Watch the video by you and i films here:

The protest coincides with the 16th anniversary of the execution of writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists for their campaign against the environmental and social devastation caused by Shell and the Nigerian military regime. In response to peaceful protests by the minority Ogoni people in Nigeria, Shell collaborated with the military in a series of brutal crackdowns in the 1990s that claimed the lives of thousands. In October 2011, Platform released a new report on Shell’s role in recent human rights abuses perpetrated by the Nigerian military. The report also reveals how Shell has fuelled conflict through payments to armed gangs in the Delta region.

Events like the Shell Live Wire are used by the company to dissociate itself from human rights abuses and environmental devastation that results from its activities in Nigeria and elsewhere. The protest in London seeks to challenge Shell’s “social licence to operate”, thereby weakening its ability to commit abuses with impunity. The protest was organised by London Rising Tide and according to Indymedia encountered limited resistance from security:

Centrepoint security at first overstepped the mark, pushing people and trying to snatch the banner, but they retreated indoors and closed off the entrance when they realised they were being filmed, allowing the protest to continue right outside.

Hundreds of leaflets were handed out to interested passers-by, and police, who arrived after around 40 minutes, waited for instruction up the command chain before deciding to leave the protest alone.

The Black Gold Injustice: A Permanent Condition?

*Race * Poverty * Environment * Justice * Action*

Join a new series of events to explore how our daily lives connect to climate change in Africa, the Caribbean and beyond
A global economy based on fossil fuels will lead to more natural disasters, resource wars and scorched frontiers of oil & gas exploration. Across the world, it is our Black and indigenous communities who are hit hardest by climate change and pollution. But why should these groups be denied the right to livelihood, or to clean and healthy environments? Social justice movements can challenge the ‘environmental racism’ embedded in our dependence on fossil fuels.

Reserve tickets ASAP on Email: gcampbell@acnglasgow.org and tel: 07758253823.

16^th April – 6pm African, Caribbean Network Office, 6pm, 30 Bell Street, Glasgow - Ben Amunwa of the remember saro-wiwa  project leads ”No Condition is Permanent: oil politics and resistance” – a discussion-based workshop on strategies to address environmental injustice, it’s race, class and gender impacts, in Africa and beyond.

19^th April – Edinburgh University, Balcony Room, 12-2pm Ben Amunwa of Remember Saro-Wiwa Project leads ”No Condition is Permanent: oil politics and resistance” – a discussion-based workshop on strategies to address environmental injustice, it’s race, class and gender impacts, in Africa and beyond.

19^th April Aberdeen 6-8pm – University of Aberdeen (MacRobert Building near the intersection between King Street and St Machar Drive) MacRobert Building King’s College, Aberdeen, AB24 5U -Debate: ‘”Exploitation or Development? Oil, Politics and Human Rights in Nigeria” - Ben Amunwa of Remember SaroWiwa Project and other speakers. With a discussion on “how women’s experiences of our local environments are significant in understanding the power structures that determine the global conditions of our struggles.”

3^rd May – Edinburgh University, Teviot Dining Room 1-3pm - Maria Adebowale – Director Capacity Global – Living in a clean and health environment is everyone’s right

3^rd May – 6pm Glasgow, African, Caribbean Network Office, 30 Bell Street, Glasgow -Maria Adebowale – Director Capacity Global – Living in a clean and health environment is everyone’s right.

Black Gold Injustice organisers are from all over the UK. We recognise the integral links between anti-racist struggle, social justice and environmental injustices. We are committed to integrating an anti-oppression framework and analysis into all of our work. This means addressing whose voices are heard, which priorities are chosen, what actions are taken, who does the work, and who gets the credit.

Our aim is to connect our communities fighting for basic human and environmental rights whom refuse to let ourselves or those close to us, live in uninhabitable conditions. We will continue to provide tools and perspectives for developing multiracial perspectives and inclusive strategies for action to defend our communities for dignity and justice in the face of growing inequality.

Supported and Organised by:

The African and Caribbean Network Ltd (A&CN) is a voluntary sector umbrella organisation and coordination body providing surgery, advice and support services in housing, anti-poverty work, employment, group capacity building and community development for 40+ African and Caribbean community groups representing 10,000 people in Glasgow and the surrounding region.

So We Stand is a peoples movement for empowering social change building self defence strategies to better our lives and communities.We provide training, support, and solidarity to grassroots struggles for environmental, social and multi-racial justice. We engage with popular education to build a culture of creative action and self-determination connecting different local experiences of injustice to protect life.

