[Xmca-l] Re: Rio Tinto Zinc
Andy Blunden
andyb@marxists.org
Wed Sep 16 17:40:16 PDT 2020
As our Chief Health Officer repeatedly says, "Data beats
models every time." Capitalism is a world system now. The
question of whether, in the mid-18th century, capitalism was
inevitable is a moot point. From a political and
philosophical point of view, of course it wasn't. But the
data is now in.
Marx's approach was always *critique of existing social
conditions*, never speculation about the future or
inevitable stages or laws of history. In his private
correspondence with friends Marx betrayed his humanness, his
ever expecting the Revolution tomorrow. But in public
scientific writing he never did this. Please show me where
Marx wrote "that the internal contradictions of capitalism
would lead to its collapse and to the formation of a
socialist society."
I like to make the point that in the /Communist Manifesto/
Marx has almost nothing to say about what the working class
would do if it were to seize state power. The programmatic
points here:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/ch02.htm*133__;Iw!!Mih3wA!VI6OKP653eKBHQuLkU5jb-3mX0EoA0ESANdgXr_cE1S37_hJHXb672Lyz_nPuJc0xHTjng$
are as far as he went. After the Paris Commune, he was able
to /see/ what the workers' movement actually strived to do:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1848/communist-manifesto/preface.htm*preface-1872__;Iw!!Mih3wA!VI6OKP653eKBHQuLkU5jb-3mX0EoA0ESANdgXr_cE1S37_hJHXb672Lyz_nPuJeJTcO-TA$
and you can clearly see how these progammatic points were
intended as a political program, subject to continual
revision. Not any declaration of historical necessity,
Andy
------------------------------------------------------------
*Andy Blunden*
Hegel for Social Movements <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://brill.com/view/title/54574__;!!Mih3wA!VI6OKP653eKBHQuLkU5jb-3mX0EoA0ESANdgXr_cE1S37_hJHXb672Lyz_nPuJcjx1H-8g$ >
Home Page <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm__;!!Mih3wA!VI6OKP653eKBHQuLkU5jb-3mX0EoA0ESANdgXr_cE1S37_hJHXb672Lyz_nPuJctsV5tyQ$ >
On 17/09/2020 6:03 am, Martin Packer wrote:
> So capitalism is not *necessary* for socialism to become
> possible. Why should capitalism then be *sufficient* for
> socialism to become possible?
>
> That is, we seem to be generally agreed that capitalism
> has not been an inevitable stage of societal evolution, a
> stepping stone on the way to socialism. A socialist state
> could, in theory, arise from a pre-industrial society.
> Capitalism is not necessary. Its existence has been a
> contingency, an historical accident.
>
> Why then should capitalism, where it exists, set the stage
> for socialism? Do we agree that Marx proposed that the
> internal contradictions of capitalism would lead to its
> collapse and to the formation of a socialist society? But
> perhaps this analysis was wrong. Perhaps capitalism will
> simply collapse. Its global supply chains will be
> disrupted. Its access to cheap labor will be cut off. Its
> ability to make people consume endlessly will run dry. It
> will simply grind to a halt and fall over.
>
> And then societies of the future could arise in parts of
> the world which have *escaped* capitalism, few and far
> between though they are.
>
> People in a capitalist society like to think it is the
> most advanced, the most evolved. And the left (oops!)
> seems largely to agree. But perhaps capitalism will turn
> out to be merely an evolutionary dead end.
>
> Martin
>
>
>
>
>> On Sep 15, 2020, at 7:33 PM, Andy Blunden
>> <andyb@marxists.org <mailto:andyb@marxists.org>> wrote:
>>
>> This letter:
>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1881/letters/81_03_08.htm__;!!Mih3wA!VI6OKP653eKBHQuLkU5jb-3mX0EoA0ESANdgXr_cE1S37_hJHXb672Lyz_nPuJcEhkX2lA$
>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1881/letters/81_03_08.htm__;!!Mih3wA!Wc7U2Qr5zMgrKKeh_jEXkdulE0GgE_Mf1JJ9xPU3T2lU6DpYFZfSmiQ9Rs0MpFuzxe_8fw$>
>> is one occasion when Marx makes it clear that he makes no
>> claim for the inevitability of a capitalist stage of
>> social development, only that this was what was actually
>> the case in Europe in his time. Note that Marx's
>> correspondence with Vera Zasulich was published in Russia
>> in 1924, so Vygotsky would have been aware of this.
