Stop Planned Obsolescence – Take action!

In our previous blog article you could find out why mining can never be made ‘green’ or done ‘responsibly’. That’s why we should drastically reduce our need for new raw materials. We cannot continue to extract more and more metals and minerals. We should end practices like ‘planned obsolescence’ immediately. This practice, sadly commonly used in our “throwaway” system, means that electronic products are designed to make repair difficult or unfeasible, with a limited lifespan. It leads to enormous waste and increases the need for the extraction of raw materials.

Let us imagine an alternative future, one where non-renewable resources are kept in the soil where they belong. Let us convince our policy makers to Go Circular and stop planned obsolescence. 

Solutions and challenges on EU level

Elements of the Sustainable Products Initiative (SPI) proposal are promising, including the extension of minimum eco-design requirements to the ‘widest range of products’. Requirements will include product aspects such as repairability, durability, and carbon and environmental footprints. 

However, the EU must go further. Sustainability in the SPI is confined to environmental impacts, disregarding the social dimension. Products that pass proposed eco-design criteria, but are made in terrible human rights conditions, are by the European Commission’s own definition ‘sustainable’. The current proposal lacks ambition. The Commission plans to only introduce four product regulations per year, starting in 2024. Despite being responsible for around a quarter of the EU’s 2020 emissions reduction targets, eco-design and energy labelling rules have historically been beset by repeated delays and a lack of adequate resources. 

Flanders: Setting the example? 

Since Flanders presents itself as a leader in Europe in the field of circularity, we believe that the Flemish government should be at the head of the pack for a strong regulation at the European level for circular ICT. Repairability, consumer support, control and recyclability are strong mechanisms to achieve this. Check out our demands for the Flemish government. By implementing these, Flanders would be a frontrunner on circularity in Europe and can send clear signs to our European politicians. 

CTRL ALT DELETE, reset the system

Through our Ctrl Alt Delete: Stop Planned Obsolescence campaign we are advocating for strict regulations to ensure electronic products are eco-designed, repairable, and made to last. Eighty percent of the impact of a product’s life-cycle is locked in during the design phase. CATAPA demands a CTRL ALT DELETE, a reset of the system: 

CTRL – CONTROL & transparency of electronic product manufacturing
ALT – ALTERNATIVE legislation restricting planned obsolescence
DEL – DELETE the production of electronic products with too short a life span

TAKE ACTION

Do you want to take action yourself? 

Call on your municipality to sign our CTRL ALT DEL charter. This will give our campaign more weight and you will fight together with us to counteract planned obsolescence and all its negative effects. By signing the charter, the city or municipality commits to setting a ‘good example’ by purchasing sustainable ICT and using ICT in a well-considered way. They also commit to boosting the recovery and manufacturing economy in their city or municipality. 

You can also file a complaint about your broken electronic devices on our website. The complaints will be gathered to raise awareness and put pressure on the Flemish government and the EU to implement strong regulations. 

Ready to take action? Join our movement or engage yourself in one of the mentioned actions. 

More information on how to take action, you find here. 

CATAPA takes over the Ghelamco Arena: GO CIRCULAR – STOP #EXPRESDEFECT.

From 30 May to 5 June, the Ghelamco Arena in Ghent will for once not be showing an advertisement by KAA Gent. However, it will be a slogan that fits in with CATAPA’s CTRL ALT DEL campaign. This takes place in the context of the ‘European Green Week’, an initiative of the European Commission that is held in Brussels on the same days. 

With our campaign, which we are conducting in Flanders and Brussels, we want to tackle ‘planned obsolescence’ and preferably make it disappear as soon as possible. Planned obsolescence is a method mainly used in the ICT sector, where products are deliberately designed with a limited lifespan. Who has not experienced that a mobile phone suddenly functions much slower after an update? Or another example: the printer that breaks down and the repair costs are higher than buying a new one. There are countless methods used by the industry to get you to buy as many new devices as possible. Hence our hashtag #expresdefect. In Dutch ‘expres’ refers to ‘deliberately’ and defect has the same meaning in English. 

The main thing to remember is that all those electronics cost you a lot of money and contain many rare (critical) metals. More on that later. But what does this have to do with Europe and European Green Week? The European Green Week will focus on three important aspects of the ‘Green Deal’, namely; circular economy, zero emissions and biodiversity. At first sight, this initiative can only be applauded, but there is something fishy about it (and it smells really bad).

 

 

The ‘Green Deal’: A solution that is not there

About the Green Deal, the European Commission says it is a path to a ‘sustainable and transformative growth strategy’. And that is where it goes wrong, we have learned from the past two hundred years that economical growth and sustainability do not go together. On the contrary, growth means plundering the earth in order to obtain the raw materials needed to sustain this endless growth. The extraction of these raw materials leads to ecological, climatic and social disasters.

So what exactly does the EU Commission mean by ‘transformative’ growth? Well, the Commission is making the right decision to leave the fossil fuel era behind. But only to exchange it for an era in which large-scale mining will become the driving force of the growth economy. As mentioned before, the mining of raw materials such as gold, copper, lithium, borate, coltan … (the list is endless) causes great harm to people and the environment. Witness the many accidents involving toxic substances used in the mining industry, which have rendered hundreds of hectares of land uninhabitable, polluted rivers and poisoned people.

