In 1969 the first of three aluminium smelters was built in Iceland at Straumsvík, near Hafnafjörður, on the South West side of Reykjavík by Alusuisse (subsequently Rio Tinto-Alcan). In 1998 a second smelter was constructed by Century Aluminum (now a subsidiary of controversial mining giant Glencore), at Hvalfjörður near Reykjavík, and in 2007 the third, run by Alcoa, was completed at Reyðarfjörður in the remotely populated East of the country. The Icelandic Government had been advertising the country’s vast ‘untapped’ hydroelectric and geothermal energy at ‘the lowest prices in Europe’ hoping to attract jobs and industry to boost Iceland’s already very wealthy but somewhat fishing dependent economy. The industry, which would permanently change Iceland’s landscape with mega-dams, heavy industry scale geothermal plants and several kilometer long factories, was promoted by the Icelandic Government and the aluminium companies as ‘good employment for a modern age’. However, ten years after the flagship Alcoa Fjarðaál project was completed, unemployment is higher than it was in 2005, and Iceland’s economy has become dependent on an industry which is vulnerable to commodity cycle slumps and mass job losses. Worse, the price charged for Iceland’s energy is tied to the price of aluminium and analyses of the country’s 2008/9 economic crisis suggest it was exacerbated by the poor terms of Iceland’s late industrialisation. Yet demands for further industrialisation remain, and more than 1000 Icelanders are employed in the aluminium sector.

This article exposes the conditions inside Iceland’s aluminium smelters based on interviews with workers conducted in 2012. The stories from two smelters share correlating accounts of being forced to work in dangerous conditions under extreme pressure, and without adequate safety equipment, leading to serious accidents which are falsely reported by the companies. These shocking allegations require serious attention by the trade unions, Icelandic government and health and safety authorities. This especially in the current context of labour disputes with the aluminium companies, alongside revelations about the same companies’ tax avoidance schemes and profiteering in the country.

Century, Grundartangi:

A former worker from the Century plant at Grundartangi shared his story, though did not want his identity revealed. Steini (not his real name) had worked at the plant for ten years and only quit recently.

“When I went to work there I thought of it as just a job and it was good pay. My experience of it was that they were taking our labour for cheap and making work us like slaves. The only thing we get out of it is our pay.

There were so many accidents that were their fault, not ours. They put so many rules in place, but you have to break the rules to get the work done, which they are pressuring you to do, then if something goes wrong its all your fault.”

Steini described how bonuses are awarded to the shift according to the number of accidents. If you have an accident and are off work you lower your annual bonus. At first the bonuses included smart new bikes, then they were reduced to a restaurant meal, and finally just pizza and beer.

He described the pressure of the job; how workers are pushed to work harder, but as soon as they get quick at the tasks they add more work so they are even more pressured. Akin to Alcoa Fjardaál in the East of Iceland the turnover rate is around 20% with only a handful of people staying for ten years as he had. Similarly, both Alcoa and Century Aluminum have gradually replaced permanent jobs with contract labour. Increasingly the work force was made up of University students on summer jobs which made the work even more risky as this short term labour was less experienced and more prone to accidents.

Shifts were twelve hours long, for 183 hours/month and the working hours were very unsociable, many at night for three days in a row. Steini described how most of the days off in between shifts were used to sleep and recover energy in order to work again. As the plant was expanded and more pots were added the work got harder.

“Everybody who works in Norðurál [Century] hates it. Most of the people are eating anti-depressants and everything. They hate the company, they hate the work but they are afraid to change and be without work.” He said.

He described how many accidents there were at the factory and how the company avoid paying compensation or having to report the severity of the incident;

“I got a broken finger, I burned my feet and once I had a forklift drop on my arm. I never got any compensation from the company and when I went to insurance companies I could get nothing either. The company ask you to come back to work as soon as you can move and just sit at the computer, then they count that as being ‘well’ in their records so it looks like less ‘work days lost’. The insurance companies also see it this way so it it very hard to get compensation.

One guy was doing something very risky and fell into the [molten aluminium] pot up to his knees. He was on morphine for a few weeks. I remember the health and safety guy coming out of a meeting with him smiling. He had admitted that it was all his own fault.”

Industry standards on reporting discriminate between lost time injuries and restricted work injuries, with the former being taken more seriously. Like Alcoa, Glencore claim that the ‘total recordable injury frequency rate’ (TRIFR) is being reduced annually. Nonetheless ten people died at Glencore’s global operations last year according to their 2015 Annual report, and sixteen in 2014.

Scandals over worker’s rights had previously erupted in Iceland during the construction of several mega power projects for the aluminium industry after the conditions of cheap foreign labour were exposed. More than a dozen Chinese and other foreign workers died during the construction of the Kárahnjúkar dam and several Romanian workers suffocated in geothermal pipes on the site of a Reykjavík Energy work camp in Hellisheiði where they worked up to 72 hour weeks.

Steini described the heat of the pot rooms and how restrictive and hot the many types of safety clothing are. As a result most workers chose to use the minimum amount of safety clothing, enabling them to be comfortable and work faster to get bonuses;

“You used as little safety equipment as you could so you could get the job done. When I was in the pot room I just used a paper mask for comfort. I stopped noticing the smell of the gases, then after a period working in the pot lining rooms I went back to the pot room and I really smelt it. It chokes your throat and you know it’s bad.”

‘Pot rooms’ are huge sealed troughs of carbon anodes and aluminium flouride through which up to 320,000 amps of electricity are passed to separate the strongly bonded oxygen from the alumina. Molten aluminium is then ‘tapped’ from the pots and cast into ‘ingots’. The process generates gases including inorganic fluorides, sulphur dioxide, CO2 and perfluorocarbons. Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) are extremely potent greenhouse gases lasting up to 50,000 years in the atmosphere. Tetrafluoromethane, the most common PFC is 6,500 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2 and its main global source is from aluminium smelters. Sulphur dioxide and fluoride emissions are acidic and can kill or stunt plant growth. Fluoride emissions also build up in the bones and teeth of animals and humans causing Skeletal Fluorosis, which weakens bones and can lead to bone deformation much like arthritis. Farmers living around Centrury’s smelter in Hvalfjörður claim their sheep and horses have got sick and even died from flouride poisoning.

Saga (not her real name) started work in Century Aluminum’s Grundartangi smelter in 2006, before turning twenty. It was her first big job and her introduction to the working world. She was working twelve hour shifts from the outset, and her work began in the pot rooms. Like Steini she described the fallacy of the health and safety training;

“We were told to wear dust-masks because of all the dangerous and unhealthy gases that come out of the pots, also because of the alumina, fluoride and other pollution in the air. You could always smell it all through the mask though. It was emphasized very heavily not to smoke inside because smoking inside the pot-rooms could result in ‘stone-lungs’ in few years time, which is very common amongst smelter-workers. That is because of all the pollution in there. If you would smoke inside, you were inhaling three times more tar and other stuff straight down to your lungs than if you where smoking outside in more normal surroundings. We also learnt that pregnant women are never allowed to enter the pot-rooms because there is a great risk of foetal harm.”

Saga accused Century of extremely low health and safety standards and condemned the company for making workers “repeatedly risk their lives to keep the smelter operational into the next shift”. She described being given second hand protective clothing in poor condition, and claimed that much of the equipment was in need of repair but was still being used as parts were hard to come by. Like Steini she had witnessed and experienced serious injuries, which had been misreported or disguised by asking workers to come in for office days when injured in order to improve the figures on workdays lost due to injury;

“Working for show” you could call it. I have even heard about workers with broken legs being made to show up for hanging out in the office for a few hours just to keep the records clean. It was easy to pressure people with many passive methods, such as bringing down the accident record which means that their shift doesn’t get a reward like the others that went through the year “without” accidents that caused absents.”

She gave a scathing and detailed account of the pressured and dangerous work environment;

“I witnessed others, and found myself, doing dangerous and life threatening things in the smelter. This was not because we had some kind of death wish or thirst for adrenaline but because there was no other way to finish our daily jobs on time. There is no other choice than to climb on that pot, drive that windowless forklift, work on this broken down and not really functioning crane today, not take proper breaks. Be one doing two people’s jobs, drive too fast because you have to hurry and “fixing” things with all possible and impossible ways so they will last just a little bit longer. I have seen people run away, scared for their lives, and then being forced back because somebody has to take care of what went wrong. I have witnessed what happens after a pot explodes.

Far too many people cram themselves into vehicles, because distances are very long and your main transport is your own two legs on the hard concrete floors. These are all labeled as dangerous things to do in there and in theory they are not “really” allowed. For example climbing on pots –which are very often badly closed and have broken lids or holes. Working alone on a crane, which is strictly speaking never allowed, always to be performed by a team of at least two workers. That’s because of the danger of people passing out from the heat, exhaustion, lack of liquid, rest or food, and a crane-operator could very likely be in a critical place when that happens, like over an open pot. Driving vehicles with the lights not working, broken windows or too filthy windows to actually see out is not allowed. Neither is the operation of any vehicles or cranes without proper training, or vehicles and cranes that are broken or not functioning properly. Having your shoes not closed all the way, having an old helmet, old shoes, no dust-mask, standing under an crane in use, not preheating your tools well enough to touch liquid metal or acid. Working in too much loudness, too much darkness or too much pollution. Not getting the breaks that you are entitled to. Teaching yourself how to do things. Working with a person you don’t trust or yourself being in so bad physical state, like suffering illness, fatigue, hunger, pain, that you don’t even trust yourself.

All of these things, I have had to do to finish my duties, just like everybody else in there (at least back then). Of course I could have said no at any given time, but you don’t really want to do that when you know that it is just going to be somebody else, a co-worker who is in the same shoes as you, that will have to take care of it and finish what you left. Everything has to be finished every day no matter what it takes.”

Alcoa Fjarðaál.

The Alcoa plant in the East of Iceland was heralded by the Icelandic Government as the saviour of the waning Eastern economy and a fantastic employment opportunity which would bring young people from Reykjavík to the East. Officials promised up to 1000 permanent jobs, plus another 2.5 jobs created in other sectors for each job in the aluminium industry. Ten years later, however, few of the promised benefits have come to the region, and overall unemployment in Iceland, which was less than 3% in 2005, reached 7.5% in 2009 and remained at 5% 2015.

Alex Smári drove the Alcoa bus from Stöðvarfjörður to Reydarfjörður from 2006 to 2008. He says people in the East believed work in the smelter would be easy, with good pay and plenty of time off, but the reality had turned out to be very different. He described workers returning from their shifts as ‘like corpses’ in the bus, and claims many quit their jobs after a short time. In his opinion the East has not become more thriving as the politicians and company promised, to the contrary “Fjarðabyggd is like a labour camp”.

One worker in the Alcoa Fjarðaál smelter was willing to speak to me though he did not want to be named. Bergur (not his real name) noted the high turnover of workers with many leaving after just a year or two. He claimed around 100 of the 450 employees in the smelter were foreign, suggesting that many in the East simply don’t want to work there. There are only a handful of people who have remained in employment with the company since the smelter opened in 2007.

“Out of twenty people on my shift that started working there five years ago there are only two left. Everyone else quit because they didn’t like working there. The turnover was 20% last year. 20% with all the unemployment in Iceland! It really tells a story.”

Like the Century workers he described how the managers push the workers to work as fast and hard as possible during the shift. However, once they have learnt to work faster the job load simply goes up again.

“The Alcoa building system is devised to suck every bit of what you have. You start with 100 people doing 100 people’s jobs and then you push everyone until 90 people are doing 100 people’s jobs, and then there are 60 and then 50. At Alcoa, everyone gets into the situation where he is working the whole shift doing his absolute best and still walking away with a kick in the butt for not finishing something or other.”

Bergur claimed company people had told them in a meeting that Fjarðaál is the most dangerous of Alcoa’s smelters in Europe. Shifts are twelve hours long and often at night and employees are expected to work 176 hours a month compared with only 142 hours on eight hour shifts at Rio Tinto’s Straumsvík plant near Reykjavík.

There is also a bonus system that rewards the workers for the quantity and quality of aluminium they produce. This means workers effectively get fined when a machine breaks or poor quality alumina is delivered, even though this is out of their control.

“Everything is connected to the bonus. If a crane breaks down and it holds off production it lowers the bonus for everyone. Now we have low quality alumina coming in which means we get through more anodes and that also lowers the bonus. When this situation is going on the workload gets substantially higher, so not only are you working a lot more, but you know you are getting less pay.”

As a result of this pressure Bergur claims the few days off between shifts are usually spent simply sleeping and recovering before work starts again. Contrary to Alcoa’s claims that the workplace is ‘family friendly’ he claims Alcoa Fjarðaál has become known locally as ‘the divorce factory’ since so many couples have separated due to the unsociable hours which affect their relationship.

Bergur also spoke about Alcoa’s use of contract labour, and its effect on worker’s rights and the strength of the unions:

“There are two groups of people working at Alcoa: There are Alcoa employees and there are contractors who are not part of Alcoa. We are doing the same work but they are not members of the unions. By having these two groups they can control the employees more easily and the unity within the factory will be less.”

“We have to live!”

Former Prime Minister of Iceland Halldór Ásgrímsson famously promoted the Alcoa Fjardaál project by proclaiming “we have to live!”. But what kind of livelihood have Icelanders been forced to accept? All of the workers expressed feeling misled by the government and the aluminium companies.

Saga claimed that prospective workers were denied information about the health and safety risks;

“Our government has been been eagerly promoting smelters as very agreeable and good working places for years. Smelters are being promoted in places where people don’t know them, don’t know the dangers, the threats and the health risks, and don’t feel they have a choice. How can a place where you are constantly breathing heavy pollution – alumina, fluoride and dangerous gases – that make you feel like your lungs took a severe beating every time you open up a pot, be a healthy and agreeable working place?”

Bergur analysed the Icelandic government’s claim that the smelter would reverse the East to West migration trend:

“The people who have quit there, who have returned to Reykjavik or whatever…I call those the sensible people. They have moved to the East to work for Alcoa, maybe both man and woman. They come with high hopes and determination to make this work. After working for a year, or a year and a half, the pressure which goes on at the shift becomes too much, and when they realise this is the system and will not change, that they are never going to be in a situation where you are working a relatively easy shift and going home not so tired….this is not going to happen. When they realise that, they quit and get out.”

Steini also questioned the government’s promotion of aluminium smelting as a good employment for Icelanders;

“People in Iceland just wanted jobs, but not necessarily this kind of factory. The question is who put this idea in our minds that the only way to get a job is by having an aluminium smelter?”

Of course, Icelandic smelter workers are not alone in their experience of pollution and dangerous working conditions, and there is much potential to link up with global struggles for workers rights. At Hindalco’s Hirakud aluminium smelter in Odisha, India, workers are taking the company to court asking why they were not told what they were breathing in. They were being moved from the pot-room every four years, told that this was due to the potential health effects of working in such high heats, but the effects of breathing in highly toxic fumes were never mentioned. They believe the company was deliberately concealing the dangers while trying to minimise them.

On top of poor working conditions, employment in the aluminium industry is innately insecure, as it is vulnerable to the peaks and troughs of the commodities supercycle. The recent commodities downturn led to the demise of the UK steel industry, including the likely closure of Port Talbot steel, cutting 11,000 jobs. The workers have already lost part of their pensions, a common phenomenon in the metals industry, as the owners – Tata Steel – claim they cannot afford to pay the full amounts. The rusting skeleton of Century Aluminum’s Helguvík smelter, abandoned midway through construction in 2009, stands as a stark reminder of the false promises and volatility of this industry.

Iceland’s aluminium workers cannot expect their employers, experts in anti-unionising and misleading PR, to protect their rights. Instead, they must properly inform themselves of the risks to their health and security, and contribute to the debate on what constitutes ‘a nice place to work’ in a modern Iceland.

Sources:

Cooke, K. and Gould, M.H. 1991. The health effects of aluminium, a review. The Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health. 111, 163-8.
Aslam M, Khalil K, Rasmussen RA, et al. (October 2003). “Atmospheric perfluorocarbons”. Environ. Sci. Technol. 37 (19): 4358–61.
Dr R. Liteplo and Ms R. Gomes, 2002, ‘Environmental Health Criteria for Fluorides’. International Programme on Chemical Safety, UNEP. http://www.inchem.org/documents/ehc/ehc/…

Indriði H. Þorláksson, economist and former tax director

Frumvinnsla áls – Lýsing á hinni mengandi og orkufreku framleiðslu álbarra

The Financial Times notes the importance of his ‘fixer’ role, noting that:

The quietly spoken and affable geologist is seen as someone willing to throw himself into engaging with governments and communities in some of the “difficult” countries where miners increasingly operate. That is something that Vedanta is seen as desperately needing – not least in India itself. Mr Albanese may lack experience in the country but one analyst says that can give him the opportunity to present himself as a clean pair of hands who will run mines to global standards…“There’s a big hill to climb there” Mr Albanese said.(1)

In fact Albanese has already been hard at work for Vedanta since he discreetly joined the company as Chairman of the little known holding company Vedanta Resources Holdings Ltd on Sept 16^th 2013, billed as an ‘advisory’ role to Anil Agarwal (Vedanta’s 68% owner and infamously hot headed Chairman).

Vedanta Resources Holdings Ltd (VRH Ltd) (previously Angelrapid Ltd) are a private quoted holding company with $2 billion assets at present, and none at all until 2009. VRH Ltd own significant shares in another company called Konkola Resources Plc – a subsidiary of Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) – Vedanta’s Zambian copper producing unit. This is an example of the complex financial structure of Vedanta – with holding companies like this one serving to move funds, avoid taxation and facilitate pricing scams like ‘transfer mispricing’.

Shortly after becoming CEO of Vedanta Resources Holdings Albanese helped Agarwal by buying 30,500 shares in Vedanta Resources in November 2013 as their share price plummeted and Agarwal himself bought a total of 3.5 million shares to keep the company afloat. In December Albanese bought another 25,163 shares.

By February 2014 he was being sent out to Zambia to manage a crisis over Vedanta’s attempt to fire 2000 workers, which Agarwal himself had failed to fix during an earlier trip in November, and further damage caused by revelations about the company’s tax evasion, externalising of profits and environmental devastation in Foil Vedanta’s report Copper Colonialism: Vedanta KCM and the copper loot of Zambia. 

In a taste of things to come newspapers referred to Tom Albanese as the Chairman of Vedanta Resources, and Labour minister Fackson Shamenda alluded to a ‘change of management’ giving them new confidence in Vedanta. Albanese appeared to have done some fine sweet talking, promising that workers would not be fired as part of a ‘new business plan’ and claiming that all of KCMs reports are transparent – an outright lie as their annual reports, profits and accounts are as good as top secret in Zambia and the UK.

However, scandals and unrest continued to blight Vedanta in Zambia and the Financial Times reported that Albanese had flown out a total of four times in February alone.

