Sólveig Anna attacks former labour movement colleague over EU stance

Sólveig Anna Jónsdóttir, chair of the Efling labour union, has accused MP and former vice-president of the Icelandic Confederation of Labour, Kristján Þór Snæbjörnsson, of being brazen and unscrupulous by portraying the confederation’s position on the European Union as clear-cut, mbl.is reports.

She was responding to a Facebook post Kristján wrote earlier in the day, in which he said the Confederation of Labour had long supported closer European cooperation and opening membership negotiations with the European Union. He cited the confederation’s policy from 2009.

“Kristján acts as if the Confederation of Labour’s position has remained unchanged since then, clear and simple. He might just as well try to claim that people still mainly use mobile phones with buttons and fax machines. The claim is complete nonsense,” Sólveig wrote.

Labour movement divided

The chairpersons of the Confederation of Labour’s member organisations are divided over whether to open membership negotiations with the European Union. The confederation has therefore decided to remain neutral ahead of the referendum, even though its formal policy supports joining the union.

That policy dates from 2009 and has not been reviewed since. Finnbjörn A. Hermannsson, president of the Confederation of Labour, has said there is no longer a majority within the organisation in favour of membership.

“As everyone who knows anything about the leadership of the Confederation of Labour’s member organisations knows, it is divided on the issue. Villi Birgis, Aðalsteinn in Húsavík, Valmundur at the Seamen’s Association, Tryggvi at Eining-Iðja and I, to name a few examples, are all opposed to joining, as has been reported,” Sólveig wrote.

“This attempt by Kristján and his colleagues in the Social Democratic Alliance to portray an old policy as the current political will of the Confederation of Labour is absurd in every respect and contradicts the actual situation,” she added.

Sólveig said she was surprised when Dagur B. Eggertsson, Kristján’s party colleague in the Social Democratic Alliance, wrote about the confederation’s policy on the European Union.

“I thought to myself that this was going rather far with the propaganda, and that a man who has never taken part in the labour struggle should tone down the exaggeration a little. I did not have the imagination to foresee that someone who knows something about the Confederation of Labour and concludes that it is remaining neutral in this battle could imagine taking part in spreading the nonsense,” she wrote.

She continued: “But of course some politicians are willing to do almost anything, willing to mislead and deceive if they believe it is necessary.”