‘Guerilla Ballet’ disrupts BP-sponsored opera event in Trafalgar Square
Swan Lake ballet dancer smeared with oil
Wednesday 13th July, 2011 – For immediate release
For further information and photos contact Jess Worth from the UK Tar Sands Network on 07807095669 and for interviews with the prima ballerina, contact Emily Coats 07831383866.
Three ballet dancers interrupted BP’s third and final Summer Screen in Trafalgar Square[1], 30 minutes before the scheduled broadcast of the opera Cinderella began. The disturbance took the form of a short piece of dance based on Swan Lake [2], with the classic tale used as analogy for BP’s controversial investment in the Canadian tar sands [3],[4]. The performance featured the White Swan being smeared by an oily substance and suffocated with a cloth. The crowd of opera-lovers were very receptive, greeting the grand finale with applause and cheers.
Charlie Byers, who played the prince, explained: “The tar sands are one of the biggest threats to the future of our climate [5]; they are also destroying local communities and wildlife, trampling indigenous rights, and running Canada out of water and natural gas. It is a key time to pressure BP to withdraw, as the corporation has already substantially invested in the tar sands but will not start profiting for years to come.”
Emily Coats, a campaigner with the UK Tar Sands Network, who played the White Swan Odette, said: “Most people have never heard of tar sands, and BP would be happy to keep it that way. We used classical dance – an unusual campaigning medium – to introduce the issue to a new audience. The performance was meant to be enjoyed, but also to shock, with a visible struggle between a vulnerable creature and a powerful oil giant.”
Will McCallum, of campaign group Art of Activism, who played the ‘BP’ villain Rothbart, said: “By sponsoring the Summer Screens, BP is bringing art to thousands of people, but it is also creating a false image which hides its dirty investments. Public pressure has in the past caused institutions to stop accepting sponsorship from destructive companies. Without being able to put its name by our beloved cultural institutions, BP would suffer a real blow to its public legitimacy.”
ENDS
Images from last night’s event now on Rex Features website and available for media use.
Notes for editors:
[1] BP sponsors the Royal Opera House’s “Summer Screens” where ballets and operas are broadcast live in public spaces around the UK, including Trafalgar Square, for audiences to watch for free. The scheduled performance on 13th July was the opera Cendrillon (Cinderella).
[2] For a full synopsis of the piece, see bpwhiteswan.org
[3] BP announced in December 2010 its investment in the Sunrise Project, shared with Canadian company Husky Energy. Extraction is due to begin in 2014. http://www.no-tar-sands.org/campaigns/british-petroleum-bp/
[4] Canadian tar sands are the world’s largest and dirtiest industrial project: exacerbating global warming through deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions, causing rare forms of cancer amongst First Nations communities, destroying vast tracts of forest habitat and threatening wildlife to extinction. For more information see no-tar-sands.org and oilsandstruth.org
[5] NASA Scientist James Hansen has said that irreversible climate change is inevitable if all the oil in Canada’s tar sands is burned. See http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/feb/17/barack-obama-canada-climate-change
High res images available – email info@no-tar-sands.org
BP and RBS targetted by Tar Sands Tour
Dear AGM-stormers,
A lot has happened since our last newsletter: our First Nations crew (Clayton, Jasmine and Melina) have arrived, we’ve made new friends from various corners of the world, been dragged out of the Excel Centre, gained a load of media coverage and kept tar sands well and truly on BP’s agenda. And, best of all, we’ve been labelled ‘winners’ by the Financial Times! What a week!
But the fun continues, as we’ve just arrived in Edinburgh to give RBS a piece of our minds! A big thank you to everyone who has helped make the Tar Sands Tour so successful.
- Tar Sands Tour so far… BP pandemonium
- Now it’s RBS’s turn
Love from the Tar Sands Tour Team,
Emily, Jess, Sue, Melina, Jasmine, Clayton and Felix
——————————————————
1. Tar Sands Tour so far… BP pandemonium
Tuesday: “Calling BP to account”
An excellent start to an insane week, our launch event at Rich Mix saw an unusual alliance form between investors, First Nations representatives, fishermen and women from the Gulf of Mexico, NGOs and activists, all driven by a common anger with BP and passion to take action.