>>
>> Andy
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> *Andy Blunden*
>> Hegel for Social Movements
>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://brill.com/view/title/54574__;!!Mih3wA!Wc7U2Qr5zMgrKKeh_jEXkdulE0GgE_Mf1JJ9xPU3T2lU6DpYFZfSmiQ9Rs0MpFu6Xfct7w$>
>> Home Page
>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm__;!!Mih3wA!Wc7U2Qr5zMgrKKeh_jEXkdulE0GgE_Mf1JJ9xPU3T2lU6DpYFZfSmiQ9Rs0MpFttzS7DtA$>
>>
>> On 16/09/2020 1:58 am, Martin Packer wrote:
>>>> capitalism, and hence the idea of nature as capital, is
>>>> no universal stage (contrary to what Stalin taught).
>>>
>>> This happens to be something I’ve been thinking about
>>> recently — the ‘evitability’ (avoidability, as opposed
>>> to inevitability) of capitalism. I’ve been reading some
>>> of the work of Douglass North, who won a Nobel prize in
>>> economics in 1993 for his analysis of the role that
>>> institutions have played in economic ‘development,’ He
>>> thought he was describing how the West achieved
>>> ‘progress’ and has been able to ‘evolve’ further than
>>> other regions, but one can read his work as describing
>>> alternative pathways in the formation of economic
>>> systems, which in the West has led to an imbalance in
>>> which profit and growth have become the only measures of
>>> societal and individual achievement.
>>>
>>> A neat illustration: the NY Times has been publishing
>>> reflections upon an article written 50 years ago by
>>> Milton Friedman titled "The Social Responsibility Of
>>> Business Is to Increase Its Profits." Friedman wrote:
>>>
>>> WHEN I hear businessmen speak eloquently about the
>>> “social responsibilities of business in
>>> a free‐enterprise system,” I am reminded of the
>>> wonderful line about the Frenchman who
>>> discovered at, the age of 70 that he had been
>>> speaking prose all his life. The businessmen believe
>>> that they are defending free enterprise when they
>>> declaim that business is not concerned “merely” with
>>> profit but also with promoting desirable “social”
>>> ends; that business has a “social conscience”
>>> and takes seriously its responsibilities for
>>> providing employment, eliminating discrimination,
>>> avoiding pollution and whatever else may be the
>>> catchwords of the contemporary crop of reformers. In
>>> fact they are—or would be if they or any one else
>>> took them seriously— preaching pure and
>>> unadulterated socialism. Businessmen who talk this
>>> way are unwitting puppets of the intellectual forces
>>> that have been undermining the basis of a free
>>> society these past decades.
>>>
>>>
>>> It will be hard to find a better statement of the
>>> ideology that has got us all into the current mess.
>>>
>>> On the left, was it with Lenin that capitalism became
>>> viewed as a necessary prerequisite to socialism? For
>>> example, as I understand it after the revolution in
>>> Mexico, 1910-1920, the PRI (Partido Revolucionario
>>> Institucional) worked hard to turn the indigenous
>>> peoples into a proletariat. This was the only way they
>>> could imagine societal progress: quickly moving the
>>> country into capitalism so as to achieve socialism. I
>>> conclude that it was not only Stalin who taught this.
>>>
>>> Martin
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Sep 14, 2020, at 9:57 PM, David Kellogg
>>>> <dkellogg60@gmail.com <mailto:dkellogg60@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> If you click on the link that Henry, and before him
>>>> John, offered, you get the pro-natural-capital side of
>>>> a debate in the pages of the Guardian on whether or not
>>>> "nature" can be valued as capital and whether it is
>>>> good or bad for nature for humans to do this. I think
>>>> that in CHAT, we are indebted to Marx for many things,
>>>> but surely one debt we would do well not to disavow is
>>>> Marx's insistence (in Critique of the Gotha programme
>>>> and elsewhere) that nature is NOT capital: on the
>>>> contrary, humans and all of their various property
>>>> forms from communism to capitalism must be considered
>>>> peculiar forms of nature. This is a discussion that
>>>> CHAT needs to have if we are going to retain the AT in
>>>> CHAT. I disagree with Peter Jones on many many things,
>>>> but one thing I heartily agree with him on is the idea
>>>> that Leontiev brings an intensely anti-naturalistic
>>>> view of activity into activity theory--humans acting as
>>>> subjects on passive environments to produce beneficial
>>>> outcomes.
