Glencore

=<p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 29.124px; widows: 1;"><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 29.124px; widows: 1;"><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/apple-and-google-named-in-lawsuit-over-congolese-child-cobalt-mining-deaths?ref=home">https://www.thedailybeast.com/apple-and-google-named-in-lawsuit-over-congolese-child-cobalt-mining-deaths?ref=home</a><p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 29.124px; widows: 1;">
<p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 29.124px; widows: 1;">world’s biggest tech firms have been named in a U.S. lawsuit brought by Congolese families who say their children were killed while mining for cobalt used to power smartphones, laptops, and electric cars. The Guardian reports that Apple, Google, Dell, Microsoft, and Tesla have all been named as defendants in the lawsuit filed on behalf of 14 parents and children from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The companies are accused of aiding and abetting in the death and serious injury of children. The families say their children were working illegally in mines that produced battery-grade cobalt used in products made by the tech giants. The families claim children were paid as little as $2 a day, and say some were killed in tunnel collapses while others were paralyzed or suffered life-changing injuries from accidents. Cobalt is an essential component of rechargeable lithium batteries. The companies haven’t commented on the lawsuit, but a spokesperson for Glencore—the company that owns the mines— said it “does not tolerate any form of child, forced, or compulsory labor.”<p style="font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; line-height: 29.124px; widows: 1;">=<a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/meet-abusive-worlds-largest-company-youve-never-heard">http://www.alternet.org/economy/meet-abusive-worlds-largest-company-youve-never-heard</a>Giant corporate entities have become so far-flung and impersonal that

"human relations" departments have been created within the soulless

structures to cloak the fact that there's really nothing human about

them. HR is mostly known for sending the corporate

rank and file peppy motivational memos that boil down to: "The beatings

will continue until morale improves."The beatings of American

workers (wage slashing, axed benefits, union busting, mass firings,

offshored factories, and brutish abuse of worker rights) have been

increasing in frequency, intensity, and scope—mostly ordered by CEOs in

the posh, faraway headquarters of multi-tentacled global empires. These

detached autocrats are wrecking the lives of hardworking people for no

reasons but institutional greed, calculated self-interest ... and

because our corporate-coddling government lets them get away with it.

Let's meet one of the most powerful of these lords of rapacious global

capitalism—Glencore.Never heard of Glencore? Neither had I until

February, when I visited some members of the United Steelworkers Union

outside a Glencore-owned aluminum plant (Sherwin Alumina) on the Texas

Gulf Coast. In 2014, after months of negotiating a new contract,

Glencore suddenly tossed these workers a take-it-or-leave-it offer that

would drastically cut wages, increase healthcare costs, and eliminate

pensions for new hires. (Glencore's profit that year was $4.6 billion).

Fed up, 98 percent of the union's members voted against the contract.

Glencore's reaction was to lock them out and replace them with contract

workers.Some 5,500 miles away from these proud, principled

workers, you'll find Glencore's sleek global headquarters (dubbed by

Reuters as "the biggest company you never heard of") in Baar,

Switzerland.Not merely big, it's colossal—the tenth largest

corporation in the world—with 160,000 employees in more than 50

countries on six continents. It produces and trades coal, oil, gas,

metals, minerals, foodstuffs, and other commodities. Indeed, its

nondescript name is an acronym for GLobal ENergy COmmodity REsources,

and it owns a huge chunk of the world market for many internationally

traded resources, including zinc, copper, nickel, aluminum, grain, and

oil. Uniquely, Glencore combines the production and shipping of more

than 90 different commodities with the entirely different, corporate

culture of high-speed computer trading of commodities.Now, let's

hail the chief, the uber-competitive and ravenous corporate dealmaker,

CEO Ivan Glasenberg, whose $2.3 billion in personal wealth ranked him

No. 301 last year on the Forbes list of the world's 500 richest people.

