NECROPOLITICA

27nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference, Mid Sweden University, 13 – 15 July 2021
NECROPOLITICS IN MINING-DEPENDENT TERRITORIES
Bodies between death and resistance in the context of corporate crime
Frederico Dornellas Martins Quintão1, Armindo dos Santos de Sousa Teodósio2, André Luiz de
Freitas Dias³
1
Research in Pontíficia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais, fredericodmq@gmail.com
2
Author two affiliation, armindo.teodosio@gmail.com
³
affiliation, alfreitasdiasufmg@gmail.com
Abstract
The article analyzes the dynamics of exploration, domination, death, and commercialization of bodies
that take place in the Brazilian mineral sector. For this purpose, two territories marked by economic
dependence, as well as psychic and social mining, Itabira and Brumadinho, in the State of Minas
Gerais, constitute the locus of research. These are realities marked by the death and impracticability of
certain ways of life in their relationship with mining, not only when crime tragedies happen as in
Brumadinho, but along the historical trajectory of these territories. The research is based on
engagement, reflexivity, thinking-reason, and dialogic. The results indicate that in territories marked
by Ore-Dependence, the Necropolitics intensifies, perpetuating realities favorable to impunity and
continuity of corporate crimes in the Brazilian mineral sector.
Keywords: Necropolitics, Mining, Environmental Conflicts, Mining-Dependency, Corporate Crimes
1. Introduction
Global mining chains make up the contemporary capitalist context, often marked by corporate crimes,
corporate social irresponsibility, and criminal tragedies, which incur systematic human rights
violations in different territories around the world (Icasuriaga; Bernardo, 2020; Pastran; Mallett, 2020;
Zhouri; 2019; Dias; Oliveira, 2018; Zhouri et al.; 2016). Even when seeking to develop socio-
environmental interventions derived from government regulation and/or pressure from ecological and
social movements, to compensate for environmental, economic, social, cultural, and political damage
generated, the mining industry and an entire ecosystem of consultancies, technical advisors, civil
society organizations specialized in tragedy and professionals from different areas end up reproducing
logics, rationales and ways of being and living in territories that condemn hundreds of communities
and people to have their life projects made impossible by progress and development and by the side
effects that this quest for development incur (Chowdhury; 2021; Banerjee, 2018; Dias; Oliveira, 2018.
The Brazilian mineral sector does not escape this dynamic of operation, unfortunately building a
recent history that records some of the most serious corporate crimes in the tragedies of Mariana and
Brumadinho, both in Minas Gerais (Fontoura; Naves; Teodósio; Gomes, 2019). This historical
trajectory, marked by these two episodes, which concentrated a high number of deaths of people,
animals, and plants in a short period, may lead those who analyze this sector and its main corporations
more lightly and superficially to imagine that treating isolated situations, non - recurring and fruit-off
and unusual phenomena failures, unexpected and fatalities (Milanez; Losekann, 2016; Milanez,
Magno, Pinto, 2019).
However, a careful analysis of this sector reveals systematic deaths, happening little by little within
the mines and productive units of the mineral sector, either in the communities around it, sometimes
due to precarious working conditions, sometimes due to the pain and suffering that an activity that
destroys the landscape and dramatically changes the life and daily life of communities, some of them
living traditionally for hundreds of years, it brings to the territories (Dias; Oliveira, 2018). Even
before tragedies lead to the loss of hundreds of human lives, in the territories marked by mining there
is a high rate of attempts at self-extermination, as seen in Brumadinho / MG (Bechler; Ribeiro, 2019;
Oliveira; Oliveira, 2019). The bodies in territories marked by mining, live a death reality, dropper or
not, suffering and physical and mental illness (Heller, 2019; Noal; Rabelo; Chachamovich, 2019).
In the Brazilian context, more specifically in the state of Minas Gerais, the history of mining is
associated with slavery and, even after the abolition of slavery, with the oppression of traditional
peoples such as quilombolas, indigenous, riverine and small farmers. (Souza; Paula; Cunha, 2009;
Souza; Reis, 2006). Studying mining, under critical analysis lenses and taking into account its
historical trajectory , requires understanding mineral extraction as an economic activity in which some
bodies are more valuable than others, generate more value than others, quickly lose more value than
others and, when they disappear for submission to lethal productive logic of this activity, they are
the object of controversy surrounding the payment or monetization by the absence, the pain, the grief
generated and the impracticability of life projects (Chowdhury, 2021; Banerjee, 2018; Dias; Oliveira,
2018).
Since its foundation in Itabira, Minas Gerais, in 1942, Vale has accounted in its predatory operations
for various work accidents and deaths, such as that of indigenous people during the construction of the
Vitória-Minas railroad. In addition to these very serious impacts, a fundamental characteristic of
mining remains: the monopoly in the explored cities and the imposition of unique histories and modes
of existence in the territories, which we can call “Minerodependência”, harm, prevent and eliminate
the development of other activities such as family farming, sustainable tourism and other ways to
exist / resist economic, cultural, social and environmental (Alvarenga, Dias, Furiati, Solsona, 2018;
Araóz, 2020; Svampa, 2019).
Even in contexts in which the large-scale loss of human life arouses anger, revolt, generates mourning
and helps to give life to mining resistance and containment movements, a logic of dependency and
true “love and hate” from mining intensify (Gasparo; 2019). Markets, economic activities and labor
relations do not constitute social spaces in which only a self-interested rationality and action driven by
the search for maximizing satisfaction are manifested. Markets are social spaces in which affections,
various rationalities, distinct interests, different degrees of solidarity and cooperation and multiple
meanings of existing, producing and consuming to reproduce life manifest themselves and intersect
with economic and self-interested rationality (Fontoura; Naves; Teodósio; Gomes, 2019; Gasparo;
2019).
Therefore, in this research, we do not consider the so-called Ore-Dependency, that is, the great
difficulty of territories and their communities in freeing themselves from the mining activity due to
the economic strength and power that these enterprises and sector concentrate (Coelho, 2017;
Szwako; Lavalle; Dowbor, 2019), only as an economic dynamic. Ore-Dependence is understood in
this investigation as an economic activity that leads to a psychic and social dependence on workers,
communities, territories and different social groups and individuals regarding mining, making it
difficult and even unfeasible that new realities of Well Living and developing the territories, outside
the context of mining, may flourish (Acosta, 2016) . Ultimately, bodies that suffer from the pains of a
productive activity that kills, destroys and makes landscapes and ways of life, despite suffering on the
skin and in the spirit, continuing to shed dependence based on bonds of affection with their
executioner, in a tragic plot.
Based on the different knowledge mobilized by the field of organizational studies, critical analyzes of
corporate crimes, although still initial in the country, present rich contributions capable of
problematizing business action and its implications for human and non-human life and society and the
environment. environment (Alcadipani; Medeiros, 2019; Medeiros; Alcadipani, 2019; Saraiva, 2018;
Souza; Valadão Júnior; Medeiros; Gallego, 2017; Medeiros, 2015; Borges; Medeiros, 2014). We
assume in the present investigation the starting point that the deaths that mark the history of the
Brazilian mineral sector are a history of corporate crimes, which incurred very low accountability and
