Thread by @LASCDublin

Our annual conference on the theme of 'Women Defending the Earth from Destructive Mining' is almost ready to go. Head over to our facebook page for the livestream!

Our full panel. Livestream on facebook: m.facebook.com/story.php?stor…

First speaker: Jakeline Romero Epiayu of @MujeresWayuu in Colombia, a movement of indigenous Wayúu women working to defend the Earth from the extractive práctices of the Cerrejón mine.

Jakeline Romero: "The situation of defending land in Colombia is very dangerous... Over 400 social, campesino and other leaders have been assasinated, making Colombia one of the three most violent countries un the world."

"Unfortunately for us as an indigenous community, apart from the resources of water, there is also a wealth of coal under this ground... It's coal that the Colombian govt. has given in concessions to multinationals."

"The first thing a mine does is buy land from private owners - but after that we've seen a process of forced evictions of indigenous and Afro-descendent communities"

"The extractive economic model in Colombia means that these are systemic violations that these communities are suffering."

Jakeline: "To fight the cold here in Ireland we need coal to warm ourselves up. But surely some of that coal is coming from La Guajira, from Colombia"

Jakeline: "Exploiting the Earth is causing this water scarcity. 60% of the Ranchería rivera - the main water source in La Guajira - has been appropriated by the mining company."

Jakeline: "It can't be that our governments can decide our destinies just by signing a paper"

Next speaker: @Cloditagh of LASC Will talk about LASC's campaign to show solidarity with communities in La Guajira.

Clodagh: Over 90% of coal imported into Ireland is from Colombia, predominantly from Cerrejón.

"Moneypoint was offline for 3 months in 2018, which shows that coal is no longer necessary. The lights didn't go out."

"The company responsible for selling the coal from the Cerrejón mine is based here in Dublin. It's worth noting that the corporate tax rate in Colombia is 34.5%, compared to 12.5% in Ireland."

Next speaker is Fidelma O'Hare of @SaveOurSperrins a community group in Co. Tyrone campaigning to protect their land, air and water from toxic gold mining. Facebook livestream: m.facebook.com/story.php?stor…

Fidelma: "The farmer only owns the top 6 inches of land. The Queen owns everything below that."

Fidelma: "Their chief executive Patrick Anderson called us 'welly-wearing sheep-farmers'"

Fidelma: "The planning application was 10,000 pages long. They say it was the longest planning application in the history of Ireland, North or South."

Fidelma: "The dust and contamination from this waste dump is likely to blow all over Ireland."

Next Speaker: Blanca Blanco of @trocaire who speaking about the links between extractivism and they Guatemalan genocide. Facebook livestream: m.facebook.com/story.php?stor…

Blanca: "The irony is that the communities who live beside hydroelectric dams won't have electricity, as most of the electricity is being sold to México and the United States."

Blanca: "If you look at the map of Guatemala during the conflict, at where the worst massacres took place, and the map of the mining concessions today, they're almost the same. So it looks like it was a long-term plan by the govt."

Blanca: "The 'scorched earth' policy that was happening in the conflict period is happening again."

Check out the full livestream on facebook: m.facebook.com/story.php?stor…