Marching on the Russian Embassy in Reykjavik

I keep coming back to the issue of freedom of expression. There is no question that, as in the 1930s, there are racists and anti-democrats out there, well organized, trying to use freedom of expression to destroy democracy and free speech. This is happening throughout the West, with extremism in the United States taking the lead — I mean, the lead in going backwards.

9/10/2013: 79th PEN International Congress in Reykjavik. Source: PEN International.

The three guys in the picture are Hori Takeaki from Tokyo, then International Secretary of PEN, Eric Lax from Los Angeles, International Treasurer of PEN and myself, then International President. It was 2013. We were in Reykjavik, Iceland, for the annual PEN congress which brings together hundreds of writers from all over the world. Many of these writers come from countries where their lives are constantly in danger. Being writers, they are often in the front line, speaking up for democracy and for freedom of expression.

At the PEN congress in Reykjavik, writers from the former Soviet bloc described the Russian government’s growing limitations on freedom of expression. The lives of those courageous enough to speak up were increasingly on the line. As we now know, things would get far worse. The Assembly voted heavily to condemn Russia’s actions. ‘Mere words,’ as people with guns and money would say. But if words are merely words, why do they so upset the autocrats?

In any case, the entire Congress rose to its feet and walked through the streets to the Russian embassy to protest.

9/11/2013: Sjón and JRS, with hundreds of writers, protesting outside the Russian Embassy, during the 79th PEN international congress in Reykjavik. Source: PEN International.

True, such protests are tiny gestures. But somehow, debating in a hall the ways in which the rights of citizens are being endangered, and then everyone rising to their feet and walking out in order to give that protest a physical reality, gives a surprising weight to it. Perhaps the Russian diplomats were indifferent and sent a tiny, dismissive note home.

But we writers had clarified our thoughts, oral and written, and then walked across the city in order to speak out loud in front of a building filled with representatives of the offenders. A concrete expression of an ethical and human crisis.

Sjón, the wonderful writer and President of Icelandic PEN, Hori Takeaki, Eric Lax, and myself, side by side with hundreds of writers from all over Iceland and the world, like Antonio Skármita of Chile, Douglas Coupland of Canada and Kjell Espmark from Sweden, to name but a few, used our freedom of expression in order to, at the very least, embarrass Russia’s representatives.

9/11/2013: Sjón, President of Icelandic PEN, speaking at the 79th PEN International Congress in Reykjavik. Source: PEN International.

What were we doing? Trying to shape the public debate so that the public could imagine what was really happening.

This sort of physical gesture meant that when each of us went home, we knew that we would speak up about what Russia was doing, knowing that we were part of a shared international voice.

Did we succeed? No. Russia is in a far worse state. US democracy is teetering. Racist, negative nationalist parties are rising in many Western countries.

What can we do? We need to understand how to use our languages.

Freedom of expression is not about enabling hatred or the destruction of others. It is about framing the conversation between citizens and those who have power.