By Mark Curtis and Matt Kennard, Declassified UK, 30 March 2021 Britain’s ambassador to Bolivia, Jeff Glekin, played a personal role in events leading up to the 2019 military-backed coup that deposed the country’s democratically-elected president, Evo Morales — and strongly supported the new regime as it carried out two massacres of unarmed protesters, Declassified […]
Topic: Mining
By Mark Curtis, Declassified UK, 4 February 2021 New research finds that dozens of senior UK defence, foreign office and intelligence officials find employment with oil, gas and mining corporations once they leave public office, rubber-stamped by a Whitehall committee which pays little attention to potential conflicts of interest. Such private profiting from energy companies […]
By Phil Miller and Mark Curtis Declassified UK, 31 December 2019 The British government rejected Nelson Mandela’s personal appeal to impose oil sanctions on Nigeria after its military regime executed nine environmental activists in 1995 as it wanted to protect oil company Shell’s commercial interests, newly declassified files reveal. The British files, released under the […]
Huffington Post, 5 August 2016 For over 30 years, Western countries such as the US and UK, and international bodies like the World Bank and IMF, have told African governments to cut their tax rates to attract foreign investment. The result of this policy is now clear and is not pretty – governments in Africa […]
Published in the Huffington Post, 26 July 2016 Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange control over $1trillion worth of Africa’s resources in just five commodities – oil, gold, diamonds, coal and platinum. My research for the NGO, War on Want, which has just been published, reveals that 101 companies, most of them British, control […]
Report for War on Want (July 2016) This report reveals the degree to which British companies now control Africa’s key mineral resources. It reviews the operations of all the companies listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) that have mining interests in Africa, focusing on key minerals and metals such as gold, platinum, diamonds, copper, […]
British mining companies are abusing human rights all over the world at the same time as making record profits and exploring new ‘frontiers’ in territories plagued by conflict. A report I’ve just authored for the NGO, Want on Want, documents the impacts of large-scale mining on communities in twenty countries. London is the centre of […]
Guardian, 3 August 2007 It all has a depressingly familiar ring. The fingerprints of a British mining company are found to be all over abuses around the world. And again, there are high-level connections with the government. Enervated readers might be tempted to follow the lead of Gordon Brown, who is allowing it all to happen. […]
The Guardian, 18 October 2006 Addressing overseas development without discussing the regulation of big business is like talking about malaria without mentioning mosquitoes. Yet New Labour’s supposed commitment to eradicating global poverty does not even pretend to seek to rein in multinational corporations. A draft bill before parliament that has been ignored by the media […]