I hosted a meeting tonight in the House of Commons on behalf of the London Mining Network on the eve of the Annual General Meeting in London of one of the largest mining companies in the world, BHPBilliton.
I doubt if many have even heard of the Network or Billiton but I hope that the work of the Network will become increasingly familiar because I was moved tonight by the information the Network patiently and quietly laid before all of us attending the meeting.
The Network is an alliance of organisations like the Colombia Solidarity Campaign and Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links, which are campaigning to draw attention to the impact the world's major mining companies are having on the environment and on the lives of people in the developing world.
The Network had brought to London the trade union representatives of workers at the British owned Cerrejon mine in Colombia. Since the summer 2006 the unionised workers at the mine have been supporting the local small farming communities whose land has been taken by the mining company and who are demanding a collective resettlement to land of equal agricultural worth. Billiton is one of the companies owning the mine and so the union reps will be presenting their arguments to the company's AGM tomorrow. They have other issues to raise including their low pay, long working hours and basic health and safety.
The Colombian miners were joined by representatives of indigenous communities in the Philippines whose land is under threat from a nickel mining project being promoted by Billiton in an area which has recently beeen proclaimed as a wildlife sanctuary as well as a protected forest. There has been massive opposition to this project with one local councillor being shot dead by a security guard. Friends of the Earth Philippines has been instrumental in exposing this large scale environmental and humanitarian threat and in mobilising opposition to the mining plan.
I wish the Colombians and Philippinos success at tomorrow's AGM. To reinforce their message I will be laying an Early Day Motion in Parliament in the new session after the Queen's speech on 6th November and I will be pressing the Government to ensure that legislation is brought forward so that British mining companies or any mining company trading from Britain know that they cannot act with impunity in their operations in the Developing World.
5 Comments:
The reason third world mining operations produce the occasional environmental howler is because the big companies with the resources to mine responsibly are frightenened of going there.
Corruption, poor government infrastructure including proper legal systems increase risks of operation to such a level that they fight shy leaving the field open to lesser operators.
One way to ensure the big companies stay out of the frame - where these countries desperately need the investment - is to run political campaigns against them.
These campaigns are often used to delay projects, and extract payments. The effect is that big reputable miners steer clear, guaranteeing the continuation of poverty for hundreds of millions of third world peasants.
Mining could add 10% to the GDP of the Philippines with ease (or even 30%) but the big investors continue to keep their distance to the politicians' disappointment.
Australia and Canada etc get rich while the poor people are passed by.
"Michael O'Higgins thinks the country is heading into a slump that could be worse than the Great Depression"
http://tinyurl.com/2p5agn
"Last month, the US Treasury Department, with the blessing of the Federal Reserve Board, brokered a scheme to raise $80-$100 billion to prevent the collapse of the SIVs—a plan devised in the first instance to forestall a potentially disastrous crisis at Citigroup. There are growing indications that the scheme may fail."...
http://tinyurl.com/2elexm
"One million pay mortgage with credit card"
"More than a million households have had to pay their mortgage or rent using a credit card in the last year alone, new research shows"
"According to housing charity Shelter, around six per cent of people have had to use credit to pay for the roof over their heads, with younger people the most likely to fall into the trap"...
http://tinyurl.com/3bdk3n
To understand what is happening you have to go back to who was responsible for it all in the first place...The EVIL ones...and the two words that caused it all..."Deregulation"..."Globalisation"...The insanity off free market' economics, or should that read GREED of the few at the expense of the many.
"Milton Friedman, free-market economist who inspired Reagan and Thatcher, dies aged 94"...
http://tinyurl.com/srzs3
"The deflation of Friedman"...
http://tinyurl.com/2pnql8
"What do we owe to Thatcherite economics?"...
http://tinyurl.com/ysnrce
The influence that Thatcher had over Reagan as regards economic thinking (or lack off) was key to todays events.
"They really respected each other's views, and if that is not influence, I don't know what is".
"President Reagan said: "We met before she became prime minister and I became president, and the moment we met, we discovered that we shared quite similar views of government and freedom. Margaret ended our first meeting by telling me that we must stand together, and that is exactly what we have done ever since"...
http://tinyurl.com/2266eb
"Mervyn King shifts blame to chancellor"...
http://tinyurl.com/2ekfwm
"More bankers will walk the plank"...
http://tinyurl.com/2yojyq
"One earth, three planets' worth of damage"...
http://tinyurl.com/2tnmdg
"Ian Gilmour served as defence secretary during Edward Heath's administration, before becoming Lord Privy Seal in Margaret Thatcher's first government"
"In September 1981 he was sacked by Mrs Thatcher and remained a prominent critic of what he regarded as extreme Thatcherite policies"
"He responded to his sacking by Mrs Thatcher by issuing a statement declaring that she was steering "full speed ahead for the rocks"...
http://tinyurl.com/3cwyru
"It is 25 years since Margaret Thatcher became prime minister. Click on an individual in the image or use the drop-down menu below to find out more about the members of her first cabinet, and what has happened to them since"...
http://tinyurl.com/3ca5ml
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