Herring and Class Struggle

Capitalism came late to Iceland. At the end of the 19th century this large, wind-swept, thinly populated island was made up of small towns, farms and seasonal fishing stations. Then European capitalists saw another Klondike in the herring-rich waters of the north Atlantic..

Sunday 1 December 2013

May it do you good: Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the life and execution of an Icelandic peasant

In her novel Burial Rites Hannah Kent has imagined the last months of Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the last woman to be executed in Iceland. Agnes was condemned for complicity in the murders of Natan Ketilsson and “sheep-killer” Pétur Jónsson in 1828. She was then lodged with the family of a minor district official at Kornsá until the sentence was confirmed by the Danish king. Agnes was beheaded with Friðrik Sigurdsson on 12 January 1830.
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

This is a subtle and moving novel that wants to understand how a woman who had never been in any trouble could get mixed up with thugs and violent thieves. Kent describes a thoughtful, relatively educated woman in search of a home who appears to get a chance to be a housekeeper or even a wife.
But Agnes is hemmed in by her class and bad luck in one of the least developed corners of a chronically underdeveloped country.

Agnes was born to unmarried landless farm workers, Ingveldur Rafnsdóttir and Magnús Magnússon at Flaga in Underféll parish in Vatnsdalur, north Iceland on 27 October 1795. She was “raised on a porridge of moss and poverty.”

Móðuharðindin

She was born just 10 years after the catastrophic Laki volcanic eruption in south west Iceland which from June 1783 to February 1784 spewed out tonnes of ash and sulphur dioxide creating a great smog. The years that followed were called Móðuharðindin—the hardship of the fog.

Móðuharðindin killed at least 10,000 Icelanders—one fifth of the population in the following year as toxic gases poisoned the crops and about 80 percent of the sheep and half the cattle and horses died of starvation. Fish was caught but local officials made no serious attempts to distribute it to the starving population—most of it was still exported. The winters that followed were ferocious.

When Agnes was born around 30 percent of babies born alive in Iceland died before they were one years old.[1] This was twice the level of infant deaths in Denmark and it was not just because of the climate and poverty, but because babies were not usually breastfed in Iceland in the 18th and early 19th centuries[2]. Only the poorest breastfed if no other milk were available. Otherwise in north Iceland babies were likely to get cow or sheep’s milk to suck through a rag until they were about three months old and then be fed dúsa. This was what babies in the south and west got within their first month of life—fish, butter or meat already chewed by adults. Dúsa killed children by intestinal blockages, swollen bellies (uppþemba) and dehydration from diarrhoea. Then there were epidemics of whooping cough, diphtheria and in 1797-98 scarlet fever.

Development 

By the time Agnes was born the Icelandic ruling class, made up of landowners, Danish or Icelandic officers of the Danish Crown and its Lutheran church, was a conservative force actively blocking development. Farm leases were often very short—even two or three years long—which allowed people no time to improve their land and buildings. If tenants did manage to make improvements then rents were often raised[3]. Land was much less productive than it could have been because old technologies such as drainage and manuring, well known in mainland Europe were barely used in Iceland. So soil was eroded and trees were lost.

The authorities saw any peasant family as merely a source of new paupers to be paid for by landowners and the church, so they ensured that most people could not marry with the Vistarband servant system. Everyone over the age of 15 who was not living with their parents or supported by them had to hire themselves out as a servant—an unmarried, indoor and outdoor farm worker contracted for one year at a time, for bed, board and low wages.[4] In most farms there were no more than one or two servants and often no separate bedrooms. Beds were ranged along the walls of the communal room, the baðstófa. 

baðstófa, communal living and sleeping room
of roughly similar date to Agnes' life as an adult

All land was privately owned and the authorities stopped tenant farms being rented to an unmarried couple even if they had scraped enough together to rent livestock and equipment from a landowner. They also prevented the development of fish processing industry to make sure they had enough labour for the hay harvests. By 1850 nearly 40 percent of the population over 15 years old were servants. In the winter women worked on wool processing while the men were sent to fish, for which they received no extra pay, though they may have received a share of the fish. with the majority of profit going to their employer.

