Greenland: Imperialist Plunder

Featured Image: The statue of the missionary Hans Egede in Nuuk has been painted over with red paint several times. Hans Egede is considered the founder of the Danish-Norwegian colonies in Greenland back in the 18th century; Source: Roede Fane

Hereby we share unofficially translated excerpts of an article by Roede Fane:

Back in 2020, an Australian-owned mining company received permission to extract raw materials by mining. Now a Yankee-owned mining company named „Critical Metals Corp“ has taken over the project after four years of deadlock.

The imperialist project is about to extract mining on the mountain Killavaat Alannguat in Southern Greenland. The mountain is one of the world’s richest in rare metals such as neodynium, promethium, dysprosium and terbium. These metals are important for the production of e.g. magnets for turbines. Therefore, as usual, the imperialists disguise their project under the pretext that “it benefits the green transition”.

This greenwashing of imperialist exploitation means the exact opposite for the Greenlandic people, as mining will poison the local environment and make life much harder for the locals. Furthermore, the imperialist capital that is exported to Greenland will not benefit the population in any way, but will only contribute to increasing exploitation in the country.

A previously famous example of how mining has harmed the population of Greenland is the now abandoned mining town of Qullissat. Qullissat was a mining town which was met with a lot of investment from Danish-run coal mining – in this town Greenland’s first trade union was also founded. When the coal began to dwindle and the enterprise was not lucrative enough for Danish monopolies, the population was administratively relocated. 1,400 residents were evicted by the authorities and dispersed. This completely shattered the community and culture in the city and many lost contact with each other. Similar incidents occur regularly with smaller settlements around Greenland.

Greenland is in a process of going from being a colony to a semi-colony. Many of the world’s contradictions are expressed in Greenlandic society. It is clearly seen from this how the imperialist system does not benefit the Greenlandic people and proletariat in any way. The Danish colonial power and the predatory activities of the other imperialists in the country have prevented the nation’s development for more than three centuries.

This transition must also be seen in a context of the colonial system becoming too unstable to maintain, due to the people’s resistance and desire to live in a free and independent country. This transition is therefore also an expression of the great democratic energy of the Greenlandic people and a call for a vanguard to solve the tasks of the Democratic Revolution in the country.