Interviewed: Icelandic activist who took down his government

via Occupy Canada.


http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/ethan-cox/2013/03/interviewed-icelandic-activist-who-took-down-his-government

Hörður Torfason: Well, in October 2008 we faced a [financial] collapse, which was a shock for the entire nation. We are a small country of 320,000 people in a nation that covers about 103,000 square kilometers. We have lived for decades being told by our government that we were one of the richest countries in the world, but something strange was going on, it didn’t really fit with reality. For people like me who travel the world and see a lot of things, there was something lacking. But people wanted to believe what was said and behaved accordingly. On October 6th 2008, the prime minister came on national television and told us something serious had happened. This was on a Monday and the banks were closed. We weren’t sure what was happening, but the government maintained that everything was under control. A lot of people lost a lot of money. Looking back at that time we all sort of knew that the money we invested with the national bank existed only in our dreams. The bank pretended to give you an interest rate on your money, but really it was all a fraud, so you didn’t lose the money you invested, you lost your dream, your imaginary earnings. This upset a lot of people. At first, people were at a loss and didn’t know what to do, me included. Since then, I’ve devoted my life to this struggle for our rights.

On October 11th, I stood in front of the parliament with two questions; Can you tell me what has happened in our country? And, can you tell me what we can do about it? I’m a known artist in my country, so I used my webpage, I sent out emails for others to come. Not many people came. I stood there and I talked to the forty or fifty people that gathered. They were shy but they were angry. So what I did is I said, “let’s talk. My question is this, do you have any ideas about what is happening [in this country]?” I stood there day after day at 12 o’clock, because that was the lunchtime for politicians working inside the house [parliament]. After three days I realized that standing and asking questions wasn’t enough. So I got a car, sound equipment, drove around and announced that I was planning a big demonstration. I called friends of mine, artists and intellectuals, to try and clarify what was really going on. The problem is that media is owned by the rich in our country and controlled by politicians and political parties, so I started these outdoor meetings to share information. It’s an old idea from the Greeks. That’s all I have been doing. I was trying to inform people about what was going on and start a conversation with the politicians. Little by little, these meetings grew into bigger demonstrations, where thousands and thousands of people marched. Every Saturday, there was an outdoor meeting with speakers, and a gathering of thousands of angry people trying to create a dialogue. Little by little we agreed on our three major demands; for the government to step down, for the board of the national bank to step down, and for the board of the financial supervisory authority to step down.

(More at the link.)