>>>>
>>>> Marx had a better idea: in the Ethnological Notebooks,
>>>> he shows us that capitalism, and hence the idea of
>>>> nature as capital, is no universal stage (contrary to
>>>> what Stalin taught). Western capitalism, with its idea
>>>> of nature as capital, is really just one extreme
>>>> variant. In Marx's columns on the Sepoy rebellion and
>>>> the Taiping rebellion, he even posits an "Asiantic mode
>>>> of production" that had virtually nothing to do with
>>>> feudalism. So to say that South Korea and Japan are
>>>> equally capitalist societies is really a little like
>>>> saying that China and the USSR were equally
>>>> non-capitalist. Deus Sive Natura: and neither one is
>>>> capital.
>>>>
>>>> David Kellogg
>>>> Sangmyung University
>>>>
>>>> New article in Mind, Culture, and Activity:
>>>> Realizations: non-causal but real relationships in and
>>>> between Halliday, Hasan, and Vygotsky
>>>>
>>>> Some free e-prints today available at:
>>>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/Y8YHS3SRW42VXPTVY2Z6/full?target=10.1080*10749039.2020.1806329__;Lw!!Mih3wA!VI6OKP653eKBHQuLkU5jb-3mX0EoA0ESANdgXr_cE1S37_hJHXb672Lyz_nPuJdFgTWX_w$
>>>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/Y8YHS3SRW42VXPTVY2Z6/full?target=10.1080*10749039.2020.1806329__;Lw!!Mih3wA!W-RPX1ECIuKav0e-i1es3roVHR0WUtjgmoG2iARQqbybBsxElYTIACu53v3cWm487oUiBw$>
>>>>
>>>> New Translation with Nikolai Veresov: L.S. Vygotsky's
>>>> Pedological Works Volume One: Foundations of Pedology"
>>>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811505270__;!!Mih3wA!VI6OKP653eKBHQuLkU5jb-3mX0EoA0ESANdgXr_cE1S37_hJHXb672Lyz_nPuJechS_H3A$
>>>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811505270__;!!Mih3wA!W-RPX1ECIuKav0e-i1es3roVHR0WUtjgmoG2iARQqbybBsxElYTIACu53v3cWm7NjX5sJQ$>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Sep 15, 2020 at 3:43 AM HENRY SHONERD
>>>> <hshonerd@gmail.com <mailto:hshonerd@gmail.com>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Martin, John and Andy
>>>> Thanks to Martin for kicking off this topic and
>>>> John and Andy for following up. I has amazed me to
>>>> find, for me, how the RTZ narrative resonates with
>>>> both Navajo and Pueblo narratives here in New
>>>> Mexico. How evil RTZ is, but how wonderful the
>>>> courage of our native peoples!
>>>>
>>>> Chaco Canyon IS a tourist destination here in New
>>>> Mexico. Though there has been no destruction of the
>>>> site that, based on Native American narratives and
>>>> the efforts of archeologists, is architecturally
>>>> spectacular evidence of the pre-Colombian culture
>>>> from which the present-day Pueblos come. What
>>>> parallels RTZ activities on aboriginal lands in
>>>> Australia is the drilling for gas and oil on Navajo
>>>> lands surrounding Chaco and a rush to buy more
>>>> rights while Trump is in power. There have been
>>>> protests, though nothing as intense and effective
>>>> as the Standing Rock protests to protect water on
>>>> native lands to our north and east from gas and oil
>>>> predation (the pipeline). Standing Rock was LED by
>>>> Native Americans, many from the Navajo, Apache and
>>>> Pueblo near me.
>>>>
>>>> I just saw yesterday a 30-year-old film that is one
>>>> of the offerings of the Vision Maker Film Festival:
>>>> Clear Cut. I recommend it, or at least a look at
>>>> the wiki article about it. It couldn’t be more
>>>> timely. It’s messy, where contention between
>>>> environmental and logging interests and division
>>>> WITHIN the native community (traditon vs. jobs)
>>>> leave one stunned. What redeems a messy struggle is
>>>> exactly what Andy says: The aboriginal people of
>>>> the world do it for us! In the same way, when “our”
>>>> Pueblos put on feasts and invite us in to witness
>>>> their dances, they do it for us. Perhaps you recall
>>>> the movie “Koyaniskaatsi”, la Hopi word that has
>>>> been translated as "life out of balance". (The
>>>> Hopis are a Puebloan people, descendants of the
>>>> Chacoan culture. The Navajos and Apaches arrived
>>>> here about the same time as the European
>>>> colonizers, based on linguistic and genetic
>>>> evidence.) If you live in New Mexico, you are
>>>> around Pueblo people. If you are really lucky, and
>>>> many of us are, you become friends with them and
>>>> they invite you to share their food at the feasts!
