Helga Katrín Tryggvadóttir

Icelanders are notoriously bad investors. Once someone has a business idea, everyone jumps on the wagon and invests in exactly the same thing. The infamous growth of the banking sector is one example, before the 2008 banking crash the Icelandic banking sector was 12 times the size of the GDP and Iceland was supposed to become an international financial centre. I have no idea how anyone got the idea that an island with three hundred thousand inhabitants could become an international financial centre, but many people in Iceland considered this a perfectly normal ambition.

And then there are the politicians, they have had the same investment idea for more than hundred years. Either it is building an artificial fertiliser factory, or it is building an aluminium smelter. Last year one MP proposed building an artificial fertiliser factory, in order to “lure home” young Icelanders who have moved abroad. A majority of those have moved abroad to educate themselves, but sure, who doesn’t want to use their PhD on the factory floor?

Now there is an Icelandic investor in the North of Iceland, Ingvar Skúlason, who is planning on building an aluminium smelter, at a time when aluminium prices have been dropping due to overproduction. He has already managed to sign a deal with a Chinese company, NFC, which is willing, he says, to pay for the whole construction, yet the smelter would be owned by Icelandic companies. All of this sounds kind of dubious in my ears. And everyone can see that this is not a good idea, even the banks, with a new report released by Arion Bank advising against more investment in the aluminium industry. The bank bases its analysis on the fact that aluminium price is too low at the moment to bring any profit into the country (since the price for the electricity is connected with the price of aluminium, the price the aluminium smelters pay to the National power company (LV) is low when aluminium prices are low).

But that does not stop the politicians from supporting the idea. The prime minister Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, was present when Skúlason signed a deal with the Chinese company, praising the initiative. Skúlason also claims to have support from the Minister of Industry, which is not surprising since her only campaign promise was building an aluminium smelter and get the “wheels of the economy rolling”. Recently, Alcoa World Alumina, owned by Alcoa Inc., admitted to having bribed officials in Barein. In Iceland, however, they have never had to pay any bribes. Icelandic officials have been more than willing to do their service for free, “bending all the rules” as Friðrik Sophusson, former head of LV, was caught on tape saying.

There are currently three aluminium smelters in Iceland. Together, they use 80% of the energy produced in the country and their profit account for 60 billion ISK a year (USD 500 million). Yet, a majority of the profit is registered as debt to their parent companies abroad, leaving the Icelandic subsidiaries operated in debt but creating profits to the parent companies. The only profit that is left in the country is the wages they pay to their employees, and that only accounts to less than 1% of the national revenue. The jobs they create (which is usually the main argument for their construction), also account for less than 1% of all jobs in Iceland. The price they pay for the energy is also below the normal market price. Lets think about this for a second: 80% of the electricity produced in the country goes to international corporations that only produce 1% of the national revenue and creates 1% of the jobs, exports the majority of the profits and pays below-market price for the energy. So, 99% of the people do not get any share in the majority of its electricity production. Sounds familiar.

Maybe it is time to occupy the smelters?

Bjork will play a concert in protest at the Icelandic government’s proposed changes to conservation laws.

The Icelandic singer tops the bill at the event, which will take place on March 18 at the Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik, Iceland. Artists appearing include Lykke Li, Patti Smith, Mammút (pictured below), Highlands, Of Monsters And Men, Samaris and Retro Stefson.

The concert is organised in conjunction with the Iceland Nature Conservation Association (INCA), Landvernd, the Icelandic Environment Association and director Darren Aronofsky, whose film Noah was shot on location in Iceland in 2012 and will premiere at Sambíóin Egilshöll Cinema on the same afternoon.

Collectively operating under the name Stopp!, the group aims to encourage the Icelandic authorities to protect Iceland’s natural environment and impose controls on the damming of glacial rivers and harnessing of geothermal energy, in light of new legislation, reports RUV.

This project was introduced at a press conference at Harpa on the 3^rd of March 2014. Björk and Darren Aronofsky participated in the press conference.

The artists will donate their time and the net income will go to INCA and Landvernd.

The following statement lists the group’s demands:

Stop – Guard the Garden!

All over the world too much of priceless nature has been sacrificed for development, often falsely labeled as sustainable. Rain forests have been cut, waterfalls dammed, land eroded, lakes and oceans polluted, earth’s climate altered and the oceans are now rapidly getting more and more acidic.

In Iceland, the Karahnjukar Power Plant has become the symbol for the destruction which threatens human existence on this earth.

It is our duty to protect Icelandic nature and leave it to future generations, undamaged. The Icelandic highlands, Europe’s largest remaining wilderness – where nature is still largely untouched by man, is not just a refuge and treasure which we inherited and will inherit. The highlands belong to the world as a whole. Nowhere else can we find another Lake Myvatn, Thjorsarver Wetlands, Sprengisandur, Skaftafell or Lake Langisjor.

We demand that Thjorsarver Wetlands, the wilderness west of Thjorsa River and the waterfalls downstream will be protected for all future to come. We strongly protest plans by the Minister for the Environment and Resources to change the demarcation line for the extended nature reserve in the Thjorsarver Wetlands. By doing so, the minister creates a space for a new dam at the outskirts of the area. The way in which the minister interprets the law in order to justify that all nature and/or potential power plants are at stake in each and every new phase of the Master Plan for Conservation and Utilization of Nature Areas is an attack on Icelandic nature and not likely to stand in a court of law. [We have engaged a law firm and we are threatening lawsuit if the Minister goes ahead with his plan]

We now have a unique opportunity to turn the highlands into a national park by bill of law to be adopted by the parliament. Thereby the highlands as a whole will be subject to one administrative unit and clearly defined geographically. Thus all plans for power lines, road construction and/or other man made structures which will fragment valuable landscapes of the highlands will belong to history.

We strongly caution against any plans to construct a geothermal power plant at or near Lake Myvatn. The Bjarnarflag Power Plant is not worth the risk. Lake Myvatn is absolutely unique in this world. Hence, we have a great responsibility for its protection.

We demand that the nature of Reykjanes Peninsula will be protected by establishing a volcanic national park and that all power lines will be put underground.

We find it urgent that the government will secure funds for conservation by hiring land wardens and will protect valuable nature areas against the ever growing pressure of mass tourism.

In particular we protest against the attack on nature conservationists, where unprecedented (sic. S.I. editor) and brutal conduct by the police as well as charges pressed against those who want to protect the Galgahraun Lava, was cruel and unnecessary. We remind that the right of the public to protest nature damage everywhere, worldwide, is a basic premise for the success of securing future human existence on this earth.

We demand that the proposed bill of law repealing the new nature protection laws be withdrawn and that the new laws should take effect, as stipulated, on April 1.

People have different passions. Some people are enthusiastic about coffee, others adore shiny things, yet others are passionate about nature and wildlife. Passion for nature makes people chain themselves to trees, parade naked to protest the fur trade, sail in rough seas to stop whale killing, climb oil rigs to protest drilling etc.

Now in Iceland, a group of environmentalists (lead by the NGO “Friends of the lava” are passionate about protecting a lava field, close to Reykjavík called Gálgahraun (Gallow-lava), from being dug up and buried under major roadworks. Some people might think this very odd. Why protect a small piece of lava since Iceland has so much of it? There is lava pretty much everywhere! There are a number of reasons why this particular lava field is unique and should be kept unspoiled. This lava was formed in the eruption of Búrfell, 8000 years ago and is protected by law. This beautiful lava field is mostly intact, and contains amazing geological features and old historical paths used by our ancestors. It also has a strong resonance for cultural reasons, as our best known painter, Jóhannes Kjarval, used scenes from the Gálgahraun lava field as inspiration for some of his famous paintings. Furthermore, it is one of the last unspoiled lava fields within the greater Reykjavík area. What upsets people about the situation is that the planned (and possibly illegal) road construction is completely unnecessary. It will only serve a low number of people (Álftanes has a population of 2.484) and the road construction will cost a fortune (approx 6 million Euros). The argument put forward for the new road layout is that the old road has caused accidents because of icing but out of 44 roads within the greater Reykjavík area, 21 roads were considered more dangerous than the Álftanes road, and of 1427 roads in the whole country, 301 roads have more accidents than Álftanes road. The road could be improved and made much safer for a fraction of what the new road would cost. I don’t know exactly what drives the municipality of Garðabær and The Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration to pursue this insane road construction but something about the whole thing stinks very badly.

