# Anarchism in Iceland

Part of a series on :
Anarchism :
Glossary
History
Outline :
Schools of thought
Black
Feminist
Green
Primitivist
Social ecology
Total liberation
Individualist
Egoist
Market
Philosophical
Mutualist
Queer
Religious
Christian
Jewish
Social
Collectivist
Parecon
Communist
Magonism
Without adjectives
Methodology
Counter-economics
Illegalism
Insurrectionary
Pacifist
Platformism
Relationship
Syndicalist
Synthesis :
Theory
Practice
Anarchy
Anarchist Black Cross
Anarchist criminology
Anationalism
Anti-authoritarianism
Anti-capitalism
Anti-militarism
Affinity group
Autonomous social center
Black bloc
Classless society
Class struggle
Consensus decision-making
Conscientious objector
Critique of work
Decentralization
Deep ecology
Direct action
Free love
Freethought
Horizontalidad
Individualism
Law
Mutual aid
Participatory politics
Permanent autonomous zone
Prefigurative politics
Proletarian internationalism
Propaganda of the deed
Refusal of work
Revolution
Rewilding
Sabotage
Security culture
Self-ownership
Social ecology
Sociocracy
Somatherapy
Spontaneous order
Squatting
Temporary autonomous zone
Union of egoists
Voluntary association
Workers' council :
People
Alston
Armand
Ba
Bakunin
Berkman
Bonanno
Bookchin
Bourdin
Chomsky
Cleyre
Day
Durruti
Ellul
Ervin
Faure
Fauset MacDonald
Ferrer
Feyerabend
Giovanni
Godwin
Goldman
González Prada
Graeber
Guillaume
He-Yin
Kanno
Kōtoku
Kropotkin
Landauer
Liu
Magón
Makhno
Maksimov
Malatesta
Mett
Michel
Most
Parsons
Pi i Margall
Pouget
Proudhon
Raichō
Reclus
Rocker
Santillán
Spooner
Stirner
Thoreau
Tolstoy
Tucker
Volin
Ward
Warren
Yarchuk
Zerzan :
Issues
Animal rights
Capitalism
Education
Love and sex
Nationalism
Religion
Violence :
History
French Revolution
Revolutions of 1848
Spanish Regional Federation of the IWA
Paris Commune
Hague Congress
Cantonal rebellion
Haymarket affair
International Conference of Rome
Trial of the Thirty
International Conference of Rome
Ferrer movement
Strandzha Commune
Congress of Amsterdam
Tragic Week
High Treason Incident
Manifesto of the Sixteen
German Revolution of 1918–1919
Bavarian Soviet Republic
1919 United States bombings
Biennio Rosso
Kronstadt rebellion
Makhnovshchina
Amakasu Incident
Alt Llobregat insurrection
Anarchist insurrection of January 1933
Anarchist insurrection of December 1933
Spanish Revolution of 1936
Barcelona May Days
Red inverted triangle
Labadie Collection
Provo
May 1968
Kate Sharpley Library
Carnival Against Capital
1999 Seattle WTO protests
Really Really Free Market
Occupy movement :
Culture
A las Barricadas
Anarchist bookfair
Anarcho-punk
Arts
DIY ethic
Escuela Moderna
Films
Freeganism
Infoshop
Independent Media Center
The Internationale
Jewish anarchism
Lifestylism
May Day
"No gods, no masters"
Popular education
"Property is theft!"
Radical cheerleading
Radical environmentalism
Self-managed social center
Symbolism :
Economics
Communization
Cooperative
Cost the limit of price
Decentralized planned economy
Free association
General strike
Gift economy
Give-away shop
Labour voucher
Market socialism
Mutual bank
Mutual credit
Social ownership
Wage slavery
Workers' self-management :
By region
Africa
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Brazil
Bulgaria
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Estonia
Finland
France
French Guiana
Georgia
Germany
Greece
Guatemala
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Korea
Latvia
Malaysia
Mexico
Monaco
Mongolia
Morocco
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Norway
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Romania
Russia
Serbia
Singapore
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Taiwan
Timor-Leste
Tunisia
Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Venezuela
Vietnam :
Lists
Anarcho-punk bands
Books
Fictional characters
Films
Jewish anarchists
Musicians
Periodicals :
Related topics
Anti-corporatism
Anti-consumerism
Anti-fascism
Anti-globalization
Anti-statism
Anti-war movement
Autarchism
Autonomism
Communism
Definition of anarchism and libertarianism
Dual Power
Labour movement
Left communism
Left-libertarianism
Libertarianism
Libertarian socialism
Marxism
Relationship between Friedrich Nietzsche and Max Stirner
Situationist International
Socialism
Spontaneous order :
Anarchism portal
Politics portal :
vte :
Anarchism in Iceland is a relatively small political movement which saw a surge in activity in the early 21st century. The medieval Icelandic Commonwealth established a stateless legal system in the country, before its colonisation by the Kingdom of Denmark. After independence, anarchism slowly gained a small following in activist circles and in the punk subculture of the 1980s. During the early 2000s, anarchists became involved in publishing and distributing anarchist texts in the Icelandic language, and some joined the environmentalist organisation Saving Iceland, which led to a resurgence in activism in the country. Anarchists achieved their greatest prominence during the 2009 Icelandic financial crisis protests, in which they formed the vanguard of the movement, sharing their experience with newer activists and taking initiative in direct actions. Anarchists then participated in the constitutional reform process of the early 2010s, which they encouraged for the use of direct democracy. During this period, a number of anarchist activists were elected to public office, with Jón Gnarr becoming Mayor of Reykjavík and Birgitta Jónsdóttir becoming a member of parliament.

