By Staff, Terra Daily (AFP) | Haiti Chery. Latin America accounts for 45 percent of global copper production, 50 percent of silver and 20 percent of gold. But several commercial mining projects have been put on hold in Chile, Peru and Argentina, as local communities have fought for their rights to prior consultation under the International Labor Organization’s Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention.
By Tamara Pearson and Staff, Venezuelanalysis. Venezuela passed a spectacularly progressive labor law on April 30th that is consistent with work’s main objectives being: “to overcome forms of capitalist exploitation, as well as… guarantee economic independence, satisfy human needs, through the just distribution of wealth, and create material, social, and spiritual conditions that allow for the family to be the fundamental space for the integral development of people.”
By Marcela Valente, Tierramerica | Rebelion. A number of Latin American countries have achieved economic growth by an extractivist model of production that increases the gross domestic product (GDP) at the cost of the intensive use of gradually exhausted natural resources such as: large-scaling mining with cyanide to cause major environmental impacts, or monoculture plantations for export, at the expense of diversified rural production.
By Antoine Roger Lokongo, Pambazuka News. Francophone Africans from 14 countries deposit 65% of their hard currencies yearly into the French Treasury, without French nationality nor access to the public goods and services available to French taxpayers. Close to 1,500 billion CFA francs (Communauté Financière d’Afrique common currency) generated from the surplus of West African states’ foreign reserves are placed on the foreign stock markets and out of the reach of the Africans who own the money. In addition the French force money payments, like an Ivory Coast compensation for the recent war.
By Nocles Debreus, Le Matin | Translation by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Haiti’s agricultural sector creates 50% of the country’s employment overall and 80% in rural areas. Agronomist Phito Blémur and many others believe that policies toward development and poverty reduction must take into account the vital role this sector played immediately after Independence when it accounted for 95% of the GDP (instead of the current 26%). Revival of this sector will require a departure from neoliberalism and the establishment of serious fiscal and monetary policies.
By Mario Osava, IPS. A year ago, unrest was predicted to break out at Jirau because: growth in wages has not kept up with the demand for labor, the large concentration of workers at enormous construction sites is leading to worker solidarity in the fight for improved wages and conditions, and the dam is being built by a foreign utility (GDF Suez) that provides terrible working conditions and allows little personal time to the workers. (English | Spanish)
By Laurence Iliff, Dow Jones Newswires via 4-Traders | Tony Burke, Power in a Union | Editorial comment by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. The Mexican Supreme Court has decided that the National Union of Mine, Metal and Steelworkers (Los Mineros) is entitled to choose its own leader. This represents a huge victory for Mexican labor and resounding defeat for the right-wing employers who have persecuted Napoleon Gomez Urrutia since his 2008 election as General Secretary of Los Mineros.
By Fabíola Ortiz, IPS. Brazilian mining giant Vale was named the “Worst Company in the World” by the Public Eye Awards in January 2012. A Report on Vale’s Unsustainability (PDF included) accuses the company of 15 worker deaths between 2010 and 2012, and of massive emissions of greenhouse gases and particulate matter into the atmosphere. The report was drafted by an International Network of People Affected by Vale, including 30 social movements from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile and Mozambique. (English | Spanish)
By Staff, Protestbarrick. As the opening date approaches for the Dominican Republic’s Pueblo Viejo mine, controversy around this mega-mine has continued to grow. According to the president of Maimón’s municipal committee, the funds Barrick has transferred to the municipality are less than the costs of the damage it has caused. Community members complain that the workers in the mine are overwhelmingly foreigners. Recently Barrick was accused of blocking the performance of the protest song “De Pascua Lama” (video included) at a Dominican Festival.
Poor Little Rich Haiti to Be Fleeced of Copper-Silver-Gold Via Caracol Deep-Water Port (UPDATED)
By Dady Chery, Haiti Chery. Plans are under way for Canadian corporations to mine Haiti’s northeast area near Caracol, which has been discovered to contain a wealth of silver and gold, in addition to copper. As in the Dominican Republic’s Pueblo Viejo project, construction of the mines will involve dynamiting of mountains, and the ore will be extracted by an opencast (or open-pit) mining process that contaminates large volumes of water with cyanide. In addition a deep-water port is slated for construction in Caracol. UPDATES: May 7 (Le Matin) Martelly formally announces construction of a “modern port” in Fort Liberte, near Caracol.
By Marianela Jarroud, IPS, Tierramerica | Haiti Chery. Plans to build a massive power plant complex, called the Castilla Thermoelectric Project, near an area of rich marine biodiversity has sparked fierce opposition from the small northern Chilean farming town of Totoral, which has now scored its first victory in court. Behind the Castilla project is the energy company MPX, a subsidiary of the EPX Group owned by Brazilian billionaire Eike Batista, the seventh wealthiest man in the world according to Forbes magazine.
By Syed Hussan, Mary-Elizabeth Dill, and Abeer Majeed, Rabble | Occupy Oakland | Occupy Wall Street | YouTube | Haiti Chery. Occupy May Day in Oakland and New York will be joined by workers the world over. Get informed about the events. Read about the contributions of immigrants to the history of labor and the designation of May 1st as International Workers’ Day. UPDATES: April 30, Peter Seeger’s ” L’Internationale”; May 1, videos of oakland protesters marching early in the day and of later attack on a young woman by police.
By Tortilla con sal, You Tube. Nicaraguan women talk in this inspiring video about leaving behind a past as domestic servants and factory workers. Now women feel encouraged to study to improve themselves, still raise children alone but with hope for the future, and exercise political power in their communities.(English | Spanish)
By Susan Arterian Changs, YES! In the heart of inner Cleveland, Ohio, and abandoned by the global economy, the Evergreen Cooperative has emerged as one of the most promising models of locally based wealth-building in the U.S. The Evergreen Cooperative Laundry, the Ohio Cooperative Solar (OCS), the not-for-profit community newspaper Neighborhood Voice, and the urban farm Green City Growers are successful parts of this growing business.