Tag Archives: community

Egyptian communities protest BP expansion plans

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Egyptian communities concerned about a proposed BP gas plant on the Mediterranean coast have organised protests, including a sit-in on the site, road blockades and a raid on BP’s local office, as reported by Egyptian paper Al-Masry Al-Youm.

The residents of Idku, east of Alexandria, are opposing plans to pump gas ashore from BP’s offshore drill rigs before processing it for onwards shipment. The military has already approved the project, but local campaigners are demanding that the Egyptian Environmental Agency. A 2002 report by the Agency concluded that such a project would be too damaging to the local fish, coral reefs,  agricultural land and ecologically-rich area. Continue reading →

Oil spills & military collusion continue in Niger Delta as Exxon’s offshore fields go down

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With the media searching for new angles on BP’s Gulf disaster, stories on the devastation in Nigeria and the “normality” of spills in the Delta are now finally making it back into the papers – see Benoit Faucon’s piece in the Wall Street Journal and Adam Nossiter’s NYT article.

It’s about time, as several Exxon spills in quick succession have raised the stakes, despite the company trying to cover up the true extent. A major spill from the company’s Qua Iboe oil fields led to community protests with fisherfolk and women’s groups challenging Exxon. Rev Samuel Ayadi of the Artisan Fishermen Association of Nigeria explained that ”We are sick and tired of the oil contamination of the marine environment, which has made fishing a nightmare and less lucrative. Rather than co-exist with us, Mobil wants to force us out of the sea, and we have no other place to go.” Rev Ayadi also demanded that Mobil (Exxon’s subsidiary in Nigeria) refrain from using chemical dispersants to contain oil spills, noting that the poisonous chemical kills fish fingerlings. “The use of ‘Teepol dispersant’ is unsafe for marine life. The chemical is toxic and wipes out generations of fish. Any fish that survives it is tasteless,” he added.

When women demonstrated outside the company’s buildings, soldiers “guarding” the facilities apparently attacked, causing serious injuries including at least one broken leg.

Exxon admitted to a spill caused on June 21st only after three days and repeated complaints by local community members to the company and Nigeria’s National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA). But the company is still claiming that this is a “minor” spill of several hundred barrels from its offshore oil rigs. NOSDRA responded that “the volume [of oil spilled] claimed by the oil firm is doubtful. The oil deposits were sighted at the shoreline, if the volume was insignificant as claimed, it will not get to the shoreline, which is about 20 kilometers from the spill location.” Realistic estimates place the crude released into the sea at closer to 100,000 barrels.

Spill at Exxon’s Qua Iboe Terminal, from Justice in Nigeria Now

Exxon has accepted that the recent spills were due to its own technical failures, not sabotage or theft. The companydeclared force majeure on exports from the 400,000 barrel a day Qua Iboe Terminal back in May following the May 1st spill. Shell had declared its own force majeure on Bonny Light crude oil liftings only a week previously, as a result of leaks and fires on its Trans Niger pipeline.


Source: WSJ: “The fire and smoke plume from the Trans-Niger pipeline in the Niger Delta, April 2009.”

Colombian army attacks striking BP workers

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Claire Hall from Espacio Bristol-Colombia describes how the Colombian army has joined in the repression of striking BP workers in Casanare.

from Upside Down World:

“A five month long mobilisation against BP in the Casanare region of Colombia has escalated after the Colombian army entered the BP installations with force this week and confronted workers who have been peacefully occupying BP installations since May 23 to protest BP´s failure to conclude negotiations with the workers and community.

At midday on Wednesday a heavily armed commando group of the National Colombian Army leapt over the security fence of the Tauramena Central Processing Facility and subjected the group of workers to physical and verbal aggression. Oscar Garcia, of the National Oil Workers Union said “this war-like handling of a group of workers is an excessive use of force and treats a labour conflict as though it were an issue of public order. This shows how BP is bent on war against workers who are only demanding that their fundamental rights be respected.”[i]

The calm response by the striking workers brought the situation temporarily under control but the army remains present and tensions are high. Colombia continues to have the highest level of trade union murders in the world with 17 trade unionists murdered so far this year.