When Agnes was born nearly 10 percent of all babies in Iceland were born outside of marriage.[5] Agnes' mother Ingveldur would probably not have expected to get any money as wages—she would have hoped for cloth and wool enough to make clothes for herself and her child. Even male workers saw very little cash. In Burial Rites as an adult Agnes goes to Búrfell farm because she has heard that the man said to be her father is working there. Magnús isn’t pleased to see her but he gives her some money. She says, “It was the first time I ever held money in my life.” For further detail on the lives of Icelandic peasants see my articles The Myth of Equality: the life of Icelandic agricultural workers and Lives Unfettered by Possessions or a Home

Pauper

Unlike most other areas of Europe, in Iceland as Agnes grew up the previous gap between the survival rates for children born in or out of marriage almost disappeared.[6] But still Ingveldur had to leave Agnes at six years old to be fostered out to Inga and Björn tenant farmers at Kornsá—the same place she would later be sent to wait execution. Inga taught her to read and write and the Sagas but died in childbirth when Agnes was eight in a winter that killed half their sheep. So with no money to pay a farm worker or keep children Kjartan, Agnes' foster brother went to his uncle and aunt and she was thrown back on the parish. Like all such children she worked.

In 1809 at 13 years old she was confirmed as an adult member of the church. She was described in Undirfell church book as having “an excellent intellect, and strong knowledge and understanding of Christianity.” Then she was known as Búrfell-Agnes for where she was born. She also developed the prized skills for poetry.

When Agnes arrived at Kornsá as a condemned woman in the summer of 1829 Jon and Margrét had been tenants with their two daughters Sigurlaug and Steinvör for ten years. They had been lucky and prospered with three farm workers though they had only recently before lost a servant Hjördís who died. Agnes could have been their servant as she had been in many of the farms in the area but she went to work for Natan Ketilsson.

Burial Rites is fiction for all Kent’s research of parish records but Agnes didn’t get much chance to tell her side of the story at the trial held at Hvammur the homestead of District Commissioner Björn Auðunsson Blöndal. She may have been part of a gang who tried to rob Natan but killed him and set light to his house hoping to get away with it. Or Natan and Pétur could have been killed by Friðrik alone or by other enemies. The district officials hesitated to bury Pétur in church ground because in February 1827 he had been convicted of robbery, theft and receiving stolen goods.

Natan also had at least a mixed reputation. He was said to have medical skills, had studied in Denmark and knew Latin. But he charged dearly for his skills, had children by at least one married woman and was entertaining Sheep-killer Pétur.

The authorities were very afraid of rebellious servants so when Agnes and Friðrik were executed their heads were stuck on spikes as a warning. 

Poet-Rosa who was married to someone else but loved Natan and had two children by him gave Agnes a poem,

Undrast þarftu ei, baugabrú
þó beiskrar kennir þínu
hefir burtu hrífsað þú
helft af lífi mínu

Don’t be surprised by the sorrow in my eyes
Nor at the bitter pangs of pain that I feel
For you have stolen with your scheming
He who gave my life meaning
And thrown your life to the devil to deal

Agnes replied and so gets the last word here,

Er mín klára ósk til þín,
angurs tárum bundin
Ýfðu ei sárin sollin mín,
sólar báru hrundin.

Sorg ei minnar sálar herð!
Seka Drottinn náðar,
af því Jesús eitt fyrir verð
okkur keypti báðar.

This is my only wish to you
Bound in anger and grief
Do not scratch my bleeding wounds
I’m full of disbelief.

My soul is filled with sorrow
I seek grace from the Lord.
Remember, Jesus bought us both
And for the same price.[7]