Albanese’s role as a ‘fixer’ and sweet-talker is nothing new. His appointment as CEO of Rio Tinto in 2006 was on very similar terms, as an article in The Independent newspaper noted his role to ‘green tint’ Rio, and ‘scrub its image clean’. The article mentions that, in an exclusive interview with the paper Albanese declared unprompted that the company is a “good corporate citizen”, and describes him showing no emotion and choosing his words carefully, focusing on safety and environmental and social responsibility.

But Albanese could not play dumb about the reasons a new image was needed for Rio. Since he joined the company in 1993 Rio had been accused and found guilty of a number of major human right violations. 

In the early nineties they forcibly displaced thousands of villagers in Indonesia for their Kelian gold mine. They, and partner Freeport McMoran caused ‘massive environmental devastation’ at the Grasberg mine in West Papua, and when people rioted over conditions in 1996, began funding the Indonesian military to protect the mine. $55 million was donated by Freeport McMoran to the Indonesian military and police between 1998 and 2004, resulting in many murders and accusations of torture. In 2010 they locked 570 miners out of their borates mine in California without paycheques leaving them in poverty. In 2008 Rio threatened to shut their Tiwai point aluminium smelter, firing 3,500 if the government imposed carbon taxes. In Wisconsin, Michigan and California the are accused of toxic waste dumping and poisoning of rivers, and in Madagascar and Cameroon they have displaced tens of thousands of people without compensation or customary rights at their QMM mine, and the giant Lom Pangar Dam – built to power an aluminium smelter.

In 2011 a US federal court action accused Rio Tinto of involvement in genocide in Bouganville, Papua New Guinea, where the government allegedly acted under instruction from Rio Tinto in the late eighties and nineties when it killed thousands of local people trying to stop their Panguna copper and gold mine. 10,000 people were eventually killed in the class uprising that resulted from the conflict over the mine. Rio Tinto were accused of providing vehicles and helicopters to transport troops, using chemicals to defoliate the rainforests and dumping toxic waste as well as keeping workers in ‘slave like conditions‘.

Yet, Albanese is being seen as a respectable CEO with a more diplomatic and clean approach than his new Vedanta counterpart Anil Agarwal. There is great irony in Albanese’s promises to improve workers conditions in Zambia when Rio Tinto are famed for their ‘company wide de-unionisation policy’, with 200 people marching against the ill treatment of mineworkers outside the international Mining Indaba in Cape Town in February, calling them ‘one of the most aggressive anti union companies in the sector’.

Perhaps Albanese will feel at home in another company with a dubious human rights and environmental record. Both Rio and Vedanta have been removed from the Norwegian Government Pension Fund’s Global Investments for ‘severe environmental damages’ and unethical behaviour following investigations. The Norwegian government divested its shares in Rio Tinto in 2008, while it divested from Vedanta Resources in 2007, and also excluded Vedanta’s new major subsidiary Sesa Sterlite from its portfolio just a few weeks ago in January 2014.

Albanese was previously famed for being one of the highest paid CEOs on the FTSE 100, earning £11.6 million in 2011. However he refused his 2012 bonus in a last ditch attempt to save his career at Rio before he was fired in January 2013 amid a total of $14 billion in write-downs caused by his poor decision to acquire Alcan’s aluminium business just before prices crashed, and a $3 billion loss on the Riversdale coal assets he bought in Mozambique, making him in effect a ‘junk’ CEO today.

Other commentators have noted that this is not the first time Vedanta have recruited a junked mining heavyweight to save their bacon, but point out that the appointments have previously been short-lived, possibly due to frustrations about the dominance of majority owner Agarwal and his family. The infamous mining financier Brian Gilbertson, who merged BHP and Billiton, was another scrap heap executive who helped Vedanta launch on the London Stock Exchange in 2003 in the largest initial share flotation that year. However, he quit after only seven months after falling out with Agarwal.

Albanese is diplomatic when faced with questions about potential conflicts between himself and 68% owner and Chairman Anil Agarwal claiming Agarwal “will be in[the] executive chairman role when it comes to M&A and strategy”. However, commentators point out that, ‘the British Financial Services and Markets Act of 2000 stipulated that the posts of CEO and Chairman of companies should be separated – a principle which was backed in October 2013 by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority’, potentially posing another corporate governance issue for Vedanta, who are already accused of violating governance norms in London by people as unlikely as the former head of the Confederation of British Industry – Richard Lambert.

But Albanese is positive about his re-emergence as a major mining executive. In fact the man with so much blood on his hands may be alluding to his experience in making great profit from others’ misery, when he says to the Financial Times, on the occasion of his appointment as Vedanta CEO, that:

“Sometimes the best opportunities are when the times are darkest”.

1) Financial Times, March 10 2014, ‘Albanese back at the helm to face Vedanta challenge’.

* quotes are only in paper version in section on ‘marriage of convenience between American miner and Indian billionaire.

The ruling against the mine is being hailed as a precedent victory for grassroots democracy, after Supreme Court judges initiated a referendum on the mine last summer in which every inhabitant of twelve villages on the mountain voted against the project, giving passionate speeches against the company and the Odisha government.

The failure of the Niyamgiri bauxite mining project is estimated by some to have cost Vedanta $10 billion in lost investments. Vedanta boss Anil Agarwal had built the Lanjigarh refinery at the foot of Niyamgiri mountain, and even expanded it sixfold, so sure was he that he would gain permission to mine despite the local inhabitants’ dissent. In November 2004 he even used a Financial Times article to mislead investors and create confidence, by claiming that he already had permission to mine the mountain.

The misleading FT article is typical of the many ways in which the British government has propped up this contentious company, which is increasingly criticised by even such high profile figures as the former head of the Confederation of British Industries (CBI) Richard Lambert – who accused it of violating human rights and corporate governance norms and using its London listing to improve its reputation. Foil Vedanta is now calling for Vedanta to be de-listed from the UK Stock Exchange in recognition of their catalogue of human rights and environmental abuses at every one of their operations across India and Africa, as well as corruption, tax evasion and violations of corporate governance.

Foil Vedanta have recently published a comprehensive report on the company’s Zambian copper mining subsidiary KCM  http://www.foilvedanta.org/articles/copp…) which has cost the Zambian exchequer billions of dollars in lost tax, as well as polluting and mistreating workers relentlessly.

Meanwhile the company are facing hard times as low share prices officially demoted them from the FTSE 100 to the FTSE 250 this December, removing their ‘blue chip’ status. In a panic Anil Agarwal (majority owner and Chairman) began to buy back as many shares as possible to increase the share price and save the company. He bought 1.7 million shares on Dec 19th, and another 3.5 million on Dec 24th, through his holding company Volcan Investments Ltd, which is based in the Bahamas, a UK controlled tax haven. A little later his new Executive, Tom Albanese (formerly Rio Tinto CEO who was pushing the aluminium industry on Iceland), also bought a large chunk of shares. But it was too late and the company slumped to the FTSE 250 nonetheless.

This makes Anil Agarwal now the 67.99% owner of Vedanta Resources, a violation of corporate governance norms for a listed public company.

Agarwal is now trying to keep his investors happy by claiming he will get bauxite to keep his refinery alive from another source in Odisha, but there are no immediate options available and activists are demanding the decommissioning of the Lanjigarh refinery, which has repeatedly spilled toxic red mud in local streams and polluted the surrounding villages.

Declare solidarity with grassroots movements fighting Vedanta in India, Africa and elsewhere!

Kick Vedanta out of London for it’s corporate crimes, murder and destruction. Noise demonstration and picket at Vedanta headquarters, 16 Berkeley Street.

Mayfair, W1J 8DZ . Green Park tube.
1 – 3pm. Friday 11th January.

On Friday 11th January the Supreme Court will finally announce its historical decision on whether to allow the mining of the threatened Niyamgiri mountain in Odisha, India¹. Simultaneously tribals and farmers from a number of grassroots organisations² will hold a rally of defiance in Bhawanipatna, near the mountain. They will call for closure of the sinking Lanjigarh refinery and an absolute ban on the so-far-unsuccessful attempt to mine bauxite on their sacred hills³.

On 10th of January activists in New York will rally outside the United Nations Headquarters pointing out Vedanta’s clear violations of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, including right to participate in decision making, right to water and cultural and religious rights. They will call for the Indian Government to put a final stop to this contested project, and for the state owned Orissa Mining Corporation to be pulled out of dodgy deals it has made with Vedanta in an attempt to force the mine through the courts on Vedanta’s behalf (see their facebook event).

Here in London we will draw attention to Vedanta’s nominal Mayfair headquarters from which they gain a cloak of respectability and easy access to capital. We will call for Vedanta to be de-listed from the London Stock Exchange and thrown out of its cosy position in the London corporate elite for proven human rights and environmental abuses, corruption and poor corporate governance⁴.

Please join us and bring drums, pots and pans and anything that makes noise!

Our solidarity demo on 6th Dec was covered in all the Indian papers and our solidarity was felt directly. Let us do it again!

See you there! More information below.

(1) The Supreme Court is due to make a final decision on the challenge posed to the Environment Ministry’s stop to the Niyamgiri mine on 11th January. In its December 6th hearing the Supreme Court concluded that the case rested on whether the rights of the indigenous Dongia Kond’s – who live exclusively on that mountain – could be considered ‘inalienable or compensatory’. The previous ruling by Environment and Forests minister Jairam Ramesh in August 2010 prevented Vedanta from mining the mountain due to violations of environment and forestry acts. The challenge to this ruling has been mounted by the Orissa Mining Corporation, a state owned company with 24% shares in the joint venture to mine Niyamgiri with Vedanta, begging questions about why a state company is lobbying so hard for a British mining company in whom it has only minority shares in this small project (see Niyamgiri: A temporary reprieve).

On 6th December, in anticipation of a final Supreme Court ruling, more than 5000 tribals and farmers rallied on the Niyamgiri mountain and around the Lanjigarh refinery sending a message that they would not tolerate the mine or the refinery. In London Foil Vedanta held a noise demo outside the Indian High Commission in which a pile of mud was dumped in the entrance. This news was carried all over India by major papers and TV and had a significant impact (see London protesters join 5000 in India to stop mine).

(2) Niyamgiri Surakhya Samiti, Sachetana Nagarika Mancha, Loka Sangram Mancha, Communist Party of India and Samajwadi Jan Parishad will coordinate the rally in Odisha on the 11th Jan.

(3) The Lanjigargh refinery was built at the base of Niyamgiri and assessed for environmental and social impact without taking into account the intention to mine the hill above for bauxite to run the plant. However, obtaining permission to mine the mountain has been much more difficult than Vedanta supposed and has left them running Lanjigarh at a loss, leaving Vedanta Aluminium with accumulated debt of $3.65 billion.  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-27…)

(4) Vedanta was described in Parliament by Labour MP Lisa Nandy as ‘one of the companies that have been found guilty of gross violations of human rights’ . Ms Nandy in her speech quoted Richard Lambert the former Director General of the CBI: ‘It never occurred to those of us who helped to launch the FTSE 100 index 27 years ago that one day it would be providing a cloak of respectability and lots of passive investors for companies that challenge the canons of corporate governance such as Vedanta…’. Similarly City of London researchers from ‘Trusted Sources’ have noted Vedanta’s reasons for registering in London:

“A London listing allows access to an enormous pool of capital. If you are in the FTSE Index, tracker funds have got to own you and others will follow.” Both Vedanta Resources and Essar Energy are members of the FTSE 100. London’s reputation as a market with high standards of transparency and corporate governance is another draw for Indian companies. Both Vedanta and Essar have faced criticism on corporate governance grounds in India, and a foreign listing is seen as one way to signal to investors that the company does maintain high standards.

We are joining the calls of parliamentarians and financiers in pointing out how the London listing is used for legal immunity and to hide Vedanta’s corporate crimes. We are calling for Vedanta to be de-listed from the London Stock Exchange and taken to court for Human Rights abuses here in London.

Declare solidarity with Odisha grassroots movements! Stop the Niyamgiri mine once and for all!

Noise demonstration and picket at India High Commission, Aldwych, WC2B 4NA, Holborn Tube, 2 – 4pm, Thursday 6th December.

On Thursday 6th December tribals and farmers of the grassroots organisations Niyamgiri Surakhya Samiti, Loka Sangram Mancha, Samajwadi Jan Parishad, and Sachetana Nagarika Mancha will hold one of the largest demonstrations ever on the threatened Niyamgiri mountain since the movement began. In anticipation of the final Supreme Court decision on the planned mega-mine ten thousand people are expected to rally on the mountain in a show of defiance. They will call for closure of the sinking Lanjigarh refinery and an absolute ban on the so-far-unsuccessful attempt to mine bauxite on their sacred hills.

Here in London we will be holding a noise demonstration outside the India High Commission in Aldwych calling for the Indian Government to put a final stop to this contested project, and for the state owned Orissa Mining Corporation to be pulled out of dodgy deals it has made with Vedanta in an attempt to force the mine through the courts on Vedanta’s behalf.

Please join us and bring drums, pots and pans and anything that makes noise! The movements in Orissa will feel your solidarity!

More than 100 protesters from Foil Vedanta and other organisations crowded the entrance to British mining company Vedanta Resources’ London AGM and poured red paint on the steps on Tuesday in an attempt to disrupt the meeting. In Goa and Odisha in India where Vedanta operates, parallel demonstrations involving thousands of people affected by the company’s activities took place on Monday and Tuesday. Inside the AGM the meeting was once again dominated by dissident shareholders who pointed out Vedanta’s racism, major environmental and social violations and poor governance.

See the Foil Vedanta website for further information and photos.

Join us at the eighth annual AGM protest: 28 August 2012 2.00 pm, Lincoln Centre, 18 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London WC2A 3ED. Nearest tube Holborn (Piccadilly & Central lines) or Chancery Lane (Central).

We are also calling out for a global day of action. Please show your solidarity with movements across India and Africa fighting this devastating company. Email your pictures or statements to savingiceland (at) riseup.net.

Why Peoples’ Movements are Fighting Vedanta:

But who are the faces behind Alcoa? From big pharmaceutical chiefs, to Bilderberg attendees, Iraq profiteers and a Mexican president, Alcoa’s board remains one of the most influential and shadowy of the mining and metals companies. Use the links to Powerbase’s profiles in this article to find out more.

Current Alcoa CEO Klaus Kleinfeld has been an Alcoa board member since 2003. He is also a director of Bayer, the pharmaceuticals and chemical company which grew out of the Nazi company IG Farben, responsible for the medical experiments at Auschwitz. Bayer is now famous for it’s GM and crop science business and was named one of 10 Worst Companies of the Year by Multinational Monitor in 2001. Kleinfeld is associated with all three of the most influential and private ‘global planning groups’. He attended the Bilderberg conference in 2008 and is a member of the Trilateral Commission and Director of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum. He is also a Director of the Brookings Institution, one of the USA’s biggest think tanks, and the third most cited in Congress.

Kleinfeld was CEO of Siemens from 2005 to 2007 after spending 20 years with the company. He resigned amid a corruption scandal which saw the US Department of Justice investigating the company for charges of using slush funds of €426m (£291m) to obtain foreign contracts, and funding a trade union to counter existing Union action against them. Kleinfeld resigned just hours before the news broke to the media. In 2009, after a lengthy investigation, Kleinfeld and four other executives were forced to pay large compensation sums. Kleinfeld allegedly paid $2 million of the $18 million total collected from the five, though he still denied wrongdoing. Kleinfeld is also on the boards of the finance giant Citigroup and the U.S Chamber of Commerce.

Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo has been on Alcoa’s board since 2002, and chairs the Public Issues Committee. Zedillo is a prominent economist and another member of the big three elite think-tanks sitting on the World Economic Forum and the Trilateral Commission with Kleinfeld, and attending the Bilderberg conference in 1999. Like Kleinfeld he is also a director of Citigroup. Zedillo also sits of the International Advisory Board of the Council on Foreign Relations, an American foreign policy think tank based in New York City who carry out closed debates and discussions and publish the journal Foreign Affairs. CFR played a significant part in encouraging the war on Iraq, and helped plan it’s economic and political aims alongside the US Government, particularly how to gain oil contracts after the war. He directs the Club de Madrid, a right-wing/neoliberal focused group of former government officials, think tankers and journalists involved in pushing reactionary policies to terrorism (referring to the Madrid bombings).

Mr. Zedillo was Mexican president from 1994-2000. He was appointed by Secretary General Kofi Annan to be the United Nations Special Envoy for the 2005 World Summit, and chaired the World Bank’s High Level Commission on Modernization of World Bank Group Governance in 2008. He is a director of JPMorgan-Chase, Proctor and Gamble, BP, Rolls Royce and an advisor to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. He directs the Center for the Study of Globalization at Yale University, which puts out influential reports and papers edited by him.

A fellow member of the Council on Foreign Relations is Alcoa board member E.Stanley O’Neal. O’Neal is a Harvard graduate and investment banker who served as CEO of Merrill Lynch from 2002 to 2007 and is a director of the New York Stock Exchange (now NYSE Euronext), the Nasdaq Stock Market and BlackRock – a key investor in the mining and metals industry. According to Forbes he was awarded $22.41 million in 2006. Mr O’Neal is also a trustee of another shady organisation, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a private group led by John J. Hamre, former deputy secretary of defence which ‘provides world leaders with strategic insights on — and policy solutions to — current and emerging global issues’. CSIS provided propaganda materials used by the CIA to destabilise the Government of Chile in the run up to the 1973 coup.

A third Council on Foreign Relations member sits on Alcoa’s board. James W. Owens is Chairman of the Business Council of the CFR, CEO and Executive Chairman of Caterpillar from 2004 to 2010 and Alcoa board member since 2005. Caterpillar are famous for their tendency to profit from war-induced contracts including in Israel and Iraq, just the sort of thing that the Council on Foreign Relations are interested in. Owens is also a director of the International Business Machines Corporation and Morgan Stanley and a senior advisor to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, a global asset manager working in private equity and fixed income.

Indian mega magnate Ratan Tata has been a director of Alcoa since 2007 and is currently a member of the International Committee and Public Issues Committee. He chairs Tata Sons, holding company for the Tata Group, the family business which is one of India’s largest business conglomerates including telecoms, transport, tea and now one of the biggest steel companies in the world after they bought Corus outright in 2007. As well as his directorships of most of the Tata companies, he is also a a former director of the Reserve Bank of India, and advisor to NYSE Euronext (the New York Stock Exchange), and JP Morgan – one of the largest shareholders of the London Metal Exchange who set metal prices worldwide and enable banks to stockpile and futures trade aluminium. Mr Tata is also trustee of Cornell, Southern California, Ohio State, and Warwick Universities, a director of the Ford Foundation and a member of the UK Prime Minister’s Business Council for Britain.

