Valeria Mongelli

In a village of Northeast Thailand, a group of resilient women weaves bright-colored scarves to fund their fight against the mining company that poisoned their land. In 2006, the Thai mining company Tungkum Limited started extracting copper and gold less than 1 km from the village of Na Nong Bong, in Isaan. Soon afterward, government tests revealed unsafe levels of cyanide, arsenic, and mercury in soil, water, and residents’ blood. The villagers started protesting for the closure of the mine and the restoration of the environment. Ranong Kongsean, one of the social pillars of the village, had a vision: funding the fight against the mine through the sale of traditionally weaved textiles. This is how the Radical Grandmothers’ collective was born. In their decade-long struggle for environmental justice, the Radical Grandmothers faced threats, violent intimidations, harassments, and criminal prosecutions, both from the mining company and the Thai authorities. As of today, the villagers finally won the court cases against Tungkum Limited and the mine has been closed. Still, nothing has been done to restore the environment. But the Radical Grandmothers don’t give up.