200 of Vedanta’s victims flood Lusaka courtroom

February 21, 2015Newscopper, KCM, Pollution, protest, solidarity, Zambialankoid

On Friday 6^th February 200 people who were victims of a major pollution incident caused by Konkola Copper Mines in 2006, which poisoned the Kafue river and made thousands sick, flooded the Supreme Court of Zambia. They were attending the hearing of an appeal (by KCM) against the precedent judgement in January 2011 which awarded them K10 billion ($2 million) in damages for the sickness caused by drinking polluted water, and defended the original judgement.

The 2000 claimants in the original case, led by lead claimant James Nyasulu, had feared they would never get justice until President Michael Sata intervened after meeting them in April 2014 and arranged a hearing of the Supreme Court in Ndola on June 3^rd. The hearing took place but one of the three judges, Justice Albert Wood, had previously been an advocate for KCM in earlier hearings of the case. Nyasulu and his group complained to the Supreme Court about this undeclared conflict of interest and were granted a re-sit of the hearing on Friday 6^th Feb in Lusaka.

However justice was not delivered as Vedanta asked for an adjournment in order to find another lawyer and prepare more documents. The judges granted them 10 days to file any additional information, and the respondents (the victims) to file a response to that. However the judges stated that they were ‘suspicious about Vedanta’s activities’ and asserted that the judgement will be delivered by them at the next sitting of the Supreme Court.

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Anil Agarwal anonymous in New York

February 9, 2015ArticlesAGM, Anil Agarwal, bauxite, copper, Corruption, Displacement, Dongria Kond, Foil Vedanta, India, KCM, London, Mining, Niyamgiri, Odisha, Pollution, protest, Sterlite, Supreme Court of India, Tamil Nadu, Thoothkudi, Tuticorin, Vedanta, Zambialankoid

7th February 2015 The New York Times has published an exposé of Vedanta boss Anil Agarwal as part of a series on the people behind shell companies buying up New York real Estate, entitled ‘Towers of Secrecy’ by Louise Story and Stephanie Saul. The section on Vedanta is copied below and the full article is highly recommended.

Like most Time Warner owners, Anil Agarwal, an Indian mining magnate, is anonymous in New York. While interviews and private documents reviewed by The Times confirm he is behind condos purchased by the Amantea Corporation for $9.1 million in 2004, his name appears nowhere on public records. The deeds for Amantea’s Time Warner condos — one on the “maids floor” and another with sweeping views of Central Park — are signed by a New York lawyer named Constance Cranch. When contacted, she said: “You cannot say anything with respect to me. It’s a client of mine’s apartment, and I pay their bills.”

For all the secrecy at Time Warner, Mr. Agarwal is hardly private about his wealth. He spends much of his time in London and told a newspaper in 2005: “I have to have a Bentley, the best of chauffeurs and butlers.”

But Mr. Agarwal and his company, Vedanta Resources, are known in some parts of the world for having left financial and environmental problems in their wake.

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Cairn Lanka and the corporate takeover of the Tamil seas

January 26, 2015ArticlesAnil Agarwal, Cairn, copper, Foil Vedanta, India, KCM, Pollution, protest, solidarity, Sri Lanka, Tamil, Tamil Nadu, Thoothkudi, Tuticorin, UK government, worker's deaths, Zambialankoid

26^th January 2015. Just five days before January’s Sri Lankan Presidential elections former Minister of Power and Energy Champika Ranawaka dropped a bombshell, accusing Mahinda Rajapaska’s government of failing to collect $7 billion in inflated share value from Cairn Energy – the first oil company to discover gas in the Mannar basin. His firey argument (aimed at shaming the then incumbent President) was that mineral exploration rights had been sold to British oil company Cairn Energy for a song following meetings between Rajapaksa and British Prime Minister Tony Blair (who was a school friend of Cairn Energy boss Bill Gammell) in 2006. In 2011, after gas was discovered in their Mannar block – SL 2007-01-001, the value of shares skyrocketed and Cairn Energy sold them on at a highly inflated value to Vedanta Resources, a British-Indian company, who bought Cairn Energy’s South Asian oil and gas subsidiary Cairn India, assisted by the British Prime Minister David Cameron.

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Surround GCM’s AGM! Surround the dirty coal miners!

