Gas, Waqf and Barclays Capital
A Decade of Resistance in Southern Thailand

The 10-year struggle against a large natural gas development project in Chana district of Southern Thailand reveals the intersection of a number of contemporary themes of global politics, ranging from the use of military force to secure fossil fuel resources to the regulation of international finance; sectarian violence; corporate social responsibility and intensely locally-specific, yet internationally-reinforced, forms of class conflict and racism. Understanding such complex political terrains is crucial not only for the movements directly involved but also for progressive political communities beyond. The Chana story raises, but cannot answer, the question of how a more tenacious solidarity for the defence of community and commons might be built among diverse and all-too-often isolated movements in different geographical and cultural locations.

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