Check out this coverage of Shake! and Leeds Young Authors’ event on institutional racism in The Northerner blog. You don’t want to miss this unique collaboration between young people, Leeds University’s MA Activism and Social Change, Leeds Bicentenary Transformation Project, Leeds Black Film Club, chaired by Esther Stanford-Xosei of Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition of Europe.
The day comprises mini-lectures, discussion, creative workshops, and film screening of two rare films on anti-racist resistance in Britain There are still places available – email platformshake@gmail.com
Go to Shake’s blog for the whole context of our project with young people.
See reverse of flyer for schedule:
And if you missed Shake’s incredible workshop session at the Rebellious Media Conference “The Unheard: Youth, the ‘riots’ and the media”, get a flavour of it through the blog here. Hear how Shake’s artist-facilitators Sai Murai and Zena Edwards responded to the event through interviews by Ceasefire; and read feedback from audience…
The Global Greengrants Fund has set up an online petition calling on Shell to immediately clean up its appalling pollution in the Niger Delta and end its daily human rights abuses.
The action has collected over 9,900 signatures since Wednesday. Let’s see if we can hit 10,000 by the end of today! Please sign the petition now.
“To an oil company, it’s liquid gold.”
That’s how filmmaker Sandi Cioffi describes Nigerian oil, known as ‘sweet crude’ because it is low in sulphur and therefore cheaper and easier to refine.
The trailer below is for Sweet Crude, the film. An amazing and insightful documentary by Sandi Cioffi, it looks at the appalling legacy of oil companies, in particular Shell and Chevron in the Niger Delta. The film features accounts of brutal military repression of protesters, including women, in the Delta, the role of oil companies in the conflict, and local forms of resistance.
“We’re looking at a time-bomb, and when it blows, it will blow us all away…”
On Sunday, various Shakers were revelling in “Community is Home”, UpRise’s 2011 Festival happening across 14 venues in Dalston, Hackney. The day was bright and warm, and the vibe was fantastic. Boris Johnson’s decision to remove funding from the original “Rise” Festival did not deter the many committed individuals and organisations from making this incredibly important festival happen for the second year running. Huge noise for Paul Richards and the team..Yay!
It really did feel this good
From hanging out in the Eastern Curve Garden eating stone-baked pizza among the vegetable beds to listening to a stella line-up on the Dalston Roof Park, to shaking your bones to Aruba Red, it was a fantastic day. Trades Union stall holders, campaigners from the featured charities “2 Fingers to Violence” and “Medecins sans Frontieres”, and happy festival-goers of all ages strolled, talked, enjoyed, and stitched it all together. There is no better way to snub all those who want to portray this part of London in a negative light.
Shakers were there and our very own performance poet and facilitator Simon Murray (aka Sai Murai) facilitated a poetry workshop called “Breathing Space” for the Numbi night at Open the Gate. Only hours later those same workshop poets were taking the mic and pouring fresh and vital words into our waiting ears. Brilliant day, brilliant night, and Shake’s looking forward to more collaborations with our friends at UpRise and 2 Fingers to Violence.
(a personal view…)
“Why free?”
“Who is it?”
“What scares you?”
“What trouble do you expect to get into?”
“What existing structures and conventions of universities do we want to ditch?”
“How Liverpool is it”?
“Are we students? Who are we?”
“How will we know when people/we are committed?”
“Is it about curriculum or freeness? or both?
“How will it function as a protest?”
“How will it end?”
These were some of the questions we asked, tickled and answered last weekend in the Next to Nowhere social centre in Liverpool. A group of maybe 20 people, from Liverpool and elsewhere got together to think where this protest goes next…
Continue reading
Sunny Ofehe, known as Comrade Sunny to his friends and colleagues, is to stand trial today in a Rotterdam court on charges of conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism.
Ofehe was arrested on 22 February 2011, originally on “suspicion of people smuggling and forgery” and has been in detention since then. The Dutch authorities later altered the charges and accused Ofehe of plotting to blow up Shell pipelines in the oil-rich Niger Delta. His arrest follows what appears to be an elaborate year-long surveillance operation during which
his phones and computers were allegedly tapped and a camera placed in front of his office for three weeks.
Friends of the Earth Nigeria have raised concerns about the process of Ofehe’s arrest and the charges against him. A Dutch media channel reported:
Ofehe’s lawyers are sceptical about the motives in the case against their client. They are convinced that the Dutch authorities are complicit in a campaign to silence a vocal critic of the multinational oil companies and alleged misappropriation of oil revenues by the Nigerian government. “There’s something funny going on, that’s all I can say for now,” says Ed Manders.
Ofehe has played a central role in recent campaigning against the oil giant in Holland. In January 2011, Ofehe took Dutch parliamentarians on a tour of the Niger Delta on 26 January he appeared to give testimony before the Dutch Parliament’s inquiry into Shell’s environmental and social impact in Nigeria.
