IceSave

Attac Iceland is greatly pleased with the results of the EFTA court concerning the Icesave dispute between Iceland on the one hand, and the European Union, United Kingdom and the Netherlands on the other. Already in 2009, there was widespread resistance in Iceland against the socialization of the losses of private banks. This resistance led to the two Icelandic national referendums on the Icesave agreements, which were both rejected.

Íslandsdeild Attac lýsir yfir ánægju sinni með niðurstöðu EFTA-dómstólsins í deilumáli Íslendinga annars vegar og Breta, Hollendinga og Evrópusambandsins hins vegar. Stefnubreyting alþjóðastofnana í þessu máli er fyrst og fremst til komin vegna einbeittrar og öflugrar fjöldabaráttu á Íslandi. Þegar sumarið 2009 vaknaði kröftug andspyrna gegn því að almenningur væri látinn greiða skuldir gjaldþrota einkabanka. Sú andspyrna leiddi til þess að Íslendingar fengu að greiða atkvæði um tvo samninga við Breta og Hollendinga um Icesave, og höfnuðu báðum.

It is funny how things can turn around. For decades, Iceland languished in neoliberal hell, with signs of opposition few and far between. Meanwhile the opposition to the neoliberal order of things grew all over the world—with massive protests in Seattle, Genoa and elsewhere—and the beginnings of a world-wide anti-globalisation movement represented by the World Social Forum, first held in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2001. Almost nobody in Iceland did or said anything to support these powerful movements against the neoliberal order, with the exception of the brave Saving Iceland organisation.

About 75% of Iceland’s voters turned out on Saturday to reject the Social Democratic-Green government’s proposal to pay $5.2 billion to the British and Dutch bank insurance agencies for the Landsbanki-Icesave collapse. Every one of Iceland’s six electoral districts voted in the “No” column – by a national margin of 60% (down from 93% in January 2010).

Les Islandais viennent de refuser de payer pour la faillite des banques : ils ont dit "non" le samedi 9 avril par référendum, comme il l'avaient fait en mars 2010. Ce " non" a été soutenu par de nombreuses organisations de la société civile, dont Attac Islande. Non au remboursement de 3,9 milliards d'euros (soit 12 000 euros par habitant islandais, hors intérêts !) au Royaume-Uni et aux Pays-Bas : ces deux pays exigent de l'Islande qu'elle rembourse les sommes qu'ils ont dépensées pour dédommager les clients affectés par la faillite de la banque privée islandaise Icesave.

A year ago, in March 2010, Iceland's economy was so small that it did not warrant much attention when 93% of its voters rejected the Social Democratic-Green government's surrender to Gordon Brown and the Dutch, the European Union (EU) bureaucracy and IMF demands that it impose austerity as penance for believing the neoliberal fairy tales about how bank deregulation and "free markets" would make it the richest, happiest country in the world. Indeed it seemed to be, according to United Nations data.