Saving Iceland

Iceland’s current government, formed by the Left-Green Party (Vinstri Grænir) and the Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin), has approved draft of a law by Össur Skarphéðinsson, minister of industry. The draft permits the government’s contract with Century Aluminum and Norðurál Helguvík about the construction of an aluminium smelter in Helguvík.

The contract includes several versions of a “special treatment” that Norðurál will get from the government and has e.g. to do with the amount of taxes that the company will pay. The contract puts Norðurál in a different and higher position that other companies in Iceland, apart from Alcoa’s aluminium smelter in Reyðarfjörður and Century’s smelter in Grundartangi. Read More

Iceland’s new minister of environment and a Left Green MP, Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir has announced that one of here first jobs in the government will be to protect the Þjórsárver wetlands. At the same time she has said that Norðurál’s (Century Aluminum) plans for a new aluminium smelter in Helguvík, can most likely not be stopped by any future government. While in opposition, the Left Greens always spoke against the construction in Helguvík.

Þjórsárver are a unique ecosystem characterized by tundra meadows intersected with numerous glacial and spring-fed streams, a large number of pools, ponds, lakes and marshes, and rare permafrost mounds. Iceland’s national energy company, Landsvirkjun wanted to build a 30 meters high dam in the area, creating a 65 km2 big reservoir. The energy was supposed to run the enlargement of Rio Tinto Alcan’s aluminium smelter in Hafnarfjörður, a plan that the majority of the town’s population voted against in a local referendum in 2007. Later Landsvirkjun proposed to lower the planned dam down to 24 meters. Halldórsdóttir’s decision about the protection of Þjórsárver is very important and a big victory for the Icelandic environmental movement.

Iceland’s new minority government, formed by Samfylkingin (the Social Democratic Alliance) and Vinstri Grænir (VG – The Left Greens), has released it’s policy statement for the upcoming 80 days until parliamentary elections will take place in the end of April. The statement states e.g. that “no new plans for aluminium smelters are on the government’s list.” Still Össur Skarphéðinsson, a Samfylkingin MP and the minister of industry since 2007, has said that both Norðurál’s planned 360 thousand ton smelter in Helguvík and Alcoa’s planned smelter in Bakki, Húsavík, do not fall under this statement. Read More

Three days ago, 10 thousand people, a majority of them tribal, formed a 17 km long human chain around the Niyamgrii mountains in Orissa, India. The people were protesting the plans of Vedanta, a British mining company, to start bauxite mining the mountains. Bauxite is the most important raw material for aluminum production and last year the Supreme Court said two of the planned mining projects could go ahead.

The protest was the second large-scale demonstration in ten days: on 17 January up to 7,000 protesters marched to the gates of Vedanta’s aluminium refinery in the nearby town of Lanjigarh.

 

“The ruling meant that an arm of the British-listed mining giant Vedanta could use bauxite from a mountain in Orissa which local hill tribes view as sacred,” says on BBC News and continues: Read More

A letter from Icelandic anarchists who have taken part in the revolt against the recently collapsed government. The article originally appeared on Aftaka.org, an Icelandic anarchist website.

The Icelandic Government has collapsed and some people talk about a revolution. In a way it is true. Ordinary people overthrew this neoliberal government by writing articles, holding speeches, noise demonstrations, bonfires, car horns, direct action, civil disobedience and minor sabotage. A nation that before had hardly put up any resistance to abuse of power for a long time, finally stood up and said: “No thanks! No more shit!”

But what will follow? Have we reached the ultimate goal? Is the minority government of the Left Greens (Vinstri Grænir) and the Social Democratic Alliance (Samfylkingin) enough? Are we just going to settle for new elections this spring?

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Þeistareykir ehf. and Landsvirkjun (Iceland’s national energy company) have now started discussions with the Norwegian aluminium producer Norsk Hydro about the purchase of geothermal energy from Þingeyjasýsla, north Iceland. The energy was supposed to run Alcoa’s planned aluminium smelter in Bakki, Húsavík.