Maria Nyuberg stated at the (Re)mining Symposium that “Even if we succeed in dramatically increasing the recycling of critical metals, it will still not be enough to meet the demand required to make the green transition possible“. So we trade one evil (fossil fuels) for another (extracting rare earths). Yet there are plenty of signs that the growth scenario has a dead end. For example, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) published a report stating that Europe must reduce its material consumption 65% by 2050 if we want to avoid a climate catastrophe. 

Dependence on critical metals and strategic autonomy

We now know that Europe will not abandon the ‘endless growth scenario’ and that we will need huge quantities of critical raw metals to make that work. The question is, of course: where are we going to get them? Europe has long realised that depending on other continents for raw materials is not a good idea. Look what has happened to our energy prices since the war between Russia and Ukraine started. That is why the European Commission has decided that we have to tap our own (read European) reserves of critical metals. Or in other words, more mining on the European continent. 

Sustainable and responsible mining, the fairy tale that just won’t go away

According to the mining industry and the European Commission, mining can be done in a sustainable way with respect for the environment and people. Studies and reports prove otherwise. Rio Tinto, a mining giant that has been in the news negatively several times (google ‘Mining Rio Tinto accident’) and owner of the Serbian ‘Jadar Lithium Mine’, has bought up 40% of all the land around the possible mining site. This was possible through collaboration with the Loznica city council, which expropriated land and changed its zoning from ‘agriculture or forestry’ to ‘industrial land’. Another tactic to chase away the inhabitants was to raise the land tax significantly. This happened even before the mining project was approved. In response, citizens protested and took to the streets for days until President Vučić was forced to revoke the mining project’s permit. 

The events surrounding mining in countries like Northern Ireland, Serbia (but also Spain and Greece) show that mining always results in damage. If not for the environment, then for the communities that are the victims of mining. Conclusion? Green mining or sustainable mining does not exist at all, it’s a dangerous fairy tale.

Want to know more about the alternatives and what you can do in Flanders or Brussels? Find it out in our next blog.

En El Nombre Del Litio – Clean Energy, For Who?

En El Nombre Del Litio: Clean Energy, For Who?

I’m the one who goes meandering through the hills

Watching life grow

With eyes of water that see the birth and death of time

I am healing the wounds of being

Don’t kill me or poison me

Don’t make me part of that suffering

You are death, I am life

You are the lithium, I am the feeling of the pacha

CATAPA held a screening of the documentary ‘En el Nombre del Litio’ at Studio Skoop, Gent on the 29th March as part of Belmundo Festival 2022. 

Eighty percent of the world’s lithium reserves are located in the ‘Lithium Triangle’; the salt flats that connect Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. The film depicts the disastrous consequences of lithium extraction for the indigenous communities of the Salares Grandes. Producing a single ton of lithium carbonate requires two million litres of water. And where is this lithium going? Each electric vehicle, central to the EU’s ‘green transition’ away from petrol and diesel based private transport, contains 4.5 kilograms of lithium.

“¿Energía limpia para quién?” (Clean energy for who?) (Clemente Flores, El Moreno)

After the screening, participants were challenged by Yblin Escobar Roman (CATAPA)  to think about the connections between the documentary and material consumption within the European Union and Belgium. Under the guise of ‘green mining’, the EU’s Critical Raw Materials list outlines a strategy for the resourcing of over thirty mined resources, such as lithium, deemed ‘necessary’ for the green transition. To fund the ‘green transition’, by 2050 the EU will require sixty times more lithium for electric vehicle batteries and energy storage versus current supply. 

Electric vehicles are not the solution to our climate crisis. Our push for ‘green mobility’ is steeped in the same extractivist logic that views our planet as an inexhaustible resource to be mined and dominated by humankind. But this fails to understand the fundamental contradiction: 

 

We cannot mine our way out of the climate crisis

This contradiction is at the heart of ‘El Nombre Del Litio’. Due to the harsh conditions, only microorganisms are adapted to survive within the Salar basin. Living under the salars, colonies, or ‘forests’ of microorganisms engaging in photosynthesis, have served as a carbon sink for over 3.5 billion years, releasing oxygen and creating our ozone layer. Yet, in the name of tackling the climate crisis, transnational corporations are extracting vast quantities of water from the basin, starving and destroying the very microorganisms that allow our continued existence on Mother Earth.

A Just Transition to Accessible, Carbon Zero Transport

Rather than maintaining the status quo by switching to electric cars, a just transition requires a fundamental re-organisation of our cities and communities towards zero emission public, not private transportation. Transportation accounts for 27% of global emissions.C40 Cities argue limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius requires doubling public transport use within cities by 2030. 

Despite this, De Lijn’s latest plans will oversee the removal of 1 in 7 bus stops in Ghent – around 200 in total. Zonder Bushalte Straat, an action group campaigning against these changes, argues this will inevitably prevent older and less mobile citizens from accessing and traversing the city. 

A Just Transition to the Right to Say No

The documentary also emphasises that a just transition requires indigenous and local communities having the Right to Say No to mining. Local communities must not only have the decisive, legally binding say over the fate of mining projects, this must be respected. 