punishment, perpetuating in the present day even when new post-tragedy governance strategies and
judicialization are put into action.
In addition, we assume research positions that go beyond the mere observation and analysis of the
phenomena that lead to suffering, illness and death of bodies as a social dynamic in which we, as
researchers, should remain distant to guarantee a supposed methodological consistency of the
research. We take the engagement as a central element in the investigation (Pozzebon, 2018), which
deepens the methodological quality (Pozzebon; Petrini, 2013) from the search based interactions on
empathy (Freire, 1997, 2009), in which we put as sensitive and reflective researchers (Cunliffe, 2020;
Fals Borda, 1987, 1994) to individuals, social groups or communities of the territories marked by
Mining-dependence, always seeking dialogicity this interaction (Pozzebon; Rodriguez; Petrini,
2014). This investigative stance is very dear to us, especially when we see that in the real Aid Industry
that settles in the territories after crime tragedies, paternalistic, welfare and authoritarian relations are
manifested (Chowdhury, 2021; Banerjee, 2018).
In organizational studies, it is necessary to unveil those beings, those bodies that deserve life,
visibility and the benefits of economic activity and those that are forgotten, made invisible and for
which the benefits of market and/or capitalist dynamics never go beyond a project future and utopia
(Amaral; Paes, 2016). We emphatically place ourselves next to those who suffer from the loss of
loved ones and the tragic realization that some bodies are worth more than others in the fate
of "severine lives" working in the Brazilian mineral sector.
To investigate the similarities between the necropoder and colonial necropolitic of Mbembe in
modern times and in Brazil, this article will resort to a mining case study from the practices of the
company Vale S.A. The inquiry that guides the investigation is based on the generation of value that
the necropolitics perpetrated by a large mining organization can generate, or better, a devaluation for
workers, communities, governments and society in general. Hence, the question arises: Necropolitics
is it worth!?, Necropolitics is worth it?! What is it worth? Who is it for?
The implications of colonialism can be explored through the eyes of Cameroonian philosopher
Achiles Mbembe (2015). Using a reinterpretation of the concept of biopower and conservation of life
proposed by Foucault, Mbembe proposes to appropriate a phenomenon experienced by countries that
were colonized by Europeans: that of the conscious and systematic extermination of the original or
enslaved peoples by the colonizer.
Therefore, “making you die” is inaugurated, the basic epistemology of what Mbembe calls
Necropolitics and Necropoder. This ability to decide on the limits of life or death is the key factor in
exercising sovereignty and greater verticalization in relations to power and domination. To better
discuss the implications of death policies, Mbembe (2015) analyzes this process in war practices.
The “state of exception” is a nodal point for initially understanding the modes of subordination of
bodies. As an example, the Nazi concentration and extermination camps are presented. In addition to
bodily death, the extermination camps and the state of exception force the occupant to have his
subjectivity and political right extracted, reducing them to his real body only. Mbembe (2015) also
points out that these states are particular cuts in an existing legal structure, where the dominator
makes the law itself according to his criteria and interests.
Another key question posed by the author to explain forms of necropolitics is the use of terror. For the
author, this tool was used systematically during the French revolution. However, Mbembe (2015)
refers to colonization and slavery as one of the first instances of biopolitical manifestation, with its
consequences paradoxically very similar to the state of exception:
Paradoxical for two reasons. First, in the context of colonization, the human nature of the
slave is depicted as a personified shadow.The condition of slave results from a triple loss:
loss of a “home”, loss of rights over his body and loss of political status. This triple loss is
tantamount to absolute domination, alienation at birth and social death (expulsion of
humanity in general). To be sure, as a political-legal structure, a farm is the space where
the slave belongs to a master. It is not a community because, by definition, it would imply
the exercise of the power of expression and thought. [...] As a work tool, the slave has a
price. As a property, it has a value. Your work is needed and used. The slave, therefore, is
kept alive, but in a “state of injury”, in a spectral world of intense horrors, cruelty and
profanity. (MBEMBE, 2015, p. 10)
However, despite this relationship of domination and reification of the slave, he is still able to
elaborate representations of the material environment in which he lives, in addition to being able
to reframe these abstractions. The slave then uses his corporeality and music to become a person
again. An example of this manifestation can be seen in the development of capoeira by Brazilian
slaves as a way of existence and resistance.
The author points out that these experiences are not exclusive to the colonial period and that their
implication brings unfolding physical, psychological, social and cultural orders over time. In
addition to this violence aimed at the individual, the geographic space of these populations is also
altered in their demarcations and resource extraction. An example cited by Mbembe (2015) is that
of the racial districts implanted during Apartheid in South Africa and the deprivation of rights to
black citizens. Again, manifests the sovereignty, which is to show and demonstrate " the ability to
define who matters and who does not matter who is disposable and who is not." (Mbembe, 2015,
p. 14).
Another contemporary example explained by the author - with greater detail on the ways of
killing and applying necro power - is the occupation in Palestine. The colonial state claims its
cultural and religious legitimacy in space, expelling people from their homes and creating refugee
camps. The exercise of sovereignty does not refer only to the field in the physical field, but also in
what can be called the “verticality policy” (Mbembe, 2015) and the domination of the airspace
with airplanes, bombs, in addition to the use of hills and valleys that protect dominators give them
privileged vision and vigilance, as well as a monopoly on water sources. Thus, it is possible to
observe that:
As the Palestinian case illustrates, the contemporary colonial occupation is a concatenation
of various powers: disciplinary, biopolitical and necropolitical. The combination of the
three allows the colonial power absolute domination over the inhabitants of the occupied
territory. The “state of siege” itself is a military institution. It allows for a type of crime
that makes no distinction between the internal and the external enemy. Whole populations
are the target of the sovereign. The besieged towns and cities are surrounded and isolated
from the world (MBEMBE, 2015, p. 16).
After the colonial approach, Mbembe (2015) also proposes to make an analysis based
on contemporary wars, emphasizing that they have greater mobility and surprise
effect and argues that the actions today are no longer of conquests and permanence in the place,
but rather than adopt lightning-fast approaches. In addition, the author reinforces that the
strategies are not immediate to implement, but to curtail basic infrastructure needs,
such as water limitation, power cuts and road destruction, among others, significantly affecting
the target population, causing “bankruptcy of the enemy's survival system”. (Mbembe, 2015, p.
18)
Another particularity of contemporary wars concerns war machines. Mbembe (2015) makes use
of this concept of Deleuze and Guatarri (1980) to say of armed groups that organize themselves
in a polymorphic and circumstantial way. They may even adopt commercial practices at the same
time or not in which they are embedded in the state power in which they are inserted.
A war machine combines a plurality of functions. It has the characteristics of a political

