Shell Arm

On Wednesday 15th May there was the Shell AGM in London. Protests were held in London, Aberdeen, Dublin, The Hague and Washington D.C.. In London, at the site of the AGM, there was a picket outside and a gallows were erected and pictures of the men still being held in Nigerian prisons on the same charges as Ken Saro-Wiwa were posted. Shell held up the transfer of shares to the dissident shareholders so that it was only half an hour before the AGM began that they knew they could get in. Twenty protesters went inside including a MOSOP activist. The Ogoni had asked for no physical disruption so instead a barrage of carefully worded questions kept the focus on Nigeria for nearly the entire meeting. After a hesitation, the chairperson John Jennings, was forced to call for a minutes silence out of ‘respect’ for Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other eight other activists murdered by the Shell backed military government last November. The company refused to agree to call for the release of all Ogonis still held in detention, including the Ogoni nineteen who are currently in Port Harcourt prison in terrible conditions. They face imminent execution by the same kangaroo court that sentenced the nine to death last year for opposing Shell’s devastation of the Niger Delta and the companies support of massacres by the military. Shell said it would not go back into Ogoniland unless full agreement was reached, but Ogonis are now being forced to sign such an agreement at gunpoint. The company also said it would not work behind a military security shield, but refuses to call for the demilitarisation of the Niger Delta area. Indeed the recent build-up of troops around Ogoniland suggest that if Shell cannot return and resume work, further massacres may take place and the death toll will rise even higher than the current two thousand. More anti-Shell actions are needed - the UK direct action movement is lagging behind Europe in this respect. There will be a strategy meeting at the Gathering on Thursday 13th June. For more information contact Delta on: 0116 255 3223. Keep the network informed of any actions that you do in solidarity.