## Early history

Followers of the American libertarian economist Murray Rothbard have cited the medieval Icelandic Commonwealth as an early example of a stateless legal system with a private security apparatus. Iceland later became a colony of the Kingdom of Denmark, which taxed the country heavily, imposed a trade monopoly on it and left it underdeveloped, with most of the population relying on subsistence agriculture until the country's independence in 1944. An Icelandic anarchist movement did not emerge until this contemporary period. The first anarchist text published in the Icelandic language was a translation of Peter Kropotkin's Memoirs of a Revolutionist, published by the Reykjavik-based publishing house Ísafoldarprentsmiðja H.F. in 1942. Anarchist sympathies in Iceland began to spread in the wake of the Protests of 1968, with the contemporary anarchist movement emerging out of the punk subculture of the 1980s.
By the 21st century, the issues of environmentalism, anti-capitalism and feminism were growing in the Icelandic popular consciousness. In the early 2000s, the Andspyrna [is] group began publishing a series of Icelandic translations of anarchist texts, including works by Nicolas Walter, CrimethInc. and Errico Malatesta. In 2007, it published its own primer on direct action and civil disobedience, Beinar Aðgerðir og Borgaraleg Óhlýðni. The group ran its own library, published and distributed anarchist literature in the Icelandic language and maintained a web portal for Icelandic activists. Other Icelandic anarchists also published their own periodicals, including the monthly Róstur and the annual Svartur Svanur. Other anarchist groups included: the Icelandic section of the No Border network, which provided support to asylum seekers and refugees; and the Reykjavik chapter of Food Not Bombs. In the Icelandic capital, many anarchist activists met at the Kaffi Hljómalind [is], a cooperative café which also functioned as a community centre. But the anarchist movement lacked a political organisation and it was largely marginalised from wider society, with the movement numbering no more than a few dozen people.
In the mid-2000s, the environmentalist group Saving Iceland, which had notable green anarchist tendencies, carried out a number of direct actions against the construction of a hydroelectric plant in the east of the country. Anarchist activists in Saving Iceland reported that its activities led to a resurgence in the country's social movements, which had been largely dormant over the previous decades.

