LEFT PARTY WINS STUNNING POLL VICTORY
Kuupik Kleist, leader of the far-left, pro-independence party, Inuit Ataqatigiit, (Inuit Brotherhood) looks set to become the new prime Minister after IA won 14 of the 31 seats in the Greenland parliament in Tuesday’s election.
With all districts counted, the IA had nearly 44 per cent of the vote and the Social Democratic Suimut party just over 26 per cent, the election commission said. Suimut have governed Greenland for the last 30 years.
IA will be the first party to govern Greenland under an expanded home rule agreement with Denmark, and Kuupik Kleist has confirmed that any coalition will not include cooperation with Suimut, who are tainted by allegations of cronyism and corruption.
The new government is to be formed on 21st June, which is when Greenland’s expanded self-government comes into effect. The top priority will be negotiations with Denmark to secure the best deal over mineral rights for the Greenlanders.
Election results Atassut - 10.9 per cent (3,094 votes) Demokraatit - 12.7 per cent (3,620 votes) IA - 43.7 per cent (12,457 votes) Siumut - 26.5 per cent (8,861 votes) Kattusseqatigiit - 3.8 per cent (1,169 votes) Sorlaat Partiiat - 1.3 per cent (383 votes)
Hurrah!
Comment by David T — 4 June, 2009 @ 2:33 pm
Bloody hell :).
Comment by johng — 4 June, 2009 @ 3:18 pm
Holy shit.
Comment by lenin — 4 June, 2009 @ 4:12 pm
We should all celebrate by rubbing noses, or something.
Comment by David T — 4 June, 2009 @ 4:12 pm
Good to see the left on the march on Santa’s home turf, but this does not change the fact that the left are about to get their biggest defeat in history tonight. We should all show a sense of humility about this, especially johng.
Comment by Ed D — 4 June, 2009 @ 4:24 pm
Good to see the left on the march on Santa’s home turf
It’s about time those Elves got organized.
Comment by ibs — 4 June, 2009 @ 4:51 pm
Do I detect a hint of patronizing racism in some of the comments ?
Why can’t you just celebrate a victory by indigenous people over an imperial power and their local cronies.
We have nothing to celebrate here so let’s hear it for the Inuit Brotherhood (and I hope sisterhood).
Comment by unionworker — 4 June, 2009 @ 5:22 pm
Santa is a white supremacist of course.
Comment by Ed D — 4 June, 2009 @ 5:29 pm
Surely Santa’s a communist? He’s never known to wearing anything but red attire and every Christmas, he abides by the principle, ‘From each according to their ability, to each according to their need’ when distributing the free gifts.
Comment by Darren — 4 June, 2009 @ 5:37 pm
#7
I agree. Well done to the IA, and some of the comments here are patronising.
There are certainly pictures of sisters, and IA have women MPs elected as well. I suspect that the name Inuit Ataqatigiit, may either date back to a less gender aware time, or perhaps like Turkish the Inuit language is non gendered.
Mebyon Kernow have the same issue, that their party name dates back to the less gender aware 1950s, and they address it by calling them selves “Mebyon Kernow - the Party of Cornwall” hoping that the English mistranslation will fool people who don’t speak any Welsh or Cornish!
Comment by Andy Newman — 4 June, 2009 @ 5:39 pm
#5 this may be a worse result for the Labour Party than 1929 or the 1966 local election, but how is Labour’s meltdown johng’s fault?
Comment by chjh — 4 June, 2009 @ 5:39 pm
#11
JOhn is much more influential than we previously thought.
though I think you are talking up Labour’s prospects, i am expecting them to get their worse results since 1921.
Comment by Andy Newman — 4 June, 2009 @ 5:42 pm
This story does remind me of the possible apocryphal story of Harry Pollitt being asked by a local paper abbout a bad council election result the CP had in Plymouth in 1949, and him replying, “never mind, we just won China”
Comment by Andy Newman — 4 June, 2009 @ 5:53 pm
Post 5 Ed D
“but this does not change the fact that the left are about to get their biggest defeat in history tonight. We should all show a sense of humility about this”
How is a defeat for the neo-liberal New Labour Party (since when have they been the Left?) been the same as defeat for the Left when the Greens should do well and No2EU has establised a working base for some on the Left?
Ofcourse there will be a very, very big protest vote for UKIP and the BNP I am afraid but this is down to the failure of all Blair and Brown stand for. Many people would vore for a socialist progessive alterantive if we can put one together for the next election which idealy should include the Greens (but dont hold your breath on this one).
Comment by Red — 4 June, 2009 @ 6:03 pm
I voted Tory for the first time in my life today - an emotional experience to say the least. But no other Party stands a chance in a solidly Tory area and anything to keep the BNP out .Please placate my bad conscience by telling me how wrong that was and why ? Cheers
Comment by Alf G — 4 June, 2009 @ 6:09 pm
The left in the UK is not as free of prejudice against “bloody foreigners” as you might imagine. And these are the people who claim to stand for “workers of the world unite”. So if patronising comments about nose-rubbing are made here, just imagine how much xenophobia there is elsewhere on the political spectrum.
