Tactical Tech Collective
Favourite band of the moment: “I
don't listen to music.”
Favourite book: Currently, ‘The Book
Thief’. Otherwise I'm a boring Harry
Potter fan.
Political "hero": “The Suffragettes,
Sylvia Pankhurst and others. They were
basically punks that made a statement
about women's suffrage rights.”-
Favourite Reykjavík
swimming pool: Vesturbæjarlaug
Top 3 problems that we most ur-
gently need to solve in Iceland:
1. Figure out what to do with the fact
that we now own two banks, instead
of just one, and what we're going to do
with it.
2. We also need to have a broad
discussion about the future of the
Icelandic króna and its sustainability
as a currency if we're going to move
away from capital controls.
3. Fix the constitution.
Helgi
Age: 35
Birgitta
Age: 48
Ásta
Age: 25
from disparate points on the traditional
left/right political spectrum, this meth-
odology is part of what unites them.
“I definitely approach this job from
the perspective of the hacker,” explains
Birgitta. “I don’t want to learn what
isn’t possible, because as soon as I know
about limitations, I start to respect them.
It’s better to pretend you don’t know the
limitations, so you can break them.”
Birgitta employed this wilful naiveté
to great effect during the formation of
IMMI—the Icelandic Modern Media Ini-
tiative—a bill that she championed and
shepherded through parliament and into
law. The result was a groundbreaking
piece of legislation designed to protect
freedom of expression for both the press
and private individuals. The bill sailed
through Alþingi, achieving an unprec-
edented level of cross-party support.
“It was a big job,” recalls Birgitta. “We
tasked the government with changing
ten different laws in four different min-
istries. Not only was it a vision on where
we were going as a nation, but it set the
bar high—we wanted the best laws in all
those fields. The bill was unanimously
adopted, which had never happened
before. And something all good activ-
ists know is that once you’ve crossed a
threshold, the way is open for others to
follow. So there’s been much more of this
type of work in parliament since then.”
Even so, Birgitta has found that
bringing the different laws through the
system and into effect is a long road. “It
has been a disappointment for me and
many others how slowly the writing of
the laws has progressed,” she says. “It’s
an ongoing process of applying pressure
on all fronts in order to make sure that
the various different laws of IMMI will
be written and adopted. The good news
regarding IMMI and the tasks involved
is that the IMMI laws are being written
by a very active steering committee in
one of the ministries.”
Fishing and porn
The rejection of party-political dogma
that the Pirates demonstrated in the
IMMI process is perhaps part of what’s
endeared them to an electorate jaded
by traditional politics following a cata-
strophic economic crash, and the subse-
quent return to “business as usual.” Ásta
Guðrún Helgadóttir is the newest Pirate
MP in parliament, having recently com-
pleted her political history studies and
stepped into the seat vacated by retired
MP Jón Þór Ólafsson. She’s a perfect tes-
tament to the power of the Pirate Party’s
inclusivity—a newly-minted 25-year-old
MP who’s been in the job for just a week
when we first meet.
"I started in Icelandic politics in
2013,” says Ásta, sitting in the Pirate Par-
ty office on the nearby Austurstræti. “I’d
been following what happened after the
crash in 2008. A lot of kids were pretty
disengaged, I don’t think they realised
the seriousness of it—at least amongst my
peers, I was the only one who was follow-
ing it. But in 2013 the Pirate Party came
along. The freedom of information aspect
attracted me—I’m very much against
censorship.”
One idea being mooted at the time