## 2008–2011 financial crisis

The introduction of neoliberalism to Iceland in the late 20th century resulted in a pronounced boom and bust cycle, with the country seeing rapid economic growth until the 2008 financial crash, when the external debt owed by Icelandic banks rose dramatically. The collapse of the country's three major banks resulted in the Icelandic króna losing its value, causing a large rise in inflation. Widespread disillusionment in the government and financial sector led to a mobilisation of protest activity, largely drawing its support from the left-wing and anti-corruption movements. In September 2008, anarchist activists began holding meetings in cafes and private homes, where they discussed how to coordinate action in response to the financial crisis. By the time protests began to mobilise, there were roughly 70 anarchists in Reykjavik; despite their small size, they were able to gain a significant influence over the protest movement. The so-called Pots and Pans Revolution began in October 2008, with a series of peaceful political demonstrations outside the Althing calling for the resignation of the government. The lack of a government response to the crisis culminated with the closing of the parliament for Christmas break, which exacerbated public anti-establishment sentiment. On 21 December 2008, anarchist activists stormed the National Theatre of Iceland, where they aimed to convince the Social Democratic Alliance (SDA) to break away from the government led by the right-wing Independence Party (IP).
When Parliament resumed on 20 January 2009, tens of thousands of people held a demonstration outside the building, where people openly talked of revolution. Most participants in the protests had no connection to existing social movements, and many had previously been disinterested in politics. Iceland's small anarchist movement was in the vanguard of the protest movement, providing it with their expertise as seasoned activists and taking the initiative in direct actions, but the movement was largely decentralised and organised horizontally. The protest movements demands, which were largely focused on the resignation of the government and financial officials, was infused with an undertone of anti-statism by the anarchist participants. At the protests, young anarchists also formed links with an older generation of activists who were active in the anti-NATO movement of the 1950s and 1960s, which strengthened both movements across generational lines. When some protestors threw food at police, they responded by attacking the protestors. For the first time since the 1949 anti-NATO riot in Iceland, Icelandic police used tear gas against civilian activists. By the end of January, the protests had succeeded in toppling the government and a new centre-left coalition was elected in its place. During the subsequent 2010 Icelandic municipal elections, the anarcho-surrealist Best Party, which ran on a platform of debt abolition, won 34.72% of the vote in Reykjavik; party leader Jón Gnarr, himself inspired by Mikhail Bakunin and Peter Kropotkin, became the city's mayor. After observing the popular opposition to neoliberalism in Iceland, the American anarchist David Graeber told Gnarr that he believed Iceland was likely to become a "genuinely free society" within his lifetime. Gnarr himself believed that Iceland had the potential to become an "anarcho-socialist country" and encouraged people to move to the country to help make that a reality. When the International Monetary Fund (IMF) offered a loan to bailout the banks, it was overwhelmingly rejected in the 2010 Icelandic loan guarantees referendum.
Meanwhile, the centre-left government promised to carry out a constitutional reform process, which was complemented by a grassroots movement for systematic change. Popular assemblies were held in conjunction with the newly-established National Assembly, during which activists coordinated working groups to oversee the direction of reform. Anarchist activists were initially enthusiastic about the process, as it gave rise to more direct democracy and greater public participation in decision-makingy. The following year, a Constitutional Assembly was elected and the new draft constitution was approved in a referendum, but the centre-left government failed to implement the new constitution. By this time, the government had lost the confidence of the protest movement due to its implementation of austerity measures. Parliamentary disagreements over the constitution culminated in the 2013 Icelandic parliamentary election, when a new right-wing coalition government was brought to power and blocked the passage of the constitution, while the left-wing fragmented and declined. The only anti-austerity activists who gained seats in the election were those of the Pirate Party, founded by the anarchist WikiLeaks activist Birgitta Jónsdóttir.
Since the protest movement, anarchist activists have noted a wider interest in political discussion and participation. According to one activist, the resignation of the pre-2008 government made many people feel empowered and led to people seeing themselves as playing an active role in the shaping of society. The entry of the Pirate Party and the Best Party into politics also made more space for radical views, particularly on political transparency. The failure of the centre-left government to pass the constitution also reinforced anarchist critiques of the state system, with some coming to feel that the rise of the subsequent right-wing government had resulted in the preservation of political corruption in the country. In 2014, Jon Gnarr resigned as mayor of Reykjavik and abandoned politics. Despite its shortcomings, anarchist activists largely look back on the protest movement positively, as it led to a resurgence in activism against austerity and in support of other causes, including the Free Gaza Movement.