Reykjavík Grapevine - 23.09.2016, Side 13

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lieve that Iceland is a unique place that
leads a global revolution:
1. The constitutional draft of 2011
was written through a really inter-
esting participation process that
doesn’t include any article that pro-
vides Iceland with an alternative to
capitalism. Participation processes
guaranteed by the constitution are
the most revolutionary aspect we can
find in the constitutional draft of 2011,
especially if we compare it with the
constitution of 1944. But this aspect is
not unique in the world. Countries like
Switzerland, Estonia, Ireland, Greece
and Ecuador, just to mention few, have
been working lately on giving power
of decision to citizens, more or less
successfully.
2. To complete the aforementioned
changes, we must admit that the
Icelandic constitutional draft is not
a revolutionary one. At this point it is
interesting to remember articles like
Article 35 of the French Declaration of
the Rights of Man of 1793: “When the
government violates the rights of the
people, insurrection is for the people
and for each portion of the people the
most sacred of rights and the most
indispensable of duties.” That’s a truly
revolutionary article. I just wanted to
share it to put the Icelandic constitu-
tional draft in historic context.
3. Many local municipalities all
around the world, with a population
smaller, equal to or larger than the
population of Iceland, are already ex-
perimenting with direct democracy.
4. The main pro-constitutional
change party in the polls nowadays
is the Pirate Party (second position
after the traditional right-wing In-
dependence Party), a political or-
ganization that admits that it is not
anti-capitalist and that has mem-
bers of both left and right ideologi-
cal inclinations.
5. Icelanders are held up as an exam-
ple, supposedly the only country in
the world where bankers have been
jailed and political leaders judged.
Well, I can talk about Spain. The for-
mer director of the IMF, banker, Finan-
cial Minister and Vice President of the
central government in Spain, Rodrigo
Rato, is now facing a trial and possible
sentence of four years in prison. Luis
Bárcenas, treasurer of the main politi-
cal party in Spain, Partido Popular, has
been in jail for 19 months and is now
awaiting a final verdict. I could follow
with dozens of politicians and some
bankers that are under judiciary in-
vestigation in Spain. But what’s clear,
dear Icelanders, is that you are not the
only country in the world prosecut-
ing politicians and bankers. We must
keep in mind that members of the elite
spending a few months or years in a
minimum security jail is not going
to change any of the rules of our eco-
nomic and political system.

That being said—and I really hope
that nobody took what I wrote too
personally—I encourage all Iceland-
ers to believe in a better world and to
stop thinking (just in case you did)
that you are the leaders of any global
movement; to work closely togeth-
er and learn from social movements
worldwide that are fighting for the
same goals as you: a fully democratic
system where the needs and rights of
its people are, by law, more important
than the demands of capital and inter-
national free markets.
Èric Lluent is a journalist based in Cata-
lonia and the author of ‘Iceland 2013: A
Story Of Deception’.