Four nature NGO’s have sued the municipality to halt the road construction, but have not been able to change the planned work and the lawsuit is still being processed in court. In the last weeks hundreds of people have been protecting the lava field and they set up a rota to make sure there was always someone in the lava field protecting it from the bulldozers. These brave people are making a human shield to protect something they love. Today, the police started dragging them away and are carrying them handcuffed like they were the criminals. On days like these it doesn’t feel like Iceland is a country of law and order anymore.

If you want to help in any way, you can either show up in Gálgahraun and protest or transfer a donation to their bank account number: 140 05 71017, kennitala. 480207 – 1490. All help is greatly appreciated.

Addition at 13:30 on 21st of October: I just came from Gálgahraun and the bulldozers are already ruining this amazing lava field. Dozens of people have been arrested, there is police everywhere and we all (even the police) stood there horrified watching the screaming bulldozer tear down delicate lava features. The people responsible will stop at nothing, their greed has no limits.

Update in February 2014: Gálgahraun lavafield has been destroyed and the court cases against its defenders have commenced. All are charged for “disobeying police orders”. (S.I .Ed.)

It’s dark and silent — nothing unusual around midnight by river Laxá and lake Mývatn in the north of Iceland. But somewhere behind the darkness, beneath the silence, something extraordinary is about to happen. Suddenly, a dynamite explosion disturbs the silence — in what has gone down in history as a single yet highly important step in a much greater movement of resistance.

More than a hundred farmers officially claimed responsibility for the explosion, which annihilated a small dam in the river on August 25, 1970. The area’s inhabitants were determined to prevent the construction of a much bigger dam, which would have destroyed vast quantities of this natural area, as well as most of the surrounding farmlands.

Just as determined to keep the saboteurs away from legal troubles, those who claimed responsibility kept a strict policy of silence, making it hard for the authorities to single out alleged leaders or protagonists. Now, almost half a century and a saved river later, another bang has broken that silence.

A WATERSHED ACT IN ICELANDIC HISTORY

Namely, that is Grímur Hákonarson’s documentary ‘Hvellur’ (“Bang” — see trailer below), which premièred at the Bíó Paradís cinema on January 24. Through dialogues with some of the participants, many of whom still reside by the river, the film tells the story of the Laxá conflict. “We kept all commentators and university professors out,” Grímur told me a few days before the première, “focusing instead entirely on those who took part in it.”

The case is often considered the beginning of environmentalism in Iceland. Shortly thereafter, Nobel Prize-winning author Halldór Laxness wrote his famous, hard-headed call-out for nature conservation — titled ‘The Warfare Against the Land’ — and the Laxá conflict also brought about the Environmental Impact Assessment, which up until then had been completely absent in Iceland’s energy production.

“What makes the Laxá conflict peculiar is that those who resisted also succeeded,” Grímur says. “The planned dam was never built and the area was saved.” Four years later, parliament passed a law securing the protection of Laxá and Mývatn, contributing to the explosion’s status as “the most remarkable and powerful event in the history of environmentalism in Iceland,” as Sigurður Gizurarson, the bomber’s defence lawyer, put it.

Celebrating the forty-year anniversary of the act in August 2010, one of Iceland’s most remarkable environmentalists, Guðmundur Páll Ólafsson, remarked that the act “literally saved the ecosystem of Mývatn and Laxá.” He also maintained that the dynamite “blew up a democracy-restriction imposed on the district’s inhabitants and all those who loved the land, by the authorities and the board of Laxárvirkjun,” the company that owned the dam. “The arrogance of the authorities hovered over the land until the bomb exploded, but then we became free — for a while.”

Sixty-five people were charged for sabotage, but no one spoke out about any details and the Supreme Court ended up handing out mild suspended sentences. The film now reveals that three men were responsible for igniting the dynamite. Only one of them is still alive.

STILL THE BONE OF CONTENTION

In any case, exposing secrets is much less the film’s aim than documenting and preserving this extraordinary story. And for a good reason — it could easily fall into oblivion. “People over fifty remember this event very well, but those who are younger don’t really know the story,” Grímur says, adding that during the film’s making, they were told numerous times that they should have started filming much earlier as many involved have since passed away.

But how do those still alive recall these events today? “No one looks back regretfully, and most of them are still politically radical, opposed to large-scale destruction of natural areas for energy production. They are proud of the results of their act,” Grímur says.

But as Guðmundur Páll’s words, “then we became free — for a while,” imply, the plans had not been cancelled for good. During the construction of the huge Kárahnjúkar dams in Iceland’s eastern highlands, a new construction plan for Laxá was put on the drawing table. However, as words of warning came from Mývatn — including that the locals surely hadn’t forgotten how to use dynamite — the plans were later drawn back. Siv Friðleifsdóttir, then Minister of the Environment, stated that never before had she been so pleased to cancel a project.

Many of Iceland’s most remarkable natural areas are still the bone of contention between environmentalists and industrialists, including geothermal areas close to Mývatn [see here and here]. Grímur doesn’t consider the film to be part of the current conflict, but it doesn’t mean that people won’t feel some connection with today’s most pressing environmental issues. “One only needs to listen to the debates in parliament,” Grímur concludes, “to notice that the same old discussion is still going on today.”
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HVELLUR from Ground Control Productions on Vimeo.

Declare solidarity with grassroots movements fighting Vedanta in India, Africa and elsewhere!

Kick Vedanta out of London for it’s corporate crimes, murder and destruction. Noise demonstration and picket at Vedanta headquarters, 16 Berkeley Street.

Mayfair, W1J 8DZ . Green Park tube.
1 – 3pm. Friday 11th January.

On Friday 11th January the Supreme Court will finally announce its historical decision on whether to allow the mining of the threatened Niyamgiri mountain in Odisha, India¹. Simultaneously tribals and farmers from a number of grassroots organisations² will hold a rally of defiance in Bhawanipatna, near the mountain. They will call for closure of the sinking Lanjigarh refinery and an absolute ban on the so-far-unsuccessful attempt to mine bauxite on their sacred hills³.

On 10th of January activists in New York will rally outside the United Nations Headquarters pointing out Vedanta’s clear violations of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, including right to participate in decision making, right to water and cultural and religious rights. They will call for the Indian Government to put a final stop to this contested project, and for the state owned Orissa Mining Corporation to be pulled out of dodgy deals it has made with Vedanta in an attempt to force the mine through the courts on Vedanta’s behalf (see their facebook event).

Here in London we will draw attention to Vedanta’s nominal Mayfair headquarters from which they gain a cloak of respectability and easy access to capital. We will call for Vedanta to be de-listed from the London Stock Exchange and thrown out of its cosy position in the London corporate elite for proven human rights and environmental abuses, corruption and poor corporate governance⁴.

Please join us and bring drums, pots and pans and anything that makes noise!

Our solidarity demo on 6th Dec was covered in all the Indian papers and our solidarity was felt directly. Let us do it again!

See you there! More information below.

(1) The Supreme Court is due to make a final decision on the challenge posed to the Environment Ministry’s stop to the Niyamgiri mine on 11th January. In its December 6th hearing the Supreme Court concluded that the case rested on whether the rights of the indigenous Dongia Kond’s – who live exclusively on that mountain – could be considered ‘inalienable or compensatory’. The previous ruling by Environment and Forests minister Jairam Ramesh in August 2010 prevented Vedanta from mining the mountain due to violations of environment and forestry acts. The challenge to this ruling has been mounted by the Orissa Mining Corporation, a state owned company with 24% shares in the joint venture to mine Niyamgiri with Vedanta, begging questions about why a state company is lobbying so hard for a British mining company in whom it has only minority shares in this small project (see Niyamgiri: A temporary reprieve).

