Illegal gold mining in Ecuador is increasing at a rapid pace, with disastrous consequences for people and nature. Most affected areas are located near Indigenous communities who are fed up with the devastation. They are now fighting for an end to illegal mining and demand their rights!
The Ecuadorian province of Napo is known for its rivers. From the mountains of Napo spring dozens of streams that gather in the Napo River, which in turn flows into the Amazon River. Due to its high altitude in the Amazon forest, this province is the home of about 50 Quechua communities since centuries. According to the Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos, more than half of the residents in Napo live in poverty or extreme poverty.
At the same time, Napo’s hills hide enormous wealth. Large amounts of gold are found in riverbeds and banks. For a long time, Quechua communities were the only ones to make sparing use of this resource, but in recent months this has been changing rapidly. In yet another episode of colonial violence, these communities are seeing how their health and survival, as well as that of the surrounding natural environment, are threatened in order to line overseas pockets.
The more the world changes, the more it stays the same. The times of a European gold rush in South America may seem far behind us, even today we see how native communities have to make way for the resources beneath their homes. Gold has become an important metal for the production of smartphones and other high-tech, so demand for it remains unabated.
The Ecuadorian government has sold 32,277 hectares of land in Napo to mining companies in recent decades. That’s about as much land as the municipality of Rotterdam. Since 2011, the biggest player in Napo mining is “Terra Earth Resources S.A.,” financed by Chinese capital. According to a law from 2007, representatives of the Quechua communities had to be consulted about projects in their area of residence. They weren’t.
Even worse, illegal mining has risen sharply in recent months. While it covered only one hectare in October 2021, in two months it increased to as much as 61 hectares. Even local officials raised the alarm, but the government seemed unable to adequately oppose illegal mining. There are even indications that some officials are taking financial advantage of the situation themselves.
The administrators have already indicated that they will stop illegal mining as soon as possible. But according to Napo residents, the distinction between legal and illegal mining overshadows a much more fundamental issue: legal or not, mining in Napo is terrible for nature and the health of surrounding residents.
The disastrous effects of mining can easily be read in the soil. In unpolluted areas of the mountain rivers, 19 mg/L of mercury was found, while in areas of illegal mining, 130 mg/L was measured. This is a huge increase in a toxic substance that greatly exceeds Ecuador’s ecological regulations. On top of this, quantities of copper, iron, aluminum, magnesium, lead and zinc have been measured as much as 500 percent above the permitted standard.
The consequences for nature should come as no surprise: the survival rate of insects drops by 50 percent in polluted areas. Larger fish avoid these parts of the rivers, even though they were important breeding grounds. The result is that a few months of illegal farming disrupt the reproductive cycle of countless fish.
The government claims to fight illegal mining, but stresses that legal forms of mining are not subject to debate. According to human rights lawyer Andrés Rojas, this distinction is totally arbitrary. Legal mining also escapes prescribed environmental standards and pollutes nature. Legal mining also endangers the indigenous population and drives them from their homes. There is no such thing as ‘clean’ mining, and certainly not when you consider that legal and illegal mining are strongly connected. The more area was sold for legal mining, the more illegal mining increased.
The inhabitants of Napo have therefore recently united to form the collective Amazonia Resiste. Led by mostly Indigenous women, they are making a fist against gold mining in their area. They demand an end to illegal mining, and clear guidelines for their right to consultation when deals are made about their territories.
To achieve this, they have planned many demonstrations and sit-ins at strategic locations in the capital Quito and the provincial capital Tena. In addition, they are working with dozens of residents, lawyers, and legal experts to create new guidelines for their legal right to consultation so that their rights are better protected.
The Action Fund is proud to support this campaign. Amazonia resiste!
Košice is holding its tenth PRIDE Festival this year. Expect celebration, critique, and political action in the second biggest Slovakian city!
Even after 30+ years of democracy in Slovakia, LGBTI+ people continue to experience discrimination in their daily life. The root causes are multiple, chief amongst which the 40+ years period of communism during which LGBTI+
people were invisible, and the current religious climate. The result is that Slovakia is the most homophobic country of the Visegrad countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary).
