SWOP invites you to a webinar as part of the Alternatives to Capitalism Seminar Series:
Cranes and coal: connecting the ‘Ecocene’ with the ‘Anthropocene’ in a new eco-politics.
Presented by Professor Jacklyn Cock
Discussants: Mazibuko Jara, and Phalane Mashile
Chair : Dr Dineo Skosana.
Date: 09 November 2021
Time: 17h30-19h00
Please register in advance for this webinar:
(After registering, you will receive a link to attend the event). *Live stream will be available on the SWOP YouTube feed.
Abstract:
The struggle to save the Mabola Protected Area from coal mining points to a new ‘eco – politics’.
An alliance of 8 different organisations was formed with a specific goal and strategy: to prevent the establishment of the mine. Their success raises important questions for resistance to coal, and other environmental justice struggles, because it involved issues such as mobilising the power of judicial activism, empowering local communities, challenging a corrupt and dysfunctional state, disseminating knowledge of coal’s pollution of air and water, recognition of the desperation for jobs, especially in areas of high unemployment, challenging the hegemonic discourse of economic growth, combating the power of extractivism( specifically that of coal mining corporations to divide and destroy communities), and connecting labour and environmental activists in strategic alliances.
Bio of Speakers
Jackie Cock is a activist/academic currently a professor emeritus in the Sociology department and a research professor in SWOP. She has published widely on gender, environmental justice and militarisation issues.
Mazibuko Jara is the Executive Director of Ntinga Ntaba kaNdoda, a community-owned rural development facilitator in the Eastern Cape Province. Mazibuko has occupied various senior political roles, including Spokesperson and Chief Strategist of the South African Communist Party until his departure in 2010.
Mashile Phalane is a community activist, passionate about community development. He initiated several community development at the Batlhabine Community. He is a member of Mining and Environmental Community Justice Network, An Editor of the local Community Newspaper called The Eye News. An environmentalist with the courage to protect and conserve natural resources and biodiversity.
