The quota system is the root of corruption and inequality

A joint meeting of the Executive Board (Framkvæmdastjórn) and the Policy Board (Málefnastjórn) of the Socialist Party of Iceland warns against the plans of Minister of Food Svandís Svavarsdóttir to entrench the quota system under the guise of review and amendments.As stated in the report of the Minister's committee, a large majority of the public considers the fishing industry in Iceland to be corrupt and that under the quota system it transfers wealth to a few, not the many.In the Socialist Party's addressBreak up Samherji – reclaim the resourcesstates, among other things:„The quota system, which was originally introduced to protect fish stocks, has evolved into a monstrosity that has effectively privatized public fishing grounds. The system has broken down communities and accumulated wealth for a very few, so much so that it threatens democracy and public freedom. The Socialist Party of Iceland has the policy of abolishing this system and building a more just framework for fishing and processing. A new framework must rebuild what the quota system destroyed and break up the wealth circles that the quota system created.“A corrupt and unjust quota system should not be entrenched by patching it up with weak amendments. A system that a large majority of the nation opposes must be abolished. And this is what the Socialist Party proposes:These are the proposals of the Socialist Party:

• Wealth circles broken up The quota system has created a closed, unfree corruption system of large fishing companies that must be broken up. The largest fishing companies control too large a share of the catch and they control the entire value chain, from when the fish is caught until the product is sold abroad. There have been repeated indications that these systems are used to suppress fish prices at landing and then hide the profits from the resource abroad. The Socialist Party of Iceland will propose that limits be placed on the scale of large fishing companies so that the largest companies are broken up longitudinally, meaning they must split into two or more companies. This is done to reduce the overwhelming power of the large fishing companies over communities and to ensure diversity and new entrants. The Socialist Party also proposes that fishing and fish processing companies be broken up transversally, so that the same company cannot catch the fish and sell the catch to itself, process the fish and sell the products to itself, and then sell the products to itself abroad and hide the profit there. The quota system created immense wealth, not least when permission was given to mortgage fishing rights for future years. This wealth was used to consolidate most of the fishing rights under a few companies and then to acquire companies in unrelated sectors and in other countries. This overwhelming power of wealth and authority has proven to be detrimental to society. And not just domestically but widely around the world. It is therefore a natural self-defense for the public to break up these companies. Iceland is simply too small for companies of this size. If we take Samherji as an example, which is the largest and most powerful large fishing company, it would be split up longitudinally due to its size and transversally because it dominates the entire value chain. The aggression and arrogance of this company should surprise no one. When large companies are allowed to grow beyond society, they become detrimental, and they must be dealt with as such. It is long overdue for the nation to show Samherji who holds the power.

• The nation's property is returned to it The Socialist Party of Iceland proposes that it be enshrined in the constitution that the fishing resource is the property of the nation and that the nation itself decides how it is utilized. The Party proposes fishing assemblies in each region where fishermen, fish processing workers, and the general public sit down and formulate the long-term fishing policy. To avoid the dominance of fishing companies and other stakeholders, it would be best to use random selection to choose representatives for these assemblies, either entirely or for the most part. The fishing assemblies can request information and reports from experts, call for research on the effects of the quota system on different communities and social classes, assess the economic, ecological, and social impacts of different methods of fisheries management, and obtain all necessary information. Nothing dictates that all fishing assemblies must reach the same conclusion, and each does not need to propose a single solution. The outcome can be a day-based system, catch limits, leasing of rights, or the development of cooperatives, free handline fishing, or whatever the assembly representatives believe will best utilize the power of the resources so that they can build a thriving economy.

• The quota system closed The Socialist Party offers voters to close the quota system immediately and adopt a day-based system for trawlers and boats until the fishing assemblies have formulated a future policy. It is important to immediately cut off the catch limit system and the corruption that thrives within it. The advantages of the day-based system over the catch limit system are that there is no discarding, undeclared landings, or weighing fraud within it. By establishing an unchangeable rule for all catch to go to market, wage theft, tax evasion, and port fee fraud, which the sale of catch within the same company facilitates, can be prevented. The value of undersized fish landed goes to the state treasury. Allocated days for ships and boats will be non-transferable. It is important to cleanse fishing and processing of the corruption that the quota system has introduced.

• Fishing fees collected at the dock Fishing fees will be collected upon landing, in as simple a manner as value-added tax. One could even consider the fishing fee to be the same as the current VAT, or 24%. This would yield approximately 35 billion ISK annually in fishing fees based on last year's catch price, but catch prices can be expected to rise when all fish goes to market. The fishing fees will be distributed equally to municipalities and the state.

• Handline fishing made free Handline fishing will be made free for five fishing days a week, chosen by the fisherman, from March to October. The system is based on three reels when there is one person on board, and four when there are two. These fishing activities must adhere to the weather warnings from the Icelandic Met Office.

• Fishing rights auctioned off Fishing rights in the Barents Sea, in the Smugan area, and elsewhere in the open ocean will be auctioned off. The auction must ensure equality, preventing the few large companies from buying everything up and blocking new and smaller fishing companies. The buyer pays the price for the fishing rights after selling on the fish market. If the vessel fishing these rights is operating under the day-based system, potential stop days may be utilized for these fishing activities if deemed necessary.

• Large fishing companies subject to investigations In light of the Samherji case, the five largest fishing companies will be investigated to determine whether bribery has been used, fish prices falsified, fishermen defrauded, taxes evaded, profits from operations and the resource hidden in foreign countries, or society otherwise violated. If large-scale fraud is revealed during these investigations, an investigation into the next five fishing companies will be launched.

In the results of the Socialist Democracy Survey, published at the Socialist Congress (Sósíalistaþing) last spring, it is clearly evident how much emphasis the Socialist Party places on restructuring the Quota System. In both the Northwest Constituency and the Northeast Constituency, the Socialist Party ranked the Quota System first among issues that needed to be prioritized in the upcoming struggle. In other constituencies, the Quota System also ranked among the top issues. Like the majority of the nation, the Socialist Party wants to transfer the profits from the marine resource to the nation. This would, among other things, make it possible to finance the healthcare system and the housing system, which were also the issues that ranked highest in the Democracy Survey.