‘Our Resistance, Our Hope’: A global unity forged to resist devastation of global mining liberalization

After three days of extensive discussions, shared stories, and strategic planning, a global unity has been forged by more than 140 representatives of mining-affected communities, people’s organizations and other concerned groups and individuals from over 29 countries and six continents who have come together in the International People’s Conference on Mining 2015 (IPCM) held from July 30 to August 1, 2015 in Quezon City, Philippines.

In a unity statement released on the occasion of the 2nd anniversary of the Philex mine spill, one of the historically largest mine spill disasters in the world that occurred in the province of Benguet in the Philippines, we the participants of the IPCM expressed our growing collective awareness of the crisis in the global mining industry, and have witnessed its victimization of the people and the environment.

We are conscious of mining projects and their collaborators increasingly aggravating mining liberalization, inequitable tax regimes, and investor-state agreements, seeking massive profits and becoming more reckless in their production processes, neglecting with impunity the safety of their workers, affected communities, and the environment.

This convergence of various experiences of resistance and struggle, gaining lessons from victories as well as defeats, has brought us inspiration and hope, and has given us steadfast resolve to stop the further onslaught of imperialist mining plunder and greed against the people and the environment.

Towards this end, we thus commit ourselves to engage in people’s campaigns and researches on destructive mining vis-à-vis climate change, human rights violations, ecological and health impacts, national mining policies, corporate and financial aspects of mining activities, and the engagement of emerging economies in international mining.

We seek to coordinate and strengthen legal actions and policy advocacies towards the repeal of mining liberalization laws, and the development and enforcement of positive laws that promote and protect the rights of the people. Towards this end, we support the initiative towards the creation of an international center for legal research on destructive mining.

We aim to strengthen science-based tools and methods that can be adapted to empower local communities to monitor the environmental and health impacts of mining, towards strengthening support networks by scientists to mine-affected communities.

We unite to forge solidarity among various social movements and sectors towards strengthening and expanding our networks, building capacities especially among mining-affected communities, towards the establishment of a global coordinating mechanism that can serve as a point of confluence for various networks and initiatives across the globe.

We hope that in working separately in our own contexts and countries, and together through coordinated international actions and solidarity to heighten our collective resistance for the defense of rights, environment and a common future, will bring forth triumph for people over profit, nature over neoliberal mining policies, and for social justice to prevail over death and destruction.#

Reference:

Clemente Bautista – 0922 844 9787
Member, IPCM International Coordinating Body
National Coordinator, Kalikasan PNE

———————————————

Activists from 28 countries address destructive impact of mining

They advocate for a UN treaty that will let people sue mining corporations

Joe Torres, http://www.ucanews.com/news/activists-from-28-countries-address-destruct...

31 July 2015

Manila – Anti-mining activists from 28 countries have formulated a “people’s global mechanism” to address the destructive impact of mining.

The activists, who were part of the July 30-Aug 1 International People’s Conference on Mining in Manila, said they will present the mechanism before the United Nations later this year.

“We will advocate for a binding treaty in the UN that will give rights to the people to sue mining corporations and hold them accountable for violations and crimes,” said Clemente Bautista of the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment.

Bautista, a conference organizer, said they will also propose the formation of a UN commission or rapporteur on extractive industries.

“On the national level, we want to improve local and national laws that will be at par to international standards,” said lawyer Selcuk Kozagacli, chairman of the Progressive Lawyers Association in Turkey.

He said there were cases in the past where erring mining companies leave the countries after violations have been committed.

“With an international mechanism. We can join forces and file cases in an international tribunal,” Kozagacli told ucanews.com. “Now more than ever do we need a united people’s struggle worldwide to defend the people’s rights and environment.”

Maria Antoni Recinos, a rural environment activist from El Salvador, said there is a need for “international solidarity” in the campaign against destructive industries.

“Governments must take concrete measures where there is exploitation, especially in countries where destructive mining companies operate,” she said.

Gabriel Sheanopa Manyangadze of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches said that with the support of an international alliance they will “escalate the campaign to continental levels” and work with their network of churches.

The meeting in Manila discussed how the current economic crisis, experienced by the global mining industry, will impact local communities.

Host country Philippines served as a microcosm of the global mining crisis.

Large-scale mining in the Philippines grew from 17 operations in 1997 to 46 at present and has generated US$28.6 billion worth of minerals in terms of total production value in the same time.

