climbers
9 nooses
stop (s)hell banner
noose sillhouhette
banner and reflection
terry clancey from rossport solidarity camp
let me make a note
pipeline of hell
(s)hell building
nooses down
protest round the front of shell
tiny but loud samba
bridge banner
rubens sponsorship
inside rubens exhibition
outside rubens exhibition
the action soon attracted the local security teams, a couple of overwhelmed community support officers, and then various police. police used the new 'serious organised crime act' legislation which prohibits "unauthorised demonstrations' within an exclusion zone around parliament. at first they claimed that the protestors could not demonstrate anywhere near to the shell building, but after being shown a map of the exclusion zone, conceded that the action could continue on york road at the front of the building.
they handed out many leaflets and educated passers-by of the real un-'greenwashed' reality of shell. one of the participants was terry clancey who is visiting from the irish rossport solidarity group. he will be speaking at an event at rampart on saturday.
after a pause for some late lunch, it was off to the national gallery, where shell is currently sponsoring a rubens exhibition. visitors are charged £7.50 - £9 for entrance, but shell offer free tickets to their special guests, and have held at least two banquets in the building, surrounded by the classic art of rubens. as business men are treated to this sumptuous private exhibition, you can begin to see why shell are so keen to sponsor this kind of thing - it fits in neatly with their greenwash slogan of 'profit AND principles'.
for further info:
on shell generally www.shellfacts.com www.corporatewatch.org
on the struggle in ireland www.shelltosea.com
on shell art sponsorship www.artnotoil.org.uk
on protest restrictions www.freedomtoprotest.org.uk
to contact the uk solidarity campaign
stops_hell@yahoo.com there will be a video of the day's protests posted later.
there is a rossport irish solidarity event at rampart next saturday with speakers, videos and music - more info on indymedia elswhere, and i'll post more details of this with the video.
Comments
Hide the following 4 comments
Respect and thanks
10.11.2005 16:21
hellboy
video now posted
11.11.2005 18:30
rikki
Rubens' 'Massacre of the Innocets' Sponsered by Shell
11.11.2005 21:25
Have a go.. make your own version.. Ther are still plenty of topics.. floods...war....storms...repression...
Mr Rubens
Shell non-executive director on board of National Gallery
26.11.2005 19:38
Just wanted to pass on this updated list with info interestingly left off the National Gallery's own website descriptions, ie. that Lord Kerr is on the board of Shell, (sponsor of Rubens exhibition). Looks like we have no chance with Jon Snow if he's sitting alongside Kerr at every meeting!
Anyone feel like trawling the web for addresses for this lot so we can send them a Christmas card from the Niger Delta or County Mayo?
Lord Kerr of Kinlochard: Permanent Under Secretary of State Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Ambassador to the USA (1995-7); non-executive deputy chairman, Royal Dutch Shell (natural resources, £50,000). Other FTSE directorships: non-executive director, Rio Tinto (natural resources, £64,900); Scottish American Investment Company (banking and finance, £12,000).
Snowy Jon
---------------
Earlier posting: Let the National Gallery know how you feel about Shell
If you want to contact the National Gallery:
Charles Saumarez Smith (Director), Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN
Tel: 020 7747 2885;
Or maybe get in touch with these pillars. (Keep it polite if not necessarily respectful, I reckon.)
Board of Trustees, as at Nov 05, with National Shellery's original descriptions, (note the absence of the word 'Shell'):
Lord Kerr of Kinlochard: Permanent Under Secretary of State Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Ambassador to the USA (1995-7);
Mr Jon Snow: Television journalist, presenter of Channel Four News; ex-Trustee of the BP-sponsored Tate; 'supporter' of Remember Saro-Wiwa.
Mr Peter Scott (Chairman): QC, Chairman of the Takeover Panel and former Chairman of the General Council of the Bar.
Victoria Barnsley: CEO of HarperCollins UK and founder of the Fourth Estate publishing company.
Mr Simon Burke: Chartered accountant and Executive Chairman of Superquinn, the leading Irish supermarket chain.
Professor David Ekserdijan: Professor of Art History at the University of Leicester, former Editor of Apollo Magazine (1997-2004), writer and journalist.
Mr James Fenton: Poet, critic and journalist who has written extensively on art. He was Professor of Poetry at Oxford 1994-1999.
Mr Mark Getty: Co-founder and Chairman of Getty Communications plc.
Professor Julia Higgins: Professor of Polymer Science at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine. The National Gallery's Scientist Trustee.
Mr John Lessore: Artist Trustee. His work is represented in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery, the RA and the Tate.
Mr Donald A. Moore: Chairman of Morgan Stanley Group (Europe).
Lady Normanby: Author and literary critic.
Mr Ranjit Sondhi: BBC Governor, formerly on the Commission for Racial Equality and the DfEE's Task Force on Disability Rights.
Professor Mervyn King: Governor of the Bank of England and Chairman of the Monetary Policy Committee. Was Professor of Economics at the LSE from 1984, and has been Visiting Professor at both Harvard and MIT.
Snowy Jon