organization and a commercial enterprise. It operates through catches and depredations,
and can even mint its own money. To finance the extraction and export of natural
resources located in the territory they control, the war machines forge direct links with
transnational networks. War machines emerged in Africa during the last quarter of the
20th century in direct relation to the erosion of the postcolonial state's ability to build the
economic foundations of political order and authority. This capacity involves increasing
revenue, commanding and regulating access to natural resources within a well-defined
territory. In the mid-1970s, with the erosion of the State's ability to maintain this capacity,
a clearly defined line emerges between monetary instability and spatial
fragmentation. (Mbembe, 2015, p. 19)
The author points out that this monetary circulation has crossed state / society relations in two
ways. The first concerns the concentration of liquidity in a few channels. This brings the
reification of people to the fore, measuring people by their worth and usefulness. The second
refers to the poor distribution of capital originated from the exploitation of natural resources in
certain territories, which created gaps and inequalities, also changing the relationship between
“people and things”.
Here lies the danger of a state hostage to the war machine, where weak regulation allows these
devices to act in a predatory manner according to the law itself and demobilize and incapacitate
the affected population. This set of repressions, whether in the topological field, of access to
water and light, exploitation of labor, widespread deaths and social demobilization of the affected
territories incrusted the person-victim of modern occupation in a state of lethargy and
suffering (Mbembe, 2015). Still according to the philosopher, there is the possibility of freedom,
but this is a condition that has not yet arrived and still reflects suffering in the present.
This relationship of socio-environmental conflicts arising from the economic interest in
modernity can also be found in Acserald's (2002) writings on environmental and social
justice. This perspective is worked to the detriment of the risk management of public and private
undertakings. The scenario is that they absorb the positive fruits of the initiatives in Minas
Gerais, the high profit and positions of power in the miners, leaving the population affected by
the burden of risks, such as unemployment, precarious work conditions, disruption and terrorism
of dams, land expropriation and air pollution, in addition to water scarcity. In the words of the
author:
From this perspective, there would be no way to separate environmental problems from the
unequal distribution of power over political, material and symbolic resources. Simultaneous
forms of oppression would be responsible for environmental injustices arising from the
inseparable nature of oppression of class, race and gender. (Acserald, 2002, p. 3)
One of the first forms of insurgency on the part of the population affected in favor of environmental
justice can be registered in the mid-1960s in the United States, where the community at that time
was positioned against the disposal of toxic waste, contamination of their place of residence,
improvements in sanitation and an end to unhealthy working conditions (Acserald, 2002). However,
resistance practices in the face of social and environmental aggression can be identified from the
beginning of colonial practices.
The process of struggle in modern societies managed, from 1987 onwards, to elaborate with technical
and scientific evaluations, arguments that justified that the environmental impacts of large enterprises
caused side effects mainly in the vulnerable classes, such as blacks, poor, workers. It is important to
stress that this whole process was only possible from the co-construction with the affected public,
since only they know about their processes and are part of the relevant knowledge for the balance in
the inequality of risks (Acserald, 2002).
This demand for representativeness caused the movement for environmental justice to become
institutionalized in two ways. Those of a regional/objective character that guided collective
reparations with a geographic, territorial focus and those of a discursive/subjective character, which
understood the prevailing correlation of inequality with the dominated races and ethnicities. This
possibility made the fight for environmental justice a broader scope and guided other associated social
vulnerabilities.
Thus, Acserald (2002) proposes to organize that each environmental justice movement had two
characteristics, respectively: Objectivist 1 and 2. Subjectivist 1 and 2. The particularities of each are
exemplified below.
Chart 1. Characteristic of movements for environmental justice.