Since joining Glencore in 1984 as a base-level coal marketer, Glasenberg

moved swiftly up the executive ladder to become "the savviest trader on

the planet." He dines with prime ministers and hobnobs with oligarchs,

relentlessly pushing acquisitions, devising opaque partnerships, and

gaining government favors that have made the conglomerate a dominating

behemoth. But attaining, using, and holding such power in so many parts

of the world can be, well, "untidy:"<ul><li>Corruption of officials

and severe human rights violations by executives of Cerrejon, an

open-pit coal mining operation partly owned by Glencore. Charges include

Cerrejon security forces expropriating entire villages to expand mines

and, with Columbian paramilitary units, driving a Wayuu tribe off its

land in what the native people called a "massacre."</li><li>Cooking the

books to evade taxes that its partially owned Mopani Copper Mines owed

the people of Zambia, and letting pollution flow uncontrolled from the

same mines, causing health problems for five million neighboring people.</li><li>Permanently

shuttering Glencore's Columbia Falls aluminum plant in Montana last

year after 1,500 laid-off workers and local officials had, at the urging

of the corporation, produced a viable plan to reopen it. Then refusing

to reach a fair severance deal with USW members, some of whom had been

with the plant for three decades. Also, opposing EPA's designation of

the contaminated factory site for a Superfund cleanup, claiming that

this would devalue its property—even though a Superfund project would

create jobs and benefit the community. Brian Doyle, president of the

local steelworkers union in Columbia Falls, summed up the corporation's

attitude: "To Glencore, we're just a number. They don't know who we are,

and they don't care."</li><li>Exactly. Which is why the workers in

Texas are fighting this David- Goliath battle. To learn more, visit the

United Steelworkers website at <a href="http://www.usw.org/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">www.usw.org</a>.</li></ul>

          
                   <a href="http://www.jimhightower.com/">Jim Hightower</a> is a national radio commentator,</font><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><br /></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">==<br /></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">

mining co but also big grain broker <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYQeeVPfRoE">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYQeeVPfRoE</a>  Mozambique 2010 hunger Patel

=A global coalition of 25 institutional investors with over forty five billion pounds in assets under management is calling on nine major publicly listed companies to review their membership of lobbying groups that seek to undermine EU climate policy.
The investors have written to BHP Billiton, BP, EDF, Glencore, Johnson Matthey, Proctor and Gamble, Rio Tinto, Statoil and Total expressing concern that the companies declared climate policies are undermined by membership of lobby groups with a track record of obstructive lobbying on climate change policy. The move comes as companies have come under increasing pressure to withdraw from regressive lobbying groups, with Unilever leaving Business Europe and BP and Shell exiting ALEC over climate policy.
http://www.alternet.org/environment/ftse-100-firms-pressured-leave-anti-climate-lobbying-groups

<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International</a>

Glencore International is a major privately-owned mining and commodities company. It has interests in aluminium, alumina, zinc, copper, lead, ferroalloys, nickel, coal, oil and agricultural products.

<h2 style=" color: black; background-image: none; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding: 0px; border: none; width: auto; font-size: 12px; display: inline; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Contents</h2>

[<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#" class="internal" id="togglelink" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">hide</a>] </div>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#Glencor.27s_Coal_Interests" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">1 Glencor's Coal Interests</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-2" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#Board" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">2 Board</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-3" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#Board_2" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">3 Board</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#Contact_Details" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">4 Contact Details</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-5" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#Articles_and_Resources" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">5 Articles and Resources</a>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-6" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#Sources" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">5.1 Sources</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-7" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#Related_SourceWatch_Articles" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">5.2 Related SourceWatch Articles</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-8" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#External_Articles" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">5.3 External Articles</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

</ul>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

<h2 style=" color: black; background-image: none; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; font-size: 19px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Glencor's Coal Interests</h2>

On its website Glencore states that it is both a "significant producer of coal from its assets in South America and is itself a market leader in the marketing of Coal to the world's industrial consumers."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#cite_note-Coal-0" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[1]</a>