A fellow member of the Ford Foundation, and Saving Iceland favourite most-wanted, is Kathryn Fuller. Ms Fuller chaired the Ford Foundation from 2004 to 2010 and has been a trustee since 1994. However she is most famed for her contradictory positions as World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Chief Executive (1989-2005) and Alcoa board member (since 2001). Newspaper Independent on Sunday claimed she joined Alcoa in exchange for a $1m donation to WWF US and allowed Alcoa to join WWF’s exclusive “Corporate Club”, a claim Fuller has found hard to refute. Despite publicly opposing the highly controversial Fjarðaál smelter project, Fuller abstained rather than voting against the project in Alcoa’s boardroom. Elsewhere she has claimed that Alcoa holds “a strong commitment to sustainability, including energy efficiency, recycling, and habitat protection.”

Compared to these heavyweights Alcoa’s other current board members may look like small fry, but they still command an impressive and worrying influence across a number of boards.

Sir Martin Sorrell is founder and chief executive officer of the £7.5 billion communications and advertising company WPP. He has been a NASDAQ director since 2001 and was appointed an Ambassador for British Business by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Before founding WPP, Martin Sorrell led the international expansion of famed UK advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi. He calls himself ‘a money man’ saying: “I like counting beans very much indeed”.

Arthur D. Collins, Jr. is a big pharmaceuticals boss. He is retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Medtronic Inc. who he had been with between 1992 and 2008, and previously Corporate Vice President of Abbott Laboratories from 1989 to 1992. He also sits on the boards of arms manufacturers – Boeing, and bio-tech giant Cargill.

Michael G. Morris has been Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of all major subsidiaries of American Electric Power since January 2004 having been a company executive since 2003. He is also a Director of the USA’s Nuclear Power Operations and the Business Roundtable (chairing the Business Roundtable’s Energy Task Force) as well as the Hartford Financial Services Group. He was listed 158th on the Forbes Executive Pay list in 2011 and received a total $9 million in 2010.

Finally, Patricia F. Russo, is a Director of asset management group KKR & Co, General Motors, Hewlett Packard and drug manufacturers Merck & Co, who’s arthritis treatment Vioxx induced heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths in 27,000 people between 1999 and 2004. Merck were exposed for trying to bury negative evidence and distort drug trials to hide the known cardiovascular effects of Vioxx. Litigation following the scandal is ongoing and will be part of the business of Ms Russo.

Coming back to Iceland there is another former director of note. Norwegian national Bernt Reitan was Alcoa Executive Vice President from 2004 to 2010 and a director of iron alloy and silicon company Elkem from 1988 to 2000, putting him in the centre of the development of Iceland’s Hvalfjörður Elkem plant, and the Fjarðaál aluminium smelter. Elkem subsidiary Elkem Aluminium was sold to Alcoa in 2009. Reitan broke the ground at the massive Fjarðaál smelter in Reyðarfjörður in 2004 alongside Valgerður Sverrisdóttir, then Minister of Industry, and Guðmundur Bjarnason, Mayor of Fjarðabyggð. In view of his influential position in Iceland Reitan sits on the Icelandic-American Chamber of Commerce which was formed by the Iceland Foreign Trade Service in New York and promotes trade between Iceland and the USA.

Mr Reitan is also a Director of the International Primary Aluminium Institute and a former board member of the European Aluminium Association as well as Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, Yara Internation ASA and Renewable Energy Corporation ASA.

The combined power of these Alcoa Directors reaches deep into the political and corporate structures of the USA and Europe. In this light it is a mean feat for Alcoa to be ejected from Húsavík, but we can be assured that Alcoa’s aluminium claws are still dug in deep in Iceland – a small country with such cheap and abundant hydro power. 

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For more information on Powerbase’s mining and metals research please visit the Mining and Metals portal and peruse the aluminium industry profiles.

See other key figures in Iceland’s heavy industrialisation at our Hall of Shame.

Notes and References:

[1] The terms “greenfield” and “brownfield” are used by the aluminium industry, and though the former might give an image  of a “green” and less environmentally damaging construction than the latter, the meaning is in fact the absolute opposite. Samarendra Das and Felix Padel explain the difference: “While a brownfield project renovates or adds to an existing plant […] “greenfield” has a more attractive ring to it, but what it means is turning an area of green fields and forest brown as the area is cleared and polluted…” See: Samarendra Das and Felix Padel. 2010. Out Of This Earth – East India Adivasis and the Aluminium Cartel. Orient Black Swan. India. p. 336.
[2] Esmarie Swanepoel, 11 Jan 2011 ‘Alcoa Posts $21bn revenue in 2010′. Mining Weekly. Accessed 22/02/2012.
[3] Icelandic-American Chamber of Commerce, Statistics. Accessed 22/02/2012.

See also:

From Siberia to Iceland: Century Aluminum, Glencore and the Incestuous World of Mining – A special report for Saving Iceland by Dónal O’Driscoll, about the people and crimes behind Glencore International and Century Aluminum, which runs the Hvalfjörður smelter mentioned in the article above and fantasize about operating another one in Helguvík.

Through survivors’ testimonies, Kandhamal 2008 examines how Hindu supremacist groups turned two communities – Adivasi (indigenous) Konds and Pano Dalit Christians – against each other, with the tacit support of the State Government and local administration. More than 50,000 people became refugees, 5,000 houses were burnt and destroyed, at least 400 churches, prayer halls and institutions were desecrated, demolished or burnt down. This region is extremely poor, but rich in mineral resources which have attracted multinational mining companies including British firm Vedanta. The Odisha Government has ruthlessly pursued neo-liberal land acquisition policies formulated by the UK’s (Department for International Development (DfID) and the World Bank. The Konds have consistently fought this corporate land grab and the film highlights how Hindu supremacist groups and the State Government have sought to undermine that struggle.

Kandhamal 2008 will be premiered on Tuesday, 1 November, in Rm CLM.6.02 Clement House, London School of Economics at 7.15 pm. Director and researcher Samarendra Das, who was born in Odisha and has lived most of his life in Kandhamal, will discuss the background to and making of the film. Samarendra’s book, Out of this Earth: East India Adivasis and the Aluminium Cartel (Orient Black Swan, 2010), which was co-written by anthropologist Felix Padel, is a thorough study of the aluminium industry and its global impacts. For more information about the documentary screening contact:  sasg at southasiasolidarity.org.

Protesters claim this is a British issue as both Cairn and Vedanta are British companies, and have been aided by David Cameron and the British Ambassador to India in pushing the deal through. The leaflets highlight Vedanta CEO Anil Agarwal’s position as the 17th richest man in Britain and claim the British government has allowed him to evade millions of pounds worth of tax using Jersey and Bahamas based tax havens. One of the placards showed Cairn CEO Bill Gammell and Vedanta CEO Anil Agarwal in bed with David Cameron and read ‘Bill Gammell, Anil Agarwal, David Cameron in bed for oil’ while another slogan accused all three of having ‘blood on their hands’. A stack of leaflets was handed in to the building to distribute to Cairn Energy staff and a security guard warned those gathered that the police would be called if they remained at the building. This warning was taken seriously in the light of Cairn Energy’s zero tolerance policy on protests at the same offices by Greenpeace a month earlier, at which the company took out injunctions against Greenpeace preventing them from publishing any pictures of the event. The protesters left after an hour.

Below is a press release that followed the protest. Download the leaflet that was distributed at the protest here: Cairn India AGM leaflet.

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PRESS RELEASE

18th August 2011

PROTESTERS TARGET CAIRN INDIA IN EDINBURGH

Exactly one month after Greenpeace occupied Cairn Energy’s Edinburgh offices to protest their Arctic oil drilling(1), the offices have been targeted again by campaigners objecting to Britain’s role in the take-over of key subsidiary Cairn India by British-Indian mining company Vedanta Resources plc. On the day of Cairn India’s AGM in Mumbai, protesters banged pots and pans to disturb the Edinburgh offices and shouted ‘Vedanta – blood on your hands’ and ‘Cameron get out of India’. They are angry that Vedanta – already accused of multiple violations of environmental law in India(2) – are being allowed to buy an oil company which is drilling in sensitive frontier oil fields around Sri Lanka’s coral reefs, and even angrier that David Cameron has personally helped to pave the way for the deal.

Vedanta has waited a year to complete its 58% buyout of Cairn India (leaving 22% with parent company Cairn Energy). When the Indian government delayed the deal citing uncertainty over Vedanta’s safety record and ability to handle ‘strategic oilfields’, David Cameron sent a personal letter to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to prevent ‘unnecessary delays'(3). Britain’s Indian High Commissioner Richard Stagg also wrote to the Indian PM over a royalties dispute between Cairn India and Rajasthani state oil company ONGC which was hampering progress on the deal, telling him that any change in financial conditions could ‘render the proposed transaction unviable'(4). Vedanta currently own 28.5% and await a Cairn India shareholder resolution to complete the deal.

Miriam Rose from the group Foil Vedanta said the protest was in solidarity with people affected by Vedanta’s activities in India:

Vedanta has been found guilty of flooding a village with toxic mine waste, killing 40 workers when a poorly built chimney collapsed, illegally grabbing tribal land and polluting major rivers. How can a company with such a poor track record be trusted to deep drill for oil in the most bio-diverse area of Sri Lanka’s coast? Vedanta are a British company and should be accountable to British law for their crimes. Instead Anil Agarwal’s cosy relationship with the UK government has helped him become one of the richest men in Britain. His politician friends even help his business and allow him to evade millions of pounds of tax by keeping his earnings in tax havens.(5)(6)

Cairn India have already begun drilling in Block SL-2007-01-001 of Sri Lanka’s Mannar basin, using a fifth generation Japanese drill ship the ‘Chikyu’ which was damaged in the Sendai tsunami and awaits repair on one of its thrusters. The block extends right to the edge of the Bar Reef Marine Sanctuary, a pristine coral reef which is thought to be the most biodiverse area off India’s coasts(7).

Cairn employees have expressed fear over the Vedanta takeover, worried about pay and working conditions and that the mining giant has no experience in the risky business of oil(8).
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Notes and References:

For a profile of Cairn India see here and for Vedanta here.

(1) See: Police make arrests in Greenpeace ‘polar bear’ protest

(2) Vedanta’s Environmental and Human Rights Crimes Identified by the Indian Authorities
Vedanta’s bauxite mining has killed thousands, mainly Adivasi (indigenous) people, in India in accidents, police firings, forced displacement, injury and illness. It has displaced thousands of families and destroyed the environment, contaminating drinking water and devastating vast tracts of fertile land in an area of Odisha which has experienced famine regularly since 2007.

In Niyamgiri, Odisha: In August 2010 India’s then Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh stopped Vedanta from mining the Niyamgiri mountain which is the sacred mountain of the Dongria Kondh adivasis in Odisha. But Vedanta has now appealed to the Supreme Court against this decision.

In Lanjigarh, Odisha: In August 2010, the Environment Ministry ruled that Vedanta and its subsidiary Sterlite had contravened the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 by illegally clearing forest to establish its alumina refinery in Lanjigarh in 2006 and by again by expanding the plant in 2009. Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh criticised the Supreme Court for allowing the Lanjigarh project. The National Human Rights Commission identified 3.66 acres within the refinery that legally belong to Adivasis. Following this, the administration has now registered a case of land-grab against the company. This is the first time that Vedanta’s illegal land-grabbing has been ‘officially proved’.

However Vedanta’s environmental crimes continued On 5 April and again on 16th May this year a wall of the red mud impoundment (storing toxic waste) collapsed, polluting the Vansadhara river. The wall had not been properly constructed despite warnings from the Odisha State Pollution Control Board in December 2008 when it had previously collapsed.

In Puri, Odisha: In November 2010 the Odisha High Court ruled that Vedanta’s acquisition of thousands of acres of land in Puri for the so-called Vedanta University was illegal and void. The court ordered Vedanta to return the land it had stolen to the original owners.

In Jharsuguda, Odisha: In September 2010 the Odisha State Pollution Control Board found that Vedanta’s 500,000 tonne smelter and another nine captive power plants in the Jharsuguda district of north Odisha were operating without clearances from it and were violating water and air pollution Acts.

In Advalpal,Goa: In November 2009 the Bombay High Court ruled that Vedanta’s Sesa Goa iron ore subsidiary, the largest exporter of iron ore in India, was illegally dumping mining waste near Advalpal village in north Goa. On 6 June 2010, the dumps collapsed due to heavy rains. Tonnes of mining waste overflowed into a stream leading to floods. The Indian Bureau of Mines found that the mining plan had been violated.

In Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu: In September 2010, the Madras High Court ordered Vedanta to stop production at its Thoothukudi copper smelter for environmental reasons — a decision that has been overturned by a stay order of the Supreme Court for the time being. Villagers from Thoothukudi complain of severe respiratory ailments

In Korba,Chhattisgarh: Vedanta and its subsidiary BALCO (which is 100% managed by Vedanta) have been found culpable for the collapse of a power plant chimney causing the deaths of 40 people. Vedanta built the chimney on state-owned forest land and had ignored ‘stop notices’ and threats of legal action and dismantling of construction work by the Korba Municipal Corporation. The chimney collapsed, according to a report commissioned by the Korba police, because of “careless, poor construction practice and poor workmanship in the construction of piles” and “improper cement content in the concrete mix” and because new layers of the chimney were being built before lower levels had been given time to cure properly”.

In Zambia: In December 2010,Vedanta’s Zambian subsidiary Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) was fined in court for polluting the very river it had poisoned four years earlier in the north of the country. In November 2006, effluents cascaded from a burst slurry pipeline into the Kafue river, raising chemical concentrations to 1,000% of acceptable levels for copper, 77,000% of those for manganese and 10,000% for cobalt. Following the most recent event, the UK company was also found guilty of willfully failing to report it to the authorities.

(3) James Lamont and Amy Kazmin in New Delhi, and Alex Barker in London, Financial Times, Feb 18^th 2011 ‘Cameron intervenes in Cairn sale’

(4) EI Finance. April 27, 2011. ‘Vedanta Buys Smaller Cairn India Stake as Delays Continues’

(5) Vedanta’s CEO, Anil Agarwal is the seventeenth richest person in Britain, whose personal wealth has grown even in the recession by 583% according to 2010 figs5.

(6) Vedanta plc is a London listed FTSE 100 Mining Corporation owned by Anil Agarwal and his family through a number of shell companies in tax havens – Bahamas-based company Volcan Investments Limited, Twinstar Holdings Ltd, THL KCM Ltd in Mauritius and Vedanta Resources Cyprus Ltd and others6

(7) Arijit Barman, Business Standard, Mumbai, August 17, 2011. ‘A year on, Cairn drills into Sri Lankan waters’.

(8) Himangshu Watts, 12/8/11, ‘Cairn India staff keep fingers crossed on future in Vedanta’, Economic Times of India.

Vedanta has mines, refineries and factories in various states in India – including Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Goa – as well as in Zambia. In Orissa Vedanta hopes to mine the mineral-rich Niyamgiri mountain. This would destroy the lives and livelihoods of the Adivasi (aboriginal) Dongria Kond people who live in the region. Despite the Indian Ministry of Environment repealing permission to mine Niyamgiri in 2010, Vedanta continues to push for the project, which if successful would be an act of cultural genocide.

Vedanta has been exposed for corruption and illegal land acquisition in the city of Puri, where it attempted to build a 9000 acre corporate University with the $1 billion sponsorship of Anil Agarwal. In Goa it’s mining operations have caused massive pollution. Today Vedanta, helped by the Indian Government, also has it’s eyes on oil extraction in Greenland and Sri Lanka.

Also, don’t forget about the protest outside Vedanta’s Annual General Meeting, coming up in London on June 27th. Read Saving Iceland’s most recent news and articles concerning Vedanta here below:

– Fundamental Questions About Modern Civilization Itself – Arundhati Roy on “Broken Republic”
– Red Mud Spill and People’s Resistance at Niyamgiri: A First Hand Report From the Struggle
– Press Release on Red Mud Pollution by Vedanta PLC
– People Can’t be Made to Bathe in Red Mud

Please join us for the 7th annual protest outside the AGM of Vedanta Resources, the now infamous UK registered Indian mining company who have this year been exposed by the Indian government for serial environmental and human rights violations. We stand in solidarity with the Dongria Kondh and other inhabitants of Niyamgiri and Lanjigargh who have lost land, health and livelihood to Vedanta’s refinery, and faced repression and struggle in fighting Vedanta’s plans for a 73 million tonne bauxite mine and a six fold increase in the refinery’s capacity. We oppose Vedanta’s attempted take-over of British Oil company Cairn Energy who plan to drill in Greenland and Sri Lanka.

In 2010, protests outside Vedanta’s AGM made headlines as protesters on the outside shouted slogans targeting CEO ad majority shareholder Anil Agarwal for the ‘blood on his hands’, as well as David Cameron who was in India promoting joint UK-Indian business ventures at the time. Meanwhile activist shareholders held Vedanta to account inside the AGM, and key investors Aviva threatened to pull out due to the company’s ‘disdain’ for OECD environmental law. One month later the Indian government’s Saxena Report damned Vedanta for violations of tribal rights and environmental law at the Niyamgiri hills. Vedanta is also being investigated by the Indian government’s Lok Pal anti-corruption ombudsman for massive corruption over the illegal acquisition of 3000 acres of land for a ‘Vedanta University’ in Puri, Orissa.

This year we are celebrating the prevention of the illegal Vedanta University project and the denial of their right to mine tribal land at Niyamgiri without permission. However, the fight is far from over. We are calling on the British and Indian governments to put Anil Agarwal on trial for these violations, and drawing attention to the company’s continued attempts to get Niyamgiri via the Orissa state government. Please join us and raise your voices in solidarity with Indian communities who will be watching us and feeling our support.

The enclosed photos show the protest at Vedanta’s 2010 AGM.

Contact  savingiceland at riseup.net for more details.
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Recent relevant articles:

Red Mud Spill and People’s Resistance at Niyamgiri – A First Hand Report from the Struggle
Press Release on Red Mud Pollution by Vedanta
Victory in India: The Tribes of Orissa Conquer British Mining Giant Vedanta
From 2009: Join us at Vedanta Sterlite AGM – 27th July London

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Please see coverage of last year’s AGM here (from the London Mining Network website):

Protesters descend on FTSE 100 mining group’s AGM – but chief executive describes criticism as ‘lies’
Vedanta Resources’ highly successful financial year, and its annual meeting, were overshadowed yesterday when more than 100 protesters, some dressed as characters from James Cameron’s Avatar film, came to object to what they say is the company’s shocking human rights and environmental record.

Police stopped protesters storming the meeting, as pressure groups and celebrities lined up to attack the mining group’s record over its treatment of the Dongria Kondh tribe, which, they claim, will be devastated if Vedanta’s planned bauxite mine in India’s Orissa state goes ahead.

Read the full story here.

Vedanta meeting held up by difficult question
Activist shareholder challenge Vedanta’s Chief Operating Officer at Lanjigarh on the sacred status of Niyamgiri to its tribal inhabitants and causes an embarrassing and revealing silence when the ‘expert’ cannot answer.

Read the full story here.