Objectivist 1 Subjectivist 1 Objectivist 2 Subjectivist 2
It was born from a When identifying that the It reconciles the The possibility of
practical confrontation of disposal of toxic waste Objectivist 1 and approximations with other
a population that defended was strongly correlated to Subjectivist 1 vulnerabilities increases
the non-contamination of the territories of the black propositions, the integration of
its territory by third parties population, environmental understanding collectives and social
with greater decision- justice was disseminated environmental inequality movements. This made
making power in the debate of civil and with a racial relationship possible a greater
social causes. and that the disposal of branching for regions
toxic waste in places without articulation,
favors places with low helping them in the
social mobilization and resistance.
decision-making power.
Source: Elaborated by the authors (2020)
In summary, social and environmental vulnerability already existed, with social movements
considering the importance of building an understanding of the aggressions they suffered, identifying
patterns of occurrence, strategies used to perpetuate inequalities and expanding the scope of the
debate to provide technical resources. and discursive other similar communities to preserve their
lives. This power of interlocution is called mobility, a strong resource of financial capital used to
weaken and submit vulnerable groups and which, thanks to the environmental justice movement, was
used in favor of those affected.
However, according to Acserald (2018), capital has not been paralyzed in the face of social
mobilization and had its profitable activity as a threat and risk. The way found by the market to deal
with social movements was through geographic and historical mapping, in addition to anticipating
agendas. This form of work refers to strategic reason seeking a d control and its employees,
the environment in which the company operates, and now on the socio-political conditions of the
territory from which they extract their resources (Acserald, 2018).
On the other hand, the company's attempt to minimize risks arising from conflicts, makes it approach
the exploited territory trying to establish bonds of trust, which refers to social management practices,
even though this approach is guided by an attempt by the company to minimize or avoid financial
losses (Acserald, 2018). It is important to add to this perspective of the author, the fact that extractive
companies need to comply with social and environmental conditions provided for by law so that they
can exercise their activities. (Acserald, 2018)
Territorial conflicts arising from economic interests can be observed in Brazil and Minas Gerais,
demonstrating that the ways of life of the populations regarding large enterprises were seen as
obstacles and dichotomous industrial and urban policies (Zhouri & Laschefski, 2010). For these
authors, in Minas Gerais, ethnic conflicts are always present, mainly in export-oriented market
practices. Thus, for the major economic projects are executed, the condition seems to
be inevitable environmental injustice, excluding the victims of decision-making, silencing their
demands and bequeathing to them the side effects of the projects.
Figure 1. Map of Minas Gerais's environmental conflicts. Source: Minas Gerais Conflict Observatory
(2014), Extraction on: 28 May 2021 at 17h 30min
As noted in the map above, the number and content of conflicts is diverse. As an example, one
can mention the São Francisco riverside residents suffering from heavy metal contamination
from mining activities, diversions and drainage of water that affect plantations
and subsistence supply. Another case is the experience of quilombola communities that are
threatened in favor of eucalyptus monoculture, incurring the displacement and removal of these
communities.
According to the authors, these territorial conflicts can also be observed in an urban context, such
as the residents of the Camargos neighborhood in Belo Horizonte who mobilized to remove a
hospital waste incineration plant in their residential area. It is necessary to take into account the
particularities of conflict in each territory and in each enterprise (Zhouri & Laschefski, 2010).
In a long fieldwork carried out for four years in the region of Conceição do Mato Dentro, Dom
Joaquim and Alvorada de Minas, the UFMG Poles of Citizenship Program team described and
analyzed innumerable violence practiced by the AngloAmerican mining company and by
Governments, especially the State of Minas Gerais and the municipalities affected by the mega
Minas-Rio project (Dias et. al, 2018th.; Dias et al, 2018b.).
Among the violence practiced by the mining company and by governments, the silencing and
invisibility of the narratives and places of speech of the local populations stand out; the constant
disrespect for the centrality, autonomy and protagonism of the people and families affected; the
intensification of intra and inter-family and community conflicts; the systematic elimination of
the weakening and modes of existence/ resistance to Mining-Dependence, among others

