Young Alternative Party writes open letter to council

The Young Alternative Party of Zug has written an open letter to the council in Baar complaining about the choice of a speaker on the occasion of Switzerland’s National Day on 1 August.

The speaker in question is Gerda Schwindt, the head of human resources at the Glencore mining and commodity-trading company, which has its headquarters in the municipality.

According to the Young Alternatives, it is a strange and dangerous sign if a municipality in the canton of Zug provides the company with such a platform as it would lead to the 1 August celebrations becoming politicised in a one-sided way, as the council must be aware.

The Young Alternatives further pointed out that it is only recently that Glencore faced possible investigation by the US justice authorities in connection with alleged corruption and money-laundering and demanding it handed over documents relating to its activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Venezuela and Nigeria.

Hence the Young Alternatives felt that, if Schwindt were to speak, at least someone else should be invited in addition, to present an alternative standpoint, and in this regard they suggested someone from  the Corporate Responsibility Initiative, which is calling for multi-national concerns to apply higher levels of accountability when it comes to upholding human rights and protection of the environment in the areas where they operate.