cc In the face of the global economic downturn, ArcelorMittal and its Liberian employees and subcontractors are unlikely to reap the benefits of the steel company investment in iron ore production in Liberia any time soon, writes Rebecca Murray of IPS (Inter Press Service). ArcelorMittal met with the approval of watchdog Global Witness for negotiating ‘a deal that remains profitable and safeguards the interests of the host country and its people’. In the current climate, however, Liberia is reluctant to impose conditions on investors, while contractors are willing to compromise on working conditions, fearful that unionising would put their jobs in jeopardy. The company posted losses of over US$2.6 billion globally in their last quarter.

The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) will be participating in the International Colloquium on Women’s Empowerment, Leadership Development, International Peace & Security in Monrovia Liberia, 7th – 8th March, 2009. This event is co-hosted by President Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson of Liberia and President Tarja Halonen of Finland. AWDF is proud to be a co-funder and thematic lead for this innovative leadership colloquium. As part of our support for this event, AWDF will be convening a number of activities before and during the International Colloquium, as well as supporting African women leaders from around the continent to attend the Forum.

cc. As he laments Bruce ‘The Boss’ Springsteen’s willingness to cuddle up to the Bridgestone tyre corporation and mega-market Wal-Mart, Gerald Caplan explores the exploitative history of Bridgestone and its Firestone subsidiary in Liberia. Alluding to many African countries’ ‘double jeopardy’ in the shape of avaricious leaders and self-interested rich-country policies, Caplan discusses the outrageous working demands imposed upon Firestone’s rubber-tappers, demands which often see workers obliged to draft in unpaid family members in order to fulfil quotas. With the company largely impervious to the campaign of elected union leaders to improve working conditions, the author highlights the struggle of the Stop Firestone Coalition for greater labour equity.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has apologised at a truth and reconciliation commission over her backing for ex-rebel Charles Taylor. She said she had initially supported the rebel chief's war effort and even raised funds for him, but denied ever having been a member of his group. She said she had been fooled about the real intentions of Mr Taylor.

The Liberian government has signed a $2.6 billion agreement with a Chinese company, China Union, to excavate for iron ore at the country's western former Bong Mines. The agreement, signed Thursday, is said to be the biggest ever investment in Liberia.

In Liberia unemployed women who are HIV-positive face three hurdles to job security: a tough post-war economy, gender discrimination and demands at home aggravated by HIV, say social service providers and some HIV-positive women. While up to half of the estimated 100,000 HIV-positive people in Liberia are women, “little is known about how HIV is affecting vulnerable populations [women, youth, rural residents, orphans and children]”, according to a 2008 government report.

In what is being described by the United Nations as Liberia’s worst plague in 30 years, hordes of caterpillars are destroying crops and vegetation in northern areas of the country and posing a major threat to the already precarious food security situation in the country and the wider region. The situation in Liberia is a national emergency and is likely to escalate into a regional crisis involving neighbouring Guinea, Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire, according to the Representative of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Liberia, Winfred Hammond.

cc. Do refugees have a rights, or are they eternally bound to the status of victimhood and homelessness, asks Rob Cook. The severe crackdown and mass deportation by the Ghanaian authorities over a protest by Liberian refugees who demanded a larger say has highlighted the ineffective solutions provided by UNHCR, whose reaction is evidence of an outdated mode of thinking towards the problems affecting refugees around the world, the author argues.

This latest International Crisis Group report, says despite real progress since the civil war ended in 2003, much more is required to counter public dissatisfaction with the police that has resulted in increasing resort to mob justice. The lack of an agreed strategic concept for use of the new security structures, including the army, means no one knows who would defend the country if a new insurgency broke out or instability spilled over its borders from neighbours.

One night, in a country swept up in a long and harrowing armed conflict, Liberian social worker Leymah Gbowee dreamt that she gathered women together to pray for peace. Her dream was realised in 2003 at St. Peters Lutheran Church in Monrovia, when women of all walks of life gathered there to demand peace, a peace that Liberia hadn't seen in years. In the months that followed, Gbowee's dream would gain momentum.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has bestowed this year's Ceres Medal to Liberian President Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson for her work in promoting food security and agricultural development. At the 6 December ceremony in the northern Liberian town of Voinjama, Jacques Diouf, FAO Director-General, the West African nation has prioritized bolstering agriculture as part of its development efforts, despite the degradation of the farming sector following two wars.

The Government of Liberia, working in cooperation with the John Snow, Inc. Research and Training Institute (JSI R&T) and the Center for Global Development (CGD), is seeking young professionals to serve as Fellows working in various Ministries in Liberia for one year beginning in February 2009. The role of the Fellow will be to provide senior Liberian government officials with effective support in the realms of policy, speechwriting, ministerial coordination and administration (particularly in areas related to economics and finance).

