Iceland, fight this injustice


Saturday's referendum is a chance for Icelanders to strike at the conspiracy that leaves us all bailing out financiers

On Saturday the Icelandic people vote in a referendum on whether the Icelandic state and thus the citizens should guarantee the so-called Icesave claim. Icesave was a bank deposit account that promised market-leading interest rates. When the bank failed, the question arose if the Icelandic depositors' guarantee fund - a private institution financed by the banks - should have taxpayer backing. Instead of letting depositors lose their money or even wait for compensation from the bankruptcy estate, the governments of the UK and Netherlands (where the Icesave products where marketed) decided to reimburse depositors from their own countries. The reimbursement included the full principal, while the recklessly high-interest profits of the risk-seeking depositors were thrown in as a bonus.

Letter from Iceland on IceSave


In yet another turn of the IceSave saga, the people of Iceland are to vote on Saturday in yet another referendum on whether to accept collective responsibility for the debts of the failed Icelandic bank IceSave. We have received a following letter from a group of Icelanders which we republish here with our comments.

Questions for the ECB ahead of the Icelandic Icesave Referendum


A copy of the following letter has been sent by a small Icelandic group campaigning in advance of theforthcoming referendum on the terms of the Icesave deal with Britain and the Netherlands to several officials within the EU and EFTA as well as to the ministeries of Britain, Holland and Iceland to whom this case belongs. The letter has also been sent to several European newsmedia.

Reykjavik 18.03.2011

Mr Herman Van Rompuy
President of the European Council
European Council
Rue de la Loi 175
B-1048 Brussels

Dear Mr Van Rompuy

IceSave er sköpunarverk fjármálafyrirtækja, aflandseyjarinnar City of London og ríkisvalds sem þjónar alþjóðaauðvaldinu.


Attac samtökin krefjast þess að forseti Íslands vísi Icesave samningnum til þjóðarinnar og tryggi með því lágmarkslýðræði.

Yfirstjórnendur Landsbankans gátu í mannfjandsamlegu kerfi fjármálaauðvalds og að áeggjan alþjóðlegra matsfyrirtækja opnað Icesave reikninga til að breikka fjármögnunargrundvöll sinn. Íslenskur almenningur hefur ekkert haft með málið að gera og ber enga ábyrgð á þessu sköpunarverki fjármálafyrirtækja, aflandseyjarinnar City of London og ríkisvalds sem þjónar alþjóðaauðvaldinu.

Iceland can refuse debt servitude


Capitalism and the Useful Nation State

"With the global collapse of credit, trade, production, employment, and public finances unfolding since 2007, the typical scramble commenced over who would finally have to bear the burden of the immense social costs flowing from that collapse. Enter the usefulness of the nation state. The state's "national debt" becomes everywhere the means to socialize the costs of private capitalism's crisis. It becomes clearer by the day that it is the mass of the citizenry that is being positioned to bear most of those costs."

Les contribuables islandais refusent de payer pour l'aveuglement des banques

Le peuple islandais vient de dire non. C'est une bonne nouvelle pour les peuples européens en proie aux diktats de plus en plus insupportables de l'industrie financière internationale, relayés par les gouvernements et l'Union européenne.

Le peuple islandais montre la voie !


Communiqué Solidaires

Les Islandais ont décidé à plus de 90 % de rejeter la loi qui prévoyait que l'Islande devait rembourser 3,8 milliards d'euros au Royaume-Uni et aux Pays-bas pour indemniser les clients fortunés britanniques et néerlandais de la banque islandaise Icesave qui avaient perdu leurs avoirs lors de la crise financière.

Jubilee Debt Campaign: Iceland voters should demand new debt system

Iceland voters should demand new debt system

Campaign group calls for arbitration over Icesave debts; new international system would help fight poverty

Jubilee Debt Campaign (1) has called for an arbitration system to be established to settle the Icesave debt row, as Iceland’s voters go to the polls on whether to accept British and Dutch repayment terms tomorrow (2). They believe a ‘no’ vote in Iceland should prompt a radical shake-up in the way international debt is handled, which would mean that debts are not used as an justification for creditors forcing unjust measures onto debtor countries.

Icelanders owe nothing.

By calling voters to a referendum on the subject of Icelandic taxpayers taking on the debt of Icesave bank, President Grimsson caused shock waves to break out in the world's financial community. For the first time during this global financial crisis, a country was challenging its "sovereign" debt - the debt of a nation represented by its government - and repayment of which was being sought by two European countries, Great Britain and the Netherlands.

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