Blocking The Pipe:
Protestors turn the tables on "Greenwash" consultancy

The Manchester offices of environmental consultants ERM were occupied on Monday (13/01/03) by concerned local people, in protest against the proposed Baku-Ceyhan oil
pipeline (1).

The campaigners, wearing various approximations on the theme of "smart clothes", strolled past the security and up to the eighth floor of the Salford Quays office tower, where Environmental Resource Management (ERM) have one of their four UK offices. The concerned locals then carried out an "Environmental and Social Impact Assessment" on the office, to investigate the effects of the occupation. This was based on ERM's real-life assessment of the pipeline's impacts (2), and asked members of staff whether they
thought that ERM's work on the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline was helping or damaging people and the environment.

This is the latest action in the growing campaign against the pipeline, which, according to recent research, would lead to human rights abuses and climate change disaster (3, 4). ERM are the environmental consultants to the project, but their assessment of the potential impacts of the pipeline has been severely criticised (5). Monday's non-violent direct action aimed to convince ERM to withdraw
their support from the pipeline project.

Protestors locked themselves to office furniture, engaged the staff in complex ethical debates ("do you think a pipeline that leads to environmental destruction and human rights abuses is a good or a bad thing?"), scampered about, sang songs, "helped" with the office filing, yelled facts about the pipeline very loudly to make sure EVERYONE COULD HEAR, played hide-and-seek with security guards and generally made a nuisance of themselves for the rest of the day. The police sat outside, fuming quietly but prevented from doing anything by the protestations of the office manager: "it's OK, I'm sure they'll be going soon...". The invaders also had interesting phone conversations with ERM's European director and the communications department of BTC (the consortium, led by BP, who are planning to
build the pipeline). Eventually, having got most of the staff to promise to complain (or at least enquire) about the pipeline to Head Office, and after collecting their phone numbers in order to call up and remind them, the campaigners sauntered out of the office and went home.

According to one of the occupiers: "One of the most shocking things about this destructive pipeline project is that, if it went ahead, it would be paid for by us, the British taxpayer. Our government is preparing to stump up £65 million of our money to pay for death and destruction in Eastern Europe. They can't find enough money to pay for public sector workers, but they seem to have plenty of cash for oil and war." (6)

"ERM's environmental and social impact assessment of the pipeline is severely flawed. Independent researchers found a village supposedly 'consulted' by ERM had actually been empty and derelict for years. ERM, far from acting to help the environment and local people, are just one more company profiting from this pipeline. Monday's event followed a similar action against ERM in London in December. The campaign is growing - every company involved in this pipeline will be targeted and shamed, until the pipeline is stopped."

GET INVOLVED! To find out more, contact The Baku Ceyhan Campaign,
tel: 01865 550200, Email:  ilisu@gn.apc.org; or PLATFORM, Tel: 0207
4033738, Email:  platform@gn.apc.org.

More information:  http://www.risingtide.org.uk.

Manchester action: email  manchesterbaku@wildmail.com, or call
Manchester Earth First! on 0161 226-6814.

NOTES

(1) The Baku-Ceyhan Pipeline would run from Baku in Azerbaijan, through Tbilisi in Georgia to Ceyhan in Turkey. It would run for 1,750 km (1087 miles), and transport 1 million barrels of oil a day (a daily value of US$ 21 million) for the next 40 years. The pipeline project is being run by a consortium of oil companies, headed up by the British company BP. The final decision on whether to go ahead with the proposal was scheduled for April 2003, but a growing international anti-pipeline campaign has already
delayed the planning process by six months.

(2) The spoof assessment was based on one written by London Rising Tide, which can be found at www.erm-concerns.com.

(3) The vague terms of the Host Government Agreements (HGAs) signed by the oil companies and affected nations would allow paramilitary units to be set up along the pipeline route, to pre-empt "civil disturbance" or "terrorist" activities. Many local people will be
evicted from their lands, or forced to tresspass on BP property to live their everyday lives. The pipeline
also passes through major conflict zones. Similar situations in other countries (such as BP's oil pipeline in Colombia) have led to serious human rights atrocities.

(4) The oil and gas transported by the pipeline would produce 177 million tonnes of the greenhouse gas CO2 (carbon dioxide) every year. This is more than all of the UK's power stations put together, and two and a half times
the amount of CO2 the UK has pledged to cut under the Kyoto protocol.

(5) 50% of ERM's income in Baku comes from BP. Their survey of local people was carried out after 10 years of work on the pipeline, and presented it as a certainty, with little mention of its potential negative impacts. People were not given the option of voting against the pipeline. More concerns about the assessment can be found at  http://www.erm-concerns.com.

(6) John Browne, the head of BP, has said that the project cannot go ahead without "free public money". The oil companies plan to obtain around 70% of the US$ 3.3 billion cost of the project from public funds. British taxpayers
would contribute an estimated £65 million via the Export Credit Guarantee Department, and more money through the UK's contribution to international funds such as the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the
International Finance Corporation. The British people would actually be paying to create more floods and storms in the UK, through carbon dioxide emissions from the pipeline and the resulting climate change.

(7) Information Source: The book "Some Common Concerns", published in September 2002 by PLATFORM, The Corner House, Friends of the earth International, Campagna per la Riforma della banca Mondiale, CEE Bankwatch Network and the Kurdish Human Rights Project.