Andrew Goodall

A good day for civil society and peaceful protest

The Put People First coalition that organised today's march in London ahead of the G20 summit has a long and impressive list of supporters (see below). The PPF is an alliance of more than 150 unions and environment, charity, faith and development groups, formed "in response to calls for a fair, sustainable route out of recession".

The coalition calls on the UK government to "create a 'Green New Deal' to create jobs in the environmental sector; invest in essential services including social housing; provide emergency funding to countries that need it to protect jobs and provide social protection; tackle tax havens – especially those linked to the UK; insist on democratic reform of the World Bank and IMF; make all financial institutions and multinational corporations transparent and accountable; ensure that poorer states are allowed to take responsibility for managing their own economies rather than having liberalisation measures forced upon them; introduce robust regulatory requirements and financial incentives at national level and push for them at international level to stop climate chaos; and commit to substantial new resource transfer from North to South to support low carbon development".

Here is the list from the PPF website:

Media partner: New Internationalist Supporter organisations: ACORD ActionAid AJCC ADD ACTSA Advocacy International Akina Mama Wa Africa AMREF UK Article 12 in Scotland ASLEF ATL Avaaz BECTU BIF BOND BOVA BRAC UK Bretton Woods Project Cafédirect CAFOD CCC CBM CDD CAWN CSP Change is Coming Childhope Christian Aid CEL CND COIN Compass Concern Worldwide (UK) Co-operative News Connect CWU Dalit Solidarity Network UK Defend Council ousing DoSomethingAboutIt Down2Earth EAP ECCR Ekklesia Engineers Against Poverty EQUITY Everychild Fairtrade Foundation Fatima Women's Network FBU Find Your Feet Footprint Friends Friends of the Earth GardenAfrica GCAP GMB Green New Deal Group Greenpeace Health Unlimited HelpAge International Hives Save Lives Interact Worldwide InterHealth International Service John MacMurray Fellowship Jubilee Debt Campaign Justice for Colombia LabourStart Lattitude Learning for Life Merlin Micah Challenge UK MRDF Musicians Union Muslim Council of Britain NAPO NASUWT NCVO NEF No weat NPJG Novas Scarman NPC NSC NUJ NUS NUT One One World Action 100 Months Operation Noah Oxfam Pants to Poverty PCS People and Planet Performers Without Borders PSG Plan UK Priced Out Progressio Project Hope UK Prospect Red Pepper RHM RMT Salvation Army Save the Children SCIAF SEAD Share the World's Resources Shelter Sightsavers Skillshare International SOAS Activists' Forum SoR SPEAK Stamp Out Poverty STOP AIDS Campaign Stop Climate Chaos Sudanese Women for Peace Synergy Centre Tax Justice Network Tax Research LLP Teach a Man to Fish Tearfund The Bihar Development oundation UK The Other Tax Payers' Alliance The Rights Practice Thirty-eight degrees TFSR Tourism Concern Trade Justice Movement TUC Trading Visions Traidcraft Transnational Institute TSSA UCATT UCU UK Aid Network UNISON UNITE United Nations Association UPSU USDAW VSO War on Want WCIA WILPF Womankind Worldwide WOW World Development Movement World Vision WWF

Mining project 'imposed' on community

CAFOD is claiming that a nickel project run by mining company BHP Billiton has been "imposed on a Philippine community through bribery and poor information". Islanders claim that BHP Billiton’s joint venture partner AMCOR and Philippine government officials "have offered members of the community bribes in return for supporting the proposed mine and to silence opposition". CAFOD said: 

“Kept in the Dark” ... reveals how the Macambol community has been kept in the dark about the proposed mine and how the process to secure indigenous people’s consent for it, as required under Filipino law, was seriously flawed.  It also highlights how the project - known as the Hallmark project - could lead to increased soil erosion, landslides and flash-floods and pollution from mine waste or chemicals could endanger the livelihoods of the 65,000 people living near Pujada Bay.

The Telegraph and BBC News have picked up the story. CAFOD is calling on BHP Billiton to let communities in the Philippines have a say over their future.

Added 25 October: The BBC quoted BHP Billiton as saying:

BHP Billiton has a strict code of conduct governing all aspects of our business conduct, including relationship with joint venture partners.  We take the allegations of bribery extremely seriously and, as noted in their report, Cafod acknowledge they have no evidence to suggest BHP Billiton has been involved in such activity. As also acknowledged in the report, BHP Billiton is in dispute with Amcor and until this issue is resolved we are not in a position to further address the allegations in the report.

This is a disturbing report although the ongoing dispute between the joint venture partners clearly isn’t helping matters. As CAFOD says, modern industrial societies “could not function without metals and therefore without mining”. But mining may be posing an unacceptable risk to local communities and the environment in some cases.