Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Shell Shuts Up

Pueblo Unido | 07.03.2008 11:44 | Climate Chaos | Globalisation | Repression

Student activists raised issues such as corporate corruption and climate change at a Shell-run event. Shell employees only commented "I do not have an opinion on this subject" when asked how they respond to these polemical matters.

A hugely successful disruption/complete domination of the Shell “Recruitment Event” took place last night.

A group of seven Nottingham student activists utilised the event's exercise of identifying “risks” Shell might face when drilling for oil of the coast of a West African island to raise awareness amongst potential Shell graduate employees and send a message to Shell that they are not welcome in Nottingham. The activists employed varying tactics with some preferring to employ a highly effective “Yes Men” style, some sporting anti-shell clothing, others distributing leaflets about the corporation and others still opting for outright, heated debates with (rather disheartened and dispirited) Shell employees. Despite the fact that students tackled Shell differently, an impressive sense of unity was achieved as four out of the five groups’ presentations ended with harsh criticism of the corporation. Such criticism included a condemnation of Shell’s previous brutal, corrupt, murderous and polluting history in West Africa, the corporation’s implication in peak oil, climate change and the necessity of the rejection of the global economic system which has led to climate change and absolute poverty in the first place. During the question and answer section at the end of the presentations the need for real solutions to the climate change challenges was raised - not “green wash”, not “Corporate Responsibility” and not bio fuels. Despite there being a bio-fuels “expert” from Shell present, whilst all of these issues were being raised by the students the corporation’s employees remained strangely quiet.

Along with the environmental discussions, the student activists highlighted the fact that corporations like Shell are content to fund violent dictatorships and private armies (e.g MoPol in the case of Nigeria) to repress local opposition to their exploitation of natural resources. The response from the majority of students attending the corporate event was one of interest, as they did not know of Shell’s sinister past, whilst Shell employees almost universally denied knowledge of the corporation’s links to the hanging of innocent environmental activists in the Niger Delta.

Before leaving, the activists made it clear that a better world is possible citing the environmentalist/anti-globalisation, non-hierarchical, grass-roots movements springing up all around the world that "will continue to grow until corporations like Shell do not exist”.

Numerous other harsh threats to the corporation’s multi-billion pound existence were met with silence from the corporate employees. Surprising as it may seem, Shell consistently rejected the opportunity to put a corporate spin on the charges made against them – even when directly asked to do so.

Pueblo Unido
- e-mail: pueblounido@riseup.net

Additions

pic

07.03.2008 11:50

Student brandishes T-shirt during Shell presentation
Student brandishes T-shirt during Shell presentation

what a nice t-shirt!

pueblo unido
mail e-mail: pueblounido@riseup.net


Comments

Hide the following 8 comments

thanks!

07.03.2008 16:16


great action, thanks for the more detailed covarage. brought a smile to my face- you guys rock!

x

k


Well done Studes, heart bleeds4 poor shell PR people who had endure some truth

07.03.2008 20:39

Well done Studes, heart bleeds4 poor shell PR people who had endure some truth

Joni


Good work

07.03.2008 21:18

Nice one guys. Sounds like it couldn't have gone better!

Peat


Thanks& Extra Stuff

08.03.2008 12:44



Thanks!

There was loads of other stuff that happened as well that I didn't put in the article for the purposes of keeping it brief.

While one of the Shell "Graduate Recruiters" was trying to get out of answering my question about the "termination" of "risk factors" there was a loud banging and screaming from outside - a disruption which really put the Shell lot on edge.

At another point, a Shell employee went to the large flip chart, turned over the first page to reveal SHELL KILL in capitals and red ink, startled she turned over the next page to reveal REMEMBER KEN SARO-WIWA.


The overall effect was that we they were under-siege! Being attacked from all angles! Which left them feeling defensive but as they had NO come back for anything we said, we were able to ENTIRELY dominate the event.

Pueblo Unido


.

08.03.2008 15:49

Good work - I heard it was amazing - stay strong!

Jamal


flipchart

08.03.2008 16:22

haha...that flipchart ting sounds brilliant, good thinking!

jack


Shell Kill

09.03.2008 20:55

it does sound so good guys i'm quite jealous i only got to hand out flyers! The security staff thought i was some sort of threat and failed to notice some pretty obvious activist types (no offence meant of course cos ur all lovely) as they walked in problem free. They even had one security guard posted on each end of the corridor not letting anyone else in, in case of protest. while you were in there telling them what for!
I wrote Shell kill on the board at like 4 that afternoon just hoping it'd stay and someone else must have added the ken saro wiwa bit, it just sounds too good to be true.
big up all this activism at notts
let us not stop

matt


ah haaa

09.03.2008 21:09

so it was matt who wrote Shell kills!!

everyone was wondering who wrote that!!!

mate it was so funny when it got exposed on the flip chart, it happened twice!!!

i wrote remember Ken Saro-Wiwa.

yea the security presence was over the top! didn't stop us though! haha.

Sofia


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech