FORBES / REUTERS
 http://www.forbes.com/markets/newswire/2003/04/24/rtr950159.html

Anti-war carnival arrives at BP AGM
Reuters, 04.24.03, 11:08 AM ET
By Sudip Kar-Gupta

LONDON, April 24 (Reuters) - Anti-war protestors greeted BP investors on Thursday by handing out a spoof report that criticised the oil giant's ethical policies as the group held its annual shareholder meeting.

The role of oil firms has come under intense scrutiny following the recent U.S.-led war in Iraq, which has the world's second largest reserves of crude oil.

"We are reaping the rewards from the latest in a long line of oil wars," read the fake report, whose design closely resembled that of the actual BP 2002 report.

Around 100 protesters held a "Carnival Against Oil Wars" outside the meeting of the world's third largest oil group in central London, surrounded by a large police presence.

BP Chairman Peter Sutherland denied that the Iraq war was fought over oil and also refuted allegations that some of BP's work in countries such as Colombia had harmed local communities there.

Sutherland added that Iraq did not form part of BP's current strategy, although industry sources told Reuters this month that BP had a team in place to work on a strategy for its future in the country.

"The oil industry has considerable expertise, which we expect to take part in the rebuilding of Iraq," Sutherland told shareholders, adding BP would only get involved in Iraq with a legitimate government chosen by the Iraqi people.

Protester Jo Hamilton arrived dressed in black, which she said was a gesture to "mourn the people who are feeling the brunt of BP's exploration techniques".

Liz Hitchcock from the Green Century Balanced Fund, which owns BP shares, also urged BP to refrain from drilling in the Arctic region.

Sutherland said BP was far ahead of its peers in ethical and environmental issues and pointed to the fact that the company had set up a committee to deal with these topics.

Shares in BP, which reports first-quarter results next week, were down 1.2 percent at 407-1/2 pence in early afternoon trade.

BP shares have underperformed the DJ Stoxx European Energy sector by about 10 percent over the last year. The company repeatedly missed production growth targets in 2002 -- a point not lost on some shareholders.

"You need a metaphorical kick up the backside in certain areas," said private investor Mike Porter.

Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service

=====================================

GUARDIAN

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,943119,00.html

BP bosses stay safe and not sorry as protests mark meeting
David Gow Friday April 25, 2003

Outside, more than 100 protesters staged a loud, good-natured "carnival against oil wars" as BP, the oil group, turned the Royal Festival Hall into a heavily-guarded fortress for its 94th annual meeting.

Shareholders, greeted with whistles and drum-beats from environmental activists handing out spoof annual reports criticising BP's ethical policies, had to endure two security checks and searches before entering the auditorium.

Around 60 police officers and almost as many security guards and stewards failed to prevent a stink bomb from going off near the entrance hall. Two shareholders protesting loudly at BP's carbon emissions were ejected.

It hardly seemed to justify the security arrangements which drew even shareholder complaints, but Peter Sutherland, BP's chairman, said these "were the result of careful evaluation by the security authorities of this state and BP."

He refused to elaborate and senior company officials declined to say whether specific threats had been made against the meeting. Inside, the directors, spared the security checks themselves by arriving early, swiftly saw off the merest hint of protests at executive pay, winning 95% backing for the group's remuneration report.

Lord Browne, BP's chief executive and one of Britain's best-paid citizens, had clearly helped by taking a 32% pay-cut last year - to a mere £3.9m - after the group saw a 25% drop in profits and failed to meet its 5.5% growth target for output by a significant margin.

He also laid to rest any lingering grumbles among institutional investors by quietly and voluntarily giving up his two-year service contract, agreeing to accept the 12-month model set out in the City's combined code from the start of this financial year.

But Lord Browne and Mr Sutherland did not face an entirely easy ride, despite repeatedly trumpeting BP's role as "trailblazer" in corporate social responsibility. Marta Inistrosa, a Colombian lawyer forced to seek refugee status in Britain after death threats from paramilitaries in her homeland, accused BP of siding with the authorities in impoverishing 250 peasant families.

