Globe, Migrants, Struggles, Uncategorized, United Kingdom

October: Times of resistance

UK-based solidarity groups once again come together to express their support for Aboriginal peoples, their struggle to defend their lands and oppose the presence of transnational corporations. In addition, to discuss what the conquest of the American continent really meant. On the agenda: 9 and 12 October.

 

The presence of developed countries in undeveloped ones is, for some, promising, just as they consider their history of conquest around the world to have been positive. Others, however, have reviewed the facts and documented or experienced the impact that this transnational power has had and continues to have.

The result is not encouraging. Displaced and impoverished communities, plundering of natural resources, violence, violation of human rights, environmental pollution and impact on fauna, vegetation and water resources, and transformation of pristine cultural values are, among others, the impact that transnationals and multinationals exert on territories and their inhabitants.

On this reality, Plataforma 12 de octubre has planned different activities for this month; one of them being the webinar No to transnational extractivism! No to planetary destruction!

The organisers of the webinar accuse transnational corporations of “genocide and ecocide the length and breadth of Latin America and the Caribbean”.

They point to the oil companies BP, Exxon and Shell, and the mining corporations AngloAmerican, BHP, Glencore, Rio Tinto, as “the major contributors to carbon emissions and hence global warming”.

In addition, they point out that the City of London is “a global centre for these planetary death machines”.

The British government’s claim to be a world leader on climate change, they add, “is duplicitous bluster.  It is in bed with the multinationals. We urge a completely different international connection based on social and environmental solidarity”.

Among the themes of the event are: “El Cerrejón Colombia: Empire reloaded”, with speakers Diana Salazar (PhD Researcher at UCL, Colombia Solidarity Campaign, Trustee of London Mining Network); and Richard Solly (Colombia Solidarity Campaign and Co-ordinator of London Mining Network)

Other topics and speakers: “The social costs of bauxite mining in Jamaica”, with Donna Mattis (social activist, member of The People’s Anti-Corruption Movement and The Cockpit Country Warriors);  “South America’s neo-colonial carbon bomb”, with Melinda Janki, international lawyer opposing oil and gas production offshore Guyana); and “BHP’s impacts in Latin America”, with Javiera Martinez (Member of the London Chilean Assembly, London Mining Network and Amnesty International’s South America UK team).

London and resistance

On the other hand, for October 12, the date that gave rise to the name Platform 12, they will hold the Act of Resistance on Tuesday October 12, which they organise annually to “commemorate the more than 500 years of resistance of our native peoples after the invasion of our lands in 1492”.

They also want “to express our rejection of the past of colonialist oppression and the current neo-colonialism of voracious capitalism and its extractivist and neoliberal economy”.

As has been the case since 2012, when they were formed as a “joint effort of several solidarity groups from different countries”, various movements, groups and organisations will be present at this act of resistance.

The Platform is working on five key points: 1) 1492: Beginning of the Genocide! 2) The indigenous resistance of Latin America, Abya Yala – Nican Tlaca, continues! 3) Defend the Pachamama: No to Free Trade Agreements (FTA) and extractivist exploitation! 4) For a world without borders. No one is illegal, the struggle for migrants’ rights continues! 5) Another world is possible! 5) Another world is possible; we fight for a United and Free Latin America!

Date and time:

Webinar: Saturday 9 October, 4 pm. to 6 pm. (UK), to register click here. Resistance Rally: Tuesday 12 October, 5 pm, Trafalgar Square, London.

For more information on these events and other activism by this organisation, click on Plataforma 12 de Octubre.

(Translated by Rene Phelvin) – Photos: Pixabay

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