According to a 2020 survey of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, more than 70 percent of LGBTI+ Slovakians are masking their sexual orientation and gender identity in public. Nearly 80 percent of respondents avoid holding hand with their partner in public space out of fear of being attacked, threatened or harassed. Nearly every second LGBTI person feels discriminated in all areas in Slovakia.
The Košice PRIDE Festival 2022 will be held from the 20th to the 28th of august. It aims to promote acceptance and solidarity towards LGBTI+ people and their families with this free festival, via diverse artistic activities as well as discussions with renowned human rights organisations and other interesting guests. The goal is to increase of acceptance of LGBTI+ people and to find solutions for the long-term discrimination of LGBTQ+ people in Slovakia in various areas of live, including a lack possibility to marry and access to necessary health care.
We interviewed Zimbabwean activists on how they use social media and political satire to politicise the youth. Paden Network continuously critiques and ridicules the leading Zany Pf party of Zimbabwe in their webseries, ‘Gazaland Police Station’, and ‘The Press Conference’
Zimbabwe has been ruled by Robert Mugabe and his Zanu Pf political party since 1987. Mugabe was removed from office in 2017 by a coup of his former vice-president in Emmerson Mnangagwa. So far, Mnangagwa does not seem any more poised to bring democracy than his predecessor.
His control over the media makes criticism and debate near impossible. Even though his grip on social media is not as tight, the recent transformation of popular influencers like Mai Titi, Madam Boss or Passion Java into Zanu Pf propagandists suggests that even social media are not safe against cooptation. By threatening critical influencers and buying out others, even Instagram and Tiktok become pro-government channels.
This is where Paden Network comes in. With financial aid from Het Actiefonds, Paden has produced a satirical show dubbed ‘The Press Conference’. The idea is to dramatize, and therefore amplify and flag out, political misdemeanors in Zimababwean politics. To unpack the story behind the headline, as well as to debunk and expose the savage propaganda, shenanigans, factional pursuits, pure incompetence, tyranny and ignorance of Zanu Pf. These episodes are designed as ‘calls for action’ – to cause creative demonstrations and campaigns within the constituency and communities involved. The satirical component makes the show popular with the youth, thus mobilizing them to speak out against injustice.
In this interview with Paden Network, a satirical youth organisation, we discuss the ways in which organizers try to politicize Zimbabwean youth. ‘The Press Conference’ brings together 96 of the most influential community based satirists – to use the coordinative ability of satire on matters around political mobilisation, with each episode expected to draw over 100 000
viewers across different social media platforms.
Seeing young artists from different genres (comedians, poets and musicians) coming to work together, using their talents to speak truth to power on behalf of citizens and the marginalized was the most inspiring part of the project. To date, frontloading the youth, Paden Network has managed to produce four episodes of the ‘Press Conference’ with only two being published – covering corruption surrounding Covid-19 relief funds, the controversial Cyber Security and Data Protection Bill, and the capturing and coercing of social media influencers and entertainers to peddle the Zanu Pf political narrative. Leveraging on the energy and creativity of the youth to demand accountability from the government was always going to be inspiring. More so in a country where young women do not usually participate in political issues or arts for change processes.
The project struck gender equality as it featured an equal number of men and women – both in the crew and the cast. This is evidence that more female young people are now willing to participate in issues that affect their future.
In a country like ours where young people seem to be uninterested in the political issues of the day, it is important that messages fighting injustices and repression be packaged in ways that young people understand and relate to. We chose political satire because it is a non-violent way that confronts the government, while having the youth engaged and exposing the hypocrisy and corruption of those in power. Though the country has previously been characterized by a lack of expression and persecution of activists, political satire has become more and more popular. Unlike other forms of confrontations such as protests which the government can easily stop by banning them or using state captured forces to throw teargas or arresting participants as was the case with Mhako, political satire is a form of protest that can escape the jaws of the government because its comedy, it’s funny but at the same time exposing the foolishness of those in power. So we chose satire because it’s the safest form of protest.
