Customer Reviews

Resource Rebels

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It takes a lot of strength to pour over the sort of bad news that Gedicks brings us in "Resource Rebels." It's an emotional challenge to witness the ways in which the Indian Wars continue, how few people are aware of this indigenous holocaust, and how hopeless people can feel in the face of its inertia. The inhumanity shown by the executives of these extractive industries and the military and media hit men that serve them - it's all rather sickening.
The soul that Gedicks exhibits is also evident in these "Resource Rebels" who show tremendous courage to confront these impossible odds.
There are other important books that look into the attempts to slow the progress of this destructive leviathan the planners of our hi-tech militarist society have created Paradigm Wars: Indigenous Peoples' Resistance to Globalization. The interests of these transnational conglomerates are not human interests. And when the U'Wa in Colombia, the Shuar in Ecuador, the Komoro of West Papua, and the Chippewa of Wisconsin challenge their oppression and the destruction of the earth - they are defending all of humanity and future generations.

In the chapter on "The Military, Trade and Strategies for Sustainability" Gedicks notes how demanding our military is of minerals and oil resources. He cites a study that estimates "that military consumption accounts for 10 to 20% of U.S. mineral consumption." And in opposition to the desires of the general public, we continue to construct newer fleets of fighter planes and aircraft carriers all the time. Budgets are always tight for new libraries, health care, university educations, etc.; but there's always money for the warfare state. Why We Fight
I've purchased a couple copies of this book, because the author and publishers like "South End" are so deserving of support.

Following his earlier book "The New Resource Wars", Al Gedicks eloquently presents numerous negative case studies regarding exploitative mining. In this book, I was hoping there would be more direct social science analysis as well. However, there is simply more descriptive and investigative material about pernicious cases of exploitation. Instead, it would have been useful to also consider some cases of corporate resposibility, or cases where Native communities have in fact chosen to go forward with mining and have had positive experiences -- indeed cases of mines such as the Raglan project in Quebec, The Red Dog Mine in Alaska, Argyle in Australia, mining in Botswana and Ghana or oil in Brunei might also have provided an interesting comparison. Nevertheless, the book certainly has some good expository material on some of the "bad boy" companies. It is important to consider that there might also be some better players in the mix -- which the activist perspective in this book does not want to even acknowledge.