Members of the Young Socialists together with a group of other students--two of whom had participated in the translation into Icelandic of the pamphlet The Working Class and The Transformation of Learning--organized a sit-in of about 70 people at the Ministry of Finance to demand that the government agree to the teachers' demands for better wages.

Demonstrators practically filled the staircase in one part of the building, singing, playing the guitar, and holding signs saying: "Teachers' fight = Students' fight" and "More money for education." Forty students continued the demonstration the next day.

The protest got some coverage on television and other media. The following Saturday night, several minutes of Iceland's most popular news show (Kastljós) was devoted to analyzing the spelling of a press release falsely claimed to have been sent to them by the demonstrators. The host argued that since the teachers taught such bad spelling, they didn't deserve higher wages.  
 
Low wages deter student teachers
"This is the first time in this school that we have had serious problems finding people to teach. This is because of the low wages," said Thorsteinn Thorsteinsson, principal of FG senior high school. Outside of the capital, schools have had this problem for a long time. Very few young people take up teaching; only 35 of the 1,300 senior high school teachers in Iceland are under the age of 30. Teachers on other levels of the public school system from kindergarten through secondary school face a similar situation.

The day before the strike began, The Organization of Senior High School Students held a demonstration outside of the parliament building in support of the need for higher wages for teachers. But the group also insisted that "both sides" had to accommodate, and expressed concern about damage to students' education careers as a result of the strike. Around 250 students showed up.

Slogans carried by the Young Socialists, all of which unconditionally gave support to the teachers' struggle, received attention from demonstrators and the media. One copy of The Truth About Yugoslavia and three Militants were sold.

The minister of education noted on his web site that, although he understood the students' concerns, a 65-70 percent increase in teachers' wages was "outside the limits of the economy." Economic growth has been about 4.5 percent in the years 1997-99. The National Economic Institute estimates economic growth of 3.6 percent in the year 2000 and 1.6 percent in 2001. There is considerable inflation and the rate of Iceland's currency, the krona, has been falling.  
 
Action receives wide support
Teachers here, however, are widely supported by working people. The ASI (The Icelandic Federation of Labor) representing unions with 70,000 members--two-thirds of the organized workforce in Iceland--adopted at its national congress a resolution unconditionally supporting the teachers' struggle. This amendment to the final declaration passed with two-thirds of the vote, despite a campaign by the leadership of ASI who argued that economic stability is threatened by the teachers' actions.

At a meeting organized by The Organization of Senior High School Students, Marta Margrét Rúnarsdóttir noted, "Most of us here today have few years left of school and would like to go back as soon as possible, but we must also think of the students who follow. It is not in their interest that the strike ends without gains for the teachers."  
 
 

During weekly booktables set up near working-class suburban high schools, which have a high percentage of immigrant youth, the YS has had many discussions on the fight against imperialism in the Middle East and elsewhere.

Gabriella Alan, a student from Södertälje, first met the YS when the Socialist Workers candidate for U.S. president, James Harris, visited her school in early October. Along with a friend, she attended a YS class on the pamphlet Palestine and the Arabs' Fight for Liberation. She has been urging her friends to attend the next class. "You get to learn new things and discuss them with others," Alan said.

Two other high school students from Södertälje, who have attended weekly protests against Israeli repression organized by the Södertälje Palestinian Association, attended a YS class on the Pathfinder pamphlet Malcolm X Talks to Young People. They became interested in studying this pamphlet after attending the November 11 protest in Stockholm.

The Young Socialists also took part in the annual march commemorating the victims of the Nov. 9, 1938, Nazi-organized pogrom against Jews, known as the Crystal Night. A new sight at this year's march, which drew some 500 youth, was a contingent of Sami rights activists, protesting the government's racist policies against Sami, the indigenous people of northern Scandinavia.

Ann-Sofie Jonsson carried a sign saying, "Sweden: world conscience oppressing Sami." The term "world conscience" refers to Swedish imperialism's hypocritical posing as a friend of oppressed peoples.  
 
 
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