I was born in the countryside,

I am the son of a peasant

I defend my tradition,

Of all the Argentine north

My father is the Chañi mountain

My mother the white Salar

During the documentary, the indigenous communities discuss Kachi-Yupi (literal translation: salt tracks), a document they collectively produced for the consultation process.Together with international laws on Free, Prior and Informed Consent, this document demands mining companies must seek approval from all of the indigenous communities of the Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc basin before proceeding with an activity or project. Despite promises, the document was never formalised into an official decree. Instead, the Argentinian state transferred ownership of the lands to JEMSE to pursue lithium extraction for the sake of ‘development’ without consent.

“If communities aren’t participating actively in the state, the state is meaningless’ (Clemente Flores, El Moreno)

Companies also seek ‘Social Licence to Operate’ by dividing communities with false promises of jobs, development and security. In the documentary, EXAR promised lithium mining would directly and indirectly provide around eight hundred jobs to the local community for over thirty years.

Whilst large-scale mining projects may provide jobs in the short term, the long-term destruction is incomparable. The loss of water is disrupting pastoral agriculture, an activity the community has relied on for thousands of years. Once mining projects are completed, the jobs are also taken with them, leaving behind a community contaminated and fractured by violence and conflict.

“Mining is bread for today, but hunger for tomorrow” (Gil Cruz, Susques)

In response, the indigenous communities of the Salinas Grandes and Guayatayoc Lagoon mobilised to protest the violation of international law on indigenous rights, the failure to consult the collective assembly by lithium mining companies operating in Quebraleña territory and to demand an end to all mining activities in the area. 

“I give my life for the Salar. I cannot accept this.If you want, kill me first. Then you will pass through the Salar.” (Veronica Chavez, Santuario Tres Pozos)

Our transition to sustainable energy must only be green, but just. This cannot be achieved through our current path of continued extractivism, which promises nothing but destruction. We are at a crossroads. Rather than extracting lithium for electric cars, our society must be based on social and environmental justice where the extraction of non-renewable resources is no longer necessary.

Water, little water

They call me and they think of me

Water, little water,

They say to me as I pass by

Protect our place

Well chayadita my soul will remain

With the dance of the suris I’ll stop

With the trot of the vicuñas I will follow

With the condor I will fly

In the rain over the Andes I will return

Jallalla! 

En El Nombre del Litio is produced by Calme Cine & FARN, and directed by Tian Cartier, Martín Longo and Pía Marchegiani. You can read more about the film and indigenous communities fighting against lithium mining on their website: https://enelnombredellitio.org.ar

*This documentary was screened as part of Cinema Belmundo 2022. Cinema Belmundo is a collaboration between various organisations that show films to make an impact. This year, the collaboration consists of Studio Skoop Cinema, 11.11.11, Amnesty International, BOS+, Broederlijk Delen, Dierenartsen Zonder Grenzen, FOS ngo and JEF.

Written by Catapista Connor Cashell

Sources:

An Van Bost (2021) ‘Ghent action group fights to preserve bus stops in and around Ghent with symbolic action’, VRT, 21 June. Available at: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2021/06/21/een-deel-bushaltes-in-en-rond-gent-dreigt-te-verdwijnen/ [Accessed 30 March 2022].

Bankwatch Network (2021). Raw Deal: Does the new EU development model mean more of the same destructive mining? Available at: https://bankwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/RAW_DEAL.pdf [Accessed 30 March 2022].

C40 Cities, International Transport Workers’ Federation (2021). Public transport global coalition statement. Available at: https://www.c40.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Global-coalition-statement-ENG.pdf [Accessed 30 March 2022]

En El Nombre Del Litio (2021) Directed by T. Cartier, Longo. M and Marchegiani.Pía [Film]. El Salvador, Argentina: Calme Cine.

European Commission (2020) ‘Critical Raw Materials Resilience: Charting a Path towards greater Security and Sustainability’. Available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52020DC0474 [Accessed 30 March 2022]

European Environmental Bureau, Friends of the Earth Europe (2021) 

‘Green mining is a myth’: the case of cutting EU resource consumption. 

Available at: https://eeb.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Green-mining-report_EEB-FoEE-2021.pdf 

[Accessed 22 March 2022].

FARN & Calma Cine (2021) En el Nombre Del Litio. Available at: https://enelnombredellitio.org.ar/home-2-en/. [Accessed: 30 March 2022].

Kachi-Yupi (2015) Salt Traces: Free, Prior and Informed Consultation and Consent Procedure for the Indigenous Communities of the Salinas Grandes and Laguna de Guayatayoc Basin. Available at: https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Kachi-Yupi-Huellas.pdf [Accessed 30 March 2022]. 

United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs: Indigenous Peoples (2016) Free Prior and Informed Consent – An Indigenous Peoples’ right and a good practice for local communities – FAO. Available at: https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/publications/2016/10/free-prior-and-informed-consent-an-indigenous-peoples-right-and-a-good-practice-for-local-communities-fao/ [Accessed 30 March 2022]

Zonder Bushalte Straat (2022) [Facebook]. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/zonderbushaltestraat/ [Accessed 30 March 2022].