(Dias et. al, 2018th;. Dias et. al, 2018b.).
2. Methods
This article is derived from research that takes on the characteristics of a case study to understand
Vale S's forms of action. An on the actors in risk areas of the territories in which it operates, based on
the practices of necropolitics and necro power as proposed by the philosopher Achilles Mbembe
(2015). To this end, data collections were carried out on electronic sites and documents available on
the Internet, such as reports on the daily life of mining territories, water grants and statistics on
mining accidents in Minas Gerais.
Finally, the participation in meetings and groups of people affected by mining created in
response to socio-environmental conflicts in Itabira and Brumadinho, allowed us to identify some
representations of the violence practiced by the mining company. The insertion in the field is
because the authors of the article come from these two cities, with whom they maintain strong
bonds of coexistence until today, being present in the social life of these territories for years.
The choice of different sources of information is based on the importance of triangulation (Fusch &
Ness, 2015) of data in qualitative studies, which increases the reliability and validity of the findings,
while allowing greater analytical generalization. In addition to this variety of information sources,
historical redemptions of the company's foundation were also sought, as well as its construction
until privatization, to better understand its past and current forms of operation. The collected data
were compared with those of war and death policies presented by Achilles Mbembe (2015). Some
concepts - key used by the author were listed as analytical categories for the following research,
including: The right to kill; sovereignty; State of siege; Surprise effect; State of exception; Use of
terror; Reification; Class-based racism; Murder technologies; Territorial fragmentation; War
machines; Scorched earth; Verticality policy; New combat fields and Resistance techniques .
3. Results and Discussion
The history of mining in Itabira dates back to 1871. The fact is due to the use of enslaved labor to
extract gold and iron in the city. Slavery, in addition to suppression in the bodies of blacks,
produced reflections in their culture, silencing cultural representations and treating blacks as mere
cogs in mining. Even with the abolition in 1888, you can find slavery records still in 1930 and
perverse manifestations of racismo and structural present to the present day (Almeida, 2019;
Ferreira, 2015).
With the arrival of Itabira Iron, which was later to be called Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD)
in 1942, blacks reification practices and workers is maintained, which is the structural axis that
made the first extractions iron ore to be made from pickaxe, in the cold and at the cost of your
health. “They are illiterate people. All he had was just illiterate. He had a terrible blackout. Black
and illiterate. I didn't know how to do anything, I just knew how to work.” (Minayo, 2004, p.89).
As much as CVRD was an institution focused on the market, the organization had in essence, since
its foundation, the state character. In addition, it should be noted that the organization was formed
in a partnership with the British and Americans to provide raw materials for the manufacture of
weapons for war. This armament and military perspective were also visible in the workers'
demonstrations for better working conditions, in which the state company sent an apparatus of 60
military personnel to increase the repression (Minayo, 2004).
In this section, it is possible to identify how the concepts of necropolitics and war machines,
supported by colonialism, are intertwined with the praxis of mining company Vale. The latter takes
on a polymorphic character typical of war machines from the intertwining with the state,
commodification and the use of power and sovereignty, subduing colonized peoples to fulfill their
financial objectives.
Some of the reflexes of these practices in the body of its employees are initially pointed out by the
precarious accommodation provided by the company, to which the conditions triggered diseases
such as “tuberculosis, malaria, typhus and alcoholism” (Ferreira, 2015, p. 71).
As a way of not harming its productivity, the mining company provided for the construction of new
residential centers (Ferreira, 2015 apud Oliveira, C. 1992). It is important to highlight that these
nuclei would become areas of risk, making explicit the necropolitical practices of the territorial
arrangements of the colonized population for areas of death (Mbembe, 2015).
In Itabira, as well as in Brazil and the world, the social imaginary was constituted
conditioned by Eurocentric discourses, fed by the coloniality of knowledge and power. The
circumscribed horizon was, and is, the ideal of development. And
the predatory appropriation of nature to reach such a horizon is legitimized in the name of the
greater good, in the name of development. Once predatory appropriation is legalized, the
subjects are conditioned by it, they are also muted before the great asymmetries of power
(Ferreira, 2015, p.92)
Even with the privatization of Vale, entanglements with the State did not cease to occur, since it is
responsible for the inspection of Vale's socio-environmental actions in the territories. On the other
hand, it is possible to note that this relationship is somewhat homogeneous and the State is, in most
cases, complacent and negligent with the violence practiced systematically by mining companies.
In Itabira, since the mining company was installed in the city, only two governments have not been
supported by it (Ferreira, 2015). In addition, this univocity allows Vale to be flexible in complying
with environmental legislation, which leads to a shortage of water in the city, a high rate of
atmospheric pollution and the creation of tailings pump dams without any punishment by Organs
competent bodies (Ferreira, 2015).
The Economic power that confused with public power in the three spheres, even after
privatization, since the imperial period the Brazilian government has legislated and
managed in favor of the mineral extractive economy to serve the foreign market, interfering
in the autonomy of the local instance. Kidnapping the municipality's autonomy to manage
space and public administration, both by overlapping federal and state decisions over
municipal ones, and by disregarding environmental legislation, social and political rights,
and subjects' interests (Ferreira, 2015, p. 99)
If daily work at Vale is marked by necropolitics, the occurrences of tragedies-crimes resulting from
the company's activities, in Mariana, through Samarco, a company controlled by Vale and also mining
company BHP Billiton, and in Brumadinho, brought concentrated intensity in a short period for a
trajectory of domination, expropriation and death. Phenomena of the necropolitics that in other
territories, such as Itabira, were often not visible because they manifest themselves through small
recurring episodes over the years.
3.1 The rupture of the dam and its effects
Since the rupture of Vale's dam in Brumadinho, which collapsed on January 25, at least 1,100
people had to flee their homes in a hurry because they lived in risky places. Since then, 1 dam has
been breached and 7 are on alert. Of this total, 954 people are in temporary residences. (Cristini,
