Instead of pussyfooting about with a piddling $38million information campaign , the Rudd government should acquaint the nation with the track record of the mining giants lining up against Australia, willingly aided and abetted by the Coalition hand maidens who are being showered with moolah. For example, Rio Tinto -
In the book Plunder , by Roger Moody, he described Rio Tinto’s activities as ranging from “brow-beating opponents, leaning on governments and price-fixing , to violating international law , union-busting and management of one of the world’s biggest commodity cartels”.
The company was founded in 1873 to mine the Rio Tinto copper deposits in the Spanish province of Andalusia , several hundred miners dying from lung diseases between l877 and l877. In 1920 many left wing miners were sacked after a strike which lasted four months over mass sackings and being paid with food. In the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, Andalusia was a stronghold of the Republicans against the fascist Nationalist forces of General Franco. Rio-Tinto’s chairman , Sir Auckland Geddes told the 1937 annual general meeting in London :”Since the mining region was occupied by General Franco’s forces, there have been no further labour problems…Miners found guilty of troublemaking are court-martialled and shot.”
In the 1950s and 1960s the company underwent massive expansion. Two thirds of its Spanish mine was sold and it extended is operations into “safe” countries like Canada, Australia, the US , New Guinea and South Africa..
At the time of the apartheid regime in South Africa the company exported uranium to England , under both Conservative and Labour governments, in defiance of UN sanctions . In 1962 Rio Tinto merged with Consolidated Zinc , the new corporation called Rio Tinto –Zinc (RTZ), mining uranium, gold, iron ore, bauxite and zinc and running several smelting companies.
The Weipa bauxite mine -67 percent owned by Conzinc Riotinto of Australia- saw the forced removal of two Aboriginal communities from their land at Weipa and Mapoon .Pre-issue shares were offered to select Australians , including the Queensland treasurer and acting premier, Gordon Chalk, and his family, and the then Minister for Aboriginal Affairs , the soon to be premier, Joh-Bjelke-Petersen .
In the 1980s, Rio-Tinto smashed unions at the Robe River iron ore mine , pioneering the introduction of individual contracts in Australia . The same action was taken in NZ at the Tiwai aluminium smelter.
A Rio Tinto subsidiary, Coal and Allied , was involved in action against unionists in the Hunter Valley of NSW which is being torn asunder by mining, impacting on the health of locals, the NSW Labor government turning a blind eye to the situation , one more reason why it will be booted out at the next state election.
GOOGLE RIO TINTO AND YOU WILL LEARN MUCH , MUCH MORE .
One of RTZ’s partners in a New Guinea goldmine was the “Ugly Canadian”, Robert Friedland , also known as “Toxic Bob” after the Galactic Resources Summitville mine figured in what was said to be the worst US cyanide release , in Colorado , and mine bankruptcy . The mine closed in 1990 and it was estimated it would take $120million to clean up the bankrupt mine site .The former environmental manager was indicted for intentionallyy dumping lead and cyanide directly into streams. Friedland nimbly stepped aside from the company shortly before the EPA came charging in and he blamed others for a situation described as the Exxon Valdez of the mining industry.
Author Moody had this to say : “One might conclude that no respectable miner would now touch the wily Canadian with a dragline. But over the past 18 months, as the full extent of the Summitville Horror has registered and Friedland has plundered ever southwards, one company has cordially negotiated with the pariah. Britain's RTZ, corporate mining's leading power and self- appointed advocate, will team up with Vengold to hold 40 percent of Papua New Guinea's massive Lihir project – the biggest untapped gold deposit outside of South Africa. "
PNG soldiers revolted when it was revealed that Executive Outcomes, a mercenary force , had been engaged by the government to invade Bougainville and reopen the Panguna mine, controlled by Friedland.
There is a massive , coordinated economic war going on in Australia right now and it is up to the voters to disregard the dire threats of the mining juggernauts .
