Saving Iceland

We just received this letter from Saving Iceland Supporters in Switzerland:

On 23 July we returned to the European Headquarters of ALCOA in Geneva, Avenue G. Motta 31, to stage a protest for the international Action Week in solidarity with the Saving Iceland campaign. Our aim was to put pressure on Alcoa and show support for the activists at the summer action camp in Iceland.

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PROTESTS AGAINST LANDSVIRKJUN’S PLANNED DAMS IN ÞJÓRSÁ RIVER AND THE CONNECTION BETWEEN LANDSVIRKJUN AND ALCOA

REYKJAVÍK  – Today 30 activists from the international campaign Saving Iceland have invaded the Landsvirkjun (national power company) building (Háaleitisbraut 68) to disrupt work. Earlier this morning Saving Iceland activists dammed the house of Landsvirkjun director Friðrik Sophusson and nailed an eviction notice to his door.

“We oppose Landsvirkjun’s intentions to build the four Þjórsá and Tungnaá dams for Rio Tinto at Straumsvik (1,2), despite the referendum. They are also negotiating to dam Skjálfandafljót and Jökuslá á Fjöllum for ALCOA’s planned Bakki smelter (3,4). This is on top of the mess they are making of Þeistareykir (5) and the deep drilling into Mount Krafla, right next to the tourist attraction. LV are doing this for a company that is a self-admitted arms dealer (6) and has been in the news again and again for it’s gross abuse of human rights. (7) This company should not be welcomed by Landsvirkjun,” says Jaap Krater from Saving Iceland.

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We just received a letter from our great friends in Italy who decided to join the fight against heavy industry. Their target was Impregilo which is ,,an old well-known leader in capitalist destruction of earth”. Impregilo is a Italian company who took part in the destruction of the Kárahnjúkar area in the east of Iceland, when a huge dam was built to power an Alcoa’s aluminium smelter in Reyðarfjörður.

Monday July 21st, a demonstration took place in front of the Icelandic embassy in Rome and the next day, two protests happened by the headquarters of Impregilo in Sesto San Giovanni near Milan and by the Icelandic Consulate in Milan. Read More

GRUNDARTANGI – A short while ago 20 activists from Saving Iceland blockaded the single supply road to Century Aluminum’s smelter on Hvalfjordur and Elkem – Icelandic Alloys steel factory. They have chained themselves to each other using arm tubes to form a human blockade as well as using tripod for the first time in Icelandic history. “We protest the environmental and human health hazards Century’s bauxite mining and refining activities in Jamaica, their plans for a new smelter and refinery in West Congo. Both Century’s and Elkem’s expansion plans will also mean destruction of unique geothermal areas in Iceland and produce large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions,” says Miriam Rose of Saving Iceland (1).

UPDATE: The blockade went on for three hours. Nobody was arrested. Read More

HELGUVIK (ICELAND) – Early this morning activists from over 10 countries occupied the construction site where California-based Century Aluminum are constructing a new aluminium smelter, and chained themselves to machinery. The protest by the campaign Saving Iceland is aimed at damage to geothermal areas in southwest Iceland and Century’s environmental and human rights abuses in Jamaica and Africa.

As well as Century, other aluminium corporations ALCOA and Rio Tinto-Alcan want to construct new smelters. This would require exploitation of all the geothermal areas in the country, as well as damming all major glacial rivers (1).

Impact assessment: ’pollution will just blow away’
The construction of Century’s Helguvík plant depends on the expansion of geothermal power plants east of Reykjavik (Hellisheiði) and on the Reykjanes peninsula southwest of Reykjavik (2). Construction of the smelter began in June, without a valid environmental impact assessment. There is also no guarantee of sufficient energy (435 MW) for the smelter (3).
The environmental impact assessment for the Helguvik smelter was produced by the construction engineers HRV, who have designed smelters for ALCOA and Century (4). Read More

During our protest camp this summer, that starts 12th of July, a week of international solidarity actions will take place from July 21st to 27th.
People who can not come to the camp but want to support the resistance against heavy industry in Iceland, should take a look at Saving Iceland’s target brochure (which can be found here) and use their imagination. Read More

By Snorri Páll Jónsson Úlfhildarson, originally published in Morgunblaðið

Last Sunday, an anonymous journalist from Morgunblaðið wrote about Saving Iceland under the title “Action Groups and Cells”. He talked about Saving Iceland’s upcoming action camp in Hellisheiði and brougth forward a list of actions that people could anticipate from those attending the camp this summer, i.e. “try to get the police into a fight, chain themselves to whatever is near to them, do minimum sabotage, disturb companies’ legal operations or public traffic”. According to him, this kind of behaviour has characterized Saving Iceland’s activities for the last years.

We at Saving Iceland, use direct action and civil disobedience in our actions against capitalism in the form of Iceland’s heavy industrialization – and we do not deny that. Although we do not chain ourselves to whatever is around us, but to machinery, machinery which is being used to destroy the nature. Thus we stop the destruction for some limited time. One does not lock lock on to a huge machine “just because” – one does it because of ideals and with a spirit of resistance. Read More

The 4th Saving Iceland action camp has now begun in a beautiful threatened geothermal valley beside Hellisheiðisvirkjun in the Hengill area, where it will target the expansion of the geothermal power station for the Grundartangi plant and other Southwestern heavy industry projects. (1)
This year activists from Iceland, Australia, America, Denmark, Germany, Britain, Holland, France, Belgium and Italy amongst others have joined the campaign as information about the destruction of Iceland’s wilderness has spread. This year the campaign will focus specifically on the humanitarian effects of aluminium production, from the genocides associated with mining in India, South America, Jamaica and more, to the use of aluminium for arms manufacture and the defence industry (2). Read More

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Food Not Bombs in Reykjavik

The G8 summit will be held from July 7 to 9 of this year, at Toya-ko lake in Hokkaido (Japan). In solidarity with the worldwide plan of actions held against the kind of globalization promoted by G8 and the repression of Japanese police against activists, an action also took place in Reykjavik yesterday. Beginning a few months ago, the energetic and enthusiastic Icelandic Food Not Bombs group has been serving food for free every Saturday in the center of Reykjavik.This is definetely a succesful activity where not only the homeless people from Reykjavik, but also the Saturday afternooon shoppers, passersby and promenading tourists find their way to a healthy vegan lunch, prepared with ingredients which are not any longer considered as worthy for consumption by our throw-it-away society. Read More

The struggle by the riverine fishworkers affected by the Upper Wardha dam in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra has reached a peak once again with five representatives of the fish workers having begun their indefinite fast since July 1st, to assert their rights to the reservoir, while five more have joined them since yesterday, July 3rd, in front of the SDO Office, at Tehsil Morshi Amaravati Dist.

The reservoir of Upper Wardha dam (known as the Nal Damayanti Sagar) in Amravati district has affected about three thousand families of farmers and fish workers. However, no rehabilitation, except meager cash compensation came their way, even in 1980’s. While the farmers have had to continue to seek their entitlements till date, through a torturous process, it is also striking that the waters of the reservoir are diverted to industrial complexes and cities, instead of public purpose and irrigation, planned and promised.

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