Vedanta meeting disrupted by demonstration
Accusing the Vedanta mining company of destroying the Niyamgiri mountain worshipped by indigenous Dongria tribes of Orissa, around 250 supporters of a campaign group ‘Foil Vedanta’ held a vociferous demonstration during its annual general meeting here. The demonstrators last evening carried placards saying ‘Anil Agarwal, Blood on Your hands’, ‘Who killed Arsi Majhi? Vedanta, Vedanta’. They claimed that Agarwal, Chairman of Vedanta, was a “Wanted Criminal”.

Read the full story here.

Anti-mining protesters ambushed Vedanta’s AGM
New Delhi, Lanjigarh- For the fourth year in a row, anti-mining protesters ambushed the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Vedanta Resources, a London-based FTSE 100-listed company. The AGM was held in London on Wednesday evening. While in the last three years, Dongria Kondh (tribals from Orissa) representatives protested against the mining of their sacred hill in the state, on Wednesday it were blockbuster Avatar’s aliens, Na’vi, and fashion icon Bianca Jagger.

At the heart of this cross-continental row is the bauxite-rich Niyamgiri hill in the Lanjigarh area of dirt-poor Kalahandi district. While Anil Agarwal-promoted Vedanta Resources wants to mine the hill through its subsidiary companies for its aluminum refinery in Lanjigarh, located 500 km southwest of Bhubaneshwar, and “develop the backward area,” tribals and activists feel that it will displace thousands and leave them without any livelihood opportunities.

Read the full story here.

Channel 4 News Wednesday 28 July
Watch 4 minutes into this clip for coverage of protests against Vedanta at the annual meeting in London:

In the video above, Indian author Arundhati Roy talks about her recently published book, Broken Republic: Three Essays, and how the Indian government is, along with international mining corporations, violating the indigenous of India, destroying their lands and displacing them, leading to a constantly increasing gap between the rich and the poor. One of the book’s essays, titled “Mr Chidambaram’s War”, focuses on the Dongria Kondh tribe in Odisha, who have fought against Vedanta’s and ALCAN’s bauxite mining for aluminium production over the last decades.

The following text explains Broken Republic’s content briefly:

War has spread from the borders of India to the forests in the very heart of the country. Combining brilliant analysis and reportage by one of India’s iconic writers, Broken Republic examines the nature of progress and development in the emerging global superpower, and asks fundamental questions about modern civilization itself.

On 16th May after heavy rain, toxic red mud poured from a breach in one of Vedanta’s Lanjigarh refinery red mud ponds, spilling onto the village below. The next day landless people displaced by the project held two blockades demanding adequate compensation; a five day walking protest ended with a meeting of 500 people on the threatened Niyamgiri hills; and the funeral of a tribal movement leader, killed by factory pollution, was held. Two months before Vedanta’s often-subverted AGM this will be bad news for the company. This is a direct report from the scene.

Red Mud Spill

On the evening of 16th May 2011 one of the Lanjigarh alumina refinery’s red mud ponds burst its banks, spilling toxic waste sludge into an adjoining village. Only a month earlier a similar breach had occurred, polluting local streams and ponds.

When we reached the red mud ponds on the morning of 17th May the breach had already been largely patched up by the company. Local people recounted how after a heavy rain the sludge had poured through the earthen pond walls and flooded into the village and factory compound. Fearing bad press (particularly in the wake of the Hungarian disaster) Vedanta employees rushed out with bulldozers and hoses to wash down and patch up the evidence. However, trails of the wet mud could still be seen and a village pond was bright red with the toxic waste. The Wall Street Journal reported the incident, quoting local man Sunendra Nag on the pollution of the Vansadhara river by the red mud ponds:

Now we don’t drink its water because of the waste from the refinery that flows into it, but people still use the river for bathing and washing clothes. We are getting eye, skin and respiratory diseases due to this but we don’t have other options. (1)

Incredibly, Vedanta’s regional vice president responded to the spill by blaming the villagers. He claimed that;

Due to agitation and dharna (sit in) at the site by local people, Vedanta Aluminium is not allowed to operate its second red mud pond. They are raising the dyke height of the first pond. During every rain, exposed red-coloured soil wash run off goes into streams.

In fact Vedanta’s red mud ponds are far from meeting international standards. They are soil lined instead of concrete, contain wet waste-mud instead of ‘dry stacking’, and are poorly located – directly uphill of the factory and villages. Approximately four tonnes of red mud are produced for every one tonne of aluminium. Red mud contains arsenic, heavy metals and radioactive trace elements, which can cause cancer, silicosis and other diseases.

Background

The Niyamgiri hills in the thickly forested tribal lands of central Odisha (formerly Orissa) have been prospected by various mining companies since 1976 for the 73 million tonnes of bauxite under the soil of the mountain’s flat table top. The hills have achieved mythical status all over the world for the iconic fight playing out there. The battle is between tribal inhabitants who worship the mountain which sustains them, and the encroaching mining company, seeking the rich bauxite deposits for aluminium production.

After several contenders failed, the UK registered Vedanta Resources stepped in 2003 (Sterlite a subsidiary of Vedanta had the lease application pending since 1997). They quickly built the Lanjigarh alumina refinery at the base of the mountain before obtaining any permission to mine the hills. Contrary to the arrogant assumption that their money would buy the mountain against the inhabitant’s wishes, years of local and international protest finally led to with-holding of the project by the Environment ministry in August 2010.

Today Lanjigarh is operating on just above break-even profit at 1 million tonnes per year, with bauxite transported by rail from the troubled neighbouring state of Chattisgarh. Though already one of the biggest refineries in India, the aim is to expand the plant to 6 million tonnes, for which the Niyamgiri deposits are crucial. Vedanta cannot afford to lose. They are currently using the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation, who are applying to carry out the mining on their behalf. Worse, opposing communities are facing increased oppression by the Central Police Reserve Force, who have arrested, attacked and killed local leaders under the guise of their violent anti-Maoist combing operations ‘Operation Green Hunt’.

In many ways the story really begins with the bloody colonisation of Odisha by the British in 1801. The first bauxite surveys carried out by the British geologist T. Walker in 1901 with the help of the King of Kalahandi then became the blueprint for today’s extraction via so-called mining based ‘development’ of the region. Today this is headed by our most neo-colonial of agencies – the World Bank, the UK Department for International Development (DfID) and a hoard of private companies, and NGOs through reports such as ‘Orissa Drivers for Change’ that promote an unregulated mining sector in the resource-rich state.

An Active Resistance

Despite the forces trying to destroy them, Niyamgiri people’s movements are alive and kicking. On May 17th, in the 45 degree heat of summer, landless oustees organised a rail and road blockade demanding adequate compensation. They felled a tree and blocked the only incoming road to the factory, creating a long line of heavy trucks unable to enter the plant to collect alumina. At the same time around 100 women and men sat on the railway that runs into the factory, planning to stay until their demands were met. They heard speeches from movement leaders on the politics of corporations and the importance of making global connections to strengthen their local struggle. They shouted slogans which recalled the 1855 killing of adivasis (tribals) led by Rendo Majhi, who revolted against British imperialism in Orissa:

‘Rendo Majhi dakara deea’ – Rendo Majhi is calling us,
‘Ladhei kari banehi huea!’ – There is a dignity in fighting!

Their actions are justified. Most of the land for the factory was illegally acquired, including some reserved forest which the company still claim was never there. 12 villages were bulldozed, but the company only partially rehabilitated 100 of the families, who now live in Niyamgiri Vedanta Nagar, a shoddy housing colony right beside the belching plant.

The un-housed live in shanty towns around the plant, and many local people are suffering skin diseases, lung problems and other ailments caused by the pollution and dust. We attended the funeral of Dai Singh Majhi, a tribal Kond and movement leader who was president of Niyamgiri Surakshya Samiti (Niyamgiri Protection Committee) in 2002. He lived in Belamba village, just beside the factory, and died in his fifties from illnesses caused by the toxins. During the fight to save the mountain he famously analysed the company’s strategy saying; ‘they are flooding us out with money’, and recounted how the district administration had told him that ‘only one foot of soil is yours, the rest is owned by the government’. He insisted that they would not give up their homeland for money, which would not last anyway.

In the end the blockade was called off on 20th May when Lanjigarh’s Chief Operational Officer, Mukesh Kumar, brought the media to meet the protesters and claimed that all their demands would be met. This is the third time such false promises have been made to them in publicity stunts, but the blockaders usually submit in desperation for a way out of their poverty. It is very unlikely that the company will follow through on their apparent responsiveness, when they can avoid doing so and manipulate the media so easily.

On the same day, a five day Padayatra (walking protest) was culminating in Chhatarpur village on the Niyamgiri hills with a meal and meeting for 500 people from the Niyamgiri communities. During the march 40 people travelled from village to village, sharing stories and strategies on dealing with the state violence being enacted on them in the name of anti-terrorist policy. Operation Green Hunt is presented as a programme to eradicate Maoist extremists. In fact it is being used to divide and destroy tribal and other community opposition to industrial projects in the so-called ‘red corridor’ (Chattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh) by murder in fake-encounters, rape, harassment, and by labelling movement leaders as Maoist in the media.

In Chhatarpur we met Kond leader Lodo Sikaka who was abducted by the police shortly after the mountain was saved, and held for four days until media and international pressure forced his release. He explained:

Niyamgiri is good for us. If we save our land and our forest it is good for us. The government is sending guns to our house. Those who are participating in the resistance are accused as maoists. We are not raising guns or opposing police, how can they say this? We don’t have that business, so why are they targeting us? We don’t understand. Why did they blindfold me and take me to the forest? Naveen Patnaik (Chief Minister)’s government is telling us that there are Maoists in Niyamgiri. After five days journey in these villages I haven’t seen one. Only when the police come to our villages do we assume that there are Maoists.

CSR: Corporate Social Rip-off

Seeing the villages on the mountain gave a sense of what Lanjigarh might have looked and felt like before the refinery. Hazy mountains rose in the background while a line of women snaked back from the forest and fields with fresh produce on their heads. The ancient beauty of the Niyamgiri villages is sharply contrasted by the smoke stacks of Lanjigarh below it, which tower dark grey over the mud-clad village houses scattered on the plains. Beside the road an extensive fly ash dump fills the fields. The ash is piled high and left exposed, blowing dust into farms and homes, some of which back directly on to the dump. International standards state that fly ash ponds should be located a good distance from habitations and sealed from dust-blow as the ash contains significant amount of toxic substances – silicon dioxide, mercury, lead, arsenic, hexavalent chromium and with radioactive trace elements.

Further on, the conveyor belt which marches from the factory towards the sought after mountain now stands rusted and unused.

Vedanta logos can be found at every turn, advertising a school, a science college and mid day meal centre. But the company’s claims to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) have been exposed as far from the reality. They have vastly over-exaggerated their good works in reports and have even been caught claiming ownership for existing government schemes in the area. Local people have whitewashed Vedanta’s logo from walls on nearby schools which had nothing to do with the company.

The company must have a sarcastic sense of humour since the walls of the factory are covered in slogans for environmental and social welfare. One reads ‘mining happiness for the people of Orissa’, while another explains that ‘a healthy nature will lead to a radiant future’. Vedanta would do well to listen to its own advice.

A 2002 report prepared for BHP Billiton and Oxfam details research, carried out in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, into how to use CSR to deal with local resistance to mining projects. The participation of Oxfam and local NGOs in this project, without informing local communities of the dangerous research is shocking and shameful, and reveals the role of NGOs who are often responsible for destroying people’s movements instead of complimenting them.

Vedanta’s AGM will be held in London in July along with the eighth annual protest outside and inside the building. Along with this year’s scandals and injustices at Niyamgiri, activists will highlight Vedanta’s illegal acquisition of 3000 acres of land for a corporate university near Puri in Odisha, which has recently been found to be in contempt of law on multiple counts by the Lok Pal (an ombudsman appointed by the State legislative body). Once again the company will have a lot to answer for, and will have to face the shame of losing the mountain and the university. If the shareholders are shaken and the media critical, this could be the start of their ultimate demise.

(1) Krishna Pokharel, 18th May 2011, ‘Orissa Locals Fear Red Mud Spill’, Wall Street Journal.

First Published : 20 Oct 2010 on Expressbuzz.com

When news spread that the red mud pond in a Hungarian alumina refinery had broken open on October 3 [2010], spilling toxic sludge over a huge area, killing people and livestock, this confirmed our worst fears regarding new refineries going up in Orissa [India] and neighbouring states. For Hungarians a nightmare scenario has begun, as their country faces to its worst-ever environmental disaster. Apart from villagers killed or maimed by the toxic sludge, many farmers face economic ruin, as their fields are contaminated beyond repair. How much worse would a similar disaster be in India, where the population density of farmers is much higher?

For a start, among Vedanta’s less reported sins is its pollution of the Bansadara River right at source. When the Central Empowered Committee (advisory body on forests to the Supreme Court) advised against mining Niyamgiri, it also recommended cancelling permission for the Lanjigarh refinery. Among other reasons was the sitting of the refinery right next to the Bansadara, where it forms out of perennial streams coming down from Niyamgiri. Within weeks of start-up, from the end of 2007, heavy contamination of the river by red mud and other wastes has been repeatedly reported by the Pollution Control Board as well as villagers who have lost livestock and developed horrendous skin rashes.

But how could things be otherwise? When villagers depend on a river for washing and drinking over centuries, and it suddenly becomes contaminated, what do they do? Toxic red mud, a by-product of refining bauxite into alumina, has never been disposed of safely. Despite claims to the contrary, it has always contaminated water sources. If Vedanta’s refinery remains at a one million tonne per year capacity, it will produce approximately a million tonnes of red mud a year.

These red mud lakes constantly contaminate ground and river water, as well as posing an ever-growing threat of disastrous spills. At Balco/Vedanta’s Korba refinery in Chhattisgarh we have seen and photographed children flying kites on a red mud lake, while the red mud spills down onto fields where cattle graze towards running streams.

But could this toxic waste have any positive uses? In 2008, Vedanta joined an international Red Mud Project  www.redmud.org). Interestingly, Jamaica and Australia, two of the world’s largest bauxite-alumina producers, both banned early attempts to make bricks out of red mud, since red mud is toxic not just from dangerously corrosive caustic soda. It is also radioactive. “Dead on the ball there!” as a member of London’s International Aluminium Institute exclaimed when we mentioned this.

Bauxite is formed in alternating seasons of rain and sun over millions of years, that leaches out some minerals and keeps others, including at least 22 radioactive elements. Strange this has not been highlighted in news of the Hungarian disaster! Strange, too, that the red mud website, consulted in November 2008, revealed not only that Australia and Jamaica had banned building uses, but also that 2.5 million tonnes of red mud was used in 1998-9 alone for cement in India, while China was using even more to make bricks.

Red mud is only one aspect of the prohibitive costs of an aluminium industry. Another is the high water consumption. The Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy in Germany calculates that one tonne of steel requires 44 tonnes of water.  For aluminium, producing one tonne would consume an estimated 1,000 tonnes of water. Already ‘water wars’ have erupted near the Hirakud dam between farmers and new aluminium smelters and steel plants, who have signed deals for priority treatment and are guzzling H2O.

The role of mountains as storehouses of water also needs taking into account. If Orissa is among India’s most fertile states, this comes from a wealth in water that depends on intact minerals in the mountains. Mine the mountains, and the water runs off in the monsoon. The drying up of streams is already well-documented in north Orissa. It is also attested by tribal villagers living around Orissa’s biggest bauxite mine on Panchapt Mali, who observe that streams which were perennial have now dried up.

Orissa has witnessed 25 years of resistance to bauxite mining. The recent, historic decision of the Union ministry of environment and forests not to allow Niyamgiri to be mined echoes a similar decision in 1987 for Gandhamardan — probably the best forested of all the bauxite capped mountains after Niyamgiri. Gandhamardan’s numerous waterfalls stand as a testament to the success of the Balco movement.

One resonance is the claim by industry reports that ‘mining will not harm the water regime — it will actually improve the run-off’. This argument was given on behalf of Vedanta in a report from the Central Mining Planning & Design Institute in Ranchi, submitted to the Supreme Court in August 2006, which stated that during mining ‘micro-cracks will develop in the side of the mountain’ that will ‘facilitate run-off’ and thus ‘recharge groundwater’. This involves a ludicrous distortion of science. If monsoon water runs rapidly off a mined mountain, this makes it clear why perennial streams run dry. Mining devastates mountains as storehouses of water — a fact observable from too many devastated ecosystems.

Toxic red mud is one of many dangers if the aluminium industry is not kept within careful limits. The USA decided as far back as 1951 to start outsourcing most of its aluminium production to other countries, so that the bill for heavy subsidies and environmental hazards would fall elsewhere. As an American expert declared, the industry “is no great maker of employment, uses little skilled labour, and adds little to the independent development of an area” (Dewey Anderson’s Aluminum for Defence and Prosperity). Or in the words of Bhagaban Majhi, a tribal leader in the Kashipur movement against Hindalco/Utkal’s bauxite-alumina project, how can it be development to destroy a mountain that has existed for millions of years?

“Can you call displacing people development? The people for whom development is meant, should reap its benefits. After them, succeeding generations should reap benefits. That is development. It should not be merely to cater to the greed of a few officials.”

(Felix Padel and Samarendra Das have analysed the industry in a recently published book Out of this earth: East India’s Adivasis and the Aluminium Cartel)

Miriam Rose

After 13 years of continuous battle, the people’s movements to save the Niyamgiri hills from bauxite mining have won their land and livelihood back from the jaws of extinction. Niyamgiri is one of a series of threatened bauxite capped mountains in Orissa. On August 21st 2010 a review of the Vedanta mining project carried out by the Ministry of the Environment exposed the company’s “total contempt for the law”, having violated a number of environmental regulations, and revealed “an appalling degree of collusion” by local government officials with Vedanta. A few days later Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh called a halt to the project.

Two months later the Environment Ministry also rejected Vedanta’s plans for a six fold increase in capacity at the Lanjigarh alumina refinery, the plant at the foot of the Niyamgiri hills which would have been served by the 8 million tons of bauxite mined above. The company were also warned to follow pollution guidelines closely and were reprimanded for starting expansion work without prior permission (1). One month after that (November 2010) Vedanta Chairman and founder Anil Agarwal’s extravagant plans for a $3.2 billion ‘Vedanta University’ in Orissa were also knocked back when the High Court ordered that 6892 acres of beautiful coastal land, including part of the sacred Jagannath temple, had been illegally acquired and should be returned to the ousted inhabitants (2). An incredible victory! The events sparked celebrations across Orissa, and held the state government’s assembly in limbo for several weeks as ministers furiously argued over what had become an iconic battle of tribal people and people’s movements versus a mega corporation.

