Jam-packed week of tar-stopping action!

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Dear friends from around the world,

Last week was a busy – and immensely satisfying – week for tar sands-stoppers in the UK.

Thursday saw us in not one, but two actions! We started early in the morning with our many collaborators, to welcome US Secretary of State John Kerry as he arrived to the G8 foreign ministers’ meeting. You might think – “good ol’ British hospitality!”, but actually, the 60 people who gathered on a drizzly London morning were there to tell him that we want him to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline!

We then headed to BP’s Annual General Meeting, where two of our campaigners were denied entry. This didn’t stop the many other campaigners who did make it past the over-the-top security measures to ask the board plenty of questions about the tar sands and about the company’s disregard of the threat of climate change and the rights of Indigenous Peoples. Unsurprisingly, most of the answers – if there were any – were far from satisfactory.

Finally, Friday and Saturday saw us in Wales, with Bryan Parras of Houston, Texas. He was in the UK for the BP AGM, but took the opportunity to travel to Wales to talk about resistance to the Keystone XL pipeline in the US and make links with the local community in Pembrokeshire opposing Valero’s import of tar sands to the UK. The full story can be found here – watch out, Valero!

With the first AGM of the season complete, we are now preparing to work with our partners in North America to support a delegation of Indigenous community members resisting Shell’s expansion of the tar sands from the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Aamjiwnaang First Nation and also from the Arctic. Supporting communities to speak out about Shell’s operations is incredibly powerful, you can help make this happen – please consider chipping in, and donating to this unique crowd-sourcing campaign.

Wishing you a restful – or action-packed – weekend.

Emily, Jess, Sue and Ruthi