London Stock Exchange targeted by Bangladeshi activists

August 31, 2016NewsLondon, London Stock Exchange, Phulbari, Pollution, protest, Repression, solidaritylankoid

31st August. This news from Phulbari Solidarity following their celebration of a decade of resistance to UK company GCM’s open cast coal mine plans, and commemorating the death of three protesters shot by paramilitary forces in 2006.

Friday the 26^th August, marked a decade of halt to plans by an AIM-listed British company, Global Coal Resources Management (GCM), who want to build a massive open cast coal mine by forcibly displacing 130,000 people in Phulbari, northwest Bangladesh. A four day long Commemoration for victims of Phulbari outburst, where three protesters were shot dead by police in 2006, was held in Dkaka, Dinajpur, Phulbari, London and Germany. On the final day of remembrance, on 30^th August, the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports in Bangladesh has declared a fresh programme in Phulbari to kick GCM out of Bangladesh as the CEO of the company has recently filed multiple arbitrary charges against indigenous farmers, small businessmen and local leaders who opposed the mine.

In London, in support of Phulbari protesters, community activists under the banner of Phulbari Solidarity Group and Committee to Protect Resources of Bangladesh held a colourful and powerful commemoration rally and protest at London Stock Exchange , calling for the de-listing of the company from London Stock Exchange. Despite heavy securitization and repeated attempts of interruption by police last Friday, protesters blocked up the pavement at the main entrance of London Stock Exchange (LSE) for two hours and demanded immediate de-registration of GCM for its unethical business, deceitful marketing of Phulbari project, and for human rights abuse in Dinajpur and Phulbari. Prior to the demo, Phulbari Solidarity Group has submitted evidence of unethical business of the company to the CEO of London Stock Exchange, Xavier Rolet KBE, via email.

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India, Zambia, London protest Vedanta’s AGM

August 5, 2016Actions, NewsAGM, Anil Agarwal, copper, Displacement, Dongria Kond, Foil Vedanta, Human Rights, India, KCM, Mining, Niyamgiri, Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti, Odisha, Pollution, solidarity, Tom Albanese, Tuticorin, UK government, Vedanta, Vedanta Aluminium, worker's deaths, Zambialankoid

5th August 2016 Protests have been held in India and Zambia in parallel with today’s AGM of British mining company Vedanta Resources’ at Ironmongers Hall, Barbican, London. Inside the AGM dissident shareholders asked incisive questions submitted by Zambian villagers who are suing Vedanta in the UK for twelve years of polluted water, as well as displaced farmers who were never compensated for their land in Lanjigarh, Odisha, India and accuse Vedanta of murdering and harassing them with state collusion. A loud protest organised by Foil Vedanta took place outside the meeting, demanding that Vedanta subsidiary Konkola Copper Mines publish its hitherto secret annual accounts in Zambia, and accusing the company of pollution, human rights abuses and financial mismanagement in India and Afrika.

See the video of the London demo here… and of the Delhi demo here.

Please see a full report on proceedings inside the AGM bu London Mining Network entitled ‘Vedanta’s 2016 AGM: evidence, evasion and arguments‘.

and coverage in The Mining Journal, the New International, and Reuters.

At Vedanta’s London AGM activists from Foil Vedanta interrupted the meeting asking incisive questions to the Vedanta board and gathered shareholders on behalf of the Zambian Copperbelt villagers living downstream of Vedanta’s Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), who are demanding an end to twelve years of pollution by KCM, which has turned the Kafue into a ‘river of acid‘ and left them with no access to clean water. They asked why KCM has never submitted annual accounts in Zambia in accordance with national laws, and whether Vedanta’s deliberately obstructive approach to compensation cases as revealed in a recent London judgement was company policy.

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How KCM is killing the Zambian Copperbelt. Part 2: air pollution.

