Dear friends,

Direct action against the tar sands has been taking place on both sides of the Atlantic this week!

On Monday, we attended a high-level climate change conference in London which was sponsored by Shell and featured Peter Kent, Canada’s Environment Minister, as a keynote speaker. We were there to point out that, far from being climate leaders, Shell and Canada are working together to strangle action on climate change. Campaigners greeted delegates with flyers explaining our concerns, whilst sinister black-clad figures representing Shell and Canada stalked the street, occasionally violently ‘strangling’ activists who were speaking up for climate justice, an end to tar sands extraction, and the removal of Big Oil from politics.

Meanwhile inside, the stage was invaded twice, just as both Peter Kent, Canada’s Environment Minister and Shell’s UK Chairman were getting up to speak! The tongue-in-cheek interventions referred to Kent as an “agent from a rogue petro-state” and Shell as “world-class greenwashers”, and the audience listened attentively for several minutes, before the activists were removed by security. Get the full story, and a film of the day’s action, here.

In other news:

• October 20th – we will be joining the Climate Bloc on Saturday’s TUC march. For a future that doesn’t cost the earth: against austerity, for climate justice!
• October 23rd – Call out for solidarity: Stand with the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation as they present their historic constitutional challenge against the Shell Tar Sands expansion of the Jackpine Mine. Can’t come to Fort McMurray on the 23rd? Please share this event with your friends and networks, maybe organize a solidarity action at your local Shell station, maybe even go ol’ skool and send a letter to Shell about why you stand with ACFN and why you are against the projects!
  
• Sue has been in Canada for the last month as part of the “She Speaks: Indigenous Women Speak Out Against Tar Sands” tour, you can hear the kick off event that took place in Vancouver with amazing speakers including Eriel Deranger and 11-year-old singer T’akaiya Blaney. More about the tour, and the communities we have been spending time with soon!
• the Reclaim Shakespeare Company has released a wonderful new two-minute film, The Merchant of Darkness. It is ‘a play of three acts telling the story of BP, “a merchant of most monstrous greed”, the RSC “a goodly company of players” and the real performers who seek to remove the mask from BP’s face.’
• the incredible Tar Sands Blockade in Texas continues, with activists taking to the trees in a bid to stop construction of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Love, solidarity and awe to all those putting themselves on the line,

Jess, Emily, Sue and Ruthi