(en) France, Alternative Libertaire AL #241 - Great useless projects: Convergences environmentalists in Romania (fr, pt)

 [machine translation]

The Fourth Forum against unnecessary and imposed major projects held in Romania in May was 
carrying significant advances. Against shale gas or high-speed lines, but also for an 
alternative to capitalism and a concrete internationalism. ---- Rosia Montana (Romania), 
11-13 May 2014: collective fight environmentalists from all over Europe and beyond, meet 
for the fourth Forum against large unnecessary and taxed (GPII) projects: Turkish 
movements, English or Moroccans have joined the more familiar of the Forum, as the "No 
Tav" and other activists fighting against the lines of high-speed rail, or activists 
Notre-Dame-des-Landes. Moreover, the Romanian movement that welcomed opened or deepened 
some areas of convergence with other struggles. ---- A Rosia Montana, Alburnus Maior 
association, founded by a farmer resists for fourteen years to a Canadian company that 
wants to raze villages to operate the largest gold mine in Europe. The issues of 
sovereignty occupants of a region (on their ecosystem, their jobs, food self-sufficiency) 
and on how to achieve this have been the heart of the debate. As shale gas (in Romania, 
Chevron is preparing to extract), the offensive mining companies throughout Europe, the 
transatlantic treaty...

Against capitalism and electioneering

The slogan unifying anti-Extractivism dominated the debate, to raise the issue of 
ecological limits together to bring fights: exploitation of shale gas, and various 
hydrocarbons, mining projects, deforestation. New dynamics between collective have created 
on these topics. For the first time to alternative projects have been under discussion, 
because they lead a reflection on what is really useful to residents and users, or on ways 
to revive the devastated areas socially by major projects.

Mass Movements

Finally and most importantly the concept of GPII, but disputed bearer was discussed with 
the intention to politicize. The definition of charter Tunis, adopted at the World Social 
Forum in March 2013, was reaffirmed and deepened, with the idea that we can generate mass 
movements against capitalist logic that are the same everywhere: arguments growth, 
austerity, job blackmail the government who are trying to convince of the merits of the 
projects, offensive private companies and multinational complicity of States. Unanimous 
rejection of electoral political parties is also significantly formalized.

Finally, what is revealed is the strength of the network that is being created against 
major projects. For one, its now international scale was palpable, with the desire for 
solidarity without borders and in the struggles against repression and increasing 
criminalization of activists in these collectives, and social and ecological movement in 
general. On the other hand, the inevitable question of the reoccupation of sites, is a 
strong political horizon, that the use and ownership of land.

In the short term, the network wants to materialize through a common web site, available 
in six languages. In the medium term, it is envisaged a future edition of the Forum in 
Turkey and the Basque Country, where the popular character of the mobilizations is 
noteworthy. The urgency of practical convergence is also placed on certain issues 
including the offensive against the transatlantic treaty, and the climate conference to be 
held in Paris in December 2015.

Fanny (commission ecology), with the testimony of Camille

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