Transnational Ties and Reciprocal Tenacity: Resisting Mining in Bangladesh with Transnational Coalition

Abstract

There has been a major shift of investment in extractive industry to the global South in recent decades. The repercussions are evident in the rise of protests from local communities against mining, but these face multinational companies, state and financial institutions operating as a coalition of the powerful. This article investigates how an apparently powerless community in Bangladesh succeeded in harnessing long and strong connections with transnational organisations to halt a proposed open-cast mine. Local protestors first connected with national environmental rights groups and then with diverse transnational partners. I examine how the Phulbari resistance, as it is known, succeeded by managing connections using reciprocal tenacity and obligation towards the environment. A strong and independent national-level environmental justice mediator (National Committee) kept the coalition close to its local core. The article presents an empirical case on the rise of the global South in transnational environmental politics.