July 20, 2016Articlescopper, Foil Vedanta, KCM, Pollution, Sterlite, Tamil Nadu, Tuticorin, UK government, Vedanta, Zambialankoid

Freddy Muntete in his garden

July 20th 2016. In October 2015 Foil Vedanta visited Vedanta’s Zambian subsidiary Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) for the second time to investigate the legacy of pollution that has destroyed the environment and livelihoods around Chingola since 2004, when Vedanta bought controlling shares in KCM. KCM is Africa’s largest copper mine and the largest mining company in the copper dependent economy of Zambia. Our 2014 report Copper Colonialism: Vedanta KCM and the copper loot of Zambia exposed some of KCM’s major corporate malpractices including large scale tax evasion and mis-declaring profits, labour rights violations, and gross pollution which has continually contaminated the river Kafue causing sickness and loss of livelihood for tens of thousands of Zambians. We accused Vedanta and the UK government, which has given KCM active and tacit support, of neo-colonialism and of treating Zambian lives and environment as cheap.

East 1st Street, only 50m from the smelter

We were particularly shocked when we visited KCM’s Nchanga smelter in the heart of Chingola town, to see communities living less than 50m away from the fume belching and extremely noisy smelter. KCM is less known for emitting toxic fumes than Swiss miner Glencore’s Mopani smelter in nearby Mufilira town which causes misery for the residents of Kankoyo district, but walking along East 1^st Street and 2^nd Street which run directly along the factor wall our eyes immediately began burning and itching and we developed headaches and sore throats within a few minutes.

Residents of Nchanga South explained how the plant was built in 2006 without any prior consultation with the community, who were only aware of the development when they saw construction taking place. The construction of the smelter encroached into their community as the factory wall was moved out, covering 1^st Street, which had previously run alongside the wall, and instead building a new wall directly behind the resident’s plots, bringing the polluting plant right up to their garden walls. When the community (many of whom work for KCM) met with representatives to voice their concerns about fumes and pollution from the smelter they were told it was a modern plant with no detectable fumes and would have no impact on them.

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Global Day of Action against Vedanta – 5th August

July 6, 2016ActionsAGM, Dongria Kond, Foil Vedanta, Human Rights, India, KCM, London, Mining, Niyamgiri, Odisha, Supreme Court of India, Vedanta, Zambialankoid

The time has come around again for our annual Global Day of Action against Vedanta at their AGM. As usual we will bring the defiant energy of communities fighting (and winning) against Vedanta around the world to London! From pollution affected communities of Zambia who won their 9 years battle in their Supreme Court, and now won the right to have their case heard in Britain, to the indigenous Dongria Kond who are now demanding the dismantling of their refinery in Lanjigarh after winning their case in the Supreme Court of India (see below for more).

Parallel demonstrations are already planned in Zambia and India on the 4th August for this Global Day of Action and questions raised by the communities will be asked inside the AGM meeting.

JOIN US OUTSIDE VEDANTA’S LONDON AGM WHILE COMMUNITIES PROTEST ACROSS AFRIKA AND INDIA

CELEBRATE THE VICTORIES WON THIS YEAR AT NIYAMGIRI AND ZAMBIA!
Bring drums, placards and loud voices.

Friday 5TH AUGUST 2016, 2 – 4pm.

Ironmongers Hall, Barbican, EC2Y 8AA

LOOTER! POLLUTER! CRIMINAL!

Please join our Facebook event page if you can come to London on 5th August.
If you would like to plan a demonstration or organise any event in solidarity with any Vedanta affected community, in any part of the world please get in touch.

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Eight days of protest on Niyamgiri

June 7, 2016UncategorizedCorruption, Displacement, Dongria Kond, Human Rights, India, Lanjigarh, Mining, Niyamgiri, Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti, Orissa Mining Corporation, protest, Repression, Supreme Court of India, Vedanta Aluminiumlankoid

Dongria Kond leader Lado Sikaka speaking to press

7th June, 2016. A seven day padyatra (foot march) involving occupants of up to 112 of the remote villages of the Niyamgiri hills ended on Sunday in Jaganathpur (Lanjigarh). The padyatra, led by the Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti and indigenous leaders from the villages, amplified demands to decommission Vedanta’s Lanjigarh refinery and celebrated the recent victory when the Supreme Court turned down Vedanta’s appeal to the decisive 2013 referendums which had put an end to mining plans on the mountain, as well as protesting the ongoing harassment from the company and the colluding state government and police forces. Various local and national Indian media covered the major event which ended in a large rally on World Environment Day, 5th June. The Orissa Post reported that:

Coming down heavily on the government, Loda Sikaka, a member of the Samiti, said the government has unleashed a reign of terror on the foothills of Niyamgiri by deploying platoons of paramilitary forces and special operation group japans.