Some impact of our work can be seen from our previous project ‘Gazaland Police Station’- a satirical comedy web series that seeks to expose the systematic corruption in the police force. Earlier this year the police launched a ‘clean up the ghetto’ campaign after episode two of Gazaland Police Station had aired and gone viral, an episode that addressed how drugs were destroying the ghettos and how some drug lords are connected to high-ranking police officers.
Zimbabwe has only one TV station and a host of state captured radio stations – thus social media is the only alternative for citizens to consume and indulge in content that critique the government. Social media has become a platform where citizens and activists are able to speak truth to power.
Disappointed as you would have imagined!! With autocratic leader Mnangagwa becoming unpopular, the forthcoming elections are looking like the perfect time to end the 41-year-old tyrant rule of Zanu Pf. The momentum for change was crippled when Madam Boss, Mai Titi (both with over 2 million combined followers on social media) allowed themselves to be used by the regime, choosing money over justice for all. The most disappointing part of the whole saga was that Both Mai Titi and Madam Boss had built their names because they related to the struggles of the people, and only a few years ago we used to work with them in fighting for justice and freedom expression, but once they got to the top, Zanu Pf bought them. This outraged us because, all along, young people thought the two comedians were on their side.
However due to pressure from young people on the internet madam Boss has since distanced herself from the Zanu Pf.
Paden Network was thus motivated to counter, and came up with the project because we understand the power of digital media and the arts. Since time immemorial art has been a tool to fight for change in Zimbabwe and Zanu Pf has a history of using influencers to push their agenda, they successfully used Jah Prayzah, a popular musician, during the 2017 coup. This time we couldn’t fold our hands and watch them turn influencers into pushing their agenda, we had to stand for what we believe in- that is justice and freedom for all.
After years of silent suffering and discontent, the mass-uprising against the power of landlords and the political policy that feeds the housing crisis has started during the previous year. But also in the new year, there are plenty of reasons to keep protesting, the financialization and precarization of the housing market will continue if it’s up to the new Rutte IV cabinet.
In 2021 mass protests against the housing crisis finally happened in Dutch cities all over the country. With the support of Het Actiefonds, there were large demonstrations organized in Amsterdam, Rotterdam & Den Haag, all with a big turnup, fighting spirit, and message of solidarity. But also in the new year, there are plenty of possibilities and reasons to keep protesting. In the plans of the new cabinet, there is no apparent radical change of policy that will solve the underlying problem, the financialization of the housing market. The slogan, ‘Housing for people, not profit’ hasn’t fully broken through in The Hague, since they keep pressing that the measures they want to imply cannot have too much of a negative effect on the profit margins of investors. Plenty of reasons to keep fighting for your right to proper housing and shake up local politicians before the coming municipal elections. An overview:
Woonrevolte Amersfoort got the ball rolling in the new year and organized the first housing protest, which we already have behind us. Hundreds of people showed up on the Eemplein in Amersfoort to demand a radically different housing policy. The demonstration asked attention to the nationwide problems but also showed solidarity with the local neighborhood of Jericho, which is marked for demolition and will be replaced with more expensive housing.
The next upcoming housing action is planned in student city Delft. Next to the fact that student housing has become increasingly expensive and scarce, the organization is focusing on the nationwide problems by copying the demands from the earlier published and broadly supported housing manifest. They are still looking for volunteers and donations, so are you available on the 6th of February, sign up!
Another student city, Leiden, is organizing its own radical housing demonstration and can count on the support of Het Actiefonds. The organization also signed the housing manifest but came up with 13 of their own additional demands that demand a radically just and equal housing policy in their city.
Het Actiefonds will keep supporting the housing movement in 2022 and calls out everyone to keep protesting and demanding a radically different housing policy! We’ll see you at the upcoming actions!
On a pedestal on one of the most important roads of Mexico City, a lonesome purple figure stands with her fist raised in the air. It has been there since last September, and has been dubbed the antimonument ‘Glory to the women who struggle’. The figure has come to symbolize the ongoing struggle for womxn liberation in Mexico, defiantly placed on top of the pedestal where a statue of Columbus used to oversee the capital.
