We’re an alliance of people and groups who have joined together to undermine, disrupt and shut down the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC), to protect land, water and life. 

IMARC is Australia’s biggest mining event, where mining companies make plans and sign deals to rip massive holes in land and pollute our water and air. Our goal is to hold IMARC accountable, support people on the frontline, and build for a better future. 

The Blockade IMARC Alliance stands for well-being and thriving, diverse communities and ecosystems. We value consent, autonomy and the right to say no. We promote solidarity and support the resistance of frontline communities. We call bullshit on IMARC and the extractivist industry’s greenwashing of dirty mining on stolen lands.

 

 

Group of Protestors standing in front of the Exhibition Centre behind a large banner that reads "Blockade IMARC"
People Blockading holding a banner that expands the acronym IMARC to read: "Intentionally Murdering Animals Rivers and Communities"
Blockade IMARC Zine Cover which is very colourful and reads "Keep Fighting, We Have A World To Win: Blockade IMARC '19"

Why we blockade IMARC

As the largest mining gathering in Australia, IMARC brings global mining, investment and tech executives together in one room. Together they conspire to figure out the best ways they can buy and sell land and water that isn’t theirs to own or destroy.

We seek to enact change by standing up to mining and extractive industries in our own backyard, creating and building communities of resistance, and supporting international struggles. In order to build the world we want to see we need to disrupt the infrastructure that causes so much harm. We join together with frontline communities across the world to dance, share, blockade, build, heal, yell and celebrate resistance.

When ordinary people stand up to protect land, water and life, real change can happen.

Want to know more about the toxic companies and ideas IMARC brings together? Click here.

Alliance Aims

We aim to:

  • Amplify and centre the voices of First Nations communities and stand in solidarity with frontline activists
  • Use our people power to get in IMARC’s way, call out their greenwashing and shut them down
  • Educate ourselves and others (in an accessible way) on extractivism, mining and greenwashing, how it is linked to capitalism and colonialism, and how we can stop it and build a better future
  • Send a message to decision-makers and companies that support and work with mining and extractive industries
Protestors blockading outside the Exhibition Centre with the sun shining down on them and creating a halo effect
Stencil Art depicting an activist with a red balaclava covering their nose and mouth
Blockade protester leaning over to kiss a police horse on the nose
diverse collection of hands reaching together into soil
Two protest climbers at the top of two massive Exhibition Centre pillars erecting a banner that reads "Blockade IMARC For Climate Justice
Person walking away from camera in a street protest wearing a fluorescent orange vest with the words "Arrest Support" written on it

Our Principles:

Blockade IMARC is a platform for voices on the frontline of resistance to mining and extractivism.

We encourage the leadership, initiative and empowerment of First Nations peoples, on whose land mining wreaks so much damage and we strive to amplify and centre their voices. We believe that only an alliance of the dispossessed – Indigenous people, People of Colour, the working class, women, queers, disabled people, and the otherwise marginalised – can confront and defeat extractivism.

We fight for an end to extractivism, the process of large scale mining for export that is rooted in colonisation and imperialism.

We fight against the mindset that IMARC represents: the mindset that disregards communities and the environment in favour of profits and growth. We believe there are alternatives to the structural exploitation fuelled by competition and greed that exists today.

Our collective is supportive of its members.

We are a diverse collective with different cultures, political ideologies, class backgrounds, ages, abilities, and identities. If we are going to end destructive mining practices together then we have to embrace, accommodate and collaborate with each other. We will treat each other with respect, and hold each other to account to confront and condemn oppressive behaviours.

We are responsible to each other.

The actions of participants in the blockade have consequences for others. While we recognise that different affinity groups will engage in different disruptions on their own accord, we ask that participants attempt to coordinate actions that will affect others through the structures that have been established for decision making on the day. Disagreements about tactics and strategy should be expressed in a respectful manner through appropriate forums.

We are non-violent and recognise a diversity of tactics.

We seek to creatively visibilise and counter the violence which IMARC enacts and sustains towards all living beings and the planet. We likewise condemn the violence of the police, both institutional and interpersonal, and their role in upholding and protecting the violence at the heart of IMARC and its state and industry stakeholders.

Our strength is in our unity, we are more powerful when we work together.

We behave with respect for different tactics, theories of change and theories of power. We encourage respectful robust discussions about differences. We recognise that different affinity groups will have different approaches to disrupting the conference and that in our diversity lies strength. We will not publicly air our grievances and we will use and build good internal processes to communicate and resolve them.

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