The memorandum of understanding between Þeistareykir, Landsvirkjun and Alcoa because of the aluminium smelter in Bakki, ran out on November 1st 2008 and was not renewed. One of the reasons was said to be the uncertainty on the Icelandic financial markets. Tómas Már Sigurðsson, Alcoa’s director in Iceland, says that decisions about electricity purchase depends on the market situation and hopes that it will get better in the next 12 months.
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Today the Icelandic government collapsed. Geir H. Haarde, Iceland’s former prime minister announced early today after a row of government meetings. Yesterday, Björgvin G. Sigurðsson, the minister of commerce, announced that he would finally take on his responsibility for the financial collapse, resign and fire the directors of the Financial Supervisory Authority (FMA).

Since the collapse of the Icelandic economy in October 2008, the current Icelandic government formed by Samfylkingin (Social Democrat Alliance) and Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn (neoliberal conservatives), has been under heavy pressure. Every Saturday for 16 weeks people have gathered by the parliament and demanded that the government will resign, the boards of the Financial Supervisory Authority and the Central Bank will be fired, that elections will take place as soon as possible and that the corruption in  the power base and financial sector be curtailed. Read More

On January 6th, more than 50 protesters stopped Vedanta, a British mining company from entering the land of the Dongria Kondh and other Kondh tribes in the state of Orissa in India. Vedanta plans to mine bauxite in the Dongria Kondh’s sacred mountains, destroying the forests – the tribe’s livelihood.

Survival International says:

Last night’s action follows high level meetings at the weekend between Vedanta’s billionaire chairman Anil Agarwal and Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who backs the mine. After the meeting, Agarwal told journalists that mining would start ‘within a month or two’. Read More

The directors of Reykjavík Energy (OR) and Hitaveita Suðurnesja (HS) have both said that the companies are not able to supply all the necessary energy that Century Aluminium needs fo it’s planned aluminium smelter in Helguvík, in the next 7 years, even though 6 new power plants would be built. At least 200 MW would be needed, which is the amount of energy that could be produced by building power plants in Bitra (geothermal field) and in Urriðafoss waterfall (in Þjórsá river).

Össur Skarphéðinsson, minister of industry has on behalf of the Icelandic government, given Norðurál (Century Aluminium) the permission to build up to 360 thousand ton aluminium smelter in Helguvík, which would produce double the amount Rio Tinto Alcan’s smelter in Hafnarfjörður produces. But where does all the necessary energy – 625 MW – come from?

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Alcoa recently reported its fourth quarter 2008 results which e.g. stated that the company lost 929 million US dollars during this period. Aluminium’s global price sank 35% during the fourth quarter and 56% since only July 2008. The demand for aluminium has dropped heavily.

“We are taking wide-ranging measures to address the economic downturn,” said Klaus Kleinfeld, President and CEO of Alcoa. “We have streamlined our portfolio to focus on businesses where Alcoa is the recognized leader, curtailed production to adjust to weakened demand, reduced global headcount, and achieved significant savings in key raw materials.”

According to Aloca’s press release aluminium production will be cut down by 750 thousand tons per year, which is c.a. 18% of the global production. 13,500 workers will lose their jobs (13% of the company’s workforce), salary will be frozen and no new employees will be hired for a limited time. Four company’s owned by Alcoa, that do not work inside aluminium production will be sold and investment costs will be lowered. The press release also states that Alcoa will use new ways to get raw materials.

Alcoa’s directors in Iceland say that these measures will not affect the production and work here in Iceland.

From Aftaka.org – On December 31st, we witnessed a unique action here in Iceland. Obviously it was not the all time climax in the history of Icelandic resistance compared e.g. to the 1949 riot, when Iceland joined NATO and people put up heavy resistance in Reykjavík. But first and all, it was a symbol for the waking up which is taking place in the Icelandic society – society that before was completely apathetic. And the action worked out perfectly in that we managed to do what we wanted, to disrupt and stop the TV transmission.

Hundreds of people had gathered by the government’s office, where flares were lit and people marched to Austurvöllur, the square in front of the parliament. The group then gathered by a statue of Jón Sigurðsson, Iceland’s so called independence hero. In few minutes a live TV program called Kryddsílsd, would take place. The program is an annual show where the ministers of the government and the heads of the political parties come together to drink themselves tipsy and talk about the political year that is about to end. Read More