COLOMBIAN MINEWORKERS SPEAK OUT
Colombia Solidarity Campaign | 23.10.2007 00:28 | Repression | Workers' Movements | London
In the House of Commons Committee Room 16
(enter through security at St Stephen's Entrance, the main entrance to the Houses of Parliament)
Chair: John McDonnell MP.
Jairo Quiroz and Freddy Lozano of Colombian mineworkers' union SINTRACARBON will speak about the impacts of the British-owned Cerrejon Coal mine in northern Colombia.
Jairo has worked at the Cerrejon mine for 23 years. He is the union's Press and Publicity Secretary.
Freddy has worked at the mine for 21 years and is Secretary of the Puerto Bolivar section of the union.
The Cerrejon mine supplies coal to British power stations and is owned by three companies listed on the London Stock Exchange: Anglo American plc (headquartered in London), BHPBilliton plc (headquartered in Melbourne) and Xstrata plc (headquartered in Switzerland) - all among the biggest mining companies in the world. Many British workers have pension funds invested in these companies. Questions have been raised in the British Parliament and at European Commission level about the conduct of the companies at Cerrejon and formal complaints lodged against BHPBilliton in Australia and Xstrata in Switzerland.
SINTRACARBON represents workers at the Cerrejon mine and supports members of small farming communities whose lives have been disrupted by the mine's expansion. Representatives of some of those communities were in London at the beginning of this year. Now the mine workers will give their perspective. With the communities, they seek a just settlement for those forced to abandon home and livelihood so that the world's biggest open pit coal mine can grow even bigger. Freddy and Jairo will make clear their concerns at the BHPBilliton shareholders' meeting in London on 25 October.
Meeting organised by the Colombia Solidarity Campaign, which has worked with communities affected by the Cerrejon mine since 2001. The Campaign is a member group of the London Mining Network.
For more details, phone Richard Solly, 07929 023214 or email
richardsolly@gn.apc.org.
Please distribute this invitation as widely as possible.
(enter through security at St Stephen's Entrance, the main entrance to the Houses of Parliament)
Chair: John McDonnell MP.
Jairo Quiroz and Freddy Lozano of Colombian mineworkers' union SINTRACARBON will speak about the impacts of the British-owned Cerrejon Coal mine in northern Colombia.
Jairo has worked at the Cerrejon mine for 23 years. He is the union's Press and Publicity Secretary.
Freddy has worked at the mine for 21 years and is Secretary of the Puerto Bolivar section of the union.
The Cerrejon mine supplies coal to British power stations and is owned by three companies listed on the London Stock Exchange: Anglo American plc (headquartered in London), BHPBilliton plc (headquartered in Melbourne) and Xstrata plc (headquartered in Switzerland) - all among the biggest mining companies in the world. Many British workers have pension funds invested in these companies. Questions have been raised in the British Parliament and at European Commission level about the conduct of the companies at Cerrejon and formal complaints lodged against BHPBilliton in Australia and Xstrata in Switzerland.
SINTRACARBON represents workers at the Cerrejon mine and supports members of small farming communities whose lives have been disrupted by the mine's expansion. Representatives of some of those communities were in London at the beginning of this year. Now the mine workers will give their perspective. With the communities, they seek a just settlement for those forced to abandon home and livelihood so that the world's biggest open pit coal mine can grow even bigger. Freddy and Jairo will make clear their concerns at the BHPBilliton shareholders' meeting in London on 25 October.
Meeting organised by the Colombia Solidarity Campaign, which has worked with communities affected by the Cerrejon mine since 2001. The Campaign is a member group of the London Mining Network.
For more details, phone Richard Solly, 07929 023214 or email
richardsolly@gn.apc.org. Please distribute this invitation as widely as possible.
Colombia Solidarity Campaign
e-mail:
richardsolly@gn.apc.org
Homepage:
http://www.colombiasolidarity.org.uk