Poor people are poor because they have no power

"Poverty and poor conditions are a consequence of the public's powerlessness. Just as the wealth of the rich is a consequence of the rich holding all power in society," says Sanna Magdalena Mörtudóttir, leader of the socialists in Reykjavík. "The socialist candidacy is the uprising of the poor and powerless. We are running ourselves to shape society according to our interests, not the interests of the rich"

On the list of Sósíalistaflokksins are many people who know well what poverty and powerlessness are. Sanna herself is an adult who grew up poor. Also Daníel Örn Arnarson, a worker and board member of Eflingu, who is in second place, and Hlynur Már Vilhjálmsson, founder of Fósturheimilisbarna, who is in fourth place. In fifth place is Ásta Dís Guðjónsdóttir, coordination manager of Pepp in Íslandi, an organization for people in poverty, Sólveig Anna Jónsdóttir, chairman of Eflingar, is in sixth place, and Reinhold Richter, chief shop steward at ÍSAL, in sixth place. Representatives of the Polish community in Íslandi, the largest group of immigrants, who experience great powerlessness, are Anna Wojtynska in third place on the list and Klaudia Migdal in eighth place.

"Socialists do not offer to do all sorts of things for poor and powerless people. Socialists are poor and powerless people who want to do things themselves," says Daníel.

The candidates on the list point out that everything of value in society has come about from the demands of the less fortunate: Free healthcare, school for all, old-age pensions, unemployment benefits, summer holidays, workers' housing, an eight-hour workday, and everything else that is reasonable or good in society.

"The better-off have no interest in improving society; they are happy with it as it is," says Sanna. "It is the less fortunate who have always pushed for change. People who experience the injustice of society all day, every day, and all their lives know what it takes to fix society."

"Socialism is not a theory but an eternal struggle of the less fortunate for a better society," says Daníel. "Socialists know that it is only the less fortunate who know injustice, and it is only they themselves who can correct it. We are not asking for charity or favors from the better-off. We stand up and demand to decide how society develops."

The candidates point out that weaker labor struggles and less political participation by the less fortunate during the era of neoliberalism have damaged and destroyed much of what was built up by the struggle of the less fortunate in the last century. Workers' housing was abolished, fees were introduced in healthcare and the school system, taxes on companies and the rich were reduced, while taxes on the worst-off were increased, and society was adapted in other ways to the demands of the rich.

"Wage earners today can no longer dream of living off an eight-hour workday," says Daníel. "This was a demand of the labor movement in the century before last. Many people I know are working two and even three jobs to make ends meet. Work eats up the time we wanted to spend with our children."

"It is only workers and those who know from their own lives what it is like to live as a surplus in a society of inequality and injustice who can reverse this trend," says Sólveig Anna Jónsdóttir, chairman of Eflingar and sixth person on the socialist list. "The only way to save society from the cruelty of neoliberalism is for wage earners to allow themselves to dream of power and quickly and surely rebuild their tools of struggle, the trade unions and political parties that truly fight for the less fortunate and those who do the work in society."