Anti-Coega Contacts:

Earthlife South Africa

Alcan't at Coega

This declaration was made in consensus by dozens of people attending the first Saving Iceland conference, 'Global Consequences of Heavy Industry and Large Dams' on July 7-8, 2007. [Video report part 1 | 2]
Photo gallery of the conference.

We are gathered in Olfus, Iceland, we are people from more than fifteen different countries and five continents. We are here to share our experiences of heavy industry, dams, transnational companies and other expressions of globalisation, in Iceland, in Brazil, in South Africa, in Denmark, in Canada, in England, Germany, India, Trinidad and Tobago and many other countries.
We are not professional protestors. Unlike the well-paid corporate lobbyists and spindoctors that try to sell you heavy industry, none of us gets payed to be here. We are ordinary people, we are teachers, nurses, youth workers, students, shopworkers, fathers, mothers. We are here because we care. The Icelandic wilderness is unique. It is the largest in Europe and one of the few wild places left on this continent. It’s beauty and uniqueness and fire and ice are a heritage we must preserve and must defend. It is the heritage and responsibility and privilege of all Icelanders, and all Europeans, and all humans...

Jaap Krater
Earth First Journal
3 August, 2007

Summer of Resistance in Iceland - An overview

This year, Iceland saw its third Summer of direct action against heavy industry and large dams. In a much-disputed master plan, all the glacial rivers and geothermal potential of Europe’s largest wilderness would be harnessed for aluminum production (see EF!J May-June 2006). Activists from around the world have gathered to protect Europe’s largest remaining wilderness and oppose aluminum corporations.

14 June 2007

PRESS RELEASE FROM: protesters against Coega, including: Earthlife Africa, Nimble, The Zwartkops Trust, The Valley Bushveld Affected Parties, The Citrus Farmers, Concerned Members of the Public

COEGA'S TOXIC CLOUDS
While the rest of the world, including thousands of the world’s leading scientists, politicians and economists are scrambling to come up with solutions to what is potentially the biggest crisis we have ever faced in the shape of Global Warming, the Coega Development Corporation seems to know better than everyone else. Faced with increasing public concern and protest, the CDC has gone to great lengths in recent adverts in the local media to try to discredit the opponents of the Coega smelters and some of the other highly polluting and toxic industries the CDC is trying to attract, such as the ferro-manganese smelter, the oil refinery and the chlorine plant, and once again the CDC is doing its utmost to misinform the public (The Herald, 9th May, 2007).