Magazine Issue 1 - Winter 1996
Campaign Updates

The Struggle continues for Survival
Survival International is a world-wide organisation supporting tribal peoples. It stands for their right to decide their own future and helps them protect their lives, lands and human rights. Over the last year Survival has exposed abusers, governments and corporations, of indigenous peoples in many countries - including the following:

Caribbean: Baramita and Guyana.
Some 2,500 Carib people are threatened by mining and logging companies from North America, Europe and Australia. The Guyana govemment has offered generous conditions to foreign investors with almost no environmental controls - this was brutally apparent in 1995 when millions of gallons of cyanide spilled into the Essequibo river poisoning fish and water. The Guyana govemment need to recognise the rights of tribal peoples, understand the value of the natural resources in their state and protect their own peoples' future.

Peruvian Amazon
Four previously uncontacted Indian peoples are encountering Mobil, who believe there is a one in twenty chance of finding oil in this remote area. The indigenous peoples will be threatened by new diseases amongst other all too familiar abuses.

Brazil. The Brazilian govemment has also made changes to its laws to include a "genocide decree allowing loggers, miners, and other developers to exploit Indian reservation lands - a flagrant breach of Brazil's constitution. Over a period of three months 1749 development applications were made in 55 areas. Despite an intensive and concerted campaign, including legal action by the Brazilian Labour Party and two European Parliament resolutions opposing the decree, the Brazilian govemment so far rejected all of the challenges.

Neurfoundland. The Innu peoples are suffering under a corporate invasion of loggers, hydro-electric dams, low-level flying and now mining - 250,000 mining claims have been staked in Innu territory. A third of the Innu have attempted suicide. The Innu have asked for the mine to be put on hold until their land rights negotiations with the govemment are finished. The Canadian and Newfoundland govemments have so far refused.

Botswana. The govemment has attempted to evict over a thousand Bushmen from their own lands, the Central Kalahari game reserve, twice in the last seven years. There are rumours of diamond deposits in the reserve and the

The Philippines. The Philippine govemment has admitted that it is "in receipt of thousands of leners from concemed citizens throughout the world" regarding a new mining code that will allow intemational corporations to plunder even more tribal land (effecting a quarter of the country's land). A govemment comminee has asked for discussions with Survival while the implementation of this new law has been seriously delayed.

Irian Jaya, West Papua. - an estimated 6000 tribal peoples anacked Freeport copper and gold mine in March 1996. They hurt no one and considerably damaged mining equipment. Work stopped for four days afler nearly thirty years of human rights violations by Freeport and RTZ. These corporations responded to widespread intemational criticism with a huge PR campaign.

"We will fight against Jim-Bob [Freeport Cbairman of the Boardl, against Freeport, and against the Indonesian government because they have taken our land, destroyed our identity, and our very existence." - AmungMe leader, Irian Jaya.

Contact: Survival International, 310 Edgeware Road, London W2 1DY. tel. 0171723 5535. fax 0171723 4059.

PARTIZANS BATTLE RTZ
Botswanan came industry is always looking for new pastures. The campaign supported by Survival has forced the Botswanan govemment to backtrack, at least for a while.RTZ is the world's largest mining company, and operates on every continent. It supplies 17% of the westem world's uranium and is Britain's 2nd largest producer of CFCs. Its many major tropical mines threaten irreplaceable tropical hardwoods, and have displaced countless indigenous peoples.

PARTIZANS (People against RTZ and its Subsidiaries) is an umbrella organisation for a host of land rights, third world, environmental and other groups. It provides up-to-date information, encourages local authorities, universities, charities etc. to disinvest, promotes debate at colleges and universities during graduate recruitment (RTZ consequently no longer actively recruits in Cambridge, Oxford, Manchester, Bristol or Liverpool), and facilitates AGM attendance by concemed single shareholders, especially representatives of"victim" communities. The London collective meets monthly. Contact: PARTIZANS, 218 Liverpool Road, London N1 1LE. tel. 0171700 6189.
CAAT (Campaign Against Arms Trade)
1996 Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Yearbook: 83% of exports of major conventional weapons in 1995 were, in order, from the USA, Russia, Germany, UK, China and France.