Thursday: BP AGM
BP’s AGM was, shall we say, eventful… There were protests, arrests and a global media feeding-frenzy. It all added up to one hell of a PR own goal for BP. Read the whole story and watch a hilarious video of the action we took that got ten of us kicked out of the AGM.
Friday: Transition Heathrow workshop
After pausing for a few hours to catch our breath, we headed over to visit the lovely folks at Transition Heathrow in the evening, for a tar sands workshop, a screening of the new film ‘Tipping Point’, and an inspiring and fruitful discussion about how we can link up in working towards positive alternatives to dirty oil.
Sunday: The Great BP-Sponsored Sleep-in
Returning to London’s heart and centre of art, we targeted the Tate Modern with Rising Tide’s Great BP-Sponsored Sleep-In. Spot Steve’s teddy in this film of the action, which our film crew (Felix from You and I Films) edited on the train on the way up to Scotland (above).
2. Now it’s RBS’s turn
Today, our friends at Rainforest Action Network have released some red-hot new research: since being bailed out by UK taxpayers in 2008, RBS has raised more than £5.6 billion for companies operating in the tar sands. A whopping £1.2 billion of that total was raised in the last six months, at a time when the UK is experiencing devastating public spending cuts to pay off the deficit caused by the bank bailout. This makes us hopping mad. If only there was a way for us to communicate that to RBS… ;-)
Today: People’s AGM
This evening, we will join with our friends from WDM, Friends of the Earth Scotland, People & Planet, PLATFORM and SEAD to hold a ‘People’s AGM’ where we will pass all the motions that the real AGM will continue to ignore.
Tuesday: RBS AGM:
We will return to RBS’s HQ (verdant site of 2010’s Climate Camp) to have a presence both inside and outside the AGM. Inside, Jasmine Thomas will challenge RBS for its involvement in financing Enbridge, which is trying to build a pipeline right through her community. Outside, activists will engage with shareholders.
Follow us on twitter for the latest updates and photos of our shenanigans: @NoTarSands
BP Overwhelmed by Criticism at AGM
The BP board came under sustained fire from Indigenous people, Gulf Coast residents and major shareholders at its explosive AGM in London yesterday. Shareholders arrived to find a large colourful protest outside the Excel Centre, as fishermen and women affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill joined with Indigenous representatives critical of the company’s recent decision to enter into its first Tar Sands extraction project, to hold an impromptu press conference for the world’s media.
The group of fishermen and women from the US Gulf Coast were then, shockingly, barred from entering by BP, even though they had legitimate proxy votes. The company is clearly too scared to face its critics.
Diane Wilson, a shrimp farmer from the Texas Gulf coast who is already facing 800 days in jail for previous protests against BP, smeared oil-like molasses on her face to protest against being refused entry. She was promptly arrested and held for several hours. The other members of the delegation, Tracy Kuhns, Mike Roberts and Byron Encalade, said they were being treated ‘like criminals’ by BP, when in fact it’s the oil company that caused the spill that is destroying local communities’ lives, livelihoods and health.
Inside the turbulent meeting, a coalition of major US, UK and European shareholders holding 35 million shares explained their decision to vote against the company’s Annual Report, the remuneration package and the re-election of several board members and executives. Julie Tanner, from the Christian Brothers Investment Services, who had flown over from the US to be at the meeting, told the board that given the Deepwater Horizon disaster, there was too little information on safety and operational risk in the Annual Report for them to make informed decisions about their future investment in the company.
BP were then accused of failing to learn from their tragic mistakes by pushing ahead with another risky, expensive and environmentally destructive oil project: the Canadian Tar Sands. Clayton Thomas-Muller from the Indigenous Environmental Network read out to the board a statement from Fort McKay Cree First Nation community members who will be directly affected by BP’s ‘Sunrise’ tar sands extraction project:
“Fort McKay First Nation is situated in the heart of the oilsands. You can go in any direction and within twenty minutes, you will find an oilsands plant. How does the Husky Sunrise project impact us? Well to start with, there are several parcels of land dedicated to the use of trappers from the first nation. Because the animals have disappeared, these traplines are no longer used for trapping.
These traplines have become islands of cultural identity. We use them to escape the industrial activity and as a place to teach our children traditional ways. We are a people whose very cultural identity is linked to the land. The Husky Project has interfered with traplines in the area, reducing access for the local people and taking away the peace of the bush life. High traffic volumes and industrial activity have taken away the peace and quiet and in some cases, taken the land itself.