Comment by Faust — 4 June, 2009 @ 6:46 pm
Very interesting - but I wonder, what exactly does “far left” mean in the context of a country as sparsely populated as Greenland?
Comment by Francis King — 4 June, 2009 @ 7:04 pm
#15 says it all about many who consider themselves “left” who post here. The reason the BNP appear to be making advances electorally is because many people feel a sense of despair and hopelessness with no-one articulating their genuine grievances. Of course this is as a direct consequence of Labour’s specific and particular abandonment of working class people and the policy effects Labour in goverment has had upon them. The idea that the middle class Green Party can in any way compensate for that is nonsense. What is required is a socialist, working class alternative and the choice there is stark and simple; the amalgam, faction based type of organisation that has explicitly been seen to have failed in recent years or a unitary, trades union based party for and of working people. Only the Socialist Labour Party has offered the latter. It’s still there, survived all the criticisms and attacks of the talkative types and remains the best option for working class militants who want to build a real mass based socialist alternative.
Comment by Jim — 4 June, 2009 @ 7:27 pm
an interesting question will be, how an IA-led government (with whom as partner?) will deal with the US “Thule Air Base” in Northern Greenland … it seems, that “Inuit Federation” or “Inuit Community” are other possible translations of “Inuit Ataqatigiit”
Comment by Entdinglichung — 4 June, 2009 @ 7:32 pm
Umm, David T and “Ed D” aren’t on the left, they’re from Harry’s Place - where casual, and indeed not-so-casual, racism is par for the course in the comments box.
Comment by M — 4 June, 2009 @ 8:19 pm
Alf G - I sympathise with you and if that is the only way to stop the BNP many of us would have done the same. I would have.
Being in London I gave Ms Lambert my tick
If memory serves there was a Maoist group in Greenland. I’d imagine if there are any AKP members reading they could give us more info. If so they may have been a nucleous here given the general traditions of Nordic anti-revisionism. I’d of assumed they would have been in touch with the Horwegian and Icelanders at least. The AKP were pretty hot on international work.
Comment by Vengence of History — 4 June, 2009 @ 8:53 pm
On the subject of the AKP what has happened to the new left formation in Norway? Does this have any lessions for us in the UK?
Comment by Vengence of History — 4 June, 2009 @ 8:55 pm
‘Being in London I gave Ms Lambert my tick’
Could be a wasted ballot Vengeance, you’re supposed to use a cross….
Comment by psephologist — 4 June, 2009 @ 9:19 pm
LOL
Comment by Vengence of History — 4 June, 2009 @ 9:30 pm
thanks for the inspiring moment
Comment by ernest — 4 June, 2009 @ 10:55 pm
Some background: http://links.org.au/node/807
Comment by Terry Townsend — 5 June, 2009 @ 1:38 am
#17 - the most egregious comments here may not be from the left. Having said that, joining a left group in a bourgeois society does not necessarily wall you off from widespread prejudices fomented by that society.
On the subject of Greenland’s small population, Nepal has a population in the millions, yet a lot of the left in Britain ignore Maoist advances there, it seems to me.
Comment by Faust — 5 June, 2009 @ 12:17 pm
Racism and then after a few comments youse are all talking about English election results.
WTF.
Comment by Lynsey — 7 June, 2009 @ 2:50 pm
Just seen most of the comments on this post. The smart-alec stuff about Santa and his elves is not only patronising but a bit of a cheek given what the English, Scots and Welsh left have (not) achieved. Also, I was under the impresion Santa doesnt exist
Comment by Armchair — 7 June, 2009 @ 4:30 pm
Not only does he exist, but we were all called into being by the Flying Spaghetti Monster with one sweep of his noodly appendage.
Comment by Faust — 7 June, 2009 @ 5:37 pm
pretty sad to see all the racist troll comments belittling an indigenous population which voted for social justice. But then “Harry’s Place” did give a guest post to a writer who tried to equate th Santa Cruz seperatists in Bolivia with Tibetans in China, so maybe that site has some deep seated dislike for the concept of indigenous rights (or maybe they are the kind of people who put “indigenous” in inverted commas, like they do with “imperialism”…ho ho ho).
As for the comment which said that the left is about to get the biggest defeat in its history tonight…what? Is this some bizzarre spectrum that considers New Labour on the left?
Comment by Ivan — 7 June, 2009 @ 7:41 pm
Most world banking system’s are debt based and usually will bankrupt a country. The USA has problem’s and one should watch a video called “money mechanics” which shows how the bank’s and gov’t are corrupt and bankrupting the taxpayer’s secretly! In Canada the “oh!canadamovie” should be watched because we are headed down the same road and its the world bank and certain key families that are screwing everything up for most of the world!!!!!!!!!! Check it out!
Comment by charles — 8 March, 2010 @ 2:06 am