In their living room, members of a family are using electronic devices, when a group of miners approaches, disrupting family life: they appear to do mining work, make noise, dirty the room, put themselves in front of the television and even cause the family’s health to deteriorate. This was the scenario of the artivism action that SETEM Catalunya, Enginyeria Sense Fronteres and Ecologistas en Acción carried out on Monday morning at the doors of the Fira de Barcelona, in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, coinciding with the start of the Mobile World Congress (MWC).
The performance, an off-programme event of the Mobile Social Congress (MSC), aimed to reveal the least visible aspects of the MWC, as well as to denounce the social and environmental impact of mining extraction associated with the technology sector, which is slated to increase and be brought ever closer to our home. In addition, the performance also highlighted the price which is paid for the work of the miners compared to the price of the finished products, giving visibility to female workers in artisanal factories.
The action also highlighted the fact that many electronic devices are stored away in drawers without being properly reused, repaired, or recycled, resulting in an unnecessary waste of resources
“With our consumption-based lifestyle, our dependence on minerals is growing exponentially;the solutions proposed by the Global North are geared towards increasing the extraction ofthese material resources in order to realise plans for digitisation and the electrification ofmobility. According to forecasts by the International Energy Agency, the demand for somekey minerals for these policies will multiply in the coming years, and there are not enough reserves to meet the demand.” Thus began the manifesto, as read by one of the activists at the end of the action.Attention was also brought to the various violations of environmental legislation observed in mineral extraction projects in Spain. “In Catalonia, just a few kilometres from here,the Súria mines, or the Sallent i Balsareny mines, have caused the salinisation of the Cardeners and Llobregat rivers, also affecting wells, springs and aquifers throughout the Bages region, which has led to several legal proceedings for environmental offences. And we are well aware that taking care of our water is vital, we are already in a drought emergency, among other things, due to poor water management”.