On 6th December, in anticipation of a final Supreme Court ruling, more than 5000 tribals and farmers rallied on the Niyamgiri mountain and around the Lanjigarh refinery sending a message that they would not tolerate the mine or the refinery. In London Foil Vedanta held a noise demo outside the Indian High Commission in which a pile of mud was dumped in the entrance. This news was carried all over India by major papers and TV and had a significant impact (see London protesters join 5000 in India to stop mine).

(2) Niyamgiri Surakhya Samiti, Sachetana Nagarika Mancha, Loka Sangram Mancha, Communist Party of India and Samajwadi Jan Parishad will coordinate the rally in Odisha on the 11th Jan.

(3) The Lanjigargh refinery was built at the base of Niyamgiri and assessed for environmental and social impact without taking into account the intention to mine the hill above for bauxite to run the plant. However, obtaining permission to mine the mountain has been much more difficult than Vedanta supposed and has left them running Lanjigarh at a loss, leaving Vedanta Aluminium with accumulated debt of $3.65 billion.  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-27…)

(4) Vedanta was described in Parliament by Labour MP Lisa Nandy as ‘one of the companies that have been found guilty of gross violations of human rights’ . Ms Nandy in her speech quoted Richard Lambert the former Director General of the CBI: ‘It never occurred to those of us who helped to launch the FTSE 100 index 27 years ago that one day it would be providing a cloak of respectability and lots of passive investors for companies that challenge the canons of corporate governance such as Vedanta…’. Similarly City of London researchers from ‘Trusted Sources’ have noted Vedanta’s reasons for registering in London:

“A London listing allows access to an enormous pool of capital. If you are in the FTSE Index, tracker funds have got to own you and others will follow.” Both Vedanta Resources and Essar Energy are members of the FTSE 100. London’s reputation as a market with high standards of transparency and corporate governance is another draw for Indian companies. Both Vedanta and Essar have faced criticism on corporate governance grounds in India, and a foreign listing is seen as one way to signal to investors that the company does maintain high standards.

We are joining the calls of parliamentarians and financiers in pointing out how the London listing is used for legal immunity and to hide Vedanta’s corporate crimes. We are calling for Vedanta to be de-listed from the London Stock Exchange and taken to court for Human Rights abuses here in London.

Declare solidarity with Odisha grassroots movements! Stop the Niyamgiri mine once and for all!

Noise demonstration and picket at India High Commission, Aldwych, WC2B 4NA, Holborn Tube, 2 – 4pm, Thursday 6th December.

On Thursday 6th December tribals and farmers of the grassroots organisations Niyamgiri Surakhya Samiti, Loka Sangram Mancha, Samajwadi Jan Parishad, and Sachetana Nagarika Mancha will hold one of the largest demonstrations ever on the threatened Niyamgiri mountain since the movement began. In anticipation of the final Supreme Court decision on the planned mega-mine ten thousand people are expected to rally on the mountain in a show of defiance. They will call for closure of the sinking Lanjigarh refinery and an absolute ban on the so-far-unsuccessful attempt to mine bauxite on their sacred hills.

Here in London we will be holding a noise demonstration outside the India High Commission in Aldwych calling for the Indian Government to put a final stop to this contested project, and for the state owned Orissa Mining Corporation to be pulled out of dodgy deals it has made with Vedanta in an attempt to force the mine through the courts on Vedanta’s behalf.

Please join us and bring drums, pots and pans and anything that makes noise! The movements in Orissa will feel your solidarity!

More than 100 protesters from Foil Vedanta and other organisations crowded the entrance to British mining company Vedanta Resources’ London AGM and poured red paint on the steps on Tuesday in an attempt to disrupt the meeting. In Goa and Odisha in India where Vedanta operates, parallel demonstrations involving thousands of people affected by the company’s activities took place on Monday and Tuesday. Inside the AGM the meeting was once again dominated by dissident shareholders who pointed out Vedanta’s racism, major environmental and social violations and poor governance.

See the Foil Vedanta website for further information and photos.

Join us at the eighth annual AGM protest: 28 August 2012 2.00 pm, Lincoln Centre, 18 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3ED. Nearest tube Holborn (Piccadilly & Central lines) or Chancery Lane (Central).

We are also calling out for a global day of action. Please show your solidarity with movements across India and Africa fighting this devastating company. Email your pictures or statements to savingiceland (at) riseup.net.

Why Peoples’ Movements are Fighting Vedanta:

Criminal court cases, waged by The State against political dissidents for acts of protest and civil disobedience, can be understood in two ways. Firstly, the juridical system can be seen as a wholly legitimate platform for solving social conflicts. Such a process then results with a verdict delivered by Lady Justice’s independent agents—a ruling located somewhere on the scale between full punishment and absolute acquittal. According to this view, it is at this point only that a punishment possibly enters the picture. And only if deserved.

Secondly—and herein lies a fundamental difference—the original decision to press charges can be seen as a punishment in itself, regardless of the final verdict. With these two points of understanding in mind, two recent verdicts, which have not received much attention, are worth observing.

You Shall Not Run

Number one is the case against Haukur Hilmarsson and Jason Slade who in June 2008, while attempting to stop an airplane from departing, and thereby deporting Kenyan asylum seeker Paul Ramses to Italy, ran onto a closed-off area at the Leifur Eiríksson International Airport in Keflavík. To shorten a long and complicated story (covered in-length here) their political sprint snowballed into protests of all kinds, eventually bringing the asylum seeker back to Iceland, where he and his family were granted an asylum.

During the case’s most recent court proceedings—the third one, indeed, after already rolling through Reykjavík’s District Court and Iceland’s Supreme Court—the two accused attempted a moral defence, speaking solely about the act for which they were charged and which they justified with a reference to the asylum seeker’s desperate need and the large-scale impacts of their actions. But neither prosecutor nor judge were willing to speak of these things, focusing instead on fences and the possibility of destroying an airplane’s engine by being sucked into one such. Eventually the two were found guilty of violating air-safety regulations and air-traffic laws, and ruled to pay a fine, lower than what the State pays for executing the trial.

You Shall Not Stand

Number two is the case against Lárus Páll Birgisson who recently was sentenced for disobeying police orders and this is in fact his second sentencing in a year, due to exactly the same scenario: Lárus stands on a sidewalk in front of the U.S. embassy in Reykjavík, holding a sign bearing a message against war. Police arrives after a complaint from the embassy and order him to leave the sidewalk. Lárus rejects, citing his legally and constitutionally protected right to protest, and official data regarding the sidewalk’s public status. He is then arrested, charged and finally sentenced.

And what is it, so heavy and hazardous, that undermines his right to protest in public? “It is well-known,” says in the judge’s verdict, “that embassies worldwide have in recent years and decades been targets of perpetrators and hence it is not strange that their staff is on alert regarding traffic in the most nearest surroundings.” And not a single additional word. The justification starts and ends in one and the same sentence, referring to something “well-known”—a concept as blurry, insignificant and out-of-context as “public opinion” and “common sense”.

You Shall be Punished

On the surface, these sentences per se are of no heavy-weight importance for The State (actually minor enough, according to recent rules, not to be published officially, which might—possibly—explain the little-as-no attention). And while the sentenced ones would obviously have preferred different results, the relatively low fines are certainly not equivalent to physical imprisonment.

So, what is the use then? In fact, both cases perfectly embody the second above-mentioned way of understanding—that the punishment lies in the charges themselves but not the final verdict. Not only does it consume money, time and energy from those directly involved, but its social impacts are also dead serious.

