Anarchy in Iceland? The global left, pirates and socialists in post-crash Icelandic politics
Anarchy in Iceland? The global left, pirates and socialists in post-crash Icelandic politics
The historically stable Icelandic political party system has been uprooted since the 2008 financial crisis. In this paper, we explore to what extent the global left movement of anarchists and socialists has manifested in Icelandic politics in this period. We provide a historical overview, starting with the 2008 financial crisis which brought to power the first entirely left-wing government in the country's history, but also gave birth to numerous new political parties that alternately united and divided socialists, anarchists and reformers. The Pirate Party spearheaded this movement from the 2013 elections, but internal disputes have plagued the party in recent years, and both they and the Left Greens now have a fresh challenge from the left: the Socialist Party. We conclude that the current prospects for a united uprising of these movements are dim, although history suggests that they can work together when focusing on common goals of political reform.
Iceland, Left Green Movement, Pirate party, anarchism, global left, socialism
840-853
Ómarsdóttir, Silja Bára
c50f1247-2438-4b7f-8d99-aa4e2d808062
Valgarðsson, Viktor Orri
8f30ca41-f763-4cd2-9b08-1b4ff7ab27d9
3 July 2020
Ómarsdóttir, Silja Bára
c50f1247-2438-4b7f-8d99-aa4e2d808062
Valgarðsson, Viktor Orri
8f30ca41-f763-4cd2-9b08-1b4ff7ab27d9
Ómarsdóttir, Silja Bára and Valgarðsson, Viktor Orri
(2020)
Anarchy in Iceland? The global left, pirates and socialists in post-crash Icelandic politics.
Globalizations, 17 (5), .
(doi:10.1080/14747731.2020.1722496).
Abstract
The historically stable Icelandic political party system has been uprooted since the 2008 financial crisis. In this paper, we explore to what extent the global left movement of anarchists and socialists has manifested in Icelandic politics in this period. We provide a historical overview, starting with the 2008 financial crisis which brought to power the first entirely left-wing government in the country's history, but also gave birth to numerous new political parties that alternately united and divided socialists, anarchists and reformers. The Pirate Party spearheaded this movement from the 2013 elections, but internal disputes have plagued the party in recent years, and both they and the Left Greens now have a fresh challenge from the left: the Socialist Party. We conclude that the current prospects for a united uprising of these movements are dim, although history suggests that they can work together when focusing on common goals of political reform.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 17 February 2020
Published date: 3 July 2020
Keywords:
Iceland, Left Green Movement, Pirate party, anarchism, global left, socialism
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Local EPrints ID: 444464
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/444464
ISSN: 1474-7731
PURE UUID: 94a42460-c712-49c0-a51f-526da7b8812a
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Date deposited: 20 Oct 2020 16:32
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:04
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Author:
Silja Bára Ómarsdóttir
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