Format/Structure

We want to organise a roundtable with 3-4 discussants. We will ask 2-3 rounds of questions and then open Q&A.

Long Abstract

The fight against anthropogenic climate change has provided the narrative for a new wave of (green) extractivism. As in the past, indigenous, peasant and local communities are demanding not only participation but self-determination and autonomy to build alternatives to development. Although an important mobilizing symbol that gives international recognition to indigenous groups (Fulmer, 2011), the right to Free Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) has not provided either of them. Rather than providing them the power of veto, acts instead as a negotiating mechanism (Torres Wong, 2018). Its adoption in national regulations has transformed it into procedural technicalities (Urteaga- Crovetto, 2018) where consent is turned into consultation, manufactured through law (Rodriguez-Garavito 2011) and marred with violence (Torres Wong, 2023).

In South Africa, in 2018, after a 16-year long struggle the Amadiba Crisis Committee won a landmark judgment ensuring their Right to Say No to titanium mining. The RTSN is a campaign and network that connects different struggles against extractivism across Africa, aiming to put a full stop to an extractive development model arguing instead for grassroot alternatives for just and sustainable energy futures (Pier and Hlabane, 2024). The campaign is part of the Thematic Forum on Mining and Extractivism, exchanging knowledge with anti-extractivists worldwide. A central pillar is FPIC, looking also to secure legal pathways in South Africa.

Several questions emerge around the RTSN that this roundtable will attempt to discuss: Is any struggle against extractive infrastructures the RTSN? How key is the role of a legal pathway, should we aspire to institutionalize and regulate the RTSN or will it suffer the same fate as FPIC? Could the RTSN be replicated in other territories, e.g, are Latin American ‘consultas populares’ also RTSN? What is the link between RTSN with self-determination and emancipation projects? How does coloniality play out in this struggle?

This Roundtable has 4 pending paper proposals.
Propose paper