Dig, Baby, Dig! Part 2: Serbia, with Bojana Novakovic

'Why do we care about the climate crisis unless it is to save natural spaces that are exactly like the Jadar Valley?'

The second episode in this mini series takes you to Serbia, where the Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto is trying to dig for lithium in the Jadar Valley in spite of widespread public protests.

We speak to actor and activist Bojana Novakovic of Marš sa Drine about how people power has delayed the project by two years – and what other resistance movements can learn from Serbians.

Host: Maxine Betteridge-Moes

Guest: Bojana Novakovic

Credits: Maxine Betteridge-Moes (Producer, Digital Editor), Amy Hall, Bethany Rielly, Conrad Landin, Nick Dowson (Co-Editors), Paula Lacey (Editorial Assistant), Samuel Rafanell-Williams (Sound Design), Nazik Hamza (Audio Editor), Mari Fouz (Logo Design)

Read NI555: Dig, Baby, Dig! Can Critical Minerals Save the World?

0:28 Introduction to critical minerals

2:45 Welcoming Bojana Novakovic

4:04 What’s at stake in the Jadar Valley?

6:01 Introducing Mars sa Drine

7:00 The beginning of protests against lithium mining

8:09 Why Serbia?

10:13 Vucic’s re-election

12:28 Student-led protests after deadly disaster

14:20 Knock on effects for the rest of Europe

15:43 Mass arrests and criminalisation

17:13 Using direct action

18:45 Can we afford collateral damage in the climate crisis?

23:10 Has lithium had a capitalist glow up?

Further reading from this episode:

Can mining save the world? (Vanessa Baird, New Internationalist - subscribe to read)

White flamingos and lithium frenzy (Vanessa Baird, New Internationalist - subscribe to read)

Once upon a Rio Tinto mining project (Andrej Ivančić and Sergey Steblev, New Internationalist)

Avoid Amazon by shopping at New Internationalist’s very own Ethical Shop

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