To begin with, such verdicts give the police a further green light for giving illegal orders and arresting those who disobey in the name of their rights. Probably more importantly, they clearly determine the precedent that it is worth forcing political dissidents into long and costly court cases—in these two cases keeping people inside the court system for years and repeatedly charging the same man for the same completely harmless act—even when the final results amount to be mere small-talk. An ongoing and ever-hanging threat of sentences, fines and jail-time, is more than likely to keep people away from resisting oppression, meaning that the threat is a form of silencing, a form of oppression, itself.

For Mine is the State, the Power and the Justice

Regarding the first-mentioned way of understanding, it might be worth wondering if these court cases possibly manifest a resolution of social conflicts. In order to be so, the discussion in court would have had to be free from anything like “well-known” or “public-good” and instead deal with the tough tug between status-quo—such as airport rules and fences, or the police’s right to order and be obeyed—and people’s legal, ethical and natural rights to directly and spontaneously interfere with their up-front reality.

But as Haukur Hilmarsson said during his procedure, one of the most humiliating factors of being dragged through the courts is to have a dialogue based on The State’s premises. No matter how willing the defendant is to speak about his action and debate its over-all legitimacy, in such context Lady Justice just does not seem to weigh a challenging argument. The weighing-scale might be broken… or is this—punishing via prosecuting—maybe, after all, what solving social conflicts and doing justice is essentially about?

On Friday September 2, two men appeared in court in downtown Reykjavík. It wasn’t their first time—and it probably won’t be their last. If found guilty, the defendants, Haukur Hilmarsson and Jason Thomas Slade, face up to six years in prison, due to a peculiar action on their behalves that marks a turning point in Icelandic asylum-seeker affairs.

On the morning of July 3, 2008, Haukur and Jason darted onto the runway of Leifur Eiríksson International Airport in Keflavík, hoping to prevent a flight from departing, and deporting. Inside the plane, which was headed to Italy, sat one Paul Ramses, a Kenyan refugee. The two activists ran alongside the plane, and placed themselves in front of it—halting its takeoff.

It would be wrong to assume that anything has changed since 2008. Iceland may have seen an infamous economic collapse followed by a popular uprising and a new government, but for the two activists it must feel like time is standing still. Since their arrest at the airport, they have been stuck in a seemingly endless legal limbo, first charged for housebreaking and reckless endangerment and later thrown between all levels of the juridical system. Last Friday, the case’s principal proceedings took place for the second time in Reykjavík’s District Court, after the courts original sentences were ruled null and void by Iceland’s Supreme Court.

THE ICELANDIC STATE VS. PAUL RAMSES

Paul Ramses originally arrived in Iceland in January of 2008. The year prior, he had unsuccessfully participated in Kenya’s general elections on behalf of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM). Many Kenyan and trans-African associations claimed the electoral victory of ODM’s main opponents, the Party of National Unity, to have been rigged behind the scenes. The ensuing wave of fatal protests and riots had brought down 800 people by late January, and as ODM members faced mass persecution, Paul and his wife Rosemary fled Kenya and escaped to Iceland via Italy.

Paul Ramses and his wife Rosemary fled Kenya in 2008, afraid of their lives due to mass persecution against members of a political party that Paul was involved with. Shortly after their arrival, Rosemary gave birth to a son they named Fidel, thereby establishing her right to stay along with the newborn. Paul, on the other hand, needed to apply for asylum. The Directorate of Immigration (UTL for short) refused to take up his case and ruled for him to be deported to Italy. Although their ruling was made in April, Paul however wasn’t notified until three months later, the night before he was to be deported, when he was arrested by Icelandic police and separated from his family—an act that violated both his rights to appeal UTL’s decision and his son’s internationally protected right to stay with his parents.

WHAT IS THE DUBLIN REGULATION?

UTL’s decision to refuse Paul asylum was argued for by citing the Dublin Regulation, an agreement on asylum affairs implemented by the member-states of the Schengen Area. The Dublin Regulation permits authorities to deport asylum seekers to the first Schengen state they entered, but it does not oblige the state to deport the asylum seeker in any way—and, as a matter of fact, specially bids authorities to apply it in harmony with human rights conventions. However, UTL’s official policy has been to start every asylum application process by checking if it can be outsourced to another Schengen state.

That sort of policy is certainly not to lighten the burden of states—such as Italy, Spain and Greece—that are located at Schengen’s south and east borders (in 2008, 31.200 asylum application were filed in Italy, compared to 72 in Iceland). The South-European asylum seekers’ dilemma has been the subject of a multitude of damning studies and these three countries’ refugee policies have been heavily criticised by the likes of UN Refugee Agency, Amnesty International and European Parliament.

According to Jórunn Edda Helgadóttir, MA student of international and comparative law, The Dublin Regulation brings forward grossly defective rules that have allowed the Icelandic state to deport asylum seekers en masse by stating that “because everybody does it, we can too.” This was indeed how Björn Bjarnason, then Minister of Justice, replied upon being heavily criticised for the deportation of Paul Ramses: “Of course there is nothing unlawful or wrong with employing this treaty, any more than other international treaties.”

Such a statement is wrong, according to Jórunn as Iceland has validated the European Convention of Human Rights, in which it says that “no one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” and that “everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life”—two of many law paragraphs that were not considered in the case of Paul Ramses. “The focal issue at stake is will”, she says, as the “problem would never grow to be so huge if most governments weren’t so willing to pass their duties and commitments on to other states.”

“WE INTENDED TO SAVE HIS LIFE…”

Back at the airport, Haukur and Jason were arrested and air traffic continued after a short delay. Interviewed by online news outlet Vísir shortly after his release, Haukur cut the crap when asked about his and Jason’s motives. “We intended to save Paul Ramses life,” he said, expressing worries that they had failed. Surprisingly, the next day, hundreds of people assembled by the Ministry of Justice and demanded Paul’s return to his family in Iceland.

The pressure increased with daily demonstrations, petitions and parliamentary debates, as well national and international media attention—all of it to be diagnosed as “sentimentality” by Minister of Justice Björn Bjarnason. But eventually Björn himself succumbed to “sentimentality” and overturned UTL’s decision. Parallel to the aforementioned pressure, Paul’s lawyer Katrín Theodórsdóttir issued a complaint to the Ministry, demanding material handling of Paul’s asylum application from a humanitarian standpoint. Following the Ministry’s ruling, UTL finally granted Paul asylum.

“…AND WE DID”

Today Haukur believes that although the impact of a single act of direct action is hard to measure, he and Jason actually saved Paul’s life. And their action, he says, paved the way for what followed, as standing in front of a ministry or signing a petition requires much less effort than running in front of an aeroplane. In the aftermath, they claim, people were less afraid to protest. Using the same logic, he insists that the good number of direct action such the ones of environmental movement Saving Iceland, which both him and Jason have also been involved in, paved the way for the so-called ‘pots and pans revolt’ of 2008-9.

At the same time he believes that The State’s response to such actions, for instance by instigating serious court cases, is likely to keep newcomers from getting involved. “It is sad that people have to make such enormous sacrifices for such tiny changes,” says Haukur and mentions Þorgeir Þorgeirsson, an author who in 1994, after a ten years long fight, won a historical victory at the European Council of Human Rights. Þorgeir had been sentenced in Iceland for his articles decrying and depicting police brutality in Reykjavík. Even if proven right, public innuendos regarding state or city officials was illegal at the time—something that wasn’t altered until the European Council ruled in Þorgeir’s favour.

THE ICELANDIC STATE VS. HAUKUR AND JASON

Haukur and Jason were originally charged with housebreaking and reckless endangerment. But once in court, the prosecutor brought forward two additional penalty clauses not included in the original charges, which he encouraged the judge to take into consideration. Such a move is not only illegal, but also in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that everyone charged with a criminal offence should be given adequate time and facilities in preparing their defence.

Despite protest from their defence lawyer, Ragnar Aðalsteinsson, who had to defend his clients unprepared for these new clauses, the District Court found the two guilty. Haukur was sentenced to two months in prison while Jason was given a 45 days probationary prison term, a ruling that the two appealed to Iceland’s Supreme Court. And while the Supreme Court judges did agree with Ragnar regarding the illegitimacy of the District Court’s ruling, they didn’t rule for the case’s discontinuation. Instead of acquitting the two, the Supreme Court’s judges made the unusual decision to send the case back to District Court, to start from scratch again.

