Category: BASF

76 NGOs call on the EU to prohibit the export of banned pesticides and the import of food produced with these chemicals

Open letter signed by 76 Civil Society Organisations sent to European Commission Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans and Commissioners of Health, Environment and Agriculture

Dear First Executive Vice President,
Dear Commissioners,

We, the undersigned civil society organisations, are writing to ask you to prohibit not only the export of hazardous pesticides that are banned in the EU, but also the import of food and agricultural goods produced with such pesticides outside the EU.

Export of banned pesticides

In July this year, 36 United Nations human rights experts issued a statement calling on the EU and other wealthy nations to end the “deplorable” practice of exporting banned toxic chemicals, including pesticides, to poorer countries with weaker regulations. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/basf-se/76-ngos-call-on-the-eu-to-prohibit-the-export-of-banned-pesticides-and-the-import-of-food-produced-with-these-chemicals/

For corporations like BASF, a supply chain law is needed

Protests on the occasion the Annual General Meeting on 18 June

“Transparency and human rights in the BASF supply chain – Now!”
Protest in Ludwigshafen, Germany in the run-up to the BASF AGM 2020

Ludwigshafen, Heidelberg, Cologne, Hamburg, Johannesburg, Berlin – This year’s virtual Annual Meeting of BASF on June 18 will be accompanied by protests outside the company’s headquarters in Ludwigshafen and online. The international network Plough Back the Fruits is calling for a binding supply chain law that will finally get companies like BASF to address human rights violations in their global supply chains. In view of the Corona pandemic, the network is asking BASF to forego the payment of a dividend. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/basf-se/for-corporations-like-basf-a-supply-chain-law-is-needed/

Countermotions

Re agenda item 2: Adoption of a resolution on the appropriation of profit

The Association of Ethical Shareholders Germany proposes that no dividend be distributed. Instead, the entire profit retained for 2019 is to be used as a provision for

  • for a fund to combat the corona pandemic and mitigate its economic consequences
  • for the creation of added value for society;
  • for maintaining jobs instead of reducing them;
  • for the establishment of a fund to compensate the widows, survivors and injured in the Marikana massacre

Rationale:

In the middle of the corona crisis, which is accompanied by great uncertainty for the economy and society, BASF SE wants to increase the dividend from 3.20 to 3.30 euros per share. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/basf-se/countermotions/

“We have hope”: Speech from Jo Seoka

Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to participate in your AGM. I am Johannes Seoka, former Bishop of the Anglican Church in Diocese of Pretoria in the Anglican Church of South Africa for 18 years. I am here representing and speaking on behalf of the Plough Back the Fruits Campaign constituted by South African, European and British network.

Last year Mr Bock cynically asked me not to come back this year. In fact, this is the major reason of being here today. I must say that though I was offended by his attitude, I decided to be forgiving and to be optimistic about our relationship for the sake of those who have entrusted me with the responsibility to speak on their behalf. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/basf-se/we-have-hope-speech-from-jo-seoka/

“Entangled history of violent exploitation of nature and labour in Africa”: speech from Daniel Selwyn

Good afternoon. My name is Daniel Selwyn and I’m here to represent the London-based Marikana Solidarity Collective, which includes London Mining Network, War on Want, the Pan-Afrikan Society Community Forum, the Marikana Miners Solidarity Campaign, and the collective Decolonising Environmentalism of which I am a member. Before I ask some questions about your primary platinum supplier Lonmin, I would like to pay my respects to Bishop Jo Seoka and Andries Nkome here today, who have been such tireless advocates for the Marikana community, as well as to those who cannot be here with us today: from the women of Sikhala Sonke and those left widowed by the massacre, to the mineworkers injured, illegally arrested and still imprisoned, to the millions of Africans who been murdered for the accumulation of profit over centuries. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/basf-se/entangled-history-of-violent-exploitation-of-land-and-raw-materials-in-africa-speech-from-daniel-selwyn/

BASF: Massive job losses at platinum supplier Lonmin in South Africa

  • Notorious mining company Sibanye-Stillwater wants to take over Lonmin
  • Threat of massive job losses exacerbates precarious living conditions in Marikana
  • International Campaign calls on BASF to agree steps to improve living and working conditions across its supply chain

At BASF’s Annual General Meeting on May 3 in Mannheim, the South African-European campaign Plough Back the Fruits will condemn the German chemical company for neglecting human rights in its business relations with South Africa.

Almost seven years after the Marikana Massacre, where over a hundred miners were shot by the police, killing 34, working and living conditions remain unacceptable at Lonmin, BASF’s most important platinum supplier. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/basf-se/basf-mass-job-losses-at-platinum-supplier-lonmin-in-south-africa/

Countermotion

Re agenda item 3: Approval to the actions of the members of the Supervisory Board

Ethical Shareholders Germany requests that no formal approval should be given to the actions of the members of the Supervisory Board.

Rationale:

The Supervisory Board has performed its task as the controlling body of the Board of Executive Directors only inadequately. BASF’s actions to date are not sufficient to make an effective contribution to achieving the goals of the UN Sustainable Development Agenda 2030, the UN Global Compact and the National Action Plan for Business and Human Rights of the federal German government, to which BASF has committed itself. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/basf-se/countermotion-2019/

African raw materials for Germany. BASF as an example of supply chain responsibility

Event with Bishop Jo Seoka 2 May 2019, 7pm at VHS Heidelberg

In 2012 over 3000 South African miners went on strike in Marikana. The mining company Lonmin has been refusing to comply with the binding social plan for years. But the strike was brutally ended by the police and 34 workers died in a hail of bullets. BASF buys a large part of the platinum extracted in Marikana to use as catalysts, but rejects responsibility for the strike and its consequences, although it was fully aware of the workers’ situation – this was the only way platinum could be so cheap. Weiterlesen

Permanent link to this article: https://www.kritischeaktionaere.de/en/lonmin-plc/african-raw-materials-for-germany-basf-as-an-example-of-supply-chain-responsibility/