[1] In epidemic years such as 1846 around 60 percent of infants died. But in Vestmannaeyjar as many as 80 percent of babies died from newborn tetanus, Ginklofi. Iceland’s chief medical officer, Jón Sveinsson sent a questionnaire to Vestmannaeyjar’s parish minister in 1789 to get reliable information about it. Ólöf Garðarsdóttir and Loftur Guttormsson, An Isolated Case of Early Medical Intervention—the battle against neonatal tetanus in the island of Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland during the 19th century.
[2] The Development of Infant Mortality in Iceland, 1800-1920 by Loftur Guttormsson and Ólöf Garðarsdóttir.
[3] Gísli Águst Gunnlaugsson, Studia Historica Upsaliensia 154 Family and Household in Iceland 1801-1930 pg 79 
[4] The word húsbóndi is lord, master, farmer. In modern Icelandic it is not used for a husband.
[5] Unmarried couples living independently became much more common in some areas over the next 60 years. So in Garðar and Bessastaðir parish on the south west coast of Iceland from about 1855 up to 55 percent of unmarried women giving birth lived with their partners. This parish had plenty of fishing opportunities and district officials were less able to exert financial control over the peasantry. From 1870 similar numbers of unmarried co-habiting couples blossomed as foreign capitalists brought money and raw materials looking for workers to profit from fishing and whaling.
[6] Ólöf Garðarsdóttir, The Implications of Illegitimacy in Continuity and Change 15 (3), 2000, p438
[7] price is translated as accord - p113-14 Burial Rites, Hannah Kent 

Saturday 1 June 2013

Iceland's Tories are back

Here's an article I wrote in this month's Socialist Review about the return of the Icelandic Independence Party, Sjálfstæðisflokkurin  

Iceland's Tories are back in power just five years after their spectacular disgrace. Though their vote only increased by 3 percent, the conservative Independence Party has returned to government in coalition with the liberal Progressive Party.

This is a dramatic turn of events. In 2008, as the shockwaves of the global financial crisis hit Iceland's economy, the then Tory prime minster Geir Haarde had to announce, "There is a real danger that the Icelandic economy could be sucked with the banks into the whirlpool and the result could be national bankruptcy."

The Tories, particularly under Davið Oddson, who served first as prime minister and then as governor of the Central Bank, were responsible for deregulating and privatising the banks. They had turned Iceland into a giant hedge fund and when Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest investment bank in America, went bust it almost took Iceland with it. Around 10 percent of the population took part in the protests that drove Haarde's government out.

Their replacements were Social Democrats (SD) in coalition with the Left/Green Alliance (LGA) and which initially enjoyed serious support. They had a reputation for honesty - especially Social Democrat Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir who became the new prime minister and who had refused to work with the Tories even before they were disgraced. The Left-Green Alliance represented a more radical left than the mainstream Social Democrats. They wanted the American airbase out of Iceland, called for greater environmental protection, and raised demands for a new constitution written by ordinary people selected by a lottery.

The myth about Iceland since the crash is that it has taken a different path from the road of relentless austerity taken everywhere else in Europe, with the IMF thrown out, banks allowed to fail and people protected from the destruction of society wrought on Greece. The reality has been more like a war of attrition against ordinary Icelanders presided over by the ruling left coalition of the SD/LGA.

In the immediate wake of the crisis pensions were slashed, interest rates shot up, and the value of the Iceland krona plummeted. Unemployment reached 10 percent. Since then interest rates and unemployment have fallen and tourism has boomed but so have prices and household debt. Homes have been lost and mortgages on ordinary family houses bought in the boom years have gone up by the equivalent of tens of thousands of pounds. Rents have risen by over 50 percent in the capital, Reykjavik, and its surrounding sprawl. Staple foods such as buttermilk, rye bread, flour, vegetables and fruit have gone up by between 61 and 233 percent. A cinema ticket that was 800 kr in 2008 is now 1,350 kr. Public services have been cut, including the health service, and wages are stagnant.

While absolute unemployment has fallen, underemployment has not. Tens of thousands rely on benefits and government support in various ways but unemployment benefit runs out after 42 months. A new work programme, set up in January this year to provide "2200 new temporary jobs for long-term jobseekers" is the latest government funded scheme. These jobs are supposed to be created mostly in the private sector. In fact employers will be paid the rate of unemployment benefit for six months to create a job. By this time if it isn't a real job the worker will be entitled to unemployment benefit again. It's depressing thinking about it, let alone living it.

There were near riots in 2009-10 but the unions signed up to austerity practically before Haarde had finished his announcement. This explains why the recent nurses' dispute was a threat of mass resignations, not a strike.

The lack of resistance has worn people down and allowed the Tories to regroup. The lowest turnout in any general election since Iceland's independence from Denmark was a reflection of this.
Promises by the Independence Party and the Progressive Party to deliver jobs and debt relief, in contrast to the austerity delivered by the ruling left coalition, allowed them to return to office.