The Government of Liberia, working in cooperation with the John Snow, Inc. Research and Training Institute (JSI R&T) and the Center for Global Development (CGD), is seeking a young professional with a strong legal background to serve as a Law Fellow working in the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in Liberia for one year beginning in February 2009. The role of the Fellow will be to provide timely and effective support in a wide range of areas to senior officials in Liberia’s Ministry of Justice. The Law Fellow will work primarily to promote positive change in the Liberian legal and policy landscape.

The son of former Liberian leader Charles Taylor has gone on trial in the US accused of torture. Prosecutors says Charles "Chuckie" Taylor Jr led a unit that tortured and executed government opponents in Liberia between 1999 and 2003.

The Liberian Government and the United Nations have launched a new school feeding programme in the capital Monrovia for 150,000 children going hungry because of high food prices. Another 400,000 rural school children are already benefiting from joint feeding programmes organized by the Government and the World Food Programme (WFP), according to a press statement issued by the UN

The Program Officer of the Better Life Youth Organization, Jefferson J. A. Telar has called for the inclusion of sex education in the Ministry of Education curriculum. He said if sex education forms part of the curriculum, it would minimize the high level of teenage pregnancy in the country.

Workers on the world’s largest rubber plantation owned by Firestone in Liberia will sign a new collective bargaining agreement today at a ceremony with company management and the Labor Minister of Liberia. In Firestone’s 82 year history in Liberia, this is the first time that workers have been represented by an independent and democratically elected union leadership during contract negotiations.

In a twist of realism, a new feature film, "Johnny Mad Dog", uses a cast of actual ex-child soldiers from Liberia to portray the violent lives of youth forced to participate in armed conflict. The original script was adapted from Emmanuel Dongala's acclaimed book "Johnny Chien Mechant". Johnny, 15, and his small commando unit comprised of young boys ages 6 to 15, rip through an unnamed African country, terrorising and slaying everything in their path.

This report from Liberian-based Stop Firestone coalition member, the Save My Future Foundation, details human rights, labor and environmental abuses on the Firestone rubber plantation in Liberia. The report is an update of SAMFU's 2005 report on Firestone.The report is also one of the first examinations of the role that several different security forces operating on the plantation play in violating the rights of workers, their families and communities surrounding the plantation.

A new report details a wide range of abuses occurring on a rubber plantation in Liberia owned by the Bridgestone/Firestone tire company. The report, titled “The Heavy Load: A Demand for Fundamental Changes at the Bridgestone/Firestone Rubber Plantation in Liberia” was published by Liberian-based Save My Future Foundation (SAMFU) and exposes poor living and working conditions for rubber tappers, a meager pension system, barriers to educational and health access, water and air pollution and violations of workers’ right to organize. The report is also one of the first examinations of the role that several different security forces operating on the plantation play in violating the rights of workers, their families and communities surrounding the plantation.

Robert Nyahn of the Save My Future Foundation said, “There is time for everything, the time for exploitation and abuse is over; it is now time for Firestone to clean up the ugly and unimaginable past and begin to make fundamental changes that reflect a company committed to contributing to the growth and development of a developing country. With our hands joined together we will no longer accept this kind of evil.”

Emira Woods, co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studiessaid, “This groundbreaking report shows that the heaviest load in Firestone’s largest rubber operation is still being born by the women and children of Liberia. After 82 years of exploitation masked by a massive public relations campaign, Firestone must be held accountable for its continued violations of worker rights and abuse of the environment. Liberian workers and future generations need good corporate neighbors. Firestone can and must do better.”

Tim Newman, child labor campaigner at the International Labor Rights Forum said, “This report reveals the widespread abuse of workers’ rights on the Firestone rubber plantation in Liberia. As the first independent and democratically elected union leaders on the plantation negotiate a new contract, it is important that Firestone take the demands of workers and their allies to heart. Eighty two years of exploitation is enough and the time is now for a new day on Firestone’s rubber plantation in Liberia.”

Firestone has operated the world’s largest rubber plantation in Harbel, Liberia since 1926. As the report shows, rubber tappers have a daily production quota they must meet in order to receive their daily wage which is just over $3 a day. As a result of the unreasonably high quota, workers must bring family members to work with them or hire subcontractors using their meager salaries. Additionally, workers must carry two 75-pound buckets of raw latex on sticks on their shoulders and work without protective gear. Workers live in crowded shacks without electricity, running water, indoor latrines.

The new report is a follow up to SAMFU’s 2005 report on human rights violations and environmental abuses on the Firestone rubber plantation called “Firestone: The Mark of Modern Slavery.”

*The complete report can be read online by clicking .

*Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at http://www.pambazuka.org/