Skyr Thrown in the Heavy Industry Parties’ Election Offices

April 20 2009
Today, green ’skyr’ (tra­di­tion­al Ice­landic dairy prod­uct) was thrown at the elec­tion offices of three polit­i­cal par­ties, which are respon­si­ble for the inva­sion of the alu­mini­um indus­try into Ice­land. Skyr throw­ing is the Ice­landic equiv­a­lent of pie throw­ing and has become a tra­di­tion in the envi­ron­men­tal strug­gle; the last sim­i­lar action took place only one and a half month ago.

At 11:00 this morn­ing, peo­ple rushed into an office of Sam­fylkingin (the Social Demo­c­ra­t­ic Alliance) in Haf­nar­fjörður, and threw the green liq­uid over the party’s pro­pa­gan­da, fur­ni­ture and the floor. At a sim­i­lar time Fram­sók­narflokkurinn (right wing) was tar­get­ed in Kópavogur. The win­dows of the elec­tion office were com­plete­ly cov­ered in green liq­uid, as well as adver­tise­ment signs out­side the build­ing.

Two hours lat­er, green ’skyr’ was thrown inside an office of Sjálf­stæð­is­flokkurinn (right wing con­ser­v­a­tives) close to the cen­ter of Reyk­javík. The whole office was cov­ered; fur­ni­ture, floors and pro­pa­gan­da.

Skyr Why these tar­gets?
The tar­gets are all under­stand­able, since these three par­ties share the respon­si­bil­i­ty for the envi­ron­men­tal and eco­nom­i­cal cri­sis Ice­land is now fac­ing.

Rio Tin­to-Alcan oper­ates an alu­mini­um smelter in Haf­nar­fjörður and has want­ed to enlarge it for sev­er­al years. In a local ref­er­en­dum the major­i­ty of Haf­nar­fjörður inhab­i­tants vot­ed against the enlarge­ment. But since then, RT-Alcan and the city coun­cil, lead by Sam­fylkingin, have tried to force the enlarge­ment through, e.g. by claim­ing that the referendum’s issue was not the enlarge­ment of the smelter, but only city plan­ning. In con­tin­u­a­tion they have sug­gest­ed that the smelter will be enlarged in the oppo­site direc­tion; on a land­fill in the sea. The ener­gy need­ed for the increased pro­duc­tion is sup­posed to come from Þjórsá and Tung­naá Rivers in the south of Ice­land, where there is fierce local oppo­si­tion to fur­ther dams.

Sjálf­stæð­is­flokkurinn was in gov­ern­ment for 17 years, until angry Ice­landers rushed onto the streets of Reyk­javík last Jan­u­ary, protest­ed and in the end top­pled the gov­ern­ment. Dur­ing these years, Sjálf­stæð­is­flokkurinn invit­ed the alu­mini­um indus­try to Ice­land, promis­ing “min­i­mal envi­ron­men­tal red tape” and cheap ener­gy. To ful­fill the party’s mas­ter plan, every major glacial riv­er in Ice­land would have to be dammed, as well as every active geot­her­mal zone.

Skyr­Fram­sók­narflokkurinn formed the oth­er half of the first cor­rupt heavy indus­try coali­tion, hold­ing the min­istries of envi­ron­ment and indus­try. Now, when in par­lia­men­tary oppo­si­tion, the par­ty speaks and behaves like it had noth­ing to do with the eco­nom­ic col­lapse last fall. One of its main aims for the upcom­ing elec­tions is (just like Sjálf­stæð­is­flokkurinn) the con­tin­u­a­tion of the alu­mini­um industry’s inva­sion.

Not for the first time
This is the sec­ond time in a short time peri­od when green skyr is thrown in Ice­land. Ear­ly in March this year, three peo­ple attacked the ener­gy com­pa­nies, while their rep­re­sen­ta­tives took part in green-wash­ing days inside the Uni­ver­si­ty of Ice­land. Read more about it here.

Clean­ing June 14th 2005, green skyr was thrown in an inter­na­tion­al alu­mini­um con­fer­ence in Reyk­javík. This was one of the first Sav­ing Ice­land actions as well as one of the first direct actions tak­en against the government’s heavy indus­try pol­i­cy. Read more here.

The tra­di­tion of throw­ing skyr as a protest orig­i­nates from a mil­i­tant athe­ist action that took place in Reyk­javík, 1970, when one indi­vid­ual, car­pen­ter Hel­gi Hósea­son, threw ’skyr’ over the Ice­landic bish­op, pres­i­dent, the entire gov­ern­ment and mem­bers of par­lia­ment. For years he had fought for the right to be de-bap­tized, but was repeat­ed­ly refused. Hence he took action.