In every struggle today, across the world, “climate change”, “global disaster”, “ecological devastation” and “the right to the city” are phrases held in common by those who resist.
Meanwhile, private property, profit maximisation and the mantra of economic growth, “progress” and prosperity continue to be promoted by a system and its advocates at the expense of all of our rights – above all, our right to exist and live with dignity. The transformation of lands by and for capital within rural areas is not as visible as in the city, since rural areas haven’t seen the extreme urban enclosure of streets and public space. The rapacious need for raw materials and to widen markets, in the city or in the countryside, locally and globally, demonstrates a crucial imperative to build resistance on a foundation of mutual support that crosses borders.
One of the biggest moves that neoliberalism has made for development and growth is the commodification of nature through processes of “accumulation by dispossession”. Labelled as “developing”, states like Turkey, single-minded in their pursuit of expansion and economic growth, exemplify more than anywhere the massive scale of neoliberal destruction and plunder. These attacks threaten all of nature and all living beings, and by extension they also threaten the destruction of cultures and languages, since the introduction of labour exploitation to new territories and populations forces large-scale migration from the countryside to the cities. Investments in industrialisation, much of it directly linked to the energy market, are increasing rapidly. Meanwhile, local economies, traditional farming, subsistence production and reproduction, nature itself, are being destroyed, as are the social relations and cultures produced by this way of life.
In Turkey, the late 1990s and 2000s signalled the new era of accelerating neoliberal development and the accompanying discourse of “progress” and “modernisation”. With this discourse, new laws and “reforms” were introduced regarding the commercialisation of water, both underground and overground sources. Simultaneously, processes of dispossession by the state have begun, especially for major energy projects. This includes mega projects like hydroelectric, fossil fuel and nuclear power plants, as well as dams, mining facilities, quarries, the reformation of fisheries through industrialisation and the enclosure of rural and mountain lands. From the perspective of capital, the most vital markets (especially when considering the scale of profits to be made) are energy projects and the commodification of water.
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One ongoing struggle encapsulates much of what is happening in Turkey today: the Struggle of Fatsa. Almost 3 months ago locals in the Black Sea coastal town of Fatsa began protesting against a mining project in the region by putting up resistance tents. Within a short space of time their fight became stronger thanks to the solidarity of other local struggles. Two years ago, a gold mine project had been started by a British company, “Stratex International PLC”, along with its local partner “Bahar Madencilik”. Local resistance became particularly strong when it became clear that prospecting at the site would be carried out using cyanide. These two associated companies began a project upon a 920m2 area, which included some of the private-registered land of the villagers, stating that their only intention was “tree trimming and field surveys”. Sadly, only after hundreds of trees were cut down did it become clear that the locals were misled and the project had other purposes.
