Mining Conflicts Multiply: Extractivism Critics Gather in Johannesburg
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- Published on Sunday, 25 November 2018 18:20
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1709 ... November 26, 2018
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Mining Conflicts Multiply: Extractivism Critics Gather in Johannesburg
Patrick Bond
The World Social Forum’s "Thematic Forum on Mining and Extractivism" convened from November 12-15 here in Johannesburg, on the heels of the Southern Africa People’s Tribunal on Transnational Corporations. Hundreds of radical activists from community groups and social movements, grounded in concrete local grievances, met to agree on their systemic critique.
This is the appropriate moment -- here and across the world -- for the grassroots to tackle mining, oil and gas. In spite of South Africa’s resurgent state-corporate alliance since the February ascent of former mining magnate Cyril Ramaphosa, world economic chaos is deterring investment.
Mining houses cite not just South Africa’s black-empowerment ownership requirements, but a host of structural problems: weak... commodity prices compared to the 2011-15 plateau, China’s unstable demand, higher production costs, embarrassing revelations about the sector’s debilitating Illicit Financial Flows (tax evasion), society’s pushback against systemic corruption and violence, ongoing labour militancy especially against looming mass retrenchments, more effective localized resistance campaigns, and rising climate consciousness aimed not just at fossil fuels but also carbon-intensive minerals smelting.
