Mining in Colombia by Alvaro Pardo

This is what Alvaro Pardo, an economist investigator from Punto Medio and former President of Carbocol and other institutions from the Colombian Ministry of Mines and Energy, says during the Forums in La Guajira regarding some of the economic and political facts of mining in Colombia. It does not look too good for the local communities living under these economic policies

Express your concerns to ambassadors and CEOs for actions of mining companies in Colombia

Have you wondered what you can do to help the communities impacted by Cerrejon and other multinationals in Colombia and help stop their oppression?
Express your concerns through a message to the ambassadors and CEOs of about the well-being of the local communities, workers, and the environment in which Cerrejon, US Drummond, and Goldman Sachs do their dirty work.

Click here to send a message
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5436/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=12795
Thanks

A Pedagogy of Conflict: Why the Cerrejon workers are striking

A PEDAGOGY OF CONFLICT

The Civic Committee for the Defense of the Rancheria River, the spring of Cañaverales, and the royalties

Reason for the labor Conflict with Cerrejón (I)

I. THE CERREJÓN MINE

La Guajira is one of the most powerful areas in terms of energy in Colombia; it holds 56% of the national reserves of coal. For over 30 years ago, this wealth is exploited by coal Cerrejón, which is currently an equally owned consortium of the multinationals BHP Billiton, Anglo American and Xstrata.

II. Social debacle in La Guajira.

Workers of Cerrejon on Strike

For five days, the 13000  workers of the largest open-pit mining company of the world have been on a total strike. No agreements have been made.

REASONS for the conflict of laborers with el CERREJON
1. - Third-party contracts

Cerrejon has approximately 13,000 employees of which 60% are hired through third-party private contractors of over 300 companies. These workers earn on average 30% less than direct workers while they are prevented to organize in unions. It should be noted that these workers have 12-hour-long days of work, when humanity for over 100 years had surpassed those days of exhausting work.

The LABOR CONFLICT IN CERREJON is part of the struggle waged by the Colombian people against multinationals working on the mining sector.

SOLIDARITY AND SUPPORT TO SINTRACARBON!

Indigenous peoples' struggle for water

You would think that water is one of the most basic rights. However, privatization of water, together with the intensification of its use, have become important issues negatively affecting indigenous communities all over the world who now struggle to find this precious and basic liquid.
Read a quick article:
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/none/indigenous-peoples-and-water-rights
and
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/international-archives-60/233-water-law-and-indigenous-rights-in-the-andes

Impacts of Cerrejon and local efforts to resist

Some more of why there is the need to resist the kind of mining that Cerrejon carries out. Read about some of the national, international and local issues in this struggle, how people have been affected, and how they resist.
follow link:
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/colombia/extraction-colombia-mine-takes-much-more-land-coal

Problems in consultation processes worldwide

Multinational companies are required carry out prior consultation to local communities before a project. These companies often companies claim that their processes of consultation is transparent. However, the methodologies of these and how these affect local communities give us a different sense of the reality. This happens not only in La Guajira, but also in other places around the world. Read about two cases: one in Panama and one in the Northwest Territories.
Go to this link
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/article/community-consultation-mining