The North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee Blog
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Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Salem News/Published: 10/23/2006
Salem State professor fights for justice at Colombian coal mine
By Tom Dalton
Staff writer
SALEM - Avi Chomsky is trying to connect the dots between the Salem Harbor Station power plant and coal mines in Colombia where human rights violations have been alleged.
Over the past few years, the Salem State history professor, working with others, brought the South American country right to Salem. She hosted union officials and villagers, who met with two Salem mayors and left with City Council resolutions supporting their struggle.
Last summer, Chomsky, 49, was part of a group that made a fact-finding trip to Colombia to collect information on an open-pit mine that supplied coal to the Salem plant and its impact on villagers who were forced to move when the mine expanded. Those indigenous farmers still have not been relocated or compensated for their losses, she said.
On Halloween day, Chomsky will leave for Colombia with medical personnel and a representative from Amnesty International, the worldwide human rights movement. They will observe the start of contract negotiations at the Cerrejon coal mine, a producer of low-sulphur coal that has been burned at the Salem power plant.
Cerrejon, which is 30 miles long and 5 miles wide, is located on a remote peninsula in a northeast corner of Colombia and is one of the world's largest open-pit mines. Dust from the plant has caused health problems in the area, according to Chomsky.
"We want to raise our voices to protest some of the conditions under which the coal is being produced," she said.
For its part, Dominion, the Virginia owner of the Salem plant, says it used to buy Cerrejon coal for the Salem plant, but doesn't any longer.
"We have not burned any coal from that mine since we did a test burn back in 2005," said Dan Genest, a Dominion spokesman in Virginia. That coal, he said. "does not allow us to meet our emission standards" in Massachusetts, which has strict regulations.
Dominion, however, said it buys coal from other Colombian mines for the Salem plant, and did send six shipments this year from Cerrejon to its Brayton Point power plant in Somerset. Those shipments, though, have stopped.
"We do not have any contracts at that mine for any of our New England facilities," Genest said.
Chomsky, a Salem resident, and the other activists are arriving at the Cerrejon mine right before the start of negotiations, which can be a tense time. The talks include a union demand to improve conditions for displaced villagers, who are largely poor indigenous people and Afro-Colombians.
"Being a union activist in Colombia is a very dangerous profession," said Chomsky, who heads the Latino and Caribbean Studies program at Salem State and has written extensively about the region. "Colombia has the highest level of assassinations and disappearances among unionists around the world. The danger is always heightened during the negotiations period."
In 2001, two union officials were killed at another Colombian mine where Dominion buys coal for Salem, Chomsky said.
The group of about a dozen human rights activists will meet with the president of the Cerrejon mine, attend union meetings and conduct health assessments of children and adults in the area.
They have asked Dominion to sign a letter of support for mine workers and to send a representative to investigate conditions.
"We're not asking them to stop purchasing Colombian coal," said Chomsky. "We're asking them to take a stand for human rights."
Repeating a statement it made earlier this year, Dominion called for a "just resolution" of the dispute.
www.HealthLink.org
781-598-1115
HealthLink's mission is to protect public health by reducing and eliminating environmental toxins through education, research and community action.
----------------------------------------
North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee: http://home.comcast.net/~nscolombia/
Salem State professor fights for justice at Colombian coal mine
By Tom Dalton
Staff writer
SALEM - Avi Chomsky is trying to connect the dots between the Salem Harbor Station power plant and coal mines in Colombia where human rights violations have been alleged.
Over the past few years, the Salem State history professor, working with others, brought the South American country right to Salem. She hosted union officials and villagers, who met with two Salem mayors and left with City Council resolutions supporting their struggle.
Last summer, Chomsky, 49, was part of a group that made a fact-finding trip to Colombia to collect information on an open-pit mine that supplied coal to the Salem plant and its impact on villagers who were forced to move when the mine expanded. Those indigenous farmers still have not been relocated or compensated for their losses, she said.
On Halloween day, Chomsky will leave for Colombia with medical personnel and a representative from Amnesty International, the worldwide human rights movement. They will observe the start of contract negotiations at the Cerrejon coal mine, a producer of low-sulphur coal that has been burned at the Salem power plant.
Cerrejon, which is 30 miles long and 5 miles wide, is located on a remote peninsula in a northeast corner of Colombia and is one of the world's largest open-pit mines. Dust from the plant has caused health problems in the area, according to Chomsky.
"We want to raise our voices to protest some of the conditions under which the coal is being produced," she said.
For its part, Dominion, the Virginia owner of the Salem plant, says it used to buy Cerrejon coal for the Salem plant, but doesn't any longer.
"We have not burned any coal from that mine since we did a test burn back in 2005," said Dan Genest, a Dominion spokesman in Virginia. That coal, he said. "does not allow us to meet our emission standards" in Massachusetts, which has strict regulations.
Dominion, however, said it buys coal from other Colombian mines for the Salem plant, and did send six shipments this year from Cerrejon to its Brayton Point power plant in Somerset. Those shipments, though, have stopped.
"We do not have any contracts at that mine for any of our New England facilities," Genest said.
Chomsky, a Salem resident, and the other activists are arriving at the Cerrejon mine right before the start of negotiations, which can be a tense time. The talks include a union demand to improve conditions for displaced villagers, who are largely poor indigenous people and Afro-Colombians.
"Being a union activist in Colombia is a very dangerous profession," said Chomsky, who heads the Latino and Caribbean Studies program at Salem State and has written extensively about the region. "Colombia has the highest level of assassinations and disappearances among unionists around the world. The danger is always heightened during the negotiations period."
In 2001, two union officials were killed at another Colombian mine where Dominion buys coal for Salem, Chomsky said.
The group of about a dozen human rights activists will meet with the president of the Cerrejon mine, attend union meetings and conduct health assessments of children and adults in the area.
They have asked Dominion to sign a letter of support for mine workers and to send a representative to investigate conditions.
"We're not asking them to stop purchasing Colombian coal," said Chomsky. "We're asking them to take a stand for human rights."
Repeating a statement it made earlier this year, Dominion called for a "just resolution" of the dispute.
www.HealthLink.org
781-598-1115
HealthLink's mission is to protect public health by reducing and eliminating environmental toxins through education, research and community action.
------------------------------
North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee: http://home.comcast.net/
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