SAGD projects are touted as ‘clean oil’ but in fact the sheer volumes of water used impacts the surrounding land, drying up the muskeg and reducing animal habitat. We still get the air pollution and with it more sickness.”
He then asked BP how they were managing the rapidly changing legal landscape in Canada as more and more First Nations launch lawsuits agains the tar sands and opposition steadily increases.
Then Melina Laboucan-Massimo, a First Nations representative from the Lubicon Cree in Northern Alberta, challenged BP on its claims that the Sunrise project would be an environmentally responsible alternative to open pit mining because it will utilize ‘in situ’ methods of extraction.
“According to industry data and Environment Canada documents, producing the tar sands by in situ methods actually emits more greenhouse gas per barrel than surface mining does. In situ requires 4 times as much natural gas to produce a barrel of tar sands oil than open pit mining.
There are many ‘in situ’ injection sites on my First Nation’s territory. They contaminate the water, pollute the air, and dramatically disrupt local ecosystems by further fragmenting the boreal forest.
Given the reality of impending climate legislation, why is BP putting your shareholders’ investments at risk and falsely claiming that that In Situ extraction is an environmentally sound alternative to open pit mining?”
After she spoke, ten activists from the UK Tar Sands Network, wearing T-shirts that together spelt out “No Tar Sands” attempted to walk to the front of the hall and stand in front of the board, creating a human protest banner that remained for the rest of the meeting. However, BP’s burly security army jumped on them all and unceremoniously dragged them out.
Watch the film of the ejection here.
The board then listened uncomfortably as US writer and activist Antonia Juhasz described the devastating impact the Deepwater Horizon spill has had on Gulf Coast communities and berated BP for denying the Gulf Coast delegation access. She demanded a response to the failure of the corporation to provide for the safety of its deep water operations and, despite BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg’s attempts to silence her, read a statement from Keith Jones, whose son, Gordon Jones, was killed when the Deepwater Horizon exploded:
“Why was Gordon taken from those who loved him so? This was no act of God. This was not a blowout that was inevitable. No, BP, Transocean and Halliburton could have prevented this blowout and still harvested the riches that lay below. But to complete the well safely would have taken a little more time and a little more money, and you were just too greedy to wait. You had to make more money faster — and if that put those who were on the rig as risk, well, sometimes one has to take a few chances, right? After all, none of you were on that rig. You weren’t rolling the dice with the lives of your sons and daughters, were you?”
Diane Wilson, if she had been allowed into the meeting, had planned to present BP with the ethecon Foundation “Black Planet” award for environmental destruction. But given she had been arrested, Lydia Will from ethecon presented it in her place, demanding that either the Gulf Coast visitors be allowed in, or the Chairman come outside to accept it. He refused both options.
Tar sands and the oil disaster were not the only issues riling shareholders during the meeting, which dragged on for over four hours as investors vented their spleen and large numbers voted against the board.
Afterwards, the press coverage was almost universally damning of the way BP had handled the day, with pictures of an oil-covered Diane beamed across the world and the tar sands issue given prominent coverage.
Here’s a selection of our favourite press stories. Our most favourite comes from the Financial Times, which judges the winners and losers of the day. And the winners were… Tar Sands Campaigners!
Other media:
Press Association:
Independent:
Guardian:
BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13075151
Daily Mail:
BP under fire at AGM for taking unacceptable risks.
PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
8.4.2011
Interview opportunity with community representatives from Alberta Tar Sands and Gulf of Mexico coast – see below for details.
Residents from opposite ends of North America are travelling to London for a showdown with BP. Representatives of First Nation communities affected by the massive Tar Sands project in northern Canada are working in partnership with fishermen and women whose lives and livelihoods have been destroyed by BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill off the Gulf Coast. They will be joined inside the AGM on Thursday 14 April by UK campaigners and angry shareholders, many of whom are planning on voting against the board.[1]
This unprecedented coalition has come together following a year in which BP has been responsible for the largest marine oil spill in history.[2] Despite this, a few months later BP announced that it was heading into an equally if not more risky “unconventional oil” venture: its first Tar Sands extraction project.
