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Chapter 3: Dam Impacts and Anti-dam Protest
- Temple University Press
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❖ S light, young, and as blonde as his German ancestors, Marcio1 is a national leader of the movement of dam-affected people. At home among people of similar ancestry in the southern state of Santa Catarina in Brazil, Marcio does not stand out. Little of his time is spent at home, however. Mostly Marcio is on long bus rides between small cities. His daily activities are always focused on the one goal he has had for ten years, to organize dam-affected people. He moves between populations of affected people, who are generally compact, muscular, and brown from years of farming or fishing in the strong Brazilian sun, and the almost always lighter-skinned governmental representatives who wear suits and whose hands are soft. Marcio dresses the same every day, plain khakis and a white polo shirt bearing the MAB (Movimento dos Atingidos por Barragens, the Movement of Dam-Affected People) logo.This powerful symbol seems to precede and follow him. At first glance, the MAB symbol is quite similar to that of the Movement of Landless People (MST), which is possibly the most powerful movement in Latin America (Wolford 2003). For MAB, the outline of Brazil is blazoned on a white flag rather than the MST red, inside which is drawn a small figurative picture similar to the MST farmer profiles. MAB’s flag depicts a man being crucified on an electrical pole, 1 Marcio is a pseudonym used to protect the actual individual. Dam Impacts and Anti-dam Protest 3 62 ▪ Chapter 3 two farming tools crossed at his feet. It is evocative and omnipresent at any march or demonstration. Even the poorest members have been provided with a one-dollar t-shirt to promote the message. Marcio has been wearing this symbol since the inception of the movement in the south when he and his family protested and halted the construction of Itá Dam. Back then, in the early 1980s, there was no MAB and little critique of dam building in Brazil. Technocrats did not even inform locals when a dam would be built. NGOs proposing the usage of alternative energy generation had yet to be formed. But today anti-dam organizations exist across the country and around the world (Khagram 2004). They contest the accepted model of development by pointing to the inaccuracy, subjectivity, and lack of democracy of the science underlying its planning (Vieira 2000). This worldwide movement helped instigate an international, independent commission to investigate the negative impacts of dams (Braga 2000) and its consequent study (LaRovere and Mendes 2000). Marcio was a participant in this study through the World Commission on Dams. For that research and other projects, Marcio has traveled to the United States to meet with the World Bank and to other countries to consult with foundations, government officials, and researchers who influence federal-level Brazilian politicians. Marcio has been collaborating with researchers for years. They write books about alternative energy production and, funded by foundations, gather information about otherwise invisible dam-affected people. Through these projects, Marcio and his activist coworkers seek to change policy and make the public aware of dam impacts. Since Marcio started mobilizing against the Itá Dam project as a young man, the Brazilian government has shifted from military to democratic rule. Trained movement leaders have grown from organizing local struggles to holding government positions. The movement has also evolved from a series of localized uprisings to become a transnational player supported by German, Thai, and South African activists . Marcio has seen the movement stop dams, gain resettlement plans, grieve for the loss of assassinated leaders, and, more than any other occurrence , mourn displacement caused by one dam after another. Community or local-level campaigns against the construction of large dams, like those led by Marcio, have existed for some time. Driven by the undemocratic nature of dam planning, activists engaged in these battles have found it necessary to engage in disputes over technical knowledge and expertise that are the basis for such policies. They have drawn attention to the biased nature of technical reports and the experts who generate them. In response, they have [3.234.246.109] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 13:52 GMT) Dam Impacts and Anti-dam Protest ▪ 63 formed alliances with experts who are open to hearing lay perspectives , and they have developed new research that reflects both technical and lay knowledge. Protesting Dams, Expanding Science In the late 1970s, there was an upswing in the construction of large hydroelectric...