"Glencore has a market advisory agreement with <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Xstrata" title="Xstrata" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Xstrata</a> with respect to its export Coal sales. Other sources of Steam Coal are based on purchase contracts and agency agreements with major mining companies. Glencore has purchase contracts with the major Coal and Coke producers in Australia, South America, Indonesia, South Africa and Russia and supplies the world’s power utilities, steel mills, cement producers and chemical plants," it continues.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#cite_note-Coal-0" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[1]</a>

Glenore subsidiaries own 100% of the Calenturitas and the La Jagua mines in Colombia as well as the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Puerto_Prodeco_coal_port" title="Puerto Prodeco coal port" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Puerto Prodeco coal port</a>. Glencore subsidiaries also own 70% of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Shanduka_coal_mine&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Shanduka coal mine (page does not exist)" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(165, 88, 88); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Shanduka coal mine</a> in South Africa.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#cite_note-Coal-0" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[1]</a>

Glencore also owns approximately 35% of <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Xstrata" title="Xstrata" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Xstrata</a>, which has substantial coal mining operations in Australia, South Africa, Canada and Colombia.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#cite_note-Coal-0" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[1]</a>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Willie_Strothotte" title="Willie Strothotte" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Willie Strothotte</a></li>

</ul>

Accessed September 2012: <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#cite_note-1" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; white-space: nowrap; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">[2]</a>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Simon_Murray" title="Simon Murray" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Simon Murray</a> - Independent Non Executive Chairman</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Ivan_Glasenberg" title="Ivan Glasenberg" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Ivan Glasenberg</a> - Chief Executive Officer</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Steven_Kalmin&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Steven Kalmin (page does not exist)" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(165, 88, 88); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Steven Kalmin</a> - Chief Financial Officer</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Anthony_Hayward" title="Anthony Hayward" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Anthony Hayward</a> - Senior Independent Non-Executive Director</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Li_Ning&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Li Ning (page does not exist)" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(165, 88, 88); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Li Ning</a> - Independent Non-Executive Director</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Peter_Coates" title="Peter Coates" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Peter Coates</a> - Independent Non-Executive Director</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Leonhard_Fischer" title="Leonhard Fischer" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Leonhard Fischer</a> - Independent Non-Executive Director</li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/William_Macaulay" title="William Macaulay" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">William Macaulay</a> - Independent Non-Executive Director</li>

</ul>

<h2 style=" color: black; background-image: none; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; font-size: 19px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Contact Details</h2>

Glencore International AG

Baarermattstrasse 3

CH-6340 Baar

Switzerland

Tel. +41 41 709 2000

Fax +41 41 709 3000

E-mail info AT glencore.com

Website: <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://www.glencore.com/" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">http://www.glencore.com/</a>

<h2 style=" color: black; background-image: none; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); width: auto; font-size: 19px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Articles and Resources</h2>

<h3 style=" color: black; background-image: none; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; width: auto; font-size: 17px; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Sources</h3>

<li id="cite_note-Coal-0" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">↑ <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#cite_ref-Coal_0-0" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">1.0</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#cite_ref-Coal_0-1" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">1.1</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#cite_ref-Coal_0-2" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">1.2</a> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#cite_ref-Coal_0-3" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">1.3</a> Glencore International, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.glencore.com/pages/coal.htm" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">"Coal"</a>, Glencor International website, accessed June 2008.</li>

<li id="cite_note-1" style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Glencore_International#cite_ref-1" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">↑</a> Glencore International <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.glencore.com/board-of-directors.php" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Board</a>, organizational web page, accessed September 23, 2012.</li>

</ol>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Australia_and_coal" title="Australia and coal" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Australia and coal</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Colombia_and_coal" title="Colombia and coal" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Colombia and coal</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Carbones_del_Cerrej%C3%B3n" title="Carbones del Cerrejón" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Carbones del Cerrejón</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/South_Africa_and_coal" title="South Africa and coal" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">South Africa and coal</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Jacques_Hachuel" title="Jacques Hachuel" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Jacques Hachuel</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Daniel_G._Vanin" title="Daniel G. Vanin" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Daniel G. Vanin</a> - former MD in peru</li>