Landmines Following the failure of the Inhumane Weapons Convention Review Conference to agree a global ban on anti-personnel landmines in May 1996, pro-ban govemments (led by Canada) are now hoping to lead by example. A conference in Ottawa, 3rd-6th October 1996, will allow governments who are willing to sign up to the ban to encourage others to join.

Eurofighter According to Phillip Stephens (FT 6.9.96) the British Government has "confirmed its intention to squander _15 billion of taxpayer's money. That's _250 for every man, woman and child in the country." There is no chance that a future Labour goverurnent will reject this venture. Germany is already seriously worried about the cost.

Ploughshares The four Ploughshares activists who disarmed the BAe Hawk at Warton were found not guilty by a Liverpool jury last month. The BAe press office were "gobsmacked" despite the fact that it is a legal act for someone to act to prevent the crime of genocide, in this case by disarming military equipment that was going to be used to break international law in East Timor (where a third of the population has been murdered since the Indonesian invasion). The Ploughshares four are now beginning a private prosecution against BAe and the Department of Trade and Industry for their role in supplying Hawks to the genocidal Indonesian regime.
Farnborough Air Show (2.9.96) Over 100 campaigners blockaded the entrance for the whole moming of the show - an important event for the aerospace industry, an industry responsible for 75% of the UK amls trade. Andy Abbott, blockade co-ordinator, explained that "the public will only be let in for the last two days of the air show, so they will miss the haggling over military deals that will take place in the first five days."

The peaceful sit-down blockade caused enormous disruption with traders and delegates (some from countries known for human rights abuses) held up for two hours in a two-mile traffic jam. Protesters came from across the country as well as from France and Canada. The protest was entirely peaceful and the principle of noviolent direct action was exemplified despite 41 arrests. Andy Abbott:"We hope that this blockade will mark an escalation of growing public resitance to the arms fairs in this country. The dignity and solidarity which we maintained throughout the day will hopefully encourage others, who oppose this trade, to join us in future actions."

Professional Engineers" Reports that Architects and Engineers for Social Responsibility (ASER) are arguing that UK engineering is too dependent on the arms trade. ASER spokesperson, Paul Hayward, said, "The modern equivalent of turning swords into ploughshares can only be done by encouraging companies to think carefully about the ethics of what they are doing, and by

encouraging professioanl institutions to look at whether what some of their members are doing fits into their mission statements."

Copex 96 - Nov. 5th A A peaceful sit-down blockade and Ceremony in Remembrance of all torture victims on the opening day of Copex '96. Copex are a market place for electric-shock batons and other torture equipment. Saudi Arabia, China, Indonesia, Columbia, Iran, Israel, Mexico and Singapore are all considered "torturing states" by human rights groups and they have all been invited to, and anended Copex in recent years. 'Covert and Operational Procurement Exhibition prides itself on being the definitive showcase of"intemal and special operations equipment."'

For Copex '96 People will be assembling at 9am on Littleworth Common (opposite Sandown Park Racecourse off the A307 Po.Atsmouth Road, Esher, Surrey.)

Contact: CAAT, 11 Goodwin Street, Finsbury Park, London N4 3HQ. tel. 01712810297. fax 01712814369. e-mail: cast(~gn.apc.ort
FOREST The National Campaign for the Conservation of Woods and Forests
Demand for construction in the countryside is increasing as government allocations of new housing force local planning authorities to invade the green belt.

Britain's major growth industry, leisure, is placing increasingly irresistible pressure on landowners and local government to stand district local plans on their heads and build on land that until recently was officially protected.

Forest is a non-political, publicly accessible campaign network available to help any individual or community group with trees under threat - from one at the roadside to many thousands in a wood or a forest.