Summary MEP day speakers tour 2022

ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS MEET WITH MEP’S

ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENDERS, INDIGENOUS REPRESENTATIVES OF COMMUNITIES AFFECTED BY MINING MEET WITH MEP’S REGARDING EU DUE DILIGENCE LEGISLATION

Our Peruvian environmental defenders, alongside indigenous representatives from Russia and Guatemala, met with MEP’s on Thursday 4th March to share their stories of fighting on the frontlines to defend their communities from destructive mining projects. 

International voluntary standards on responsible corporate conduct have failed to have an impact on environmental and human rights abuses along supply chains.

They demanded tougher battery and due diligence legislation that centres the voices and experiences of impacted communities. Under the ‘social licence to operate’ (SLO), a non-binding voluntary commitment to ‘good practice’, corporations are able to greenwash their operations. International voluntary standards on responsible corporate conduct have failed to have an impact on environmental and human rights abuses along supply chains.

Our Peruvian defenders were part of a delegation that met with the assistants of French MEP Manon Aubry - GUE/NGL (pictured above) and Dutch MEP Antonius Manders (EEP)
Our Peruvian defenders were part of a delegation that met with the assistants of French MEP Manon Aubry - GUE/NGL (pictured above) and Dutch MEP Antonius Manders (EEP)

The delegation emphasised the importance of retaining copper, bauxite and iron within proposed due diligence obligations. They also brought attention to the need to include obligations towards climate impacts.

Current Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence proposals only require EU mining companies with more than 250 employees and an annual turnover of 40 million euros to prevent human rights and environmental abuses along their supply chains. This applies to less than 0.2% of EU companies. 

Companies will also only be required to prevent the impact of so-called ‘established’ business partners. This fails to cover short-term relationships, incentivising companies to regularly switch suppliers to avoid liability. 

The proposed law also fails to remove serious legal hurdles that prevent transnational cases being brought against companies, such as costs, short time-limits, lack of access to evidence and a disproportionate burden of proof. 

Beyond corporate sustainability, our environmental defenders pushed for a fundamental transformation of our society and relationship with nature. Our current linear model of consumption and production is a driving cause of the climate crisis. In this “throwaway” model, the pursuit of limitless growth, production and consumption are destroying our biodiversity, polluting our rivers and killing those who defend us.

Overconsumption in the EU is directly tied to destructive mining projects in Peru and Latin America. The EU’s material footprint is 14.5 tonnes per capita (of which 20% is imported from outside of the EU). This is double the just limit of consumption and is using up to 97% of the planet’s ‘safe operating space’. 

After visiting the EU Parliament, our environmental defenders met with other indigenous representatives, CSOs and MEPs for dinner to build and strengthen links of solidarity between their fights for justice.

This meeting occurred in collaboration with the EEB, as part of the Speaker’s Tour 2022.

Written by catapista Connor Cashell.

Sources: 

Business and Human Rights Centre Resource Centre., (2019). 
Brumadinho dam collapse: lessons in corporate due diligence and remedy for harm done. 
Available at: https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/blog/brumadinho-dam-collapse-lessons-in-corporate-due-diligence-and-remedy-for-harm-done/ 
[Accessed 22 March 2022].

Cockburn, H. (2020) ‘Climate crisis: 
global temperature rise of 2C ‘would release billions of tonnes of soil carbon’, Independent, 2 November 2020. 
Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/climate-change/news/soil-carbon-climate-crisis-global-warming-b1534409.html 
[Accessed 22 March 2022].

European Commission (2021) ‘Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council 
on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence and amending Directive (EU) 2019/1937’. 
Available at: https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/default/files/1_1_183885_prop_dir_susta_en.pdf 
[Accessed 22 March 2022].

European Environmental Bureau, Friends of the Earth Europe (2021). 
Green mining is a myth’: the case of cutting EU resource consumption. 
Available at: https://eeb.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Green-mining-report_EEB-FoEE-2021.pdf 
[Accessed 22 March 2022].

MEP Antonius Manders (2021), Report on the liability of companies for environmental damage (2020/2027(INI)) 
Committee on Legal Affairs. 
Available at: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-9-2021-0112_EN.pdf 
[Accessed 22 March 2022].

OECD (2011), Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (2011 update), 
Available at: https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264115415-en 
[Accessed 22 March 2022].

United Nations (2011), Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: 
Implementing the United Nations ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework. 
Available at https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf 
[Accessed 22 March 2022].
Thank you volunteers!

Volunteers’ Week

This week it’s Volunteers’ Week in Belgium, a time to think about and thank the work of all the volunteers who have been collaborating for years to make the CATAPA project possible.

Thanks in a million!!!!

As every year, we have the opportunity to welcome two volunteers in the framework of the European Solidarity Corps, a programme funded by the European Commission that brings young people the opportunity to volunteer around Europe in social and environmental projects. It offers an inspiring and empowering experience for young people who want to help, learn and develop.

Currently, in Belgium, there are a large number of volunteers working on multiple projects, which are managed by JINT (Nationaal Agentschap voor Erasmus+ Jeugd).  

Our two 2021-22 ESC volunteers, Connor and Laura, were invited to participate these days in a gathering with them. A space for volunteer training, to explore the interculturality of the group, to meet international people and to have a meaningful and educational experience.

During the training, bonding activities took place among the volunteers as well as reflection sessions about the volunteer tasks in order to learn from each other.

Do you have nice #catapistas pictures yourself? Send them to communication.sc@vzw.catapa.be! Or share them via social media with #catapistas & don’t forget to tag us on Instagram @catapa_vzw or on Facebook @catapa.belgium.