Representatives of affected communities, campaigners and shareholders are therefore joining forces to deliver a simple message to BP at its London AGM next Thursday: stay away from unconventional oil, it’s just too risky. There will be a protest outside and around 30 people will enter the AGM to ask questions, deliver the message “No Tar Sands” in a very visual way, and present BP with the not-so-prestigious “International ethecon Black Planet Award” for environmental destruction. [3]
Diane Wilson, a fourth-generation fisherwoman from the Texas Gulf Coast who was recently arrested for protesting against BP and is facing a jail sentence for up to 800 days, will present the ethecon Black Planet award to BP in person, along with the Chairman of ethecon.[4] Diane will be joined by several other representatives from the Gulf Coast region. [5] She says:
“I am coming to the AGM to call BP to account for its actions in the Gulf – for the oil spill, the lies, the cover-ups, the skimping on safety, the deaths, the non-existent documents, the ‘swinging door’ with regulators. The massive nature of the oil catastrophe means it can’t be covered up, even by BP. It’s everywhere, from 5,000 feet down to miles upon miles across and then spread in the ocean’s currents. I am coming to articulate the anger of thousands of Gulf Coast residents whose lives and livelihoods have been destroyed while the BP board continues to prosper.”
BP’s decision to enter into its first Tar Sands extraction project [6] will also be criticised by a group of Indigenous activists brought over by the Indigenous Environmental Network. Melina Laboucan-Massimo from the Lubicon Cree First Nation will speak from direct experience about what this kind of ‘in situ’ Tar Sands extraction really involves [7]:
“BP is touting its ‘in situ’ extraction project as an environmentally responsible alternative to surface mining, but it is nothing of the sort. There are many ‘in situ’ mines on my First Nation’s territory. They pollute the water and the air, dramatically disrupt local ecosystems, and emit more greenhouse gas per barrel than surface mining. They are operating on our native peoples’ land without consent and it’s important that BP shareholders understand the risks of legal action from First Nations. BP must do the sensible thing and leave tar sands in the ground.”
The community representatives will be joined by UK activists determined to hold this iconic British company to account for its dirty operations across the globe. Jess Worth from the UK Tar Sands Network said:
“Uncertainty in the Middle East and dwindling supplies of conventional oil elsewhere should be a signal to move into more sustainable forms of energy. Instead, BP is responding by charging head first into dangerous, expensive and highly polluting sources of unconventional and marginal oil, such as Tar Sands, deepwater drilling and the Arctic. Pollution from the Tar Sands is equivalent to a Gulf Coast oil spill every month. The Board has clearly lost the plot so we are going to the AGM to set them straight.”
The coalition[8] will gather together in advance of the AGM for a major public meeting, on Tuesday 12 April, 7pm at Rich Mix, 35 – 47 Bethnal Green Road, London, E1 6LA. All journalists are welcome.
To arrange an interview with any of the attendees:
UK media call Jess Worth on +447967758641 or email jess@no-tar-sands.org
North American media call Clayton Thomas-Muller, Indigenous Environmental Network,
+11 613 789 5653
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/bp-faces-wave-of-protests-at-agm-2267169.html
1. BP shareholders are angry about a whole range of issues since the Deepwater Horizon disaster. See ‘BP to face tough crowd at meeting’, Guy Chazan, Wall Street Journal, April 6, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703712504576244990369064286.html See also an in-depth analysis of BP’s Annual Report: http://www.cbisonline.com/file/BP%20Annual%20Report%20Assessment%204-4-2011.pdf
2. 11 workers were killed and the ocean and local ecosystems were polluted with 4 to 5 million barrels of oil from BP’s controversial deepwater drilling operation in the Gulf of Mexico.
3. Members of the ethecon Foundation will also be attending to present the award. Together with the positive Blue Planet Award, the negative Black Planet Award is bestowed every year by ethecon – Foundation Ethics & Economics, a German-based international foundation. For more information on ethecon and its work on BP see http://www.ethecon.org/465, http://ethecon/download/Dossier_Black_Planet_Award_2010_English.pdf and http://www.ethecon.org/download/Open_letter_to_BP.pdf
4. Read a longer statement from Diane about the situation in the Gulf Coast and her arrests: http://www.ethecon.org/en/1246
5. Tracy Kuhns, a commercial shrimper from Louisiana and board member of the Association of Family Fishermen, and other fishermen and women are being brought over by the Gulf Coast Fund. Also attending will be Antonia Juhasz, prominent US author, activist and Director of the Energy Program at Global Exchange, who has just published ‘Black Tide: the devastating impact of the Gulf Oil Spill’ which tells the stories of communities and individuals whose lives have been destroyed by BP’s negligence.
