IWW was formed in Iceland in 2012 by a group of workers and students that were inspired by a lecture and organizing training held by Erik Forman, a visiting American IWW labor activist. These were the years after the financial crash, and many were disappointed with the inactivity of the labor movement and lack of radicalism. Many were also part of an anarchist scene and wanted to introduce anarcho-syndicalism to Iceland. Thus, forming a chapter of IWW was seen as a way to reintroduce radicalism as well as new ideas about union democracy and direct action.
There was not much activity the first year except for meetings discussing if we should register as a union and deciding on the name Heimssamband Verkafólks.
In 2013 we had our first real public meeting where we recruited new members. The year after we started reaching out to disgruntled workers to organize them. Often immigrants were particularly exploited as many did not know their rights, worked in places without a formal contract and suffered wage theft. We concentrated our efforts on two workplaces where we had contacted workers. One was a restaurant where several workers had several months of outstanding wages and where their trade union had failed to help them. Together with these workers we organized our first “march on the boss” to collectively demand that he pay them, and it worked! Unfortunately, once we had helped these workers they showed no further interest in us.
The other workplace was a café where staff experienced wage theft, short term work, irregular scheduling, and threats from their employer. They had also sought the assistance of their trade union but did not find them helpful.
One of the workers signed up to become a member of IWW (she designed our logo!) and she managed to significantly improve the conditions of work. She did this through targeted direct action, such as a collective letter of demands to the boss, making and following their own schedule and protecting each other from being cornered by the boss. Thus, they managed to get their wages paid out and have a more regular and safer work environment. Once again showing that syndicalist methods of direct-action work even in Iceland.
It was clear to us that the already existing unions were not doing enough to represent the immigrant members and to protect them from exploitation. At this time there was scant information about workers’ rights on the union websites, collective agreements were often not translated and immigrant workers often faced dismissive staff in the union offices. Because of this we in the IWW organized a campaign called “Know your rights” where we held public lectures and workshops in English targeting immigrant workers. We saw this as an effort to empower workers but also encouraging self-organizing in the workplaces.
Also in 2014, we organized our first Radical First of May march in Reykjavík, since then we have participated in this yearly tradition, a time of celebration but also showing a radical presence within the conventional labor movement.
From 2016 onwards we have organized our marches on a radical anti-capitalist and intersectional basis including movements for asylum rights and the LGBTQ+ community.
On December 14th, 2014, we officially became the first ever branch of the IWW in Iceland. From the beginning we had to answer an important question: will we register as a labor union with all the rights and obligations attached to it? We decided against it and registered as an association instead. Our reasoning was simple. Under the Icelandic version of the Nordic model the worker’s right to direct action is extremely restricted. Strike actions are only allowed when negotiating for collective agreements and even then, they can be restricted by legal actions. Our goal is to increase workers’ power in the workplace, and this can mainly be achieved with direct action as we have learned through organizing. As most of us are migrant workers, we focused on this group. In the following years we created materials and held meetings, informing migrant workers about their rights.
In 2018 many of us got involved in efforts to elect a new president and board members (who had once been IWW members) for a conventional union many of us were members of. This was successful and many tried working within this trade union, thinking that it might be possible to implement our experiences of successful organizing there. Unfortunately, the new leadership eventually made clear to us that our approach was not welcome.
Instead, we focused on continuing to help workers through IWW Iceland instead. During Covid we created a series of informational videos on workers’ rights and applied for a grant to translate our material to several languages. More workers than ever were reaching out to us, and we started to recognize common patterns in the experiences of exploitation from foreign workers. One of our members decided to start collecting those stories and soon we had more than 50 stories, which we analyzed and compiled into Hidden People: – Stories from foreign workers in Iceland.
In 2022 started our longest and most successful organizing campaign. Seasonal workers in the Whale Watching industry in the North-East of Iceland had organized together. They successfully realized their demands towards their employer and built structures to create a better workplace for the season in 2023 and 2024.
On the first of May 2024 we published the List of Shame. Born out of discussion after publishing Hidden People, we looked for ways to hold employers accountable. We finally decided to collect new stories of alleged abusive workplaces and summarize them in English to empower immigrant workers. It also serves as a record for common practices on the labor market in Iceland.
But we have not forgotten that organizing is our bread and butter. Last December 5 of our members attended a training by the IWW UK to become official trainers in workplace organizing. Now we can better teach people how to organize, realize their demands and take control of their workplace. Direct action gets the goods!