Are you a catapista yourself? We’d love to hear what you would like us to organise in the future! Share your ideas via this form.

Become a Catapa Volunteer!

Thanks a lot & see you soon!

Speaker’s Tour 2022 – Overview activities

CATAPA’s next Speakers Tour is coming up!

From the 3rd until the 13th of March we have two Peruvian guests visiting us in Belgium: Rosas Duran Carrera, a farmer and activist from the Valle de Condebamba in Cajamarca, and Mirtha Villanueava, director of our partner organisation GRUFIDES. 

Their days will be filled with awareness raising, networking and lobbying events. They are here to share their struggle against large-scale mining in Peru and how standing up for their rights comes with the risk and fear of being intimidated, stigmatized and persecuted. During their visit, they will talk to students, local and European politicians, the press, civil society organizations and interested citizens. 

Here you can find an overview of activities in which you are able to meet them personally:

 

4.03: Kick-Off Speaker’s Tour + Public Action

4 March 2022, 18h45, Ghent. 

We start with an internal reception to give a warm welcome to our speakers with our movement, as well as a celebration to kick-off the speaker’s tour. Old and new Catapistas and CATAPA’s partners are invited. Didn’t inscribe yet? Fill in this form: https://forms.gle/v1DBtAh72NNGLqFw8

The Kick Off starts at 19h30, but before that (at 18h45) we already gather at Sint-Pietersplein in Ghent for a public action! During this action we will sing Cajamarcan protest songs, play music and call for the protection of our environmental defenders and for the implementation of the Right to Say No! If you register for the kick off, you will receive all the information about the action too. 

 

06.03: Ontbijt met een Rebel 

6 March 2022, 9h30, Ghent

It has become a tradition, our annual Breakfast with a Rebel! After a coronabreak last year, we are going for it again this year! Come and listen to five rebels on 6 March with inspiring stories from all corners of the world, while you can feast on the vegetarian breakfast buffet.

More information here.

 

8.03: Round Table: DEFENSORAS. Tierras que resisten en manos de mujeres

8 March 2022, 19h30, Brussels

Being a woman and defending the land is the double threat faced by women environmental defenders all over the world.

On March 8, we will listen to the testimony of defensoras from Peru, Colombia and The Netherlands/Bolivia. They will share stories about climate activism and their experiences and struggles within the defense of their territories, in order to promote solidarity and to connect different struggles for justice. They’ll also talk about the vital role of women in activism.

Join our cozy round table conversation and get strengthened by stories of hope and resistance of these inspiring Defensoras!

More information about the event here.

 

 

7, 9 & 10.03: Student events 

Our guests will go to three universities to talk in four events about their experiences with students. All these testimonies will be followed by an interactive session, in which we will determine some links between the universities and issues related to mining. Together we will brainstorm about solutions and think of ways to present these solutions to the rector!

Three of those four events are public! Also non-students are welcome to take part. Here’s an overview: 

 

12.03: Re-Connect Restart Party

12 March 2022, 14h, Antwerp

Rosas & Mirtha will share their testimonies at the Re-Connect Restart Party on the 12th of March! This is a Repair Café with all kinds of interesting workshops and sessions, which takes place at Circuit in Antwerp. Rosas & Mirtha will explain why the Right to Repair and going towards a more circular way to produce and consume metals is important to reduce our need for newly extracted raw materials. 

More information here. 

 

This year CATAPA is collaborating with Gent Fair Trade for the Speaker Tour activities that take place in Ghent. 

LINK TO ALL EVENTS

Study and Lobby Working Group Launch

We are pleased to announce the launch of CATAPA’s new Study and Lobby Working Group. The Working Group will produce cutting edge research and lobby on the following themes;

 

Research Theme 1: Planned Obsolescence: Ctrl Alt Del Campaign

Our current linear model of consumption and production is a driving cause of the climate crisis. In this “throwaway” model, the drive for limitless production and consumption of electronics places quantity above product quality.

Products are made with a limited life span (planned obsolescence) or the design makes repair difficult or unfeasible. Some products are designed to fail, with system faults purposefully incorporated to reduce their lifespan. This is a deliberate strategy on behalf of the electronics industry to encourage users to purchase ‘new and improved’ products. This is planned obsolescence.

Ending planned obsolescence requires policy change on the Flemish and EU level. The planet urgently requires strong politicians willing to take a stand against the electronics industry and implement strict regulation obliging multinational companies to produce eco-designed products. Electronic products must be repairable and made to last, instead of disposable products made to break down quickly and be replaced. 

 

Research Theme 2: EU Critical Raw Materials

CATAPA strives towards a world in which the extraction of non-renewable resources is no longer necessary. Achieving this requires a fundamental transformation of our society and relationship to nature. 

Under the guise of ‘green mining’, the EU’s Critical Raw Materials list outlines a strategy for the resourcing of over thirty mined resources, such as lithium, deemed ‘necessary’ for the green transition.

Securing such an increased demand for raw materials requires an expansion of mining operations within the EU. More mining will lead to severe negative socio-environmental impacts, such as human rights abuses, pollution and loss of land. The transition to renewable energy must be just. 