“Such industry growth, enjoyed only by a handful of transnational mining corporations, comes at the cost of people’s lives, livelihood and environment,” said Bautista.

In Pope Francis’s recently released encyclical, Laudato si’ (Praise be to you — On Care For Our Common Home), addressed to every person on the planet, he blamed human greed for the critical situation “Our Sister, mother Earth” now finds herself in.

—————————————————-

Churches urged to play role in fight against mining

Divestment is a tool to keep companies in check, activists say

Joe Torres, Manila – http://www.ucanews.com/news/churches-urged-to-play-role-in-fight-against...

30 July 2015

Environmental activists attending an international mining conference in Manila are calling on church officials to play an important role in the fight against destructive mining.

“The church, especially the Catholic Church, has an important role … especially in uniting people,” said Clemente Bautista of the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment.

Bautista, one of the organizers of the conference, said it would be “encouraging” if local churches divest their investments in the mining industry, especially after Pope Francis issued his encyclical, Laudato si’.

“[Divesting the church’s investments in mining] would be a concrete action consistent with their vow to protect the environment and to the teachings of Laudato si’,” he said.

Bautista cited the example made by several Philippine dioceses, including the Archdiocese of Manila, which withdrew their investments in mining companies.

Some 200 residents of mining-affected communities, indigenous peoples, church workers, lawyers, legislators, artists, environmental activists and scientists from 28 different countries attended the International People’s Conference on Mining that opened in Manila on July 30.

“My presence here is a blessing,” said Philippine Archbishop Ramon Arguelles of Lipa, who has been vocal in opposing mining and coal plant operations in his archdiocese.

The prelate, however, said it is “unfortunate” that while political leaders neglect the destruction brought about by mining, “the great majority of people either don’t know enough or they don’t care.”

Arguelles said the church is “working hard to get the people’s support” and described Laudato si’ as “a big vindication and a big help.”

“Before Laudato si’, we felt alienated,” he said, adding that even other bishops did not support his advocacy.

“Now I feel that the Holy Father and the whole church is behind me,” he said.

Sacred Heart Fr Claude Mostowik, director of the Justice and Peace Center of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Australia, said this week’s meeting in Manila “will put perspective to stories of people from communities affected by mining.”

“The important thing is to hear the stories and relate them to the situation back home,” he said.

Mostowik said many Australians have never heard how Australian mining companies were impacting the lives of people in countries like the Philippines.

“I was struck by the contrast between what the companies claim about human values and human rights and the protection of the environment, and you look at the affected communities and it’s a mess,” he told ucanews.com.

The conference this week comes on the heels of the recent pull-out of Anglo-Swiss mining firm Glencore, the biggest mining corporation in the world, from the Tampakan mining project in Mindanao.

“The meeting will be a stage for the celebration of such victories,” said Bautista, adding that they aim to gather “inspiration and lessons from such successes.”

——————————————————————

International People’s Conference on Mining tackles global challenges, highlights people’s resistance

IPCM Press Release

31 July 2015

Quezon City, Philippines—More than 140 activists, advocates, and leaders across 28 countries are in the process of formulating a people’s global mechanism to address the destructive impacts of mining liberalization at the International People’s Conference on Mining (IPCM) being held since July 30 at the Hive Hotel.

“Framed on concrete people’s experiences and equipped with science-based tools during the opening plenaries, IPCM participants seek to come up with international, regional, and subregional campaigns and coordinating bodies to address mining plunder and destruction across the globe,” said Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of the PH-based Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, one of the lead organizers of the IPCM.

Speakers extensively discussed the bearing of the current economic crisis experienced by the global mining industry. Host country Philippines served as a microcosm of the global mining crisis, as it grapples with 20 years of mining liberalization under the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 that was imposed through structural adjustment programs of international financing institutions World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

“Under the auspices of mining liberalization, large-scale mining in the Philippines skyrocketed from 17 operations in 1997 to 46 at present and has generated PHP1.31 trillion worth of minerals in terms of total production value in the same time. Such industry growth, enjoyed only by a handful of mining transnational corporations (TNCs), comes at the cost of people’s lives, livelihood and environment,” explained Bautista.

Mine disasters, deaths a global trend

With mineral prices generally in a down trend and with a sharp decrease in net profit, productivity and market value since 2011, large-scale mines have resorted to utilizing cheaper mining technologies such as open-pit and mountaintop removal mining, and drastically cutting costs in terms of environmental safety and workers welfare.