</ul>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Burea of Investigative Journalism April 16th 2012 <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2012/04/16/digging-the-dirt-glencore-allegedly-linked-to-child-labour/" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Glencore allegedly linked to ‘child labour’</a></li>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Guardian April 14th 2012 <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/apr/14/glencore-child-labour-acid-dumping-row" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); background-image: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAGXRFWHRTb2Z0d2FyZQBBZG9iZSBJbWFnZVJlYWR5ccllPAAAAFZJREFUeF59z4EJADEIQ1F36k7u5E7ZKXeUQPACJ3wK7UNokVxVk9kHnQH7bY9hbDyDhNXgjpRLqFlo4M2GgfyJHhjq8V4agfrgPQX3JtJQGbofmCHgA/nAKks+JAjFAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC); padding-right: 13px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat;">Mining giant Glencore accused in child labour and acid dumping row</a></li>

</ul>

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</div>

</div>

===

<ul>

<li>Winners: 2x <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areva" title="Areva">Areva</a> (Global, People), <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glencore" title="Glencore" class="mw-redirect">Glencore</a> (Swiss)</li>

</ul>

<ul>

<li>Positive Award: Hess Natur</li>

</ul>

Both the People’s Award and the Global Award were given to French state-owned Areva for the suppression of true health conditions of uranium mine workers at subsidiaries Somaïr and Cominak in northern Niger.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Eye_Awards#cite_note-8">[8]</a> Therefore, the hospitals would diagnose patients with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV" title="HIV">HIV</a> when they were actually displaying symptoms of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation-induced_cancer" title="Radiation-induced cancer">cancer caused by radioactive contamination</a> of air, water and soil. Glencore was “honored” for its opaque business practices and unacceptable labor rights in Colombian coal mines.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Eye_Awards#cite_note-9">[9]</a>

===

parenti on DN:  So you had the Arab Spring, to some extent, which is many, many positive aspects of this, but it is also associated with three wars, you know: Libya, Syria, Yemen. Part of what triggered that was, I think, climate change in grain-producing areas. The U.S. and Canada hit by floods. Australia, drought. drought in Russia—Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan, which caused Russia to ban its wheat exports in 2010. Single-largest grain wheat importer in the world? Egypt. Food prices were running at over 20 percent inflation a year at that—from 2010 to 2011, when the Arab Spring kicked off. And if you go back and look, the first demands were all about the rising cost of living, with food being at the center of it. And that, to some extent, was, you could say, the expression of climate change impacting agriculture in other places, showing up as suffering and political crisis and then violence in the Middle East....

CHRISTIAN PARENTI: Well, it will—it will probably be compounded by speculation, that in situations like this, organizations—companies like Glencore get on top of it, and they increase the price even further through speculation.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Explain what that company is, I mean, what they do.

CHRISTIAN PARENTI: It’s the second largest commodity trading company in the world after Cargill, and they’re involved in mining and buying and selling agricultural commodities like wheat and soy. So, what that will mean in the Global South is that people, such as Egyptians, who pay 40 percent of—the average Egyptian pays 40 percent of their wages in food, they’re going to be pressed to the wall. And so, we’re going to see, as we saw in 2008 and to some extent in last year, probably more food riots, more protests. And at first it won’t look like it’s about climate change. You know, it’ll be about some kleptocratic president. It’ll be, you know, Christians and Muslims fighting each other in northern Nigeria. And it’s not to say that these conflicts are reducible to climate change, but they are exacerbated by climate change.

And the frightening thing is that one of the only institutions in the U.S. that seems to think about this is the Pentagon. And they don’t—you know, their job is to fight wars and prepare for wars. So they see this coming, and they are preparing for open-ended counterinsurgency on a global scale indefinitely. To their credit, they also say, you know, ultimately, we can’t handle this. If there is an appropriate policy from civilian leaders, who knows how civilization will cope with the next century and climate change kicking in very readily? But right now, the preparations are for policing this crisis. And that’s not going to help at all. That’s going to exacerbate it....

