Attac Iceland welcomes the protests in Madrid and other cities in Spain and sends its wholehearted support. We wish to congratulate the people of Spain on their powerful and widespread protests. Thousands of people have taken to the streets, occupying town squares, erecting tent cities and ignoring the anti-democratic orders of police and courts to cease their actions. The people of Spain have now taken the lead in the global fight against cuts in welfare, social services and other community services.
In Spain, as elsewhere, attacks on the rights of the public are intensifying, and all government actions are focused on restoring the hostile banking system and to ensure the continued debt slavery of the public. Social problems, such as massive unemployment, the offspring of an unjust society are ignored while whole scale marketization of society and pampering of the capitalists and the plutocrats continue, contrary to the wishes of voters. The cutbacks are intended to raise funds to pay off the mountains of debt, created by the collapse of the neoliberal ideology.
Once again it has been proven that the loyalty of the traditional political forces lies not with the common people but with the true holders of power; those who own and control the capital. The public therefore pays the crisis of the rich with higher taxes, a seriously damaged welfare system and an existence characterized by anxiety over an increasingly precarious future.
As in Spain, so have the traditional Icelandic political parties and the capitalist media ignored the true will of the public. We do not want cuts in welfare or subsidies to insolvent banks; we do not want the restoration of a bankrupt system. We demand change now! Attac Iceland is proud of the fact that the people of Spain look to the struggle of Icelanders during the winter of 2008-2009 and also our rebellion against the government’s persistent claim that taxpayers shoulder the enormous debts created by private banks.
Despite the shocking propaganda campaign of the Icelandic elite conducted against the interests of taxpayers and the general public, voters were not fooled. And our struggle raised hope in the hearts of others, as it is an international struggle like all public struggle against the forces of exploitation must be in our age of globalization and neoliberalism.
Therefore, comrades, let our demands be heard around the globe, from Spain to Iceland, the United States to Egypt: Democracia Real YA! Real democracy now!
Attac Iceland, May 22, 2011.