December 10, 2014Actions, NewsAGM, Corruption, Displacement, London, Mining, Phulbari, protest, solidaritylankoid

10th December 2014. Bangladeshi activists, in conjunction with a diverse group of environmental and left political activists in London, heckled the investors of Global Coal Management Resources with their noise demo and coal play yesterday. Activists blocked the entrance to the Aeronautical Society by dumping coal in the doorway. They surrounded GCMs’ CEO Gary Lye and his fellows who are aggressively moving ahead to implement a massive open-pit mine in Phulbari, the northwest region of Bangladesh. At the same time a delegation of protesters disrupted the AGM of GCM by questioning the investors inside the AGM about their fraudulent business in London’s Alternative Share Market (AIM).

The demo was organised by the UK branch of the National Committee to Protect Oil- Gas-Mineral Resources and Port-Power in Bangladesh, in conjunction with Phulbari Solidarity Group. The event was endorsed by Socialist Party of England and Wales, London Mining Network, World Development Movement, Occupy London, Foil Vedanta, Trade Unionists and Socialist Coalition, UK, and several community organisations including Nari Diganta, Swadhinota Trust, Udichi Shilpi Gosthi, Jubo Union, Friends of Chatro Union, Bangladesh Workers Party (UK branch), Bangladesh Communist Party (UK branch), and Bangladesh Socialist Party (UK branch).

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Scottish Independence and the break up of Britain (a working class perspective)

September 16, 2014Uncategorizedlankoid

Hamish Paterson

A speech originally given at the Foil Vedanta & Centre for World Environmental History Activist Academia forum, September 13th 2014.

I would like to start by saying that since the two world wars the leading powers have learned nothing. Its the same old squabbles: religion and material wealth. Scottish independence could be the thin end of the wedge in clearing the way for nuclear reduction. As I understand it the rest of the UK has no appropriate facility that can accommodate Trident or its replacement. I hope you would agree that these weapons are a destructive nightmare which keep the economic justice of the common man’s welfare down, as the billions spent on a weapons of defence can only encourage others to equip themselves with the same, only a little more powerful. Why? in ‘defence’. As I hope you’ll agree there are so many avenues in which these beneficial funds could be distributed in the many places of the world we know of which are pillaged for the resources required to maintain the armaments industries where the economic bodies of the world are embroiled. The question is how do we fix it?

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Activist Academia Forum – Sussex University, 12 – 13 September

August 26, 2014Actions, NewsDisplacement, film, Foil Vedanta, Human Rights, Mining, Pollution, Samarendra Daslankoid

A two day event bringing international activists and academics together to reflect on academic pursuit and forms of knowledge production, and establish working links between those working against the impacts of neoliberalism, the extractive industries, including damage to communities, ecology, democracy and governance.

Hosted by the Centre for World Environmental History (CWEH) University of Sussex.

Contact: actacdforum@sussex.ac.uk or BOOK HERE

Places are limited. Please book as soon as you can. Last booking date is 1 September 2014.

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Marikana massacre anniversary demonstration

August 12, 2014ActionsFoil Vedanta, London, Marikana, Mining, Pollution, protest, South Africa, worker's deathslankoid

2nd ANNIVERSARY DEMONSTRATION

AGAINST THE BRUTAL MARIKANA MASSACRE

SOUTH AFRICA HOUSE, TRAFALGAR SQUARE, LONDON

2-5PM Sat 16th August 2014

Join the facebook event!

and see MINERS SHOT DOWN film

7pm FRIDAY 15th AUGUST 2014 @ 365 Brixton Road, BRIXTON, LONDON, SW9

THE MARIKANA MASSACRE WAS DELIBERATE. S.A. POLICE KILLED 34 AND INJURED 78 STRIKING MINERS. MANY WERE SHOT IN THE BACK &/or ON THE GROUND. RAZOR WIRE, SUB-MACHINE GUNS AND ARMOURED CARS. HORSES AND HELICOPTERS WERE USED. 270+ SURVIVORS WERE ROUNDED UP AND CHARGED WITH THE KILLINGS. WITNESSES ARE BEING REGULARLY MURDERED AS THE WHITEWASH OFFICIAL INQUIRY ROLLS ON. THE WORKERS STRUGGLE CONTINUES.

Please read more below..

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Global protests rage against Vedanta AGM

August 1, 2014Articles, NewsAGM, AGM 2014, Anil Agarwal, bauxite, Cairn, copper, Displacement, Dongria Kond, Foil Vedanta, India, KCM, Lanjigarh, London, Mining, Niyamgiri, Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti, Odisha, Pollution, protest, Repression, solidarity, Sri Lanka, Sterlite, Supreme Court of India, Tamil Nadu, UK government, Vedanta, worker's deaths, Zambialankoid

August 1st 2014. Protesters from Foil Vedanta, MPs and other organizations today held a loud and colourful demonstration at the AGM of controversial FTSE 250 mining company Vedanta at the Lincoln Centre, Lincoln Inn Fields, London. On 31^st August parallel demos were held in Odisha, Delhi and Johannesburg. 400 miners protested Vedanta’s Konkola Copper Mines in Ndola, Zambia. In Odisha, India, a consultation on the proposed six fold expansion of the Lanjigarh refinery on 30^th July met with major opposition after Vedanta lost permission to mine the Niyamgiri Hills this year. Meanwhile, Vedanta are accused of tax evasion and mismanagement at their Konkola Copper Mines subsidiary in Zambia after investigations revealed they may be externalising up to $500 million per year in profits.