 

Research Theme 3: Right to Say No

A just transition includes local communities having the Right to Say No to mining projects. Under the ‘social licence to operate’ (SLO), a non-binding voluntary commitment to ‘good practice’, corporations are able to greenwash their operations. Local communities have no legal instrument to oppose unwanted mining projects. 

Where local communities resort to direct action to resist mining operations, they are dismissed, labeled as terrorists and face severe repression and human rights violations. 227 environmental defenders were killed in 2020.

Additionally, the Investor-State Dispute Settlement system (ISDS), embedded in international trade agreements, enables corporations to sue states, predominantly in the Global South, over opposition to proposed mining projects.

The ISDS system must be dismantled. Fairer, democratic consultation mechanisms must be adopted. Local communities must have the decisive, legally binding say over the fate of mining projects. 

 

Research Theme 4: Alternatives to extractivism

We’re living in an age of crises. The current mantra and false solutions of endless growth, consumption and subjugation of nature is pushing the planet towards socio-ecological collapse.

So, what is the solution?

To meet this moment, we must dare to imagine and embody bold alternatives such as Degrowth. Our economy must be based on social and environmental justice. We must repair our relationship with nature and recognise our co-existence within the web of life. 

 

Get involved!

Joining the Study and Lobby Working Group provides you with a means to improve your research and lobbying skills. Your work will support CATAPA’s vision and mission, and will be published on the website and social media platforms. 

There will also be an opportunity within the Working Group to develop other projects, such as an Open Journal, Book Club, Symposiums and more!

Sign up: https://forms.gle/sw7i6tm2ZmNojxzm7 

Want more information? Contact connor.cashell[at]catapa.be

Cajamarca Art and Unity

Art and unity in Cajamarca

Art and unity in Cajamarca

“What if we sing?”, she asks as she pulled a small paper with some scribbles that formed lyrics out of her pocket. She is one of the Defensoras de la Vida y la Pacha Mama from Cajamarca. We are in the middle of our latest workshop on citizen journalism and human rights and we are just chitchatting while lunch is being served. “What if we sing?”

And we sing. Not just to pass time waiting, but to get our message through, to come closer. Quickly the participants of the workshop gather together, have a look at the lyrics, and sing. About the beautiful lakes of Cajamarca, the mining projects destroying them, about their resistance, their fight and never giving up.

My mother and I wrote this song as we were protesting against Conga”, the woman tells us, “we sang it in the streets, we sang it everywhere. And it is still accurate

Human Rights

The song became the common thread during the rest of our workshop. We had come together in a training session organized by our partner organization Grufides in Cajamarca, Peru, together with Chaikuni in Iquitos, as part of a project financed by the province of Oost-Vlaanderen. It focuses on empowering rural and indigenous women for the defense of fundamental and collective rights in socio-ecological conflicts in both of these regions.

A big and important part of this project consists of organizing training sessions on two main topics: human rights and citizen journalism.

The first topic informs about human rights with the idea that “you can´t defend your rights if you don´t know them”. So that´s why for the last year and a half we have been working with people, mostly women, from different communities in Cajamarca on different matters: human rights, environmental rights, violence against women, intercultural health and so forth.

Coming together to talk about experiences in different communities is of great importance. It helps to know that people in other regions have to go through similar problems, to hear the outcome of similar struggles, and to know other communities support you in this fight to defend your rights.

Citizen Journalism

The second topic we work on during these training sessions is citizen journalism. How can these communities make sure the rest of the world knows what they are going through? How can they make sure everyone is aware of the cases they are fighting for?

Journalism and means of communication are important tools to address the violation of collective and fundamental rights in these communities. Nowadays, journalism can be one of the most powerful tools to defend your rights.

This is why during these sessions we focus on making videos, photographs, writing notes, making radio programs and radio spots. We learn about storytelling, how to use social media and hashtags and most importantly: we do this together.

Our main focus during the last few sessions was to work on a regional and national campaign between the different communities involved in this project. The participants themselves came up with goals for this campaign, with their target audience, and during this last session: their strategy.

Art as a strategy

The participants decided to focus on three specific cases for this first campaign and came up with four different strategies to reach their audience: a video, in which we could show a before and after related to the mining projects in their region, a study on the water quality, a key figure who can tell their story from their own perspective and last but not least, art.

We can paint. We can paint murals all over Cajamarca, all over Peru. We can sing, we can write more songs, like the one we just sang. We can use poetry. We can make theatre. We are all creative, we all have capacities. And we can use art as our strategy

The ideas on how to use art in our campaign kept flowing. “When Máxima Acuña was told to tell her story in the international press, she didn´t tell it. She sang it. And it was so much more powerful, it transmitted so many emotions. I still get goosebumps thinking about it,” someone said, “we can do this too. Our stories are powerful too. They just need to be heard.”

To end this day-long session, we asked the participants what they learned. “That together we are stronger”, someone said. “That we can use our art to let the world see our reality”, someone added. Art and unity. That´s what we learned today. Art and unity. We will stand together and sing. And our voices will be heard.