Flávia, 2019). In addition, it should be noted that the crime also caused the death of 2 7 2 people
and 1 0 are still missing.
There was a direct impact on the Paraopeba River, which compromised the water supply of Belo
Horizonte and the metropolitan region, leaving these only eighteen months of autonomy before it
enters rationing, according to the CPI established in the city council of the capital of Minas
Gerais (Research data, 2021). In addition, Paraopeba is a tributary of the São Francisco River,
responsible for most of the country's water supply.
As for Social Assistance in Brumadinho, public calamity and financial emergency were decreed,
in addition to weakness in employment ties, bureaucracy and state inefficiency and weakened social
mobilization. Emergency work involves welcoming victims' relatives, initial recording of
immediate needs, organization and participation in receiving donations, and articulating the
network of public policies and social networks. The post-emergency requires data systematization,
medium / long-term strategic planning and support in the organization in the distribution of
donations. (Christiano, 2019)
Still, on the consequences, there is a massive lack of confidence in the public authorities and the
private sector; great questioning about the future of the family and the city; greater illness in mental
health; health problems of patients already followed up; weakening of the health team; rupture,
disorganization, redesign and weakening of family bonds (Research data, 2021).
The same author also highlights the possible actions of the post-tragedy social worker; Socio-family
orientation; Actions to promote citizenship; Network strengthening; Health promotion for affected
patients and families; Integrated actions that provide autonomy, confidence and perspective to the
population (Research data, 2021).
Another place hit by the tailings dam burst was the Bento Rodrigues district in 2015, located in the
city of Mariana. Account 19 direct deaths, and the complete burial of the district, still unpunished
crimes by the courts of our country and that refer to the domineering behavior in the colony: “The
sovereign right to kill is not subject to any rules in the colonies. There, the sovereign can kill at any
time or in any way. Colonial warfare is not subject to legal and institutional norms.” (MBEMBE,
2015, p. 13).
Dam crimes have embedded in the population a state that has been called by those affected as “dam
terrorism”. In Brumadinho, some mental health professionals pointed out in the interviews that it is
extremely delicate to deal with the affected population since they are fragile and in an extremely
shaken emotional state.
This makes mourning and trauma elaboration more difficult, as places are revisited during the
dialogue and memories are triggered that reorganize the therapeutic process. In addition, the lack of
support with caregivers and the fragility in the relationship between public health professionals is
also pointed out as an important issue to be faced. Recalling that historically M drug addiction has
also provided a weakening of local public policies in health, social assistance, education, as
described and analyzed by Dias et al. (2018a).
The syndrome of small powers was also highlighted as a barrier to be overcome. In addition, the
difficulty in preparing for mourning is crossed by the “race for compensation and emergency
wages”, since the victims' relatives are approached by relatives and acquaintances who charge their
share of the compensation or make bad jokes about the enrichment by cause of death. The struggle
is permeated with revolt and anger. You can also find r vulnerability and human rights
violations in employees of Vale, those who returned to work at the site of the tragedy, aiding in the
rescue of the bodies of their colleagues.
In addition to the traumatic experience recorded in the subjectivity of those who suffered from the
rupture as in Mariana and Brumadinho or those who were rushed from their homes, the other cities
that have Vale S / A dams live in a constant state of alert under the risk imminent of
being buried. Itabira, Vale's birthplace, is surrounded by 400 million cubic meters of
tailings, threatening the direct integrity of 15,000 people. Since the installation of sirens for
evacuation in the event of a breach, the sound signals have been triggered numerous times by Vale's
"technical error", increasing the tension and anxiety in the population in facing their death, where
they sometimes had to leave their homes. in the middle of the night, suddenly, causing fear, anguish
and the feeling of imminent death (Desembargador, 2020).
The fact is that this evacuation device does not save people from death, as experienced by residents
at the training event promoted by the mining company. Residents were able to experience that even
leaving the house in a hurry, they would not have time to reach the safe area or would head towards
the mud (Na Real, 2020). It is noteworthy here that these communities are located will at least
fifteen meters from a dam and are mostly composed of elderly and retired workers of
Vale. Employees and retirees of the “highest-ranking” of the company live in neighborhoods
outside the risk area (Ferreira, 2015). Here we can identify the suitability of racial necropolitics
for classes as well.
Class-based racism, which, in translating the social conflicts of the industrial world into
racial terms, ended up comparing the working classes and the “helpless by the state” in the
industrial world with the “savages” in the colonial world. (Mbembe ,2015, p.8)
Vale has neglected the risk of these residents in Itabira since the 2000s, when it signed a
commitment with the community, public authorities and the judiciary to resettle residents
who were in areas at risk. This term appears in condition number 46 that has not been
fulfilled until today (Research data, 2021).
It is important to highlight that these domination strategies in the territories have long been
observed in Itabira, a period in which the city's elite sought to build houses, churches and
agricultural, while the Portuguese crown was only concerned with exporting wealth. On the
other hand, the blacks and “mestizos” who represented the poor of the city were not given
the right to develop projects for the territory in which they lived (Ferreira, 2015).
Dam breaks produce a massive number of direct victims, instantaneous brutal impact,
environmental devastation of rivers, with social reverberations that are difficult to measure,
as mentioned by Mbembe (2015) when analyzing new ways of killing.
Innovations in murder technologies aim not only to "civilize" the ways of death, but also to
eliminate a large number of victims in a relatively short period. At the same time, a new
cultural sensitivity emerges, in which killing the enemy of the State is an extension of
gambling. More intimate, sinister and tranquil forms of cruelty appear. (Mbembe, 2015, p.8)
These new ways of killing are also intertwined with new conceptions of space and battlefield, as
well as new domination strategies exercised. In Itabira, the population does not have representation
or deliberation in the dialogues between the Public Ministry, Vale and City Hall. In Brumadinho
and Mariana, those affected are not directly heard, being imposed the need for “Technical Advisory
Services” to represent them or to mediate their dialogue with the State and Federal Public
Ministries, as well as with the Public Defender's Office of the Union and the State of São Paulo.
