MOBILIZATION FOR THE GLOBAL DAY AGAINST GLENCORE
Location: Théâtre Casino Zoug, Artherstrasse 2-4, Zoug (Canton Zug – Switzerland)
Date: May 28, 2025
Time: 11:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m. CET
Glencore is one of the largest mining companies in the world, extracting coal, cobalt, copper, crude oil and other minerals and metals from more than 35 countries [1].
Far from being concerned by protecting the environment nor human rights, the anglo-swiss company is responsible for massive destruction and widespread violence such as land grabbing, air, land and water pollution and peoples’ displacement from their land causing direct threat to their existence [2, 3].
The company is alleged to have financed paramilitaries for the repression of trade unions and movements that challenge their deadly practices [4-8], as well as exploiting children in DRC’s cobalt and copper mines [9, 10]. Moreover, Glencore is subject to bribery and corruption charges in the UK, US and Brazil for multiple operation in DRC, Nigeria, Venezuela and other countries [11-15], while they do not hesitate to sue state that tries to implement environmental protection [16] when it is alone responsible for about 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions [17, 18].
Everywhere it digs, Glencore leaves behind devastation and death. Operating mainly in destabilized countries in the Global South, it perpetrates with impunity thanks to the North-South unequal global order, an order that the company actively maintains.
Apart from Glencore’s extraction model, the company is also actively fuelling the genocide of the Palestinian people since more than a year and a half. Glencore is at the heart of the coal trade towards Israel, shipping 1,5 million tons of coal [19] in 2023 from Colombia, Russia and South Africa among its largest suppliers. In 2023, the Israeli power grid depended on coal for 17.5% of its output [20], supplying electricity to Israel’s illegal settlements and military infrastructure powering the genocide against Palestinians. In complete defiance of the peoples’ strident call for economic sanctions, Glencore abuses private investment arbitration tribunals and connections with governments to suffocate all attempts to legally suspend trade with the genocidal state of Israel.
Glencore is an example of how much violence resides behind every transaction and extraction process, of how much our system relies on a violent neocolonial and imperialist global order that let them exploit, plunder and destroy over and over.
Benefits from this firm contribute to our daily lives in Switzerland, and our quality of life cannot be at the expense of that of others and built on destructive practices. As part of the Swiss civil society, it is our moral duty and responsibility to take action against Glencore, to organize ourselves to fight for justice and reparations and end these death policies and economies.
Join us in this fight against the impunity of multinationals such as Glencore, join the mobilization for the Global Day of Action against Glencore in Zug, in front of Glencore’s AGM on the 28th of May 2025, from 11am to 1.30pm!
[1] https://www.glencore.com/world-map
[2] https://multiwatch.ch/content/uploads/2017/10/mw-buch-milliarden-mit-rohstoffen-en.pdf
[4] https://www.kolko.net/aktuelles/glencore-a-critical-fact-sheet/
[5] https://colombiareports.com/mining-companies-financed-paramilitaries-colombia-report/
[8] https://www.ituc-csi.org/glencore-en
[10] https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/afr62/3183/2016/en/; This is What We Die For: Human Rights Abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Power the Global Trade in Cobalt”
Note: Additionally, a 2016 Amnesty International report documented hazardous child labor in the DRC’s cobalt mines, with children as young as seven working in perilous conditions. While Glencore has stated that it does not tolerate child labor and does not purchase artisanally mined cobalt or copper, the complexities of supply chains in the region make it challenging to ensure complete oversight.
Note: Glencore has admitted to extensive bribery and corruption across multiple countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Nigeria, Venezuela, Brazil, and several African nations. Between 2007 and 2018, the company and its subsidiaries paid over $100 million in bribes to secure preferential access to oil and mining contracts. These illicit payments were made through intermediaries and sham consulting agreements, often involving high-level government officials. In the DRC alone, Glencore admitted to paying approximately $27.5 million in bribes to officials to gain improper business advantages.
(Glencore ordered to pay $152mn to resolve Swiss bribery probe: https://www.ft.com/content/b3f5a10c-d44c-4d00-aff5-3649e15f152b)
[11] https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61567403
[12] https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63858295
[13] https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61857005
Note: In 2022, Glencore pleaded guilty to multiple counts of bribery and market manipulation in the United States, United Kingdom, and Brazil, resulting in over $1.5 billion in fines and penalties. The UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) found that Glencore paid more than $25 million in bribes across five African countries, including Nigeria, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast, to secure oil contracts.
[16] https://www.alliancesud.ch/en/glencore-sues-colombia-over-cerrejon-mine
Note: Glencore has initiated legal actions against states that have implemented environmental protections impacting its operations. A notable instance is Glencore’s lawsuit against the Colombian government. In 2017, the Colombian Constitutional Court ruled against the diversion of the Arroyo Bruno river, a decision aimed at safeguarding the rights of Indigenous communities and the environment. In response, Glencore filed a claim with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), asserting that the court’s decision violated the investment protection agreement between Colombia and Switzerland.
Note: Glencore’s operations have a significant impact on global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. According to a 2022 report by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR), Glencore’s annual emissions amount to approximately 280 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent, which constitutes about 0.6% of total global emissions. Notably, coal accounts for 90% of these emissions. In 2023, Glencore reported total emissions of 432.8 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent, encompassing Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.
[19] Data for 2023 (1 January – 31 December) and 2023-24 (8 October – 20 May)
collected from Kpler terminal.
[20] Data on Israel’s power consumption from Ember’s Electricity Data Explorer tool https://ember-energy.org/data/electricity-data-explorer/