“The recent tragedy in the Philippines’ Semirara coal mine is the latest in a worsening global trend of mining disasters brought about by the clear criminal negligence by mining TNCs. Just last year, more than 300 of my countrymen perished in one of the world’s largest mining disasters in the Soma coal mine, and justice presently remains elusive. Now more than ever do we need a united people’s struggle worldwide to defend the people’s rights and environment,” said Atty. Selçuk Kozağaçlı, chairperson of the Progressive Lawyers Association (CHD-Turkey) and legal counsel of the victims’ families in the Soma underground mine fire in Turkey.

Representatives from North America, Latin America, Africa, West Pacific, and Asia affirmed the trends of crisis in their sharing of their respective regional mining situationers.

The spectre of Chinese mining

IPCM participants also noted the spread of Chinese mining across the globe. Consuming more than 25 percent of the world’s metal supplies and accounting for as much as 40-50 percent of global mineral commodity demand, China is expected to affect the entire mining industry as it currently faces an unprecedented economic slowdown.

“China’s growing aggression is not only in the shoals of the South China Sea, but in the expansion of Chinese mining interests across the world as well. There are said to be more than 24 Chinese mining companies in the Philippines ranging from black sand to gold and copper. Both the oil-and-gas-driven maritime aggression and the mineral plunder are perceived to be linked to China’s attempt to bolster its industrial production, especially in its burgeoning military industrial complex,” Bautista noted.

According to Ki Bagus Hadi Kusuma, campaigner of the Indonesia-based JATAM Mining Advocacy Network, “Chinese mining corporations in the Indonesia have earned a bad reputation for their lack of due diligence over environmental concerns. Hongkong-based iron mining company has been illegally operating in Bangka Island in Northern Sulawesi, which is a known diverse and rich marine ecosystem that is part of the famed Coral Triangle.”

The Coral Triangle is a roughly triangular marine corridor spanning the countries of Indonesia, Magalaysia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Islands, and Timor-Leste that contains at least 500 coral species in each ecoregion. Large-scale mining threats abound in most of these littoral countries, such as Canadian mining company MRL-Egerton and Norwegian firm Intex Resources in the Philippines, and the controversial Ok Tedi copper mine in Papua New Guinea.

Heightening people’s struggles

A running narrative in the IPCM talks and workshops, however, demonstrated a growing people’s resistance that is effectively opposing the adverse impacts to society and environment by large-scale mining.

“The backdrop of the IPCM is the heightening people’s struggles against mining liberalization and plunder, from the strong opposition to mining projects around the Verde Island Passage, the ‘center of the center’ of marine biodiversity in the world, to the pull-out of Anglo-Swiss mining giant Glencore amidst huge protests and people’s armed defense,” said Bautista.

In his keynote address at the first day of the IPCM, Atty. Kozağaçlı said that “we should not forget the fact that it is the determined, relentless, pure greed of profit that we are up against,” highlighting the need to uphold people’s rights against mining liberalization interests.

“The rising trend of resource nationalism by governments, such as in the ban of certain mineral exports in Indonesia, is compelled by the sustained protest of people’s movements demanding that mining should benefit people and planet, not big business profits. The people’s actions are truly making the difference,” added Kusuma.

The IPCM participants are currently planning resolutions and proposals to consolidate and coordinate various campaign efforts towards establishing a global campaign mechanism, including the plans for internationally-coordinated actions, solidarity and skills exchanges, and a challenge to the United Nations to establish a people’s assembly to address issues surrounding extractive industries.

Among the key campaigns the IPCM are uniting on is a globally-coordinated campaign against the OceanaGold mining corporation, involving host countries Philippines, El Salvador, Canada, and Australia; a presentation of recorded human rights violations in the Anglo-Swiss Glencore mining company’s Tampakan project in the Philippines to an International People’s Tribunal, to be held in London in March 2016.

Reference:

Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of Kalikasan, spokesperson of IPCM – 0922 844 9787

The IPCM is jointly organized by various environmental and social movements in the Philippines and the world, namely the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, Center for Environmental Concerns – Philippines, Jaringan Advokasi Tambang Mining Advocacy Network (Indonesia), Kairos Canada, Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, EcuVoice Philippines, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Pacific Asia Resource Centre, London Mining Network, Geneeskunde Derde Wereld (Belgium), War on Want (United Kingdom), Australia Action for Peace and Development in the Philippines, Solidagro (Belgium), Asia Indigenous People’s Pact, and the International League of Peoples’ Struggle – Commission 13.

