Empires of Extraction
Open cast iron mine
“Capitalism has grown into a world system of colonial oppression and of the financial strangulation of the overwhelming majority of the people of the world by a handful of “advanced” countries. And this “booty” is shared between two or three powerful world marauders armed to the teeth…” (Lenin, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism, 1916)
Like an historical disease, the dynamics of nineteenth century colonial exploitation and imperial domination, course through the veins of international corporations engaged in industrialised agriculture and the extraction of metals and fossil fuels. Wherever Extrativismo takes root, and whether supervised by conquistador armies or global financial institutions, it follows an all too familiar path. It commences with the violent appropriation of land and bodies, continues with the intensive extraction of natural resources, and concludes with the export of wealth to somewhere else, historically the northern hemisphere. In varying degrees, every country in Latin America is economically dependent on the drip-feed revenues it receives from this miserable process. It began with the production of gold and silver, then coffee, sugar, and rubber, and carries on today, with iron, copper, oil, beef, and cocaine. It is a centuries’ old addiction to short-term financial gain that leaves countries perpetually on the brink of economic ruin and political instability. When prices for commodities and raw materials are high, it’s bonanza time, and lives improve. But when they fall, and recession inevitably looms, poverty increases and social turmoil erupts. Like its neighbours, Brasil’s narrative of progress is chained to this model of economic development rooted in the exploitation of nature. It also remains dominated by an elite more interested in amassing personal fortune than in building a socially just society. As long as these conditions persist, the juggernaut machinery of Extrativismo will continue to strip bare, what was once imagined as a tropical Eden.