Sólveig Anna: „We will find that we ourselves can change what needs to be changed“

Followinga surveyby Varða on the conditions of Icelandic labor during the pandemic last weekwroteSólveig Anna Jónsdóttir, chairperson of Efling, in Kjarninn that the shocking results came as no surprise, being a direct consequence of the ruling class's cruelty towards wage earners. The survey reveals that a quarter of the workforce finds it rather difficult or difficult to make ends meet, and nearly 30% of women are in that situation. Furthermore, over 50% of those without work find it difficult to meet their monthly expenses, and many of them rely on food aid from charities. Nearly 35% of immigrants find it difficult to pay all necessary bills and are even more likely to have to rely on food aid.

Sólveig also points out the consequences that this situation has on people's health. That it exposes the societal shame that a group of people cannot afford to seek medical help. „It also states,“ Sólveig writes, „that a group of us who work do not take summer holidays, but rather sell access to our labor when we should be resting and enjoying life. I knew this was the case, I was in this situation myself, but I feel sadness seeing that all the great struggle of those who came before us to ensure that the right to rest and recovery was everyone's right, has, after years of neoliberal attacks on working people, deteriorated with such miserable consequences. Far too large a portion of us live in absurd economic conditions. Nothing can go wrong. And this has been the case for a long time; the situation was shameful long before the pandemic disrupted life here.“

Sólveig points out that before the pandemic hit, it was already clear that the life expectancy of uneducated women has shortened annually since 2014, and that this fact has had little to no impact on public discourse. „Since 2015, immigrant workers have had to endure a labor market where wage theft has increased year by year, but the government and employer representatives systematically obstruct efforts to eradicate this shame. The list goes on; here unmentioned is the shame of the profit-driven housing market in our society, where 5000 – 7000 people live in unacceptable conditions in industrial premises, which are priced like luxury goods.“

„These difficulties, caused by systemic injustice, have led us, who belong to the working and low-wage class, to repeatedly ask ourselves and each other in recent years: How much class division are we willing to accept? How ready are we to bear all the burdens that people living the good life place on our shoulders? And we have repeatedly answered loud and clear: It is long past enough. That is why we have fought many battles. Working and low-wage people have led the struggle of wage earners for economic justice in this country.“

She points out that Efling members have repeatedly gone on strike to demand higher wages, better conditions, and respect, stepping forward to share their circumstances and the consequences that the coordinated low-wage policy of Iceland's exploiters has on their lives and existence. „We have shown courage and determined fighting spirit. And first and foremost, a deep and heartfelt desire to take the struggle into our own hands, to fight the battle on our own terms. To no longer be subservient to orders from those who deem themselves fit to tell us what to do. Our struggle has been about economic justice, but it has also been about our own self-determination.“

The ordeal that a large portion of working and low-wage people are currently going through is, in Sólveig's opinion, being left to suffer in poverty. That those who bear the responsibility delve even further into identity politics where self-worship has taken over, where the dream of equality among people is long dead, where it matters more to talk about who has climbed mountains, who has stopped getting drunk, who has visited the most foreign countries, who is the biggest mainstream feminist, rather than unequivocally standing with the victims of the class-divided society and using power to make their lives better. She says this is a fact that cannot be denied.

Regarding the results of Varða's research, Sólveig is not optimistic that it will be met with effective measures:

„The political ruling class will act as if the research was never conducted, I can promise you that. In the nationalistic-romantic phase of identity politics that it has now entered, it is precisely not unlikely that a so-called dialogue will be offered about the conditions of those who struggle to get by, those who end up in food distribution queues of charities when unemployment hits, those who cannot afford to go to the doctor, those who suffer mentally due to the icy shadow of financial worries. The economic ruling class, on the other hand, will examine the results, but not with the aim of learning from them and re-evaluating its stance on the existence of the workforce.

Sólveig's prediction goes even further: „I promise you that the number crunchers at the Chamber of Commerce and the Confederation of Icelandic Enterprise (SA) are now pondering how to claim that those who answered the survey are simply lying, but that has been the reaction of the million-kroner people there to literally all the facts that Efling has presented in the union's struggle for economic justice for its members. And once the tone of lies has been set by SA and the Chamber of Commerce, it will be echoed in the media of the wealthy.“

She asserts that it is up to wage earners and their advocates what will be done about the issues.

„We can do what the rulers of this country expect; nod sadly, „how terribly tragic,“ and wait for someone to do something, wait until we die for someone to deign to do something. Or we can let these results do what they are supposed to do; we can let them fuel our aversion and disgust for the cruel and repulsive class division that has been allowed to entrench itself in this wealthy and sparsely populated society, this „welfare society,“ this „enlightened and educated egalitarian society;“ we can allow them to fuel our anger over the disgusting disrespect shown to us again and again and again; working and low-wage people are supposed to work and shut up, pay taxes and shut up, become unemployed and shut up, struggle in a profit-driven housing market and shut up, see their children become cheap labor and shut up, and so on and so forth; we can allow the research results to fuel our fighting spirit and rebellious spirit, we can allow them to become a weapon in the battle we intend to fight again and again, until we ourselves have gained the power we need to change this utterly sick nonsense that is allowed to persist here; billions flow from the state treasury, the billions that are there because of our work flow to Icelandic billionaires who have exploited us, while we ourselves are supposed to settle for eating crumbs from the hands of those who deem themselves fit to control our existence.“

She urges working and low-wage people to reflect on their situation and how it is that the people who drive economic growth with their labor and indispensable staff in care professions are still doing so poorly. „How did it happen that no economic policymaker believes they need to address us, our families, our colleagues? How did it happen that our interests, which should be paramount, are so far down the rulers' priority list for advocacy that it never comes to us? How did it happen that we are condemned to bear the heaviest burdens, in booms and crises, while the rich continue to get richer? And are we going to let this nonsense continue?“

She further urges working and low-wage people to reflect on their situation. „We have sweated for economic growth. We have kept the basic systems of society running with our work. We are the ones who suffer in unemployment. We are the ones who are supposed to survive on amounts that are impossible to survive on. We are the ones who risk losing our health due to the economic conditions we are forced to live under. Now that the hustle and bustle in the arena of representative democracy is increasing in the run-up to elections, I urge us to reflect on our situation and powerlessness, to listen, think, and assess the situation. And I sincerely hope that representatives from our group, representatives of us who do the work, who know the struggles of scarcity, decide to seek power in this country we build, so that our voices and demands can be heard loud and clear, so loud and clear that they drown out the empty chatter of those who will do nothing to improve the conditions of us and our people.“

She concludes her article by saying that times have been difficult for a long time and that wage earners have been made to accept the unacceptable. „We have been led to believe that nothing else is available. But if we stand together and rise up, united, we will find that nothing could be further from the truth. We will find that we ourselves can change what needs to be changed, so that working and low-wage people are no longer powerless objects of economic politics, no longer victims of economic injustice, but proud agents in shaping a society based on justice and fairness. Surely we are not going to tolerate that the next survey conducted on the status of the workforce reveals the same abhorrence as is now clear to everyone?“