How did this historic demonstration against the macro-cellulose project in Palas de Rei (Lugo) come about?

The call to protest came from two platforms, the Ulloa Viva Platform and the Platform in Defence of the Ría de Arousa, which have spent months mobilising and raising awareness about this threat. Project Gama, promoted by Greenfiber, which is partly owned by the Portuguese multinational Altri and Galician capital from Greenalia, was presented two years ago. However, the struggle began in earnest this past year when it was discovered that what was initially sold as an ecological textile fibre bio-factory was actually a macro-cellulose plant that planned to produce 400,000 tonnes of cellulose and 250,000 tonnes of lyocell, a semi-synthetic fibre made from wood cellulose extracted from eucalyptus.

The Ulloa Viva Platform conducted grassroots work in the affected area, explaining to residents the consequences of the project and countering the arguments made by company representatives in their promotional talks. This accumulation of forces led to the first major mobilisation milestone, a demonstration that surprised many in Palas de Rei on 26 May, gathering more than 20,000 people. The images from that Sunday demolished the myth of a helpless and docile rural Galicia and showed the high degree of opposition that existed in the region and even how the social protest reached the most remote parts of the country. All this despite the crude attempt by the PP (People’s Party, rightwing) mayor to prevent protesters from arriving by closing all council car parks. Fifteen days later, on 13 June, another iconic image emerged: the maritime demonstration in the Ría de Arousa with 300 artisanal fishing vessels escorting Greenpeace’s icebreaker Arctic Sunrise, showing an alliance between environmentalism and the maritime sector and the opposition of fishermen’s and shellfish gatherers’ guilds to a project that would mean the death of the Ría and the loss of thousands of jobs. Subsequently, on 30 June, a human chain was organised that surrounded the Xunta (Galician government) in Compostela.

The mobilisation was moving forward, with the emergence of a popular, broad, and inclusive environmentalism, with the Ulloa Viva Platform as a model of self-organisation. This platform brings together a new generation emerging from rural Galicia and is led mostly by young working women, with great organisational and communication capabilities and the ability to build alliances with other organisations and struggles. Their internal functioning is very interesting, with a core group organised around the Simiente group and an assembly procedure with local nodes that have even expanded to many Galician cities. The grassroots groups, called living groups, deliberate on each decision, and the sum of their opinions is put into practice by the board of directors.

But what does the Altri project entail, and why does it provoke such opposition?

This is one of the greatest examples of predatory capitalism due to its ecological and social damages. It is a macro-cellulose plant covering 360 hectares (the largest in Europe, 10 times larger than Ence), which plans to take 46 million litres of water daily from the Ulla River (of which it would return 30, at a higher temperature, which would flow into the Ría de Arousa), promote eucalyptus monoculture (as an alternative to the moratorium in neighbouring Portugal), and would have a very negative impact on the local economy of the surrounding area.

If the factory goes ahead, just hundreds of metres from homes and farms, there will also be three wood incineration boilers, two electric generators, a liquefied gas regasification plant, and a 75-metre chimney that will release as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as 21,500 cars.

The environmental impact of a project like Altri would be more than sufficient to oppose its installation, but it is more serious when we consider everything that is at stake.

The location of the macro-cellulose plant “would involve the complete destruction or irreversible alteration” of an area proposed for inclusion in the Natura Network (paralysed since 2011), according to a report by the Galician Culture Council.

The conservation of an area of special ecological value like this does not seem to be among government priorities, nor is the protection of Galician economic development.

The installation of the macro-cellulose plant puts at risk the viability and continuity of a food and agriculture sector that focuses on extensive, ecological, and local production. This will not only have economic and social consequences but also environmental ones.

The primary sector is the main driver of the region and carries great weight in all of Galicia, both in the number of farms and their quality. Protected by designations of origin and protected geographical indications, as well as projects certified by CRAEGA (Regulatory Council for Ecological Agriculture of Galicia), their activity favours the creation of a safe fire prevention zone thanks to the commitment to livestock grazing and agroecological production.

In this context, three of the main agricultural unions - Unións Agrarias, Sindicato Labrego Galego, and Fruga - opposed the implementation of this industry given its incompatibility with farming activity.

For its part, the Platform in Defence of the Ría de Arousa also positioned itself against the project, warning of the serious deterioration of the Ría’s water status and the severe consequences that pollution of the river that feeds it would have for fishing and shellfish gathering.

In sum, the installation of Altri in Palas would represent an environmental and social setback even worse than the Prestige disaster, a direct attack on the future of the heart of Galicia.

