Our friends at the Yukpa Solidarity Network have organised a demonstration outside the London offices of Glencore, the Anglo-Swiss mining giant that owns the Cerrejon coal mine in La Guajira, Colombia. Glencore’s operations in the region have seriously harmed the Yukpa people, and they are now bringing their struggle to the front doors of the company. See below for details, and we hope to see many LMN friends and supporters there.

Yukpa solidarity

Esneda Saavedra Restrepo is a leader of the Yukpa People of the Serranía de Perijá Andean Mountain Range in North-Eastern Colombia. She is the first female governor of the Yukpa People and leads her community in their struggle against Glencore’s open-cast coal mining on their territories. Through its Colombian subsidiary Prodeco, Glencore operates numerous mines on Yukpa and Wayuu territories, including the Cerrejón coal mine, the largest on the South American Continent. This mine spans over 690 square kilometres, making it six times larger than the City of Paris (at 105 square kilometres). Esneda and her community, as well as the Wayuu People, are on the front line of these mining operations and have seen disastrous consequences that they describe as nothing short of genocide. 

Esneda will be in the United Kingdom from the 1st till the 4th of June as part of her European Political Advocacy and Climate Justice Tour. On the 4th of June, she will be leading a demonstration at Glencore’s London Headquarters which we invite all who support the struggles for climate justice, land rights, global solidarity and nature protection to attend. She will be joined by a delegation of other Yukpa Authorities including Luis Uribe and Juan Pablo Gutierrez. This is an opportunity to directly demonstrate visible, tangible and concrete solidarity with frontline land defenders. As citizens of a nation-state that was built on the vast and grotesque plunder of wealth throughout history through colonialism and extractivism, a nation that Glencore is Headquartered from, we have a responsibility to show up in direct solidarity and invite you to please share this demonstration widely.

Schedule

10:30am: Official Start Time of Demonstration. Meeting at Glencore Energy UK Ltd, 18 Hanover Square, London, W1S 1JY.

11am: Keynote speech from Esneda Saavedra

11:30am – 12:30pm: Rally Outside of Glencore’s London Headquarters. A clear show of force and pressure against this corporation, demonstrating that hundreds of people in the UK see and know the devastation their operations are causing and will stand in solidarity with Affected Communities.

Speeches from Luis Uribe, Juan Pablo Gutierrez, Resist Glencore, Coalition Partners, Somos Semillas, the Colombian diaspora of London and other communities affected by Glencore.

12:30 – 2pm: Community Building and refreshments in the park directly opposite Glencore’s London Headquarters. We envisage to provide food and music and there will be opportunities to meet the people and groups present and have discussions on what international solidarity and climate justice as verbs really mean.

Logistical Details

  • This Rally will be peaceful and not-antagonistic. The safety and security of Esneda is of paramount importance and therefore this demonstration will act in accordance with this priority. We need all attending people and groups to also commit to this.
  • People and groups are welcome to join the Demonstration at any point, though we strongly encourage all to be present for Esneda Saavedra’s keynote speech

For any further information or enquiries, please contact us at:

Email: Theyukpasolidaritynetwork@protonmail.com.

Instagram/Twitter: Resist.Glencore