Globalisation:IBLF Supporters & their Activities

GlaxoSmithKline

Animal Testing

It is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and has a direct influence on UK Government policy, including animal experimentation policy, for which it has lobbied for a relaxation of regulations.

Glaxo-SmithKline (GSK) got an emergency injunction rushed through the High Court on Tuesday May 9th to stop activists publishing names and addresses of shareholders. A letter from an unknown animal rights group had already been sent to at least 160 investors to warn them they had two weeks to sell their shares or be named on a website. Activists want to sever the drug giant’s links with doomed animal torturers Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).

GSK actually cut ties with HLS eight years ago, after a documentary exposed some of the shocking cruelty in their animal labs - but linked up again as soon as the dust had settled a year later. Glaxo boss, Jean Pierre Garnier has been telling reporters that they’re a benevolent company really... Testing drugs on a few fluffy rabbits is OK because the goal it to save people from disease. But pharma companies spend just 0.2% of their money developing drugs for poverty related diseases like tuberculosis, which affect almost one fifth of the world’s population. Instead Glaxo prefers to pump their cash into Western vanities like slimming products, in an attempt to follow a trail of cash rather than the most common diseases.

The Government publicly condemned the campaign by animal rights activists to force GSK to pull its contracts from the controversial Huntingdon Life Sciences lab. And peers have voted through a new law which will make it harder to get hold of personal details.

Products

Lucozade - The family of Lucozade products is designed to give you an edge.

Ingredients - Carbonated Water, Glucose Syrup (26%), Citric Acid,Lactic Acid, Flavourings (incl. caffeine), Perservatives (Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Bisulphite), Antioxidant 9Ascorbic Acid), Colour (Sunset Yellow)

Sodium benzoate (E211), an artificial food preservative. A research study published by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in September 2007 showed that mixtures of artificial food colourings and sodium benzoate could affect hyperactive behaviour in susceptible children.According to the FSA, studies have also shown that sodium benzoate and other benzoates (E210, E211, E212, E213, E214, E215, E216, E217, E218 and E219) could make the symptoms of asthma and eczema worse in children who already have these conditions. Under EC guidelines, medicines should carry a warning that sodium benzoate and other benzoates may be “mildly irritant to the skin, eyes and mucous membranes”. Foods and drinks carry no such warning, despite been consumed in much greater quantities.

Deloitte

All of Bush's ten largest donors for the period are linked to bundlers who have pledged to donate from $100,000 to $250,000 as part of the president's Pioneer and Ranger Programs. "Rangers," = fundraisers who pledge to raise $250,000 for the president.

Seven of the ten are financial services companies: The largest donors for the quarter were Pricewaterhouse Coopers ($122,750), MBNA Corp. ($93,750), Deloitte & Touche LLP ($73,525), Southern Co. ($67,147), and Goldman Sachs Group ($65,750). The other 3 donors were Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. ($58,904), United Services Automobile Association Group ($57,775), Rooney Holdings/Rooney Brothers ($56,000), and UBS AG Inc. ($54,850).

May 1, 2003 the Wall Street Journal reported that the Bush administration has “drafted sweeping plans to remake Iraq’s economy in the U.S. image.” To this end the U.S. is planning to privatize state-owned enterprises, create a modernized Baghdad stock exchange, a reformed central bank, and rewrite the tariff and tax code systems. The plan was officially released on June 6.

“Economic Recovery, Reform and Sustained Growth in Iraq” - continues the trend in recent USAID RFPs for work supporting the U.S. occupation by “limiting competition” to only ten firms. The firms eligible to apply for this contract are: Bearing Point; Booz, Allen and Hamilton; Nathan; IBM Global Services; Development Alternatives, Inc.; Carana; Abt Associates; Chemonics; Deloitte & Touche; and Financial Markets International, Inc. TheRFP goes on to outline plans to “rationalize” and “modernize” the Iraqi banking and financial sectors, create taxation, legal and regulatory regimes to facilitate this process, along with the further integration of Iraq into international economic networks. It also calls for a public relations campaign to sell these fundamental changes to the Iraqi people.

Rio Tinto

Our approach to sustainable development embedded through all levels of our organisation from our Chief executive and Chairman through to the day to day operations. We try to minimise the adverse effects of our activities and improve every aspect our performance. In addition, wherever we operate, we hold the health and safety of our employees and the environment to be a core value.

We work as closely as possible with our host countries and communities, respecting their laws and customs and ensuring a fair share of benefits and opportunities.

