Stop-Pillage is a coalition of organizations, groups and individuals. We oppose the North’s system of capturing the wealth of the Global South and its disastrous human and environmental consequences. Every year, the Financial Times Commodities Global Summit brings together the heads of the world’s biggest trading companies and representatives of the financial and banking world at the Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne. We vigorously condemn this summit, which symbolizes the imperialist policy of the leaders of the biggest companies in Switzerland, who benefit from the complicity of political authorities. Stop-Pillage will be taking its demands to various events, including a counter-summit and demonstration on the 6th and 7th of April 2024 to denounce the systematic exploitation of natural resources in the countries of the Global South, the racialized and inhumane treatment of indigenous populations, and the ecological effects on indigenous lands. We will join together in a protest to demonstrate our opposition to the multinationals complicit in extractivism and affirm our support for the people fighting against imperialism and globalized capitalism.
Around 70% of the world’s gold, 50% of its grain, 40% of its coal and 35% of its oil is traded by companies based in Switzerland, making the country a major trading hub. In recent years, the profits generated by commodity trading have exploded, thanks to geopolitical, health, energy and environmental crises. The global pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and inflation are creating major disruptions to the international market, to the benefit of traders and shareholders who are complicit in social and environmental disasters, while people around the world bear the brunt of rising prices. For example, the Zug-based multinational Glencore has seen its profits increase tenfold between 2021 and 2022, from 1.2 billion to 12 billion dollars.
The « opportunities » created by these crises are precisely the theme of the 13th International Commodities Trading Summit, scheduled to take place from the 8th to 10th of April 2024 at the Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne. The location is not insignificant, considering Swiss-based trading companies are the world’s leading commodity traders. They remotely manage and control trade in agricultural, mining and oil goods. In this way, the goods traded do not have to touch Swiss soil. Our lifestyles in the North are based on exploitation of the South and deprive local populations of their income, as well as power over their own land. The importance of the trading sector in Switzerland is due to the many advantages enjoyed by companies in the Swiss tax haven, including very low taxes, low levels of regulation, a lack of transparency, a leading financial center, and so-called “neutrality”.
Speculators are making billions on the backs of the people.
Take to the streets against Swiss imperialism!