6. In December 2010, BP announced it was releasing $2.5 billion to move forward with the Sunrise Project – a partnership with Canada’s Husky Energy. For more information see http://www.no-tar-sands.org/campaigns/british-petroleum-bp/
7. Melina Laboucan-Massimo worked on a report that has just been released by Greenpeace Canada about the dangers of in situ mining: ‘Deep Trouble’, http://www.greenpeace.org/canada//deeptrouble
8. For more information about the members of the coalition, see: Indigenous Environmental Network www.ienearth.org/tarsands.html, UK Tar Sands Network www.no-tar-sands.org, ethecon http://www.ethecon.de/en/793, Rising Tide http://risingtide.org.uk/, Climate Rush http://www.climaterush.co.uk/, Greenpeace UK http://greenpeace.co.uk/, PLATFORM http://platformlondon.org/, Gulf Coast Fund http://gulfcoastfund.org/, Global Exchange http://www.globalexchange.org, This is Ecocide http://www.thisisecocide.com/, Trees Have Rights Too http://www.treeshaverightstoo.com/
Tar Sands Tour Revealed!
Tuesday 12th April, 7pm
Calling BP to Account – Tar Sands, Deepwater Horizon and beyond…
Rich Mix, 35 – 47 Bethnal Green Road, London, E1 6LA
You are invited to a public meeting in advance of BP’s AGM, that will bring together a diverse coalition of individuals and organisations who are working together to call BP to account for the social and environmental impacts of their activities around the world. Join First Nations from Canada, fishermen and women from the Gulf of Mexico, shareholders, NGOs, lawyers and activists for an evening of information sharing and strategising, on the eve of BP’s Annual General Meeting (14th April).A chance to listen to first-hand accounts of how BP’s decision to go into the Alberta tar sands will affect indigenous communities, the local environment and the global climate. A chance to hear from those whose livelihoods have been destroyed by the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. And a chance to build stronger links between different campaigns and strategies working to restrain the destructive activities of one of the world’s oil giants.
Calling BP to Account – Invitation
Please RSVP to info@no-tar-sands.org
Co-hosted by Greenpeace, PLATFORM, FairPensions and Rising Tide.
Thursday April 14th, 10:30 am
BP AGM
We will be inside and outside BP’s Annual General Meeting with a clear message: ‘don’t go into the Tar Sands.’ If you would like to join us email info@no-tar-sands.org
Friday April 15th, 7pm
Tipping the Balance – Tar Sands, Indigenous Rights and Community Resilience workshop and film screening.
Grow Heathrow, Vineries Close, Sipson, West Drayton, UB7 0JG
Indigenous activists resisting the Alberta Tar Sands will join with Transition Heathrow for a workshop on building community resilience and the UK Premiere of the new documentary: Tipping Point – The Age of the Oil Sands!
What are the Tar Sands? Learn more about the Tar Sands giga-project and the growing resistance. What have they got to do with us in the UK? Learn about how the UK is involved in the tar sands and the vibrant movement in the UK working in solidarity with First Nations community members to shut down the tar sands. Building community resilience: The resistance to extractive destructive mining, response to peak oil and airport expansion all require the re-envisioning how our communities work together both locally and internationally.
8:30 pm UK Premiere Tipping Point: The Age of the Oil Sands!
This documentary takes us to the heart of the struggle of resistance to the world’s largest industrial project. Not to be missed!
Sunday 17th April, 2pm
BP and Culture: Time to Break It Off!
Tate Modern, London
In the week between BP’s AGM on April 14th and the one year anniversary of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill on April 20th, we are calling for actions and creative interventions to show the true nature of BP’s damaging activities around the world, and to persuade our most prestigious galleries and cultural spaces to liberate themselves from BP’s dirty money. On the anniversary of the Gulf spill, let’s reveal the sticky black stuff behind BP’s shiny green logo, and pile on the pressure to kick BP out of our cultural spaces for good. We will join the Rising Tide, Liberate Tate, Climate Camp London, Climate Rush and Art Not Oil for a day of action against extraction.