Minas Gerais.
In the spectacle of disaster and socio-environmental crime staged and represented in these territories,
Vale works to delegitimize the need for technical assistance in Brumadinho, to negotiate
individually with those affected, to fragment and weaken the struggles. Again, taking up Mbembe's
text:
The assertion of supreme authority in a given political space does not come easily. Instead, a
mosaic of incomplete and overlapping, disguised and entangled rights to govern emerges, in
which there are many different de facto legal instances geographically intertwined, and in
which plural allegiances, asymmetric suzerainty and enclaves abound. In this heteronomous
organization of territorial rights and claims, it makes little sense to insist on the distinction
between the "internal" and "external" political fields, separated by clearly demarcated
boundaries ... More and more, war does not occur between armies of two Sovereign
states. It is fought by armed groups that act behind the mask of the State against armed
groups that do not have a State, but which control very different territories; both sides have
as their main targets unarmed civilian populations or organized as militias. (Mbembe, 2015,
p. 18; 20)
4. Conclusions
As demonstrated, Vale was founded in a context of colonial heritage and slave labor, implying the
exploitation of labor for profit, in addition to the use of armed and police repression to exercise its
sovereignty and domination over blacks and workers.
This pattern of behavior towards its employees continued with the modernization and privatization
of the mining company, causing it to resort to camouflaged forms of domination such as moral
harassment, based on threats of unemployment, death or expropriation while continuing to place the
biological body of its employees at risk, either in exposure to COVID-19 or in dam crimes.
The death policies go beyond the company's guardhouse, since it interferes in the infrastructure of
the city in which it operates, whether in the expropriation of families from their homes, the creation
of new neighborhoods with quality of housing according to the company's hierarchy and burial of
urban and rural areas with their dam crimes.
In addition to these “scorched earth” practices, Vale also operates in the verticality policy, with
sirens and bomb dams on the houses of the popular classes. Mbembe (2015) highlights that
modernity has brought “new fields” of combat, which is explained by the constant struggle of the
mining company to delegitimize the movements of those affected and unions, thus also weakening
and breaking the social fabric in which, it impacts.
The infrastructure war can also be explained by the atmospheric pollution of the affected cities,
such as Itabira and Brumadinho, which register dense dust storms with levels beyond those
acceptable, which creates respiratory problems for the population. Mining also shows predatory in
the water aspect, taking shortage to Itabiranas houses, besides d the Mariana dam crimes and
Brumadinho eliminate the water supply and ecosystem of fauna and flora do Rio Doce and Rio
Paraopeba, as well as pollution and direct contamination and indirect in the territories.
Fear of job loss, risk of being buried by toxic waste, living with false dam alerts, being expropriated
from their homes, living with contaminated air, drinking water polluted with heavy material,
hearing rock detonation noise, cracks in the rocks houses due to explosions and rail traffic, in
addition to the accelerated expansion of contamination of the new coronavirus, establishes in the
population affected by mining a state of siege proper to the war. If nothing else, the competition for
narratives in support of those affected and " Tragedy Industry" and "Show Disaster-Crime" promote
workers and citizens with a state of emergency, where they are constantly and systematically denied
participation in the decision-making processes of their own lives.
It is possible to find a pattern of reification, whether in employees or affected. To the workers, they
are just cogs in a machine made to exploit the colony's natural wealth for the benefit of the
dominant foreigner. The population, on the other hand, board pieces disputed by "outsiders" who,
without social ties to the territory, claim compensation and narratives of an experience they have
not lived. This field is disputed by technical advisory institutions, Public Prosecutors, entities and
companies created by Vale, which constantly deny the voice and participation of people, families
and communities affected and massacred by all the violence in the territories.
Death policies aimed at extracting mineral resources to generate even greater profits, with close
intertwining and connivance of the State and Governments, are characteristic practices of the war
machines explained by Mbembe (2015).
Faced with so many attacks, those affected manifest at all times the need for resistance,
confrontation and the elaboration of effective techniques to combat this predatory force. The
solutions developed by them are reconciled with the proposals of Mbembe (2015) to overcome
these death policies and manifest the right to live.
The communities affected by mineral exploration and Mining-Dependence emphasize that the
resistance actions take place in the identification of the strategies used by the big undertakings to
demobilize the territory; in the unification of those affected; in negotiating collective; expanding the
network of affected people; the greater dissemination of successful experiences in
negotiations; intersectoral action and awareness of other territories.
The highlight the similarity between these practices of resistance to the Greek myth of Circe. This
was a sorceress who used potions, spells and banquets to bewitch people. In this case, represented
by the mining company and its offers in cash or power to silence the claims. In the aforementioned
myth, the form of resistance to these enchantments came from Hermes and Ulysses, with an attempt
to understand and alert about the risks, which, unfortunately, were not heard. As a way to help
Ulysses, Hermes provided him with an antidote and taught him how to use it. When necessary,
Odysseus used the antidote and managed to free his fellows who were under his spell.
We hope that this research can serve for future debates and reflections on the practices of
necropolitics developed in territories and communities, whether in the mineral sector or other
contexts historically marked by the phenomena of labor exploitation, disrespect to the diverse and
multiple modes of existence/resistance .
The rescue, visibility and dialogue with other ways of thinking about organizations, organizing,
producing, living and accessing markets are, in our view, essential for more consistent training in
the field of Administration. Researches also based on the perspective of those who are made
invisible, labeled anti-progress and anti-development and stuck to a way of being and existing that
should not resist “Mining Dependence” and the necropolitics of large mining corporations, are
urgent and necessary.
References
Acosta, Alberto (2016). O bem viver: uma oportunidade para imaginar outros mundos. São Paulo:
Editora Elefante.
Acserald, Henri (2002). Justiça ambiental e construção social do risco. XIII Encontro Nacional da
Associação Brasileira de Estudos Populacionais, Caxambu, novembro.
Acserald, Henri (2018). Políticas territoriais, empresas e comunidades: O neo-extrativismo e a

