TSF-MINING 2023

Day 3, Thursday 19 October 2023

Day 3 opened with a spontaneous, exhilarating gathering at the front of the room to show solidarity across and beyond us. Chants rang out in Bahasa, English, Spanish, French and other languages. Banners were unfurled. Placards for Palestine were written and raised (see YLNM statement signed by a wave of TSF organisations). If it was a warm up we were looking for, you couldn’t beat this.

For the rest of the morning Open Spaces were offered by different organisations, often in collaboration, on a wide variety of themes and geographies. Deeper dives and exploring peripheries was made possible. Some focused on understanding the problem better – palm oil extraction, mining our seas, the destruction of the socio-ecological sovereignty of coastal communities, green extractivism and other false climate solutions. Some focused on celebrating stories of resistance, and others on current solutions and imagined futures. Indigenous rights, tax justice, reclaiming nature, and visioning a world Beyond Extractivism shone a light down the road we are walking. 

In the afternoon we came together in our regional groupings to add or suggest amendments to the Declaration and the Action Agenda – both of which would come out of this Thematic Social Forum on Mining and the Extractive Economy to see us through the coming two years until the next forum. In plenary we discussed these changes and agreed or again amended. This participatory process would help foster ownership of these common documents. 

When the hard work ended we were delighted by a show of talent from across the globe. Our Indonesian hosts did the heavy lifting of the entertaining but everyone felt welcome to share cultural expressions from home.