ICELAND MELTDOWN

The Icelandic people sensationally booted out their government on Monday (26th) after the country was left ravaged by the collapse of their privatised financial system last October. The Icelandic government has been under mounting pressure since late last year with thousands of people gathering outside parliament demanding that the government resign.

This quickly bloomed into weekly mass riots with cops being rushed to hospital and 14-hour noise demos eventually forcing the disgraced elite to flee. This is the first Government casualty of the global financial crisis.

On Tuesday, the Icelandic president Olafur Ragnar Grimsson called on Ingibjorg Gisladottir, leader of the ‘Social Democratic Alliance’ party, to form a coalition with the Left-Green movement. Gisladottir - foreign minister in the previous government - has now appointed Johanna Sigurdardottir, the social affairs minister, as the interim prime minister until new elections are held in May.

Since the Icelandic conservative government came to power eighteen years ago it has followed seriously dumb ambitions that were way out of its economy’s league. It started off by handing over its three banks to government cronies, who in turn egged on the nation to borrow up to seven times its GDP - which eventually caused a complete financial meltdown (see SchNEWS 657). Iceland is looking more and more like (free market get rich quick capitalist theory) neo-liberalism gone bonkers in microcosm.

The case of Iceland also demonstrates the fact that it usually takes a full-on systematic collapse before people get it together and say enough is enough. Yesterday’s IMF annual report predicted that the UK economy will soon take a 2.8% nose dive. On hearing about the UK’s rough financial state one flushed Icelander exclaimed, “The Brits should take a leaf out of our book and throw out their government!” Now there’s an idea.

* See: www.savingiceland.org and http://aftaka.org/tag/english

* Bjork is collaborating with Icelandic venture capital firm Audur Capital in a 100-million-krona (about £575,000) fund that seeks to boost Iceland’s ravaged economy by way of investing in green technology. SchNEWS’s response has been an “Oh So Quiet” cynical for the chances of greener capitalism to save the day...