According to Hrefna Dögg Gunnarsdóttir, law student and employee at law firm Réttur, the Supreme Court’s ruling surely manifests that Iceland’s uppermost court of law recognised the prosecution’s illegal move. Yet the decision to grant the prosecution another chance crystallises the fundamentally different position of the prosecutor and the defence. “This could be compared to a basketball game, in which one of the two competing teams always gets the ball after a failed throw,” says Hrefna.

Does this mean that they should have been acquitted? Not necessarily, if looked at by the book of law. But when viewed in context with the fact that by granting Paul asylum, UTL—and thus the Icelandic state—recognised the threat he faced if deported to Kenya, one has to wonder why the courts still questions Haukur and Jason’s actions.

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE?

“The purpose of the charge is obviously to suppress resistance,” says Haukur. “I stopped hoping for an acquittal. Instead I use this case to learn how to analyse State Power, and to educate myself about this system and how it operates.”

During the procedure last Friday, one could witness the findings of Haukur’s studies as he delivered his 8.000 word’s long disputation—his own theory on the constant clashes between The Individual and The State’s innumerable tentacles. One of the more interesting points he made regards the humiliation entailed in having to discuss important issues on The State’s terms. While having ideologically argued for his actions, he claims he has constantly been met with idiotic and irrelevant questions; while wanting to discuss an important topic as refugee policies surely is, he has been met with a debate about fences and police regulations.

The prosecutor indeed questioned Haukur and Jason extensively about their entrance onto the airport driveway, about alleged signage that was supposed to forbid their entrance and why they didn’t obey orders from airport staff. The prosecutor, however, showed little or no interest in discussing the motives behind their actions, which usually is considered an important factor in criminal cases. Instead of entering an ideological dialogue with the defendants—a discourse that could eventually force him to face the overall legitimacy of their action—his obvious aim was to get them jailed for a mindless and dangerous criminal act.

Haukur has given up hope for an acquittal, but will admit that a victory in court would serve as an exemplary beacon for future cases against political dissidents, not to mention the legal and bureaucratic amendments it could lead to. But these are not these fundamental changes he hopes for. “The impact of these kind of cases on the behaviour of State Power can certainly lead to minor reforms, but the knowledge we can gleam from it can give rise to revolutionaries.”
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A shorter version of this article was published in the Reykjavík Grapevine magazine (p. 26).

Protesters claim this is a British issue as both Cairn and Vedanta are British companies, and have been aided by David Cameron and the British Ambassador to India in pushing the deal through. The leaflets highlight Vedanta CEO Anil Agarwal’s position as the 17th richest man in Britain and claim the British government has allowed him to evade millions of pounds worth of tax using Jersey and Bahamas based tax havens. One of the placards showed Cairn CEO Bill Gammell and Vedanta CEO Anil Agarwal in bed with David Cameron and read ‘Bill Gammell, Anil Agarwal, David Cameron in bed for oil’ while another slogan accused all three of having ‘blood on their hands’. A stack of leaflets was handed in to the building to distribute to Cairn Energy staff and a security guard warned those gathered that the police would be called if they remained at the building. This warning was taken seriously in the light of Cairn Energy’s zero tolerance policy on protests at the same offices by Greenpeace a month earlier, at which the company took out injunctions against Greenpeace preventing them from publishing any pictures of the event. The protesters left after an hour.

Below is a press release that followed the protest. Download the leaflet that was distributed at the protest here: Cairn India AGM leaflet.

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PRESS RELEASE

18th August 2011

PROTESTERS TARGET CAIRN INDIA IN EDINBURGH

Exactly one month after Greenpeace occupied Cairn Energy’s Edinburgh offices to protest their Arctic oil drilling(1), the offices have been targeted again by campaigners objecting to Britain’s role in the take-over of key subsidiary Cairn India by British-Indian mining company Vedanta Resources plc. On the day of Cairn India’s AGM in Mumbai, protesters banged pots and pans to disturb the Edinburgh offices and shouted ‘Vedanta – blood on your hands’ and ‘Cameron get out of India’. They are angry that Vedanta – already accused of multiple violations of environmental law in India(2) – are being allowed to buy an oil company which is drilling in sensitive frontier oil fields around Sri Lanka’s coral reefs, and even angrier that David Cameron has personally helped to pave the way for the deal.

Vedanta has waited a year to complete its 58% buyout of Cairn India (leaving 22% with parent company Cairn Energy). When the Indian government delayed the deal citing uncertainty over Vedanta’s safety record and ability to handle ‘strategic oilfields’, David Cameron sent a personal letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to prevent ‘unnecessary delays'(3). Britain’s Indian High Commissioner Richard Stagg also wrote to the Indian PM over a royalties dispute between Cairn India and Rajasthani state oil company ONGC which was hampering progress on the deal, telling him that any change in financial conditions could ‘render the proposed transaction unviable'(4). Vedanta currently own 28.5% and await a Cairn India shareholder resolution to complete the deal.

Miriam Rose from the group Foil Vedanta said the protest was in solidarity with people affected by Vedanta’s activities in India:

Vedanta has been found guilty of flooding a village with toxic mine waste, killing 40 workers when a poorly built chimney collapsed, illegally grabbing tribal land and polluting major rivers. How can a company with such a poor track record be trusted to deep drill for oil in the most bio-diverse area of Sri Lanka’s coast? Vedanta are a British company and should be accountable to British law for their crimes. Instead Anil Agarwal’s cosy relationship with the UK government has helped him become one of the richest men in Britain. His politician friends even help his business and allow him to evade millions of pounds of tax by keeping his earnings in tax havens.(5)(6)

Cairn India have already begun drilling in Block SL-2007-01-001 of Sri Lanka’s Mannar basin, using a fifth generation Japanese drill ship the ‘Chikyu’ which was damaged in the Sendai tsunami and awaits repair on one of its thrusters. The block extends right to the edge of the Bar Reef Marine Sanctuary, a pristine coral reef which is thought to be the most biodiverse area off India’s coasts(7).

Cairn employees have expressed fear over the Vedanta takeover, worried about pay and working conditions and that the mining giant has no experience in the risky business of oil(8).
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Notes and References:

For a profile of Cairn India see here and for Vedanta here.

(1) See: Police make arrests in Greenpeace ‘polar bear’ protest

(2) Vedanta’s Environmental and Human Rights Crimes Identified by the Indian Authorities
Vedanta’s bauxite mining has killed thousands, mainly Adivasi (indigenous) people, in India in accidents, police firings, forced displacement, injury and illness. It has displaced thousands of families and destroyed the environment, contaminating drinking water and devastating vast tracts of fertile land in an area of Odisha which has experienced famine regularly since 2007.

In Niyamgiri, Odisha: In August 2010 India’s then Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh stopped Vedanta from mining the Niyamgiri mountain which is the sacred mountain of the Dongria Kondh adivasis in Odisha. But Vedanta has now appealed to the Supreme Court against this decision.

In Lanjigarh, Odisha: In August 2010, the Environment Ministry ruled that Vedanta and its subsidiary Sterlite had contravened the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 by illegally clearing forest to establish its alumina refinery in Lanjigarh in 2006 and by again by expanding the plant in 2009. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh criticised the Supreme Court for allowing the Lanjigarh project. The National Human Rights Commission identified 3.66 acres within the refinery that legally belong to Adivasis. Following this, the administration has now registered a case of land-grab against the company. This is the first time that Vedanta’s illegal land-grabbing has been ‘officially proved’.

However Vedanta’s environmental crimes continued On 5 April and again on 16th May this year a wall of the red mud impoundment (storing toxic waste) collapsed, polluting the Vansadhara river. The wall had not been properly constructed despite warnings from the Odisha State Pollution Control Board in December 2008 when it had previously collapsed.