60 people railed against Vedanta’s London AGM today, representing a variety of organisations including diaspora from Zambia, Goa, Tamil Eelam and Odisha where Vedanta is currently embroiled in scandals and accused of major illegalities. Tamil Parai drummers kept up a loud rhythm throughout the demo. Shortly before the AGM started at 3pm a huge banner was unfurled from the top of the next door building saying ‘Vedanta out of London’ eliciting cheers from the crowd. The protesters were joined by a 6m inflatable blade of grass referring to Anil Agarwal’s repeated claim at previous AGMs that Vedanta ‘have not touched a single blade of grass’ at the Niyamgiri Hills. Company executives were hassled as they entered the AGM.

See the film of today’s demo in London here, and the Parai dummers here, and see MP John McDonnell and others update the protesters after the AGM here.

And photos on Demotix here and here

A full account of the questions asked inside the AGM, and Vedanta’s responses can be found at London Mining Network’s website here.

Coverage by: Economic Times, Activists protest at Vedanta’s AGM over alleged illegalities

The Ecologist, India: Foil Vedanta protests erupt in Delhi

Odisha Sun Times, Foil Vedanta stage protest in London; decries company’s move in Odisha.

The Statesman, Protesters target Vedanta, Govt.

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Lanjigarh expansion Public Hearing disrupted by hundreds

July 31, 2014Articles, Newsaluminium, bauxite, Corruption, Displacement, Dongria Kond, India, Lanjigarh, Mining, Niyamgiri, Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti, Odisha, Orissa Mining Corporation, Pollution, protest, Repression, Sesa Sterlite, solidarity, Sterlite, Supreme Court of India, Vedanta, Vedanta Aluminiumlankoid

31st July, 2014. Yesterday public hearings on the six fold expansion of the Lanjigarh refinery, at the base of the Niyamgiri Hills in Odisha, were disrupted by around 1000 local people including Dongria and Kutia Konds virulently opposing the expansion.

Some Konds waved their axes demanding that Vedanta (Sesa Sterlite) leave Lanjigarh immediately and citing their objection to the Niyamgiri mine (voiced unanimously in a precedent referendum last year). The Land Losers Association also registered their objection citing the false arrests and imprisonment they have suffered since losing their land to Vedanta without proper compensation or employment as Vedanta had promised. A recent report from a local activist detailed how 34 of the Land losers have died since they lost their land, attributing this to poverty and disease from the Lanjigarh plant.

See a film of the public hearing and the key points raised by opposing groups here.

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MPs hear evidence for de-listing Vedanta and other UK listed mining companies

July 22, 2014Actions, NewsAGM, aluminium, Anil Agarwal, bauxite, Cairn, copper, Corruption, Displacement, Dongria Kond, film, Financial Conduct Authority, Foil Vedanta, Human Rights, India, KCM, Lanjigarh, London, Mining, Niyamgiri, Odisha, Pollution, protest, Samarendra Das, solidarity, Sterlite, Supreme Court of India, Tamil, UK government, Vedanta, Vedanta Aluminium, Zambialankoid

Miriam Rose, Samarendra Das, John McDonnell MP and Richard Solly in the House of Commons

Speakers from Foil Vedanta and London Mining Network yesterday presented evidence in the House of Commons on the criminal behaviour of some London Listed mining companies, and called for better accountability measures and the de-listing of criminal companies. Focusing on contentious UK miner Vedanta Resources, they exposed new evidence of tax evasion, illegal land grabs, displacement, major pollution and water poisoning, as well as the UK’s role in promoting and protecting the company, and called for its immediate investigation and potential de-listing in London.

In a packed meeting hosted by John McDonnell MP in the House of Commons speakers told MPs, journalists, diplomats and members of the public attending that high risk mining companies like ‘the world’s most hated company’ Vedanta Resources are bringing shame on the London Stock Exchange, and demanded better accountability measures and the de-listing of criminal companies. MPs attending were Jeremy Corbyn, Eric Joyce and John McDonnell.

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