AfroGossip are an inspirational medium for African & Caribbean communities based in Scotland? We promote and encourage greater awareness and appreciation of the African culture through media. We showcase and create opportunities for fresh talent and already established entertainers/ performers of all backgrounds while developing Black pride to challenge wrongful stereotypical views associated with people of black origin.

AMINA – The Muslim Women’s Resource Centre is a Scotland-wide Charity works with mainstream agencies and policy makers to enhance their understanding of muslim community and of barriers preventing muslim women from accessing services and participating in the society. MWRC also provides direct helping services, community development and a listening ear to muslim women.

Remember Saro-Wiwa is a coalition of UK-based organisations and individuals encompassing the arts and literature, human rights and environmental and development issues.

Platform London works across disciplines for social and ecological justice. It combines the transformatory power of art with the tangible goals of campaigning, the rigour of in-depth research with the vision to promote alternative futures.

Capacity Global believes that everyone has the right to live in a clean and healthy environmen. Any action, item or process infringing on this right can be described as environmental injustice. We work specifically with people and communities in urban areas, who suffer most from environmental injustice, to ensure their voices get heard and fight environmental injustice to create opportunities for environmental justice.

Scottish Ecological Design Association (SEDA)(http://www.seda.uk.net/) aims to promote the design of communities, environments, projects, systems, services, materials and products which enhance the quality of life of and are not harmful to living species and planetary ecology.

Gratefully Supported by:

Artists Project Earth (APE) (www.apeuk.org/) aims to create a better world through the power of music and the arts.

‘Shaping the Future’: a PLATFORM residency programme of art, activism and education launched with a fiery spectacle at 5pm on Tuesday 10^th November at the Stephen Lawrence Centre in Lewisham, London. ‘Shaping the Future’ is led by the arts and ecology group PLATFORM, and speakers at the launch included the Mayor of Greenwich, Doreen Lawrence, (mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence), and Maria Saro-Wiwa, (widow of the Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa).

The ground breaking Living Memorial to Ken Saro-Wiwa lit up the night sky with a burst of fire, to highlight the ongoing campaign to stop oil companies, in particular Shell, flaring gas in Nigeria.

The Living Memorial takes the form of a two-tonne steel Bus, created by Sokari Douglas Camp CBE. It is the centrepiece of a new, year-long PLATFORM residency at the Stephen Lawrence Centre, that commences in 2010 and aims to inspire young people to learn creative ways of campaigning for change through workshops and collaborations with established global artists.

Doreen Lawrence of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust said, “Stephen Lawrence dreamed of becoming an architect, and making a positive impact on his community and the wider world. The Trust aims to empower young people to change their communities, both locally and globally. We are delighted to welcome the arts and campaigning group PLATFORM to take up a residency that will promote global awareness about environmental and social issues, and explore the vital role of creativity in bringing about social change.”

Ben Amunwa from PLATFORM said, “The oil fields of Nigeria are notorious for decades of pollution and toxic gas flaring on a massive scale. Fourteen years ago Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others were executed for their campaigning against those gas flares. We now know that gas flaring in Nigeria affect us all, by destroying the global climate. We are launching ‘Shaping the future’ to keep alive the struggle for justice, and to inform young people about their role as global citizens and about responding creatively to these urgent issues.”

My heart is beating?

Many times she sang those words, wrapping up the pain and endurance of Niger Deltans, for years she shook the wall of indifference around her, and finally, we were moved.

On 1st October, NNEKA was awarded this years’ MOBO (Music of Black Origin) prize for best African Artist. NNEKA is an artist of rare achievement, whose outspoken views about the exploitation of the oil-rich Niger Delta burns deep into her lyrics. Her music has lifted the Niger Delta struggle into powerful songs,  charging the airwaves of the BBC and the UK Top 40 with her politics.

Her story begins far away from the media spotlight in the oil-city of Warri, in the Niger Delta. A few years after she arrived on the European music scene she is now clocking up +1.5 million hits on her new music video, ‘Heartbeat’. NNEKA’s success has heightened her awareness of the development denied to her people in the Delta, in spite of the oil wealth extracted from the region.

A long-time supporter of the Niger Delta cause, and a headline artist at remember saro-wiwa events, NNEKA takes every opportunity to remind the West of the heavy cost of Nigerian oil, heaping criticism on the destructive impact of companies like Shell, Chevron and the Nigerian government.