They had protested at being forced to move their homes because of a pipeline being built by a consortium in which BP holds a 24.8% stake.

The families, who have failed to win court backing for their case, are now, she said, "utterly destitute". But Mr Sutherland, rejecting her blandishments to offer decent compensation, "absolutely refuted any allegations of wrong-doing by BP in Colombia" where, he said, the company condemned paramilitary threats.

He even managed a smile when Liz Hitchcock of the US Public Interest Group praised BP for pulling out of the industry lobby in favour of drilling for oil in the Arctic national wildlife reserve in Alaska - only to disappoint her by saying BP could still join in if drilling wins approval.

Protesters taunt BP over role in Iraq By Joanna Chung
Financial Times; Apr 25, 2003

BP shareholders were greeted by heavy security and a crowd of protesters at the company's AGM yesterday, at a time when oil companies face intense scrutiny about their activities following the war in Iraq.

At the outset, Peter Sutherland, chairman, said that the war in Iraq, which has the second-largest oil reserves in the world, was "not a war fought over oil".

"The oil industry has considerable expertise, which we expect to take part in the rebuilding of Iraq," said Mr Sutherland. "Whether or not BP will have any role in Iraq remains to be seen."

BP would only get involved in Iraq when there was a legitimate government chosen by the Iraqi people, he said.
Mr Sutherland emphasised BP had no current plans for involvement in Iraq, despite rumours that it had created a team to work on future strategies.

Instead, he emphasised the importance of BP's recent foray into Russia through a $7bn (£4.4bn) venture with TNK, calling it "a great moment in the history of BP and a milestone in the history of the industry".

Unlike Russia, where BP has substantial experience, analysts agreed that imminent moves in Iraq were unlikely because of political risk and lack of knowledge about the current state of the oil industry there.

JJ Traynor, an oil analyst at Deutsche Bank, said: "There is a lot of information about reserves and production capability, but there is not a lot of clarity on the contractual terms on offer. Without that information, there is not an awful lot that companies can do."

Another analyst said: "Inevitably [oil companies] will watch Iraq extremely closely for opportunities but waiting for a legitimate government makes absolute business sense."
Another controversial issue, remuneration, was not a focus at BP's meeting, with pay packages approved by 94 per cent of those voting. But shareholders did have complaints about the level of payments to Ernst & Young, BP's auditors, who received a total of $79m in 2002.

Beyond the oil
Financial Times; Apr 25, 2003

Meanwhile, BP was meeting behind excessive security over at the Royal Festival Hall. But the bag searchers and goons couldn't keep out green protesters, who disrupted a speech by Lord Browne of Beyond, as they dubbed him in their alternative annual report.
Nor could they deter long-time activist shareholder Eric Nixon, who subjected chairman Peter Sutherland to a barrage of questions on everything from the environment to corporate democracy and repeated a long-held demand for a private meeting.
Sutherland quipped: "If I meet you do you guarantee not to turn up to next year's meeting?" Honours even.

Protesters kick up a stink at BP
BY MICHAEL HARRISON BUSINESS EDITOR
The Independent - United Kingdom; Apr 25, 2003

BP'S ANNUAL shareholder meeting was disrupted yesterday by anti- war and environmental protesters criticising the oil company's human rights record.

Despite a heavy police cordon backed up by scores of BP's own guards, protesters managed to penetrate security at the Royal Festival Hall in London, dropping stink bombs and disrupting proceedings.

At one point, two activists protesting over greenhouse gas emissions and BP's record in Colombia were frog-marched out of the meeting after shouting down the company's chief executive, Lord Browne of Madingley.

Outside the meeting, there was a carnival atmosphere as demonstrators handed out spoof BP annual reports and held a rival "stakeholders" gathering complete with marching bands and entertainers.