More info about our Peruvian partner INSTITUTO CHAIKUNI
More info about our Peruvian partner GRUFIDES
Right to Say No webinar poster

The Right to Say No: Insights and Experiences of the Global Struggle against Mining

WEBINAR:

The Right to Say No: Insights and Experiences of the Global Struggle against Mining

4th August, 2021

Last week The Thematic Social Forum on Mining and Extractive Economy explored the “Right to Say No” to mining projects all over the world during a global webinar. Speakers from four different continents were invited to speak about their own insights and experiences around the Right to Say No (RTSN).

(You can watch the full webinar on youtube here).

First up was Farai Maguwu from Zimbabwe (Centre for Natural Resource Governance – CNRG), followed by Aung Ja from Burma, Hal Rhoades from Northern Europe (Yes to Life No to Mining – YLNM) and Karina from Brazil (Movement for Popular Sovereignty in Mining – MAM).
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The Right to Say No has never been more pertinent. In the name of economic growth, mining projects are causing damage and pollution everywhere. Natural resources are being exploited and local communities are being devastated. Natural resources are being plundered and people are losing access to clean water and fertile land, which is impacting their livelihoods, health and wellbeing. The divide between rich and poor, the ones benefiting from the extractivist/capitalist model and the ones suffering from it, is getting bigger and bigger. This in a world where there has never been more wealth and abundance. On top of that there is the urgent reality of climate change, with this model pushing the bounds of our planet.

We also note the resistance of local communities who demand the ‘Right to Say No’ on these extractive activities. During the webinar, case studies from Africa, Asia, Europe and South America were presented, in which the ‘Right to Say No’ was the focus of this collective fight against mining.

"If not now, when? There is no planet B" sign black and white

We don’t have to reinvent the wheel in the fight for our common cause.  Local communities are resisting these mining projects and asserting their Right to Say No. These local actions are providing the foundation for strategies and alternatives needed to challenge the system. There are different contexts to be dealt with but we can definitely learn from each other’s struggles and victories and apply them to our own situation. As Hal pointed out during his talk, currently there is no real ‘Right’ to Say No. This is something we are asserting, not something we can (yet) claim.

 

Historical context

Many mining projects are a display of the historical hold of colonial power and foreign influence. Countries with a colonial past – for example the UK, which houses a lot of these large mining corps – are the same that are now putting pressure on more extraction projects. The end destination of the profits from these projects go to developed countries, the former colonizers, and not the countries that are the home to these resources. On top of that, Europe is also the main over-consumer of minerals and energy. Whether directly involved or not, these countries are the ones benefiting from it, while the countries from the Global South where these projects happen are the ones being exploited.

 

Current context

In certain countries there is the problem of limited democratic space because of repressive or military regimes. We heard from Farai and Aung Ja about the struggles people and communities face in Zimbabwe and Birma respectively. People in power are working hand in hand with corporations and investors from different countries (Australia, India, China, Bulgaria, UK,..) against their own population. The people face eviction from their lands and violence or punishments if they stand up for their rights. Protesting these actions of governments and mining corporations is an act of courage in the face of these threats.
The current European Green Deal also poses a big problem as it will incentivize and support mining expansion (read more on this subject here).

 

Common Ground

We need to be plural and refrain from taking a one size fits all approach (which is an extractive, capitalist idea) – to each situation there is a specific context. The RTSN movement is a heterogeneous collection of organizations, people and cultures. But there are certain principles that give the variety of organizations that are a part of the movement common ground (derived from Hal’s presentation):

  •  Questioning the nature of democracy: who benefits, who shoulders the burdens long term? Who defines where mining takes place, who decides the value, who benefits and who suffers…? 
  • Rejection of the instrumental relations with nature: “Nature” is a much better term than “environment” or “natural resources” as it has integrity. Right to say no is premised on ensuring quality of life
  • Advocating for local, low-impact ways of life.
  • Challenging the extractivist and growth oriented meta-politics or narratives.

 

Demands

 (As derived from Aung Ja and Karina’s talk.)

  • Firm and strong regulation of corporations on behalf of the people; we demand no harm to people, planet and our social wellbeing and livelihoods.
  • Affirmation of the society and not the interest of the state and the capital, there needs to be a people centered governance. Communities need to have authority and sovereignty. They decide what is best socially and culturally for their lifestyles. They must control their natural resources/common goods and not the governments. Because it impacts their livelihoods and their future generations.
  • A just transition and full restitution. Compensation for the degradation of the territories. The process of restitution must include the responsibility of the state and the corporations. They have to be held accountable. The transition must be diverse in how to approach this on many levels.
  • Mining free territories: If certain areas are classified as protected areas no mining should be able to go ahead. Same goes for respecting indigenous land rights.
Protester on street blowing a whistle

A rich repertoire of strategies and interventions

Here you can explore some strategies and interventions that can be utilized to assert the RTSN (collected from the different speakers). A lot of these strategies can be combined into a larger strategy (or are a necessary step eg. doing research). Keeping in mind that there are different contexts (political, cultural, …) to be accounted for that will determine which ones you use.

 

Research

Farai proposes that the first intervention is doing research: who is involved, who is going to be affected, what are going to be the likely environmental impacts, and so on.

 

Documentation, evidence and argument

It’s important to document the struggles, to document what is going on and spread this information so we can learn from each other. We need more research and documentation of the current cases. To ask ourselves what could support the RTSN campaign? An idea could be to develop a model legislation/process that could be adapted to the local/regional levels.