=

The rapid rise in prices for food, fuel and commodities has been disastrous for the world's poor, including Indonesian market vendor Lia Romi. But it's a bonanza for multinational trading firms such as Glencore.

While Romi has trouble feeding her family, Glencore - the world's largest diversified commodities trader - is planning a US$11billion share sale, likely the largest market debut ever seen on the London Stock Exchange.

"The price for our daily food has at least doubled in the past two years," Lia Romi told Al Jazeera through a translator. "Food costs 100 per cent of my family's daily income [of about $3]. I have nothing saved and I owe [money] from my [market stall] business."

While Romi, and millions like her, worry about feeding their families, the initial public offering from the commodity speculating giant will create at least four billionaires, dozens worth more than $100million and several hundred old fashioned millionaires. Chief Executive Ivan Glasenberg is set to make more than $9bn from the share sale. And <a class="InternalLink" href="http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/04/2011415143212280315.html">speculating</a> on food prices is an important part of his wealth.

Controlling prices

Valued at about $60billion, Glencore controls 50 per cent of the global copper market, 60 per cent of zinc, 38 per cent in alumina, 28 per cent of thermal coal, 45 per cent of lead and almost 10 per cent of the world's wheat - according to information the firm disclosed prior to its share sale. It also controls about one quarter of the world market in barley, sunflower and rape seed.

"They are possibly one of very few mining companies that are price makers, rather than price takers," said Chris Hinde, editorial director of Mining Journal magazine. "They are the stockbrokers of the commodities business [operating] in a fairly secretive world. They are effectively setting the price for some very important commodities," he told Al Jazeera.

The firm employs about 57,000 people, generated a turnover of $145billion in the past year and has assets worth more than $79billion. Glencore's media department refused interview requests from Al Jazeera.

Based in Baar, Switzerland, where regulation is minimal, the company's sprawling interests span Bolivian tin mines, Angolan oil, zinc producers in Kazakhstan, Zambian copper mines and Russian wheat operations.

"Glencore's vertical integration really is unprecedented," said Devlin Kuyek, a researcher with <a class="InternalLink" href="http://www.grain.org/front/">GRAIN</a>, a non-profit international organisation working on food security.

"Glencore owns almost 300,000 hectares of farm land and it is one of the largest farm operators in the world. They are engaging in speculation on the grain trade and have immense market power," he told Al Jazeera.

Global food prices have climbed recently, returning close to their 2008 peak, when bread riots swept parts of the <a class="InternalLink" href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/12/2008121511544968722.html">Middle East</a>, <a class="InternalLink" href="http://english.aljazeera.net/video/africa/2011/04/201143094017868626.html">Africa</a> and the <a class="InternalLink" href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2008/04/200861517053857583.html">Caribbean</a>.

"A disturbing amount of price increases, I fear, is being driven by speculative activity," Marcus Miller, a professor of international economics at the University of Warwick, told Al Jazeera. "Bets [on future price rises or declines] can become self-fulfilling if you are big enough to affect the market."

In March 2011, the World Bank's <a class="InternalLink" href="http://www.worldbank.org/foodcrisis/foodpricewatch/april_2011.html">global food index</a> was 36 per cent above levels from a year earlier, although prices for commodities have dropped in the past few weeks.

Some analysts believe price increases have more to do with a growing global population and rising middle classes, particularly in India and China, who are eating more meat and thus driving up prices for corn and other animal feed.

Duncan Green, the head of research at development organisation Oxfam Great Britain, said international markets for food and other commodities can be compared to the shape of a champagne glass. "There are a lot of people producing, and a lot of people consuming, but there is a pinch point in the middle, controlled by corporations who can walk away with the final value," he told Al Jazeera. "Many of the world's poor are -bizarrely - people growing food."

In 2010, investment bank Goldman Sachs warned of "violent price spikes" in commodities markets, and that prediction has more or less come true.

Knowledge and power

To make money betting on food, metals and energy, Glencore – like other trading houses and hedge funds – relies on one crucial commodity: Information.

