Category Archives: Corporate Globalization

by | June 18, 2013 · 11:02 am

Peru protesters push to stop $5 billion Newmont mine

By Mitra Taj, June 17, 2013. Source: Reuters

Andean people march during a protest against Newmont's proposed $4.8 billion Conga gold mine, near the Cortada lagoon, in the Andean region of Cajamarca November 24, 2011. Photo: REUTERS/Enrique Castro-Mendivil

Andean people march during a protest against Newmont’s proposed $4.8 billion Conga gold mine, near the Cortada lagoon, in the Andean region of Cajamarca November 24, 2011. Photo: REUTERS/Enrique Castro-Mendivil

Thousands of opponents of a $5 billion gold project of Newmont Mining circled a lake high in the Andes on Monday, vowing to stop the company from eventually draining it to make way for Peru’s most expensive mine.

Lake Perol is one of several lakes that would eventually be displaced to mine ore from the Conga project. Water from the lakes would be transferred to four reservoirs that the U.S. company and its Peruvian partner, Buenaventura, are building or planning to build.

The companies say the reservoirs would end seasonal shortages and guarantee year-round water supplies to towns and farmers in the area, but many residents fear they would lose control of the water or that the mine would cause pollution.

“Hopefully, the company and the government will see the crowd here today and stop the project,” said Cesar Correa, 28, of the town of Huangashanga in the northern region of Cajamarca. Continue reading →

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Filed under Actions / Protest, Corporate Globalization, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabs, Latin America-Caribbean, Mining, Water

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by | June 15, 2013 · 9:36 am

How the Correa government is neoliberalizing Ecuador’s mining legislation

By Carlos Zorrilla, June 13, 2013. Source: Upside Down World

0-1-0-rafael-correa_1798The last time Ecuador “reformed” its mining legislation was in 2000. Back then, the World Bank was going around the world merrily “modernizing” everyone’s mining legislation (in more than 100 countries), to make the world safer and easier for transnational mining corporations to pillage the world’s resources and ship them North.  The reforms were put in place and, decades later, many countries are still suffering from the massive natural resource curse that the laws inspired and made happen.  The impacts were so negative that many are currently trying to undo some of the changes.  But not Ecuador.

In the case of this Andean country, in the 1990s the World Bank lent it $14 million dollars to help it carry out the changes, plus prospect for minerals in all of Western Ecuador, including inside seven protected areas. The upshot was that the changes to the law removed all kinds of “obstacles” that mining companies always complain about, including reducing or doing away with most taxes and eliminating royalties, in addition to abolishing all environmental regulations.  The incentives, together with the creation of mineralization maps showing areas of interest, were meant to attract all kinds of mining companies and open the country to mining. And that it did.  All of a sudden, the country, which had only small-scale mining experience, was flooded by small and large companies led by no lack of sleazy individuals trying to make a fast buck with their fly-by-night mining companies.

The consequences of the World Bank’s neoliberal policies here and elsewhere, were not surprising:  large-scale social conflicts, violence, social unrest. Luckily, in Ecuador communities were able to stop large-scale mines from opening, otherwise the country would also be burdened by enduring environmental problems. As it stands right now, Ecuador is the only Andean Nation without any large-scale metal mines (such as copper and gold).  But that is about to change with the reforms to the mining legislation being debated in the National Assembly as I write this.
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by | June 14, 2013 · 1:30 pm

Move over democracy, let the corporations rule

A transatlantic corporate bill of rights

June 12, 2013. Source: Bilaterals.org

The proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the US will open the floodgate to multi-million Euro lawsuits from corporations challenging democratic policies to protect the environment and public health, argues a new briefing by Corporate Europe Observatory and the Transnational Institute published on 3 June.

“A transatlantic corporate bill of rights” analyses leaked proposals for so-called investor-state dispute settlement under the proposed EU-US deal and reveals a determined lobby campaign from industry lobby groups and law firms to grant unprecedented rights to corporations to sue governments for legislation and regulations that interfere with their profits.

The proposal, which has come to light in leaked versions of the EU’s draft negotiating mandate for the transatlantic negotiations, would enable US companies investing in Europe to skirt European courts and directly challenge EU governments at offshore tribunals. EU companies investing abroad would have the same privilege in the US.

Such far-reaching investor rights would bring a corporate litigation boom – that has so far mainly affected developing countries – to the US and Europe. Investor-state disputes have risen thirteen-fold from 38 cases in 1996 to 514 cases in 2012, often involving millions of dollars and regularly undermining democratic policies. In both Uruguay and Australia, US-based tobacco giant Philip Morris has sued over health warnings on cigarette packets; Swedish energy multinational Vattenfall is seeking $3.7bn from Germany following a democratic decision to phase out nuclear energy; and US-company Lone Pine is suing Canada for US$250 million over a moratorium on controversial shale gas extraction (fracking) in Quebec.
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by | June 13, 2013 · 9:59 am

“Carbon farming” makes waves at stalled Bonn talks

By Stephen Leahy, June 12, 2013. Source: Inter Press Service

Civil society organisations warn that if agriculture becomes part of a carbon market, it will spur more land grabbing in Africa. Photo: Patrick Burnett/IPS

Civil society organisations warn that if agriculture becomes part of a carbon market, it will spur more land grabbing in Africa. Photo: Patrick Burnett/IPS

UXBRIDGE, Canada – U.N. climate talks have largely stalled with the suspension of one of three negotiating tracks at a key mid-year session in Bonn, Germany.