The Niyamgiri story has also been hitting headlines in the West in the past two years, focussing on the involvement of celebrities such as Bianca Jagger and Michael Palin, and the glitsy media campaigns of Action Aid and Survival International. Reading the papers you might think these large NGO’s led the fight against Vedanta. You would not hear that Action Aid accepted donations from Vedanta subsidiary Sterlite in 2003, and has signed MoU’s with Vedanta’s investors, ICICI bank (3), or that NGO professionals in their big jeeps have succeeded in splitting people’s movements in the area, paying particular tribal activists to be the face of their campaigns, and encouraging de-politicisation of the struggle. You would also not hear that the big NGO’s only joined the fight in 2007 and 2008, long after the people’s organisation Niyamgiri Surakshya Parishad (later Samiti) was formed in early Jan of 1998 in a gathering of more than 200 people in Asupada, a village at the foot of the lush green mountains. Nor that the Adivasi’s (tribals) are far from the helpless figures the NGO campaigns portrayed, but have fought tooth and nail for decades to successfully preserve their mountains and way of life from various threats, including logging during the British colonial rule. Sadly, the culture of protest orchestrated by the big NGOs was never intended to stimulate long lasting grassroots activism or to make the existing struggles visible. They were selling their product in India and the West, and by doing this they were actually suppressing the politics and the voice of the real people’s movements.

For the grassroots movements in Orissa the fight has been long and hard, with moments of great empowerment and also deep sadness and brutal police repression. After years of chasing away company men who surveyed their land with tools and clipboards, the threat of displacement finally became real for the Khonds when the Orissa government ordered the compulsory acquisition of farmlands around the proposed Lanjigarh refinery in 2003. During the land acquisition process government officials promised that the company would provide jobs to every family who sold their land. In reality very few got jobs or compensation. Instead local people suffer skin lesions, dust pollution, deaths from lorry accidents on the new road, TB and contaminated crops. One family who’s farm is just outside the refinery wall have begged the company to buy them out so they can leave their contaminated land and move somewhere safer, but Vedanta have refused.

Later that year the chimney of a BALCO refinery being built in the neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh collapsed killing 57 workers, a stark reminder of the unsafe conditions for aluminium workers in India. 2003 also saw the illegal arrest and detainment of Lingaraj Azad, state president of the political party Samajvadi Jan Parishad (Socialist People’s Council) and also convenor of Niyamgiri Surakshya Samiti (Council for the Preservation of Niyamgiri) who was jailed for 100 days on two occasions. In 2004 a rally of a thousand tribals protesting forceful evictions was violently broken up by police who ‘lathi-charged’ the crowd, striking them with long thin sticks that break the skin, and injuring women and men alike. Thirteen activists were arrested on invalid charges. On 23rd March 2005 the first state-sponsored murder took place when local activist Sukru Majhi was killed. This would be followed in 2010 by the murder of Arsi Majhi. 2000 had also seen police open fire on a meeting of tribals regarding another Orissa alumina refinery owned by Utkal in Maikanch village, killing three and wounding seven (4). In 2007 the Norwegian Government’s pension fund pulled its $13 million of shares in Vedanta as it believed its involvement could result in “an unacceptable risk of contributing to grossly unethical activities”, and in 2010 the Bank of England similarly dis-invested from the company on human and environmental grounds after UK authorities in India upheld allegations of illegal and unethical activity against tribal people.

Blockades of the Lanjigarh refinery by women and children in particular were a regular occurrence during the long struggle. One of the most symbolic protests took place in January 2009 when 10,000 mostly tribal people encircled the Niyamgiri hills in a 17km long human chain, vowing to protect its sacred ecology and its ancient inhabitants. A week earlier 7000 protesters had marched to the gates of the aluminium refinery saying ‘Vedanta Hatao!’ (Remove Vedanta!), demanding that the company leave the area (5).

Here in the UK, where the company is registered (despite violating a number of British company laws), the campaign came to a head at the 2010 Vedanta AGM, which was dominated by the Niyamgiri issue for the fifth year running. A Guardian article entitled ‘Vedanta’s very embarrassing silence’ reported how during the meeting our friend Orissa activist and film-maker Samarendra Das challenged the Lanjigargh refinery’s manager Mukesh Kumar’s claims that the mountain was not sacred to the affected Dongria Khond tribe. Testing his knowledge he demanded that Mr Kumar give the Dongria’s name for their holy Niyamgiri mountain, which he could not (6). The presence of paid protesters from Survival and Action Aid was minimal at the 2010 AGM, whereas they had dominated the previous years meeting, showing the volatility of NGO support and commitment. They may have believed the fight was over as the company appeared on the brink of bringing in the bulldozers and showed no signs of stopping.

The battle for Niyamgiri was fought on many fronts; through international solidarity, court room action, media campaigns, shareholder activism and in depth research and understanding of the aluminium industry itself (embodying what Gandhi termed ‘satyagraha’- the truth force). But at the root of all of these actions was the energy and determination of the Dongria Kondh, who’s understanding of the fallacies of ‘development’ are often as sharp as any university professor. In an improvised songKucheipadar village Deka musician and elder Salu Majhi is recorded asking how mining can be called ‘development’, and describing the ideological rift between the way they value their environment and societal well being, and the quantified measures of the company and state:

Use all this up in 25 years, very clever my friend
We are kui people
Storing water wont be enough
Our life is in our flowing streams (7)

Evidence agrees with Salu. Out of half a million Indians displaced by mining in the last 10 years in just four states, 92% are much worse off, even if they receive the paltry compensation offered by companies.

So where is Vedanta now? According to the Sunday Times Rich list the company founder and chairman Anil Agarwal is still tenth richest man in UK with wealth growth of a record 583% after the financial crisis. He remains very well connected in London, yet somehow manages to be invisible in the media, despite being an almost despotic character with a rags to riches story and a childish temper when he doesn’t get his way. Using his connections he has managed to rapidly diversify the business of the company, teaming up with the Scottish oil company Cairn Energy to exploit the controversial oil fields around Greenland. Two of Vedanta’s board members also serve on the board of Cairn India and one (Naresh Chandra) is also on the advisory board of BAE, not unusual for aluminium companies due to the direct link between aluminium production and arms manufacture (8).

But we must celebrate our victories before turning to face the next fight. In the three years since Saving Iceland’s 2007 International Conference against Heavy Industry we have seen a series of projects halted by people’s movements, a success we never would have dared to dream of! Trinidad’s La Brea smelter was canceled in 2010 after years of protest by our friends from No Smelter TnT and others. The site is now being reclaimed by local people who have permission to build a bio-digester or a mango plantation there! (9)

In Iceland all smelter construction ground to a halt following the economic crisis, and Alcoa’s plans for a mega smelter in Husavik, North Iceland, may have fallen through all together thanks to the determination of Saving Iceland and others to reveal the true costs of the dams and geothermal plants needed to power the project. In Greenland public opinion in favour of Alcoa’s enormous planned smelter plummeted after activists from Avataq sought international help to educate local people and politicians on the history of the aluminium industry and the clear lessons for communities dependent on an aluminium economy. The Greenland smelter now looks a lot less certain than it has long appeared. On top of the massive turn around of aluminium industrialisation in Orissa these victories are enormous.

Most importantly they all demonstrate the power of people’s movements to stop corporations in their tracks. Though we may sometimes doubt it, our grassroots actions to understand, expose and resist projects which we know will not benefit people or planet, are powerful, and they work. Davids continue to bring down Goliath’s… in fact they are the only thing that ever will.

*

The cancelling of Vedanta’s Niyamgiri project also occurred just after the publishing of Samarendra Das’ and Felix Padel’s seminal book on the fight and the global aluminium industry ‘Out of This Earth: East India Adivasis and the Aluminium Cartel‘, which was in the Indian best seller list and was read by the Home Secretary of India. For an in depth analysis of the aluminium industry and the struggle in India the book is highly recommended.

Notes:

(1) Govt says no to Vedanta’s $8.5 bn expansion plan, NDTV Correpsondent, October 21, 2010 (New Dehli).

(2) Deborah Mohanty, Indian Express, 16th Nov 2010. ‘Land acquisition procedure for Vedanta University illegal‘

(3) Das, Samarendra and Padel, Felix 2010 ‘Out of This Earth: East India Adivasis and the Aluminium Cartel‘. Orient Blackswan, Delhi.

(4) Das, S. and Padel, F. 2010,’Out of This Earth: East India Adivasis and the Aluminium Cartel‘, Orient Blackswan

(5) Saving Iceland, Jan 30th 2009. ‘Ten Thousand People Encircle the Niyamgriji Mountains in Orissa, India‘

(6) Peter Popham. ‘Vedanta’s very embarrassing silence’. The Guardian. Friday, 30 July 2010

(7) An excerpt from Samarendra and Amarendra Das’ 2005 documentary film Wdira Pdika (‘Earth Worm Company Man’

(8) Press Association, 25th April 2010. The Guardian ‘Rich list reveals record rise in wealth: Collective wealth of Britain’s 1,000 richest people rose 30%, the biggest annual increase in list’s 22-year history‘

(9) Richardson Dhalai, September 27th. ‘Rowley slams Govt’s decision to scrap smelter‘, Newsday.

Last Monday, the red mud reservoir of an alumina plant ruptured in Hungary, near Ajka, 165km west of Budapest. As a result, 1.1 million cubic meters of red mud wiped out several villages through waves more than 2 meters high. It flooded 40 square kilometers of land, including affluents of the Danube, then reached one of Europe’s longest river on Thursday morning. So far, 7 people have been killed, 1 is still missing, and more than 150 have been injured, mostly by chemical burns. The death toll is still expected to rise.

As we write these lines, surrounding villages are being evacuated as the structure threatens to break in another point, which would result in another 500 000 cubic meters flooding the area.

The disastrous chemical accident has been declared Hungary’s largest and most dangerous environmental catastrophe, exceeding by far the 130000 cubic meters of cyanide-tainted water that spilled in 2000 in Baia Mare, Romania. Ten years later, traces of cyanide are still found in the area. It is worth noting that this cyanide was in a liquid form, therefore very quickly carried aways by the river whereas the thick red mud will sit there for years, sipping into the ground and reaching ground waters.

184 000 000 gallons of red mud have been released. The amount makes the event comparable to the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico where 200 millions gallons had been released.

Facts don’t matter if you have a good PR

The Danube, Europe’s second-longest river running through 2850 kilometers (1771 miles), marks the border between Hungary and Slovakia. It flows through Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Moldova before reaching the Black Sea. Countries bordering the Black Sea also include Turkey, Georgia and Russia. It is the base of unique ecosystems and has a thriving fish life that also provides food for other animals, including humans.

The alumina refinery, named Timfoldgyar Zrt, belongs to MAL Zrt, the Hungarian Aluminium Production and Trade Company. MAL Zrt also has shares in alumina companies in Bosnia, Slovenia and Romania. Apart from alumina, it also exploits bauxite to extract synthetic zeolites and the rare element gallium, making it one of the world’s primary producer of gallium.

Hours after the catastrophe, MAL Zrt insisted that « under European Union guidelines, red sludge is not considered hazardous waste and its components are not water-soluble », then declared that their intention was to restart production over the week-end.
This declaration was met by a reaction from the hungarian interior minister who answered : « They should take a swim in it and then they’ll see. »
It’s a rare enough occurrence that it deserves to be noted : for once, we can agree with a government official.

The government took control of the firm. Zoltan Bakonyi, CEO of MAL Zrt, has been arrested.

What is Red Mud ?

Hungary, following the path many European countries took between World War 1 and World War 2, started mining bauxite in 1927. Between 2005 and 2008 it still had a production of roughly 55 000 tons, as well as 3 refineries.
Bauxite is the raw product of aluminium. The process, known as the Bayer process, involves « digesting » bauxite under pressure with caustic soda to form sodium aluminate (Na2 AIO2). Filtering this solution produces aluminium trihydroxide, and separates it from the waste product, red mud. This trihydroxide is then washed and calcined to produce alumina powder. ».

« Roughly speaking, a refinery uses 2.3 tons of bauxite to make one ton of alumina powder, leaving over a ton of toxic red mud. » « In the smelter (…), 2 tons of alumina yield one ton of aluminium ».

Red Mud is radioactive…

« Red mud contaminates the ground water over a large area, with dangerous, dessicating effects. (…) Iron, silica, titanium, gallium and uranium are among over 40 elements present in bauxite, which exist as highly toxic, destabilised « heavy metals » in red mud, making it radioactive. »
More precisely, it contains 22 radioactive elements, sodium, lead and possibly cadmium and thorium. Environmentalists have already recorded high levels of mercury, arsenic and chromium in the hungarian red mud. Arsenic level in water extracted from Kolontar (one of the nearest village) on Tuesday were 25 times higher than the legal drinking water limit. Herwig Schuster, a chemist, said “the arsenic level was double what is usually contained in such red sludge”.

… as well as caustic.

Environmental groups measured the Ph of the sludge and say it’s highly alkaline, meaning it’s « incredibly corrosive » and « caustic ». The Ph was recorded over 11. As a comparison, Ammoniac has a Ph of 12, Bleach a Ph of 13.

As an Australian government report in the 70’s noted : « The extreme alkalinity of red mud is such as to destroy all plant life it comes into contact with, making red mud areas « utterly sterile ». »
Since the beginning of the spill, fishes in the rivers that have been contaminated have died massively. All life in the nearby Marcal river has been killed off, white froth has been seen floating on the Danube and many dead fish have been washed ashore.

The authorities declare that the Ph is decreasing as the red mud mixes with the Danube’s waters. Although the Ph will decrease as it flows down the river, the heavy metals won’t disappear and they’re expected to lead to massive death of fish and enter the food chain.

A global problem.

The effects of red mud on human health and on the environment are well known, especially to those working or living nearby alumina plants. High rates of lungs, stomach, skin and eyes disease, as well as birth defects are recorded.

Other areas of alumina production include Orissa, a northeastern state of India. There, the pollution around Damanjodi and Panchpat Mali is essentially due to bauxite dust, toxic red mud and factory smoke.
3 people went blind from being exposed to the red mud toxic slurry while trying to rescue their cattle.

« Vijay Muli, a local leader in the town, describes the pollution and drying up of water sources in the area : »
« It is acidic water falling there. Cattle drink it, our tribal and Dalit people also use it. They see their cattle dying. Those who fall in it get their skins peeled off. We have been telling Nalco about it, only to get the reply, « Why do you take the cattle there ? It is acid water. » Not a single frog or fish is living in it. On that mountain the villagers of Runjangi, Champapadar and Khariguda live on these water sources. »

The catastrophe also sparked discussions in Jamaica, bauxite’s 3rd extractor in the world, over the safety of such red mud reservoirs.

One journalist from the Jamaica Observer declared : « I recall when, many years ago, a donkey strayed into the Ewarton pond and was dissolved within days. If left alone, the water eventually evaporates and leaves behind a dried, clay-like residue. But as people in St Catherine, Manchester and St Elizabeth can attest, “eventually” is a long, long time. »

Much more to be worried about.

The factory owned by MAL Zrt is the biggest alumina plant in Hungary, employing 1100 people. They have received clear instructions for a « no comment » policy regarding media. As production is temporarily stopped, the employees are working on cleaning up the villages. The pictures that have been published clearly show that only members of the army are wearing appropriate chemicals proof suits, while the rest of the population is left with dust masks. We haven’t been able to get images of the employees, but the catastrophe let us assume that safety is not one of MAL Zrt’s priorities.

As the forecast announces hot weather and strong winds in the coming days, part of the red mud is expected to turn into toxic dust, thus spreading over an even larger area and worsening the environmental and health damage. This red dust is known to cause acid rain.

On the subject of safety, the WWF published aerial pictures of the tailings dam number 10 (the one that failed) taken in June. The 300 by 450 meter reservoir showed a significant leak.
If proof was needed, this shows that the authorities as well as the company have been caught red-handed. Nevertheless, MAL Zrt still insists it has « done nothing wrong ».

WWF also declared: “We are particularly concerned about the much larger reservoirs at Almásfuzito, built over earthquake prone swamp land right on the river bank just 80 km upstream from Budapest, where all sorts of other materials seem to have been tipped into the alumina processing waste ponds.” These reservoirs hold 12 million tons of red mud.

The website « wise-uranium.org » argues that tailings dams are often very unsafe structures, listing nearly a hundred major failures since 1960, with reserve that « Due to limited availability of data, this compilation is in no way complete ». (http://www.wise-uranium.org/mdaf.html)

This image shows the main toxic waste storages around the Danube, which could potentially affect 796000 square kilometers around the river. These include two refineries in Serbia, as well as a 20 hectares storage of red mud in Romania. The romanian reservoirs have already leaked in the past, and are presented as “one of the most dangerous” site by the WWF.

We won’t bother publishing here the amounts of money the government and MAL Zrt have been making available to make up for their irresponsibility. No amount can make up for the loss, let’s not allow them buy themselves a clean conscience.

Although Timfoldgyar Zrt is the biggest hungarian plant, it ranks 53rd on the scale of global production of alumina. As shown above, the production of red mud is vastly superior to the production of aluminium. With more than 24 millions tons of aluminium produced globally only in 2007-08, the figures bring us to 48 millions tons of red mud.
How many more of these dams are waiting to burst ? How many mountains do we destroy a year, how many ecosystems do we wipe out, how many plants, animals and people do we poison ? How many more catastrophes do we need to stop bauxite exploitation and heavy industry ?

For more on the consequences of toxic red mud, see the statements of australian farmers, victims of an experiment conducted hand in hand by the Australian government and Alcoa, there : http://www.savingiceland.org/2004/05/th … dioactive/

Most quotes are taken from Felix Padel and Samarendra Das’ essential book « Out of this Earth ». Many thanks to them.

By Samarendra Das & Felix Padel

Most critiques of the aluminium industry focus on refineries and smelters, which are among the worst culprits of global heating. But bauxite mining excavates a huge surface area, and has caused environmental devastation in Jamaica, Guinea, Australia, India and recently also in Vietnam.

Perhaps no bauxite deposits are located in more sensitive areas than those in India, whose most significant deposits occur as cappings on the biggest mountains in south Orissa and north Andhra Pradesh. Tribal people live in hundreds of communities around these mountains, which they regard as sacred entities for the fertility they promote. Appropriately, the base rock of these mountains was named ‘Khondalite’ after the region’s predominant tribe, the Konds. Early geologists noticed the perennial streams flowing from these mountains, and modern evidence suggests that their water regime is severely damaged when the bauxite cappings are mined.

Bauxite has probably never been sold for a price commensurate with the damage done by mining it. For Konds and other small-scale farmers in East India, the aluminium industry brings a drastic disturbance to their way of life and standard of living that amounts to cultural genocide. If mainstream society sees these bauxite cappings of India’s Eastern Ghats as resources standing ‘unutilised’, Adivasi culture understands them as sources of life, and sees mining them as a sacrilege based on ignorance.

Bauxite Cappings of the Eastern Ghats

India’s most extensive bauxite deposits lie on top of a series of mountains in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. The special geology of these mountains was noted by British geologists at the start of the 20th century. T.L.Walker named their base rock Khondalite in 1902, ‘in honour of those fine hill men the Khonds’, since the mountains based on this rock (‘garnet-sillimanite-graphite schist’) had almost exactly ‘the same boundaries as Khondistan’. In other words, the Kond tribe (also called Kuwinga, Kondho, Kondh and Khond), who now number about a million, inhabit the very region where India’s best Bauxite deposits occur.
Walker noted the abundance of fresh water coming down from these mountains, and the use which Konds made of it.

