Space for Resistance
Labour Struggles in Lithium Mining in the Atacama Salt Flats in Chile
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32387/prokla.v55i220.2198Keywords:
Chile, Extractivism, Labour Geography, Labour Struggle, Lithium MiningAbstract
Lithium is considered a »critical raw material« for decarbonising societal metabolic processes. The conditions under which lithium is mined, and who it is mined for, are highly contested. In this article, I analyse the struggle of organised workers in lithium mining in the Salar de Atacama in northern Chile. From a labour geography perspective, I show how workers’ struggles over issues of social reproduction have developed locally. I argue that spaces of social reproduction are central sites of control and power in labour conflicts in raw material extraction and thus also potential anchors for collective struggles against the appropriation and exploitation of people and nature for profit.
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