What do Cape Breton and Colombia have in common? Coal, for one thing. Coal mining was the backbone of Cape Breton's industrial economy for more than one hundred years, but the last mine was closed in 2001 when the province's utility company took advantage of neoliberal globalization by importing coal-from Colombia. Colombia and Cape Breton represent the loss of well-paid, unionized industrial jobs as a result of neoliberal globalization-the economic hegemony that allows multinational corporations in the global North, primarily North America and Europe, to exploit the natural resources and cheap labour of the global South: Latin America, Africa and Asia. But the commonalities between Cape Breton and Colombia do not end with coal, there are numerous connections directly related to the capitalist system: militant labour struggles, repression, economic insecurity, population displacement, social inequality and environmental devastation. The Failure of Global Capitalism uses the examples of Cape Breton and Colombia to illustrate the harsh realities suffered by people throughout the global North and the global South under neoliberal globalization, particularly with regard to socio-economic and environmental issues. Ultimately, it exposes the failure of industrial capitalism, and looks toward more sustainable and egalitarian alternatives.

The Failure of Global Capitalism: From Cape Breton to Colombia and Beyond

Business & Money

Terry Gibbs

Garry Leech

Economics

Nimbus Publishing (CN)

Le capitalisme, un génocide structurel : Les mécanismes meurtriers de la mondialisation néolibérale

Le Retour Aux Sources

This book, as the title states, is about the people behind Colombian coal. More precisely, it is about the people behind the coal produced at El Cerrejon, the world s largest open-pit coal mine in La Guajira in northern Colombia. But the term people behind Colombian coal does not only refer to the mining companies that exploit this natural resource in Colombia; it has a much broader meaning. This book aims to illustrate how the multinational mining companies that own El Cerrejon profit at the expense of the people of the Guajira region whose plight has remained hidden behind the Colombian coal that many of us in North America and Europe rely on to generate our electricity. 
Since the Cerrejon Mine opened in 1983, initially as a joint venture between Exxon and the Colombian state, its operations and constant expansion have forcibly displaced indigenous Wayuu and Afro-Colombian communities. The reports and articles in this book, written by various Colombians, North Americans and Europeans familiar with the issue, document this process and the human rights and environmental consequences.

The People Behind Colombian Coal

Steve Striffler

Aviva Chomsky

Casa Editorial Pisando Callos

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Books by Garry Leech