Abstract
The German Rhineland is home to the world's largest opencast lignite coal mine and human-made hole – the Hambach mine. Over the last seven years, RWE, the mine operator, has faced an increase in militant resistance, culminating in the occupation of the Hambacher Forest and acts of civil disobedience and sabotage. The mine provides a European case study to examine the repressive techniques deployed by RWE to legitimise coal mining in the face of a determined opposition. Drawing on political ecology literature and work on corporate counter-movements, this paper peers into extractive industries and their corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagements through the lens of corporate counterinsurgency. We first provide some background to the mine and RWE's unique position in the German political economy. After explaining the rise of resistance, the paper then discusses counterinsurgency in relation to CSR by outlining the different techniques used to win the ‘hearts’ and ‘minds’ of people around the mine. This includes securing the support of political leaders, lobbying, involvement in social events, infrastructure projects, astroturf groups and ecological restoration/offsetting work, which combine with overtly repressive techniques by public and private security forces that together attempt to legitimise the mine and stigmatise, intimidate and criminalise activists. This paper contents that counterinsurgency techniques are becoming normalised into the everyday operations of RWE, naturalising its image as ‘good corporate citizen’ and legitimising and invisibilising the violence towards (non)human nature inherent in the corporate-state-mining-complex, as mining is becoming part of the ‘green economy’ and made ‘sustainable’.
Highlights
The German state of North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) is home to the largest lignite coal deposit (55 billion tons) in Europe
Following the RAND Corporation's National Security Division (Rosenau et al, 2009: 1), we conceptualise these techniques and technologies as ‘corporate counterinsurgency; ’ defined as ‘firms’ efforts to mitigate violence and promote stability through social development and security measures' to ‘win hearts and minds’ of local populations. We argue that these counterinsurgency techniques are composed of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ tactics (Dunlap & Fairhead, 2014; Williams, 2007/2004), which need to be analysed in conjuncture, to illustrate how the former serve to invisibilise the latter
This paper argues that RWE's corporate social responsibility (CSR), public relations (PR) and ecological initiatives like offsetting and recultivation accomplish the same goals as ‘soft’ counterinsurgency strategies that seek to
Summary
The German state of North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) is home to the largest lignite coal deposit (55 billion tons) in Europe. Following the RAND Corporation's National Security Division (Rosenau et al, 2009: 1), we conceptualise these techniques and technologies as ‘corporate counterinsurgency; ’ defined as ‘firms’ efforts to mitigate violence and promote stability through social development and security measures' to ‘win hearts and minds’ of local populations We argue that these counterinsurgency techniques are composed of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ tactics (Dunlap & Fairhead, 2014; Williams, 2007/2004), which need to be analysed in conjuncture, to illustrate how the former serve to invisibilise the latter. We move to analyse the ‘engineering of consent’ through examining the multiple ‘soft’ counterinsurgency techniques that heavily rely on public relations (PR) strategies, ‘neoliberal social development’ and ‘greening.’ Subsequently, we examine the way nature restoration and offsetting legitimises RWE's operations, and, in conjunction with other techniques, fashions RWE as a ‘good corporate citizen.’ This is followed by an analysis of RWE's ‘harder’ counterinsurgency techniques which involve the criminalisation, repression and violence against forest defenders. We conclude that by entrenching state/corporate power and violence, an integrated approach involving hard and soft counterinsurgency techniques further intensifies the current trajectory of industrial progress responsible for biodiversity loss and climate crisis
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