PLATFORM is concerned that the timing of Ofehe’s arrest and the charges against him could be politically motivated, and we urge the Dutch authorities to guarantee due process and a fair hearing. Follow the live blog at Radio Netherlands Worldwide here.
It’s 22nd July 2011, and another arts, fossil fuel sponsorship, censorship story breaks. There’s a furore over a newly commissioned public sculpture at the University of Wyoming. Wyoming is a US state which mines more coal than any other in the union. The piece, called Carbon Sink, What Goes Around Comes Around by British artist Chris Drury draws the link between coal, climate change, and the pine beetle infestation that is devastating the Rocky Mountains because the climate no longer gets cold enough in winter to control their numbers. The trouble is, the University is heavily backed by the fossil fuel industry, and Carbon Sink has provoked a wounded wail: “They get millions of dollars in royalties from oil, gas and coal to run the university, and then they put up a monument attacking me, demonising the industry,” said Marion Loomis, the director of the Wyoming Mining Association… “I understand academic freedom, and we’re very supportive of it, but it’s still disappointing.” Drury was surprised. “I thought it was a fairly innocuous thing to do. But it’s kind of upset a lot of people here. Perhaps it was slightly more obvious because it is slightly more crucial in this state. But this is a university so I expected to start a debate, not a row.” Tom Lubnau, a Wyoming state legislator commented “While I would never tinker with the University of Wyoming budget… every now and then, you have to use some of these opportunities to educate some of the folks at the University about where their paychecks come from.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jul/22/wyoming-university-coa…
In 2003, PLATFORM collaborated with new economics foundation and Corporate Watch on a report “Degrees of Capture: Universities, the Oil Industry and Climate Change” which examined the relationship between Britain’s universities and oil industry sponsorship of research and facilities, and how that relationship has a bearing on climate change. Amongst many other significant findings, the report found that the then balance of university-based energy research and development (R&D) significantly increased our dependence on fossil fuels, and undermined the development of renewable energies, thus going directly against other government directives such as the 2003 Energy White Paper which set a target for the UK to cut its emissions of carbon dioxide by 60% by 2050. The detailed report caused a lot of useful outraged responses, especially from universities in Scotland, and the Scottish Executive, many of former being heavily backed by the North Sea oil industry.
http://www.platformlondon.org/carbonweb/showitem.asp?article=99&parent=9
In 2004, at the invitation of the Institute for Contemporary Interdisciplinary Arts at the University of Bath, we created a exhibition and conversation from Degrees of Capture which addressed the following questions:
What constitutes an ethical relationship between academic research and a business sponsor or partner?
To what extent are these relationships between academia and business part of a public relations function, in the same way as companies sponsor cultural and arts events?
To ensure academic freedom, shouldn’t academic institutions or individuals develop an ethical policy for engaging with business?
http://www.bath.ac.uk/icia/archive-old/exhibitions04.shtml
In these days post Browne Review of Higher Education where the free market is being given a massive thumbs up and even arts courses are being driven to position themselves as good for business, it’s time to regroup. Browne is Lord John Browne, ex-Chief Executive of BP, Chair of Tate’s Board of Trustees, and lover of opera, owner of a palazzo on the Grand Canal. The recent reinstatement of the arts, culture and higher education areas of public life that should be governed by market forces, and not as a civil society “good” (however problematic) has been given a huge boost under Browne’s recommendations, which must be resisted.
http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/corporate/docs/s/10-1208-securing-s…
“The mind should not be kept continuously at the same pitch of concentration, but given amusing diversions… Our minds must relax: they will rise better and keener after a rest. Just as you must not force fertile farmlands, so uninterrupted productivity will soon exhaust it, so constant effort will sap our mental vigour, while a short period of rest and relaxation will restore our powers. Unremitting effort leads to a kind of mental dullness and lethargy…
Sleep too is essential as a restorative, but if you prolong it constantly day and night, it will be death. There is a big difference between slackening your hold on something and severing the link…
We must indulge the mind and from time to time allow it the leisure which is its force and strength. We must go for walks out of doors so that the mind can be strengthened and invigorated by a clear sky and plenty of fresh air.
At times it will acquire fresh energy from a journey in a carriage and a change of scene, or from socialising and drinking freely…
Liberate the mind from its slavery to cares, emancipate it, invigorate it, embolden it for all its undertakings.
So here you have the means of preserving your tranquillity, the means of restoring the faults that creep up on you unawares. But be sure of this, that none of these is strong enough for those who want to preserve such a fragile thing unless the wavering mind is surrounded by attentive and unceasing care.”
A few months ago, we discovered a very early typewritten PLATFORM manifesto (1986) which referred to “labouring furiously” til social and ecological justice was achieved. Once we had stopped laughing, we had yet another conversation about the constant effort to get some kind of balance between political commitment, collective care & mental health, and individual’s human needs. It’s an issue for so so many people, groups and organisations.
Personally, I don’t usually look to an ancient Roman for advice on antidotes to overwork, but this one does it for me. It’s from Seneca’s “On the Shortness of Life”, which also contains the epic line “Life is long if you know how to live it”. Found in a new Penguin edition in my friend’s flat this week. Thanks Helen.