As the BBC reports:

The singer says her influences include Nigeria’s iconic Afro-beat performer Fela Kuti as well more contemporary acts like a US rapper Mos Def.

She also cites Nigeria writer and human rights activist Ken Saro-Wiwa as an inspiration. Mr Saro-Wiwa was executed by the Sani Abacha government in 1995 for his efforts to campaign against corruption in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

“Stand up against; corruption, against injustice, against bribery and hypocrisy…….RAISE UR VOICES,” she says on her MySpace page.

© Ed Kashi, http://www.edkashi.com

remember saro-wiwa commissioned leading performance poet Zena Edwards to write and perform a new work, reflecting upon the role of oil companies in the deteriorating human rights situation in the Niger Delta.

We have reproduced her poem and a photo by renowned photographer Ed Kashi, which inspired the commission, and included a video of Zena performing poetry at a press conference event at Amnesty International UK on 9th April 2009.

Untitled

by Zena Edwards

Ken, there is a photo of a girl
12,13 slim wrists long neck
she walks wearing peach, blue flip flops
stepping with familiarity
over the slippery backs of 8 pipelines
she is at 5
holding an umbrella with a bright yellow shell on it
she seeks protection from a gentle rain falling from an African sky
behind her, between giant palm leaves
dragons roar, bellowing black billows, seething
belligerent belches of acridity in the sky
when I put my ear close to the glossy paper I can hear
her asthmatic breath

each clap of her plastic flip flop against her heel
makes a poem, applaud the poem in her step
it is the sound of everyday people who live between the pipelines, tapeworms
vampiring the placenta, excreting toxic
into the bloodstream of a nation
the rivers are graveyards, the wetlands thirsty for clean breath
the land is haemorraghing
miscarrying cocoyam and vegetable seed

Boys who have given up waiting for jobs to come
Idly eye her as she walks by
A generation numbed by the futility of existence
It is ironic that their most valuable asset is their  Achilles heel
As the stagnancy of fervent youth
Dumps them in the hands of AK47 robber gangs
who howl in the night to the tune
Of their masters – myopic madmen in business
Grappling for a fist of flaccid dollars
Greed at the price of a village

But then again, everything has its price in this world
Like this girls poetry in her step, her lungs
A fair currency, fat with poisonous air
Her mothers sludge garden, her fathers chest
Face and shoulder, burned in the last accident

The truth is a jealous but patient thing
It brook no hazes of the facts or credibility gaps
There is only one fragrance it will lie with
Time, the scent of time moves from fresh to death, rot to humus fertilisation of new days

It is between the pages of a day in court
That a mystery will be solved
Why it takes twelve long years to walk the twisted violent gauntlet to justice
Why nine lives were thrown into a wound cut with knives of lies

How the spirits of the tortured and the murdered
Can be redeemed from the dispassionate mouth of brutal
greed
And how with the wondrous alchemy of Nature, instead of bitter bile
Rising into the mouths of fishermen and farmers

work songs will rise over the trees
Will dance with the fish along the creeks
Will paint across a sky uninterrupted by fire and towers of black smoke

And how the poem of the girl with the blue flip flops can be fetched

From under the fattened rump of human disregard

And raised to re-imagine the world
Why she close the umbrella with the yellow shell
And walk in the unpolluted gentle rain falling from an African sky

© Zena Edwards

Visit Zena’s myspace page for more poetry, music and performances.

NNEKA

After touring with Lenny Kravitz in Europe, NNEKA, who is originally from the Niger-Delta, plays London’s CARGO on Thursday, showcasing songs from her second Album ‘No Longer At Ease’ which is stirred by the injustices taking place in her homeland.
With support from some truly unique rap artists:
Wanlov the Kubolor:
Afrikan Boy
& DJ Edu

Awareness & outreach from the remember saro-wiwa team.

Discover the next generation of Afropean superstars

Advance tickets £12, Limited £15 tickets on the door.

For tickets visit here, here or call (+44)8700 600 100 (24hr box office)

For more info on the featured artists visit:

http://www.myspace.com/nnekaworld

http://www.myspace.com/wanlov

http://www.myspace.com/afrikanboy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/1xtra/djedu/

Photos below: Campaigners outside Shell’s headquarters in London make sure Shell staff know their company is on trial. Photos courtesy of Martin Le Santo Smith. Click on the images for a larger version. [Journalists, to download the below photos at high-resolution, click here].

