On third anniversary of murders, Alcan drops the ball on Kashipur Issue:
December 16 demonstration and phone-jam successful in revealing corporate irresponsibility.


December 17, Montreal - On December 16th 2003 at least 30 people converged at Alcan's headquarters in Montreal to help the transnational aluminum corporation to find its heart and reconsider its investment in a proposed bauxite mine and refinery in the Kashipur region of Orissa, India.

Together they sang:

It’s Alcan the Aluminum Man
The Aluminum Man with the Aluminum Plan
For making lots of aluminum
Out of other peoples land!

Will this Man of Aluminum
Realize what he's done,
Once he's done what he about to start?
He's got aluminum, but he's got no heart!

A street theatre performance highlighted the invasiveness of Alcan, Indal (an Indian aluminum corporation that is the other major investor in this bauxite project) and the Indian and Orissa governments on the lives of the indigenous and low-caste peoples on whose land the mine and refinery would be found.

The performance was a commemoration of the December 16, 2000 police-instigated killings of three villagers from one of the many local communities strictly opposed to the mine. The Montreal demonstration was coordinated with the yearly mass demonstrations that occur in Kashipur, as well as with a phone-jam of Alcan's office by supporters from across North America. The definite question of each of these coordinated actions asked why Alcan was being so persistent yet so secretive about a project that could displace up to 60 000 people from their homes and livelihoods.

The street theatre and phone-jam were successful in drawing out Alcan Media Relations Director Joseph Singerman, who bumbled his way through protecting the corporation's public image. He claimed that Alcan has good relations with indigenous peoples throughout the world such as in Australia, South Africa, British Columbia and Quebec, but failed to answer the question that even if there was such positive experience with indigenous groups elsewhere, why was such positivity so clearly lacking in Kashipur.

Likewise, when asked by Radio Canada journalist Aline Gobeil why Alcan was still invested in the Kashipur scheme when the Norwegian transnational Norsk Hydro had pulled out after the murders of the three villagers, Mr. Singerman only responded by saying that he could not speak to Norsk's reasons for divestment. Mr. Singerman then continued by claiming that Alcan had received no official correspondence from the government of Orissa regarding a judicial enquiry into the three December 16 murder and that Alcan would await this correspondence before making any public decision regarding its investment. This is clearly a diversion tactic since Dr SK Tamotia, President of the Indian corporation in which Alcan has a 45% share, has already spoken publicly about the report which indicates that his company, and thus Alcan, must have received official correspondence about the issue (visit www.thehindubusinessonline.com for a report of Dr. Tamotia's statements). Such tactics were typical of the uninformed Media Relations Director, who did not even realize that December 16 was the anniversary of the murders.

Clearly Alcan was shaken by this action, not knowing how to respond to a public that is better informed of the project investment than is the corporation itself. Media reports of this action can be found in the Wednesday edition of the Montreal Gazette and the news archives of Radio Canada (www.radiocanada.ca) and CKUT (www.ckut.ca).

The Alcan't in India project will be continuing this campaign in Montreal and throughout North America with several projects over the coming months. During the World Social Forum, happening in Mumbai, India, we will be reporting interviews with villagers from Kashipur and their supporters who will be attending the Forum. We will also be doing screenings of "UAIL Go Back", a Canadian-made film that documents the proposed mine and the resistance against it. Finally, we will also be organizing for a five-month youth training program which uses this issue as a means for marginalized south Asian and Aboriginal youth in Montreal to become knowledgeable about and engaged in global social-political issues.

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