Once again, we marched and chanted together on, showing unity in our common struggles towards liberation. Thanks to IWW, Andrými, the Red Umbrella, Hinsegin Heift, No Borders, Refugees in Iceland, and everyone who joined our radical block and celebrated with us. Solidarity forever!
Speeches from the radical block – fellow migrant workers, workers seeking asylum, trans workers, sex workers – unite!
IWW & the right to work for asylum seekers
After reading a text on behalf of a fellow worker seeking asylum, a IWW member added:
I would like to thank our comrade for writing this, and I would like to add that,
as labor activists, we know that solidarity starts in the workplace where we create friendships, networks of support, and rally together against exploitation and unfair work conditions. Preventing anyone from working is preventing collective actions.
Icelandic unions should support all workers, especially the ones prevented from working, not only the ones paying automatic dues.
Refusing people the fundamental right to work is yet another tool to isolate people and deshumanise them. The next step now in Iceland’s toolbox against migrants is to build a prison, detention center and lock up women, men and children there, preventing further connection with the rest of icelandic society, preventing us to know their stories and show solidarity.
We are asking you today on labor day to hear the voices of Refugees in Iceland. We stand in solidarity with them, because what a state is comfortable doing to others, it will be comfortable doing to you.
An injury to one is an injury to all! Solidarity with workers seeking asylum!
Maja – Trans rights on the job market
Thank you everyone for showing up today here and fighting for right for all of us! My name is Maja I use she/they pronouns and I would like to take a few minutes to speak up on behalf of small and often marginalised group of people, I will speak on behalf of all my TRANS sisters, brothers and all non binary siblings and our issues with and inacessibility of job market.
Due to little to no research on the topic within Iceland i will use mostly statistics from „the nordic co-operation“ studies done in Finland as they are most relevant to us Icelanders but some of the data i was only capable of finding within US or UK. We as a group make up to around 2 percent of global population yet we face tougher regime and often discrimination within the job market as well as employers that we already ( gratefully heh) found in the ‘race’.
I will start with stating the fact that that around 18 percent of all transgender people of working age and conditions are currently unemployed which is nearly quadruple of same group of CIS people. On top of that 60 percent of us faced or will face unemployment of 6 months or more at some point in our lives, we can and should do better as society!
Another point i will speak up about is workplace harrasment, a staggering amount of 40 to 50 percent of us including myself experience or have experienced different forms of harrasment, for the so called ‘lucky ones’ it will be only in the form of daily misgendering or deadnaming and yes this is fucking harassment theres a reason why that name is dead!! but many of us especially transgender women experience extreme levels of sexualisation which leads in many cases to physical and sexual abuse scarring us for the rest of our lives and leaving uf with major trust issues to the ones above us in companys hierachy especially that our problems are very often belittled and HR teams will often choose to ‘protect’ the fucking perpetrator/
Common issue faced by trans and non binary people is wage gap compared to our cis colleagues, the gap goes all the way up to 35 percent in multiple peoples experience. The gap is even bigger and all the issues above are even harder for trans sisters brothers and sibilings of colour! We see you and we appreciate you and we wouldnt be here with you, Thank you for being a vital part of our society! Many of us face a lifelong stigma within workplaces and prefer to live their lifes in hide from our society due to fear of losing work or facing all other possible negative effects of their gender identity on their life that is related not only to finances but all kinds of stigmatisation. We need to stop this as soon as we can, we believe in liberation of labour for each and every hard worker which includes all of trans and nonbinary people!
I would like to sum up all of the above with a small note to all the employers out there:
we especially need your help right now to fight this trans exclusivity,
we need you to step up your game,
we need you to make sure each of your workers feels safe and comfortable within your premises to be who they are and not face negative effects of that in their salaries and their ‘capability’ to work because being under the trans umbrella doesnt make us of any less value as employees!
We need you to fight for inclusivity and fairness in your workplaces
we need you to provide all of your employees with inclusivity trainings especially that regarding trans people
we need you to pay us workers and especially trans workers a fucking liveable paycheck
we need you to make clear and strict anti discrimination policies in your workplaces and excecute them fairly against everyone harassing your most vulnerable trans employees
Finally : to all of my colleagues comrades co workers
Please be a decent human being to everyone around you, please be good to each other, please unionise, please take good care of your trans friends, stand for them when they cant fight for themselves and respect their chosen name and prounouns.
WORKERS OF ICELAND, UNIONISE AND UNITE FOR UNION MAKES US STRONGER
Thats all from me for today, thank you for joining us and listening to my rant, have a great 1st of may celebration.
LABOUR LIBERATION NOW
TRANS RIGHTS ARE HUMAN RIGHTS
PROTECT TRANS WORKERS
STOP DEPORTATION
FCK UTL