Clemente Bautista, National Coordinator
Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment
26 Matulungin St. Central District, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines, 1100
Tel: +63 (2) 924 8756 | E-mail: secretariat [at] kalikasan [dot] net | Site: www.kalikasan.net

———————————————

International People’s Conference on Mining 2015: A Call for International Solidarity against Destructive Mining

International People’s Conference on Mining 2015 (IPCM) press statement

21 July 2015

Unified in addressing various people’s concerns on destructive mining across the globe, various environmental advocates, campaigners, and grassroots leaders worldwide will be launching the International People’s Conference on Mining 2015 (IPCM) in Quezon City, Philippines from July 30 to August 1, with the theme “Highlighting people’s lives and struggles in defense of rights, the environment and a common future: An international conference of mining communities and peoples.”

The IPCM aims to stimulate international inquiry, individual and collective action, and multi-sectoral discourse on the worsening impacts of global mining liberalization. A series of thought-provoking discussions and empowering workshops, the IPCM is an opportunity to assess the global mining situation, share experiences and lessons from people’s struggles, and strengthen the call for a global mining that is shaped by the people’s demands and aspirations.

The host country, Philippines, will conduct Learning and Solidarity Missions in the mine-affected communities in the provinces of Benguet and Nueva Vizcaya to concretely demonstrate the experiences of people’s struggles against large-scale mining in the Philippines.

Around 100 participants from 28 different countries are expected to join the conference, composed residents of mining-affected communities, indigenous peoples, church workers, lawyers, legislators, artists, alternative media practitioners, environmental activists, and scientists, among others.

This historic gathering is a point of confluence for heightening resistance to destructive, foreign mining in the Philippines that are of global significance. Various people’s movements are rising to oppose mining threats across the coastal provinces of the Verde Island Passage, the global ‘center of the center’ of marine biodiversity, alongside different campaigns against destructive mining across the entire Pacific Coral Triangle.

The IPCM also comes on the heels of the recent pull-out of Anglo-Swiss mining firm Glencore—the biggest mining corporation in the world with various projects and offices across North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Europe, and —from the Tampakan mining project in Mindanao.

The IPCM will be a stage for the celebration of such victories and advancements in the people’s struggles against the destructive impacts of large-scale mining. We aim to gather inspiration and lessons from such successes as the opposition of the Diaguita indigenous community of the Chilean Atacama against the Barrick Gold open-pit mine in their ancestral lands in 2013, or the Dongria Kondh tribe rejection of the London-based Vedanta Resources’ bauxite mine in India.

Various other leaders, experts, and campaigners will grace the plenary and workshops of the IPCM. Among them is Atty. Selcuk Kocagacli, the chairperson of ÇHD-Turkey and counsel for the victims of the 2014 Soma Coal Mine fire disaster in Turkey, who will deliver the keynote address highlighting the importance of the defense of people’s rights and the environment.

Environmental geochemist Prof. Ron Watkins, director of the Environmental Inorganic Geochemistry Group (EIGG) of Curtin University, is a leading expert on the nature and management of mining pollution, and will be discussing the risks that communities face in amidst mining operations.

Catherine Coumans, the Asia-Pacific Program Coordinator of MiningWatch Canada, is a long-time campaigner who witnessed firsthand the negative impacts of the Marcopper mining project now currently owned by Canada’s Barrick Gold. Coumans will present an outlook of global corporate mining and its challenges to mining campaigners.

The IPCM is jointly organized by various environmental and social movements in the Philippines and the world, namely the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, Center for Environmental Concerns – Philippines, Jaringan Advokasi Tambang Mining Advocacy Network (Indonesia), Kairos Canada, Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, EcuVoice Philippines, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Pacific Asia Resource Centre, London Mining Network, Geneeskunde Derde Wereld (Belgium), War on Want (United Kingdom), Australia Action for Peace and Development in the Philippines, Solidagro (Belgium), Asia Indigenous People’s Pact, and the International League of Peoples’ Struggle – Commission 13.#

Reference:

Clemente Bautista
National Coordinator, Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment
Co-Coordinator, IPCM 2015 Media Committee
ipcm.media [at] gmail [dot] com | 0922 844 9787 | www.peoplesminingconf.net

26 Matulungin St. Central District, Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines, 1100
Tel: +63 (2) 924 8756 | E-mail: secretariat [at] kalikasan [dot] net | Site: www.kalikasan.net

———————————————————————-

Historic int’l confab links global resistance vs mining TNCs, liberalization

By Dee Ayroso, Bulatlat.com, http://bulatlat.com/main/2015/07/31/historic-intl-confab-links-global-re...