In Puri, Odisha: In November 2010 the Odisha High Court ruled that Vedanta’s acquisition of thousands of acres of land in Puri for the so-called Vedanta University was illegal and void. The court ordered Vedanta to return the land it had stolen to the original owners.

In Jharsuguda, Odisha: In September 2010 the Odisha State Pollution Control Board found that Vedanta’s 500,000 tonne smelter and another nine captive power plants in the Jharsuguda district of north Odisha were operating without clearances from it and were violating water and air pollution Acts.

In Advalpal,Goa: In November 2009 the Bombay High Court ruled that Vedanta’s Sesa Goa iron ore subsidiary, the largest exporter of iron ore in India, was illegally dumping mining waste near Advalpal village in north Goa. On 6 June 2010, the dumps collapsed due to heavy rains. Tonnes of mining waste overflowed into a stream leading to floods. The Indian Bureau of Mines found that the mining plan had been violated.

In Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu: In September 2010, the Madras High Court ordered Vedanta to stop production at its Thoothukudi copper smelter for environmental reasons — a decision that has been overturned by a stay order of the Supreme Court for the time being. Villagers from Thoothukudi complain of severe respiratory ailments

In Korba,Chhattisgarh: Vedanta and its subsidiary BALCO (which is 100% managed by Vedanta) have been found culpable for the collapse of a power plant chimney causing the deaths of 40 people. Vedanta built the chimney on state-owned forest land and had ignored ‘stop notices’ and threats of legal action and dismantling of construction work by the Korba Municipal Corporation. The chimney collapsed, according to a report commissioned by the Korba police, because of “careless, poor construction practice and poor workmanship in the construction of piles” and “improper cement content in the concrete mix” and because new layers of the chimney were being built before lower levels had been given time to cure properly”.

In Zambia: In December 2010,Vedanta’s Zambian subsidiary Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) was fined in court for polluting the very river it had poisoned four years earlier in the north of the country. In November 2006, effluents cascaded from a burst slurry pipeline into the Kafue river, raising chemical concentrations to 1,000% of acceptable levels for copper, 77,000% of those for manganese and 10,000% for cobalt. Following the most recent event, the UK company was also found guilty of willfully failing to report it to the authorities.

(3) James Lamont and Amy Kazmin in New Delhi, and Alex Barker in London, Financial Times, Feb 18^th 2011 ‘Cameron intervenes in Cairn sale’

(4) EI Finance. April 27, 2011. ‘Vedanta Buys Smaller Cairn India Stake as Delays Continues’

(5) Vedanta’s CEO, Anil Agarwal is the seventeenth richest person in Britain, whose personal wealth has grown even in the recession by 583% according to 2010 figs5.

(6) Vedanta plc is a London listed FTSE 100 Mining Corporation owned by Anil Agarwal and his family through a number of shell companies in tax havens – Bahamas-based company Volcan Investments Limited, Twinstar Holdings Ltd, THL KCM Ltd in Mauritius and Vedanta Resources Cyprus Ltd and others6

(7) Arijit Barman, Business Standard, Mumbai, August 17, 2011. ‘A year on, Cairn drills into Sri Lankan waters’.

(8) Himangshu Watts, 12/8/11, ‘Cairn India staff keep fingers crossed on future in Vedanta’, Economic Times of India.

Please join us for the 7th annual protest outside the AGM of Vedanta Resources, the now infamous UK registered Indian mining company who have this year been exposed by the Indian government for serial environmental and human rights violations. We stand in solidarity with the Dongria Kondh and other inhabitants of Niyamgiri and Lanjigargh who have lost land, health and livelihood to Vedanta’s refinery, and faced repression and struggle in fighting Vedanta’s plans for a 73 million tonne bauxite mine and a six fold increase in the refinery’s capacity. We oppose Vedanta’s attempted take-over of British Oil company Cairn Energy who plan to drill in Greenland and Sri Lanka.

In 2010, protests outside Vedanta’s AGM made headlines as protesters on the outside shouted slogans targeting CEO ad majority shareholder Anil Agarwal for the ‘blood on his hands’, as well as David Cameron who was in India promoting joint UK-Indian business ventures at the time. Meanwhile activist shareholders held Vedanta to account inside the AGM, and key investors Aviva threatened to pull out due to the company’s ‘disdain’ for OECD environmental law. One month later the Indian government’s Saxena Report damned Vedanta for violations of tribal rights and environmental law at the Niyamgiri hills. Vedanta is also being investigated by the Indian government’s Lok Pal anti-corruption ombudsman for massive corruption over the illegal acquisition of 3000 acres of land for a ‘Vedanta University’ in Puri, Orissa.

This year we are celebrating the prevention of the illegal Vedanta University project and the denial of their right to mine tribal land at Niyamgiri without permission. However, the fight is far from over. We are calling on the British and Indian governments to put Anil Agarwal on trial for these violations, and drawing attention to the company’s continued attempts to get Niyamgiri via the Orissa state government. Please join us and raise your voices in solidarity with Indian communities who will be watching us and feeling our support.

The enclosed photos show the protest at Vedanta’s 2010 AGM.

Contact  savingiceland at riseup.net for more details.
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Recent relevant articles:

Red Mud Spill and People’s Resistance at Niyamgiri – A First Hand Report from the Struggle
Press Release on Red Mud Pollution by Vedanta
Victory in India: The Tribes of Orissa Conquer British Mining Giant Vedanta
From 2009: Join us at Vedanta Sterlite AGM – 27th July London

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Please see coverage of last year’s AGM here (from the London Mining Network website):

Protesters descend on FTSE 100 mining group’s AGM – but chief executive describes criticism as ‘lies’
Vedanta Resources’ highly successful financial year, and its annual meeting, were overshadowed yesterday when more than 100 protesters, some dressed as characters from James Cameron’s Avatar film, came to object to what they say is the company’s shocking human rights and environmental record.

Police stopped protesters storming the meeting, as pressure groups and celebrities lined up to attack the mining group’s record over its treatment of the Dongria Kondh tribe, which, they claim, will be devastated if Vedanta’s planned bauxite mine in India’s Orissa state goes ahead.

Read the full story here.

Vedanta meeting held up by difficult question
Activist shareholder challenge Vedanta’s Chief Operating Officer at Lanjigarh on the sacred status of Niyamgiri to its tribal inhabitants and causes an embarrassing and revealing silence when the ‘expert’ cannot answer.

Read the full story here.

Vedanta meeting disrupted by demonstration
Accusing the Vedanta mining company of destroying the Niyamgiri mountain worshipped by indigenous Dongria tribes of Orissa, around 250 supporters of a campaign group ‘Foil Vedanta’ held a vociferous demonstration during its annual general meeting here. The demonstrators last evening carried placards saying ‘Anil Agarwal, Blood on Your hands’, ‘Who killed Arsi Majhi? Vedanta, Vedanta’. They claimed that Agarwal, Chairman of Vedanta, was a “Wanted Criminal”.

Read the full story here.

Anti-mining protesters ambushed Vedanta’s AGM
New Delhi, Lanjigarh- For the fourth year in a row, anti-mining protesters ambushed the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Vedanta Resources, a London-based FTSE 100-listed company. The AGM was held in London on Wednesday evening. While in the last three years, Dongria Kondh (tribals from Orissa) representatives protested against the mining of their sacred hill in the state, on Wednesday it were blockbuster Avatar’s aliens, Na’vi, and fashion icon Bianca Jagger.

At the heart of this cross-continental row is the bauxite-rich Niyamgiri hill in the Lanjigarh area of dirt-poor Kalahandi district. While Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta Resources wants to mine the hill through its subsidiary companies for its aluminum refinery in Lanjigarh, located 500 km southwest of Bhubaneshwar, and “develop the backward area,” tribals and activists feel that it will displace thousands and leave them without any livelihood opportunities.

Read the full story here.

