Articles
Fundamental social rights under attack in Brazil
- Details
Fundamental labour rights are also under attack by the government, and the country’s national trade union centres, CUT, FS, UGT /CNPL, CSB, CTB and NCST have jointly pledged to fight against plans to eviscerate the labour code. The largest of them, CUT, is leading a campaign against the impeachment of Dilma and attacks on former President Lula.
Give them their parliament, we will control their banks
- Details
Britain’s New African Empire
Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange control over $1trillion worth of Africa’s resources in just five commodities – oil, gold, diamonds, coal and platinum. My research for the NGO, War on Want, which has just been published, reveals that 101 companies, most of them British, control $305billion worth of platinum, $276billion worth of oil and $216billion worth of coal at current market prices. The ‘Scramble for Africa’ is proceeding apace, with the result that African governments have largely handed over their treasure.
Tanzania’s gold, Zambia’s copper, South Africa’s platinum and coal and Botswana’s diamonds are all dominated by London-listed companies. They have mines or mineral licences in 37 African countries and control vast swathes of Africa’s land: their concessions cover a staggering 1.03million square kilometres on the continent. This is over four times the size of the UK and nearly one twentieth of sub-Saharan Africa’s total land area. China’s resources grabs have been widely vilified but the major foreign takeover of Africa’s natural riches springs from a lot closer to home.
Read more: Give them their parliament, we will control their banks
TPPA may fall victim to US political dynamics
- Details
The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement has become a political football in the US Presidential elections and with the public mood so against trade agreements, the TPPA faces the real possibility of being discarded.
No country was more active in pushing for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). In the five years of negotiations, the United States cajoled, persuaded and pressurised its trade partners to take on board its issues and positions.
Finally, when the TPP was signed in February 2016 by 12 countries, it was widely expected that the agreement will come into force within two years, after each country ratifies it.
But now there are growing doubts if the TPP will become a reality. Ironically it may become a victim of US political dynamics as the TPP has become a toxic issue in its Presidential elections.
CAN WE GET AWAY FROM SPURIOUS MYTHS SUCH AS HUMAN RIGHTS NOT HAVING UNIVERSALITY AND LEGITIMACY?
- Details
Human rights are not just the prerogative of prosperous nations; (neither are social protection institutions). (M. Loewe).
1. A widespread lack of understanding-of and misperceptions-about human rights (HR) is one of the mother-of-all-problems we have in our work. Therefore, in our HR work, we absolutely need to vernacularize, to give meaning and to frame HR so people can understand and then take ownership of their rights. The information most needed in this is the one to be used for myth busting in the realm of HR.
*By now, we ought to know this*
Chevron in Ecuador. A question of power
- Details
Chevron (Texaco), one of the most powerful transnational corporations in the world, is complaining that it has been a victim of unjust treatment, denial of justice and other ill treatment, on the part of Ecuador, a small Andean country. It is developing a massive offensive, by diverse means, to claim for events that are alleged to have happened from 1964 to 1992, just when this country’s governments placed corporate interests above national priorities. They have thus just managed to oblige Ecuador to pay them 112 million US dollars [i], an amount that means a relatively greater impact precisely when the country is facing economic difficulties due to the fall in oil prices and the earthquake that seriously affected the coastal area last April.