Contact: Forest, The Spout House, Lympne, Kent CT21 4LQ. tel. 01303 265737. fax 01711 77nt97
Baby Milk Action'
Nestle products are boycotted in 17 countries, to put pressure on the company to cease its aggressive marketing of breastmilk substitutes, for which it is condemned by UNICEF and WHO. Powdered milk can be unsafe (where water quality is poor) and can lead to dependence due to breasffeeding failure and hence a sometimes crippling financial burden for poor families.

The UK boycott is co-ordinated by Baby Milk Action, which lobbies business, government and the health sector marketing of powdered baby milk and to promote good infant nutrition. It campaigns for charities to refuse Nestle's sponsorship and for major shareholders to disinvest.

Baby Milk Action produces a thrice yearly newsletter and a number of informative publications, and has a network of local groups raising awareness and widening the boycott.

Contact: Baby Milk Action, 23 St. Andrew's Street, Cambridge CB2 3AX. tel. 01223 464 420. fax 01223 464 417.
LAMB: Lloyds And Midland Boycott
The LAMB campaign exists to counter the currently intransigent stance of British banks on the issue of Third World debt.

Oil Boom
Dunng the 1 970s, sharp rises in oil prices led to vast sums of money being deposited in "Northem" banks by the oil producers. The banks then sought investment opportunities in Southern countries. In the 1980s however, interest rates rocketed and loan repayments with them while at the same time prices of commodities exported by the South fell, and an increased import tariff was charged by developed countries.

Structural Adjustment
After Mexico defaulted on its repayments in 1982, an informal consortium of big banks, creditor country governments, the World Bank and the IMF drew up package offering countries rescheduling of debt (ie new loans to help keep up with interest pay ments) if they undertook Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs).

Plundering the South
These required countries to dramatically cut social spending, to gear agriculture to export rather than internal needs and to privatise and allow plundering of natural resources. These short-sighted economic policies have further crippled the debtor countries. Total Third World debt is now _1300bn and growing, and there is a net flow of money from South to North, since debt repayments exceed foreign aid.

UK banks profit
Between 1983 and 1987, the "big four" British banks - Lloyds, Midland, Barclays and Nat West - made profits of $8.3bn from Third World debt. Lloyds and Midland have substantially higher debt exposure than Barclays and Nat West, and only the former two advise the IMF on its SAPs. Today they continue, with the help of the IMF, to extract interest payments at enormous cost of impoverished populations and the environment. Furthermore, the UK government offers tax relief on provisions made against nonpayment (ie the taxpayer pays to insure the banks' past unsound financial decisions).

The LAMB campaign
The only feasible solution must be large-scale debt cancellation (which our banks and governments can afford). Banks do not usually make concessions on issues of corporate responsibility, unless it can be shown that their financial losses will increase without reform. The LAMB campaign coordinates and publicises a boycott of Lloyds and Midland, through student unions and by picketing high street branches. It supports student and local groups, and produces a number of information resources. First-year students are targeted, since they are usually opening new accounts and it makes little difference to them which bank they choose. Students are the long-termhigh-earners- the lifeblood of the banks. Students Unions are able to deny the banks any sponsorship or advertising. During the anti-Apartheid campaign, Barclays' share of the student market fell from 27% to 17% between 1983 and 1985, a major factor in the bank's decision to withdraw from South Africa. It is expected that Barclays and Nat West would follow any move by Lloyds or Midland to wnte off debt. LAMB has also been involved in imaginative shareholder protests at the banks' AGMs - a form of campaigning which is now used widely and effectively in the UK.

Contact: LAMB, Manchester University Students' Union, Oxford Road, Manchester M 13 9PR. 0161 274 4665.
Greenpeace takes on the big boys
Greenpeace over the years has taken on all kinds of corporations, including whalers, loggers, energy companies, oil companies, toxic waste companies and supermarket chains. It has a team of well trained direct activists who carry out high profile media stunts, while at the same time other Greenpeace staff negotiate with the companies' bosses.

