As people struggle to hold onto their land, livelihoods and basic human rights, NGO's and students are speaking out in protest. People all over Thailand are resisting the government in many different ways. From students staging actions, to NGO's fighting through the judicial systems, it is clear that people are aware of how dishonestly they are being treated by their government. 

We spoke to Decha Premrudeelert, a community organizer in Northeast Thailand, a long-term mentor of ENGAGE and former leader of NGO-Coordinating Committee on Rural Development (CORD), Sasiprapa Raisanguan, a Law student and activist at Khon Kaen University and Suwit Gularpwong, the current chairperson of NGO-CORD. 

These activists shared with us the passion they have for human rights, the government's current relationship with large corporations and what needs to be done to fight the injustices that the people in Na Nong Bong struggle with everyday.

On 15 March, 2012, Bernardo Vásquez, agronomist and community defender of Oaxaca, Mexico, was assassinated by hired pro-mine gunmen. On the one year anniversary of his death, his hometown organized a tribute to him and to movements in opposition to mining in Mexico and Guatemala. They held their tribute at the fences of the Fortuna Silver mine.

A bit more than a year after the tribute in Mexico, on 15 May, 2014, violence erupted in Loei, Thailand when a pro-mine, armed mob surrounded community defenders, forcing the villagers to make way for trucks loaded with ore to leave the mining site.

Yesterday, one year after the Loei incident, the victims of the assault spoke out in memory of the violence. KRBK's message, directed towards the state, military, police, capitalists, consumers, and everyone who will listen, is translated to English here.How many more dates of violence will be recorded in history as a result of our greed and disrespect for community and human rights?

Help spread the word about the violence that mining creates, and help support community-led solutions by raising money for affected communities to meet and create strategies this July in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Just 2 more weeks to raise almost 2,000 more USD!

“It’s important because you come from very far away and you try to connect with local communities- those that cannot speak English. But we can connect- that is very beautiful.”

This week we sat down with Decha Premrudeelert, a community organizer in Northeast Thailand and a long-term mentor of ENGAGE and the CIEE Thailand program and talked with him about our Support Community Rights: Mining Justice Campaign. In the video Decha shares his ideas about the ENGAGE network and the importance of international exchange. Decha was a member of the pro-democracy student movement in Thailand in the 1970’s and has worked alongside people in the region ever since. The wisdom of teachers like Decha has inspired the ENGAGE network since its creation and we are grateful for his continued support of the Support Community Rights: Mining Resistance Campaign. To hear the whole conversation check out the video below!