The second event in our Resisting Mining Book Club! Join us to discuss the effects of the mining industry on people and planet, and how communities are resisting across the globe.
About the Book
Unearthing Justice: How to Protect Your Community from the Mining Industry
The mining industry continues to be at the forefront of colonial dispossession around the world. It controls information about its intrinsic costs and benefits, propagates myths about its contribution to the economy, shapes government policy and regulation, and deals ruthlessly with its opponents.
Brimming with case studies, anecdotes, resources, and illustrations, Unearthing Justice exposes the mining process and its externalized impacts on the environment, Indigenous Peoples, communities, workers, and governments. But, most importantly, the book shows how people are fighting back. Whether it is to stop a mine before it starts, to get an abandoned mine cleaned up, to change laws and policy, or to mount a campaign to influence investors, Unearthing Justice is an essential handbook for anyone trying to protect the places and people they love.
Reviews
“When a mining company comes to your town it brings its imperialist ideology, its private militia, its army of lawyers, its lobbyists, its public relations experts, its tax haven-connected accountants, and the various levels of government it has purchased. It will threaten your community’s living conditions, its ecosystems, its agriculture, its security, and its culture. You will have to pour all of your energy into an entirely uphill battle. But Joan Kuyek’s book reminds you that your community is not nearly as alone or as isolated as it may seem, that bonds of solidarity are as possible as they are necessary. Above all, her book shows us why we must tear down the institutions that make Canada a legal and regulatory haven for the global mining industry.”
– Alain Deneault, co-author of Imperial Canada Inc.: Legal Haven of Choice for the World’s Mining Industries
“Joan Kuyek has written an excellent book, describing in layperson’s terms all aspects of mining, from exploration to reclamation, as well as the laws, operations, and financing of the mining industry. Even though I have worked with two Indigenous communities to stop mining exploration, I didn’t understand the whole process or industry. This book provides clear advice how to hold the mining industry in check and how to stop a mine. I highly recommend this book for anyone having to deal with potential or existing mines.”
– Russ Diabo, Kahnawake Mohawk, Indigenous policy analyst, editor and publisher of the First Nations Strategic Bulletin
“When it comes to offering support to communities fighting against mines and the international mining industry, there’s no one I know who’s quite like Joan Kuyek. She combines a sophisticated researcher’s nose for how and where to find the information that will increase the odds of stopping a mining corporation in its tracks with a grassroots organizer’s strategic savvy for how best to help endangered communities fight to preserve what’s theirs. In Musicians United’s work to help stop the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay, Joan’s knowledge and experience were one of our most important assets. In Unearthing Justice, she shares her lifetime of earned experience and hard won knowledge. This book will help rebalance the scales of justice in favour of people and communities.”
– Si Kahn, civil rights, labour, and community organizer and musician; co-founder, Musicians United to Protect Bristol Bay
This book is available in print or e-book. You can buy a copy here and at a number of other book sellers. However, you do not have to have read the book before attending the book club event!
About the Author
Joan Kuyek is a community-focused mining analyst, community organizer and adult educator living in Ottawa, Canada. She was the founding National Co-ordinator of MiningWatch Canada from 1999-2009.
She is the author of Unearthing Justice: How to Protect your Community from the Mining Industry (fall 2019) and Community Organizing: A Holistic Approach (2011) and a number of other books and publications.
Before moving to Ottawa, she was a community organizer and facilitator for over 30 years in Sudbury (Canada’s largest mining community) and other parts of Canada.