Image: Landowner women and mothers have protesting over plans to reopen the Panguna mine on Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. Creidt: Llane Munau

The 22nd of July 2021 is the Global Day Against Mining. This year, it finds most of us under COVID lockdowns that, in many cases, are restricting our rights and rendering our struggles against destructive mining invisible.

Yet the global mining industry freely operates under the guise of post-pandemic recovery.

Wherever we are today, we must show the world that our rights to our lands and lives must not be trampled over.

To mark the occasion, Yes to Life, No to Mining is calling on all members and allies to simultaneously put up banners in communal spaces and post them online, asserting that new, destructive, large-scale mining is not welcome in our communities.

With COVID intensifying the repression and invisibilisation of anti-mining activism, it is more important than ever to make our struggles visible and display our unity.

We will take this action in solidarity with one another and in particular with our allies and members in the Philippines who will be hanging banners throughout the archipelago calling for a #MiningMoratoriumNow, in response to President Duterte’s executive order to fast-track 100 new mining applications across the nation. 

Here is how you can take part:

Banner hangings 

Recycle or get creative and make a new banner or placard that carries your community’s message to those trying to impose mining on you and/or expresses solidarity with other mining-impacted communities around the planet.

Display that banner or placard in a prominent place on 22nd July. Others will be hanging their banners from churches, public buildings, offices, and in beloved land and waterscapes that are threatened by mining. 

If it is safe to do so, you could also consider organising a protest action or activist gathering around the banner hanging, turning it into a movement building moment for your campaign.

Online banners

• Take a picture of the banner you’ve made in the place where you are displaying it.
• And/Or make a virtual banner 
• And/Or share one of these virtual banners we have prepared

Post your banner to your social media channels using #YestoLifeNotoMining #SíALaVidaNoAlaMinería and/or #MiningMoratoriumNow if you wish to direct solidarity to the Philippines. 

If you wish to tag Yes to Life, No to Mining in your post, our Twitter handle is @_YLNM and our Facebook handle is @yestolifenotomining

YLNM and our global membership will re-shared and amplify your messages. 

What else is happening on the Global Day Against Mega Mining?

The Global Day Against Mega Mining will also see the official re-launch of ‘Basic principles for protecting your community from extractive industries’. This guide, written by Ecuadorean activist Carlos Zorilla, is the best guide to community-led resistance we know of. 

We have produced a redesigned version of the guide, making it more accessible for activists everywhere. On the Global Day Against Mega Mining we will share the guide in English and Spanish.