A major Greenpeace success was scored recently, when the group persuaded McVities Biscuits to stop using fish oil from large-scale industrial fishing companies. Much of the oil had comerom sand eels, vacuumed up from the coastal Scottish North Sea. This practice is believed to have devastated the maritime ecosystem, crashing the populations of birds and other sea life. And how was the company persuaded? By 200 activists dressing up as puffins and blockading their factory entrance.

I want to be PVC-free
PVC plastic is a major source of two classes of hormone disruptin chemicals: dioxins and phthalates. Greenpeace is encouraging consumers to stop buying PVC products, and has information available on the ~ Greenpeace PVC-free hot3 line: 0171 8655 8223.

Greenpeace woos business
At a ground breaking business conference in London this September, Greenpeace called on companies to "step into the void left by politicians and take a lead in developing solutions to environmental problems." To an audience of executives from more than 70 leading companies, Peter Melchett of Greenpeace said: "the new environmental struggle is to put solutions into practice."

Companies have begun to realise they could not rely solely on scientific analysis and agreements with governments and that environmental issues were part of a broader ethical arena But Mr. Melchett warned that "solutions campaigning" did not mean an end to direct action."At the same time as we are working with one part of a company, such as BP on solar energy, we are campaigning against another arm of BP opening up a new oil field off the Shetlands," he said. Contact: Greenpeace, Canonbury Villas, London N1 2PN. tel. 0171865 8100.
Reclaim the Valleys
The campaign against Celtic Energy's opencast coal mining destruction in South Wales

Celtic Energy is the company which wants to rip open huge areas of South Wales, for coal to be burnt and its waste gases pumped into the atmosphere. It was created by a management buy-out, buying the rights to the South Wales coalfield when British Coal Opencast was privatised.

In reality a huge act of enclosure has occurred: the nationalisation of the coal industry supposedly took operations into the hands of the public (ha ha!), creating a massive concentration of land and powers (such as compulsory purchase) which - with privatisation - has now been transferred into the hands of private corporate profiteers.

While some smaller mining operations are still active in South Wales, Celtic Energy are by far the largest. The company represents another example of a familiar global process - a large corporation operating for short-term gain (and causing massive environrnental destruction) displacing the smaller, more sustainable operatives.

In ecological terms, the expansion of opencasting can be seen as confirming the trend predicted by the 'Limits to Growth' report: as nonrenewable resources become ever scarcer, the social and ecological costs of extracting them will increase.

In social and political terms, Celtic's operations represent a culmination of state and corporate collusion and control. A mere decade since the Miners' Strike, having claimed there was no demand for coal and closed down the pits - putting people out of work and devastating comrnunities, smashed the NUM and the people's will to fight, 'They' are now claiming a need to opencast that very same coal: a mechanised process providing only short-term jobs for a handful of men.

Unsurprisingly, given the climate of unemployment and disempowerment They have created, there will be those who seek jobs at any price. Celtic operate by continually applying for more opencast extensions, threatening job losses if they are not granted the goahead, and trying to shiR the burden of guilt for job losses from their own unsustainable practices on to those who oppose them.

May 1995 saw the beginning of a direct action campaign when loca campaigners contacted Earth First!, and a tree village was set up at Selar (now evicted). The direct action continues: a second site at Brynhellys (also now evict~ ed) and an ongoing camp at Nand Helen where planning permission for opencasting has recently been refused (Celtic however, have the right to appeal this decision). Direct action continues, now under the banner of 'Reclaim the Valleys'.

ADDRESSES:
Celtic Energy Ltd., Hedl Ty, Aberaman, Aberdare, Morganow Gan CF 44 6LX Phone: 01685 874201 Fax: 01685 878104

Within the valleys there is however huge opposition to opencasting by those sick of being used as a cheap resource to feed British capitalism. Local community groups fighting opencast proposals for years have recently joined together to form the Wales Against Opencast Network.

