A Vision for Resistance - Internatinal Mining Activists Create Unified Agenda

a vision for resistance

international mining activists create unified agenda

Gabriel Rivas-Ducca, FoE Costa Rica, FoEI Mining Campaign Coordinator

With economic globalization, the mining industry has consolidated its operations and its agenda. If mining activists are to deal with this increasingly unified threat, we must have a cohesive vision and agenda of our own.

defining our vision
We can look through the mining industry's cosmetic exercise of the Minerals, Mining and Sustainable Development project (see article page 7) and see that its agenda is to run business as usual, regardless of environmental and social harms. Knowing this we must ask: “What is the shared vision of mining activists around the world, including local communities that suffer the impacts?”

Defining this shared vision was the central objective of a recent international meeting. More than sixty NGOs, activists and community leaders assembled at the “Building a Global Mining Campaign” conference from November 28 - December 2, 2001 in Warrenton, Virginia, USA. Organized by the Mineral Policy Center of the USA with the support of the Ford Foundation, the meeting featured strong Friends of the Earth participation.

key issues
Foremost among the key issues and trends that emerged was the lack of community consultation and consent for mining projects, and the lack of benefits communities accrue from mining projects. Abuse of human and environmental rights, including water and air pollution, were also recognized as key problems, as was the lack of government regulation of mines. This is only a short list of the social, economic, cultural and environmental problems described at the conference, many more of which are elaborated elsewhere in this issue.

industry more influential, organized
The mining industry is consolidating as trade globalizes and liberalizes, and the number of southern multinationals is growing. The industry's overall influence is also on the rise: it is more organized in its use of public relations, and it has recently made industry-wide efforts to consolidate its position, especially on environmental and social issues.

Mining projects are also increasing in scale and severity of impact, and tend to use more chemicals, such as cyanide, in their processes. Simultaneously, there is decreasing demand for labour, and the price of metals is falling. There is also an increasing trend towards militarization in mining regions.

positive trends
On the positive side, recognition of indigenous rights is growing. The relationships between NGOs and local communities are being strengthened and increasing in importance as they expand their organizational capacities. There is also a willingness of public and private institutions to look at corporate responsibility.

identifying our vision
After identifying the problems and trends mentioned above, the participants imagined how mining should look ten to twenty years from now. What type of change could be achieved through a common campaign effort? Below is a summary of the agreed upon points:

• Internationally accepted community rights to self-determination and to say “no” to mines; prior informed consent
  
• Rights of communities to pursue “alternative” economic development
  
• Mining that benefits communities economically
  
• Less reliance on mining (extraction)
  
• An end to uranium and gold mining
  
• A ban on the use of cyanide in gold processing
  
• A ban on riverine and submarine tailings disposal
  
• A campaign for the better use of metals (more recycling, less demand, more re-use, more renewables)
  
• The establishment of mining as a privilege, not a right
  
• Stronger regulation and control at all levels
  
• The requirement that mining companies internalize all social, cultural, and environmental costs
  
• A closed-loop consumption system and shift to renewable resources
  
• No mining in protected areas or important ecological, agricultural, and economic zones
  
• Better land-use planning, prioritization and protection
  
• International law that meets the world's best standards; globalization of best practices; putting enforceable international legal mechanisms in place
  
• Socially and environmentally responsible mining investment and no mining industry financing with public money
  
• Wealth measured in human values rather than materials
  
• Mining companies becoming accountable for social, environmental and financial impacts
  
• Remediation of existing abandoned mines
  
• A strong active global anti-mining network with integration between NGOs and communities
  

corporate dystopia vs. citizen's agenda
Another important topic addressed at the conference was how we, as mining activists, respond to the WTO's Doha Agenda.

According to Victor Menotti of the International Forum on Globalization, “Global civil society's response to the Doha agenda has already been launched: grassroots organizations around the world will be using the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development to beat back the Doha agenda. The Johannesburg's "peoples' process" will be just one of a number of convergences required to replace the WTO's bid for a corporate dystopia with an international citizen's agenda that protects the poor and the planet”.

Indeed, the peoples' process to protect the poor and the planet from the mining industry's greed is well underway, and it is heartily welcomed by FoEI's Mining Campaign.