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A mining colossus against the right to housing, land and environment

Mines, roads, steel and iron industries, ports and dams at the cost of people’s life and their right to housing and territories. Vale is the second biggest Brazilian multinational, the second biggest mining company and the biggest producer of iron in the world.
The vote to Vale as the world's worst multinational is supported by Rede Justiça nos Trilhos, International Network of People Affected by Vale, Amazon Watch, International Rivers and the International Alliance of Inhabitants.
Let us say no to this “model of development” that plunders the open veins of Latin America!

 

>>> Vote Vale the world’s worst multinational here!
Hurry up! The winning multinational will officially be presented at the World Economic Forum of Davos. You can therefore vote until January 26, 2012.

A mining colossus against the right to housing, land and environment

Açailândia (Maranhão), industrial district of Piquiá. The pollution that the population breathes in on account of the steel and iron industries (Antonio Soffientini, September 2008)

Vale: 70 years of history stained by constant violation of human and environmental rights
Vale, the Brazilian mining company present in 38 countries and considered the biggest mining industry of the world is one of the finalists of the Public Eye Award that, through the people’s vote, selects every year the worst company of the world to be presented as winner at the World Economic Forum of Davos, Switzerland.
This is the first time that a Brazilian company competes for the prize.
The nomination of Vale for the Public Eye Award 2012 was made by the International Network of People Affected by Vale through the Brazilian organization Rede Justiça nos Trilhos based in Maranhão in collaboration with Amazon Watch and International Rivers and is grounded on the negative environmental, social and working impact caused by the activities of the company in Brazil and all over the world in the past decade.

A mining colossus against the right to housing, land and environment

São Luís (capital of Maranhão), district of Alto da Esperança. The ground on which Vale moved the inhabitants of the area of interest of the company, was not suitable for building and did not resist. Consequence: houses fallen to pieces and chasms in the streets (archive Najup, July 2009)

With Vale, 40.000 people under eviction for the dam Belo Monte in Amazonia
70 years of history stained by repeated violations of human rights, unbearable working conditions and reckless exploitation of the nature. At present, Vale participates in the construction of the dam of Belo Monte in Amazonia. The dam will evict 40 thousand people, in a territory of 100 km along the bank of the river Xingu, who have not had the possibility neither to express their point of view nor receive compensation.

With Vale, 760 families evicted for the coal mines in Mozambique
In Mozambique, Vale turned out about 760 farmer families from their houses and lands to open new coal mines. The company adopted non standardized criteria for the removal of these families, then divided and relocated at distance of 45 km from their original community (75km far from the reference city of the area).

“We sold wood and coal as well as food stuff in our region; where we have been located now, we are out of work and poor without access to the market and working opportunities” – says an inhabitant.

A mining colossus against the right to housing, land and environment

São Luís (capital of Maranhão), district of Alto da Esperança. The ground on which Vale moved the inhabitants of the area of interest of the company, was not suitable for building and did not resist. Consequence: houses fallen to pieces and chasms in the streets (archive Najup, July 2009)

With Vale, hundreds of families evicted in São Luís, Brazil
The same occurred in the city of São Luís, in the North East of Brazil: Vale evicted hundreds of families from the area in which it decided to construct the port for the export of its iron. It constructed an entire new district in an unstable territory on the outskirts of the city and today, after 25 years, many houses of this district fell to pieces on account of the negligence of the project of the multinational.

With Vale, furnaces, steel and iron industries, mines and serious violations of the right to health and environment
Beside many similar problems concerning violation of the housing right, Vale violates various other human and environmental rights: for example, a report of the International Federation for Human Rights denounces the impact of combustion furnaces for the production of coal on the health of the population of the Açailandia  region. This can also be said about the steel and iron companies, direct and privileged clients of Vale, the noxious emissions of which are neither controlled nor filtered.
In Brazil, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Vale is partner of the German company Thyssen Krupp; they are trying together to impose with force the installation of the biggest steel and iron industry of Latin America, threatening the craft fishers of the region with the help of the troops of Rio de Janeiro. Already in the experimental phase, two serious environmental incidents provoked a rain of polluting scoriae on the neighbouring families, which lead to heavy fines and the denouncement of the responsible of the projects of the consortium.
The International Federation for Human Rights and its Brazilian partners denounce also the initiatives of Vale to circumvent the environmental legislation in the expansion of the mines of Carajás that will increase the mining of mineral and its exportation 2,5 times as much.

A mining colossus against the right to housing, land and environment

São Luís (capital of Maranhão), district of Alto da Esperança. The ground on which Vale moved the inhabitants of the area of interest of the company, was not suitable for building and did not resist. Consequence: houses fallen to pieces and chasms in the streets (archive Najup, July 2009)

With Vale, massive violations of the rights of workers
At present, more than 100 legal trials and 150 inquiries are being held against Vale, most of them in relation to conflicts in the working sphere.
In Canada, the workers resisted 18 months on strike against the contract proposals of Vale.
The cases in which the multinational acknowledged its responsibilities and paid fines are very rare.

The formula for success of Vale: to privatize profits and burden the public with costs, that  is to say the others
The present richness of the multinational is in contrast with its privatization in 1997, which was very criticized and at a ridiculously low price. In addition, the Brazilian State, cheated by this cession, has a credit of 2,5 billion Dollars accrued by insufficient payments of the mining royalties on behalf of Vale.

A mining colossus against the right to housing, land and environment

São Luís (capital of Maranhão), district of Alto da Esperança. The ground on which Vale moved the inhabitants of the area of interest of the company, was not suitable for building and did not resist. Consequence: houses fallen to pieces and chasms in the streets (archive Najup, July 2009)

Vale uses every year about 1,2 billion cube metres of water for its operations, it is responsible of 4% of CO2 emissions in Brazil and pours on average 100 million cube metres of industrial and oily waste into rivers and the sea. For instance, last year, Vale provoked two important environmental disasters pouring acid into the waters of Chile and New Caledonia.

>>> Vote Vale the world’s worst multinational here!   And disseminate the campaign!

Further information
Justiça nos Trilhos:
www.justicanostrilhos.org
Contact:
binaridigiustizia@gmail.com 

Georeferences


The Volunteer translator for housing rights without frontiers of IAI who has collaborated on the translation of this text was:

Carmen Seidel

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