Inside the hall, some ordinary shareholders mistakenly quoted from the fake annual report, which boasted that BP was "reaping the rewards from the latest in a long line of oil wars", believing it to be real.

A Colombian lawyer attacked BP for supporting an oil pipeline project in her country which she claimed had destroyed the lives of local peasant communities and unleashed a reign of paramilitary terror. Since highlighting opposition to the pipeline at last year's AGM, the lawyer said she had been forced to flee Colombia and seek political asylum in Britain.

Peter Sutherland, BP's chairman, said Colombia had benefited massively from the company's presence and insisted the displacement of peasant families had nothing to do with the pipeline but was a product of the civil strife in the country.
Mr Sutherland also maintained that BP had "no current position in regard to taking an investment in Iraq" and would only consider doing so when there was a stable and legitimate administration in place.

Criticism of BP's financial and operating performance and boardroom pay arrangements was muted. One shareholder said the repeated missing of production goals last year, when output grew by only 2.9 per cent against a target of 5.5 per cent, reflected "serious management failure".

Another shareholder drew a small round of applause when he said there could be no reason "other than naked greed" why the percentage increase in BP directors' pay awards should not be the same as that for the rest of its staff.

Alright, first off i've just read the brief report of the day at BP AGM, and want to know why all the mainstream media reports have been added on, and not one additional comment from any one who was there?? We've all got access to newspapers, more interested to hear activist thoughts...

Is it just that wannabe journos are chuffed with their media skills?

Two people were arrested on the day - one outside, not sure what for. Other person got held for 12 hours and charged with affray and ABH for allegedly using stinky stuff in reception to the AGM. Intimidating use of police in bio-chem suits entering cell and stripping clothes. Appearing at Camberwell magistrates this wednesday, 30th May at 10.00am.

Two people got into auditorium to interrupt John Browne (Chief execs) speech.

Quite suprised at the relatively small number of people who were up for getting in the builidng, or in any way more physically disrupting the meeting. OK, its BP's agenda, not exactly a surprise visit, but this is a main point of their greenwash spin, and would have been good to have seen more shut down activities, as well as carnival activities. As it was, good effort was made by people at making life uncomfortable for the ageing, rich, white profiteers who make up most of BP's shareholders. One person locked on in reception so the barracking of shareholders could not go unnoticed. Orders to get boltcroppers came from Barry whatshisname, head of BP NGO Relations - no dialogue today! "John Browne, we know where you live" will hopefully have made it back to the boss, and "BP are murdering bastards" followed by a list of examples will have brought the reality of profiting from oil a bit closer to those counting their pennies, scanning the financial pages for % changes intheir bank accounts...

Overall impression - less symbolism needed, more direct action. What are you gonna do?

I suspect the appearance at Camberwell Magistrates is 30th April, as thats this Wednesday?

from under pics elsewhere on Indymedia:

oh dear
by hmm 2:41pm Sun Apr 27 '03

and all we have to show is a series of pictures of coppers reading our propaganda, and some banners hardly visible even to shareholders (certainly not the execs)....oh dear.

Maybe some of da fuzz were doing it for intelligence gathering, maybe some of them were bored stupid - I certainly was.

And wow did we bother the now quaking BP that day - that'll teach 'em...!

participation for participation's sake (or protest for...) ain't necessarily worth it. And pretending otherwise'll just keep us in a complacent fantasy world.

I hope we can get truly creative and inspirational at future and various AGMs, using the many diverse talents we have, and shut the fuckers down - shit, we've managed it before over the last ten years, why now do we just have samba to show for it!

carnival chaos indeed!

hmm.

Why are we obesessed with carnivals? Why do people think a carnival is an appropriate response to geno/eco cide? Why is smiling and handing leaflets to the cops 'creating carnival chaos'?

Respect due to the people who went inside and tried to get inside, to people with the stinky stuff and the popel locking on.

