The Mobile Social Congress discusses a fairer electronics industry
The Mobile Social Congress, an alternative congress promoting a fairer electronics industry, took place on Tuesday 23 February in the afternoon at Casinet d'Hostafrancs in Barcelona. It is an initiative led by SETEM, Electronics Watch's partner in Spain, in collaboration with several organizations, including Amnesty International Catalonia, the Catalan network of organisation for the Democratic Republic of Congo, Fairphone, the telecommunications cooperative Eticom, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and the open telecommunications network Guifinet.
The event was created as an alternative to the Mobile World Congress, the annual industry meeting point hosted by the city of Barcelona every year with wide international media coverage. The Mobile Social Congress featured a diverse program that both exposed and presented alternatives to the global electronics industry through round table discussions, video projections, an exhibition, an Install Party and a Restart Party. The congress went through the topics of conflict minerals in the Democratic Republic of Congo, labour rights violations at the production plants of Asian manufacturers, planned obsolescence, e-waste, free software, free knowledge and open telecommunications.