Meanwhile, civil society organisations claim the controversial issue of “carbon farming” has been pushed back onto the agenda after African nations objected to the use of their lands to absorb carbon emissions.

At the Bonn Climate Change Conference this week, Russia insisted on new procedural rules. That blocked all activity in one track of negotiations called the “Subsidiary Body for Implementation” (SBI). The SBI is a technical body that was supposed to discuss finance to help developing countries cope with climate change, as well as proposals for “loss and damage” to compensate countries for damages.

The SBI talks were suspended Wednesday.

“This development is unfortunate,” said Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Continue reading →

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Filed under Africa, Bioenergy / Agrofuels, Carbon Trading, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Commodification of Life, Corporate Globalization, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, Food Sovereignty, Green Economy, Industrial agriculture, Land Grabs, REDD, The Greed Economy and the Future of Forests, World Bank

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by | June 12, 2013 · 4:30 pm

Panama: Campesinos demonstrate against dams

June 11, 2013. Source: WW4 Report

Members of 27 campesino communities in the San Francisco district of Panama’s western Veraguas province held a protest on June 7 to demand the cancellation of permits given for the construction of the Lalin 1, Lalin 2 and Lalin 3 hydroelectric projects on the Gatú river. The protesters charged that there were irregularities in the environmental impact studies for the dams. They also said that they hadn’t been consulted on the projects and that the companies involved were ignoring an order from San Francisco’s mayor to suspend construction. The communities proposed the promotion of cooperatives, ecological tourism and farming based on ecological principles as alternatives to what they consider the government’s bad development policies. The demonstration ended without incident, although the protesters complained about the presence of investigative and anti-riot police. Veraguas’ governor agreed to start negotiations with the campesinos. (Radio Temblor, Panama, June 7)

Meanwhile, the indigenous Ngöbe Buglé are continuing to protest the Barro Blanco hydroelectric project in their territory in the western province of Chiriquí. According to Ricardo Miranda, a spokesperson for the April 10 Movement, various communities in the area carried out actions on May 24 to demand the project’s cancellation. Miranda called on traditional Ngöbe-Buglé leader (cacica) Silvia Carrera to give up on the negotiations being held with the government at the United Nations (UN) office in Panama City. Even though an independent study mandated by a UN report last year still hasn’t been completed, Generadora del Istmo, S.A. (GENISA), the Honduran-owned company building the dam, says the project is now 40% complete. The company indicated that it was reforesting the area around the dam to compensate for clearing done in the construction. (Radio Nacional de Venezuela, May 27, some from Prensa Latina)

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Filed under Actions / Protest, Corporate Globalization, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Energy, False Solutions to Climate Change, Forests, Green Economy, Hydroelectric dams, Indigenous Peoples, Land Grabs, Latin America-Caribbean, Rights, Resilience, and Restoration, The Greed Economy and the Future of Forests, Water

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by | June 11, 2013 · 1:30 pm

Colombian guerilla group holding Canadian mining executive hostage takes aim at Ottawa

By Jorge Barrera, June 7, 2013. Source: APTN News

colombia-eln-guerrillas-train

A Colombia guerilla group is trying to draw Ottawa into its battle with a Toronto-based mining company which is quietly trying to secure the release of one of its executives who has been held hostage since January.

The Ejercito de Liberacion Nacional (ELN) kidnapped Gernot Wober, 47, on Jan. 18, during an attack on the Snow Mine camp in Bolivar state, which sits in the northern part of the country. The guerilla group kidnapped five other people, including three Colombians and two Peruvians, who have all since been released.

The guerilla group says that Wober, the vice-president of Toronto-based Braeval Mining Corp, won’t be released until the company gives up gold mining concessions in the San Lucas mountain range which the ELN claims were initially given to local miners who live in the area.

In a statement issued Wednesday and posted on the guerilla group’s website, the ELN took aim at the Canadian government.
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by | · 12:00 pm

Beyond protest: First Nations community seeks alternatives to tar sands destruction

Note:  Clayton is a member of the Mathias Colomb Cree Nation also known as Pukatawagan in Northern Manitoba, Canada. He is the National Campaigner with the Defenders of the Land-Idle No More campaign known as Sovereignty Summer, co-director of the Indigenous Tar Sands (ITS) Campaign, and sits on the Board of Global Justice Ecology Project.

-The GJEP Team

By Clayton Thomas-Muller, June 6, 2013. Source: AlterNet

The author and others participate in the Walk to Heal the Tar Sands in 2009. Photo: Occupy Love / Velcrow Ripper.

