Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.05.2017, Síða 12

Iceland, unlike all other Nordic coun-
tries, has been primarily a conserva-
tive, centre-right country for roughly
the past 30 years now. It took the literal
collapse of the financial sector to pro-
voke Icelanders into even considering a
left-wing government—which they had
for exactly four years, before promptly
voting the right wing back into power,
twice now. There are leftist parties in
Iceland, and they sometimes enjoy lower
levels of power in various towns and
villages. When it comes to the national
government, Icelanders essentially al-
ways put conservatives in power. Social
democracy, let alone socialism, strug-
gles to find footing here.
This context is important to re-
member when we consider that Gunnar
Smári Egilsson, a journalist and writer,
spearheaded the effort to form The So-
cialist Party of Iceland (SPI), which was
officially formed, appropriately enough,
this past May 1.
Blame neoliberalism
"It's not just that we think too much
about ourselves; we've also stopped
thinking of ourselves as belonging to a
group," Gunnar Smári explains, when
asked about the reason behind starting
the party. Here he mentions not just pri-
vate companies, but also that Iceland’s
healthcare and education systems are
run from the point of view of being eco-
nomically feasible.
"We have spent the past 30 to 35 years
under the reign of neoliberalism, as hor-
rible an ideology as there is. It claims to
be based on science, but is more or less
some kind of ridiculous religion."
For the record, this is not Iceland’s
first socialist party. There was an actual
Socialist Party, active from 1938 to 1968,
which was a strictly Marxist-Leninist
party that followed the Comintern’s
party line. There have been, and still are,
leftist parties in Iceland that embrace
some aspects of socialism as well, and
the People’s Front of Iceland (Alþýðu-
fylkingin) is a self-identified socialist
party, albeit one that has never won in
a seat on a municipal or parliamentary
level. What makes SPI unique, however,
is its approach and praxis.
12 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 08 — 2017
The Socialist
Party Is Finding
Its Legs
But where will it stand?
Words: Paul Fontaine Photos: Art Bicnick Share this: gpv.is/vap07
ANALYSIS
Gunnar Smári
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