Join us for the second of three events of the First Wednesdays Autumn 2022 Series, ‘The Struggle for Democracy: Exploring Commonalities in Global Citizenship and Activism’ organised in partnership with Comhlámh. This event, moderated by Dr Tom Campbell, explores "The Struggle for the Earth – The Global is Local" with Ramón Balcázar Morales from Fundación Tantí (Seed), Lynda Sullivan from Communities Against the Injustice of Mining (CAIM) and Bernadette Hopkins from CAIM, Save Inishowen from Gold Mining, and Rights of Nature Ireland.
While many communities around the world are threatened by the impacts of climate change, others face more direct environmental destruction in the form of extractivism. Following the supply chain disruption caused by Covid-19, European countries are increasingly seeking to develop their own mineral supplies, meaning that harmful forms of mining are no longer confined to the Global South.
Mining is coming home, but many of us are unaware of this trend (over 25% of the territory of the island of Ireland is covered by mining concessions) until it arrives on our doorsteps. Around Ireland, ordinary citizens have been transformed into activists by the threat of mining. In doing so, they enter a shared global struggle – the same song played on different instruments. What do their efforts tell us about citizenship and its role in protecting the planet? What are the common contours of these struggles? How do their efforts point to other ways of being with each other, with the land, of organising our economies?