Channel 4 News Wednesday 28 July
Watch 4 minutes into this clip for coverage of protests against Vedanta at the annual meeting in London:

In December 2008 the bullet that killed Alexandros Grigoropoulos set fire to the streets of Athens, a fire that soon spread to every city across Greece. That same December on the opposite shore of Europe, in Iceland another revolt was already under way born out of the wreckage of the economy that had collapsed that fall. In the winter of 2008, Iceland, the first ‘victim’ of this global crisis, was witness to the largest mobilization in its history. Demonstrations, mass gatherings and popular assemblies, direct action and confrontation on a daily basis and finally mass riots managed to bring down the right wing government at the time. But, just like in Greece that bullet was only one cause to a revolt that had a thousand reasons behind it, in Iceland the bubble that burst that fall was only the spark for the pent up rage and frustration resulting from two decades of neoliberal government – and well, against the political and economic system in its entirety.

As we speak, the Icelandic state threatens with imprisonment nine individuals chosen to be the scapegoats of the uprising that brought down the government in January 2009. They are the Reykjavik Nine.

On the 8th of December 2008 and while thousands of people had taken to the streets of Greek cities, in Reykjavik, Iceland, a group of 30 people stormed the Parliament in order to interrupt the proceedings and read out a statement of protest. Despite the fact that entrance to the public benches of Parliament is open to all, the police, along with the guards, blocked the entrance and detained the group on the staircase while only two of the 30 people managed to get to the benches. After some minor scuffles few persons were arrested and the rest were let go.

A year later, the authorities targeted nine out of these 30 people. The charge, among others, is that they “posed a threat to the independence of the Parliament” and the potential sentence is from one year up to life in prison!

This action was merely one out of a plethora of actions that took place on a daily basis in Iceland on the winter of 2008: mass protests, home ‘visits’ to ministers and bankers, sabotage on state property, disruptions in banks and other financial institutions, disruptions at government meetings and mass sabotage to the live TV transmission of the annual party political debate. An intrinsic part of this uprising was the evolving anarchist movement which is rooted in the years long struggle against heavy industry and the ecological disaster that has resulted from it, always in the name of “green development”. The roots of this movement became apparent when it began to adopt en mass and for the first time confrontational tactics such as the unprecedented attack on the Reykjavik police headquarters by a crowd of 500 people as a response to the arrest of an anarchist.

The revolt reached its climax on the 20th and 21st of January 2009 when thousands of people gathered outside Parliament and prevented what would be Parliament’s first session for that year. The beginning of the end for that government was marked when a newly formed group of radical students, Oskra, broke the lines of the police in front of the Parliament. What followed was 48 hours of rage and fury with noise, fire and rocks. The Christmas tree was sacrificed at the fire and every single window of the parliament building was shattered. For the first time in 60 years teargas filled the air of Reykjavik. With the police reaching breaking point there remained only two options for the state: To call in the Danish army (Iceland’s former colonizer) who had been on hold for three months in the outer harbor of Reykjavik or to dissolve the government.

The case of the RV?9 is a clear case of political persecution. The CCTV evidence brought forward demonstrates beyond doubt that the violence was that of the police and the guards. The current ‘left-wing’ government took over power in May 2009 on the backs of the grass roots movements that toppled the last government. This government is not interfering in this case not because it lacks the political will but precisely because its political will is to criminalize the radical elements of the revolt having already co-opted the revolt itself and suppressed popular demands for retribution against the politicians and bankers responsible for the crisis, of whom NONE have yet been brought to justice! Just like in other European countries ‘socialism’ seems to be the most appropriate medium for the most vicious neoliberal restructuring of the economy, in Iceland the left-wing government with the blessings of sold-out labour unions and under strict supervision of the IMF, is the one that will execute the mass cut backs, the privatizations and the sell-off of natural resources for the further development of heavy industry. All this is taking place in the name of the “crisis” and in a climate of nationalism, neo-fascism and xenophobia that has resulted from it. Note that in the recent protests ‘against the crisis’ in Reykjavik in 2010 neo-nazi groups have suddenly emerged and participated! Luckily they were attacked by anarchist demonstrators.

The final hearing in the RVK9 case is taking place in Reykjavik city court on the 18th, 19th, and 20th of January 2011. An international week of actions in support if the RVK9 have been called for the week beforwe the trial, 12th – 16th of January.

For this small island state at the periphery of Europe, any negative attention from abroad deeply hurts the authorities, the elite and the corporate media. For this reason it is imperative that we give them all the negative attention they deserve so that the Icelandic authorities know that the world is watching them, so that they know that there will be serious consequences for them at the event of a conviction for the Reykjavik Nine!

We call for ALL kinds of solidarity actions to the Reykjavik Nine and against the Icelandic state!

SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON!

Please send pictures, statements, or other informations about actions to rvk9@riseup.net so that it can be reported on after.

A list of Icelandic embassies can be found by clicking here.

More information about the case can be found on this support site.

RVK9 in English on Twitter here.

The nine currently stand trial, accused of having attacked the parliament of Iceland on the 8th of December 2008 and threatened the independence of the parliament.

Read more about the case and the context around it in the brochure, which can be downloaded in PDF format here, or by clicking on the picture above.

Please mail, print and distribute as widely as possible.

Click here to visit the support site for the Reykjavík Nine.

The Struggle So Far
The campaign to defend Europe’s greatest remaining wilderness continues. For the past five years summer direct action camps in Iceland have targeted aluminium smelters, mega-dams and geothermal power plants.

After the terrible destruction as a result of building Europe’s largest dam at Kárahnjúkar and massive geothermal plants at Hengill, there is still time to crush the ‘master plan’ that would have each major glacial river dammed, every substantial geothermal field exploited and the construction of aluminium smelters, an oil refinery, data farms and silicon factories. This would not only destroy unique landscapes and ecosystems but also lead to a massive increase in Iceland’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Political Landscape
Saving Iceland has reintroduced civil disobedience and anarchist ideas into Icelandic grassroots and demonstrated numerous methods of direct action, many of which were utilized in a highly successful manner in the ‘Kitchen Utensils Uprising´ of last year, where experienced Saving Iceland activists constantly stood in the forefront pushing boundaries. Saving Iceland and our work throughout the years was a major catalyst in toppling the corrupt pro-heavy industry ‘Alcoa government’.

However, last year´s general elections were a major blow for the environmental movement in Iceland, with the ‘Left Greens’ booting their own minister of the environment out for being genuinely concerned about environmental values. The leader of the party denounced their own environmental policies for being too ‘puritanical’ to be applicable in such times of financial crisis. With this and the continuing of the People’s Alliance in government we are still looking at a heavily fortified pro-heavy industry government, doing away with any pretence of being green or even remotely progressive. On top of this, corrupt labour unions are firmly in the grip of the aluminium lobby calling for job growth regardless of the environmental costs.

The Situation Now
The deep financial and ethical crisis that hit Iceland in the autumn of 2008 caused the energy companies temporary difficulties in obtaining foreign loans for their projects, but the aluminium lobbyists are more bloody minded than ever. Now their argument is that with the economic collapse, Iceland can simply not afford to take note of environmental concerns. This actually exposes the underlying truth that the aluminium lobby have always been aware of the validity of the environmentalists point of view. The aluminium lobby want to further their horrors, on grounds of a crisis which they are largely responsible for having created.

The banking side of the crash tends to be overemphasized while other major drivers of the crash are often ignored. The report of the Special Investigation Commission (SIC), which looked into the events leading up to and causing the financial crash, has however focused on the effects of heavy industry in a key chapter of their report. The expansion of Iceland’s financial system beyond the country’s sustainable limits, is unequivocally traced back to the enormous projects of the heavy industry build-up. This chapter has been ignored by the media, and so has another chapter that stated the media’s own culpability as unquestioning servants of the bank and industrial establishments.