"They have offices all over the world and unique access to information about production and distribution," said food security researcher Kuyek. "When the people who have that information are also the ones speculating, there is grave cause for concern; they can purchase forward contracts when they know prices are going up."

In August 2010, for example, Russia issued a <a class="InternalLink" href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/08/201081585347214781.html">ban on grain exports</a>, after droughts ravaged crops. On August 3, the head of Glencore's Russian grain unit encouraged the governmet to halt exports. The government followed his advice on August 5, causing prices for cereals to rise 15 per cent in two days.

"Days before the export ban went into place, Glencore made huge bets," said Kuyek. "They had some kind of information there; companies with information are in the best place to capture profits from volatility." Glencore, for its part, said it also lost money as a result of the ban, because it had to fulfill delivery obligations to clients outside Russia at the new, higher price.

In addition to manipulating food prices – potentially with insider information - the trading giant appears to have broken laws on several continents.

Prosecutors in Belgium charged Glencore employees with criminal conspiracy and corruption, alleging they illicitly sought confidential information on European export subsidies from a public official. The case will be heard in Brussels on May 12.

Shady deals

During Saddam Hussein's rule in Iraq, and the UN sanctions which accompanied its final years, Glencore made handsome profits marketing embargoed oil. In February 2001, Glencore bought 1million barrels of Iraqi crude oil destined for the US and diverted the black gold to Croatia, where it was sold for a premium of $3million, according to a UN Security Council report.

When the news broke, the Sunday Times newspaper in the UK headlined their investigation "Secretive Swiss trader links City to Iraq oil scam".

Glencore's founder and lifelong commodities hustler Marc Rich was dubbed the "face of scandal", by Vanity Fair magazine. After founding the company in 1974, Rich rose to prominence by pioneering "combat trading" -aggressive deal making in countries facing turmoil.

He traded oil for Ayatollahs when Iran was blacklisted by the US, did business with South Africa's apartheid government and skirted US trade embargoes on Cuba and Libya to make trades under the motto: Do whatever it takes.

"There will always be allegations that they [Glencore] are dealing with some unsavory folks," said Chris Hinde from Mining Journal magazine. "But I wouldn't say that makes them unusual for traders."

<a class="InternalLink" href="http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/countingthecost/2010/07/2010729104127901623.html">Tony Hayward</a>, the disgraced former BP CEO who presided over the worst oil spill in US history, has been approached by Glencore to become a non-executive director on the board of the company when it becomes public.

While Rich sold the company in 1993, his take-no-prisoners approach to the commodities business lives on in today's traders and speculators, including the South African CEO Ivan Glasenberg, who gave Rich's trading empire the name Glencore.

In a January interview with the Financial Times newspaper, his first in 20 years, Rich supported the share sale, although he acknowledged that it is "much more convenient" for a trader not to be a public company as mandatory disclosure and regulatory oversight "limits your activity".

Perhaps, Glencore is going public to increase its size, allowing it to acquire large competitors, particularly the mining giant Xstrata. "They are so big now, that they cannot get any bigger unless they are listed," Hinde said, adding that some of the firm's 800 partners might want to take the company public with the hope of cashing out their millions over the next few years.

Food insecurity

Regardless of the firm's reasons, institutional investors from the US, East Asia and the Middle East have all committed to buying.

Aabar, the sovereign wealth fund from the United Arab Emirates, controlled by Abu Dhabi's oil-rich monarchs, is expected to become the largest "cornerstone investor", pledging to buy about $1billion worth of stock.

"It seems that they are buying a stake to strengthen the UAE's control over the global grain trade, for their own food security," said Kuyek. "In the absence of anything meaningful being done at the international level, - except for the same prescriptions of open markets and trade liberalisation." Food insecure countries in the Gulf, Northeast Asia, Korea and other regions are attempting to gain more direct control over food, as the market economy "can’t guarantee decent prices", he said.

Back in her hut in Indonesia, on the front lines of the global food crisis, Lia Romi hasn't been following Glencore's stock flotation. She is worried about how to feed her three kids.

