Barcelona (EFE).- The Mobile Social Congress (MSC), the social alternative to the Mobile World Congress promoted by SETEM Catalonia since 2016, gives voice to injustices and violations of human rights in the technology sector, according to this report. Thursday at a press conference from the organization.
In the eighth edition of the MSC, which has the support of the Barcelona City Council and is held from March 2 to 4, SETEM Catalonia will give a voice to those affected and social activists in mining areas where the extractive industry of materials for the manufacture of mobile devices.
The MSC will be held in the context of one of the most important microelectronics gatherings in Europe, the Mobile World Congress, which will attract between eighty and one hundred thousand executives from technology-related companies, as reported by the City Council’s Director of Global Justice from Barcelona, David Llistar.
The technician of the ‘Electrónica Justa’ campaign of SETEM Catalonia, Claudia Bosch, has said that “we cannot forget how this technology is produced”, which generates “millions of electronic waste” and a “very uneven impact in the north and south Global”.
For his part, Llistar added that “electronics is a sector that reproduces and reinforces the scheme of injustice of globalization of our times”.
“It is essential to make injustice visible in order to address it; We continue to be inundated with this pleasant vision of globalization, a version that is far removed from reality”, Llistar considered.
Poor working conditions in the Philippines
This year the Mobile Social Congress will give voice on March 2 to the “precarious working conditions” in the Philippines, where this year “the red lists have been renewed and union leaders and human rights activists are persecuted and assassinated”, according to Bosch, just like in Thailand and Malaysia.
In addition, they will allocate a space to the impact of extractivism in areas of Africa and South America, such as the Republic of Congo and Bolivia.
In this sense, Bosch has indicated that the impact on the extraction of certain minerals is not only caused by the electronics industry but also by the industry associated with the energy transition, photovoltaic energy or electric vehicles.
For his part, Llistar has denounced the lack of global justice regulation: “A company may be complying with the laws of Barcelona and violating human rights in the Congo; it is one of the paradoxes of our current system”.
Both Llistar and Bosch have explained that digitization “is not something ethereal”, but is linked to material elements and people that must be taken into account, so the transparency of supply chains must be guaranteed.
On the last day of the MSC, Saturday 4 March, there will be hands-on workshops for all ages on repairing and installing free software and applications, and a responsible consumer games workshop for children.
“The Mobile Social Congress wants to create an alternative space for all ages, to reflect on social and environmental impacts and to make technology a fairer and more responsible sector”, explained Bosch.
The Mobile Social Congress will start with an ‘ARTivismo’ action on February 27 at 9 am at the gates of the Fira de Barcelona, where the Mobile World Congress is held.