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The
People Behind Colombian Coal
Mining, Multinationals and Human Rights
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| “This latest collective effort is a very good
collection of short articles, testimonies, and primary
documents that together cover mining capitalism, state
power, imperialism and dispossession on the one hand,
and the resistance dynamics of community, union, and international
solidarity struggles on the other. People Behind the
Coal ... reveals the potential power of social movement
unionism, opens a window into courageous indigenous and
Afro-Colombian resistance, and explains the existing foundations
and future possibilities of international solidarity with
Colombians struggling against the economic and state terror
of the status quo.” - Upside Down World |
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Description:
This book, as the title suggests, is about the people behind
Colombian coal. More precisely, it is about the people behind
the coal produced at El Cerrejón, the world’s
largest open-pit coal mine, which is located in La Guajira
in northern Colombia. The book aims to illustrate how the
multinational mining companies that own El Cerrejón
profit at the expense of the “people” of the Guajira
region whose plight has remained hidden “behind the
Colombian coal” that many of us in North America and
Europe rely on to generate our electricity.
Since the Cerrejón Mine opened in 1983, its operations
and constant expansion have forcibly displaced indigenous
Wayuu and Afro-Colombian communities. The reports and articles
in this book, written by various Colombians, North Americans
and Europeans familiar with the issue, document this process
and the human rights and environmental consequences. This
case study illustrates a much bigger problem with the global
economy and our dependence, in the North, on the natural resources
of the South. It describes the very real plight of people
who want nothing more than to defend the social fabric of
their communities and to live their lives with dignity.
For the
Spanish-language edition of this book, click
here
Authors: Aviva Chomsky, Garry Leech and Steve
Striffler
Publisher: Casa Editorial Pisando Callos
July 2007
200 pages
ISBN: 9789589799550
USD $12.00
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Aviva Chomsky, Garry Leech, Steve Striffler
Part 1: BACKGROUND
The Systematic Violation of the Human Rights of
the Indigenous People, Black People and Campesinos by the Coal Mining
Multinationals in the Department of La Guajira, Colombia
Remedios Fajardo Gómez
The Ethics of El Cerrejón and the Multinationals
S. L. Reiter
Part 2: SOCIO-CULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL
STUDIES
Impact of the Cerrejón Mine on the Wayuu,
1983
Deborah Pacini Hernandez
The Guajira Indigenous Communities and the Cerrejón
Coal Project, 1991
Weildler Guerra Curvelo
Socio-Cultural Impact of Coal Mining on the Indigenous
People in the South of La Guajira, 1997
Robert V. H. Dover, Marta Rincón, Marla Zapach
Social Study of the Town of Tabaco in 2000
María Cristina González Hernández
Report on the Population of Tamaquito, 2000
Weildler Guerra Curvelo
Coal and its Effects: Case Study: Cerrejón
Zona Norte, 2003
Alejandro Pulido
El Cerrejón and its Effects: a Socio-economic
and Environmental Perspective, 2004
Jaime Ernesto Salas Bahamón
Part 3: HUMAN RIGHTS AND HEALTH REPORTS
A Legal View of the Case of Tabaco
Armando Pérez Araújo
Health and Health Care Solidarity: La Guajira, November,
2006
W. T. Whitney, Jr. and Timothy Bood
Open-pit Coal Mining and Health: How Complaints
of La Guajira Residents Correlate with Past Research
Timothy Bood
Health Conditions in Five Communities in La Guajira:
Tamaquito, Roche, Patilla, Chancleta and Tabaco
Claudia Llantén
Voices from the Sintracarbón Union
José Arias, Jaime Delúquez, Freddy Lozano, Jairo
Quiroz
Part 4: INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY
Building International Solidarity
Techa Beaumont, Aviva Chomsky, Tracy Glynn, Garry Leech, Chloe
Schwabe, Richard Solly, Steve Striffler, Stephan Suhner
Colombian Unions Under Siege
Daniel Kovalik
Solidarity Beyond the Rhetoric
Jeff Crosby
Bargaining with the “Bottom Line”:
Building Global Union Solidarity
Helen Berry for the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the
PSAC Social Justice Fund
From the Arctic to the Equator
Richard J. Charlo
¡Viva Sintracarbón! Three Weeks with
a Colombian Union
Yvette Michaud
Part 5: TESTIMONIES
Testimony from the Community of Tabaco
José Julio Pérez
Formation of Community Council and Declaration
of Tabaco as an Afro-Colombian Community, 2003
José Julio Pérez, et al
Petition from the Community of Tamaquito
The People Behind
Colombian Coal: Mining, Multinationals and Human Rights
Edited by Aviva Chomsky, Garry Leech and
Steve Striffler
USD $12.00
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Colombia Journal. All rights reserved.
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