The frequent occurrence of perennial springs of clear cool water from beneath these laterite caps has been mentioned by both Ball and Smith. A very good example occurs south of Korlapat, where in March, in the dry season, I noticed a tiny rill which dashed down the precipitous face of one of these hills, to be utilised to irrigate a second rice crop in the fields of the valley below.  (1902 p.13)

This detail is significant. One of Orissa’s bauxite mountains, Panchpat Mali, has been mined since 1980. Konds living in villages below it describe how they used to rotate crops and grow two a year. Since bauxite mining started on the mountain, this is no longer possible.

Our water sources are drying, because of mining. We cannot to rotate our crops.  I, Sri Lasu Jani, speaking on behalf of my community, say we are struggling to survive. (Das 2005)

Bauxite cappings maintain fertility over a wide surrounding area. Aluminium’s capacity for bonding with other elements, that makes it so versatile in industry through an extensive range of alloys, is also evident in its natural form in the earth, where it is present everywhere in the soil, and forms 8% of the earth’s crust.

‘Without aluminium there would be no fertile earth’ (Pelikan 1973 p.151), due to Al’s bonding with H2O, which is fundamental to the soil’s capacity to retain moisture. Bauxite is a very special ore for its high aluminium content the alumina content of bauxite varies from 31-52%), and the regions where it is concentrated include some of the world’s largest forests, with the most biodiversity, including the Amazon rain-forest, Cape York in Australia, and areas in West Africa, and East India. India’s bauxite deposits are counted as the world’s 4th largest.

Since Nalco was formed (National Aluminium Company) in 1980, as an Orissa-integrated company based on mining Panchpat Mali, there have been repeated attempts by other mining companies to gain access to most of the other bauxite-capped mountains in this region. Every attempt so far (2010) has been thwarted by local campaigns protecting them.

‘Khondalite’ is a peculiarly appropriate name, since these mountains occupy a central place in Kond economy, culture and religion. Gopinath Mohanty, one of Orissa’s best known writers, records in his autobiography a conversation with an official undertaking the 1941 Census, to the standard question ‘What is your religion?’ The official found Konds’ reply of ‘Dongar’ (Mountains) is hilarious.¹ Yet this answer reflects Konds’ recognition of their mountains’ ecological importance, for maintaining the fertility of their fields. Each Khondalite mountain is a sacred entity to the tribal people, and often also to Hindus too, who live in its vicinity.

Of all these mountains, the best forested is Niyam Dongar. This is because the Niyamgiri range has its own tribe, the Dongria Konds, who live only within the range, and have maintained a strict taboo on cutting forest on the mountain tops – as opposed to the mountain sides, where they practise swidden cultivation at a steep gradient. The summits are held to be sacred to their principal deity Niyam Raja, ‘King of Law’, and necessary for preserving numerous perennial streams. Niyam Dongar is the largest in size and by far the best forested in the Niyamgiri range.

This is the mountain sought by Sterlite Industries, which first signed a Memorandum with the Orissa Government for mining it in 1997, and launched itself on the London Stock Exchange in December 2003, with a plan for building a new refinery and smelter in Orissa, based on this. Articles in the Financial Times in 2003-4 gave the mistaken impression that mining rights had already been secured. This was far from the case, and the majority of Dongria have repeatedly demonstrated their opposition.²

Current plans to turn Orissa’s poverty into wealth through mining its bauxite and other minerals have been brewing for a long time, and date from the colonial era. ‘Khondistan’ was invaded and conquered by the armies of the East India Company during the 1830s-60s (Campbell 1864, Padel 1995). Following surveys by British geologists from the 1860s-1900s, Cyril Fox, in publications from the 1920s, spelt out the blueprint for resource extraction that has surfaced as a new invasion by aluminium companies. He mentions most of the Khondalite mountains whose fate now hangs in the balance, highlighting Karlapat, one of the remotest, which has been sought recently by BHP Billiton among others. He also highlights the region’s hydro-potential – now realised in a series of massive dams and reservoirs built from the 1950s-1990s – and the co-ordination of new railways to meet at Vizag (Vishakhapatnam), now India’s biggest port (Fox 1932 p.136).

If Khondistan’s first invasion was legitimised in terms of Pax Britannica, the new one is justified by ‘giving the tribal people the fruits of development’. The first step in its realisation was an Eastern Ghats Bauxite Survey made by the Geological Survey of India in 1975-6 (Rao & Raman 1979) of the deposits in south Orissa and north Andhra Pradesh. This named the deposits India’s ‘East Coast’ deposits, not because these mountains are near the coast (which they are not), but because the rail-lines to Vizag facilitate transport to one of India’s biggest ports, used by Nalco for export since the 1980s, as well as for steel exports to Japan etc. The name also advertised the deposits’ accessibility – though in fact, many of the mountains are extremely remote, and the network of new railways and roads was still rudimentary. Accessibility was the key focus in a World Bank Investment Analysis of aluminium (Brown 1983), that rates the world’s deposits and plants according to this criterion.

The ‘East Coast’ survey was published in time for an international conference on Laterite/Bauxite at Trivandrum in 1979. Panchpat Mali, as the largest deposit, was made the source for Nalco, a new public sector aluminium company, vertically integrated in Orissa, which currently provides about 40% of the bauxite mined in India (‘Orissa’s Aluminium Complex’ – Rajagopalam et al 1981). A few years later, the UNDP (United Nation Development Programme) provided about half the funding for a research institute at Nagpur, the Jawaharlal Nehru Aluminium Research Development and Design Centre (JNARDDC). This was inspired in part by the Jamaican Bauxite Institute, set up through Norman Girvan’s seminal work on bauxite during the 1970s, as part of a move to try and ensure that Jamaica got a fair price for its bauxite. By contrast, research at the JNARDDC has been restricted to servicing the needs of mining companies, Questions asked in Parliament in 2002 highlighted the institute’s ‘languishing and pathetic conditions…due to lack of funds’.³

Dams and Bauxite Business

When Nalco’s aluminium complex was being set up in Orissa during the early 1980s, an article in the leading intellectual journal Economic & Political Weekly gave a range of economic arguments against it, in particular the low price for bauxite enforced by external pressures – in effect the aluminium cartel – plus excessive consumption of electricity and water, and excessive pollution. Another commented that to understand the effects of setting up Nalco, one must comprehend ‘the past, not very pleasant, history of the Indian aluminium industry’.⁴ We would add that is impossible to understand the effects of opening bauxite mines and building greenfield aluminium factories in Orissa and Andhra, unless one has an overall understanding of the aluminium industry and its effects worldwide, and in several countries in particular.

In India, a number of refineries and smelters were set up during the 1950s-70s as Joint Ventures with foreign firms. Each complex was built near a new dam/reservoir complex, to draw hydropower and water. Indian Aluminium (Indal) and Alcan (taking over from the British Aluminium Company), built refineries and smelters in Kerala, Maharashtra and Bihar, with a smelter at Hirakud in northwest Orissa, constructed between 1950 and 1956, and a principal customer for Hirakud hydropower. This dam’s foundation stone was laid by Nehru, and it displaced at least 150,000 people, causing immense hardship, with two government administrators reportedly killed during unrest.⁵

Three other refinery-smelter complexes were set up: by Malco (Madras Aluminium Company), with Italian help near the Mettur dam on Kaveri river, in Tamil Nadu; by Balco (Bharat Aluminium Company), with Russian and Hungarian help, at Korba, for which the Hasdeo Bango dam was built, in what is now Chhattisgarh; and by Hindalco (Hindustan Aluminium Company) at Renukoot, near the Rihand dam, which made one of India’s biggest reservoirs, in the south of Uttar Pradesh, on the border with Madhya Pradesh (now Chhattisgarh).

Hindalco represented a joint venture beginning in 1959 between G.D.Birla and  Henry Kaiser’s son Edgar – the largest US investment in India to that date. The Rihand dam was one in a succession of Kaiser-built dams in India. It was designed to supply Renukoot, and was financed through World Bank loans through the influence of George Woods, shortly before he became President of the Bank in 1962. An estimated 200,000 people, mainly Adivasis, were displaced by this dam, without proper warning or compensation, and the electricity price, guaranteed for 25 years, was a twentieth of the normal rate.⁶

Before this, Nalco’s refinery at Damanjodi and smelter at Angul were built in collaboration with Pechiney, and though these factories have often been cited as outstanding examples of rehabilitation and environmental management, closer inspection shows they are nothing of the kind. Bauxite mining on Panchpat Mali, now at six million tonnes per year, has seriously affected the mountain’s water-holding capacity (as mentioned above). About 400 people work the mine, using about 70 ‘dozer-rippers’ and trucks. The work-force is divided into unskilled, semi-skilled and skilled labourers. A notice at the mine entrance lists the daily wage for each—between 55 and 117 rupees (between $1 and $3). Like most bauxite mines, this is open-cast. The mined-out area on top of the mountain stretches for several km already. It is ‘re-landscaped’, which means putting the overburden and topsoil back and planting trees, but most of these are eucalyptus, notorious for desiccating the soil, and large areas are sterile pits. At the foot of the mountain, several Kond villages including Kapsiput and Gortili receive the full impact of noise and waste. Lasu Jani and other villagers walk up the mountain most days to labour in the mine, but the dust pollution from blasting, and the rapid deterioration of their land, which had been exceptionally fertile, coupled with the authorities’ refusal to deal with a host of extreme difficulties and unmet promises, has affected peoples’ lives profoundly. As Lasu says,:

We have been writing applications to the authorities three or four times. Still they don’t care. The Collector [senior administrator] invited a few elders of our community and then abused them by calling them goats, sheep, bloody fools and they were beaten by the security forces. We had to run away from there. The police told us before not to come with arms, otherwise it would have turned violent. Still they charged and fired gas on us. 70 of us had false cases made against us. 15 of us still have court cases pending against us for the last five years. They don’t listen or give us any job. (Das 2005)

A conveyor belt 14.6 kms long takes bauxite from Panchpat Mali to the Damanjodi refinery. It was completed in 1985, displacing at least 3,000 people from 19 villages.
Nalco had a book written about this displacement process and their ‘action programmes’, meant to ensure that

people who were happy peasants enjoying fruits of their labour amidst natural surroundings yesterday are not rendered homeless and unemployed today leading the life of destitutes because of their sacrifices in the national interest. (Muthayya 1984, pp. 1–8)

Yet this is exactly what has happened. In the words of a young tribal woman in Amlabadi, the main resettlement colony at Damanjodi:

I loved my village, it was very pleasant though remote…. We had cattle, and I used to look after them. We had goats and sheep, a kitchen garden. It was so nice when I was little. We used to cultivate vegetables on our own… They kept us here. An asbestos roof, and everything else is earthen, only a thin layer of cement. It is unsafe to live in… In Damanjodi people are living with hardship, some even have not enough to eat a meal. It was nice before, at least they had land, nobody was starving. Now, no land and no cattle. So no food… Unemployment and even educated unemployed are everywhere… We have lost everything…  Nalco is death for us. (Das 2005)

Jobs invariably promised to ‘Land Displaced Persons’ (LDPs) rarely if ever materialise in practice without a bribe. This was attested to us even for the lowest level of labouring and bauxite mining jobs. Statistics on poverty show that Koraput, where Damanjodi stands, is one of India’s most poverty-stricken districts (CSE 2008). The effects of pollution, as well as industrial disease among workers, are notorious, though virtually unrecorded.

Damanjodi refinery was built alongside the Upper Kolab dam, which provides it with electricity and water. Construction on this dam started in 1976, and continued until 1992, when it started to generate electricity. It was built by the Central Water and Power Commission (CWPC), which had also built Hirakud. Lobbying from the electricity sector and industrialists played a decisive role in the decision to build it, and Damanjodi refinery is among its main customers. The dammed water flooded an irregular-shaped area between hills that are now bare and badly eroded. At least 14,000 people from 60 or more villages were displaced between 1984 and 1990, as the water level rose. Estimates vary wildly, as with most dams, since the administration has not kept a proper count. Most ‘oustees’ now live in poverty-stricken rehabilitation villages, or had to resettle themselves, suffering severe neglect (Jojo 2002). To pay for this dam, 3,769 million yen (c. $20 million) was loaned by the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund of Japan.

During these same years, a new railway line was built from Koraput to Damanjodi, then on to Rayagada, in order to carry Damanjodi’s alumina to the smelter which Nalco was building at Angul in central Orissa, as well as for export via the port of Vishakhapatnam. This railway snakes high through Orissa’s bauxite mountains, with stations at convenient places for future mines and factories. The line cost an estimated .$400 million, of which $80m (80 crore rupees) came as a loan from the Saudi Fund for Development. These investments are signs of long-term Japanese and Middle Eastern interest in Orissa’s bauxite.

Building the smelter at Angul involved a history of intimidation and displacement that has barely been told, and involved a desperate act of resistance, when a local man stabbed to death the Additional District Magistrate Gopabandhu Pattnaik, as he was addressing a crowd on 23rd December 1987.⁷ Officially, the smelter displaced 4,000 families from 40 villages. Like Damanjodi refinery, it has its own coal-fired power station, but also draws power and water from a dam, in this case Rengali, which displaced at least 224 villages, and was almost certainly built to supply the smelter. Agitation against this dam between 1972 and 1978 faced ruthless suppression by police. The history of pollution from this smelter includes major spills of toxic waste from ash-ponds during the cyclone in 1999 and on 31st December 2000, when a containing wall broke, damaging land and buildings over 20 villages and causing many deaths. National TV news on 13th September 2004 reported fluoride contamination over 500 acres of fields, leaving the crop unfit for consumption, and interviewed villagers, who complained they could not get medication for their bone disease because Nalco officially denies this exists. Inhabitants of nearby villages, as well as their few remaining cattle, show severe signs of skeletal fluoridosis from the smelter. The Nandira and Brahmani rivers near the smelter, into which smelter effluents run, are seriously polluted, and all fish are said to have died in them for a stretch of at least 30 km. A report from the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Wastes, whose team visited Nalco’s smelter in June 2006, lists numerous violations of pollution levels and confirms that fluoride and other emissions into air and water remain unacceptably high, while toxic Spent Pot Lining (SPL, classed as a hazardous waste) was not being properly disposed of.⁸

In mid-2002 there was an outcry in Orissa at the proposed privatisation of Nalco – one of India’s most profitable companies, ‘pride of Orissa’as well as of the public sector. Nalco’s huge profits stem from the quality of Orissa bauxite, whose low silica content allows it to be refined at a lower temperature than most.

Gandhamardan was the next mountain marked out for bauxite mining – probably the best forested bauxite-capped mountain after Niyam Dongar. It was saved by a people’s movement in 1984-7, that united tribals, dalits, Hindu devotees and nationwide activists, and managed to prevent the project even after Balco had constructed a 9 km road up the mountain as well as a new colony for hundreds of officers and workers, now a ruin. Among Dalit women leaders, Jambubati Bijira from Dungripalli village was prominent, encouraged by her husband, who worked for Balco, and got fired. When most of the men had been arrested, she and other women laid their babies on the road in front of mining vehicles, shouting to run them over, since they would have no future if the mountain was mined. The Ministry of Environment and Forests eventually sided with the protestors, after a high level enquiry. The US company Continental Resources has retained a provisional mining lease, and there have been reports of Nalco and Vedanta interest, while plans for a Lower Suktel dam nearby are linked to a planned refinery to process Gandhamardan’s bauxite. Villages marked for displacement by this dam have already faced severe police repression in the form of lathi charges and intense pressure to sign away their land.⁹

Five years after the saving of Gandhamardan, a new alumina project in the Kashipur region of Orissa emerged, facing intense opposition, and inaugurating an era of conflict over bauxite and alumina that has continued ever since. The Utkal project started out as a joint venture between Tata, Norsk Hydro and Indal. Alcan was a prime mover, but joined a little later, manoeuvring a takeover of its subsidiary Indal by Hindalco in 1998. After seven years of protests against the proposed invasion and takeover of of tribal and dalit land and villages, police repression culminated in police opening fire on a group of tribal protestors at Maikanch village in December 2000, killing two men and a boy. Hydro withdrew, after Tata had already withdrawn. This incident was alluded to by India’s President in his Republic Day speech on 25th January 2001:

The mining that is taking place in the forest areas is threatening the livelihood and survival of many tribes… Let it not be said by future generations that the Indian Republic has been built on the destruction of the green earth and the innocent tribals who have been living there for centuries.

An enquiry into this firing delayed the project another three years, but after police repression started again in 2005, Alcan withdrew in April 2007, under pressure from Canadian campaigners over numerous violations of law and human rights, just before it was taken over by Rio Tinto in July-October.¹⁰

Nevertheless, the refinery is being built on a site cleared of several tribal and dalit villages, in an atmosphere of repeated demonstrations and sustained opposition. The Utkal project is based on mining Bapla Mali, which surrounding tribal people are determined to prevent. There is outrage too at the refinery’s plan to take water from Baro and Sano Nadis (Big and Little rivers). These flow towards the Upper Indravati reservoir, built with aluminium interests in mind using World Bank loans in 1989-1997, at the cost of many workers killed in a terrible accident on 28th July 1991, over 40,000 villagers displaced, repression of a movement against the Indravati dams, and vast deforestation. The river’s water was channelled north instead of south, and since 2006 has been piped to supply Vedanta’s Lanjigarh refinery. The villagers displaced by this dam are among the most neglected in Orissa, witnessing a long line of broken promises. ‘If I starve, you also bear responsibility’, as a villager told a World Bank consultant.¹¹

Hindalco and its sister company Aditya Aluminium (both controlled by the same Birla dynasty who built Rihand dam) are also negotiating to open new mines on other mountains: Kodinga Mali – where another refinery is planned – and Mali Parbat, where intense opposition has come under escalating repression, with the area invaded by several thousand armed police targeting Maoist rebels. Here an organisation called Chasi Mulya Adivasi Sangho (Cultivating Labour Tribal Society) forcefully took back tribal land illegally taken over by traders, at the same time as organising resistance against mining companies. Maoist support was fairly open, so when CMAS men and women protested outside Narayanpatna police station on 20th November 2009 against atrocities being committed by armed police in tribal villages, police marksmen shot dead two of its leaders, and these atrocities intensified, with over 100 leaders arrested.¹²

The first Birla factory in Orissa was Orient Paper Mill (1940), whose pollution of the Ib river was the subject of a letter to Birla’s friend Gandhi (1946). This became in effect Orissa’s first Public Interest Litigation (1950). The judgement finally went against Birla in Orissa’s High Court. This was then negated by a River Pollution Act passed by the Orissa Assembly (1953), that took away Courts’ jurisdiction on matters of river pollution.¹³ Meanwhile, Mystery of Birla House (Burman 1950) is a tax commissioner’s exposure of the Orient Paper Mill’s history tax avoidance. There is an irony of history here: G.D.Birla, Aditya’s grandfather, was a staunch friend of Gandhi, and Gandhi’s assassination took place in the grounds of Birla house. Yet this Birla factory could be said to have set a glossed-over trend of corruption and pollution that culminates in recent events surrounding Hindalco’s invasion of Adivasi lands in the Kashipur and Koraput region, orchestrated under the aegis of G.D.’s grandson Aditya.