“This historic gathering is a point of convergence for our heightened resistance to the intensifying plunder by mining TNCs under the rubric of neoliberal globalization.”

31 July 2015

MANILA – In defense of the rights of peoples and communities against destructive large-scale mining all over the world, some 140 internationalists gathered in Quezon City on July 30 for a landmark global linking of arms.

The International People’s Conference on Mining (IPCM), gathered indigenous peoples, scientists, church workers, economists, environmentalists and other progressives, “to assess the global mining situation, share experiences and lessons from people’s struggles, and strengthen the call for a global mining that is shaped by the people’s demands and aspirations,” said Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE), one of the IPCM lead organizers.

Some 80 delegates came from the Philippines, while the rest came from 28 countries such as Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, Japan, United Kingdom, Canada, and from Latin American and African countries.

Many of the delegates were victims of human rights violations resulting from state repression of communities opposed to mining, such as the Manobo women from Mindanao, who had repeatedly evacuated from their homes due to militarization and encroachment of mining companies in their ancestral lands. There were also former political prisoners who figured in campaigns against mining, such as Davao-based scientist Kim Gargar, and Patrick Yepe Lombaia of Papua New Guinea.

Some of the delegates arrived from visiting communities in Benguet and Nueva Vizcaya, in a mission to learn the impact of destructive large-scale mining on the environment and the people, and in solidarity with the communities’ resistance.

“In the midst of the worsening crisis of the global mining industry, coupled with the strengthening of the peoples’ movement opposed to it, we as representatives of mining-affected communities, people’s organizations, and other concerned groups and individuals are gathered here today in this landmark International People’s Conference on Mining,” said Dr. Carol Araullo, chairperson of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) in her keynote address.

“This historic gathering is a point of convergence for our heightened resistance to the intensifying plunder by mining TNCs under the rubric of neoliberal globalization,” she said.

The IPCM runs up to August 1.

“We are here because we hear the cries of the nature and our future that is being relentlessly destroyed. We have received the invitations of thousands of murdered people, of the villages, forests, polluted rivers and seas and the destroyed agricultural fields,” said Sel?uk Koza?a?li, a Turkish people’s lawyer from the Progressive Lawyers Association.

Araullo said that as the global mining industry undergoes a crisis, it pushes even more liberalization of government policies, giving control of local mining industries to big companies, who wantonly conduct their extractive activities at the expense of people’s lives and the environment.

This, however, sets the condition for people’s resistance, not just against the plunder by mining companies, but for national liberation.

“Mining TNCs no longer can plunder the common resources as before, the people are rising steadfast in their struggles and fast gaining ground,” Araullo said.

The IPCM was organized by the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, Center for Environmental Concerns – Philippines, Jaringan Advokasi Tambang Mining Advocacy Network (Indonesia), Kairos Canada, Canadian Catholic Organization for Development and Peace, EcuVoice Philippines, International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Pacific Asia Resource Centre, London Mining Network, Geneeskunde Derde Wereld (Belgium), War on Want (United Kingdom), Australia Action for Peace and Development in the Philippines, Solidagro (Belgium), Asia Indigenous People’s Pact, and the International League of Peoples’ Struggle – Commission 13. (http://bulatlat.com)

—————————————————-

Stronger int’l solidarity to confront mining TNCs

“There is no improvement in the quality of life in countries with mining.”

By Dee Ayroso, Bulatlat.com – http://bulatlat.com/main/2015/08/01/stronger-intl-solidarity-to-confront...

1 August 2015

MANILA – Mining-affected communities, environment and human rights defenders, scientists, church workers, and other progressives are looking towards a stronger, wider international solidarity that will confront mining transnational corporations (TNCs) around the world.

Delegates to the International People’s Conference on Mining (IPCM) said the gathering paves the way to close ranks and face common “monsters”: the mining TNCs, which have caused human rights violations, environmental degradation, loss of lives, homes and livelihood in mining disasters, in exchange for corporate profit.