Monday April 18th 7-9pm
Clean the Banks! RBS People’s AGM
Edinburgh University Chaplaincy, Edinburgh
Canada’s tar sands are the biggest energy project in the world, creating pollution ponds visible from space, felling the ancient boreal forests and threatening indigenous people’s rights. From this test-bed, the industry is now expanding globally; to Madagascar, Venezuela and Congo. After a massive public bailout RBS continues to provide finance for companies mining tar sands around the world. On the eve of the RBS AGM in Edinburgh this event is a vote against UK tax money financing fossil fuels!
Indigenous people in Canada are fighting ‘the most destructive project on earth’ – the extraction of oil from tar sands and the building of a super-pipeline through their ancestral lands. Hear their stories first hand and learn what we can do to cure RBS of its oil addiction and help stop tar sands spreading to other parts of the world.
FREE, register here.
Organized with WDM, Indigenous Environmental Network, People & Planet Edinburgh, UK Tar Sands Network, Friends of the Earth Scotland, Platform and SEAD.
Tuesday April 19th, 10:30 am
RBS AGM
First Nations community member will be inside RBS’s Annual General Meeting to raise their concerns with banks investment in the destruction of their homelands.
Climate Week, and big BP and RBS events
Dear Greenwash Guerrillas,
We’re very excited to be able to invite you along to two major events as part of our First Nations speaker’s tour in April. If you only come to one tar sands event this year, make it one of these! But first, a word about someone else’s sponsors…
1. Climate Week ‘tar’-getted over RBS sponsorship
2. BP meeting and plans for the AGM
3. RBS and the ‘People’s AGM’
Love and sunshine,
Sue, Jess and Emily
1. Climate Week ‘tar’-getted over RBS sponsorship
On Monday we, and some like-minded friends, turned up at the launch of RBS-sponsored Climate Week. We were there to warn people about the dangerously high levels of greenwash spewing from the plush venue. We flyered every single person who attended the event (apart from a few grumpy folk who wouldn’t take one), talked to many about our concerns with RBS, and did some singing and dancing.
Our protest – and a report released by Platform on the same day that found that, since being bailed out by taxpayers, RBS has financed £8 billion (!) of coal investments – meant that RBS’s dirty portfolio is now firmly back in the public eye.
You can read the whole story here: Climate Week ‘Tar’-Getted by Anti Greenwash Protest
2. BP meeting and plans for the AGM
We would like to invite you to ‘Calling BP to account – Tar Sands, Deepwater Horizon and beyond…’ This event, part of our First Nations’ speaker tour, will take place on 12th April 2011, 7pm, at Rich Mix in London, just before BP’s AGM on the 14th. It will bring together a diverse coalition of individuals and organisations who are working together to call BP to account for the social and environmental impacts of their activities around the world. Join First Nations from Canada, fishermen and women from the Gulf of Mexico, shareholders, NGOs, lawyers and activists for an evening of information sharing and strategising. It should be an amazing event!
More information here. Please please please RSVP to info@no-tar-sands.org so we know how many people are coming. Check out the Facebook event and invite people along!
Also, we need more people to help with our presence outside the BP AGM on the 14th. If you’re able to come to the Excel Centre in London Docklands for a couple of hours around 10ish on Thursday 14th April, please let us know!
3. RBS and the ‘People’s AGM’
After we’ve hit BP’s AGM we’re travelling with our First Nations friends up to Scotland for RBS’s AGM on the 19th April. The evening before (Monday 18th), there will be an alternative ‘People’s AGM’ in Edinburgh with an opportunity to hear from the First Nations representatives directly about the terrible impact of RBS’s investments. The event is being organised by WDM Scotland, Friends of the Earth Scotland, People & Planet and SEAD.
Email us at info@no-tar-sands.org for more information, or keep an eye on our website and we will post details when they become available, as well as details of other events happening as part of the tour.
BP Fortnight of Shame!
Originally posted in April 2010.
In April, we organised two weeks of direct action called the ‘Fortnight of Shame’ to highlight BP’s plans to go into the Tar Sands. Actions took place all over the country, culminating in the “Party at the Pumps” where over 100 activists shut down a BP petrol station in London for several hours.
We also supported a First Nations delegation to attend the BP AGM where a shareholder resolution on Tar Sands was voted on, working in partnership with FairPensions and Greenpeace. Whilst some of us went into the meeting to challenge the Board directly, others held a noisy demonstration outside.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8527853.stm
