Saving Iceland
June 2008

The Left-Green Party demanded in parliament in April that the Minister of Justice, Bjorn Bjarnason, should write a detailed report of all actions of the Icelandic police against Saving Iceland activists during the years of 2005, 2006 and 2007.

This report is due now. Saving Iceland will be reporting on further developments in this case. Below is the demand in English.

A talk which opened a panel discussion at the 'Reykjavikur Akademia' with the topic 'What are the Fundamental Values of Society' 20 November 2007. Panelists included Reykjavik Chief of Police Stefán Eiríksson, historian and Left Green MP Guðfríður Lilja Grétarsdóttir and philosopher Viðar Thorsteinsson.

Erindið í íslenskri þýðingu.

For those of you who don´t already know me, my name is Miriam Rose, and I am an activist and environmental scientist from the UK. I have been asked to speak today on my experience of the basic values of Icelandic society, based on an interview I did on Kastljos in October, after I was threatened with deportation from Iceland for my part in actions against the heavy industry policy of your government. The letter of requested deportation which I received explained that I may be expelled from Iceland for a minimum of three years as my behavior constitutes a 'threat to the fundamental values of society'.

This declaration was made in consensus by dozens of people attending the first Saving Iceland conference, 'Global Consequences of Heavy Industry and Large Dams' on July 7-8, 2007. [Video report part 1 | 2]
Photo gallery of the conference.

We are gathered in Olfus, Iceland, we are people from more than fifteen different countries and five continents. We are here to share our experiences of heavy industry, dams, transnational companies and other expressions of globalisation, in Iceland, in Brazil, in South Africa, in Denmark, in Canada, in England, Germany, India, Trinidad and Tobago and many other countries.
We are not professional protestors. Unlike the well-paid corporate lobbyists and spindoctors that try to sell you heavy industry, none of us gets payed to be here. We are ordinary people, we are teachers, nurses, youth workers, students, shopworkers, fathers, mothers. We are here because we care. The Icelandic wilderness is unique. It is the largest in Europe and one of the few wild places left on this continent. It’s beauty and uniqueness and fire and ice are a heritage we must preserve and must defend. It is the heritage and responsibility and privilege of all Icelanders, and all Europeans, and all humans...

"Furðulegt háttalag Ríkissjónvarpsins þarfnast frekari skýringa svo ekki sé meira sagt."

Sindri Freyr Steinsson
Verðandi
Ág. - Sept. 2007

Flestir landsmenn hafa frétt sitthvað af aðgerðum samtakanna Saving Iceland. Í umfjöllunum um samtökin ber orðið atvinnumótmælandi oft á góma. En er það í raun svo að fólk fái borgað fyrir að mótmæla og láta handtaka sig?

Menningarblað/Lesbók
Laugardaginn 4. ágúst, 2007

Nennir þetta fólk ekki að vinna?! "Þegar umræðan um atvinnumótmælendur er skoðuð kemur fljótt í ljós þversögn því að á sama tíma og forskeytið atvinna er notað í niðrandi tón um mótmælendurna eru þeir sífellt sakaðir um að nenna ekki að leggja stund á atvinnu."

Var uppspunnin auglýsing eftir atvinnumótmælendum heimildin á bak við frétt ríkissjónvarpsins um að atvinnumótmælendur fái greitt fyrir störf sín? Einn af höfundum auglýsingarinnar spyr í eftirfarandi grein og veltir fyrir sér viðhorfum til mótmælenda.

'Power Driven' appeared in The Guardian Weekend in late 2003 and rocked Icelandic complacency. Still the best main stream analysis of the issues at stake and an excellent overview of the social background.

The Guardian
Saturday November 29, 2003

In Iceland, work has already begun on a colossal $1bn dam which, when it opens in 2007, will cover a highland wilderness - and all to drive one US smelter. Environmentalists are furious, but the government appears determined to push through the project, whatever the cost. Susan DeMuth investigates.

Serves as a good update of the 'Power Driven' article in the Guardian.

SchNews.org.uk
Fri 25th Feb 2005
Issue 486

Super-cool Iceland, the eco-tourist’s wet dream, right? Maybe not for much longer if the Icelandic government has its way.

'Damned Nation' is very good on the spiel behind the Karahnjukar project and Alcoa.

The Ecologist
v.33, n.10, 1. Jan 2004

Costing over $1 billion, the Karahnjukar hydroelectric dam in Iceland is a hugely controversial project. Mark Lynas journeyed to the blasting face, hoping to work out for himself whether this industrial elephant is green or brilliant-white.

Ethical Consumer.org
September/October 2002

Scott Clouder profiles the company that links BacoFoil with the US treasury secretary, a Mexican sweatshop and an Icelandic wilderness.

Gagnauga.net
11. janúar 2005

Ef útlendingur vill vinna á Íslandi þarf hann að uppfylla ýmis ströng skilyrði Útlendingastofnunar. En hvað ef þessi útlendingur er fyrirtæki? Er eðlilegt að stjórnvöld geri samninga við fyrirtæki og veiti þeim starfsleyfi án þess að taka nokkuð tillit til spillingarsögu þess? Eru virkilega engin takmörk fyrir því hvað hvað fyrirtæki mega hafa á samviskunni þegar þau koma inní landið?

Morgunblaðið 26. júlí 2004

Bechtel nefnist fyrirtæki sem nú vinnur að byggingu fyrirhugaðs álvers Alcoa í Reyðarfirði. Það var stofnað árið 1898, á höfuðstöðvar í San Francisco en vinnur að ýmsum byggingaframkvæmdum um heim allan. Þegar fyrsta skóflustungan að fyrirhuguðu álveri í Reyðarfirði var tekin þann 8. júlí stóð Náttúruvaktin, baráttuhópur fyrir náttúruvernd og virkara lýðræði, fyrir mótmælum. Fréttatilkynning frá samtökunum bergmálaði ásakanir erlendra mannréttindasamtaka og fjölmiðla á hendur Bechtel. Í fréttum Stöðvar 2 af skóflustungunni vildi talsmaður fyrirtækisins ekki svara þessum ásökunum.

The Independent on Sunday
Feb 16, 2003

Senior executives at one of the world's richest conservation groups, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), are at loggerheads over a corporate sponsorship deal that will affect the fate of three species of goose. The dispute involves plans for a major dam being built by Alcoa, an aluminium giant with unusually close ties to WWF's American arm.

From the Icelandic Society for the Protection of Birds

Grapevine.is
August 2004 with update Jan. 2006

In the 1930s, dust storms swept the southern plains of the United States. The “Black Blizzards,” as they were called, had come about because of overfarming, which had caused the topsoil to wear thin and become dust. Crops failed, and as the banks that held the mortgages realised they would not be getting returns on their interest, farmers were run off of their land. Their plight is immortalised in the songs of Woody Guthrie and John Steinbeck’s book “The Grapes of Wrath”, which went on to become a Hollywood film starring Henry Fonda as Steinbeck´s protagonist Tom Joad.

Prepared for the Iceland Nature Conservation Association
Thorsteinn Siglaugsson MBA
Reykjavik 2002

Extract