“Companies use the same method all over the world to prevent us from acting. We may unite, not through the laws, but through struggles. International solidarity is the most effective force against mining companies. What we need is to unify the resistance of the people,” said Selcuk Kozagacli, chairperson of the Progressive Lawyers Association (CHD-Turkey), at the IPCM press conference on July 31.

Among efforts discussed at the IPCM are “coordinated campaigns” against mining liberalization, and against specific TNCs, such as OceanaGold, Adani, Glencore, Rio Tinto, Revanta, and Barrick Gold.

“The Philippines, Canada, Australia and El Salvador will come out with coordinated campaigns to kick OceanaGold out of their respective countries,” Clemente Bautista, national coordinator of the Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE), told the media.

He said that the Philippine and Indonesian groups will also work together in a campaign to protect the Coral Triangle, which includes the Verde Island Passage between Batangas and Mindoro, and the Bangka island in Sumatra, Indonesia which is being threatened by Chinese mining.

The IPCM also discussed efforts to make mining TNCs accountable before international bodies and tribunals. Bautista said groups from the Philippines, Colombia and Peru will be filing a case against Glencore corporation before the International People’s Tribunal to be held in London in March 2016.

He said the IPCM “will advocate for a treaty that will give rights to people and sue private corporations and hold them accountable for violations and crimes.” Bautista said they would also work for the formation of a commission or a special rapporteur at the United Nations that will cover rights against environmental destruction by mining, fuel and fossil gas projects.

Kozagacli said the groups could collaborate to brings cases of “crimes against humanity” committed by mining companies. “To pressure and improve local and national laws to reach international standards, is the main framework of our legal efforts,” he said.

“We must jointly consider the victims of mining disasters in the Philippines and Turkey, Semirara and Soma,” Kozagacli said, adding that there will be united efforts to make mining corporations pay for disasters they caused, such as the DMCI which owns the coal mine in Semirara, Antique.

The Turkish laywer is the legal counsel for the victims in the Soma Coal mine fire accident in 2014, which killed 301 workers.

Kozagacli said the mining disasters are more like “crimes,” not accidents, caused by “privatization, lack of control, safety negligence, and disrespect to workers’ lives” He said that in Turkey, mining disaster victims “are considered as goods to be purchased,” as companies calculate the cost of potential deaths in possible disasters every 10 years.

Geophysicist Dr. Mark Muller, a member of the London Mining Network, said the IPCM served as venue for scientists who are prepared to work with communities to discuss ways to assist in making mining companies accountable for causing environmental destruction. He said they are eyeing the formation of a “global network of people’s scientists” that will provide technical information to communities to help them assess environmental impact of mining, to possibly support cases against companies.

Giving voice to communities

“There is no improvement in the quality of life in countries with mining,” said Gabriel Sheanopa Manyangadze, director of the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and board member of the Economic Justice Network.

Manyangadze lamented that minerals extracted by European mining companies in Africa were not used to develop the industries within the continent, but rather those in Europe – a common predicament for other backward countries whose resources are plundered by mining TNCs.

He said African groups are preparing for an alternative mining conference to take place in Cape Town in 2016.

The delegates said the conference helps strengthen the different groups, as they continue to organize in communities, expand network, and campaign against large-scale destructive mining.

“This conference gives space to strengthen networks against monsters,” said Maria Antonia Recinos, a community journalist of Radio Victoria and member of Ades, from Sta. Marta in El Salvador.

“This single voice will be a tool for us, to demand enterprises and states in international tribunals…to stop the situation now where people are paying for damages caused by companies. This kind of space gives strength and ratifies our fight for justice,” said Recinos.

In one of the workshop groups, the IPCM also highlighted successful struggles in pushing back mining TNCs. In Southern Mindanao, Anglo-Swiss company Glencore recently sold all its shares and withdrew from the Tampakan copper-gold project after its 14 years of exploration had faced fierce resistance from indigenous B’laans and other groups.

“Our land, our minerals our rights,” a workshop group stressed.

The IPCM was held from July 30 and ends today, Aug. 1.

———————————————————————

Foreign mining companies vs global social movements

Carol Pagaduan-Araullo, Streetwise – www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=Opinion&title=foreign-mining-co...

2 August 2015

In the last two decades, the global mining industry has tried to repair its image and whitewash its blackened record in the wake of public furor over mine “accidents” and stiff resistance by mining communities to their operations. It has launched a coordinated, well-funded, and sustained public relations campaign as well as aggressive lobby work with governments and international bodies such as the United Nations. This colossal greenwashing effort has attempted to sell the concepts of “sustainable and responsible mining” and “cooperation of all stakeholders”.

