Upside Down World has a good article on Ecuador’s near-total mining freeze that we recommend anyone interested in South American mining issues should read. The gist of it is that on April 15, Ecuador’s Constitutional Assembly passed a law canceling 88 percent of mining concessions in the country, including all large metal mines.
The Assembly has [...]

The vulnerability of major industrial materials to even short-term disruptions is highlighted by an article on the woes of Codelco Copper, the world’s largest copper producer. A two-week strike at three mines in Chile has reduced the company’s output by 41 percent (19,000 tons), costing it $100 million as of April 29.
Copper prices reached record [...]

Crude oil prices jumped to record levels above $117/barrel after indigenous Nigerian rebels attacked three oil pipelines and unknown persons fired a rocket at a Japanese oil tanker in the Middle East.
Oil jumped above $116/barrel after the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) announced its sabotage of an oil pipeline at the [...]

Another reminder of how serious our situation is, highlighting the need to take down the system:
The emission of carbon dioxide between increased by 3.1 percent per year between 2000 and 2006, with 8.38 gigatons released in 2006. The “worst case scenario” in the 2000 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assumed only a [...]

Highlighting the need of people around the world to free themselves from dependence on the system, a UN report has called for a shift to natural, local farming as necessary to avert a burgeoning world food crisis. The UNESCO study’s three conclusions after reviewing the state of world agriculture were:
• Technological advances in agriculture have [...]

The following article from Upside Down World is a good example of how even “leftist” governments impose devastating infrastructure projects by force, for the benefit of an export-import-oriented global economy. It’s all one system.
Protesters Target Canada’s Iamgold in Ecuador
by Teresa Velasquez
Tuesday, 08 April 2008
Residents from the southern Ecuadorian province of Azuay used rocks and burning [...]

Visit our Fact Sheet page and take a look at articles on how infrastructure relates to issues including labor, migration, the environment, indigenous sovereignty, global warming, latin american solidarity, imperialism and free trade. Also includes a Root Force Strategy primer for progressives and an article on what the system is and why it should be [...]

Global oil prices leaped up past $108/barrel after Iraqi insurgents bombed a pipeline near the southern export hub of Basra. Initial estimates said that the loss of the single pipeline might cut Basra’s exports by one-third.
The price of oil went down again when it became clear that the damage to the pipeline was not as [...]