Brown January is a campaign to remember Vale's crime in Brumadinho and warn about mining that kills and haunts people, destroys communities and ecosystems, lives, fauna, flora, landscape, air and soil quality, springs, aquifers and rivers and , relentlessly, advances over territories making other ways of living unfeasible, violates rights and makes use of the most diverse strategies to hold the population hostage.
Like the Pink October and Blue November, which are now part of the annual calendar of campaigns, it is intended that the January Brown gains repercussion to also be part. It was idealized by Guto in partnership with the Movement for the Mountains and Waters of Minas (MovSAM) in memory of the lives taken in the rupture of the tailings dam of the Córrego do Feijão da Vale mine on 1/25/2019 and the proposal is to be carried out by a collective of organizations and movements.
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In 2020, when Brown January was created, 56 national and international organizations, movements and collectives joined the campaign.
On 01/25/2021, 2 years of Vale's crime in Brumadinho will be completed. A crime that remains in impunity even though Vale (and everyone involved) murdered 272 human beings and caused serious socio-environmental impacts along the Paraopeba River.
It has been two years with Vale and its allies violating rights, failing to fulfill duties, threatening, causing suffering and not carrying out the necessary reparation to people and the environment in Brumadinho and along the tailings trail of their irresponsible and criminal activity. 2 years of “dam terrorism” in other territories, with the expulsion by Vale of entire communities and construction of “emergency works” that make no sense except for the expansion and continuity of Vale's mining complexes.
Mining, even with the pandemic, continued and accelerated its practices of haunting people, putting its workers at risk, destroying communities and biomes, lives, fauna, flora, landscapes, air and soil quality, springs, aquifers and rivers and, relentlessly, advancing over territories making other ways of living unfeasible, violating rights and making use of the most diverse strategies to hold the population hostage.
We can't shut up!