While the Utkal project was stalled, another company called Sterlite made a move to build an alumina refinery at Lanjigarh with a view to mining Niyam Dongar, and registered on the London Stock Exchange in December 2003 as Vedanta Resources, after promotion by J.P.Morgan and many other banks. Sterlite had already bought controlling shares of Malco and Balco, the latter a highly controversial privatisation of a public sector company with many irregularities (Bidwai 2001). Intense opposition to the Lanjigarh refinery has met with vicious repression.¹⁴ In Septmember 2005, the Central Empowered Committee, advisory body on forests to India’s Supreme Court, released a long report detailing numerous violations in the project. This report recommends strongly against the refinery and mine: the refinery should never have been approved, because it was sited right on the banks of the Bansadhara river at the point where it forms below Niyam Dongar, and because application for the refinery was delinked from the mine, which would involve felling a huge area of primary reserved forest on top of the mountain (CEC 2005). The J.P.Morgan report detailed large numbers of deaths on roads around the Malco and Balco projects, and pollution from the factories – a pattern that has been repeated with interest at Lanjigarh. It mentions Niyamgiri, but concentrating on economic factors, failed to notice the mountain’s superb forest cover, or the Dongria who have preserved this, so failed to foresee today’s intense opposition.¹⁵

The CEC’s recommendations were sidelined, partly by commissioning more reports, from the Wildlife Institute of India – which concluded, until ‘leaned on’, that the mine would cause great harm to the mountain’s water regime and wildlife – and the Central Mine Planning & Design Institute, which argued against this that during mining micro-cracks would form on the side of the mountain that would ‘facilitate run-off’ and help ‘recharge ground water’  (CMPDI August 2006 pp.18-20) – a monstrous distortion of science: during the monsoon, rain water  runs straight off the mountain, but the water-holding capacity of the mountain during summer months is ruined, as with Panchpat Mali.

By this stage, the Niyamgiri case was being heard in a succession of hearings at the Supreme Court. In a session on 6th September 2007, the Judges called for a report from the Ministry of Environment and Forests that was submitted on 5th October by India’s Attorney General about the situation of bauxite mining leases in Koraput and Kalahandi districts. This report is full of inaccuracies, and outlines a selection of ten mountains with a combined total of 54 memoranda of understanding by various companies, showing the extent of bauxite mines being planned. The case also sidelined the Konds, who have been vocal in their opposition to mining, not least in a public hearing held in Belamba village on 28th April 2008 for a sixfold expansion of the refinery, from the 1 million tonnes per year originally applied for to 6mtpy. Nearly everyone present spoke strongly against the refinery, which has already heavily polluted the Bansadhara river and caused enormous suffering for villagers displaced as well as those near the refinery; yet the hearing was reported in a way that implied people gave their consent!¹⁶ The company’s attempt to mine Niyam Dongar received a setback when the new Environment Minsiter Jairam Ramesh drew attention to extensive tree-felling without permission on the basis of highly questionable ‘provisional clearance’.¹⁷

The authors witnessed three sessions of the Supreme Court case, where many things amazed us. Among the most extraordinary were the argument made by pro-Vedanta lawyers about how the project would alleviate the region’s poverty, giving everyone in Kalahandi ‘two square meals a day’, and sidelining Dongria Konds from the case, despite this tribe’s role in preserving forest on the mountain summit at 4,000 feet. Also, the idea that the forest, wildlife and impact on local people can be compensated by making the company pay large sums for reforestation, a wildlife management plan, and tribal development. The judges admitted that a recent report from the Norwegian Pension fund had blacklisted Vedanta, but called on Sterlite to set up a Special Purpose Vehicle with the Orissa Mining Corporation and Orissa Government, when the report actually mentions Sterlite alongside Vedanta for numerous violations of the law at numerous sites in India and other countries.¹⁸

While the Vedanta drama has unfolded from 2003 to2010, several other major bauxite projects are in various stages: Alcoa, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have mentioned an interest several times, Larsen & Toubro has a joint venture with Dubal (Dubai Aluminium) for mining Kuturu Mali and Siji Mali with a refinery near Kalyansingpur, IMFA has designs on Sasubohu Mali, Jindal has designs on mountains in south Orissa and north Andhra Pradesh (with a refinery at S,Kota in Andhra), where RAK (Ras Al-Khaimah, another Dubai-based company) also has plans for mining the Jerrela range.

Meanwhile, Vedanta’s new smelter in north Orissa has started production, while Hindalco/Aditya Aluminium has advanced plans for a new smelter nearby. Both these draw from the Hirakud reservoir, which has been refurbished with aid from the DFID. 30,000 farmers held demonstrations there in November 2007 against the diversion of water from Hirakud to these new smelters. After police lathi-charged the crowds, Orissa’s Chief Minister invited the movement’s leaders to a meeting, announcing that some of Hirakud’s water would go to farmers, though if all the deals for supplying aluminium and steel plants go through, evidence suggests that water reaching farmers along the (highly inefficient system of) canals is likely to diminish still further.²⁰

Invasion and Resistance: the threat of Cultural Genocide

Analysing the social structure of the aluminium or steel industry, the clash of ideologies emerges as a key fault line. The tribal viewpoint is powerfully expressed by Bhagaban Majhi, a leader of the Kashipur movement against Utkal:

Agya, unnoti boile kono? (Sir, what do you mean by development?) Is it development to displace people? The people, for whom development is meant, should reap benefits. After them, the succeeding generations should reap benefits. That is development. It should not be merely to cater to the greed of a few officials. To destroy the millions of years old mountains is not development. (Das 2005)

Resistance became focused through the Gandhamardan movement, and intensified with the Kashipur movement that stalled Utkal for more than ten years. The Maikanch police firing, which killed three tribal people in December 2000, showed the depth of polarisation. All the bauxite mountains are protected by local tribal and non-tribal villagers, who see them sacred entities for the life they give through their perennial streams.

It seems to be hard for mining executives, and many government officials, to comprehend the strength of resistance to these projects, and people’s attachment to their mountains. The mainstream belief, that the aluminium projects will bring development and wealth to a region long sunk in poverty, looks on those resisting these projects as ‘anti-development’, driven by ignorance of the benefits of industry, and instigated by outsiders. Yet the mainstream view of ‘educated people’ often seems ignorant of the history of aluminium, briefly summarised in this paper, and extremely ignorant about the tribal villagers, their culture and values.

What is actually happening over large areas of East India is a process of cultural genocide, carried out by people who do not understand what they are destroying. Driving them is a 200 year old ideology that powered forced industrialisation from Western Europe to the USA to the USSR and China. In India, industrialisation has displaced an estimated 60 million villagers within the last 60 years, more than 2 million in Orissa alone, of whom a majority are Adivasis and Dalits.20  Very few have been properly compensated, let alone improved their standard of living, especially since most lost their livelihood as cultivators, and therefore their food security. This is why most of these people consider these projects have been the opposite of development.

This reality contrasts starkly with companies’ rhetoric of ‘generous R & R packages’, ‘Sustainable Development’ and ‘CSR’, in the present rush to make deals for mineral resources and construction projects. Whatever wealth is generated for the nation as a whole, or for its business elite, the people displaced face a worse poverty than anything they knew before: ‘projects meant to reduce poverty are the ones adding to the numbers of the poor.’ ²¹

According to World Bank and other international standards on involuntary resettlement, if a project really constitutes ‘development’, then ‘the first rule is that all parties to the project should be better off.’ ²² In practice however, it is clear to everyone, and easy to demonstrate, that most of India’s 60 million displaced people are not better off at all.

There is a strong tendency among those implementing displacing projects to simply deny these risks that their projects are bound to make most oustees poorer.²³ When forced to admit the hardship which displacement causes, they tend to justify it in terms of ‘sacrifice’ – a sacrifice of the few for the many, or ‘for the national interest’. This usage has western roots: indigenous areas affected by uranium mining in the US are known as ‘National Sacrifice Areas’ – to which Russell Means, a leading American Indian activist of the Lakota tribe replied ‘We are fed up with being called a national sacrifice people!’ ²⁴

When so many people’s lives have been ruined, how can so many more displacements be planned ‘in the name of development’? ²⁵ As Bhagaban puts this:

We have sought for an explanation from the Government about the people who have already been displaced in the name of development. How many have been properly rehabilitated? You have not provided them with jobs; you have not rehabilitated them at all. How can you again displace more people? Where will you relocate them and what jobs will you give them? You tell us first. The government has failed to answer our questions. Our fundamental question is: how can we survive if our lands are taken away from us? We are tribal farmers. We are Earthworms (Matiro poko). Like fishes that die when taken out of water, a cultivator dies when his land is taken away from him. So we won’t leave our land. We want permanent development. Provide us with irrigation to our lands. Give us hospitals. Give us medicines. Give us Schools and teachers. Provide us with lands and forests. The forests we want. We don’t need the company…. But the government is not listening to us. (Das 2005)

The whole issue of displacement has been routinely neglected in development projects. While Environment Impact Assessments have often been rudimentary, their shortcomings have at least been frequently attacked by campaigners and in the courts. Social Impact Assessments are given far less importance still, and administration of R & R is normally relegated to highly unsuited personnel, in a low-status Govt post, when their task requires the utmost sensitivity.²⁶ Officials’ usual response to the inevitable complex difficulties that arise, since almost every displaced family faces huge trauma and injustice, is to deny the problems. Much energy goes into masking painful realities and abuses of power – a deliberate manipulation of the economic and cultural risks inherent in displacement.²⁷

Economic risks are evident wherever people have been resettled. Even World Bank studies admit that ‘income restoration’ remains elusive: the hard fact is that most oustees’ standard of living declines drastically.²⁸ As for cultural risks, tribal culture exists through relationships ordered in a carefully maintained social structure, which traditional anthropology analyses in terms of distinct domains, each of which is torn apart by displacement:-

*    The Economic System, along with the whole tradition of cultivation is completely destroyed with people’s removal from their land, and the termination of their existence as farmers.
*    The Kinship System is fractured by displacement from villages, where social relations follow the pattern of a village’s traditional layout, and spatial distance from kin in neighbouring villages. In every area where a project causes displacement, there is a split in long-standing relationships, and tension between those who accept compensation and move, and those who remain opposed.
*    The religious system is undermined by removal of sacred village sites, as well as the mining of venerated mountains. As a woman from Kinari village said to us days after being moved to Vedantanagar colony to make way for the Lanjigarh refinery, after seeing bulldozers flatten her village and its central earth shrine, “Even our gods are destroyed.” Losing her land means she can never grow her own food again, so the whole system of values attached to the customary way people have supported themselves is undermined.
*    The material culture, through which people make most of what they need, is destroyed as soon as the houses people built from local earth and wood are knocked down and replaced with a concrete house.
*    Above all the power structure is transformed. From being in control of their area and its resources, people find themselves at the bottom of extremely hierarchical structures of power and authority. Traditional tribal society is remarkably egalitarian, and women have a higher status than in much of mainstream society, which they lose when new, corporate forms of domination invade their area. In many ways women have even more to lose than men, which is why they are often at the forefront of campaigns against displacing projects.

In other words, tribal people’s economic and political systems are fundamental to their culture, and when dispossessed of their land these systems are effectively destroyed. This is why adivasis often say they would rather die than leave their land. Losing their land brings the death of all they value, including the sacredness of nature, respect for elders’ knowledge, ritual contact with the ancestors, growing their own food on family land and making their own houses and tools, exchanging food with neighbours with an egalitarian spirit. These things are swept away by corporate values, which emphasize money and financial power. ‘We’re being flooded out with money’ is how adivasi elders describe the process.

Actual Genocide involves physical extermination – all too evident in the civil war situation in neighbouring south Chhattisgarh, where over 600 tribal villages have been burnt with countless atrocities by Salwa Judum, in areas where steel companies require huge tracts of land. In south and west Orissa, direct killings, e.g. by police in the Maikanch and Narayanpatna incidents, may be relatively few. But they symbolize a psychic death for Adivasis that non-tribal people rarely understand. Underlying this Cultural Genocide is the invaders’ total lack of respect for tribal people’s traditions and connection with the land. Mainstream culture, in India as in the West, ceased a long time ago to be rooted in the soil: most elite and middle class families (as well as many working class ones) tend to move around a lot, buying and selling distant properties over the generations rather than staying put in one place. As land prices shoot up, collective attachment to the land a village has worked over successive generations has no value in newcomers’ eyes, which focus only on profits the land can generate – a completely novel attitude to land for tribal people.

Few outsiders listen to what Adivasis actually say – even when claiming to support them. When they are interviewed on TV, the intimidating superiority assumed by interviewers brings out only stereotypes. The authors have witnessed countless Adivasis transported to meetings around India as spokespeople or symbols of resistance, being completely sidelined in the road shows, rarely even asked to give their views, simply sitting in dignified silence in the meetings, and returning to their villages sad at the confusion among people who say they want to help them. Elders in a Kond village once asked us: ‘Where are the saints in your society? We are all saints here.’ This is a culture that emphasizes sharing, with low but equal consumption and minimal wastage.

Belief in markets was as strong in the 1830s as it is in the 2000s, and shows in the first colonial writings on the Konds. In 1836 the Honourable G. E. Russell, senior civil servant of the East India Company in charge of the first stage of British conquest, advocated setting up markets for the Konds on the grounds that

giving them new tastes and new wants will, in time, afford us the best hold we can have on their fidelity as subjects, by rendering them dependent upon us for what will, in time, become necessities of life.

As his superior put it, Lord Elphinstone, Lieutenant-Governor of the Madras Government: ‘with the extension of this commerce their wants will increase.’ ²⁹
Spreading consumer values is at the heart of the new market-driven invasion of Kond land by mining companies. A terse Kond counter-view comes in an improvised song recorded from Salo Majhi, a blind singer in Kucheipadar, the village at the forefront of the Kashipur movement.

‘They are flooding us with money
They are coming to take our Mountain…
The lazy people are invading…’ (Das 2005).

The ideology opposing the invasion is one of standing firm, and resisting displacement. It could be called an ideology of sustainability, in contrast to the ideology of material development through mining and industrialisation. It is this ideology of sustainability that has checked a succession of projects in East India. In West Bengal, Tata’s nano-car factory and Indonesia’s chemical giant Salim Industries have been stopped in their tracks; while in Orissa the anti-Posco and Kalinganagar movements are two out of many opposing iron-ore mining and mega-steel projects. In the words of Kishen Pattnayak,

Orissa has enormous mineral reserves. This is considered to be the biggest asset to increase the prosperity of Orissa. This is really a myth. Mining areas of Orissa have never been known for being rich or developed. Now the condition is becoming much worse……A few national/multi-national companies and their contractors and those ministers and officials helping these companies in unlawful, unethical manner become the owners of huge property. Orissa as a state is not going to get any benefit from this.³⁰

The Real Price of Bauxite

Aluminium executives admit that getting bauxite at a cheap price is the starting point of value creation for their companies.³¹ The need for subsidies on electricity and other materials for producing aluminium has often been stressed (e.g. Graham 1982, Gitlitz 1993, Switkes 2005). Less so with the price of bauxite. Basically, if this cannot be kept low, the price of aluminium will rise.

The industry in India defines itself by increasing consumption. A policy shift took place in India from 1990/1991, just after the Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices recommended keeping a check on aluminium consumption in India due to the high costs of electricity and environmental impacts (BICP 1988). A few years later, executives at INCAL conferences of the Aluminium Association of India (1998 and 2003), lamented the ‘dismally low level’ of consumption in India, which averaged 0.65 kg per capita per year, and aimed to increase output as fast as possible, towards the average of 25 kg consumption in ‘developed’ countries. A proliferation of aluminium foils and tetrapaks, use in construction, in cars and trucks, and in the arms industry, have recently boosted the consumption of aluminium in India, though the emphasis in new projects is on export, e.g in the huge Utkal/Hindalco and Vedanta/Sterlite factories going up in Orissa now. Nalco set the trend, starting to export over 50% of its output around the year 2000.

Orissa’s new refineries and smelters make no economic sense if these companies cannot obtain local bauxite cheaply. Since starting operation in 2007, Vedanta’s refinery in Lanjigarh has had to bring bauxite from Chhattisgarh and even Australia, and has claimed to be losing $100,000 a day due to the delay in getting clearance to mine Niyam Dongar (Times of India 2 March 2009).

There is no set price, let alone free market, for bauxite. Different companies get it for wildly different prices, and how much royalty and other taxes they pay varies greatly around the world. Nalco calculated its raising cost of bauxite in 2007 as 236/- rupees per tonne, of which 64/- is royalty and 172/- extracting cost. |Rs.236/- is  about $6, less than half the world’s average. Compared with the price of bauxite, the price of commercial information about bauxite is costly indeed. A copy of CRU’s Analysis Report: Bauxite mining costs (2007) costs £9,950.

If a proper Cost Benefit Analysis was done of any bauxite project, conventional estimates of revenue and benefits in triggering employment and other industries need setting against ‘externalities’: if subsidies on electricity, water, infrastructure, transport etc were included in costs, the price of aluminium would have to rise exponentially. Costs of dams and coal mines would have to be included.

The Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy in Germany, which the authors visited in July 2006, calculates the material intensity of producing one tonne of aluminium at 85.38 tons of abiotic material (i.e. overburden, bauxite waste etc), 9.78 tonnes of air (i.e. basically GHG emissions), and a staggering 1,378.6 tonnes of water consumed (Ritthoff et al 2002 p.2002).

The externality cost of carbon emissions is calculated at $85 per ton by the Stern report, while producing a ton of aluminium is estimated as emitting between 5.6 and 20.6 tons of CO2, depending on whether a smelter uses coal or hydro-power (most in Orissa use both), which would give an externality cost of over $1,000 per ton of aluminium for these two factors alone.21 Also to be included in this calculation are SO2 and many other factory emissions, methane and other GHGs from reservoirs, and emissions from coal mining and captive power plants. What this does not include, and would be impossible to assess financially, is the effect of bauxite mining on mountains’ ecology and water regime, the loss of forests and their biodiversity, and the impacts on people whose environment is being rapidly impoverished to feed an escalating demand for aluminium consumption.