Reclaim the Valleys/ Wales Against Opencast, c/o FoE Office, Environment Centre, Pier Street, Swansea, SA1 Phone: 01792 475882 Mobiles (eves) 0468 732829 or 0385 711364
Ogoni' Shell and Nigeria
Shell is as unrepentant as ever for its devastating pollution across the Niger Delt; and for its support of the massacres in Ogoni which have killed 1800 people. Oga still occupied by the military and the repression is continuing. Nearly 80,000 Oga are now refugees, having fled their homes to camps across West Africa, and Shell planning to return to oil-rich Ogoni as soon as it can.

Mis-information has been spread Architect activist and poet with MOSOP. For demandin alleging that leading Ogonis have Nimmio Bassey was held in environmental and human ri been meaing the company to prison for over a month in the they will either be hanged or arrange a resumption of its activi- Summer when Shell's corporate a slow death in overcrowded ties, but genuine representatives irresponsibilty was in the spotlight squalid cells. such as MOSOP deny this and are again over arms imports and its Urgent action is needed by calling for negotiations on the environmental double standards, ronmentalists world-wide to Ogonis' terms and the demilitari- and campaigner Chima Ubani is secure their release. Saro-Wisation of the Niger Delta.

Shell still in prison a year and a half called for pickets of Shell pe'has also allegedly been sponsoring aRer his arrest for activity that stations and an oil boycott; the journalists to visit Nigeria on included anti-Shell work. sands of groups responded a "ShellTrips", but dropping those As if killing Ken Saro-Wiwa and ago but more action is needec who are not malleable. eight other Ogoni leaders last now as the anniversary of his Outside of Ogoni the company is November wasn't enough for the death approaches on November planning increased oil production Shell-backed military regime of 10th. A joint action group ha in Oloibiri, and the huge Liquid General Abacha, another 19 been set up to help organise a Natural Gas project, which has Ogoni men are suffering severe publicise a week of events fo' had no environmental impact malnutrition and illness in Port November 4th-lOth and there assessment, is just coming on line. Harcourt prison for their work call for actions against Shell at this time focussing on the Ogoni 19, especially on Saturday, November 9th when there will be demonstrations all over the world. An A3 broadsheet listing all national and international events will be produced and distributed to every group that contributes - so please send DELTA details of what you are planning before mid October.

The DELTA Newslener no.2 will be distributed mid-October and will include campaigning news from Britain and Nigeria, with articles on Shell and corporate corruption, Nigerian 'democracy' and trade union links.

Contact: Delta, Box Z, 13 Biddulph Street, Leicester LE2 l BH. tel. 0116 25S 3223

HOLIDAY INN TIBET
Holiday Inn, owned by Bass plc, is the only Western chain in occupied Tibet in joint venture with the Chinese govemment. Tour groups in Tibet have to stay at government approved hotels, usually the Lhasa Holiday Inn, which accounts for why Holiday Inn contributes 75% of Tibet's foreign exchange earnings. Tibetan people are prevented from running the hotels, and their businesses are undermined as tourists are diverted to the Holiday Inn. Meanwhile the Chinese government takes a share of profits and gets to control contact between Tibetans and foreign visitors. A boycott of Holiday Inn has been called by Tibet Support Group, until the company ceases to collude with the Chinese government. Contact: Tibet Support Group UK, 9 Islington Green, London N 1 2XH. tel. 0171 359 7573. fax 0171354 1026.
Friends of the Earth
Friends of the Earth is one of the most respected environmental campaign groups in the country. Together with its lobbying and leper-writing activities, it has a fantastic store of information; FoE's publications catalogue should be on every activist's desk. One of FoE's biggest current campaigns is against RTZ's planned mineral sand mine in Madagascar, which would remove half of its ancient littoral forest and seriously threaten at least two endangered species. FoE uses such tactics as attending company AGMs to ask difficult questions, and targetting institutional investors. It has a thriving network of local groups. Contact: Friends of the Earth 26-28 Underwood Street London N 1 7JQ Tel: 0171490 1555 Fax: 0171490 0881