Register now for Anti-Extraction People's School
Where: 4lthangrund, Augasse 2-8. 1090 Wien
Accessibility: barrier free
Thursday 19 September, 13.00 - 18.00
Anti-Extraction People's School - Day 1: Unpacking extractivisms
Workshops @ Café
Friday 20 September, 10.00 - 18.00
Anti-Extraction People's School - Day 2: collective refusals / “ne damo”
Co-working space and workshops @ Café and Galerie Utopia
Saturday 21 September, 10.00 - 18.00
Anti-Extraction People's School - Day 3: weaving alternatives / practicing futures
Workshop and collective zine-making @ Café, Galerie Utopia and Open Air Stage
Workshop facilitators: HEKLER kolektiv, Jelena Savić, Jevđenije Julijan Dimitrijević, Majda Ibraković, Miloš Vučićević & Justina Špeirokaitė, Paccha Turner Chuji; with the Group on Green Extractivisms in the Balkans (Nina Djukanović, mirko nikolić, Sofija Stefanović)
We are excited to announce a three-day educational programme that will take place at 4lthangrund Cultural Center 19 - 21. September as part of the WIENWOCHE Festival 2024 / Non citizen movements.
We would like to encourage individuals and collectives with a focus on struggles for environmental and climate justice to register for the program hosted by GGEB - Group on Green Extractivism in the Balkans in collaboration with 4lthangrund Cultural Center. The aim of the School is to share knowledge and experiences as well as to create a non-hierarchical dialogue between workshop co-facilitators and participants around the expanding frontiers of extractive industries. We will focus on the violence and dispossession that is brought by extractivism as well as the ways in which it is being resisted.
Since at least the early 2000s, large multinationals as well as smaller “junior” companies have been exploring for minerals across the Balkans. A case in point is the world’s second-largest metal mining corporation Rio Tinto’s plans to open a lithium and borates mine in the valley of River Jadar in Western Serbia. The project was “cancelled” by the government in January 2022 after mass protests by citizens and environmentalists, yet the plans were revived in July this year. The strongly contested mining projects are openly supported by the European Commission, which has signed a Memorandum of Understanding on “sustainable raw materials, battery value chains and electric vehicles” with the Serbian government. There is also an increasing number of mining and exploration projects in Bosnia and Herzegovina and other places across the Balkans and beyond.
This return of extractivism to the south-eastern (semi-)peripheries of Europe comes on the back of the current regional dependency on coal and is part of a wider corporate push for an exponential rise in demand in metals and minerals for the energy transition, digitalisation and militarisation. Peasant and Indigenous communities across the Americas, Australia, Africa, South-East Asia have been bearing the brunt of the socio-environmental impacts of fossil and metal extraction for centuries. As extraction frontiers inch closer to old and new areas in Europe, networks of international activists are creating unprecedented bonds and alliances of mutual aid and solidarity.
Financial capital from Austria is directly tied to a series of contested “renewable” energy investments in the region, notably in “small” hydropower. The current Austrian and EU’s open interest in “critical minerals” from the region also implies supporting highly problematic governments and local elites.
On the other hand, Austria is home to a significant diaspora from post-Yugoslavian space, some of which with close ties to landscapes impacted by extractivism. Closer ties between movements and citizens across the borders are needed.
We call upon active groups and Individuals in Vienna to join the network to confront environmental destruction, pollution and exploitation and to fight for social and environmental justice for all.
Important information:
PARTICIPATION IS FREE for all days. Of course it would be great if you could attend as many days as possible.
The Workshops will be held in English, whisper translation to German and BCS/BKS can be provided
As we have limited capacity, we will give preference to the participants who are able to follow the whole program.
Some joint meals will be provided.
Detailed programme will be shared upon registration.
Space is a barrier free access.
After the registration, we will invite you for the general info meeting that will take place at the beginning of September via Zoom.
It is recommended to attend all three days of the school