Let's get to the root of corruption

The Socialist Party of Iceland's (Sósíalistaflokkur Íslands) message in the parliamentary elections on September 25, 2021: Ninth offer to voters presented on August 20:LET'S GET TO THE ROOT OF CORRUPTIONWhat is corruption?

Corruption is the abuse of power for special interests.
Corruption is a tremendous threat to the interests of the general public.
Corruption thrives on discrimination and breeds discrimination. It discriminates against people based on economic status, social status, origin, gender, opinions, etc.
Corruption undermines the living standards of the general public, increases inequality, and perpetuates poverty.
Corruption affects most and worst those who are most powerless, receive the least, and own nothing.
Corruption leads to an unjust distribution of profits from resources that the nation owns and should benefit from.
Corruption undermines democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. Corruption leads to environmental damage, pollution, and overexploitation and waste of natural resources.

What is the root of corruption?

The greatest and worst corruption we are dealing with in Iceland is a consequence of extensive and diverse conflicts of interest between political life and financial power, which have been allowed to thrive for far too long under the cloak of secrecy and lies. Conflicts of interest that revolve around and are based on mutual favors, cronyism, and privatization for friends.

These special interest ties have corrupted the country's politics and administration, distorted the justice system and other aspects of state power so much that the state, which derives its power from the people and should always and only protect their interests, now prioritizes the interests of the few, rich, and powerful over the interests of the many.

One of the most important tasks of politics is therefore to turn the state power away from this path of special interest protection and discrimination and to protect society as a whole, all the general public, and especially those who are most powerless, receive the least, and own nothing, from the corruption of those in power and special interest groups.

Where there is such a short distance between state and municipal authorities and the wealthy, owners and managers of large corporations and their interest groups, as is the case in this country, there is extremely fertile ground for corruption. And corruption thrives nowhere better than where there are close ties between powerful political parties and politicians and large corporations and their interest groups.

These conflicts of interest, which are harmful to the people of the country, must be exposed and broken by all available means. The Socialist Party will do everything in its power to do so. No half-heartedness, kid-glove approach, or cowardice will suffice.

Where economic life is monotonous and a few large companies completely control who gets jobs and who doesn't, corruption and the miserable discrimination, oppression, silencing, powerlessness, and humiliation that corruption causes run rampant. Municipal councils are also under the iron heel of this undemocratic and intolerable power of companies and moneyed people over people's lives and opportunities.

The municipal councils know very well what the companies expect of them, and they also know perfectly well what effect it will have on the municipality's income and people's employment if the companies move their operations elsewhere, as they are easily able to do and frequently threaten, directly and indirectly.

This stranglehold of owners and managers of large corporations on communities and the people living there tightens and worsens if the communities are struggling, job opportunities are few, and the population is declining. However, people not only depend on the grace and mercy of the companies and their managers for their jobs and their livelihood and that of their families, but they are also in fact deprived of the most important democratic rights, freedom of opinion and expression, and other human rights, by those who lead and govern by virtue of capital.

Who can afford to criticize a company, its owners, or managers when they know that if they are not compliant, they will be fired and will not get another job, and therefore cannot support themselves and their family?

This is how it is in many places in our wealthy country. An unjust, intolerable, and indefensible situation that becomes even more terrible when company owners and managers build their wealth and power over society on the right to exploit natural resources that the people of the country own according to law, but are nevertheless denied the right to exploit and in fact have no say in how they are exploited.

Corruption respects no borders, and the poorest people and the poorest nations in the world suffer most from corruption. Large corporations in rich countries and international cartels buy access to the resources of the poorest countries, which cannot feed their nations, let alone provide them with necessary health services or give children and young people opportunities for basic education.

Companies and individuals pay more than one thousand billion US dollars in bribes each year, according to the World Bank. But the damage caused by corruption is much greater. It is estimated that between twenty and forty billion US dollars of development aid disappear into the abyss of corruption each year.

What can be done?

The goal of the Socialist Party of Iceland (Sósíalistaflokkur Íslands) is for the public to take power from the financial elite, for the state and its institutions to serve the interests of the public, and for society to be built on the hopes and expectations of the many, not on the demands of the few. The party's goal is to democratize economic life so that the public gains power over companies, so that economic life is shaped by their interests, not by those who have extracted money from them. This transfer of power from the few, rich, and powerful to the general public will strike at the roots of corruption.

But on the way to this goal, the Socialist Party offers voters to work towards the following:

Increase transparency in the public sector and in registered companies to ensure the public's right to information.
Strengthen freedom of opinion and expression. Support independent media by directly supporting journalists instead of supporting the editorial boards of media owned by the wealthy. Increase the independence of the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service (Ríkisútvarpið) and make it an institution again, increase the power of its staff, and broaden its board so that representatives of public organizations have seats there. Transform the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service into a national broadcaster, separating it from the party rule of elite politics.
Strengthen the registration of interests of political and non-political authorities at the state and municipal level. Transfer oversight of this from the Prime Minister's Office to an independent institution with the power to follow up and intervene.
Increase effective protection for whistleblowers and strengthen new laws on their role in society.
Increase the real accountability of those in power. The accountability of those in power is a defense mechanism for the public against abuse of power, oversights, and breaches of trust.
Strengthen the independence of impartial courts. Overturn judgments if necessary to undo the corruption of past decades.
Increase the independence of the police and protect it from interference by the executive branch.
Strengthen the police's economic crimes division and tax investigations so that the staff of these institutions can counter the experts of the wealthy who work to hide their tracks.
Increase the independence of the prosecution and protect it from interference by the executive branch or attempts by the appropriation power to cripple it with financial starvation.
Implement the United Nations Convention against Corruption, which the Icelandic state committed to in 2011.
Build robust, independent, and impartial oversight and information institutions, such as the Althingi Ombudsman (Umboðsmaður Alþingis), the National Audit Office (Ríkisendurskoðun), the Competition Authority (Samkeppniseftirlit), the Environment Agency (Umhverfisstofnun), the Economic Research Institute (Hagrannsóknastofnun), Statistics Iceland (Hagstofa), a human rights institution, etc., to ensure effective oversight and accurate information.
Establish a special anti-corruption institution to work on informing about and combating corruption.
The Icelandic state shall fulfill its international obligations regarding anti-corruption measures. Cooperation with other nations and international organizations in this field shall be strengthened.
Strengthen and support independent organizations working against corruption.