Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

The impacts of coal from Colombia to Scotland - 2 events coming up

Coal Action Scotland | 10.04.2010 17:00 | Climate Chaos | Ecology | Social Struggles

Scotland imports 75% of the coal burned in its coal-fired power stations, mostly from Colombia, Russia and South Africa. At Hunterston, the UK’s largest coal port on Scotland’s West Coast, huge ships transport coal from Colombia’s open cast mines to the Clydeport facility. If Ayrshire Power and Peel get their way, soon a new coal-fired power station at Hunterston will be fed on this coal too. Making the links between communities affected by coal in Scotland and Colombia, these two events will feature a speaker involved in solidarity work with communities in Colombia driven off their land to make way for the mines.

Edinburgh, Sunday 25th April, 19:00-21:00, ACE, 17 West Montgomery Place
With film showings from the Mainshill Solidarity Camp

West Kilbride, Wednesday 28th April, 19:30-21:30, West Kilbride Village Hall, Ayrshire
As part of Communities Opposed to New Coal at Hunterston (CONCH) Campaign meeting


Impacts of coal mining in Colombia

Colombia is the fourth largest coal exporter in the world, mainly exporting to Europe and the USA from its ports on the Atlantic coast. Cerrejon is the largest opencast coal mine in Colombia and is owned by three British based multinationals. In 2008 it exported 31.2 million tonnes of coal to Europe and the USA. We know Drax buys Cerrejon coal, it is very likely that many other coal fired power stations also do.

The talk will share experiences visiting communities near the Cerrejon mine, work with social organisations opposing another huge opencast coal mine in Catatumbo and the importance of international solidarity.

Since the Cerrejón Mine opened in 1983, its operations and constant expansion have forcibly displaced many indigenous people and Afro-Colombian communities. Their situation is desperate. After the village of Tabaco was bulldozed in 2001 to make way for the mine, people are scared the same will happen to them. Many have been forced to sell their land for next to nothing while others continue to fight for a just and dignified collective resettlement. A piece called Entwined Communities ( http://www.espacio.org.uk/globalisation/entwined_communities.pdf) explores the shared history of UK pit mining communities and and rural Colombian agricultural communities as coal mining is dragged from one place and imposed on another, as part of “free” market neoliberal changes.

The speaker works with young people in Catatumbo, a peasant farmer mountainous region of Colombia. Paramilitary violence forced 40,000 people to flee their farms and now nine mining companies have been granted mining rights to extract the huge coal reserves. Yet people are returning and reorganising and she will talk about the strategies of the social organisations to resist the opening of the coal mine and their vision to build themselves a Catatumbo that meets the needs of the people who live there and not the needs of transnational capital.

Coal Action Scotland
- e-mail: coalactionscotland@riseup.net
- Homepage: http://coalactionscotland.noflag.org.uk/

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech