[WSMDiscuss] 'The People Have Spoken' : Left-Wing, Indigenous-Led Party Vows to Stop Greenland Uranium Mining Project After Historic Win (Jon Queally, Common Dreams)

[Jai Sen]

Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Greenland in movement…, Indigenous Peoples in movement…, Democracy in movement…

In other comments following the party's victory, Egede said <https://apnews.com/article/legislature-greenland-elections-europe-parliamentary-elections-d6a1dc76fd981b1aaa5abcf587eadfa2>, "There are two issues that have been important in this election campaign: people's living conditions is one. And then there is our health and the environment."

"It's not that Greenlanders don't want mining, but they don't want dirty mining,” Mered added. "Greenlanders are sending a strong message that for them it's not worth sacrificing the environment to achieve independence and economic development."

'The People Have Spoken' : Left-Wing, Indigenous-Led Party Vows to Stop Greenland Uranium Mining Project After Historic Win

"Greenlanders are sending a strong message that for them it's not worth sacrificing the environment to achieve independence and economic development"

Jon Queally, <https://www.commondreams.org/author/jon-queally-staff-writer> Common Dreams

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/04/07/people-have-spoken-left-wing-indigenous-led-party-vows-stop-greenland-uranium-mining?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email <https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/04/07/people-have-spoken-left-wing-indigenous-led-party-vows-stop-greenland-uranium-mining?cd-origin=rss&utm_term=AO&utm_campaign=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_content=email&utm_source=Daily%20Newsletter&utm_medium=Email>


Members of the Inuit Ataqatigiit (AI) Party wave party flags as they celebrate following the exit polls results of the legislative election in Nuuk, on April 6, 2021. Greenland went to the polls on April 6 after an election campaign focused on a disputed mining project in the autonomous Danish territory, as the Arctic island confronts the impact of global warming. (Photo: Emil Helms / Ritzau Scanpix / AFP)


Members of the left-wing and Indigenous-led Inuit Ataqatigiit (AI) party in Greenland celebrated late Tuesday after winning a majority of parliamentary seats in national elections and vowed to use their new power to block controversial rare-earth mining projects in the country.

Poll results released Wednesday morning showed that the Inuit Ataqatigiit won 36.6 percent of the vote compared to the 29 percent garnered by the center-left Siumut party, which has dominated domestic politics since Greenland won autonomy from Denmark in 1979. If those margins hold, according <https://apnews.com/article/legislature-greenland-elections-europe-parliamentary-elections-d6a1dc76fd981b1aaa5abcf587eadfa2> to the Associated Press, AI is expected to grab 12 out of the 31 seats in the Inatsisartut, the local parliament, a 50 percent increase from the 8 seats it currently holds.

As Agence France-Presse reports <https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210407-left-wing-party-opposed-to-rare-earth-mining-project-wins-greenland-election>:

The dividing line between the two parties was whether to authorise a controversial giant rare earth and uranium mining project, which is currently the subject of public hearings. 

The Kuannersuit deposit, in the island's south, is considered one of the world's richest in uranium and rare earth minerals—a group of 17 metals used as components in everything from smartphones to electric cars and weapons.

IA has called for a moratorium on uranium mining, which would effectively put a halt to the project.

According <https://www.reuters.com/article/us-greenland-election-idUSKBN2BU0V1> to Reuters, the results cast "doubt on the mining complex at Kvanefjeld in the south of the Arctic island and sends a strong signal to international mining companies wanting to exploit Greenland's vast untapped mineral resources."

"The people have spoken," IA leader Mute Egede told local news oultet DR when asked about Kvanefjeld. "It won't happen."

"We must listen to the voters who are worried," he said. "We say no to uranium mining."

In other comments following the party's victory, Egede said <https://apnews.com/article/legislature-greenland-elections-europe-parliamentary-elections-d6a1dc76fd981b1aaa5abcf587eadfa2>, "There are two issues that have been important in this election campaign: people's living conditions is one. And then there is our health and the environment."
"It's not that Greenlanders don't want mining, but they don't want dirty mining,” Mered added. "Greenlanders are sending a strong message that for them it's not worth sacrificing the environment to achieve independence and economic development."



The people of Greenland vote to oust a government that was planning to welcome foreign companies eager to tap the island’s rare-earth metals
 <https://t.co/yFt9hQ1gcF?amp=1>
Greenland Election Hands Lead to Anti-Mining Group in Parliament
The people of Greenland have voted to oust a government that was planning to welcome foreign companies eager to tap the island’s rare-earth metals.
 <https://t.co/yFt9hQ1gcF?amp=1>bloomberg.com <https://t.co/yFt9hQ1gcF?amp=1>


____________________________

Jai Sen

Independent researcher, editor; Senior Fellow at the School of International Development and Globalisation Studies at the University of Ottawa

jai.sen at cacim.net <mailto:jai.sen at cacim.net> &  <mailto:jsen at uottawa.ca>jsen at uottawa.ca <mailto:jsen at uottawa.ca>
Now based in Ottawa, Canada, on unsurrendered Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900) and in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325)

Check out something new – including for copies of the first two books below, at a discount, and much more : The Movements of Movements <https://movementsofmovements.net/>
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Jai Sen, ed, 2018a – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance.  Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/>; hard copy only also at The Movements of Movements <https://movementsofmovements.net/>
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