‘The living dead’

A case of environmental racism in New Brunswick concerns the coal extracted from mines in Colombia that is then exported to our province for power generation. Coal from Colombia has been dubbed “Colombian blood coal” because of violent displacement of communities and assassinations of union leaders at the country’s coal mines.

NB Power’s Belledune plant burns coal produced in the Cerrejón mine in La Guajira, Colombia. Coal extracted from Cerrejón is exclusively exported to meet the energy demands of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Massachusetts.

Since the development of Cerrejón in 1982, indigenous Wayuu and Afro-Colombian communities in La Guajira have been forcibly displaced from their lands. Traditional agriculture-based livelihoods have been destroyed with the loss of land and industrial contamination. More communities face similar fates with planned expansion of the world’s largest open-pit coal mine. During the violent displacement, several people sustained serious injuries after being attacked by police.

On a 2006 delegation to the affected communities, Jairo Quiroz, a union leader said: “Their fundamental rights have been violated. These communities lack the most minimal conditions necessary for a decent life. They seem to belong to the living dead.”

Debbie Kelly, an RCMP forensics officer who participated in the same delegation reported: “Some only eat every three days and for the smiling little children, it is hard to take. Even though their little body is racked in open sores from contaminated water, they don’t cry.”

There have been active campaigns in New Brunswick as well as Nova Scotia and the U.S. to ensure that electricity generating companies buying coal from Cerrejón put pressure on the company to negotiate fair agreements with communities affected by the mine’s operations. Numerous speaking tours and public meetings in North America and Europe have been arranged to educate the public. Jesus Brochero, a union leader with SINTRACARBON representing the workers at Cerrejón, was the most recent visitor to the Maritimes. He spoke to crowds in Fredericton and Tatamagouche, N.S. and met with union leaders in Moncton in early December. He also met with NB Power executive to discuss the situation of workers at the mine and to ask for NB Power’s support in their demands for safe and healthy working conditions.

Colombia is the most dangerous place in the world for people active in trade unions; over 2,510 trade union leaders murdered in the last ten years. On March 22, 2008 – Adolfo González Montes, a worker at Cerrejón and union leader was tortured and killed at his home. He is survived by his wife and four small children. The Colombian government’s failure to act on such crimes allows the perpetrators to kill trade unionists with impunity. Despite knowledge of Colombia’s deplorable human rights track record, Canada is in the process of approving a free trade agreement with Colombia.

The Fredericton Peace Coalition, Atlantic Regional Solidarity Network, NDP party, church groups such Develoment & Peace and social justice groups in NB, have asked NB Power to develop a detailed human rights policy in their business dealings and ensure compliance with this policy through an independent third party. NB Power has been asked to ensure that their purchases, operations or investments do not directly or indirectly cause human rights abuses. They have been asked to include International Labour Organization (ILO) standards concerning the rights of indigenous peoples and the safety of trade unionists in their policy. The provincial crown corporation has acted on requests to write letters to Cerrejón asking for fair dealings with the affected communities and their workers.

Cerrejón’s multinational owners include BHP Billiton (Australia), Xstrata (Switzerland) and Anglo American (U.K.). Annual shareholders’ meetings of the home bases of these multinationals have been regularly attended by community representatives, Colombian trade unionists and local supporters. Complaints against BHP Billiton and Xstrata have been brought to the Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for breaching the OECD’s voluntary guidelines on involuntary resettlement of communities.

In 2007, Cerrejón established an Independent Panel of Inquiry into the mine’s impacts. The Panel, chaired by John Harker, Vice Chancellor of Cape Breton University, made a number of recommendations about changes in mine management. Cerrejón Coal accepted the recommendations, and an agreement in December 2008 between Cerrejón and the Tabaco Relocation Committee is one tangible result. The agreement contains most of what the community was demanding in the way of adequate compensation and agricultural land. This agreement was achieved through the dedication of the people of Tabaco and the organisational capacity of the Tabaco Relocation Committee. The agreement was also assisted by the SINTRACARBON union, which included the community demands in their negotiations, and an international solidarity campaign grounded in environmental justice principles.

It is essential that supporters of the people of Tabaco continue to monitor implementation of the agreement. Other communities – Tamaquitos, Roche, Chancleta and Patilla – still face relocation and need solidarity in their own negotiations with Cerrejón.

The SINTRACARBON workers are currently in the midst of negotiations with the company over pay and worker health and safety conditions. The workers are concerned about prolonged exposure to carcinogenic substances and they want the company to categorize the substances they encounter at work as hazardous. The company is resisting because this would mean that the company would have to increase social security payments.

The Fredericton Peace Coalition, labour unions and others are also working on stopping the Canadian-Colombian Free Trade Agreement because they feel that the agreement will only exacerbate problems of environmental racism and human rights violations associated with business as usual. CUPE’s Global Justice Committee is organizing a rally in front of the constituency office of Moncton MP Brian Murphy (Liberal) on September 9 at 12 pm.