Haukur Hilmarsson: Fuck the State Fight Deportations!

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Ráðhús Reykjavíkur / Reykjavík City Hall 2011
Texti & söngur / Lyrics & voice: Haukur Hilmarsson

*English below*

Vorið 2011 tók andófshreyfingin No Borders Iceland — sem frá 2008 hefur barist gegn fjandsamlegri stefnu íslenskra stjórnvalda í málefnum flóttafólks — þátt í svokölluðum „fjölmenningardegi“ í Reykjavík. Í kjölfar skrúðgöngu um miðborgina, þar sem flóttamenn og aktívistar frá No Borders ráku lestina, átti að fara fram skemmtidagskrá í Ráðhúsinu — og hafði Haukur, einn af stofnendum hreyfingarinnar, beðið um að fá að halda erindi. Skipuleggjendur dagsins sögðust ekki vilja neina pólitík, enda væri um einbera skemmtidagskrá á jákvæðu nótunum að ræða. „Engar ræður, takk!“ — en ef hann gæti boðið upp á tónlistaratriði eða aðra afþreyingu væri sviðið hans.

Haukur áleit réttilega að fjölmenningarhátíð sem snérist einungis um að kynna mat, músík og dansa, víðsvegar að úr heiminum, væri lítils virði fyrir þann vaxandi fjölda fólks sem hvergi er í veröldinni velkomið. Stóra vandamálið sem við blasti fælist ekki í þekkingarleysi almennings á menningararfi fólks með framandi bakgrunn — heldur rótgrónum stofnanarasisma kerfisins. Hann tók því skipuleggjendurna á orðinu og skaffaði tónlistaratriði: hinn „listræni armur“ No Borders, fjölmenningardúettinn Dark & Jolly, steig á svið í fyrsta og eina sinn, vopnaður illa förnum, fjögurra strengja gítar, og flutti lag sem var „sérstaklega samið fyrir þetta tilefni,“ eins og Haukur tók fram þegar hann kynnti atriðið.

Texta lagsins — sem í dag, tæpum áratug síðar, er orðið að nokkurs konar einkennissöng baráttunnar fyrir réttindum flóttafólks á Íslandi — er að finna hér að neðan.

Í febrúar 2018 hvarf Haukur í Afrin, sjálfstjórnarhéraði Kúrda í Norður-Sýrlandi, þar sem hann barðist með varnarsveitum Kúrda, YPG. Hann er talinn hafa fallið í loftárás Tyrklandshers, en ómögulegt hefur reynst að fá það staðfest.

***

In May 2011 No Borders Iceland — an activist movement fighting against the Icelandic state's hostile anti-refugee policy — participated in a so-called “multicultural day” in Reykjavík. Following a parade through the city center, with refugees and No Borders activists last in line, a cultural program was scheduled at the City Hall. A few days earlier Haukur Hilmarsson — one of the founders of No Borders Iceland — had asked the organizers whether he could deliver a speech as part of the program. No, they responded; this was an event of entertainment only. “No speeches! But feel free to bring music or another number.”

It was Haukur's correct conviction that a multi-cultural festival, which only presented food, music and dances from the world over, would be of no use to the increasingly many who are nowhere welcome. The unmistakable problem we are facing, he said, is not the public's possible lack of knowledge and understanding of immigrants' different cultural backgrounds — but rather the deep-rooted institutional racism of the system. With the organizers' remark in mind, Haukur decided to go ahead and provide a number: armed with an old, four string guitar, thus emerged the “artistic arm” of No Borders — the multicultural duo Dark & Jolly, never to be seen on stage again — to perform a “song that was specially made for this day,” as Haukur introduced the act.

Now, almost a decade later, Haukur's composition has become the signature song of the struggle for refugees' rights in Iceland.

In February 2018 Haukur disappeared in Afrin, a canton of Rojava, Northern Syria, where he fought with the Kuridsh People's Protection Units, YPG. Although still unconfirmed, he is believed to have fallen in an airstrike by the Turkish military.

***

They say that we’re all of us equal, but equally different, hence differently treated.
And everyone’s welcome but welcome means: come when your well enough off to be cheated.
Today I must not be too rash, give a tolerant yack, its da bomb, it’s the smack of the middle class.
Never a frown,
Whack falls the dadio down.

Today, in a way, sees the sayings of love thrown around and repeatedly eaten:
How great that we’re differently coloured and differently minded and differently beaten.
So give peace a chance, give the nation a dash of da bomb, take a hit of the smack of the middle class.
Never a frown,
Whack falls the dadio down.

And all in one place without facing interior racism, prisons and borders.
The unity’s fake, for fuck’s sake look ahead, we are led by the axis of order:
the piggies, the judges, the government jocks, the sadistic, fascist bureaucracy fucks.
Rock the boat ’cause its fuckedy fucking fucked up, fucking say it without hesitation:

Fuck the flags, fuck the race, fuck the law, fuck the place,
fuck the name, fuck the picture, the papers, the face,
fuck the nation, the fences, the wires, the gates,
fuck the state – fight deportations!

With a smile or a frown,
We’ll stand when the dadio’s down.

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