A fundamental problem with the SIC report and the general atmosphere of denial that greeted it is that the report comes from within the very heart of the rotten State of Iceland. As such its real function is to keep all the options for dealing with the huge amount of corruption and democracy deficit safely within the sphere of the courts and parliamentary politics: Firmly under the control of the very establishment that created all this power abuse in the first place.

In case of the financial frauds this will mean years of long, drawn-out court cases which will gradually loose all meaning to the public, which have been left to pay the massive debts generated by the frauds.

In case of the deep rooted culture of corruption and the climate of fear which the aluminium corporations and power companies so thrive in, the promises of transparency and democracy are nothing but a smokescreen for an even greater corporate plunder of the countries’ energy resources. This plunder, supported by restructuring obligations in loan agreements with the IMF, is a continuation of a deeply corrupt policy of privatisation and ruthless industrialisation, the very same policies that created the crisis.

Current action targets
The Century aluminium smelter in Helguvík, targeted by Saving Iceland last two summers, is still slowly being built. Where the electricity for the plant is to come from is still uncertain, but it will require up to eight new power plants, at least seven of which will be geothermal on the Reykjanes Peninsula (HS/MAGMA) and Hellisheiði (OR – Reykjavik Energy). One of the geothermal plants powering Century’s smelter could be in Bitra, close to Hengill, and the eighth power plant will probably be a large dam on the beautiful Þjórsá River that Landsvirkjun (National Power Company) is eager to build as soon as they can. Norðurþing is in negotiations with Alcoa about an aluminium smelter in Bakki/Húsavík with energy coming from fragile wilderness areas in the north. Platina Resources want to do gold and other mining research in the Eastfjords.

Take action!
This year, instead of organizing a summer protest camp, we call for resistance throughout the seasons. We especially call for Icelanders to take action all year round but also environmentalists worldwide to come to Iceland, where we will warmly welcome any kind of individual actions against the aluminium corporations and the energy companies active in destroying the environment.

Symbolic actions have turned out not to be enough to stop the forces of destruction. The aim of actions should be to prevent any further rape of the land. Saving Iceland gives its wholehearted solidarity to any actions that hit the aluminium industry and the power companies where its most effective.

Even if you can not come to Iceland to do direct actions your help to our struggle with solidarity actions, donations, translations and by spreading the word will be invaluable.

For information on targets read:

The Nature Killers

The Saving Iceland European Target Brochure

S.I. European Target Brochure Update

On Thursday, July 8th at about 12:30, 20 people went to the Icelandic consulate in Barcelona to show there outrage against the Icelandic state; for there existence and there heavy repression of the 9 people of Reykjavík because of their actions at the parliament December 8th 2008. If there were any kind of true democracy their demands would have been welcomed and allowed a space. But since obviously there can never be true state democracy, the peoples demands were repressed and silenced.

It is obvious that these actions by the state of Iceland are politically and ideologically motivated. Targeting specific people out of the thousands that protested, and even out of the people who entered the parliament this particular day. In these actions it is also obvious that the government is trying to set a precedent, to squash any future dissidence and outrage that could disrupt their status quo. The repressive measures even extended to the consulate, where it seems that they asked for assistance by the most aggressive riot police in Barcelona, the Mossos.

There were more than 20 Mossos in the entrance of the building and 4 riot vans were in the surrounding block. The building which houses the Icelandic consulate has many different offices and normally only has one guard. The consulate is on the 8th floor of this building. When we arrived we were told we would not be allowed inside this building as a group, and that only one person could come inside to talk to someone that was not from the parliament itself, but a director of the building. During the demonstration, other people continuously walked inside and out from the building. When we got there, the police had told us that the consulate was closed and that some director from the building would come down to hear our demands and relay them to the consulate. After this, two people left to call the consulate, who answered the phone and had said that they were open. Then we tried to call and hand the phone to the policeman but he would not accept and kept with his position of them being closed.

We demonstrated in the streets for a little over an hour, with banners saying in Catalan, “Stop the repression against the activists in Iceland!” and “If the Reykjavik 9 fall, so will the Icelandic state!” We passed out leaflets about the repression and situation in Iceland from last winter, banged pots and pans, and shouted slogans in support of the Reykjavik 9 and anti capitalist chants. These continued repressive measures to blockade the entrance to this place that is legal to enter any other time – just like the parliament in December of 2008 – show once again that the Icelandic state will take all measures to keep their status quo, and suspend all civil rights that are even left under their state apparatus.

But what they don’t realize is that the struggle will not die, it will only strengthen. And that the Reykjavik 9 are not alone in this struggle. Your struggle is our struggle! No political prisoners! All political prisoners must be set free!

From Barcelona: Complete solidarity with the Reykjavik 9!

Early in the morning of Wednesday the 16th of december the Icelandic embassy in Copenhagen was attacked. A security camera was disabled with spray paint, the Icelandic coat of arms was defaced in the same way, green paint was splashed on the front of the house and on the front door, in large letters, “Green energy – pure lies” and “Nature Killers” was sprayed amongst other thing’s.

The Icelandic government boasts of it’s prowess in the production of “green” energy but there is no such thing as green energy, especially if it is then used for heavy industry. “Green” energy production is just as destructive to our environment as other energy production, the effects are just better hidden. The earth’s ecosystems are suffering because of mankinds actions, this must end.

Copenhagen is covered in propaganda about “green” solution’s and “green” capitalism. But no real change is planned, the solutions are not real solutions, capitalism continues to swallow all life on this earth.

It is clear from the appearance of Copenhagen that green is not the colour of nature, it is the camouflage of capitalism.

Icelander’s beware – your misdeeds will not go unpunished!

This is not for the first time when Iceland’s embassy in Copenhagen is attacked in this way. The 8th of August 2007, the embassy was attacked with paint bombs and the statements ‘Aluminium Industry out of Iceland’ and ‘Nature Killers’ were painted in bright red. A statement that followed that action said:

These actions, in solidarity with the struggle in Iceland, will continue until the government of Iceland ceases its sycophancy to multinational aluminium corporations.

A group named Illgresi (Weeds) sent out a press release this morning, claiming responsibility for the action, saying:

On the 22nd of June 2009the bio-medical company ORF got permission for experimental planting of GMO medicinal barley in Gunnarsholt, Rángárvallarsýslu. These experiment´s would have paved the way for general planting of genetically modified plants in Iceland. All voices of criticism, both institutions and individuals are made suspect and the little media coverage has been homogeneous and in favour of ORF. Today this permission was revoked. The reasons are amongst others:

• Lack of Democratic discussion on the issue

• Corruption in research and authorization

• The danger these experiments bring to the environment and animals

Our supervisors laid waste to ORF´s fields in Gunnarsholt. From now on genetic modifications will not take place in Iceland without our interference.

Live Iceland!

Regards,
Illgresi (Weeds)

Doubts about the time of the action – and even the action itself
An independent photographer, Helgi J. Hauksson has shown photos from the field, which he took August 11th and show how “badly treated” the field was. Helgi brings out the question if no one from the company has actually been there since the seeds were laid early this spring. He decided to come later to see if this was actually the case, so he came back on August 16th and took photos that show the field completely trashed.

So it seems like the sabotage did not take place yesterday morning but at least 3 or 4 days ago, if not earlier. The company seems not to have realized it until the press release was sent out, then gone to the field and seen what had happened.

In an internet discussion on the anarchist website Aftaka and other sites, some people have brought up the idea that the sabotage was not done by people opposed to the project, but instead the company itself. People have asked if the company might have had some insurance problems, become broke and needed some victimization in the media. Hopefully not!

Helgi’s photos can be seen by clicking here.

After a brutal arrest of 5 people during a Saving Iceland protest today (read about it with clicking here), around thirty people gathered by the police station in Reykjavík to protest against the arrest of their comrades and the police violence. During the noise demonstration, two more people were arrested after trying to blockade the fence of the parking lot by the station. According to witnesses, one of them was seriously injured by the police who beat him to blood.

We have received no proper photos yet, but hope to be able to put them on the website as soon as possible, as well as more information.