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A.4.a. Logging and Mining

As reserves of natural resources run out, corporations try to find new resources on remote lands which often belong to indigenous peoples. As a result there are a growing number of struggles by local people against mining and timber companies.

Evans, Geoff ; Goodman, James ; Lansbury, Nina, Moving Mountains: Communities Confront Mining and Globalisation, London, Zed Books, 2002, pp. 284

Discusses role of corporations and governments in different parts of the world. Chapters 8-12 focus on resistance in Bougainville, the Philippines and Australia. Chapter 12 (pp. 195-206) covers the resistance to the Jabiluka uranium mine by the local Aboriginal people, supported by environmentalists.

Gedicks, Al, The New Resource Wars: Native and Environmental Struggles against Multinational Corporations, Boston MA, South End Press, 1993, pp. 270

Examines campaigns by the Ojibwa Indians against mining and over land tenure and the role of multinationals in Wisconsin.

Magnusson, Warren ; Shaw, Karena, A Political Space: Reading the Global through Clayoquot Sound, Minneapolis MN, University of Minnesota Press, 2002, pp. 320

Campaign on Vancouver Island, Canada, against corporate loggers trying to take over indigenous land. Protesters blocked roads against logging. Both men and women took part, but cited as a protest organized on feminist principles.

Moody, Roger, The Risks We Run: Mining Communities and Political Risk Insurance, Utrecht, International Books, 2005, pp. 342

Part 1 investigates the shadowy world of international mining finances, while Part 2 has case study chapters on mining projects and local resistance in West Papua, Papua New Guinea, Guyana, Kyrgyzstan, Tanzania and Peru.

Moody, Roger, Rocks and Hard Places: The Globalisation of Mining, London, Zed Books, 2007, pp. 213

Detailed analysis by committed campaigner. Chapter 8 ‘No Means No’ discusses strategy against mining, calling for more emphasis on nonviolent direct action and greater scepticism about certification.

Wilton, Jen, Touch the Earth, New Internationalist, issue March, 2014, pp. 24-25

Provides snapshots of struggles by local people against chromite, bauxite, copper, silver and gold mining in Canada, Guinea, Burma, Mexico, Papua New Guinea and Mozambique, and notes movement in northern Peru, beginning 2008 and erupting into mass blockades in 2009, against logging and oil drilling.

Özkan, Kemal, Rio Tinto’s “Sustainable Mining” Claims Exposed, Ecologist, 30/07/2014, pp. 3-2

Ozkan, Associate General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union, comments critically on Rio Tinto’s record and notes his union’s commitment to campaign for changes in corporate policies. IndustriALL has produced reports on Rio Tinto, for example ‘Rio Tinto in Africa: Global Citizen or Corporate Shame’, available from: www.industriall-union.org

See also:

Margaret Keck; Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Across Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics, (1.c. Titles included in Volume 1, but also cited in Sections of Volume 2), pp. 150-60 on campaign against deforestation in Sarawak by Dayaks, who barricaded logging roads.

For additional references see also: Vol. 2: B.2.a. and 2.b. and C. 2.b. and 2.d.