gestão empresarial do “social”. Rio de Janeiro. Garamond.
Almeida, Sílvio (2019). Racismo Estrutural. Belo Horizonte, MG: Editora Letramento, 204p.
Alvarenga, Maria Cecília; Dias, André Luiz Freitas; Oliveira, Lucas Furiati; Solsona, Gonçal Mayos
(2018). Dependencia minera, violaciones de derechos y silenciamentos en el contexto de conflictos
socioambientales en Dom Joaquim, Minas Gerais, Brasil. Em: Dias, André Luiz Freitas; Solsona,
Gonçal Mayos (Orgs.). Violaciones de derechos humanos, poder y Estado. Jundiaí, SP: Paco, 157-184
Angelo, Maurício (2020). Itabira (MG), berço da Vale, vive “surto descontrolado” de Covid-19
causado pela mineradora. <https://observatoriodamineracao.com.br/itabira-mg-berco-da-vale-
vive-surto-descontrolado- de-covid-19-causado-pela-mineradora/>. Acesso: 04 jun. 2020
Aráoz, Horacio Machado (2020). Mineração, genealogia do desastre. São Paulo: Editora Elefante,
2020, 324p.
Conflitos, Ambientais (2010). Mapa dos conflitos ambientais.

<https://conflitosambientaismg.lcc.ufmg.br/observatorio-de-conflitos-ambientais/mapa-dos-
conflitos-ambientais/> Acesso: 26 Jul. 2020
Cristini, Flávia (2019). Após desastre de Brumadinho, mais de mil pessoas largam casas e estão
sem previsão de retorno. G1 Minas.
<https://g1.globo.com/mg/minas-gerais/noticia/2019/03/14/apos-desastre-de-brumadinho- mais-
de-mil-pessoas-largam-casas-e-estao-sem-previsao-de-retorno.ghtml>. Acesso em 04 Jun. 2020.
Desembargador (2020) de TJMG reduz para r$ 100 mil multa para a vale pagar no caso de
acionar sirenes sem necessidade. Vila de Utopia, Itabira, MG, Disponível em:
<http://www.viladeutopia.com.br/desembargador-do-tjmg-reduz-para-r-100-mil-multa-para- a-
vale-pagar-no-caso-de-acionar-sirenes-sem-necessidade-em-itabira/> Acesso: 04 Jun. 2020
Dias, André Luiz Freitas et. al. (2018). Violências de Mercado e de Estado no contexto do
Empreendimento Minerário Minas-Rio / Conceição do Mato Dentro, MG, 2015 a 2017. São
Carlos, SP: Editora Scienza, 240p.
Dias, André Luiz Freitas et. al.(2018). Violações de Direitos e Dano ao Projeto de Vida no
contexto da mineração. São Carlos, SP: Editora Scienza, 210p.
Ferreira, Ana Gabriela Chaves (2015). Mineração em serra tanto bate até que seca: A presença
da Vale em Itabira para além do desenvolvimento dos conflitos ambientais. Belo Horizonte –
UFMG.
Fusch, P.I., & Ness, L. (2015). Are We There Yet? Data Saturation in Qualitative Research. The
Qualitative Report, 20, 1408-1416.
Guimarães, Juca (2019). Vale lucra R$ 6,5 bi com mineração e vítimas de Brumadinho seguem
sem alento. <https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2019/10/26/vale- lucra-rdollar-65-bi-com-
mineracao-e-vitimas-de-brumadinho-seguem-sem-alento> Acesso: 04 Jun. 2020
Mbembe, Achille (2016). Necropolítica. Arte & Ensaios. nº 32.
Minayo, Maria Cecília de Souza (2004). De ferro e flexíveis: marcas do estado empresário e da
privatização na subjetividade operária. Rio de Janeiro: Garamond.
Na real (2019) pelo simulado quase ninguém escaparia da lama se uma barragem rompesse de
fato e não de ficção. Vila de Utopia, Itabira, MG, <http://www.viladeutopia.com.br/na-real-
pelo-simulado-quase-ninguem-escaparia-da-lama- se-uma-barragem-rompesse-de-fato-e-nao-
de-ficcao/> Acesso: 04 Jun. 2020
Negrisoli, Lucas. (2020) Samarco perde no tjmg e atingidos de Mariana podem definir valor de
indenização. O Tempo. Disponível em:<https://www.otempo.com.br/economia/samarco-perde-
no-tjmg-e-atingidos-de-mariana- podem-definir-valor-de-indenizacao-1.2296548> Acesso: 04
Jun. 2020
Paes, Cintia. Fiúza, Patrícia. Marques, Laura. (2019) Mariana: quatro anos após o rompimento de
barragem, não há previsão para julgamento de responsáveis.<https://g1.globo.com/mg/minas-
gerais/noticia/2019/10/28/mariana-dos-700-mil-atingidos- estimados-pelo-ministerio-publico-de-
minas-9-mil-foram-indenizados.ghtml> Acesso: 04 Jun. 2020
Svampa, Maristella. (2019) As fronteiras do neoextrativismo na América Latina. São Paulo: Editora
Elefante, 192p.
Zhouri, Andréa. Laschefski, Klemens (2010). Conflitos ambientais.In: Zhouri, A.; Laschefski, K.
(org.). Desenvolvimento e conflitos ambientais. Belo Hori-zonte: Editora UFMG, p. 11-34

NECROPOLITICA

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

NECROPOLITICA

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

27nd International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference, Mid Sweden University, 13 – 15 July 2021

NECROPOLITICS IN MINING-DEPENDENT TERRITORIES

Bodies between death and resistance in the context of corporate crime

Keywords: Necropolitics, Mining, Environmental Conflicts, Mining-Dependency, Corporate Crimes

A war machine combines a plurality of functions. It has the characteristics of a political

Chart 1. Characteristic of movements for environmental justice.

the weakening and modes of existence/ resistance to Mining-Dependence, among others

3. Results and Discussion

3.1 The rupture of the dam and its effects

Acserald, Henri (2018). Políticas territoriais, empresas e comunidades: O neo-extrativismo e a

Conflitos, Ambientais (2010). Mapa dos conflitos ambientais.

Mbembe, Achille (2016). Necropolítica. Arte & Ensaios. nº 32.

You might also like