SumOfUs.org is a new world-wide movement for a better global economy.
from Sumofus.org
ONTARIO, July 3, 2013 — More than 140,000 consumers in Canada and across the globe are joining with the global corporate watchdog, SumOfUs.org demanding that Nestlé cut back on water pumping during drought conditions for their operations in Aberfoyle, Ontario.
from Sumofus.org
Trigger Warning: This page includes descriptions of the abuses suffered by rape victims.
Years after being sexually assaulted by Barrick Gold security staff, gang rape victims are finally being offered counselling and micro loans — but only if they waive their right to sue the world’s largest gold company.
from Sumofus.org
If Prime Minister Harper gets his way, the government will have more control over the CBC than it's ever had in the CBC’s 80-year history. This week, the Harper government snuck sweeping changes to the CBC deep into the last section of the budget — on page 109 — granting it disturbing powers to directly control and interfere with our national broadcaster.
Please sign and share our urgent petition to Prime Minister Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to keep their hands off our national public broadcaster.
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from SumofUs
Nigella sativa — more commonly known as fennel flower — has been used as a cure-all remedy for over a thousand years. It treats everything from vomiting to fevers to skin diseases, and has been widely available in impoverished communities across the Middle East and Asia. But now Nestlé is claiming to own it, and filing patent claims around the world to try to take control over the natural cure of the fennel flower and turn it into a costly private drug.
In a paper published last year, Nestlé scientists claimed to “discover” what much of the world has known for millennia: that nigella sativa extract could be used for “nutritional interventions in humans with food allergy.” But instead of creating an artificial substitute, or fighting to make sure the remedy was widely available, Nestlé is attempting to create a nigella sativa monopoly and gain the ability to sue anyone using it without Nestlé’s permission. Nestlé has filed patent applications — which are currently pending — around the world.
Prior to Nestlé's outlandish patent claim, researchers in developing nations such as Egypt and Pakistan had already published studies on the same curative powers Nestlé is claiming as its own. And Nestlé has done this before — in 2011, it tried to claim credit for using cow’s milk as a laxative, despite the fact that such knowledge had been in Indian medical texts for a thousand years.
This isn't surprising, considering Nestlé has a long track record of not caring about ethics. After all, this is the corporation that poisoned its milk with melamine, purchases cocoa from plantations that use child slave labor, and launched a breast milk substitute campaign in the 1970s that contributed to the suffering and deaths of thousands of babies from poor communities.
But we also know that Nestlé is sensitive to public outcry, and that it's been beaten at the patent game before. If we act fast, we can put enough pressure on Nestlé to get it to drop its patent plans before they harm anyone. But if we want any chance at affecting Nestlé's decision, we have to speak out now, while its patent claims are still under review.
Thanks for all you do,
Melanie, Claiborne and the team at SumOfUs.org
Tell Nestlé: Stop trying to patent a natural cure!
Don’t let Nestlé turn a traditional cure into a corporate cash cow.
Reference
Business Standard, April 4, 2013: Nestlé claims patent on medical use of black cumin or kalaunji
Third World Network (PDF), July 6, 2012: Food giant Nestlé claims to have invented stomach soothing use of habbat al-barakah (Nigella sativa)
from Sumofus
Bayer, the global chemical company, is manufacturing a chemical that new evidence shows is killing off bees. The global die-off of bees represents an enormous danger to the planet. Thirty percent of our crops — and 90 percent of wild plants — rely on bees to thrive. Without bees, our entire global food supply is in serious trouble.
Bayer has paid for biased research that “proves” its chemical isn’t a problem. But now independent scientists in Europe have discovered that Bayer’s chemical is a high risk to bees.
The dangerous chemical Bayer makes is a neonicotinoid. Neonicotonoids are soaked into seeds, spreading through the plant and killing insects stopping for a snack.
The chances are high that most of us reading this email have bought a Bayer product at least once. The company makes everything from Alka-Seltzer to Berocca to flea treatments for pets.
Bayer knows that it needs to keep its customers happy. If it realises that its customers are up in the arms about the European research findings that show their chemical is killing bees, it will have to put its chemical from the market.
Tell Bayer it needs to pull its bee-poisoning pesticide off the market now.
The dangerous chemical Bayer makes is a neonicotinoid. Neonicotonoids are soaked into seeds, spreading through the plant and killing insects stopping for a snack. These pesticides can easily be replaced by different chemicals which don’t soak so deeply into our crops. But companies like Bayer make a fortune from selling neonicotinoids — so they’ll do everything they can to protect their profit.
It’s not just bees that are hurt by these chemicals. Research on rats found that neonicotinoids may also hurt human health, especially the developing brain. But as with the bees, we don’t know as much as we should about the health hazards, because companies like Bayer spend millions on research which muddies the water with biased studies. For Bayer, people’s health plays a distant second to their huge profits.
Members of the European Parliament are calling for an outright ban on these toxic chemicals. But we don't know when or if they'll pass the ban, and Bayer's global reach threatens bees across the planet. That's why we need to use our power as citizen-consumers to push Bayer to pull the poison now.
from SumofUs
For fifty years Walmart has been fighting a war against workers, driving down wages and crushing attempts to organize around the world. But just this week, an incredible new chapter opened in the fight against Walmart's race-to-the-bottom economics — workers in Walmart’s California and Chicago warehouses have gone on strike.
Workers are sick of working in 100+-degree heat without access to clean water, they’re sick of poverty wages, and most of all, they’re sick of being ignored by management. So this week, dozens of workers have walked off the job, and the ones in California are marching 50 miles to Walmart’s to downtown Los Angeles to confront some of Walmart top executives. By the time they arrive, we want the workers (and the bosses) to know that thousands of people around the world are standing with them.
Support the warehouse workers' courageous stand: Tell Walmart to come to the table and improve working conditions.
Every year, Walmart ships hundreds of millions of tons of goods from Asia, through warehouses in the southern California desert and outside Chicago, and then on to local stores. Conditions in those warehouses are scandalous. UCLA’s Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program has found that 63 percent of workers have been hurt on the job.
UCLA’s Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program has found that 63 percent of workers have been hurt on the job.
Investigations by California state regulators have led to numerous citations and fines for breaking labor laws for the companies that manage the warehouses.As long as Walmart can escape responsibility for its suppliers’ behavior, there will be no systematic changes at the warehouses.
Walmart may not hire the warehouse workers directly, but it built the warehouses and hired subcontractors to manage them. And since 90 percent of goods moving through these warehouses are destined for Walmart, the world’s largest corporation clearly has the power to raise standards throughout the industry.
Since 90 percent of goods moving through these warehouses are destined for Walmart, the world’s largest corporation clearly has the power to raise standards throughout the industry.
Workers have tried to meet with Walmart executive before, but they've been ignored. Now they're doing something that can't be ignored. They don’t have an officially recognized union, so they’re taking on a substantial risk by going out on strike. But the workers understand that by taking a stand, they’re challenging a business model that has made life worse for millions of workers around the globe.
As a community, we’ve taken on Walmart before. Thousands of us shared an infographic about Walmart’s devastating impact on the global economy, and tens of thousands of us have spoken out against abusive conditions in Walmart’s Thai suppliers. Let’s let Walmart know that every time workers fight back against its destructive business model, we’ll be standing with the workers.
Tell Walmart: take responsibility for conditions in your warehouses and meet with the warehouse workers. *****************************************************************************
MORE INFORMATION
Warehouse Workers United blog The Guardian,
Walmart supplier NFI's warehouse workers strike over working conditions, 13 September 2012
BREAKING NEWS! Wal-mart warehouse workers declare victory!
