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Aug 09, 2019
02:03 pm | LJCQuébec
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Thousands protest
against Alamos Gold Mining in Çanakkale
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By Adrien
Welsh
It was with this rallying cry that
activists from the Çanakkale branch of the Turkish Communist Party
joined the thousands of demonstrators who stormed the site of the
Kirazli gold mine project operated by the Canadian mining company
Alamos. Despite a few altercations with security personnel, a human
tide of thousands of protesters were determined to voice their
opposition to the company caused deforestation and defeated the
company's security agents. Once on the site, the event went off
without a hitch, the protesters came among others to make an
eminently symbolic gesture: planting trees.
According to the corporation’s website, this project “represents a
significant near term source of low cost production growth. With its
low capital and operating costs, Kirazli is one of the highest
return, undeveloped gold projects in any gold price environment.”
While Alamos shareholders didn’t hide their enthusiasm in front of
the profits potentially generated, the people however are the ones to
pay the big price for this social and environmental catastrophe. If
the project is so financially advantageous, it is because behind it,
local people and workers in Turkey assume the costs. The CEO of the
company reportedly told Bloomberg that the costs are reduced thanks
to the devaluation of the Turkish lira, which contributes to
significantly reduce the payroll. He even added that he did not have
to hire foreign labor because "the Turks are very good at
carrying rocks", joining with class depreciation a shameless racism.
But it's not so much the racist rhetoric or the working conditions in
the future mine that set fire to the gunpowder, but rather the
environmental scandal attached to it. The site of the open-air mining
project is about 40 kilometers from the Kaz Mountains National Park,
a protected area. However, several studies have revealed the harmful
effects caused by the presence of this mine. For example, 195,000
trees have already been cut down just to access the minerals. But to
this dramatic figure, we must add the mining activity, very polluting
in itself because of the toxic materials necessary for gold
extraction. It requires abundant amounts of cyanide (20,000 tons in
this case). Along with it, large quantities of arsenic and heavy
metals will litter the area once the company has completed the
project without any decontamination of the site.
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Air view of the
mining site, where over 195,000 trees have been cut
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If the residents and activists in the Çanakkale region oppose the
company, they also fight against the Turkish government which, in the
words of the TKP, acts as a law firm for the company. Shamefully, the
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is spreading false information -
probably dictated by Alamos - about the impact the mining project will
have, even making a fool of itself by saying that the mine is not in
the national park area (while it is only 40 km from it) and reducing
the number of trees that were felled in its report, despite the raw
truth. This is completely paradoxical when we know that close to
nothing will be left for the Turkish Government (96% of the minerals
will continue being held by the corporation which will pay a 6%
royalty to the state while paying for 40% of the investment in the
project), showing how the local comprador bourgeoisie is complicit in
this imperialist crime on one side and, on the other, how
corporations need the help of local governments to achieve their «
projects ». This is a clear case of imperialism.
This situation is a textbook case for Canadian mining. Turkey would
not be the first government to bow to the power of those companies
that, in the capitalist system, think they are all powerful. In the
kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed are kings, they say.
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Communits Party
of Turkey (TKP) contingent at the August 5th protest
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Mining companies headquartered in
Canada represent 75% of the world's mining companies. They benefit
from one of the lowest standards in the world and from Canadian
diplomatic protection (or rather Canadian imperialism). For example,
the Canadian International Development Agency helped force the
Colombian government to rewrite its Mining Act of 2001, and mining
companies hire mercenaries in Mexico and Guatemala, among other
places, to literally murder social and labour leaders (often
Indigenous people) who oppose their activities. Canada also invests
in invasions of sovereign states as in Mali while claiming the
'responsibility to protect' that does not refer to anything but the
responsibility to protect the interests of mining companies. Every
Canadian mining venture leads to an ecological disaster:
systematically, companies do not take responsibility for waste left
"deep in the pit", adding to the social conflict a climatic
one.
But the case of Kizli is particular (but not unique) because of the
strong mobilization of the local population, a mobilization that does
not seem ready to fade. Not surprisingly, there is barely any word
about this Canadian mining scandal in the corporate media in Canada.
Of course, while this same press does not hesitate to promote the
climate marches and to make Greta Thunberg a standard-bearer of the
green cause, when it comes to denouncing "our" imperialism,
it is much more cautious ... It is also less vocal when it comes to
revealing the systemic nature of the environmental crisis and its
links with the crimes of capitalism and imperialism.
Yet the case of Kizli, and this is undoubtedly why it deserves our
attention and our solidarity with the demonstrators, shows clearly
that imperialism and capitalism are the main causes responsible for
the environmental crisis, not youth or peoples.
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