Iceland, the silent revolution.
Saturday, January 1, 2011 1:52 p.m.
(JJMU for Médiapart) When Iceland reinvents Democracy: Constituent Assembly was elected in November
Revolution? ...
One day a few months ago, an English way of Paris, met at the bookstore Lady Long Solo, warned us about the revolution in Iceland. What revolution? We do not hear anywhere. A quick google search does not work at all today, or by associating the word "revolution" or even "crisis" where there are only details of the financial crisis indeed the cause of this revolution, which took place in 2008 in this country of just over 300,000 residents, ranked second in the World Human Development Index, HDI, behind Norway, on the eve of the crisis in 2006.
then confronted with the sudden collapse of the banking system, the people had descended on the streets. Unprecedented in country jeysers hot water. The line was soon to give way to the left. And to begin with, banks were nationalized. Our informant English had heard about the draft laws of total freedom for the Internet, such as English sites thought to find accommodation there. More importantly, he insisted to speak of a revolution, without being able to describe it more, but not surprised that we ever heard of.
Seeking so stubbornly, we ended up seeing images of the presidential palace besieged by a crowd that would qualify here without hesitation of anarcho-autonomous. In addition to the black flags, one could guess from the crowd a strong component of citizenship-type environmentalist. And we understand that the poor unfortunate cop, alone in front of the presidential palace, has quickly had to go under the pressure of the crowd. The latter, however peaceful uses only pots and other noisy objects, according to the method of cacerolazo Argentina, which has also be very profitable there.
The president had packed up. A new government was established. But some time later, he had the bad idea to propose repayment of the debt of banks vis-à-vis Denmark or Great Britain. The people again took to the streets. A referendum on the issue was forced by popular will, and a small majority of 93% rejected the agreement provided by the good guys rulers.
The information gleaned from this striking image of the agora in the hot baths, where people gather every morning to discuss how to remake the world.
Consecration of this revolution, the election of a Constituent Assembly, November 27, 2010, event may be greater than the night of August 4, 1789 which was passed abolishing privileges, which we would not have seen without the vigilance of Truks bulk of our friend B. Bec, Gers, relaying CADTM, or Jean-Luc Melenchon, that there is a similarity with its own constitutional theories, but does not seem to see beyond the tip of his nose anti-capitalist.
Wonder of misinformation. An event so huge that a true democratic revolution, as it has ever seen in Europe, can occur without the press or google, can not learn anything. Certainly in the era of strengthening anti-democratic than live in most European countries, the example of Iceland does not really matter to our police-state, which again showed their ability to lock strictly collective consciousness.
We would certainly know more about this revolution in Iceland. For months that Paris is waking dream of writing for her teleporting depth reporting in the country of the whalers and utopia. Immerse themselves in hot baths of the democratic revolution is certainly envy, especially given the heart of our winter safely.
You have to imagine the 25 "ordinary citizens" who go on the floor ideal constitution. The breath of humanity should be retained. Where we will probably see that it is not hard to do better than all the figures of pseudo-democracies that have so far declined on five continents.
This article is a call that would have more information about this extraordinary Icelandic history. We can write to the author: michelsitbon@gmail.com , or myself, and I will relay it with pleasure.
Since this crisis that is far from being shed, Iceland has experienced a number of quite dramatic changes, beginning with the nationalization of the three largest banks, followed by the resignation of right-wing government under popular pressure. The 2009 parliamentary elections brought to power a leftist coalition formed the Alliance (a group of parties consists of the Social Democrats, feminists and ex-communists) and the Movement of Greens on the left. It was a first for Iceland, as the appointment of a woman, Johanna Sigurdardottir, as Prime Minister.
Soon, the new government faces a thorny problem: Regulation in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom of a debt of 3.5 billion euros following the collapse of Icesave online bank whose operations were primarily oriented towards these two countries. Under pressure from the European Union, to which the Social Democrats would like to join the government in January 2010 to vote a bill authorizing the rebate, which would, for each Icelander to pay for eight years, an amount of about 100 euros per month. But the president refuses to ratify the law, the text is then submitted to a referendum. Over 93% of Icelanders vote against repayment of debt (March 6), and since the problem remains unresolved.
is in this context that Iceland decided to amend its constitution, which in fact has never really been written: when in 1944 the republic was proclaimed, it had merely copied in outline the constitution of Denmark, Iceland dependent country for several decades by simply replacing the term "king" by "president". So a new constitution that is to write entirely, and why we decided to trust the sovereign people. First there was a call for nominations (everyone could attend with the exception of elected national, provided they have eighteen years of age and be supported by at least thirty people) which was answered by 522 citizens. What it is among them was elected the 25 constituents.
They will begin meeting in mid-February and will make their copy before the summer. Among the proposals that come up most often, we can note the separation of church and state, nationalization of all natural resources and a clear separation of executive and legislative powers.
Certainly, Iceland is a small country of about 320,000 inhabitants. It does, however there's a great lesson in democracy in large states such as France: think that in our country, the constitutional reform of 2008 was fully drawn at the Elysee, and that parliamentarians have taken only two votes after being subjected for weeks to intolerable pressure from the head of state.
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