“It is no secret that since BP arrived in the early nineties we have not been able to organize workers until now due to the presence of paramilitary groups operating in the oil fields,” said Edgar Mojica from the National Oil Workers Union.

At night workers sleep chained to machinery under temporary shelters as a precaution against any further attempts to violently remove them.

“BP thinks that we will give up, tired and afraid but we will put up with these conditions as this is a struggle for everyone,” said Ramiro from the Movement for Dignity of Casanare. “We will only leave here when BP signs an agreement on salary increases, more dignified working conditions, security guarantees for all involved in the mobilisations, and honours the pre-agreements made in the environmental, human rights, social investment and goods and services commissions.”

The workers are saddened but not surprised at the measures they are forced to take to try to reach agreements with BP. The mobilisation started in February of this year. Workers were forced to take direct action and block access roads to BP’s installations after the oil corporation refused to recognise the workers rights to a union and to a collective bargaining agreement. The blockades were violently attacked by ESMAD, the notorious Colombian riot police, in an operation to end the protest.[ii]

This is not the first time that civil society movements against BP have been met with violence. In 2003, communities protested against BP, demanding action on ecological, social and labour issues. BP refused to negotiate. In the months following community leaders involved in the mobilisation were assassinated (2004 Oswaldo Vargas, 2005 Parmenio Parra).[iii] Furthermore, a preliminary public hearing held in 2007 in the UK on BP’s activities in Colombia confirmed that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that BP has a case to answer that it is complicit in the extermination of social organisations in Casanare as part of direct strategy to maximise profits.”[iv]

Despite the history of repression, the response to the ESMAD attack in February was overwhelming. Two thousand people marched in support, fifteen more road blockades spontaneously sprung up, community members and local businesses joined the strike and the Movement for the Dignity of Casanare was born. BP was forced to listen and agreed to participate in the five commissions. Popular assemblies where held to decide on the bargaining demands which were later presented to BP on March 23. However, after two months of dialogue, the labour commission had made no advances and the current strike began.

Casanare is a region characterised by extreme levels of poverty, in spite of the oil that flows out of the region to the United States. This poverty has been worsened by the environmental degradation caused by the oil exploration and extraction, and the susbequent contamination and loss of water sources, according to local farmers whose livelihoods depend on water.

“We have heard about the BP incident in the USA. We send our condolences to the families and fellow workers of those who died due to the failure of BP to take the necessary measures to ensure safe operations and protect the lives of people working for them,” said Garcia of the National Oil Workers Union. “Here in Colombia, BP has also shown their lack of respect for life. They have brought about a war that has left over 9000 people dead.”

He added, “We categorically hold BP to blame for this latest catastrophe in the USA and we demand that BP repairs to the extent possible the damage they have caused. We extend our solidarity to the Northamerican people affected and we ask for your solidarity with the Casanarean people and you are welcome to visit and see how things are here.”

BP continues to provide support to the 16th Brigade, which was created in 1991 in order to provide security to the oilfields in Casanare. They have a long, cruel and documented history of human rights violations, including: extrajudicial executions, disappearances, murders, torture, rape and the forced displacement of campesino communities. However the grave humanitarian crisis in Casanare and its relationship to the oil industry – in particular to BP – is not deterring the Movement for the Dignity of Casanare.

“Despite BP´s misinformation campaign we are determined and united and we will keep resisting with dignity,” said Ramiro. “And if we can unite with people from the USA we will be even stronger and achieve much more.”

Espacio Bristol-Colombia is an autonomous collective of people working in solidarity with communities and organisations fighting for peace with social justice in Colombia. We are based in and around the city of Bristol (England), with a growing membership from across the country, and are part of the international Network of Friendship and Solidarity with Colombia (Red de Hermandad).