LONDON—Days after a judge confirmed Shell Oil will stand trial in New York on May 27th on charges it was complicit in the murders of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other Nigerian activists, environmental and human rights groups announced that they have formed a global campaign to hold Shell accountable and demand that it stop gas flaring in Nigeria.

The campaign is being coordinated by Friends of the Earth, Oil Change International and PLATFORM/Remember Saro-Wiwa. In addition to the website www.ShellGuilty.com, the campaign will include grassroots advocacy, TV and online advertising, and calls for Shell to come clean about its corporate irresponsibility, human rights abuses and record of environmental devastation. The campaigners are demanding that Shell stop gas flaring.

“Ken Saro-Wiwa’s hanging revealed the true price of oil,” said Steve Kretzmann of Oil Change International. “Global movements for corporate accountability and environmental and social justice were inspired in part by the sacrifice of the Ogoni and the vision of Saro-Wiwa. Now, as Shell finally goes on trial for its crimes, we continue the struggle that Saro-Wiwa died for. For the climate and the communities of Nigeria, Shell must end gas flaring.”

“Gas flaring in Nigeria, where Shell is by far the largest oil company, poisons Niger Delta communities and is a significant, wasteful, source of global warming pollution,” said Elizabeth Bast of Friends of the Earth. “It’s time for Shell to end to its human rights abuses and climate crimes, including its gas flaring in Nigeria.”

“We remember Saro-Wiwa by keeping alive his nonviolent struggle,” said Ben Amunwa of PLATFORM/Remember Saro-Wiwa. “People around the world who care about these issues can demand justice from Shell—for all the victims of the oil industry—by joining our campaign at www.ShellGuilty.com.”

CONTACT:

U.K.: Ben Amunwa, Platform/Remember Saro-Wiwa, +44-207-357-0055, +44-7891-454-714, ben@remembersarowiwa.com

Netherlands: Anne van Schaik, Friends of the Earth,

+31-20-5507387,+31-6-21829589, anne.van.schaik@milieudefensie.nl

U.S.: Nick Berning, Friends of the Earth, +1-202-222-0748, nberning@foe.org

U.S.: Steve Kretzmann Oil Change International, +1-202-497-1033, steve@priceofoil.org

Notes:

* Ken Saro-Wiwa was a writer and leading activist demanding rights for Nigeria’s Ogoni people, including an end to Shell’s gas flaring in Ogoni regions. As a result of his activism, Saro-Wiwa was detained, imprisoned and tortured throughout the early 1990s. On November 10, 1995, Saro-Wiwa and eight other Ogoni activists were executed by the Nigerian government for their campaigning. Substantial evidence indicates Shell collaborated with the Nigerian government in a campaign of brutal crackdowns that culminated in the execution of Saro-Wiwa and his colleagues. Shell will be forced to face this evidence in U.S. federal district court in New York City in a trial that begins May 26th. On April 23rd, Judge Kimba Wood rejected Shell’s last-ditch attempt to avoid trial, rejecting the company’s claim that the court did not have jurisdiction to consider the case.

* Gas flares are open-air fires that burn natural gas that is released when oil is extracted from the ground. A World Bank study concluded that flaring in the Rivers and Delta states in Nigeria releases 35 million tons of carbon dioxide and 12 million tons of methane each year—equivalent to the annual global warming pollution of 56 coal plants or 47 million cars. Gas flares are toxic and harmful to human health, which is why they are strictly regulated in countries such as the United States or the U.K. But because such flaring is cheap when environmental and human costs are not taken into consideration, Shell and other oil companies have burned gas flares continuously for decades in countries like Nigeria.

For more information about the campaign, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and gas flaring, visit www.ShellGuilty.com.

###

Friends of the Earth (www.foe.org) is the U.S. voice of the world’s largest grassroots environmental network, with member groups in 70 countries. Since 1969, Friends of the Earth has been at the forefront of high-profile efforts to create a more healthy, just world.

PLATFORM is a U.K.-based arts and campaign group focusing on the impact of the oil and gas industry on the rights of local communities. PLATFORM’s Remember Saro-Wiwa project aims to create a permanent Living Memorial to Ken Saro-Wiwa in London and to raise awareness about the ongoing environmental and social devastation of the Niger Delta by oil companies such as Shell.

Oil Change International (www.priceofoil.org) campaigns to expose the true costs of oil and facilitate the coming transition towards clean energy. We are dedicated to identifying and overcoming political barriers to that transition.

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