A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #348 - Environment, Extractivism: Environmental struggles beyond borders (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

From Peru to Grenoble and everywhere in the world, extractivism crosses 
borders to plunder the soil and dominate living things. To face it, 
let's bring an internationalist and decolonial vision to our ecological 
struggles. ---- Extractivism represents a capitalistic and colonial mode 
of wealth accumulation and is based on the extraction of significant 
quantities of natural resources (fossils, mining, forestry, etc.) mainly 
intended for export to empires colonials.
As described by Eduardo Galeano in his book The Open Veins of Latin 
America, the plundering of the lands and subsoils of Latin America, as 
well as the exploitation of the labor force and the enslavement of 
indigenous peoples, are closely linked to the formation and 
configuration of global capitalism.
Extractivism, a renewal of colonialism, highlights the fact that 
communities residing on land rich in resources are stripped of them. 
Many researchers speak of the "resource curse", emphasizing that these 
precious resources are exploited to fuel the economies of Western 
countries, leaving indigenous populations with minimal or even negative 
financial gains while plundering their soil and subsoil and polluting 
their environment. This system perpetuates various forms of domination 
by moving wealth from the global South to the global North.
Take the example of La Oroya[1], a city of around 33,000 inhabitants, 
located in the central mountain range of Peru. Since 1922, it has been 
the site of a metallurgical foundry mainly operated by the American 
company Doe Run-Peru. The complex has long been the main source of 
employment in the region, however, metallurgical activity has led to 
serious pollution of the air, soil and water. In 2000, La Oroya was 
ranked among the ten most polluted cities in the world, with alarming 
levels of lead in the blood of residents (97% of children aged 6 months 
to 6 years still have high levels of lead). in the blood). Some parents 
took collective action at the Doe Run headquarters in the United States.
Capitalism destroys the earth and bodies
In 2009 measures were finally taken against the American operator and 
the metallurgical complex was closed. But, it is far from being a 
victory, the local population continues to suffer the harmful 
consequences of persistent contamination while facing unemployment, 
which pushes the unions to demand the reopening of the complex in order 
to compensate for the lack of job.
This example, among many others, supports the need for a revolution in 
modes of production which involves the control of production by workers. 
This revolution will constitute the essential driving force in the fight 
against the colonial and extractivist system, thus putting an end to the 
intensive exploitation of the soil and subsoil of entire regions, to the 
exploitation of living things and indigenous populations, to 
overproduction and calling into question polluting industrial processes...

Ecological struggles in an era of globalization
On the other side of the Atlantic, in the Grenoble basin, a fight 
against the expansion of the Crolles site of STMicroelectronics is in 
full swing with the StopMicro collective. The company, which produces 
semiconductors, consumes a significant quantity of water in a territory 
where competition for access to water is intense. After the expansion, 
the manufacturer plans to triple its water consumption compared to 2021, 
which represents an ecological aberration in a region already under 
water pressure. The CGT ST Crolles has also spoken out on the subject 
and calls on employees to take up the environmental challenges posed by 
their activity and criticizes management for the lack of ambition to 
find effective solutions.

Faced with this fight against the expansion of STMicroeletronics, some 
defend the argument of the relocation of production, but in reality, the 
expansion of the Crolles factory will not replace a factory elsewhere, 
but will be there. add. However, it is important to recognize the 
rebound effect of French environmental regulations which lead to a 
relocation of production and therefore pollution and plundering of the 
soil of other regions. It is therefore necessary to bring a decolonial 
prism into the struggles against large, unnecessary projects. Thus, 
alongside a revolution in production, we must lead a revolution in 
exchanges by defending productive autonomy. Freed from dependence on 
multinationals, territories, with the help of local production and short 
exchange circuits, must be able to provide for their needs, thus 
avoiding pollution and pillaging of other territories.

If the fight against the expansion of STMicroeletronics and that of the 
Peruvian city of La Oroya are geographically opposed, they have a major 
common enemy: capitalism which succeeds in adapting and renewing itself 
by using other dominations in order to perpetuate its growth. Thus, to 
preserve resources and living things, we must lead ecological, 
decolonial, anti-capitalist and international struggles across borders.

Léo and Oum (UCL Grenoble)

To validate

[1]Environmental Justice Atlas

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Extractivisme-Les-luttes-ecologistes-au-dela-des-frontieres
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