CRPF and SOG jawans, instead of checking Maoist activities and providing security to inhabitants, kill poor tribals under cover of encounters. They misbehave with tribal women, loot their houses, domestic animals and poultries, lodge false cases against innocent people by branding them Maoists. The most worrying factor us that the government is conspiring to snatch the livelihood of tribals by leasing out the hills to Vedanta for bauxite mining.

The procession aimed at gaining public support against alleged anti-tribal activities of the government. It also aimed at urging the government to ensure sustainable development of the region while keeping the ecology intact.

The fighting is not limited to this specific region. It is a struggle of the humanity to protect nature and civilisation, Dadhi Pusika, another member of the Samiti, said.

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Zambian villagers win right to have case against Vedanta & KCM heard in UK

June 7, 2016NewsFoil Vedanta, Human Rights, KCM, Konkola Copper Mines, London, Pollution, protest, Vedanta, Zambialankoid

7th June, 2016. On Friday 27^th May the Hon Mr Justice Coulson published his judgment on the jurisdiction hearing between 1,826 Zambian villagers and Vedanta and it’s Zambian subsidiary KCM which took place in April in London, finding in the villagers’ favour that their case demanding compensation for personal injury and loss of livelihood due to gross pollution could be heard in the UK. The judgment (which can be downloaded at this link: KCM Coulson Judgment May 2016) is an indictment of KCM’s financial secrecy, historic dishonesty and attempts to pervert the course of justice, detailed in this article. To those of us experienced in legal cases against some of Vedanta’s Indian subsidiaries this does not come as a surprise but fits with the pattern of corruption and deception which Vedanta has become famous for.

This is a great victory in the preliminary stages of this major case against Vedanta and KCM for knowingly causing gross pollution from 2005 (just after they acquired KCM) to the present day. Our previous article details the shocking living conditions of thousands of villagers whose water sources have been chronically polluted causing sickness, poverty and even death. Video testimonies from some of the claimants and victims detail how people have ‘collapsed and died’ as a result of prolonged exposure to high levels of contaminants (as scientific papers attest).

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Vedanta sponsored Jaipur Literature Festival disrupted in London

May 21, 2016NewsFoil Vedanta, Human Rights, India, KCM, London, Mining, Niyamgiri, Pollution, protest, solidarity, Vedanta, worker's deaths, Zambialankoid

20^th May 2016. A massive thank you to all the writers, bloggers, activists and supporters who made the JLF boycott a huge success. Please read more on the London protest and and press coverage below:

A group of protesters from a wide range of organisations today disrupted the Jaipur Literature Festival at London’s Southbank Centre, taking over the stage with their placards and giving shouted speeches to the eminent audience about the multiple criminal convictions and abusive pattern of operation of the festival’s main sponsor, the British mining company Vedanta. A number of attendees left the event in response. NDTV journalist Barkha Dutt’s presentation was also disrupted by chanting naming the news channel for taking Vedanta funding for the Our Girls Our Pride campaign which is accused of being a whitewash sham for the company.

Vedanta’s logo stickered over on programme

Earlier two speakers at the festival – the scientist and broadcaster Aarathi Prasad and K. Satchidanandan, a Malayalam and English poet – had pulled out in response to an open letter calling for a boycott of the event in view of its sponsorship by ‘the world’s most hated company’. Another four speakers – Vasundhara Raje, Meghnad Desai, Gavin Francis and Rachel Spence – also had their names removed from the programme suggesting they too have refused to participate. Nonetheless Sanjoy Roy, the managing director of Teamwork Arts and festival organisers Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple have continued to defend their sponsor in the media even claiming Vedanta are not guilty of any criminality, despite multiple convictions cited in the open letter. However, the Vedanta logo was removed from publicity on the day and stickers were used to poorly conceal the logo on the programmes.