The women’s liberation movement in Mexico is one of the most emblematic social justice movements of the country, despite ongoing attempts of local and federal officials to delegitimize the protests and to bar the issue from the public agenda. Feminicide is a big issue in the country: womxn are killed and are disappearing at an alarming rate, while the authorities stick their head in the sand.
The women’s rights movement will not let this issue be forgotten. Countless mothers are roaming the streets, looking for their disappeared daughters and sons everyday. This is why the movement has constructed a ‘garden of memory’ around the antimonument that showcases the lives of the womxn that struggled for equality in Mexico’s history, sometimes murdered in the process. They have also replaced the wooden with a steel replica, in order to signal that the struggle against feminicide will not simply wither away if you neglect it long enough. On the contrary, it will remain a central issue for Mexico’s present and future.
The Colectivo Socio-Ambiental Juvenil de Cajamarca (COSAJUCA) set out to defend the wildlife and agriculture of the region. They are organizing an awareness-raising festival to inform the local youth about AngloGold Ashanti’s en Green SuperFood’s plans. Their goal is to mobilize the youth to protest against the avocado farming in the region.
The avocado farms are paving the way for decades of gold mining.
The Amazon forest is under a constant threat of deforestation, mining, and oil extraction. Another constant is the ongoing fight by indigenous nations against this exploitation. Earlier this year we wrote about the Sápara nation that successfully fought the unrightful expropriation of their ancestral lands in the Ecuadorian Amazon, but new challenges arise. In this article, we give an overview of two new initiatives, with the support of Het Actiefonds, in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Yet again the Sápara nation has to fight against pollution and oil extraction on their ancestral grounds. The national government of Ecuador and the Chinese oil company Andes Petroleum recently signed a contract that enables the extraction of oil on 2 pieces of land that are part of the territory of the Sápara. The federation of the Sápara nation in Ecuador and Peru takes action to protect their land, which is considered intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO. There will be a communal meeting within the 23 communities that make up the Sápara nation to reach a consensus about the actions against exploitation. As a result, there will be several protests marches, and sit-ins in the province of Pastaza and the city of Quito, with a broad community of indigenous nations involved. The goal of these actions will be the dissolution of the contract between the government and the Chinese oil company.
Next to the actions of the Sápara nation, the Sinangoe nation has a similar goal. Together with the FMIAE they start a campaign to claim the right to self-determination and an end to human rights violations that all indigenous nations in the Amazon forest have to endure. They advocate the introduction and execution of the constitutional right to free and informed consultation prior to plans of exploitation on their ancestral grounds, and the right to have a final executive say in these plans. Until the new legislation around prior consultation has been finalized, they want a complete stop to any new licenses for mining, oil extraction, or hydroelectric projects. To accomplish this goal, the Sinangoe nation, with the support of FMIAE, will organize several protests, gatherings, and sit-ins.
Het Actiefonds supports the actions of the Sápara and Sinangoe nations and will continue to do so until all indigenous nations have complete self-determination, protection, and autonomy over their territory. Indigenous nations are the most important link in the chain when it comes to the preservation of the Amazon forest and are therefore of global importance.
At the end of August 2021, the Indonesian Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology issued a ministerial regulation on the Prevention and Handling of Sexual Violence at Higher Education institutions. The Socialist Youth Organization (Organisasi Kaum Muda Sosialis-OKMS) considered that the Ministry’s Regulation, called regulation No. 30/2021, is progressive enough to prevent sexual violence on campus.
However, at the same time, the long-awaited Sexual Violence Eradication bill (the PKS Bill), which aims to protect women’s rights, has been on and off the table at the Parliament since 2012. Moreover, the PKS Bill was watered down before it was ratified. Under pressure from from religious conservative groups, the legislation removed any mention of ‘sexual consent’ from a bill supposed to eradicate sexual violence, because it might provide tacit approval of consensual extramarital sex. A
The Minitry’s Regulation No. 30/2021 risks following the same path as the PKS bill. Although various online campaigns and statements have supported the Ministry’s Regulation, a solid mass mobilisation in support of it is still lacking. The Socialist Youth Organization wants to connect the struggle to defend The Ministry’s Regulation No. 30/2021 with the PKS Bill with strategic poster campaigns and national demonstrations to bolster support for the the ratification of the PKS Bill.
