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.

grim protest at shell-sponsored southbank festival

rikkiindymedia(At)gmail[dot]com (rikki) | 17.04.2012 16:55 | London

activists from london rising tide (helped by 'rhythms of resistance' samba players), staged a noisy and theatrical protest at the royal festival hall yesterday evening, highlighting the greenwashing of shell's image through cultural sponsorship in their 'shell classic international' festival at the southbank centre.

click on image for larger version. 'some rights reserved' - free for credited non-commercial use, otherwise contact author for permission
-----

yesterday evening, around a dozen activists gathered near their south bank target, and prepared their large surdo drums, 'shell hell' face masks, and grim reaper costumes. shortly before seven, they formed a procession and swiftly entered the royal festival hall foyer.

as the demonic figures processed through the foyer, a slow funereal drum beat filled the area, while other activists moved round the foyer handing out hundreds of leaflets.

the leaflets reminded people how once, cultural sponsorship by 'big tobacco' was acceptable. campaigners wish to make 'big oil' sponsorship unacceptable in the way that tobacco now is.

'big oil' is an ecocidal industry wreaking climate change havoc, as well as destroying lives (literally in the case of ken saro-wiwa and eight other activists), in nigeria, ireland, and canada (where tar sands extraction covering the size of england is destroying the environment and indigenous lives and futures).

in order to 'greenwash' its image, shell only have to channel the tiniest crumbs of its £35,000 per minute profits (2011) in order to cynically protect its image through cultural sponsorship.

at the royal festival hall, the security men soon began to ask the costumed protesters to leave. despite some gentle passive resistance, the burly security men eventually forced everyone outside the doors, mostly in a firm and gentle manner (although a couple of smaller 'south bank security' men who joined them got a bit more unnecessarily lairy).

outside the doors of the royal festival hall, security managers made anxious phone-calls and after a short while two policemen arrived. the hall managers pointed out that the protest was still taking place on private land, and they were concerned at the noise of the drums, and the embarassment to specially invited guests, including a special reception for none other than 'j p morgan', (one of the worst banking collapse culprits and the employer of well-known ex-PM and war criminal, 'tony blair').

one of the constables, looking through the protest leaflet, pointed out that it missed out the controversial mammoth oil refinery in durban, south africa! he was clearly not a fan of the dirty corporation, and once he'd established the protestors were intending to leave at 7.30 at the start of the recital, he allowed the drumming and the protest to remain in situ, saying quietly that he was "sure we can string it out till then".

so, as a mixture of genuine music lovers, and corporate f**kwits arrived at the hall, they heard the noise, saw the costumes, and most people readily accepted the leaflets, often with very positive reaction on reading it. shell's greenwash was looking dirtier by the minute.

suddenly, the protest was approached by a man in a suit who, hiding his ID badge, proceeded to take a series of close-up photos of everyone involved, including journalists. he may have been associated with shell, or perhaps a member of the 'south bank' security team. apart from the images of journos and leafleteers, he went home with a succession of close-ups of the excellent shell skull masks. it should be easy for him to identify them again next time! :)

at 7.30, the procession eerily marched away, drums echoing into the distance.

NOTES:
durban oil refinery is a joint venture with (olympic sustainability partner) BP. it is an ageing and huge refinery beset with years of problems with pollution, accidents, and leaks, destroying the environment for local people.

more info: www.risingtide.org.uk
@risingtide_UK
FB: Rising Tide UK
0770eight 794 six six 5


rikkiindymedia(At)gmail[dot]com (rikki)
- Original article on IMC London: http://london.indymedia.org/articles/12090

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