>>>> How generous is this? They do it for us.
>>>>
>>>> The RTZ narrative is not only destructive to
>>>> cultural capital, it is implicated in natural
>>>> capital
>>>> (https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/nov/23/monbiot-natural-capital-wrong-conservation__;!!Mih3wA!VI6OKP653eKBHQuLkU5jb-3mX0EoA0ESANdgXr_cE1S37_hJHXb672Lyz_nPuJeyXsWHug$
>>>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2015/nov/23/monbiot-natural-capital-wrong-conservation__;!!Mih3wA!SBdL369rv5LA2eUVglK7x1RO_gnzeKTtEL3aixjV1TAMOI-HkqMNbHUWvJAN5h7atm8Krw$>)
>>>> via climate change. (The link here, to a Guardian
>>>> article is available through the first link in
>>>> John’s post). Here again we should look to our
>>>> native peoples. There is credible research that
>>>> concludes the climate change lengthens fire seasons
>>>> but wrong-headed environmental policies make the
>>>> fires more intense, hence less controllable. Add to
>>>> this the incursion of housing into forested areas
>>>> and the destruction is a doubly self-inflicted
>>>> wound. And hold on for this one for the best CHAT
>>>> connection: Native peoples of this continent used
>>>> to set controlled burns to remove the kind of
>>>> unburnt fuel to avoid such conflagrations. Today
>>>> some of the best-trained and most effective
>>>> firefighters in this country are Native Americans.
>>>> Cultural capital. They do it for us, and their
>>>> example from the past can serve us now. Cultural
>>>> capital.
>>>>
>>>> I believe I have crowed before about New Mexico and
>>>> our Native Americans. Australia has crowing rights
>>>> as well. And, for standing proud, there’s nothing
>>>> like an anthem. The best anthem music I have EVER
>>>> heard comes from Australia: Yothu Yindi What a
>>>> great project that brings together white people and
>>>> people of color. What great creative collaboration.
>>>> Andy, I am telling you again, project is a great
>>>> unit of analysis, precisely because it brings
>>>> together cognition and affect, because it embodies
>>>> active orientation. In my country, it is pretty
>>>> well agreed that the natives got screwed, across
>>>> the political divide. Black Lives Matter is more
>>>> complex, but there is hope that the question of
>>>> race is now where LGBTQ issues were at the time of
>>>> the AIDS crisis, in the last century. Back then we
>>>> could never have guessed we would be where we are
>>>> with non-gender-conforming acceptance now. Just
>>>> saying, as much for myself as for anybody else
>>>> listening.
>>>>
>>>> La Era Está Pariendo Un Corazón
>>>> Henry
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>> On Sep 13, 2020, at 8:09 PM, Andy Blunden
>>>>> <andyb@marxists.org <mailto:andyb@marxists.org>>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Er. " *NO *physical markers"
>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>> *Andy Blunden*
>>>>> Hegel for Social Movements
>>>>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://brill.com/view/title/54574__;!!Mih3wA!S5K6-3pAdjVKLQOipHOtp4mkhFhXR1sxkXKZDQnO0A7C1xQKXN0SUjkqI9KbXmCMTCf0iQ$>
>>>>> Home Page
>>>>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm__;!!Mih3wA!S5K6-3pAdjVKLQOipHOtp4mkhFhXR1sxkXKZDQnO0A7C1xQKXN0SUjkqI9KbXmDbUUpHdA$>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 14/09/2020 11:43 am, Andy Blunden wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Firstly, an apology. I replied on the list before
>>>>>> noticing that John had already responded, and
>>>>>> John is much better informed than me about these
>>>>>> matters, and yet I spoke as if he didn't exist.
