1 Policy Brief No 2 / April 2019 Confronting the Politics of Inequality in the Social Construction of Disasters: the case of mining waste dams I n this Policy Brief we ground our refection about the struggle against the politics of inequality on an analysis of the grave socio-ecological disasters caused by the failures of mining waste dams. The disasters provoked by these failures have enormous consequences, particularly for local communities. It is increasingly recognized that “inequality” is one of the determining causes of the grave problems confronting human societies in the XXI Century. But inequality, or inequalities, also have their own causes, though there is no explanation of these causes that is universally accepted. For some intellectual and political traditions, such as liberalism, particularly in its extreme versions that have predominated since the 1980s, inequality is “natural”, genetically determined or, at best, is the result of the individuals’ “rational choices”. In this perspective, the fact that 1% of the human population has control over the same share of wealth than the poorest 50% is something natural, or the result of the fact that poor people choose to be poor. This ultraliberal and antidemocratic ideology that naturalizes the inequality and injustice of the capitalist order prevailing in the planet promotes the “anarchic freedom” of the market and rejects even the implementation of relatively timid policies, such as regulation and citizen participation in the control of the activities of governments and private companies. I n other perspectives, which we identify with, inequality is a form of social relation systemically produced and reproduced, including the design and implementation of policies based explicitly on the naturalization of inequalities. These policies, consequently, produce, reproduce, perpetuate and deepen the conditions of inequality and injustice afecting a large share of the human population. The struggle to develop more humane, just, egalitarian, and inclusive societies requires that the politics of inequality be confronted, INTRODUCTION Dr. Sérgio Portella – Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Dr. José Esteban Castro – National Scientifc and Technical Research Council, National University of General Sarmiento, Argentina and Newcastle University, UK. POLICY BRIEFS WATERLAT GOBACIT