Reykjavík Grapevine - Jul 2022, Qupperneq 7

7The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 07— 2022
This moment has a pretty unique stand
in this writer's mind, as I witnessed it
take place. I was a young journalist
when it happened in 2008 and I remem-
ber the tension it presented, which I
tried to explain in an article printed in
the newspaper, DV, the day after. This is
the story about a young anarchist who
flew the Bónus flag from the parliament
flagpole, which instigated a riot and
turned out to be the first indication
of the famous Pots and Pans Revolu-
tion against the sitting government of
Iceland.
First: some context
This incident happened around one
month after the last big bank collapsed
in Iceland’s spectacular and complete
banking failure that threatened the
economic future of Icelanders. ‘Bank-
sters’ had been running wild across the
world, resulting in the Brits evoking the
Anti-errorism, Crime and Security Act
to secure deposits in connection with
Icesave—which would later become a
major international dispute between
Iceland, the UK and the Netherlands.
Regular housing loans had skyrock-
eted and it was clear that thousands
of Icelanders would lose their homes
within the next months and years. As
a result, Icelanders, un-organised but
angry, started to take to the streets.
The weekly protest
On Saturday 8th of November 2008
there was a gathering outside parlia-
ment. This in itself wasn’t special:
protesters met weekly but hadn’t really
gotten any straight answers from the
government. It was starting to dawn
on everybody that politicians had been
enabling the Icelandic bankers the
whole time.
Hörður Torfason, a legendary musi-
cian, had been helping to organise these
peaceful protests every week, and they
had grown significantly in numbers.
Now there were not hundreds, but
thousands of people at the protest.
New faces, covered faces
The protest went on like usual. There
were a few speeches and a lot of angry
faces in the crowd. But I spotted a
crowd I had not noticed before; some
of them were dressed in black and all
of them covered their faces. These
were the young anarchist activists, a
new generation of protesters who had
been repeatedly in the news in connec-
tion with the most concerted environ-
mentalist fight Icelanders had ever
seen a few years before, the building
of Kárahnjúkar dam. These guys were
serious.
Shortly after the speeches people
turned their focus on the parliament.
They threw eggs and skyr at the house
and chanted that the government
needed to go.
And then, all of a sudden, we saw
a young, slim man, dressed in a red
hoodie and military pants, walking on
the roof of the parliament. The protest-
ers immediately started cheering him
on. The man pulled out a Bónus flag—
obviously stolen from the discount
supermarket chain. Next he started to
raise it on the pole until it flew high
over the building hiding the corrupt
government. It was a powerful state-
ment, as one of Iceland’s biggest players
in the economic crash was the owner of
these discount stores. The message was
clear: the government was firmly under
the heel of dirty investment bankers.
First serious clash
The police mobilised to get the young
anarchist and headed to the parlia-
ment garden where he had climbed to
the roof, but the protesters saw what
was happening and rushed to stop
them apprehending the anarchist. This
turned out to be the first serious clash
between the protesters and the police.
The young man managed to climb
down, and the protesters blocked the
police’s efforts to arrest him.
After the event I managed to inter-
view the young protester. His name was
Haukur Hilmarsson, and I asked him
what he wanted to achieve when he flew
the Bónus flag. He told me, “We just
wanted to show people that they can
change everything. It doesn't perhaps
feel like a big difference to fly a flag for
a minute—but it shows that nothing is
unchangeable.”
Haukur lost his life around a decade
later. He was killed by Syria, where
he was fighting alongside the Kurds
against ISIS. His body has never been
repatriated, despite many attempts
by his mother to bring him home. We
immortalised him on our cover in
November 2018, where we wrote about
his remarkable, but sadly short, life.
This incident is an incredibly impor-
tant one in Icelandic history, even if
Haukur didn’t recognise that himself
at the time. It is said to have been the
first shift towards the Pots and Pans
Revolution which ultimately resulted
in bringing down the government, and
forcing them to actually go and clean up
the economic mess, instead of being a
part of it.

Ari Árelius
Melrakki
We’re not quite sure how, but all of a
sudden Ari Árelius is everywhere. His
latest single “Melrakki”, released on
July 1st, reminds us of the 70s; colour-
ful flowery carpets, velvet pants and
psychedelic vibes. Playful, dynamic,
and upbeat, this jazzy instrumental
tune is great for any kind of trip in any
kind of weather. His debut album Hia-
tus Terræ will be out on July 22nd. KW

neonme
The Flower Phallus
If someone had asked me in the 90s
what I thought music would sound
like in the 2020s, this would be it. This
brief but intriguing piece opens with
an extended electronic instrumental
that sounds like a wind-up toy made
of hard candy, but then drops us into
soaring syths and ethereal vocals
that left us wanting more. Certainly
didn’t hurt that the video was play-
fully weird. Definitely an artist to keep
an ear out for. ASF
Una Schram
mess
Sharing the name of Una’s newest
mixtape, ‘mess’ is a smooth R&B piece
that conjures feelings of longing and
regret. Taking you straight back to
the teenage and early 20-something
confusion about life and the future,
the song, and the whole mixtape,
reminds you that nobody is perfect
and nobody knows what they are
doing. AE
NEW MUSIC PICKS
First
GREAT MOMENTS
IN ICELANDIC
HISTORY
Words:
Valur Gettisson
Photo:
Screenshots
from DV
The Bónus Flag at The
Parliament
A moment that said so much with so little
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