Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

Chapter 2.3: International Advocacy with Companies and Their Investors
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especially true in the case of China and Brazil where Vale is
still in many ways a national company—even after its 1997
privatization—and to a lesser extent India, with companies
such as Jindal and Tata. 24
One of the conduits of government support is via ambassadors
who can lend their support to a home country companies.
Examples of this include the ambassadors of Canada,
Australia, Switzerland, and South Africa, among others. 25
The prize for this must go to the UK, however, and specifically
to Richard Ralph, the former UK Ambassador to Peru.
While serving as ambassador, he supported the UK company
Monterrico Metals, as he had previously supported Mittal
when he was ambassador to Romania. At the time in Peru,
however, Monterrico was accused of gross human rights
abuses (a case which was later submitted to the UK High
Court). As if that was not enough, after finishing his time as
ambassador, Mr Ralph then became chairman of Monterrico
Metals, before he was fined in 2008, for insider dealing associated
with the company. 26
The best campaign response to this direct support is to
mobilize the public in the home country, via letter writing
campaigns. These can be very effective as a way to raise the
profile of a struggle. A concerted public campaign makes it
difficult for government officials to gloss over support for an
abusive industry. They also draw the attention of the public to
a problem they may not be aware of. More importantly, they
let company and government officials know that the locals are
not alone. International solidarity can also keep local opposition
leaders safe by making them more public, thus less vulnerable
to human rights abuses. In Ecuador, letter campaigns to
Canada helped protect activists and convince the Ecuadoran
government to drop charges that were filed against them in
the struggle to protect Junin from mining. 27
Public Funding
With regard to public funding for mining, it comes in
a number of flavors. The first is export credit guarantees.