The author and others participate in the Walk to Heal the Tar Sands in 2009. Photo: Occupy Love / Velcrow Ripper.

A couple years ago I was asked by the Keepers of the Athabasca to be Master of Ceremonies for a unique event: the first annual walk to heal the Canadian tar sands.

It took place in the region of the most controversial energy project on earth. The idea was not to have a protest, but instead to engage in a meaningful ceremonial action to pray for the healing of Mother Earth, which has been so damaged by the tar sands industry. Members of the five First Nations of the Athabasca region and residents of the nearby town of Fort McMurray, Alberta, tired of the never-ending fight with big oil and its supporters in the Canadian government, had made a conscious choice to protect their way of life. This was done by turning to ceremony and asking through prayer and the physical act of walking on the earth for the hearts of those harming Mother Earth through extreme energy extraction to be healed.

By extreme energy extraction, I’m talking about practices like tars sands mining and fracking, which the oil and gas industry has had to resort to now that most of the easy-to-find liquid crude is gone. By scraping the earth for fossil fuels that are mixed with sand and rock, these techniques do tremendous damage to the places where they occur. Continue reading →

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Filed under Climate Change, Climate Justice, Corporate Globalization, Ending the Era of Extreme Energy, Energy, Indigenous Peoples, Mining, Pollution, Rights, Resilience, and Restoration, Tar Sands, Water

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by | · 9:40 am

The G8′s great land-grab

By Nick Jacobs, June 11, 2013. Source: EU Observer

Photo: EU Observer

Photo: EU Observer

On Saturday David Cameron was celebrating the historic commitments to ending under-nutrition that had been secured under the UK’s G8 presidency. But another less visible development was also being celebrated, namely Malawi’s decision to become the seventh guinea pig – alongside Tanzania, Ghana, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso – in the G8′s ‘New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition’.

The New Alliance, launched a year ago by President Obama, is a partnership of G8 countries, African governments and private companies (including Monsanto, Syngenta, Cargill and Yara) aimed at lifting 50 million people out of poverty over the next 10 years.

It intends to do so not only through development aid, but by encouraging African leaders ‘to refine policies in order to improve investment opportunities’, thus ‘catalysing private sector investment in African agriculture’. The policies in question concern seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, land tenure, water resources, and any other domain where local practices, if ‘unreformed’, may constrain the investment potential for agribusiness.

Mozambique’s Cooperation Framework, drawn up with private sector partners in exchange for their commitment to invest, provides an insight into how far the New Alliance is already redrawing the regulatory map in partner countries. Continue reading →

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by | June 10, 2013 · 12:00 pm

Rail project at L.A. port draws environmental group ire

By Kirk Siegler, June 10, 2013. Source: NPR Morning Edition

Shipping containers stack up at the Port of Los Angeles. Photo: Nick Ut/AP

Shipping containers stack up at the Port of Los Angeles. Photo: Nick Ut/AP

In California, a high-profile lawsuit is seeking to halt construction of a new $500 million rail yard next to the Port of Los Angeles. Activists, including a national environmental group that’s spearheading the opposition, say the massive project would mean even more pollution for nearby neighborhoods that already have some of the worst air in the country.

The planned Southern California International Gateway is part of a multibillion dollar effort that aims to ensure that L.A.’s sprawling port doesn’t lose business once the expansion of the Panama Canal is completed.

Combined, the side-by-side ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles handle almost half of all the consumer goods shipped into the U.S., and this clearinghouse of globalization takes up a lot of real estate.

Drive over the Vincent Thomas Bridge and stacks of blue and red cargo containers stretch for miles in every direction. Continue reading →

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by | · 10:30 am

Peru: New confrontation at Conga mine site

June 8, 2013. Source: WW4 Report

July, 2012: Police assault the family of Joselito Vázquez at his funeral. He was one of the fatal victims in the protests against the Conga mining project in Cajamarca, Perú. Photo: Ernesto Benavídez.

July, 2012: Police assault the family of Joselito Vázquez at his funeral. He was one of the fatal victims in the protests against the Conga mining project in Cajamarca, Perú. Photo: Ernesto Benavídez.

National Police fired on protesters occupying the site of the Conga gold mining project in Peru’s Cajamarca region on May 28, leaving one wounded in the leg and abdomen. Police, including elite troops from the Special Operations Divsion (DINOES), opened fire as some 1,500 campesinos were marching on El Perol laguna, to establish an encampement there. The Yanacocha mining company recently announced that it will begin pumping El Perol to divert the water into a reservoir and permit mining on the site—despite the fact that the project is officially suspended. A nearby reservoir dubbed Chaillhuagón has already been built, the company announced; the original laguna of that name is slated to become a pit-mine if the project moves ahead. The company says the new reservoirs will be made available for use by local residents, but Cajamarca’s Unitary Struggle Command (CUL), which is coordinating the protests, pledges to resist any damage to the lagunas. (La Republica,Servindi, Servindi, CAOI, May 28; La Republica, May 23) Continue reading →

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