Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

Chapter 2.3: International Advocacy with Companies and Their Investors
195
Endnotes
1
C. Zorrilla, et al., 2009, “A Guide for Community Organizers.” Global
Response, p. 15.
2
Notes taken of workshop plenary, International Conference on
Extractive Industries and Indigenous Peoples, 24 March 2009, Manila,
Philippines.
3
Much of the information in this section is (mercilessly) summarized
from the excellent resource publication, Hilyard, N. and M. Mansley,
2003, “Guide to Financial Markets, Effective Lobbying of Companies
and Financial Institutions.” The glossary on p. 201 is particularly useful
4
http://moneytometal.org/index.php/
Mining_the_Money#Main_types_of_mining-related_investment.
5
Mines and Communities, 2011, “Glencore: the monster has landed!”
24 May, http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=10916.
6
The Agarwal family, through their Volcan Trust, hold according to the
last company annual report just over 62% of the voting share capital of
the company; http://www.vedantaresources.com/the%20board.aspx.
7
A good example of this is with Xstrata’s Tampakan project in the
Philippines. As part of a struggle for control of the project, Xstrata produced
a prospectus to the shareholders of its junior partner, Indophil,
which pointed out all of the risks inherent in the project in order to
persuade the Indophil shareholders to sell out to Xstrata at a lower
price. It is a surreal moment to see a company that otherwise denies
risks in its project suddenly focussing on said risks—Xstrata Copper
Bidder’s statement, Accept: for each Indophil share you will receive
US$1.00, 13 June 2008.
8
It is interesting that even in the 18th century, Adam Smith had already
noted how capricious the benefits of mining were, when he said,
“of all those expensive and uncertain projects which bring bankruptcy
upon the greater part of the people that engage in them, there is none
more ruinous than the search for new silver and gold mines. It is perhaps
the most disadvantageous lottery in the world” - A. Smith, 1775,
”An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations.” In Of
Colonies, Chapter 7, Edinburgh University.
9
Examples include informal networks working on BHP Billiton, Vale
and Xstrata. The “daddy” (or more corrrectly ‘mummy’) of all of these
groups is Partizans, an activist umbrella group has been campaigning
since 1978, at the invitation of Australian aboriginal campaigners,
against the damage wreaked by Rio Tinto (then RTZ). In the process,
it has become one of the leading practitioners of corporate campaigning,
shareholder action and disinvestment strategies. Most important,
Partizans pioneered the practice of enabling community and workers’