“Summer of Tears” in Louisiana’s Bayous

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Frontline waterkeepers from Louisiana’s bayous have begun to tell of the devastation caused by the Macondo rupture in the sea floor. Tracy Kuhns, is the Louisiana Bayoukeeper as well as running the Fishing Community Family Support Center. Her husband, Michael Roberts, is a fisherman and they live on Bayou Barataria where fishing is down for multiple reasons, one being the waste left behind by oil and gas explorations and takings going back many decades.

SUMMER OF TEARS

The boat ride, out, from Lafitte, Louisiana, Sunday, May 23, 2010, to our fishing grounds was not unlike any other I have taken in my life, as a commercial fisherman from this area. I have made the trip thousands of times in my 35 plus years shrimping and crabbing. A warm breeze in my face, it is a typical Louisiana summer day. 3 people were with me, my wife Tracy, Ian Wren, and our grandson, Scottie. I was soon to find out, how untypical this day would become for me, not unlike a death in the family. This was going to be a very bad day for me.

Photo by Jeffrey Dubinsky, Grand Isle, LA

As we neared Barataria Bay, the smell of crude oil in the air was getting thicker and thicker. An event that always brought joy to me all of my life, the approach of the fishing grounds, was slowly turning into a nightmare. As we entered Grand Lake, the name we fishermen call Barataria Bay, I started to see a weird, glassy look to the water and soon it became evident to me, there was oil sheen as far as I could see. Soon, we were running past patches of red oil floating on top of the water. As we headed farther south, we saw at least a dozen boats, in the distance, which appeared to be shrimping. We soon realized that shrimping was not what they were doing at all, but instead they were towing oil booms in a desperate attempt to corral oil that was pouring into our fishing grounds. We stopped to talk to one of the fishermen, towing a boom, a young fisherman from Lafitte. What he told me floored me. He said, “What we are seeing in the lake, the oil, was but a drop in the bucket of what was to come.” He had just come out of the Gulf of Mexico and he said, “It was unbelievable, the oil runs for miles and miles and was headed for shore and into our fishing grounds”. I thought, what I had already seen in the lake was enough for a lifetime. We talked a little while longer, gave the fisherman some protective respirators and were soon on our way. As we left the small fleet of boats, working feverishly, trying to corral the oil, I became overwhelmed with what I just saw.

I am not real emotional and consider myself a pretty tough guy. You have to be to survive as a fisherman. As I left that scene, tears flowed down my face and I cried. Something I have not done in a long time, but would do several more times that day. I tried not to let my grandson, Scottie, see me crying. I didn’t think he would understand, I was crying for his stolen future. None of this will be the same, for decades to come. The damage is going to be immense and I do not think our lives here in South Louisiana will ever be the same. He is too young to understand. He has an intense love for our way of life here. He wants to be a fisherman and a fishing guide when he gets older. It is what he is, it is in his soul, and it is his culture. How can I tell him that this may never come to pass now, now that everything he loves in the outdoors may soon be destroyed by this massive oil spill? How do we tell this to a generation of young people, in south Louisiana who live and breathe this bayou life that they love so much, could soon be gone? How do we tell them? All this raced through my mind and I wept.

We continued farther south towards Grand Terre Island. We approached Bird Island. The real name is Queen Bess Island, but we call it Bird Island, because it is always full of birds. It is a rookery, a nesting island for thousands of birds, pelicans, terns, gulls etc. As we got closer, we saw that protective boom had been placed around about two thirds of the island. It was obvious to me, that oil had gone under the boom and was fouling the shore and had undoubtedly oil some birds. My God. We would see this scene again at Cat Island and other unnamed islands that day. We continued on to the east past Coup Abel Pass and more shrimp boats trying to contain some of the oil on the surface. We arrived at 4 Bayou Pass to see more boats working on the same thing. We beached the boat and decided to look at the beach between the passes.

The scene was one of horror to me. There was thick red oil on the entire stretch of beach, with oil continuing to wash ashore. The water looked to be infused with red oil, with billions of, what appeared to be, red pebbles of oil washing up on the beach with every wave. The red oil pebbles, at the high tide mark on the beach were melting into pools of red goo in the hot Louisiana sun. The damage was overwhelming. There was nobody there to clean it up. It would take an army to do it. Like so much of coastal Louisiana, it was accessible only by boat. Will it ever be cleaned up? I don’t know. Tears again. We soon left that beach and started to head home.