>>>>>> My apologies.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> These caves are nothing for tourism. They are too
>>>>>> remote and there are others more accessible. I
>>>>>> believe the caves have been under Native Title as
>>>>>> a result of a bitter struggle to protect them by
>>>>>> the local people in the 1990s. This means that
>>>>>> RTZ had to get permission from the PKK people.
>>>>>> The lawyers swindled them.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> In my view, all these sites which are not only
>>>>>> part of Aboriginal heritage (there are places
>>>>>> which have *NO *physical markers of their status
>>>>>> but are sacred to the local people) but
>>>>>> self-evidently of *world* heritage. But I don't
>>>>>> think these caves were registered as World
>>>>>> Heritage. I have not heard the discussion about
>>>>>> this (John?). No-one wants to say this, I think,
>>>>>> because it implies that Indigenous values are
>>>>>> somehow less important than human values. For
>>>>>> example, under the law as it stands the PKK Land
>>>>>> Council would have a right to let RTZ destroy the
>>>>>> caves and maybe a million dollars or two in the
>>>>>> bank or a new school, would be enough. This is
>>>>>> not a hypothetical. One of the reasons that the
>>>>>> Indigenous people remain impoverished even where
>>>>>> they have Native Title over large areas of land,
>>>>>> is that they live, after all, in a capitalist
>>>>>> country and Native title cannot be sold. It is
>>>>>> not a commodity. Therefore it is not a form of
>>>>>> wealth. You can't get a mortgage to build a house
>>>>>> on land you own by Native title. You can't sell
>>>>>> a block to a farmer so you can buy agricultural
>>>>>> equipment to farm another block. In short, by
>>>>>> blocking the Indigenous people from monetising
>>>>>> their land rights we trap them in poverty. In
>>>>>> general, the indigenous people are happy to forgo
>>>>>> tourist income to protect their sacred sites
>>>>>> (e.g. Uluru) and I don't doubt for an instant,
>>>>>> that if they'd been properly consulted they never
>>>>>> would have agreed to the destruction of the
>>>>>> caves. Obviously. But they do have to have rights
>>>>>> to trade with their land. But also the world
>>>>>> needs to keep absolutely unique archaeological
>>>>>> sites pristine and the local people should be
>>>>>> supported by governments to do the work of
>>>>>> protecting them on *our* behalf. Recognising the
>>>>>> great cost entailed.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Andy
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>>>>> *Andy Blunden*
>>>>>> Hegel for Social Movements
>>>>>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://brill.com/view/title/54574__;!!Mih3wA!XARa5o_f0_F8FwoOvEi2G83w7OupjEw0Qs4sAopd9iMJNxF19MT9A4BOkNVcEAAZnw4ahQ$>
>>>>>> Home Page
>>>>>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.ethicalpolitics.org/ablunden/index.htm__;!!Mih3wA!XARa5o_f0_F8FwoOvEi2G83w7OupjEw0Qs4sAopd9iMJNxF19MT9A4BOkNVcEABlTgxfKw$>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 14/09/2020 4:53 am, Martin Packer wrote:
>>>>>>> Thanks, John and Andy,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I suppose that I am naive, for this event
>>>>>>> astonishes me in so many different ways. I would
>>>>>>> have assumed that the land title or native title
>>>>>>> granted to indigenous peoples over some
>>>>>>> territory in Australia would have included
>>>>>>> the Juuken Gorge caves. I would have assumed
>>>>>>> that these caves were a national cultural
>>>>>>> heritage site, or even a world cultural heritage
>>>>>>> site. I would have assumed that indigenous
>>>>>>> rights would have more importance to the
>>>>>>> Australian government, and indeed to the
>>>>>>> Australian people. I would have assumed that,
>>>>>>> while mining is apparently of great economic
>>>>>>> importance to the country, the government would
>>>>>>> have considered the economic value of this site
>>>>>>> for tourism, or simply the impact that
>>>>>>> destroying the caves would have on Australia’s
>>>>>>> reputation. And while I suppose that unbridled
>>>>>>> rapaciousness on the part of an international
>>>>>>> mining company is hardly a surprise, I would
>>>>>>> have thought that Rio Tinto would also have
>>>>>>> considered the negative publicity that their
>>>>>>> actions would create.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> How can we express our displeasure to the
>>>>>>> various parties involved? Are there petitions