"I've sacrificed several times not to buy books or clothes for my daughter and son, just for our daily food because I have no savings at all," she said.

As Glencore's directors prepare to pocket their millions, it's unlikely that they will bet on Romi's future, as fluctuations in the global market could push her family over the edge.

"Stability is to be prized," said Oxfam's David Green. And that is the last thing Glencore wants, as it's instability which is most profitable - for those who have the inside knowledge to exploit it.

Follow Chris Arsenault On Twitter: <a class="InternalLink" href="http://twitter.com/AJEchris">@AJEchris</a>

=

More than £50m of World Food Programme aid to feed the starving has ended up in the hands of a London-listed commodities trader run by billionaires, despite a pledge by the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/unitednations" title="More from guardian.co.uk on United Nations">United Nations</a> agency to buy food from "very poor farmers".

<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/glencore" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Glencore">Glencore</a> International, which buys up supplies from farmers and sells them on at a profit, was the biggest single supplier of wheat to the WFP over the last eight months, the Guardian can reveal.

Glencore, which was able to operate with secrecy from its base in Baar, Switzerland, until it floated on the London stock exchange last May, is expected on Tuesday to announce a merger with mining group <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/xstrata" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Xstrata">Xstrata</a> to become one of the 10 biggest FTSE 100 companies with a market value of more than £50bn.

Details of the dealings with Glencore, which controls 8% of the global wheat market, emerged a year after the head of the WFP committed to buying food from local farmers.

"Our new motto is to help people feed themselves," Josette Sheeran, the executive director of the WFP, <a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-10/14/c_13556984.htm" title="">told China's state news agency</a>. "When we can, we purchase our food from the very poor farmers who suffer because they are not connected to local markets."

Raj Patel, an economist expert in the global food trade and former UN employee, said it was shocking how much food aid money was "funnelling to one of the largest commodity traders".

The rising price of wheat has squeezed the incomes of millions of the world's poorest people. Many have been forced to turn to the WFP, which last year fed more than 90 million people in 73 countries.

Over the last eight months Glencore has sold wheat worth $78m (£50m) to the WFP, according to <a href="http://www.wfp.org/procurement/food-tender-awards/2011" title="">details of contracts published on the agency's website</a>.

In the biggest single deal, the WFP bought $22.5m of Glencore wheat in July last year to feed Ethiopians in one the worst famines in recent memory. The WFP also bought Glencore wheat, sorghum and yellow split peas for Kenya, Djibouti, Bangladesh, Sudan, North Korea and Palestine. Last month the WFP spent $10.8m on wheat for drought-stricken Djibouti.

In its latest half-year financial results Glencore, which previously attracted controversy for <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/07/glencore-fatalities-environmental-fines-record" title="">environmental breaches</a> and accusations of dealing with rogue states, including Iraq under Saddam Hussein, reported that revenue from agricultural products doubled to $8.8bn. The company said its performance had been "driven by stronger profits in grains and oil seeds" for which "prices were substantially higher in H1 [the first half of] 2011 compared to H1 2010".

The company said: "There were increased geographic arbitrage opportunities [buying commodities cheaper in order to sell them on later at a higher price] available in wheat and edible oils." It said the average wheat price of a bushel [8 gallons] of wheat increased by 60% over the previous year to $778.

A spokeswoman for the WFP said: "As a humanitarian agency that depends entirely on voluntary donations we always aim to get the most competitive price when purchasing food on the open markets. Rising food prices do have an impact on our budget and they can be driven up by any number of factors, including speculation."

Glencore said it won the WFP tenders because "we were able to offer the commodities needed at the lowest possible price".

Rob Bailey, a senior research fellow in <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/food-security" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Food security">food security</a> at Chatham House in London, said the WFP often buys from traders such as Glencore, Cargill and Viterra, because food donations are not available and local farmers cannot provide the quantities needed. "It is concerning that the World Food Programme is left at the whim of international markets precisely when prices are high," he said.