 

Document reviews

The environmental impact assessments that mining companies put on the table are often fraudulent documents, so there is a need to investigate those. Also in certain cases people are being tricked to meetings, signing an attendance register which is later used as a consent form.

Capacity building

Building the capacity of the people and communities. Educating them about their rights.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” – Nelson Mandela

 

Popular Consultations/Referendum

We heard Faraj talk about this strategy, and we know this is also used in Latin American countries. It is rarely used in Europe, but there has been a case in Trun, Bulgaria where a gold project was rejected successfully and unanimously.

 

The Legal Process

The Legal framework is often in favor of corporations, but there are also certain loopholes in laws or constitutions that can be used to our advantage. This can often be used as a delaying strategy to give some breathing space to other strategies. We can also work on fixing the laws and loopholes the corporations are using.

 

Declaring the Rights of Nature/Community

We heard the example of Ireland / Greencastle, where the community and local governments declared the rights of Nature to apply and put this in local legislation. As mining is not compatible with the Rights of Nature. 

 

Petitioning

Petitioning parliament to intervene and hold fact finding missions. Farai explained they do this by going to the affected community, raise a campaign and reach out to the media. Then the parliament is left with no choice but to intervene and they are forced to listen to the complaints and recognize the rights of communities.

 

Direct Action

We can use our bodies by placing ourselves in between – this is the most visceral and dangerous form of strategy.

Turkish woman with walking stick standing in front of police barricade

This powerful photo was shared on the day of action by allies in Turkey for the #GlobalDayAgainstMegaMining. Communities in the Kaz Mountains are resisting gold mining companies from deforestation and digging up their lands.


We can ourselves stop (or pressure our country to stop) investing by not committing trade, and by applying sanctions and boycotts. For example in regards to the current situation in Burma (or other repressive regimes) until there is a democracy that at least respects human rights.


Make it public

  • Hold public meetings, demonstrations or protests to drive media attention and create awareness in the public mind to what is happening. Mobilize public opinion in our favor.
  • Secure support of prominent, highly credible and influential leaders. These can be judges, political leaders, or even corporative leaders. Without compromising our fundamental principles.

 

Use the Media Creatively

  • Use the media: hold your own media campaign. Identify journalists who can amplify the community struggles so local can go global in terms of media awareness. We are no longer weak, voiceless or faceless. Defend the press and media from authoritarian governments.
  • Popularize our struggles using media (traditional, mainstream and social media). Harness the power of the internet and the digital lifestyle. Reaching millennials. Youth must. Inform and educate mainstream media why RTSN is important.

 

Solidarity strengthens

  • Exercise and enhance solidarity, building big national and international networks and alliances. We need an international movement to amplify our struggles. Popular community organization and permanent actions of solidarity that strengthen emancipation are essential.

“Solidarity was the movement that turned the direction of history, I think.” – Jeane Kirkpatrick 

 

  • Putting international pressure on repressive governments, fe. the Bolsonaro regime in Brazil. Popular engagement and organization is so important in these situations.

Company Engagement

  •  In Selkie (Finland) the community contacted multiple companies that were prospecting the area and told them “we reject this outright so save your money and go away”. This worked in their case but it has a very specific context.
  • Holding community engagements meetings between communities, corporations and governments.

Propose alternatives

There are better options possible that are already currently existent or that exist as potential opportunities. We can’t continue in the same way as has been happening in the patriarchal capitalist system. There is small-scale farming, fishing, eco or nature based tourism. Karina also proposes to use the inputs of women and youth, to employ their creativity for coming up with new economic alternatives and ways of living.
Restoration of nature can provide new options for people. Nature recovery is so necessary. Good examples are Finland or Northern-Spain.

Check out some examples of community-led post-extractive ‘alternatives’.

“The environment and the economy are really both two sides of the same coin. If we cannot sustain the environment, we cannot sustain ourselves” – Wangari Maathai 

 

Challenging the narrative

  • We need to call out the narratives that are being told. Pointing out the irony in justifying demolishing rural communities that are already low-impact and sustainable in the name of climate action and so-called ‘sustainability’.
  • Calling out the Green Deal’s greenwashing tactics. RTSN as a response to the green washing narrative.
  • Questioning the ‘economic recovery of Covid’ story. Often this is used as a reason to start up mining projects as a way to reactivate the economy.
  • Mining happens because there is demand that comes from the growth narrative. We need to move towards a narrative based on wellbeing instead of the illusion of continuous growth.
  • Nature is being reduced to commodifiable minerals. There is a clash between short term, instrumentalist view of nature as a collection of dead commodities to be extracted for the greater good. We need a longer-term vision of Nature which is holistic and takes in account the  cultural and spiritual relations with a territory.
  • Understanding free territory not just as a physical space free from extraction and mining. But also the non-material reality of the territory. The full spectrum. The bodies, spirit, culture, ways of living and thinking.

“We don’t inherit the earth, we borrow it from our children.” – Chief Seattle 

We hope you got some inspiration from this collection of strategies and interventions collected from the different speakers from The Right to Say No Global Webinar!

You can check out the final declaration of the Thematic social Forum on Mining and the Extractivist Economy who organized the webinar  here.

If you have some other interventions or tactics that can be useful feel free to share them with us in the comments, via the contact form or e-mail info@catapa.be