I'm not trying to get at people who didnt really, just wondering why everything has to be so 'jolly' and carnival like - we dont want boring lefty demos and stuff like 'reclaim the streets' was really refreshing in its hey day - but me thinks we have gone a bit far with the 'carnival' thing and the samba and the exscuse for fancy dress.

Why would anyone take us seriously when we are all happy clappy having a carnival - just look like a load of protest-for-protest-sake addicts rather than the intelligent, commited and radical individuals which nearly everyone there probabaly was.

ok, so did any of you whingers actually go, or lock on, or try to get inside yourselves? Not many? I thought not. Peeps were attempting to gei inside CONSTANTLY. The noise pollution was considerable. I agree, throwing a party for yer mates isnt going anywhere, but the main problem was actually numbers - if enough people had given a shit and got their asses down there, pushing through police lines might have been viable. Better a carnival than a bunch of armchair 'anarchos' who like nothing better than issuing hindsighted instructions from a comfy distance to those who actually bother to make the effort. Beleive me, a samba band inside one of those places fucking puts a stop to everything. BUT WE NEED MORE PEOPLE end of story. If you dont like how its organised, orgainse your own.

to let people know that one person is still being charged for affray and abh (actual bodily harm) for allegedly throwing smelly liquid inside the royal festival hall. they are putting in a plea (guilty/not guilty) on 11th June and have elected to be tried in crown court, with jury. If it goes to crown court would be nice to see support there.

A response to some of the other comments that have appeared - maybe don't assume that people who make comments weren't there.

And we don't necessarily need more people, though could be more interesting. About 8 people got inside and disrupted the event considerably. I don't think any of them charged police lines, or got in like that. So numbers aren't the key. It's what you do with the numbers you've got, innit.

what a typical activist tosser comment to make! The only improtant thing to is to DO SOMETHING, anything, and if it doesnt happen its because of the numbers etc. Did you really expect to get a large not very mobile samba band inot there? And it's not just about this action is it? Its about lots of similar 'carnival' actions. the anti war marches had 100's of thousands of people, and yes it even had samba bands, but was soft as shit...there is room for tactical discussion and radical theory as well as 'actions' divorced froma that. Have you ever thought actions in this style might actually ALIENATE people and put them off comeing?

>A response to some of the other comments that have >appeared - maybe don't assume that people who make >comments weren't there.

>And we don't necessarily need more people, though could be >more interesting. About 8 people got inside and disrupted >the event considerably. I don't think any of them charged >police lines, or got in like that. So numbers aren't the >key. It's what you do with the numbers you've got, innit.

I couldnt agree more... I'll be sure to try and let people know when there is a crown court date.

Every year since 1998 or so, BP has carried out a one-day-only privatisation of the Peoples’ Palace, better known as the Royal Festival Hall, in order to hold its Annual General Meeting.

Accompanying this panto in the past have been the occasional shareholder resolution requesting that BP divest from Tibet or commit to a stronger renewables policy. And there have been small theatrical protests such as the Colombia Solidarity Campaign attending the meeting in paramilitary uniforms.

The intention in 2003 was to up the ante a bit and to give people a chance to express their disgust at the way Big Oil is profiting from war, climate change and the ruthless exploitation of workers, affected communities and ecosystems. And it was an attempt to convert that anger into a more positive, celebratory vision of the future, partly through the use of renewably-powered sound systems.

In the build-up, almost 40,000 leaflets heavily critical of BP were distributed, citing its disastrous record in Alaska, Colombia, the North Sea, West Papua – wherever it operates, in fact - and inciting people to get involved with the campaign to prevent its current extremely vulnerable flagship project, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline.

Another aspect of the outreach work leading up to the Carnival was the ‘Deconstructing BP’ Tour, which dropped in on London, Norwich, Brighton, Bristol and Nottingham with a combination of videos, speakers (mostly from the excellent Colombia Solidarity Campaign) and discussions, all in venues decorated for the night with photographs of the proposed route of the BTC pipeline and draped in multi-coloured anti-BP and climate chaos banners.