We took a little different route home, staying a little farther to the east side of Barataria Bay. As we approached the northern end of the bay, we ran into another raft of oil that appeared to be covering many square miles. It was only a mile from the interior bayous on the north side of Barataria Bay. My God. No boats were towing boom in this area. I do not think anyone even knew it was there. A little bit farther north, we saw some shrimp boats with boom, on anchor, waiting to try and protect Bayou St. Dennis from the oil. I alerted them of the approaching oil. I hope they were able to control it before it reached the bayou. We left them and started to head in.

My heart never felt so heavy, as on that ride in. I thought to myself, this is the most I’ve cried since I was a baby. In fact I am sure it was. This will be a summer of tears for a lot of us in south Louisiana.

Michael Roberts
Louisiana Bayoukeeper, Inc

David vs Goliath – Colombian community stands up to BP

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Update on the workers and community struggle against BP at Casanare in Colombia: The USO oil workers are back at work and BP has agreed to negotiate, but community mobilisations continue:

 

Movements, particularly in the Global North, could probably learn from the Casanare struggle’s close alliance between BP workers and local community and environmental campaigners. The interests of one do not appear to be abandoned at the expense of others.

A statement by “residents of the region, trade unionists, environmentalists and human rights activists” asked

“Could it be that oil is one of the most important sources of violence? An oil economy leaves a huge environmental damage, it depletes the water, an essential element of life, causes climate change, producing daily disasters and causes loss of many lives.
An economy whose base is the creation of non-durable goods, unnecessary, for a few months of purchase in addition to the pounds of trash that we do not know where to put.

An economy that needs to exhaust the days of men and women in work that does not leave time for socializing, caring for their children, develop creativity and culture, as well as exercise and the right to rest.

An economy that looks like a basic obstacle to the environment, water resources and human rights. One obstacle to be overcome, crushed.

Then you think about if it is absolutely necessary that these resources are exploited by foreign companies, who do not respond to any democracy, no people other than the narrow interests of its shareholders.”

The Colombia Solidarity Campaign, which is organising a solidarity protest at BP’s London AGM on Thursday April 15 reported that”

“Workers at the BP processing plant at Tauramena, part of the Cusiana oil field in Casanare, Colombia went on strike on 22 January 2010 for improved wages. It was the first such labour stoppage in 18 years. On 15 February the notorious ESMAD ‘anti-mutiny’ police brutally attacked the workers’ picket line and the local community with teargas and beatings. three workers were hospitalised. The workers are members of the national Oil Workers Union USO that has only been able to organise in BP plants in the last year.

The workers are back at work, but the community mobilisations continue.

After a month of work stoppage and community protests, on 23 February BP at last met with the strikers and community representatives. The two sides reached a limited agreement, with some ambiguities. Earlier that day BP had tried to run a group of scabs through the picket line on the Tauramena Central Processing Facility (CPF), but the strikers chained themselves to the gates and successfully blocked the strike-breakers. The following day the 30 strikers at SAR Energy, the sub-contractor and their immediate employer, met with managers.

BP needs to recognise the harm it has done. Five negotiating commissions were going to be set up, dealing with labour problems, social investment, goods and services, environment and human rights. They were supposed to be inaugurated on 2 March, but the process nearly broke down due to BP’s arrogant attitude. On 7 March the community held a mass mobilization demonstrating the continuing anger. On 23 March the union USO and the community movement Movimiento de Dignidad por el Casanare presented their joint demands, BP promised to respond 14-16 April. We are waiting.

In the meantime, in the nearby city of Villavicencio at 11.1 Sam on Saturday 27 March two gunmen on a motorbike shot at USO union officials, fatally wounding their bodyguard.”

Fishing in Rossport

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This will be the first in a series of emails from my friend George who is in Rossport, County Mayo, Ireland, supporting the local community in their resistance to Shell’s plans to build a high pressure gas pipeline through their village.