"Such crisis periods of high volatility are also when the big traders make the most money, because they have the best information on likely supply and demand and how markets are going to evolve, allowing them to take positions in the market to turn profits."

John Hilary, the executive director of the War on Want, said: "Glencore's self-confessed speculation on grain markets last year forced up prices at a time of world shortage, driving more people into extreme hunger. The WFP needs to rethink its priorities and support local markets rather than corporate giants such as Glencore."

<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/sep/15/healthmindandbody.health" title="">Patel, the author of Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World's Food System</a>, said: "It's a shocking amount of money to be funnelling to one of the largest commodity traders. That financial entities are now making their presence felt – and Glencore is among the most powerful of these new corporations – points to the increasing financialisation of food in the 21st century."

Glencore admitted that it bet on a rising wheat price after drought in Russia, according to investment bank UBS. "[Glencore's] agricultural team received very timely reports from Russia farm assets that growing conditions were deteriorating aggressively in the spring and summer of 2010, as the Russian drought set in … This put it in a position to make proprietary trades going long on wheat and corn," UBS said in a report to potential investors, disclosed by the Financial Times.

On 3 August 2010 the head of Glencore's Russian grain business, Yury Ognev, urged Moscow to ban grain exports, according to the UBS report. Two days later Russian authorities banned wheat exports, which forced prices up by 15% in two days.

On Monday Glencore said UBS's account of its role in the Russian grain crisis was "simply untrue. In any case, the export ban did not help our business".

A spokesman said: "We share the view that financial speculation in agricultural products markets can be harmful. Our business is physical – we produce, buy, store and blend agricultural commodities.

"We bridge the gap between harvests that last for a couple of weeks and demand which is fairly constant throughout the year.

"Because we are physical holders, we are always net sellers in the agricultural products futures markets which actually has a downward effect on the prices of agricultural products futures."

Glencore's chief executive, Ivan Glasenberg, earned the moniker "the $10 billion man" when his stake was valued at £5.76bn at last May's flotation. Four other partners – Daniel Maté, Telis Mistakidis, Tor Peterson and Alex Beard – were also made paper billionaires. More than <a href="http://www.wfp.org/about/donors/year/2011" title="">$3.6bn was given to the WFP last year</a>, with the US contributing $1.2bn and the UK £144m.

<h2>Merger deal anticipated

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Glencore is on Tuesday expected to announce plans to merge with mining group Xstrata to become one of the 10 biggest companies listed on the London stock market. It will be the latest move in Glencore's journey from secretive trading house founded by Marc Rich, a commodities traderwho was charged by US authorities with selling oil to Iran during the 1979-81 hostage crisis, to global powerhouse in the sale of commodities from copper and coal to sugar and wheat.

The largest shareholder in the combined company – dubbed Glenstrata – will be Ivan Glasenberg, Glencore's multibillionaire chief executive. But Glasenberg, who makes so much money he <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/swiss-village-wins-tax-break-thanks-to-billionaire-6273681.html" title="">indirectly funded a generous Christmas tax break for the other residents of the Swiss village where he lives,</a> is understood to be planning to step aside to become deputy to Mick "the miner" Davis, the head of Xstrata.

Davis, already one the highest paid executives in the FTSE 100, is likely to be offered a "golden handcuffs" deal to stay at the company. A change of control clause could also see Davis collect an additional £10.7m in long-term shares.

The deal is likely to see Glencore pay about an 8% premium to buy up the Xstrata shares it does not already own.

Sir John Bond, Xstrata's chairman and a former chair of HSBC and Vodafone, will lead the Glenstrata board, while Glencore's chairman Simon Murray, who has been attacked for his <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/apr/24/glencore-simon-murray-women-in-boardrooms" title="">"unbelievably primitive" views on women in business</a>, is likely to step aside.

Tony Hayward, the former boss of BP, is likely to be appointed the senior independent director of the combined company, which will have more than 120,000 staff across five continents.

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<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/feb/06/un-food-aid-glencore-xstrata">http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/feb/06/un-food-aid-glencore-xstrata</a>

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