How are European communities already asserting their ‘Right to Say No’ to mining and other extractive projects, from the grassroots up?
How can the Right to Say No be materially advanced in Europe, as a strategy to redress the imbalance of power between communities and corporations and states?
In this recording of a webinar, hosted by Gaia, Yes to Life, No to Mining and CIDSE as part of the Thematic Social Forum on Extractivism, speakers from Finland, the UK, Romania and Spain share their experiences of asserting their Right to Say No.
Right to Say No
Europe faces a massive increase in mining in the years to come, as the EU and national governments seek to repatriate mining operations and secure domestic supplies of ‘critical’ minerals for renewable energy, industrial and military transitions.
Communities in Iberia, Scandinavia, Ireland and the Balkans are already feeling the pressure of mining expansion. Their efforts to defend lands, waters and beloved places from mining destruction are spreading across the continent.
Similar dynamics are underway globally, too, with communities from Lesotho to the Philippines facing escalating violence and systematic efforts to deregulate the mining sector, destroying what already limited and poorly applied regulations exist at present.
This European webinar is part of a global series, organised by members of the Thematic Social Forum on Extractivism, exploring the Right to Say No as a source of plural, context-specific counter power.