Collective anti-fascist reading - "Cobalt red - How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives, by Siddharth Kara (St. Martin’s Press)”

Join us at Unity Bookshop for a our fourth collective reading session to tackle the multiple forms of contemporary fascism — this time we chose the neo-colonialism/extractivist implementations as a form of fascism with “Cobalt Red - How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives” by Siddharth Kara — and deepen our knowledge, activate our critical thinking, and debate together. Come and get a piece of the book: read amongst your peers for 45 minutes, then discuss and analyse the text as a group for another 45 minutes, bringing our collective knowledge together at the end. Free event, donations welcome. "Donations are always welcome — every bit helps us keep these events accessible. Cobalt Red: A powerful examination of mining operations in the Southeastern Congo that reveals a global system of modern-day slavery, and the inhumane, often deadly working conditions for the men, women and children who extract the rare metal required for smartphones, computers and electric vehicles. Nominated WorkCobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our LivesBy Siddharth Kara The revelatory New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestseller, shortlisted for the Financial Times Best Business Book of the Year Award. An unflinching investigation reveals the human rights abuses behind the Congo’s cobalt mining operation—and the moral implications that affect us all. Cobalt Red is the searing, first-ever exposé of the immense toll taken on the people and environment of the Democratic Republic of the Congo by cobalt mining, as told through the testimonies of the Congolese people themselves. Activist and researcher Siddharth Kara has traveled deep into cobalt territory to document the testimonies of the people living, working, and dying for cobalt. To uncover the truth about brutal mining practices, Kara investigated militia-controlled mining areas, traced the supply chain of child-mined cobalt from toxic pit to consumer-facing tech giants, and gathered shocking testimonies of people who endure immense suffering and even die mining cobalt. Cobalt is an essential component to every lithium-ion rechargeable battery made today, the batteries that power our smartphones, tablets, laptops, and electric vehicles. Roughly 75 percent of the world’s supply of cobalt is mined in the Congo, often by peasants and children in sub-human conditions. Billions of people in the world cannot conduct their daily lives without participating in a human rights and environmental catastrophe in the Congo. In this stark and crucial book, Kara argues that we must all care about what is happening in the Congo—because we are all implicated. BiographySiddharth Kara is an author, researcher, and activist on modern slavery. He is a British Academy Global Professor and an associate professor of human trafficking and modern slavery at Nottingham University. Kara has authored three books on modern slavery and won the Frederick Douglass Book Prize. Kara's first book was adapted into a Hollywood film, Trafficked. A feature film inspired by Cobalt Red is currently in preproduction. He divides his time between the U. K. and the US. https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/siddharth-kara