Yet in many ways, it is these non-economic costs that are the highest. The judgement in the Indian Supreme Court case, delivered on 8th August 2008, emphasised the idea of ‘striking a balance’ between environmental and economic needs through the concept of ‘sustainable development’. In particular, the Judges drew on the concept of ‘green accounting’, by which the Net Present Value (NPV) of forests can be calculated to determine compensation. This project was undertaken by a team from the Green Indian States Trust and TERI, financed in particular by Deutsche Bank (Gundimeda, Sukhdev et al 2005, 2006). Implementing the ‘polluter pays’ principle has introduced a new level of threat to India’s environment, by reducing natural resources to an artificial monetary value – often a gross underestimate – in effect subverting the principle into a licence to pollute. The judgement laid out a Rehabilitation Package, by which Vedanta, supplied from the mine by a Special Purpose Vehicle run by the Orissa Mining Corporation, Sterlite Industries (Vedanta’s subsidiary), and the Orissa Govt, would have to pay the forests’ NPV + ‘5% of profits before tax and interest from Lanjigarh project or rupees 10 crore whichever is higher’.  Local reports showed that the first traffic to make much use of the new roads into Niyamgiri was the timber mafia. If Niyamgiri’s forests are being felled like this, what trust can be placed in authorities’ reforestation plans?

Net Present Value of forest or biodiversity becomes a formula that blurs the elementary distinction between primary forest and plantations. Lado Majhi, a Dongria of Lakhpadar village, put this point most powerfully at the Belamba Public Hearing on 25.4.09, where he was the first to speak:

Niyamgiri is our Mother. Our life depends on the mountain. Can you pay five lakhs for each tree? Our Sarkar [Govt] should not sell out to a foreign company. Even if everyone else accepts the project, we won’t allow mining on Niyamgiri.³²

In other words, biodiversity – especially in a forest on top of a mountain, protected as inviolate by local people – cannot be costed or compensated in financial terms. The GIST-Deutsche Bank enterprise of working out the NPV of forests becomes a pretext for selling them off. The Niyamgiri case makes this clear – not least because Deutsche Bank has been a prominent promoter of investment in Vedanta.

The basic waste of bauxite is red mud. In March 2008, Vedanta joined an international Red Mud Project, whose website reveals that despite use of red mud in bricks being banned in Australia after tests by the Health Department in 1983 found that radiation levels were unacceptably high, vast quantities are used to make bricks in China, while in India, 2.5 million tons of red mud were used for cement in 1998-9 alone.³³ We have seen, and photographed, red mud lakes leaching into streams at Muri refinery (Jharkhand) and at Korba (Chhattisgarh). Red Mud contamination is not only from caustic soda, but from at least 14 rare earths and 22 radio-active elements, all of which are present in bauxite as destabilised minerals, including uranium.

At least the Orissa State Pollution Control Board has pointed out Vedanta’s violations at Lanjigarh, which figured in the Norway government report blacklisting Sterlite/Vedanta (Council on Ethics, 2007). Residents of Chatrapura and other villagers have attested that the refinery regularly discharges highly toxic chemicals into the river, writing a letter to the OSPCB about this on 9.9.08. Many people and animals have developed body sores after bathing in the river, and at least two people have died, covered in sores. Meanwhile, residents of Bondhaguda and other villages close to the refinery and approach road are suffering from lung diseases. Yet, once again, in June 2009, Vedanta won a Golden Peacock award for excellence in its environmental record! ³⁴

In effect, with the closing of many refineries and smelters in ‘developed’ countries, aluminium production is being ‘outsourced’ to ‘developing’ countries such as India, where environmental and human rights legislation is circumvented on a regular basis. In March 1996, for example, R.C. Das, Chairman of the Orissa State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB), wrote a report recommending against any further bauxite mines, refineries or smelters in the state, having studied in detail the excessive pollution from existing plants (a refinery and two smelters), and knowing by experience the ease with which the companies involved avoid correcting the situation (Das 1996). For this, he was dismissed by the Orissa Government. The Global Reporting Initiative, used by Vedanta and promoted by the International Aluminium  Institute and other bodies, was set up to avoid proper regulation, and facilitates a deception of figures.³⁵ For example, deaths in factories and on roads around them, is grossly under-reported, due to the system of sub-contracting. Vedanta’s annual reports have Sustainable Development reports attached, and each of the ‘big four’ London-based accountancy firms in turn have ‘verified’ these, based on the most superficial analysis.

The history of other countries’ experience of bauxite-based industrialisation is vital to understand forthcoming impacts in Eastern India. The exploitation at the heart of aluminium economics starts from the aluminium companies getting bauxite cheap. If the true costs of mining bauxite were taken into account, India’s bauxite would have to be sold for far more than it is now.

Jamaica’s experience is relevant here. Michael Manley’s bauxite levy in 1974 increased the price of Bauxite immediately by about $10, from $8 to $19.94. But this feat has never been repeated, and savage reprisals from the US exemplify the influence that keeps the price of bauxite low, in India and worldwide. Jamaica also exemplifies the heavy environmental and social costs of bauxite mines. Recognition of these costs is behind a campaign to save Jamaica’s Cockpit Mountains from bauxite mining – a movement analogous to the movements in India.³⁶

Brazil’s wealth in bauxite, water, forest, coal and iron is similar to Orissa’s, though on a vaster scale. The way Japanese companies and banks sold the Tucurui dam in a scheme that impoverished the state’s electricity company has parallels with the privatisation of Orissa’s electricity companies and their complex debt-relationship with aluminium companies, with villages around e.g. the Indravati reservoir lacking the electricity they were promised.³⁷ New dams and smelters in Iceland and Trinidad have many parallels with Orissa, including circumvention of laws protecting the environment, and harsh repression of community movements against these projects.³⁸

Of all the world’s bauxite deposits, those in India probably have the greatest population density around them – a largely tribal/indigenous population, whose spiritual bond with their mountains is simultaneously economic, since their livelihood and cultural survival depends upon them. What this means is that the consequences of mining bauxite in Orissa and Andhra are likely to involve more upheaval than anywhere else where bauxite has been mined.

Vietnam’s tribal highlanders face a similar and simultaneous threat as those in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. The country claims to have 8 billion tons of bauxite (even more than India), lying on mountains in the Central Highlands, where Chalco and other companies are currently trying to set up mines, despite protests by a wide range of leading citizens, who point out the threat to the Hill Tribes and to the long-term health of the country’s environment and economy, including tea and coffee plantations, lakes and rivers.³⁹

Another incalculable cost is the escalating resource war. Maoists attacked Nalco’s Panchpat Mali mine on 12th April 2009. They numbered about 100 and killed ten security staff hostage, losing four themselves, after which production dropped from 14,000 tonnes per day to 9,000, and security has increased.⁴⁰ We have seen how Hindalco’s move towards mining Mali Parbat has been opposed by the tribal organisation CMAS, which was supported by Maoists, and has therefore been targeted by an incursion of at least 4,000 armed police, and numerous arrests after the police firing that killed two members in November 2009. The situation in Dantewara district of Chhattisgarh, where Tata and Essar are trying to set up steel plants based on new iron ore mines, is far worse, with an estimated 300,000 tribal refugees from over 600 villages burnt by the pro-mining tribal militia, Salwa Judum, armed by the police to fight against Maoists. There have been several well-reported atrocities by Maoists, as against hundreds of unreported atrocities by Salwa Judum and the security forces. ‘Peace Committees’ are similar militias springing up in Orissa on the Salwa Judum model.⁴¹

The ‘Operation Green Hunt’ war currently escalating across Eastern-Central India against the Maoist insurgency has many features of a resource war, since the region’s concentration of tribal people, its forests and minerals, and its Maoist strongholds are largely coterminous. The violence in Kandhamal district, when about 50,000 Christians were driven from their homes, also has a hidden connection with bauxite deposits on mountains in the south of the district known as the Ushabali plateau: this was announced in July 2008, just six weeks before the Swami Saraswati’s murder by Maoists. In the aftermath of this violence, there have been calls to build a railway to the district, whose real purpose is clearly to facilitate extraction of this bauxite.⁴² Increasingly, non-violent movements against factories and  displacement are being analysed as Maoist-instigated, even when they are not.⁴³

And how does one calculate the cost of corruption? During 2009-2010 Orissa was rocked by mining scams, mostly related to iron ore mines in the north, but bribes seem to be a regular feature of mining deals, and the effects of corruption are visible at every levels around a project.⁴⁴

The metal factories going up in Orissa now are raising India’s GHG emissions exponentially. When Indian or Chinese business or government representatives argue that as ‘developing countries’ they have a right to increase their carbon emissions, this suits business interests in London and other capitals. The picture painted in Anderson’s 1951 essay still holds: the environmental costs are too high, and it makes sense for the most powerful countries to outsource most aluminium production. But side by side with this imperative is the strategic need for aluminium. As Anderson says, no war can be waged or won without consuming and destroying vast quantities. The metal has had a central place in the military-industrial complex since the First and Second World Wars (Padel & Das 2006).

Aluminium’s claims to be a ‘green metal’ do not add up (Mathias 2003). Bauxite reclamation, where we have seen it in Orissa and Chhattisgarh, consists of little more than eucalyptus or jatropha plantations. For tribal people in villagers near Lanjigarh, the heating of the climate and decline in rainfall from the new refinery and its captive coal-fired power plant is something obvious. Knowledge, here, is a continuum still rooted in the earth – a different basis of knowledge, that the modern mind struggles to comprehend (Padel 1998). The importance of intact mountains and forests for the earth’s climate is something tribal people ‘know’ because they know their environment thanks to uncounted generations of ancestors who lived and worked in this landscape.

Notes
1.Gopinath Mohanty: Sroto Swati 2000 (his autobiography, in Oriya) Part III p.324.
2.FT 5 November 2003, and 3 November 2004, Samantara 2007, and The real face of Vedanta documentary  www.youtube.com).
3.Parliament of India: Rajya Sabha nos. 66 and 80 (March and December 2002). The UNDP gave Rs 17 crore and the GoI, 19 crore. Among JNARDDC’s first functions was an international meeting on bauxite (Bauxmet) in 1998, and studies of bauxite from several mountains in Orissa.
4.Articles in Economic and Political Weekly:  Rajagopalam et al 1981, Subramanian 1982. This section of our paper summarises arguments presented in our forthcoming book: Out of this Earth: East India Adivasis and the Aluminium Cartel (2010)
5.Viegas (1992) summarises the outline of this dam’s history – though not its connection with the smelter. The violence is referred to in an article ‘Sarkar Javaab Diantu’ (‘Government, explain’) in Dharitri newspaper by B. Krishna Dhalo, 23 October 2007.
6.Madhu Kudaisya (2003), pp. 334–35; Gita Piramal 1996.
7.Mohanty et al 2004, p. 33, in an article by Golak Bihari Nath. Samarendra visited this man’s family in 2005, shortly before he was due for release.
8.This SC Monitoring Committee report is item 34 in Environment Protection Group Orissa’s website  freewebs.com).  Newspaper reports on the toxic spill of 31.12.2000 in Indian Express and Asian Age, 1–11 January 2001.
9.Bahuguna 1986; Onlooker, 1–15 July 1986: ‘Adivasis up in Arms to Save Nature’; PUDR 1986; and Meena Menon in The Hindu Survey of the Environment (2001), p. 148. On Lower Suktel: Dams, Rivers and People, January 2005, p. 9–10, Das 2005.
10.Extensive coverage in Barney et al 2000, PUDR May 2005, Das 2005, Goodland 2007, and our forthcoming book, Out of This Earth. On Alcan’s withdrawal from Utkal: http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=…
11.Caufield 1998 p.227; see also a documentary film about this dam: Sahu 2009.
12. Amnesty International index ASA 20/021/2009, 2 December 2009.
13.G. D. Birla, Towards Swadeshi: Wide-ranging Correspondence with Gandhiji, ed. V. B. Kulkarni, Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1980, p. 118, and Karunakar Supkar 2007, pp. 28–32.
14.PUCL May 2003, Padel and Das 2004, Das 2004.
15.E.g. Sukru Majhi’s death on 27.3.05, and the Assistant Sub-Inspector of Lanjigarh police station, killed on his motorbike by an alumina lorry on the road to Lanjigarh (Sambad 24.1.08 p.1). Many deaths have been mentioned in the local Oriya press, but very few in Vedanta’s Annual Reports (2004-8), due to the system of subcontracting, which allows the company to shrug off responsibility and record a much lower number than actually take place. Vedanta’s PR companies Finsbury and CO3 have carried on a battle against Survival International and others (see http://www.pressreleasepoint.com/dongria…, and a Survival website ‘Behind the lies’, exposing Vedanta’s PR offensive at www.survival-international.org). On villagers thwarting Vedanta’s attempts to take vehicles up the mountain to start setting up the mine from January 2009, see Action Aid International-India  www.minesandcommunities.org).
16.http://epgorissa.blogspot.com/2009/07/protests-against-vedantas-mining-of.html, www.youtube.com Recorded in Proceedings of the Public Hearing for Vedanta Aluminium Ltd held on 25.4.2009 for expansion of refinery capacity from 1 millions tons per year to 6mtpy, held at Belamba village under P.C.Rauta, Regional officer of the Orissa State Pollution Control Board, Rayagada, and Chudamani Seth, Additional District Magistrate, Kalahandi.
17.‘Vedanta flouts rules in Orissa, central government wants to know why, http://www.indiaenews.com/business/20091…; and ‘Vedanta flouted Centre’s norms, http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news…
18.Council on Ethics 2007,  IA no.2134 of 2007 on Writ Petition no.202 of 1995, of petitioner T. N. Godavaraman Thirumulpad (petitioner) versus Union of India and others (respondents), in the matter of Sterlite Industries (applicant), at the Forest Bench of the Supreme Court of India, 8.8.08.
19.Articles in New Indian Express, Bhubaneswar, from November 2007: ‘No Hirakud water for industries’, 8.11.07 front page, ‘Industries eye other dams too’ 26.11.07 front page (‘Currently 13 industries are drawing water from Hirakud and another 20 are in agreement with the Government to do the same’), ‘Naveen’s water woes overflowing’, 27.11.07 p.3, ‘Farmers reject Naveen largesse’, 28.11.08 p.6, ‘Industries default on water cess’ 28.12.2007 p.6. Also POKSSS 2008.
20.Fernandes 2006 pp.110-111.
21.Mathur 2006 p.2.
22.David Pearce quoted by Cernea in Mathur ed. 2006 p.22.
23.Cernea 2006.
24.Moody 2007 p.127, Russell Means 1982.
25.Padel 2000 Ch.8.
26.Mathur 2006 pp.48 & 69-70.
27.Cernea 2006 pp.26-28.
28.WB OED Report no.17538, cited in Mathur 2006 pp.61-2.
29.Russell 1836, Elphinstone 1841, cited in Padel 1995 p.179.
30.Kishenji was a great political leader of Orissa and India. He wrote these unpublished words shortly before he passed away in 2005.
31.Rolf  Marstrander’s paper in INCAL 2003 (Aluminium Association of India).
32.Proceedings of the Public Hearing for Vedanta Aluminium Ltd held on 25.4.2009 at Belamba, and www.youtube.com
 33.www.redmud.org, consulted on 15 November 2008, under ‘Red Mud, Industrial Uses’. Sea dumping seems to have been a general practice until recently, and took place in Greece’s sensitive Gulf of Corinth. The main researchers profiled on this website include five from India, four from Greece and one from China. One of the Indian scientists, Harish K. Chandwani had helped set up Korba and the JNARRDC.
34.Ashutosh Mishra in Down to Earth (17 November 2008), ‘Extracting a cost: Vedanta’s refinery pollutes river, sickens people in Orissa’,  http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?…, and OSPCB reports to the Central Pollution Control Board in Delhi, 1995 and 2002.
35.Moody 2007 pp.16-19, 156-60.
36.Blum 2003 p.263. On Jamaica’s hike of royalty see Bonnie Campbell 1995 p.199, and Jamaica Information Service ( jis at jis.gov.jm) 14 March 06; also Jamaican Bauxite Environmental Organisation at www.jbeo.com; Switkes 2005, p. 11;  John Maxwell (18 February 2007), ‘Is Bauxite Worth More than People?’ ( jankunnu at gmail.com, 2007); Oli Munion, ‘Corporate Crimes in the Carribean: How Jamaica and Iceland Face a Common Enemy,’ in Voices of the Wilderness, Saving Iceland  www.savingiceland.org), summer 2008.
37.On Brazil: Gitlitz 1993; Switkes 2005; Barham, Bunker and O’Hearn 1995; Bunker and Ciccantell 2005 p. 67 ff. On Orissa’s electricity reforms: Prayas et al 2003.
38.On Iceland: Rose 2008, Sigurðardóttir (forthcoming). On Trinidad: Kublal-Singh 2008, and ‘Trinidad: Anti-Smelter Camp may be a Permanent Fixture’, 31 October 2008 (Peter Richards at http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35314).
39.Sergei Blagov in Asia Times, 24 May 2006, at www.atimes.com and 27 October 2008 at www.tradefinancemagazine.com 10 April 2009 ‘About 1,000 Vietnam Catholics hold anti-government vigil’ Brisbane Times 27 April 09; http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/47848,news…; Lam 2 June 2009; Mydans 29 June 2009; John C. Wu on Vietnam, in US Department of the Interior for US Geological Survey, June 2007 at the http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/c…, and vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=01IND080406.
40.‘Nalco’s Orissa mine production drops after Maoist attack’, Thaindian News 5.5.2009 at http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/busi…
41. Articles by Javed Iqbal in The New Indian Express: ‘Operation Tribal Hunt?’ 15.11.09, and ‘State-sponsored violence at Narayanpatna’ 24.12.09; PUDR April 2006: Where the State makes War on its Own People ( www.pudr.org).
42.The Hindu 12.7.08  http://www.hinduonnet.com/businessline/b…). Railway suggestion: http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowOriyaColu… (5th January 2009)
43.Sudha Ramachandaram: ‘India drives tribals into Maoist arms’, 16.1.2010 at http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/…
44.Pravin Patel: ‘Mining Scam of Orissa: a tip of the iceberg’, 21.9.09, http://www.orissadiary.com/ShowOriyaColu…

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Samarendra Das, from Orissa, studied maths and computer science at Berhampur and Indore Universities. He is a film-maker and political activist with the Samajvadi Jan Parishad (Socialist People’s  Council). His film about the aluminium industry in Orissa (Das 2005) gives an Adivasi perspective. Felix Padel is a freelance social anthropologist who obtained his doctorate from Oxford University, after studying also at the Delhi School of Economics. Padel’s first book analysed British rule over the Konds in Orissa (1995). Their book Out of This Earth: East India Adivasis & the Aluminium Cartel is published in 2010 by Orient Blackswan.
On Saving Iceland’s website you can also read two articles by Samarendra Das written in conjunction with Felix Padel: Agya, What Do You Mean by Development? and Double Death – Aluminum’s Link with Genocide and a press release on their book: Out of This Earth: East India Adivasis and the Aluminium Cartel

Samarendra will be in Iceland from August 14th to 21st and will have more talks and presentations during his stay. This Wednesday, August 18th, he will have a talk in the Reykjavík Academia, Hringbraut 121 at 20:00. More talks will be announced soon.

Click here for a full-length press release about his visit and the book.