Unfortunately for the industry but fortunately for Mother Nature and humankind, resistance to mining is no longer confined to mining-ravaged local communities but has grown into national and global social movements involving indigenous peoples, peasants, mine workers, environmentalists, scientists, lawyers, church people, human rights advocates and social activists in Africa, America, Asia, and Europe.

The holding of the International People’s Mining Conference (IPMC) in Manila last week attests to the expansion, diversity, strength and vitality of the global, national, and local movements opposed to large-scale mining. The IPMC focused on the destructive effects of large-scale mining on the lives of people living in areas where this is carried out as well as its adverse impact on the entire country’s economy, natural resource base, and ecology. It also highlighted the growing peoples’ struggles all over the world in defense of their lives, livelihood and homes against imperialist plunder enabled by the collusion of corrupt and repressive host states.

Their view is that large-scale, corporate mining has resulted in the rape of the environment in order to plunder the natural resources of poor, economically backward countries leaving behind wide swathes of wasteland where once there had been lush forests, rich fishing grounds in rivers and coastal areas, productive farmlands, and biodiversity of flora and fauna. The huge profits made from large-scale mining have merely been taken out by the mining transnational corporations (TNCs) to their home countries.

Very little gets ploughed back into the countries where the extraction of minerals takes place because these finite resources are exported as raw materials with very little value-added rather than utilized to develop domestic industry and the economy as a whole.

The Philippines serves as a microcosm of how corporate mining has led to massive land grabbing, rapid depletion of natural resources, degradation if not devastation of the environment, displacement of communities, militarization and human rights violations while contributing to the worsening of the pre-industrial and backward economy of the country.

From 1997-2014, large-scale mines operated by consortia of foreign mining TNCs and their Filipino partners increased from 16 to 46.

Almost one million hectares of land are under mining agreements.

From 1997-2013 tax and shares from mining was only $2.93 billion, a measly 10% of the total production value of $29.13 billion in the same period.

From 1997-2013, mining’s average gross domestic product and employment rate contributions were just at 0.7% and 0.44%.

From 1995-2014, 19 major mining disasters and contamination incidents were recorded. And from 2001-2015, 82 environmental activists, mostly anti-mining activists, were victims of extrajudicial killings.

These are the same violations and other worse crimes that mining communities in different countries have seen.

In South Africa, 34 striking mine workers were killed and 78 others were injured when they were fired upon by police and security forces of UK-owned Lonmin mining company in August 2012.

In Papua New Guinea, BHP Billiton’s open-pit Ok Tedi Mine has caused massive environmental degradation and pollution of the Ok Tedi and Fly rivers and their adjacent ecosystems. This was due to the irresponsible and deliberate discharge of two billion tons of mine wastes into these rivers from 1984-2013.

In West Papua, Indonesia, mining giants Rio Tinto and Freeport-McMoran are reported to have initially poured in $35 million for military infrastructure and vehicles and paid at least $20 million to state security forces from 1998 to 2004 to quell opposition against its Grasberg Mine, the world’s largest gold mine.

In China, coal miners are one of the most exploited and have one of the worst working conditions. There was a total of 589 accidents and 1,049 deaths in the coal mining industry in 2013 alone. In 2011 and 2012, 3,357 mine workers were killed in mine accidents according to the China Labour Bulletin.

Mining TNCs’ thirst for more gargantuan profits is unquenchable.

In the late 80’s, under the banner of “globalization”, more than 80 countries changed their mining regimes due to the powerful lobby of foreign TNCs and the dictates of international financial institutions (IFIs) like the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the World Trade Organizations.

Neoliberal mining policies allowed the privatization of state-owned mining firms. These led to the free flow of foreign investments to the local mining industry and full foreign ownership of mining corporations and lands in the host country. Capital control and other forms of regulation were lifted; generous tax breaks and other incentives, granted; and legitimation and legalization of measures to quell local opposition to mining activities, provided.

To further defray costs and up profits, the mining TNCs demand lower government royalty shares along with more lax environmental laws and overall regulatory environment. They insist on lower wages and benefits for mine workers, more job insecurity, lower occupational safety standards and repression of trade unionism.

One example is Peru.

