News - 01.05.2026
Address by the Leader of VR at Ingólfstorg May 1
Dear comrades, happy International Workers’ Day!
We gather here to show the solidarity and fighting spirit of working people.
We stand on the shoulders of our foremothers and forefathers, who gave everything for the rights of working people, for women’s liberation, for the welfare society.
We are part of the greatest movement in the world, the international labour movement. Today, wage earners gather all around the world, celebrating what has been achieved and sharpening the demands of our time.
The movement is large and it is strong, but it is also under attack.
In our part of the world, there has been a systematic dismantling of trade unions. In the name of so-called efficiency, they have in many places been broken down, while advocates of allegedly responsible public finances cut back everything that was once built up and shared by the people. Hospitals, libraries, theatres, roads, schools—nothing is sacred when the ideology of austerity prevails. Some things are closed, others left to decay.
This is not because there is a lack of funds. There is enough.
But resources are deliberately being transferred from working people, from those who have little or nothing, to the very richest. The world’s billionaires have become so rich that even they see it as a problem. When asked (and they have been asked), they fear the influence of money on democracy, are worried about the rise of extremist movements for which they themselves have created fertile ground, and do not want their children to inherit their full fortunes, because such immense wealth is not good for anyone.
Dear comrades,
We here in small Iceland are a small reflection of global tensions. But we also have a response, and it is here. We share this labour movement, and we intend to keep it strong and undefeated. We have a duty to defend these rights and pass them on to future generations.
The struggle for better terms is not only about the wages that go into our pockets. It is also about everything that comes out of them:
- the extremely high housing costs that most wage earners bear
- groceries with higher markups than anywhere else
- fees for hot water, waste collection, and preschools that rise far beyond inflation
- electricity that was supposed to be priced so fairly, if only intermediaries were allowed to take part
This list could go on and on.
The struggle for better terms is also about quality of life and vision for the future, education and the wellbeing of our children, ensuring they have at least as good a life as we have had.
Dear comrades,
In a large movement, there is always a risk that people focus on what divides rather than what unites. That instead of working tirelessly to improve general living standards and conditions, we unknowingly set off in a race to the bottom.
But the race to the bottom ends in only one place: at the bottom.
We gather here under economic conditions that could easily lead to collective agreements in the labour market unravelling this autumn. For three years, wage earners in Iceland have lived with some of the highest interest rates in the world. Everything has increased beyond inflation—except wages set by collective agreements. Unemployment is far too high, yet at the same time the government is attacking workers’ rights to unemployment benefits and the employment rights of public employees.
Food, insurance, electricity, hot water, preschools, a roof over one’s head—none of these are luxuries, yet they keep rising and rising and rising, without us being able to push back.
This calls for correction. The only tool we in the labour movement have to force such a correction, to ensure wages keep up with prices, is to demand wage increases. And that is what we will do… unless others rise to their responsibility, and do so immediately.
We demand that companies stop raising prices and reduce their profit expectations. Stop the pursuit of excessive profit!
We demand that municipalities withdraw excessive fee increases and moderate further increases.
We demand that the authorities honour their commitments in collective agreements: that they get housing under control once and for all, bridge the gap, and do what they promised—look after families with children!
We protest that in difficult times, borrowers and tenants are made to bear the burden through staggering interest rates. This is a political policy: it suits those who have wealth, but shifts the burden onto those who do not.
Dear comrades,
Women’s liberation activists once had the slogan: throw the rotten remnants of patriarchy onto the scrap heap. I take inspiration from their struggle and say here:
Throw the rotten remnants of neoliberalism onto the scrap heap!
Throw the rotten remnants of economic management that makes borrowers bear the burden while shielding those who have wealth onto the scrap heap!
Throw all the rotten attempts to dismantle the rights of working people onto the scrap heap.
We stand here. We stand together. We withstand attempts to weaken us. Because together we are unstoppable.
Future generations deserve that we defend these rights and press forward.
Happy International Workers’ Day—long live the labour movement!