The Social Democrats, Samfylkingin and Left-Green Alliance combined lost 27.7 percent of their vote - the biggest swing in the country's history, while the Progressive Party's election promises included a 20 percent mortgage write-off. Their vote went up 10 percent and two new parties emerged: Bright Future - liberal democrats - and the local wing of the Pirate Party. Between them they took 8.3 percent and nine seats in the parliament.

The leadership of the Left-Green Alliance clearly have no idea why they only got 9 percent, down from nearly 22 percent. Steingrímur Sigfússon, a founder of LGA and finance minister in the post-crash government, wrote last month in the Financial Times. He said they lost the election, "despite guiding the country through a difficult but impressive recovery...can any politician meet the unrealistic expectations of Europe's voters?"


In Steingrímur's world view there is no alternative to being forever at the mercy of the markets - austerity cannot be fought so it must be endured. The election results suggest more of a quiet desperation and the lack of a clear left alternative.

Monday 11 February 2013

The Myth of Iceland's Recovery: allotments and health workers


One of the demands of the Icelandic communists in the 1930’s depression, was that the Reykjavik town council provide plots of land for people to grow there own food. 

This month Reykjavik city council has announced that 800 new allotments will be available from May this year. Of these 200 will be in Skammadal near Mosfellbær just north of Reykjavik. They will be about 100m² each. Then 600 ‘family plots’ of 20m² will be available in the Reykjavik suburbs of Breiðholt, Árbær, Vesturbær, Fossvogur, Laugardalur and Grafarvogur. The big plots cost 5,600 ISK a year and the smaller ones 4,200 ISK, that’s about £28/£21. The price includes the ground being already ploughed and a water supply. 

It’s unlikely that 800 plots will be anything like enough to meet demand because working class Icelander’s are struggling with stagnant wages and underemployment. Since 2007 food and fuel prices have gone up dramatically.  The image below shows price increases for basic foods and fuel from 2007 to 2012 in Bonus, Iceland’s cheapest supermarket chain.



Bonus supermarket prices 2007/2012

Some examples:

Rugbrauð, ryebread, a staple food has gone up 104 %

Sliced bread  - 95%

Bensín, petrol has gone up 101%

Epli rauð, red apples -  287%

Cucumber -  135%

Skimmed milk -  66%

Súrmjólk, buttermilk - another traditional staple - 61%

Baked beans -  144%

Flour -  204%

Bonus was—before the crash—part of the Baugar empire owned, with his dad, by Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson who was convicted last week of £1.5 million tax evasion.

The allotments probably won’t come close to meeting demand. People are saddled with debt and housing costs keep rising. Yet the persistent nonsense spouted about Iceland’s response to the 2008 financial crash was that ordinary people and welfare were protected and banks were made to pay for their own crisis. How this miracle happened under capitalism isn’t explained. The foreign papers only get away with this rubbish because there is so little visible protest, strikes or demos. 

But 260 nurses at the National hospital have threatened to resign from 1 March if their wages don’t increase. They will be followed a month later by 20 more. The health minister promptly announced an average wage rise of £123 a month, but in a ballot 91% rejected the deal. Nurses pointed out this will work out at 65 krona extra per hour or 32 pence and management had said that anyone not accepting by 10 February would get no increase. The nurses have now been joined by 40 x-ray technicians who threatened to resign from 1 May. 

Allotments are good for people’s mental health, if the crops don’t fail, but this is no solution to below inflation wage rises. The European free trade association court has now ruled that Iceland does not have to reimburse the British and Dutch governments’ money they repaid to savers. So the Icelandic finance minister Katrín Júlíusdóttir, and the markets want to remove Iceland’s capital controls which were imposed in the crash to stop its creditors stripping the country. So the Financial Times today quoted Lars Christensen, an economist at Danske bank who said, “the ruling should also help speed up the process of reliberalising the Icelandic financial markets.” 

These financial genius’s turned Iceland into a giant hedge fund and they wouldn’t mind doing it again if they can just get the working class to pay the price. It would be progress if Iceland’s health workers had other ideas.