>>>>>>> that one can sign? Or Twitter accounts to which
>>>>>>> one can tweet?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I wonder how much the salary is of (ex) CEO
>>>>>>> Jean-Sebastien Jacques, if his bonus this year
>>>>>>> would have been A$4.9 million. Perhaps he could
>>>>>>> donate a few years of his salary to establish a
>>>>>>> foundation that could work for indigenous
>>>>>>> peoples’ rights.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> sadly
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Martin
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Sep 12, 2020, at 8:59 PM, John Cripps Clark
>>>>>>>> <john.crippsclark@deakin.edu.au
>>>>>>>> <mailto:john.crippsclark@deakin.edu.au>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The destruction of the Juunken Gorge caves
>>>>>>>> (which I assume you are referring to) is a much
>>>>>>>> more villainous act than was originally
>>>>>>>> portrayed and reflects the venal racism not
>>>>>>>> only of the company but also of the State
>>>>>>>> Government. For those not familiar with this
>>>>>>>> shocking crime, the $80b Anglo Australian
>>>>>>>> mining company which on Sunday 24th of May blew
>>>>>>>> up a site sacred to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and
>>>>>>>> Pinikura (PKKP) traditional owners and occupied
>>>>>>>> for 46,000 years at least, to extend iron ore
>>>>>>>> mining. "“It’s one of the most sacred sites in
>>>>>>>> the Pilbara region … we wanted to have that
>>>>>>>> area protected,” PKKP director Burchell Hayes.
>>>>>>>> The traditional owners tried desperately to
>>>>>>>> stop the blast once they became aware it was
>>>>>>>> impending.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> At the time Rio Tinto claimed "Clearly there
>>>>>>>> was a misunderstanding" but and, after much
>>>>>>>> outrage, the three members of the executive had
>>>>>>>> their multi million dollar bonuses reduced. It
>>>>>>>> has subsequently emerged that Rio Tinto had
>>>>>>>> contracted lawyers to oppose any injunctions
>>>>>>>> before the crime was committed. The chief
>>>>>>>> executive and two of his underlings have resigned.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The crime was legal and was made possible by
>>>>>>>> State Government laws which are stacked in
>>>>>>>> favour of miners. Assessments of the cultural
>>>>>>>> and environmental significance are made with
>>>>>>>> little investigation and remain in place for
>>>>>>>> decades and have rarely been successfully be
>>>>>>>> challenged. No permission to destroy heritage
>>>>>>>> sites in WA has been refused (and there have
>>>>>>>> been 463 applications).
>>>>>>>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-05-31/wa-heritage-destroyed-by-rio-tinto-example-of-national-trend/12305298__;!!Mih3wA!Q80d_k7DkHBzzs0yi4W5IfiSTlRupZ8XOxiOsNcARSHE8ZZrLW7G-oWoAnKstsuUT5a7UQ$
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> It is not as if we didn’t know that this would
>>>>>>>> happen. Norway's pension fund divested their
>>>>>>>> holdings in Rio Tinto in 2008: "Exclusion of a
>>>>>>>> company from the Fund reflects our
>>>>>>>> unwillingness to run an unacceptable risk of
>>>>>>>> contributing to grossly unethical conduct. The
>>>>>>>> Council on Ethics has concluded that Rio Tinto
>>>>>>>> is directly involved, through its participation
>>>>>>>> in the Grasberg mine in Indonesia, in the
>>>>>>>> severe environmental damage caused by that
>>>>>>>> mining operation."
>>>>>>>> — Kristin Halvorsen, Norwegian Minister of
>>>>>>>> Finance
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> A useful background briefing of indigenous
>>>>>>>> rights in Australia:
>>>>>>>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/features/in-the-shadow-of-terra-nullius/__;!!Mih3wA!Q80d_k7DkHBzzs0yi4W5IfiSTlRupZ8XOxiOsNcARSHE8ZZrLW7G-oWoAnKstssDCtcsSw$
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On 13/9/20, 12:26 am,
>>>>>>>> "xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu
>>>>>>>> <mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on
>>>>>>>> behalf of Martin Packer"
>>>>>>>> <xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu
>>>>>>>> <mailto:xmca-l-bounces@mailman.ucsd.edu> on
>>>>>>>> behalf of mpacker@cantab.net
>>>>>>>> <mailto:mpacker@cantab.net>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Andy, what on earth has Rio Tinto Zinc been
>>>>>>>> up to??
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Martin
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>
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