Martin O’Donnell is Pat O’Donnell’s brother, whose boat was sunk by masked thugs in June.

Walking along the road from Poll a’tSomais putting up signs on the telegraph poles and talking to people in their gardens and on the road. Bridgette Mc’grath saw us on the road and came outside to pick out which sign she wanted outside her pub: ‘No Consent’. Further up Eamon brought us a ladder to help us nail ‘Shell Out’ to a pole outside his house.

On Tuesday I went out with Martin O’Donnell, the chief’s brother, in his fishing boat. St. John and I drove over to Porthurlain early in the morning where the fishing boats are moored. Martin was already out on his boat, ‘You’re late!’, when we arrived and picked us off the jetty, the motor giving off black smoke.

His two crew, Sandy and John leant on the rail. Sandy was my age, and had been fishing with Martin for five years. John was an older man in yellow oilskins who had been with Martin for twenty years. We motored out of the harbour rolling slightly with the swell. Just outside the harbour we stopped. John and Sandy brought down the lines from the reels above our heads. Each line had hooks and brightly coloured lures attached to it. They lowered the lines over the side, hand over hand. When they came back up each hook had a mackerel on it. The fish were pulled through rollers and dropped into buckets. Then the line was dropped again. They flapped about in the fish boxes drumming the sides, all shining in the morning sunshine. But Martin was dissatisfied, ‘not big enough’.

So we left to pull up nets. Sandy hooked the marker buoy and attached the end of the net to the winch. Martin went below and started the motor. The nets reeled in. Full of red crabs. John and Sandy pulled these out of the nets and snapped the claws off and tossed the shell over the side. Gulls gathered. They filled a box with crab claws. The crabs damage the nets explained Martin. They were hoping to catch monkfish and flatfish. We did catch some – Martin pulled a monkfish out of the nets and showed us the lines of sharp teeth. They have a lure they dangle in front of their mouths which they use to catch unsuspecting small fish. But mostly we caught crabs.

Each green net is a mile long and we pulled in five on tuesday. After the first net we motored along the coast, past stacks and arches in the cliff and the green fields above. We passed a basking shark- a large shadow beneath the surface. The next net was worse than the first. About halfway through the winch motor stalled. We looked over the side and hanging below us in the water was a grey ray with a wingspan as long as a dining table, still alive. Martin shook the nets and it swam free. We caught dogfish too and threw them back.

But the fishing was bad. ‘There’s a recession out here too’. The government subsidy is down, fuel prices are up, and the catch is down.

Martin thinks this is why most of the fishermen accepted Shell’s money, ‘They don’t think longterm. I want to preserve this way of life.’ There used to be 38 fishing boats at Porthurlain, now there are just 15. Just three years ago the government banned salmon fishing locally, a large source of income. If the refinery discharge pipe goes into the sea, Martin fears the market value of the fish will drop further.

I was in the wheel house talking with Martin when there was a call from the deck. Just alongside the boat was a pod of dolphins. They swam close, almost touching the sides and jumping through the wash from the motor. John and Sandy gutted the fish on deck. The gulls swooped on the scraps in the water. They filled around three boxes of fish and another of crab claws. ‘A lot of hard work for nothing’.

Back on shore these were packed in ice and sent to Dublin to the fish market. I made some recordings and then helped haul in the nets, some with little more than seaweed in. In the final net we pulled up a crayfish which martin gave to the solidarity camp. Like some giant red insect.

A lot of the fishermen have lost gear during the Solitaire’s work. He lost nets and others lost their pots. Martin turned to me while we were untangling one of the nets ‘I think we’ve lost the battle at sea, George’. He was clearly frustrated with the fishermen he feels sold out to Shell.

Speaking to Betty yesterday, she also felt that if the fishermen had worked together they could have stopped the Solitaire. But people here are preparing for the land based actions.

I kayaked around the headland into the other bay recently. The water there was as clear as it was the first time we paddled out in Broadhaven, you could see the bottom even in the deepest part.