Anarchists set up an ecological community based on mutual aid, permaculture and sustainable living on the outskirts of Davao. With a handful of people and the financial support of Het Actiefonds, the Feral Crust Land project aims to provide an educational space for ecological land management and sustainability.
To become independent from the centralized market economy and the state, the Feral Crust Land Project aims to fight injustice and oppression brought by colonisation. The members of the project are inspired by the struggle of their ancestors against colonialism and the ‘free’ market.
The participants of the project believe that so-called progress and democracy relied on hierarchy, accumulation of wealth, and the plundering of natural resources that will ultimately lead to the collapse of the living world.
This project hopes to inspire the formation of sustainable communities rooted in a specific landscape, from which a regenerative future and resilient culture might emerge and flourish.
Image by Bur Liz.
“Together we are working on our future”. The slogan of Shell’s latest greenwash campaign flaunts itself on every bus shelter and train station in the Netherlands. Meanwhile, Shell is leaving the country to escape the verdict of the Urgenda climate case, and the fossil fuel company is irreparably disturbing marine life on the coast of South Africa in the hope of locating new drilling sites.
Searching for new drilling sites in 2022 while presenting yourself as a sustainable company is already hypocritical, but the way Shell goes about it is downright evil. The shocks that the Amazon Warrior, Shell’s exploration ship, is shooting into the South African coast are so gigantic that they threaten to permanently disrupt marine life. Yet, according to Shell, there is nothing to worry about: the company has obtained all the right permits, and marine life can really take a hit or two… or a million.
You don’t have to be a marine biologist or physicist to understand that Shell’s seismic shocks will be disastrous for marine life in South Africa. The coast is known as a transit location for many species, including whales: famously social animals that communicate and move through echolocation. Many studies have already shown that seismic shocks have a profound effect on the survival of these species. Some whale species fall silent, while others try to scream above the bangs. Mating rituals are disrupted by the constant blasting of the Amazone Warrior, and finding the way to the next resting place also proves to be a lot more difficult.
The way Shell operates is downright evil
Whales are by no means the only animals that can’t stand the seismic shocks. Fish and squid eggs from several species do not survive the bangs, putting pressure on the entire marine ecosystem. Some of these fish have long been endangered species, but Shell is blatantly flouting animal protection.
As if that weren’t enough, many fish species avoid the coast to stay away from the noise. David Russel, a Namibian-based fisheries consultant who has been following Shell’s operations for years, noted as early as 2012 how seismic shocks were driving fish away from the Namibian coast, causing serious economic damage to Namibia’s tuna fishery. Shell had not involved the fishermen in the decision-making process, just as the South African fishery did not learn of Shell’s plans until early November.
At the beginning of this month, a coalition of human rights and climate organizations therefore filed an emergency lawsuit against Shell in South Africa. However, the judge decided that the risk of permanent damage to the ecosystem was ‘at best speculative’, and that it would be especially harmful for Shell to suddenly have to cease its activities. A new hearing will take place on December 17, but given that the same judge will rule on the case, it looks like Shell will be able to continue undisturbed.
According to Shell, nothing is wrong: it has obtained all the right permits, and marine life should be able to withstand a bump or a million
In response to these unannounced shocks, Ocean Collective, in collaboration with Greenpeace, decided to give the Shell headquarters in The Hague a taste of their own medicine. With the help of Het Actiefonds, Ocean Collective blasted shock waves through the Shell headquarters in The Hague every ten seconds.
In addition, The Action Fund also supported the #MoveShell action of Shell Must Fall. This Dutch collective disrupted Shell’s last shareholders meeting in the Netherlands with a demonstration. Shell is in fact moving to Britain to avoid the Urgenda verdict, in order to continue destroying the planet without burden. But as Shell Must Fall’s banner puts it: “You can’t run and you can’t hide from climate justice”.
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