With liberalization, privatization, and deregulation as the pillars of its neoliberal economic policy regime, Peru’s mining industry became dominated by foreign and private corporations and tied to the international market.

Between 1992 and 2000 more than 200 state-owned mining operations were privatized.

In 1999, private corporations accounted for 95% of mineral production, up from 55% in 1990, less than ten years previous. Predictably, 10 foreign mining corporations are among Peru’s Top 100 corporations.

National mineral production became further oriented to and dictated by the international market and not by the particular development needs of each country. This meant being held hostage to the vagaries of international trading wherein metal prices rise and fall based on the dictates of a few mining giants, their financiers and the IFIs

As to the demand for minerals in the global market, mining TNCs and their financiers are increasingly engaged in speculation in the commodity futures market.

According to IBON Foundation, “the global mining industry, just like the major drivers of monopoly capitalism, relies on fictitious capital to surmount the crisis…”

Mining TNCs clearly cannot get away with their plundering ways if they are not backed up by governments. This is where the corruption of government bureaucrats and top-level political leaders comes in: to put in place a policy regime skewed towards mining TNCs; to complement the TNCs’ campaign of deceit and cooptation; and to harness the state security forces to protect mining operations and stamp out dissent.

As the crisis of the global mining industry intensifies, the social movements — for workers’ rights, environmental protection, and indigenous people’s land rights; for asserting the rights and welfare of mining communities; and for upholding human rights — are confronting the situation and struggling to prevail against the odds. People’s movements for economic sovereignty, food security and development justice are squaring with the plunderers, despoilers and their powerful protectors in the international, national and local levels.

Their message is loud and clear: Mining TNCs cannot plunder the common resources as before; the people are rising, steadfast in their struggles and steadily gaining ground. The people shall prevail.

Carol Pagaduan-Araullo is a medical doctor by training, social activist by choice, columnist by accident, happy partner to a liberated spouse and proud mother of two.

carol_araullo [at] yahoo [dot] com

————————————————

‘Mining plunder takes away future for dev’t’

“What we lost is not just the resources, but what our country could have done to industrialize and provide jobs.”

By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO, Bulatlat.com – bulatlat.com/main/2015/08/08/mining-plunder-takes-away-future-for-devt/

8 August 2015

MANILA – Minerals are not the only things foreign large-scale mining companies are taking away from developing countries, they may very well be taking away the latter’s future for development.

In the recently-concluded International People’s Conference on Mining (IPCM), Ibon Foundation executive director Jose Enrique Africa said more than just the impact of foreign, large-scale mining on the environment, one should also look into its impact on the community and the lost possibility for implementing a national industrialization program.

Africa said since 1970s, when neoliberal policies were first imposed on the Philippines, the total raw mineral exports amount to $44 billion. Last year, the country exported $4.4 billion-worth of raw minerals. This, however, constitutes a mere 0.7 percent of the country’s GDP.

While mining’s contribution to the economy has been small, Africa said, it should raise concern, because mineral resources are finite, and the need for it cuts across all sectors in the economy – industrial, agriculture and even the service sectors.

“What we lost is not just the resources, but what our country could have done to industrialize and provide jobs,” he said.

In the US, Africa said, industries have contributed $2.5 trillion to its Gross Domestic Product. The materials needed for such come from the resources from developing countries – even if quantitatively it was just one or two grams per, for example, a computer chip.

“But without that one or two grams or even less, it would not work,” he added.

Africa said that while the US and other developed countries reap the natural resources from the Philippines, the country’s manufacturing industry has collapsed. This has led to a backward technology, widespread unemployment, poverty and the diaspora of Filipinos to find work abroad.

Africa said mining companies, per the dictates of the World Bank, have already been “costed.”

“Mining companies cannot destroy that which they cannot pay for,” Africa quipped, adding that this is deceiving as it does not reflect what is happening on the ground.

The Philippines has had a fair share of mining disasters since large-scale foreign companies have began digging the country’s natural resources. Nearly two decades ago, the Marcopper tailings dam in Marinduque collapsed and unleashed toxic mine spill. This July, nine workers of the Semirara Mining and Power Corporation were killed when a mine collapsed.

“It is a good time to challenge the hegemony of neoliberalism,” Africa said.

The workshop titled Financing Mining Plunder and Rights Violations was led by the Ibon Foundation. The IPCM, held in Quezon City last July 30 to Aug. 1, was organized by various local and international human rights, environmental and lawyers groups. (http://bulatlat.com)