On the day, many of the necessary pieces of the jigsaw fell into place pretty much as hoped: we were noisy, defiant, joyous and bedecked in colour; the heavy security culture that bedevils BP’s refining activities in the global south was imported to the RFH for one day, seriously upsetting the behatted Ascot-like atmosphere that some shareholders seemed to expect; 3000 copies of a spoof annual report were printed and very well received; press coverage was strong and comparatively positive; BP boss Lord Browne was energetically heckled before said heckler was rewarded for exercising his right to free speech by being energetically removed by security; the Alternative General Meeting held on the South Bank ( http://realserver.spc.org:7070/ramgen/piratetv/ptvaltmedia/BPagm.rm) was passionate, informative and often hysterically funny; and stinky stuff was released in various parts of the building, (triggering an absurd police over-reaction as they called in a Porton Down-trained chemical warfare specialist to investigate the offending odour).

The lower-than-expected turnout, while not succeeding in shutting down the meeting, certainly rattled BP, who had put serious time, energy and money into their security operation. It seems unlikely that the RFH will want to endure the same sort of situation next year, with the whole building pretty much closed off to the public, which would force BP will have to look around for another building to brand for the day. (Speaking of branding, BP had even stuck huge plastic graphics of grass onto the windows on one side, presumably to protect their shareholders from the alarming sight of the great unwashed massed beneath them.)

The effectiveness of the spoof report was demonstrated in press reports such as this from the Independent newspaper: ‘Inside the hall, some ordinary shareholders mistakenly quoted from the fake annual report, which boasted that BP was "reaping the rewards from the latest in a long line of oil wars", believing it to be real.’ So the fact that media coverage of the event led with the on-the-backfoot assertion by BP Chairman Peter Sutherland that ‘BP will not muscle in on post-war Iraq’ was triggered by a heavily satirical spoof report. The sight of many of the police men and women of Metropolitan Petroleum – as they were dubbed for the day – chuckling as they read the spoof can hardly fill board members with cheer as they look back on the day. Perhaps BP boss Lord Browne of Madingley – or ‘Lord Browne of Beyond’, as he is dubbed in the spoof report – can take some comfort from the knowledge that shareholders scarcely batted a false eyelash at his 2002 salary of £3,307,000

Even though it revealed conflict-inflated profits of £26 million per day for the first three months of 2003, spring wasn’t a very good season for the BP brand or for Big Oil itself. Public perceptions of the industry’s collusion in the Iraq war and subsequent profitable peace were underlined by the Carnival Against Oil Wars and Climate Chaos, by Nigerian oilworkers occupying offshore rigs in protest at working conditions, and media-fuelled talk of May Day protesters’ targetting oil as well as arms companies.

The Carnival showed that even a comparatively small number of creative and determinedly off-brand people can have a real impact on one of the world’s largest and most greenwashed companies. With our help, this will be the decade when positive public perceptions of Big Oil will disappear for good. Would that we could say the same for the carbon dioxide in our upper atmosphere.
or With our help, this will be the decade when positive public perceptions of Big Oil go up in smoke.

PS. For a 16 page spoof BP report, send an A4 SAE to London Rising Tide, c/o 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES

phatpat,

I was there inside. Couldn't hear much noise I'm afraid - it'll be that modern double glazzzzzing stuff.

No instructions given yet mate!

Compare a stream finding it's way through a crack (think individuals planning beforehand, getting into Royal Festival Hall), to a huge torrent trying to push through the same crack reinforced (think mass of people trying to to get in to RFH).

> BUT WE NEED MORE PEOPLE end of story. If you dont like how
> its organised, orgainse your own.
Thanks for the instructions.
Where ever did diversity and respect go? Well done for getting down there - no attack on you or anyone else intended (if you read my original comments).

byee