Documentary Analysis, Under Rich Earth - Brooke W

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Documentary Analysis: Under Rich Earth Brooke Westbury Student ID: 1220066 INDEV 1000: Introduction to International Development Jasmine Historv November 16, 2022

Under rich earth follows several communities in the Intag Valley of Ecuador. They are facing the prospect of Ascendant Copper, a Canadian mining company, invading their lands for a mining operation. They are unanimously opposed to the proposed mining on their lands, due to the fact that entire communities would become dispossessed and forced to move to the nearest city. Residents staged massive protests against the project, which ended in the burning of a mining camp and the departure of the company. More protests followed, and tensions were exacerbated by the hiring of outside companies that used intimidation to control the area. These rouge police forces targeted an environmental activist and raided his house, and he was forced to go into hiding (Rogge,2008). Two weeks later large groups of men came to provoke violence. These groups of ex-military men kept coming back to these communities, and citizens felt the need to take matters into their own hands. Community members marched unarmed, into the forest where the ex-military men were hiding and took them back to their community to arrest them. This garnered the attention of national news sources. This turned the tide, and eventually, the environmental impact assessment was rejected. This made it very hard for mining activities in the Intag Valley to occur (Rogge,2008). The relationship between Ascendant copper and the communities can best be explained by the North and south dialectical relationship in relation to the global economy (Hristov, Sept 26, 2022 Lecture). The North and South are constantly affecting each other and the North is affecting problems in the south (Hristov, Sept 26, 2022 Lecture). The Northern mining company, Ascendant Copper relies on the south, The Intag Valley for its land and resources. In turn, people living in those communities are displaced as a result. This makes the southern residents dependent on the northern company for wages, thus generating capital for the Northern company. The materials mined in Ecuador by Ascendant Copper are traded on the global market, increasing the profit of Ascendant Copper (Rogge,2008). While mining helped integrate

the local and national economies into the world economy, mining resources have been stolen from local residents, depriving Ecuador of the chance to further develop its own industries. The threat of being displaced from their land can be explained by the concept of primitive accumulation. Primitive accumulation is the expropriation of the direct producers from their means of subsistence (Hristov, Sept 26, 2022 Lecture). This leaves available land, and people with no other choice but to sell their labour (Hristov, Sept 26, 2022 Lecture). The majority of people in the Intag Valley are farmers and use their crops to feed their families or to trade in exchange for food and other bare essentials (Rogge,2008). Ascendant Coppers project would force all communities in the Intag Valley to become dispossessed of their land and forced to move into the nearest city, to clear the land for mining. (Rogge,2008) Many members of the Intag Valley make very little from their crops and are likely to take any jobs they can get, including the ones they can get from Ascendant Copper, to avoid homeliness. Due to the resistance from the Intag Valley, Ascendent Copper used a type of violence called pro-capitalist violence, which is the use of violence to secure and promote the accumulation of capital(Hristov, Sept 26, 2022 Lecture). This type of violence is undertaken by paramilitary groups. Paramilitary organizations are armed groups of civilians, created and funded by sectors of the capitalist classes, with military and logistical support provided unofficially (Hristov,2020) . It focuses on dispossessing people from their land and repressing social movements from below (Hristov,2020) . In the Intag Valley, violence is used to intimidate those who oppose mining into submission. This is seen when paramilitary police brutally charged into environmental activist Don Carlos Zorilla's home, planted guns and drugs in his house, and falsely accused him of crimes he did not commit (Rogge,2008). This forced him to go into hiding for months because he feared further violence against himself and the people who knew him. Two weeks after Zorilla's arrest, 3 communities were invaded by paramilitary groups who were trying to provoke violence (Rogge,2008). They ended up firing cans of tear gas at civilians who

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would not let them through a community gate. It was later found out that these men were hired by a company called Faleriocorp. (Rogge,2008) Faleriocorp was hired by Ascendent Copper to suppress opposition by locals so they could begin their operations and begin accumulating capital. This is a prime example of pro-capitalist violence that is carried out by paramilitary groups. This type of violence is often seen as a necessary evil, however, this violence has severely injured and killed residents. Even after being turned out of the community, the paramilitary members continue to come back into communities. This violence culminated in an incident where community members refused to put up with the paramilitary presence and decided to confront them in their camp. They marched unarmed into the camp and demanded they leave the area. Community members were ready to give up their lives in opposition to Ascendent Coppers mining, as the paramilitary members were highly armed. The violent attitudes displayed by Ascendant Copper are best described by " resistance from below". Resistance from below advocates for social justice, human rights, and environmental justice (Hristov, Oct 3 2022 Lecture). In the case of Under rich earth, development from below is coming from the Intag Valley communities who want to preserve their land and livelihoods (Rogge,2008). This threatens the development from above being carried out by Ascendant Copper, who are advocating for capitalist development through their mining. Ascendant Copper employed the use of othering because they perceived the opposition from communities, specifically the community of Junin as a threat. Members of the community kidnapped members of Ascendant Copper and burnt down their mines. The Head of Ascent Copper stated that an environmental conservation group called DECOIN, which Don Carlos Zorilla leads, is spreading misinformation (Rogge,2008). In the media, they use the media to assert that DECOIN is a dangerous and uncivilized group that needs to be stopped (Rogge,2008). Ascendant Copper uses othering to devalue DECOIN and put themselves on a platform so they can appear a just company to their consumers. They also do this by implementing useless community initiatives, and also use the work of community organic farms and coffee growers associations as their own, and using pictures taken there to market their programs to the public (Rogge,2008).

Under Rich Earth is a documentary that shows an example of a much larger pattern of northern companies drilling for oil in the global south. These scenarios have developed as a result of a global capitalist society.The tools used by Ascendant Copper and other mining groups are ideological, economic, political and contribute to their main goal of accumulating as much profit as possible. On the flip side it also shows the incredible resistance by communities in the Intag Valley. Their continued protests prove that a strong community has the power to push back against massive multinational corporations.

References Rogge, M. (2008). Under Rich Earth.[film]: Rye Cinema. Hristov, J. (Sept 26, 2022). IDEV 1000 Lecture. University of Guelph. Hristov, J. (Sept 21, 2022). IDEV 1000 Lecture. University of Guelph. Hristov, J. (October 3, 2022). IDEV 1000 Lecture. University of Guelph. Hristov, J. (2020). Pro-capitalist violence and globalization. The Routledge Handbook of Transformative Global Studies , 194–208. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429470325-14

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