ABSTRACT
The Citizens’ Coordinating Committee of Ierissos against gold-copper mining, speaking about their own experience fighting against the construction of a gold mine in Halkidiki, Greece, present a clear example of the kind of neoliberal corporate attack on people’s livelihood and the coercive and repressive role of the state in defence of corporate interests that are nowadays commonplace in neoliberal environmental experiences. Small-scale mining activity in northeastern Halkidiki has been going on for many decades, as have the struggles against its destructive consequences. During the years of economic crisis and “memoranda of understanding” the mineral-rich field of northeastern Halkidiki was transformed into a field of neoliberal politics, repression and simultaneously the space of a dynamic social movement. The proposed large-scale mining project, the logic of “investments at any cost” and the total absence of informed public consent brought about an ominous certainty to local communities that their homeland was being transformed into a sacrifice zone. The authors of this chapter explain how, slowly – and through much effort – a mass social movement was born, to which the state mechanism answered through a campaign of violent repression, propaganda, intimidation and finally prosecution. Against these attacks, the authors present the demand for justice and democracy as the cornerstone of their struggle and as a key concept to mobilize collective action.