However, i see from Wikipedia that the man himself had his struggles
“He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero (tricky!). He was later forced to commit suicide for complicity in the Pisonian conspiracy to assassinate this last of the Julio-Claudian emperors; however, he may have been innocent.” Hmm.
On 29th June, the Arts Council England finally announced its new “Catalyst Arts” philanthropy programme, aimed at pushing arts organisations towards a US-style corporate and private philanthropy culture. It’s ironic that 3 days later, PLATFORM had a close encounter with censorship from a major arts venue, the Shell-sponsored Southbank Centre, London.
As part of the London Literature Festival, PLATFORM was invited to present our forthcoming book “The Oil Road” (by Mika Minio and James Marriott), alongside writer Neal Ascherson and moderator Gareth Evans on 3rd July. The Oil Road is a travelogue and analysis of how oil travels from the Caspian to Europe. It focuses on human rights and environmental impacts of one particular pipeline, chiefly backed by oil company BP.
We had emailed with the SBC events manager in advance about bringing materials to put out on a table for the audience’s interest, to which she agreed.
On arrival half an hour before the event, the events manager stated she needed to check with the marketing manager about our supporting literature and that this is standard practice. It was the Duty Manager who explained that material could not be put out which could be seen to be inciting action or being overtly critical of Shell. (This is not a direct quote but paraphrase.)
Our materials – which as it happens were mostly focused on BP and RBS – were looked at cursorily, and all were “passed” after questions such as “is there anything on Shell in this?”.
This was a clear example of the dangers to freedom of expression which are only set to increase under a push towards corporate philanthropy, unless bold moves are made to stand firm on ethics and censorship.
It’s also an example of massive internal contradictions within an organisation. SBC staff attempted to mute discussion on important environmental issues pertaining to Shell, because of risk of offence to a major sponsor. Yet other staff were happy to programme an event that was detailing similar abuses of power by BP.
This was not the first time we have experienced trouble and confused messages from SBC over Shell, when we have been an agreed part of their programme:
- During the Freedom and Culture Festival, on 10 November 2007, SBC staff presented sudden strong objections to the temporary placement of the Living Memorial to Ken Saro-Wiwa on Queen Elizabeth Walk, which had been carefully planned and agreed. SBC was part of the original Remember Saro-Wiwa Coalition (run by PLATFORM) and had previously programmed a major event on this, which was heavily critical of Shell, featuring Wole Soyinka, Lemn Sissay, Alice Oswald and others.
- During LIFT’s “A Parliament for Climate Change”, held at SBC on 6 July 2008, LIFT staff were put under pressure over an event PLATFORM was running that debated the ethics of Shell’s sponsorship of SBC in light of abuses in Nigeria and climate change.
Last week, in a letter to SBC’s Artistic Director Jude Kelly we challenged SBC on the censorship issue, and demanded to know what their policy was with regard to programming artists who may be critical of their sponsors. We also pointed out that Jude was the keynote speaker two days after our event, at an Index on Censorship event at Free Word (on 5th July). Her support for the crucial work of Index on Censorship seemed a massive contradiction with what we experienced at the weekend, and on previous occasions.
Jude Kelly phoned us later the same day, “to put something right that was clearly wrong”. And backed up the conversation with an email:
“…We have no policy at all that instructs staff to avoid criticism of sponsors. We do have a policy that says 3rd party advertising is by discretion -ie rival concerts…etc. But that’s not related to sponsors at all. However — i can promise you we would not create the programme of debate, polemic and inquiry around controversial and contested subjects if we separately wished to censor criticism. Nevertheless, we are to blame for not giving staff a clear guide that supports them understand the apparent contradictions that can seem to arise in a world were sponsorship and free speech live side by side. If there was confusing action that is our fault not theirs…”
One question we will be pursuing with SBC arises about written and unwritten policies. A culture can be fostered where tacit understanding is all that is needed. It can be in interest of the big arts institutions to let internal self-censorship operate when it comes to sponsorship (or any other hot political issue). Senior management can say that there is no written policy – which may be true – while staff in the Marketing or Corporate Relations department may be delivering other instructions verbally, or in informal written exchanges.
There are many precedents for senior management being seen to “keep their hands clean”, while staff in other parts of the hierarchy are handling the real agenda. Do SBC staff in Marketing and Corporate Relations agree with the position as described by the Artistic Director? The Duty Manager was absolutely clear in his message. He had been instructed.
Finally, this incident revolving around censorship does not escape from the fact that SBC takes money from the fossil fuel industry, thus endorsing climate change, rather than endorsing activity which moves us away from it. This relationship polishes the image of the oil industry, and, in the words of a recent Arts & Business report, illustrates “how the arts render authenticity to business”. The new arts philanthropy will be no more than a gloss on the barnacle of industry if we don’t have a discussion and take action urgently on where ethics and aesthetics meet.