Another factor that explains the success of the 15 December demonstration is the ability to connect this mobilisation with other struggles against ecocidal attacks: the link with the struggle against Galicia’s large cellulose plant, ENCE, installed in the Ría de Pontevedra is clear, but at the Compostela demonstration, there were also banners from struggles against mining such as that of Touro (A Coruña) or against the proliferation of macro wind farms in our mountains. Altri has become the spearhead, the umbrella that encompasses many of the struggles in defence of the territory that have been taking place in the last decade in Galicia. A large part of Galician society has said enough, tired of their land becoming a sacrifice zone for the benefit of multinationals. The Galician people know that Altri is not just another project. Allowing its existence will be another nail that perpetuates Galicia as a peripheral region condemned to serve capital. The acceleration and desperation of multinationals in trying to impose their devastating plans for Galicia has not gone unnoticed, with people becoming increasingly aware that it is not an individual or local attack but a predatory system that must be challenged, and only through the accumulation of forces will there be an opportunity.

The struggle against Altri therefore transcends a specific local struggle; it is a strategic struggle for Galicia.

What consequences can this have on the Galician political scene?

Galician politics is characterised by its immobility, with a solid absolute majority of the PP that has been monopolising the Xunta since 2009. The last autonomous elections in February certified this scenario, held when the project was just beginning to be known in its true dimension and the opposition did not use it as a weapon against the PP (the regional nationalist BNG and social democratic PSOE voted in favour of Altri’s installation in Palas de Rei two years earlier). It should be noted that the affected area, the comarca of A Ulloa, is a traditional voting ground for the PP, which in the last regional elections reached 64% in the municipality of Palas de Rei. According to representatives of the Ulloa Viva Platform, there are PP voters participating in the protest movement, which could indicate possible future electoral erosion. [1]

The PP Government persists in defending Altri, acting as if it were the company’s commercial agent, declaring it a Strategic Industrial Project in 2022. Altri needs 250 million euros of public funds from the so-called European fund for the decarbonisation of the economy. Even if the Next Generation funds that the company claims do not arrive (due to both the EU and the State Government questioning whether this project meets the criteria), the Xunta commits to covering the capital needs of this ecological disaster from its own budget, putting at risk the fulfilment of European emission targets.

The Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG), strengthened by recent autonomous election results, changed its unconditional support for the project to outright rejection. It even became the central axis of their candidate’s discourse for European parliament renewal. After this shift, the CIG, the majority labour union in Galicia, threw itself into the mobilisation. The BNG, very present in Sunday’s demonstration, can politically capitalise on this mobilisation at a time of growing electoral expectations. The social democratic regional nationalist PSdeG, heavily affected by poor autonomous election results, was wavering until after this latest mass mobilisation when its leader was heard announcing that the Altri project would not receive state funding.

What is our proposal? Moving from defence to building the alternative

Self-defence is a priority at this moment of maximum capital offensive, and winning this struggle will give strength and hope to convince us that another path is possible. However, it is necessary to build alternatives to continue opening horizons.

Our commitment to an emancipatory alternative is being built around an ecosocialist and democratic system that goes beyond managing the disaster of the current system.

The ecosocialist transition implies a people with dignified material conditions. It’s about reconverting a highly industrialised and polluting economy and society that has the working class bearing the weight of capitalist development under the deterioration of their living conditions.

Beyond the struggle to preserve an ecosystem or way of life, it is fundamental to put at the centre of debate the question of democratic, participatory, and ecological planning of production, collective ownership, and horizontal management of our resources put at the service of the common good. Ecosocialism represents a model that prioritises the production of what is necessary for life and the redistribution of wealth, as opposed to the extractivist industrial model and an enclave economy that hoards resources at the service of capital.

Precisely, the path taken by the affected rural regions regarding the construction of nodes of popular self-organisation and the transformation of their productive and economic fabric is a perfect example of our proposal. With a primary sector sustained by agroecology as the protagonist of their community development and economic relocalisation.

It should be said that industrial projects imposed to favour multinational profits against the opinion of the people not only have no place in an ecosocialist system like the one we propose, but they also represent a profound blow to democracy.

Our commitment to collective and democratic planning of the economy and resources (land, water, wind, time, labour force) involves carrying out participatory and collective processes where the what, how, when, how much, and why are decided.

The challenge to the capitalist system will not be achieved solely by pressuring administrations or reaching institutions; an accumulation of forces and alliances capable of structuring resistance and proposing alternatives is needed. Without doubt, the self-organised Galician people present last Sunday in Compostela are marking the path to achieve it.

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Patricia Grela

Cristóbal López

Xaquín Pastoriza

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