Rio Tinto's business is finding, mining, and processing mineral resources. Major products are aluminium, copper, diamonds, energy (coal and uranium), gold, industrial minerals (borax, titanium dioxide, salt, talc) and iron ore. Activities span the world but are strongly represented in Australia and North America with significant businesses in South America, Asia, Europe and southern Africa.

Rio Tinto Group

Rio Tinto has been described as the most powerful mining company in the world. In 2005 its profits were $7.7bn from a turnover of $20.7bn. Rio Tinto in its present form was formed in 1995 and is run jointly from London and Melbourne. The group controls a host of mining companies involved in extracting aluminium, copper, diamonds and a range of other minerals from sites across Australia, the Americas, Europe and Africa. Rio Tinto's trademarks are major environmental destruction, evasion of taxes and ill treatment of mining workers and of local communities. Notable cases have been the Jabiluka uranium mine in Australia and racist discrimination against black workers in Namibia. UK operations include an aluminium smelter in Holyhead, Wales.

Depicted in the 80s as the 'ugly face of multinational capitalism', Rio Tinto is one of the three largest mining companies in the world. Its subsidiary Freeport manages the largest copper, gold and silver mine on earth: the Grasberg mine in West Papua (formerly Irĺan Jaya).

The Grasberg mine is associated with decades of serious social and environmental impacts[27]. It has been reported that Freeport is protected by a corrupt politics and that the Indonesian militia, who guard the mine, have been accused of killing indigenous people. Freeport freely admit they paid for armed security; during 2002 the company paid $5.6 million to the armed forces. It has been suggested that the relationship between the militia and the company has led to gross human rights violations.

Rio Tinto is culpable for contributing to environmental devastation, displacement and killing of indigenous people. In 1996, Multinational Monitor placed Freeport in the ten worst corporations of the year for polluting areas near the copper mine; it's important that ten years later the ongoing atrocities in West Papua are not forgotten.

EXTRACTION AND EXPLOITATION

Mining is one of the most environmentally damaging of industries. It contributes to climate change, is resposible for the displacement of communities and has a 'long and dismal record of damaging protected natural resources'[1]. For the corporations involved in the industry it's a pretty lucrative business; enjoying money made at the expense of the planet. In terms of a pending energy crisis, nuclear is obviously not the answer: as well as contributing to climate change through construction of new buildings and transportation of spent fuel, uranium mining is one of the most CO2 intensive of industrial operations

The Río Colorado inter-jurisdictional committee (Coirco) warned authorities of Argentina's Mendoza province about possible environmental damage arising from the operation of Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto's (LSE: RIO) potassium extraction project, website Minería Chilena reported. With construction works scheduled to start by end-2009 or early 2010, Río Tinto's $900USmn project will be located on the Río Colorado riverbank, in Mendoza's southern region.

The committee is currently making its observations known to the mining and environment ministry, among other government entities. Four other provinces under the project's area of influence - Neuquén, Río Negro, La Pampa and Buenos Aires - have also voiced their concerns, as they use the 1,000km Río river for potable water and irrigation, the report said. Coirco argues that, at the end of its 40-year lifespan, the project will leave behind a 50m-tall pile of salt residue covering 240ha, according to Minería Chilena.

The remains would threaten potable water supply for more than 300,000 people and productive activities on over 150,000ha along the river.

The project is slated to produce 2.4Mt/y of potassium, converting Argentina into the world's fifth - and Latin America's first - producer of this mineral, which is used as plant fertilizer by the agricultural sector.

CLIMATE CHANGE CONTRIBUTION

According to a 2004 study by the Government Accountability Office, 184 out of 213 Alaska native villages are affected by flooding and erosion, a problem that the report said is only intensifying as the climate warms. Ariz. congressman indicted in land deal

Republican Rep. Rick Renzi of Arizona was indicted last week on 35 counts including extortion, wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy in connection with a land swap in his home state.

"Among the allegations contained in the indictment, Congressman Renzi misused his public office by forcing a land sale that would financially benefit himself and a business associate, and in so doing, he betrayed the trust of the citizens of Arizona," said U.S. Attorney Diane Humetewa in a statement after a 26-page indictment of Renzi and two business partners was unsealed in Tucson.

At issue is Renzi's sponsorship of a bill in 2005 that would have allowed a subsidiary of British mining company Rio Tinto to purchase for $4 million farmland owned by Renzi's former business partner, James Sandlin. Renzi allegedly concealed $733,000 he received for orchestrating the deal.

The three-term lawmaker's bill did not pass, but it quickly drew federal investigators.

The lawmaker has already said he won't run for re-election and stepped down from his House Natural Resources Committee assignment.

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