Press coverage:

Kavita Bhanot – JLF Brings ‘Exotic India’ To Your Doorstep – Who Pays The Price?

The Hindu – Anti Vedanta protests mar JLF event in South Bank London

Ravinder Kaur – JLF Southbank: By ignoring boycott call, writers may have missed out on powerful stories of dissent

The Wire – Writers Protest Vedanta Sponsorship of Jaipur Lit Fest London

Sabrang India – Protesters Disrupt Jaipur Lit-fest Sponsored by Vedanta in London

Sabrang India – Boycott Vedanta’s London festival and bid to seek legitimacy: Writers

Eyezine – Why Jaipur Lit Fest needs to remove Vedanta from its sponsors

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Authors pull out of Vedanta JLF, and a rebuttal to the organisers

May 17, 2016Newsbauxite, copper, Dongria Kond, Foil Vedanta, Human Rights, India, KCM, London, Mining, Niyamgiri, Pollution, protest, Sterlite, Supreme Court of India, Vedanta, worker's deaths, Zambialankoid

17th May. On 14th May we released an open letter calling for the renowned authors and artists participating in the Jaipur Literature Festival at Southbank, London, to pull out of the event in view of its sponsorship by Vedanta Resources – dubbed ‘the world’s most hated company’. The letter has now been signed by over 100 writers, academics, activists and people directly affected by Vedanta’s operations, including poets Nabina Das, Hemant Devate, Rafiq Kathwari and Surya Vahni Priya Capildeo and writers Tariq Mehmood, Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, Courttia Newland and Gladson Dungdung.

In response two speakers have already pulled out. The scientist and broadcaster Aarathi Prasad and K. Satchidanandan, a Malayalam and English poet have both refused to participate. (Please see the full article critiquing the neocolonialist approach of the Jaipur Literature Festival by Kavita Bhanot here)

Despite this, Sanjoy Roy, the managing director of Teamwork Arts, which produces the festival, issued this statement to the media on behalf of the festival organisers Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple:

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Boycott Vedanta sponsorship of JLF 2016

May 14, 2016Actions, NewsDisplacement, Dongria Kond, Foil Vedanta, Human Rights, India, KCM, Lanjigarh, London, Mining, Niyamgiri, Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti, Odisha, Orissa Mining Corporation, Pollution, protest, solidarity, UK government, Vedanta, worker's deaths, Zambialankoid

14th May 2016. On May 21st the high profile Jaipur Literature Festival will take place in Southbank London with Vedanta as its key sponsor*. Foil Vedanta and Roundtable India have authored this open letter to the many renowned authors taking part, asking them to boycott the event in view of Vedanta’s criminal activities.** The letter has been signed by eminent writers, academics, activists and people directly affected by Vedanta’s criminal activities. A protest will also be held outside the event from 10am to 1pm at the Southbank centre, SE1 9PX, London.

*JLF have now removed Vedanta’s logo from their website. Please see the original page with Vedanta logo on the internet archive.

** Please see the update to this post as authors are pulling out.

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Vedanta’s toxic debt tricks

May 5, 2016Articles, NewsAnil Agarwal, debt, India, KCM, Lanjigarh, Niyamgiri, Supreme Court of India, Tom Albanese, Vedantalankoid

5th May 2016 With $2.9 billion in debt covenants and inter-company loans due in 2016 Vedanta is turning to increasingly controversial and irregular methods to bleed cash from its few profitable subsidiaries. Having already asset stripped the Zambian Konkola Copper Mines, being prevented by an employees union from getting access to Hindustan Zinc Ltd’s $4.6 billion cash reserves, and by shareholder action from getting hold of Cairn India’s cash, Vedanta are now paying themselves ridiculous 1200% dividends in a desperate attempt to grab the cash and keep the lenders happy.

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