| To: Retort Via: AI [The text of a declaration in support of the Reykjavik Nine, signed by over 700 people who took part in the protests in Iceland in 2008/9. Many of them are well known activists, authors, artists and intellectuals. The charges against the RVK9 center upon an event that took place on December 8th, 2008
where about 30 people entered the parliament building in order to watch proceedings, as entitled, from the balcony. They were met by security guards and a policeman who
threatened them with pepper spray. At this point the crowd was stuck in
the staircase, surrounded by security guards and policemen, but two
individuals got to the balcony where they shouted at the Members of
Parliament to "fuck off and get out of the building". A policeman then threw them down the staircase, on top of each
other. The police became even more aggressive but there was no way for the people to leave at this
point since all possible entrances were closed. The police noted down
some names and social security numbers, while arresting several people on unspecified charges. Outside, a few others were arrested
for de-arresting attempts and disobeying police orders. Most were released later that evening. This event marked the
beginning of a public uprising that continued to grow throughout
the winter, reaching its climax in January 2009. Thousands of Icelanders took to the streets of Reykjavík, prevented the parliament from
convening after the Christmas vacation, lit fires, banged pots and
pans in the Argentinian fashion, attacked politicians, policemen and the society’s most important
institutions, and in the end toppled the government. IB] To the Icelandic State Iceland is so far the only State in the West where the response of the people in the streets to the economic crisis has had direct consequences in the field of public politics. On 20 January 2009, we initated, together with thousands of others, an attack on the parliament (The Althing in Austurvöllur Square). This was an unarmed attack and not made in order to cause harm to any humans - theclear and noisy deprecation towards the acting parliament, however, involved a largenumber of deliberate violations of laws and regulations. Thousands disobeyed the requests of the police, after the yellow ribbon that was stretched around the building was broken. Many disobeyed repeatedly and many got into some minor fights with police officers who emptied their weapons stores in order to suppress the potentially revolutionary situation. Some of us were arrested. The aim of the attack was to achieve changes in Icelandic society, which is in deep trouble, not just because of the capital crisis that began in October 2008, but also because of what could be called earlier attacks on the parliament, attacks that were committed against the public interest for private interests of the few. On 1 February 2009 the parliamentary majority collapsed and the government was overthrown. Our attacks played a key role in making this happen. The State and its instruments, particularly the judicial system and the police, know that they are helpless against such a mass movement. Holders of state power know quite well that its insecure existence is built only on temporary and amendable agreement with the people from time to time. The State, however, can not mask its fury against the people who thus forced the government to step down. The judicial system now tries to apply the well known strategy called divide and rule: on 2 March a charge was issued against a group of nine persons who are alleged to have, on 8 December 2008, violated the first paragraph of article 100 of the Criminal Code which reads:"Anyone, who attacks the parliament, so that its autonomy is endangered, sends out messages with that same purpose, or obeys such amessage, shall be subject to imprisonment for not less than 1 year, and the penalty canbe imprisonment for life, if the guilt is very severe." The State Prosecutor tries to disguise the actual charges and facilitates distraction in the media coverage, among other things by spicingthe charge with other, unrelated, allegations – bitten ear and strained thumb. By applying article 100 of the Penal Code, for the first time since the public protested against Icelandic membership in NATO in 1949, the Prosecutor does not seek compensation for strained thumbs. The Prosecutor´s real intention is to send this message: the people's intervention in State affairs is criminal activity. By directing charges to nine relatively unknown individuals, the Prosecutor chooses an opponent that he considers himself able to deal with, and hopes at the same time to get the thousands of people from all sectors of society, who were involved in similar actions of protest, to participate as a silent accessory. This is how political persecution takes place.We want the State to be aware that we who participated in the opposition against the government in the winter of 2008-2009, among other things by violating the law, regard the government's attack on the Group of Nine as an attack on ourselves and the thousands who protested that winter. The nine persons are our partners and allies in the struggle against the rightly labeled Masters of the Police:a violent government and oppressive capital to which the State renders its services. Our solidarity will not be broken by selecting nine from the group, or four, or one. We insist that the State should waive the charges against the Group of Nine. If the Prosecutor thinks he lacks a reason to change policy in this case, it may, for example, be taken into consideration that at the time of the attack a serious threat to the autonomy of the Parliament was not possible, due to the fact that holders of wealth and power had already undermined that very autonomy by successful attacks from within. The Prosecutor could also look to a long-standing tradition of not pressing charges for individual incidents in labour conflicts. Moreover, we expect the Prosecutor to show consistency in dropping charges against anyone who attacked the parliament during the winter 2008-2009, including us who sign this statement. |