AAI – Portugal Declares Full and Unconditional Solidarity with the Resistance Against Lithium Mining Megaproject
Featured image: Residents and supporters march against Savannah Resources’ lithium megaproject in Covas do Barroso, northern Portugal. Posters bear the slogans “No to the mine, yes to life” and “Yes to water, no to mines.” Source: AND
Anti-imperialist Action – Portugal (AAI) has declared their full and unconditional solidarity with the masses and farmers of Covas do Barroso, in the Boticas municipality of northern Portugal. They have for eight years been resisting the advance of the British mining company Savannah Resources, a company that intends to install the largest open-pit lithium mining project in Western Europe, A Nova Democracia (AND) reports.
The mine will affect private and unclaimed lands – lands used collectively by the residents – as well as farmland, pastures, water sources, and forests that have sustained the farmers for centuries. In their statement AAI raises the slogan “Against the imperialist plunder of lithium! The people of Barroso do not want mines!”, going on to explain that the roots of the inhabitants in those lands “predate by centuries any concession title granted by the Portuguese State.”
The statement was published by the Portuguese revolutionary press organ Nova Aurora, which also dedicated an editorial to the popular resistance.
The developments take place in the context of an administrative easement (An easement is a right to use or enter onto the real property of another without possessing it.) being granted to Savannah Resources by the Ministry of Environment and Energy on May 6th. This allows the mining company to enter approximately 228 hectares of private and unclaimed land without consent.
A precautionary action was filed by The Assembly of Commoners of the Baldios de Covas do Barroso with the Administrative and Fiscal Court of Mirandela, which temporarily suspended the effects of the easement. However, 20 days later, the Ministry of the Environment and Energy itself issued a so-called “Justified Resolution” and withdrew the suspensive effect of the action, alleging that the works were of “national and European interest,” and since June 29th Savannah Resources has returned to the land.
Since then the residents have mobilized and organized to prevent the company from entering and plundering their lands, to which the Portuguese State reacted by deploying the National Republican Guard in order to ensure the continuation of the mining monopoly’s megaproject. AAI denounces the actions of the Portuguese State, stating that the ministerial intervention showed “once again the bankruptcy of the justice of the old society and of bourgeois law. […] The resistance of Covas do Barroso must be understood as heroic resistance against British imperialism that plunders the homeland, as heroic resistance against the old State that only serves the purposes of exploitation.”
In their statement AAI commends the resisting residents who maintain “permanent vigilance over their territory” and the youth who have returned to the village to defend their lands. AAI also calls on supporters to participate in the Camp in Defense of Barroso, scheduled for August 6th – 10th, raising the slogan “The people of Barroso do not want mines!” AAI further praised the ongoing Agrarian Revolution in Brazil and the League of the Poor Peasants (LCP), stating that “The struggle led by the LCP sends a valuable example to the whole world of how we must crush the oppressors of the people.”
AAI concludes their statement with the following slogans:
Out with the Savannah of Covas do Barroso!
The people of Barroso don’t want mines!
Land to those who live and work on it!
Glory to the LCP! Apply the principles of the Agrarian Revolution in Portugal too!
Defend the land! Annihilate imperialism!
Read the full statement by Anti-imperialist Action – Portugal here:
