Date: Tuesday, 12 December 2023
On 12 December the Debt Observatory in Globalisation held an international meeting altogether with a frontline defender in Colombia and Argentina, and workers of Collectivo Di Fabrica, from Florence (Italy).
The aim was to discuss the impacts of the green and digital transition, in particular with regard to lithium mining in the high Andean salt flats by a political ecology researcher and water advocate. From the extraction area we moved on to the other side, the industry. Thus, another objective was to talk about alternatives to extractivism through a truly green re-industrialization, through a case study of an industrial reconversion initiative that emerged from the same workers and trade unions of a car parts factory based in Italy. The group was bought by a financial hedge fund in 2018 which led to the closure of parts of the factory, bringing redundancies. Through workers’ organisation, they are pushing for a reconversion of the factory to manufacture cargo-bikes to boost sustainable mobility in cities, and in turn, research around solar panels that need less critical raw materials.
All these questions were addressed during a dialogue between ‘the mine’, ‘the factory’ and also the public in a rich discussion. The event was attended by 27 people.
The recording of the session can be found here.
More details on the event and how it was evaluated by the participants through the EU Survey on Justice, Rights and Values, that was sent after the session can be found in the detailed event description here.
