We will work on building up the movement

After consulting with our members in the Socialist Party of Iceland (Sósíalistaflokkurinn), we have decided not to participate in the proposed talks about majority cooperation in the Reykjavík City Council. The socialist candidacy was the candidacy of the powerless in the city; low-wage earners, immigrants, tenants, pensioners, disabled people, and other groups who have been kept from power. These groups are rarely addressed, they are not listened to, and their interests are not taken into account when decisions are made. Good support for the socialist candidacy brought these groups one city councilor. But one city councilor tied down in majority cooperation with other parties will achieve little. One city councilor cannot change the system from within, least of all if their first act is to join an almost unchanged majority on a policy that socialists strongly criticized during the election campaign. But one city councilor can actively participate with their colleagues in building solidarity among low-wage earners, immigrants, tenants, pensioners, disabled people, and other powerless groups, and be a channel for their struggle into the City Council. That is the kind of city councilors we want to be, and that is the kind of city councilors our members in the Socialist Party are calling for; city councilors who do not disappear immediately after elections into the back rooms of the City Hall but continue to work on building up the movement that sent us into the City Council. Our goal is to serve this growing movement in the coming years and build with it a strong and radical struggle for the interests of the oppressed and powerless. It is only with the solidarity and strength of the masses that we can change society. Nothing will be gained in negotiations between one city councilor and the ruling powers.

Sanna Magdalena Mörtudóttir city councilorDaníel Örn Arnarsson deputy city councilor