Please note that on June 10th at 5pm at San Francisco City Hall on Van Ness (off Civic Center BART), while the SF Board of Supervisors considers adopting a resolution condemning Chevron for global abuses, you can go there to make your voices heard.
Please come in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Nigeria who daily live with the impacts of this company that is earning record multibillion dollar profits, while destroying the ability for local residents to live a simple subsistence lifestyle.
Here is the Resolution that the Board of Supervisors is considering...thank you.
REMEMBER, AMERICA TAKES NEARLY HALF OF NIGERIA'S OIL SO YOU ARE A CONSUMER OF NIGERIA'S OIL!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 3, 2008
CONTACTS: Simeon Tegel: 510-962-0195; Mitch Anderson: 415-342-4783
San Francisco Board of Supervisors to Vote on Resolution Condemning Chevron’s Abuses Worldwide
Resolution Criticizes Chevron’s Profiteering in Iraq, Nigeria Slayings and Ecuador Disaster
San Francisco -—-- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is to vote on a resolution condemning Chevron for its disturbing record of human rights abuses and environmental destruction around the world.
Citing transgressions including profiteering from the Iraq war, the dumping of 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater in an inhabited area of the Ecuadorian Amazon, and complicity in the slayings of peaceful protestors in Nigeria, the resolution was filed today by Supervisors Tom Ammiano, Chris Daly, Ross Mirkarimi and Aaron Peskin.
It “condemns Chevron Corporation for a systematic pattern of socially irresponsible activities and complicity in human rights violations that is at odds with the values of the citizens of San Francisco, and at odds with the standards of ethical conduct those citizens expect from corporations based in the Bay Area, in our own communities as well as abroad.”
The resolution is due to be voted on next Tuesday, June 10th. It is regarded as unusual for the Board of Supervisors to adopt resolutions criticizing specific companies. Based in San Ramon, Chevron is the second largest US oil major and one of Northern California’s largest corporations. The resolution reflects a groundswell of public opinion in the Bay Area against the apparently systemic nature of Chevron’s flouting of basic human rights and environmental norms and legislation in numerous countries where it operates.
In a joint written statement introducing the resolution, the four Supervisors said they “condemn Chevron for its consistent, systematic pattern of environmental destruction and complicity in human rights violations; and to demand that Chevron serve as a better ambassador for the Bay Area around the world, by conducting business in accordance with the values that our citizens hold dear.”
The proposed San Francisco resolution follows another resolution adopted by the City of Berkeley in January to boycott Chevron products. “We expect there to be a growing number of similar resolutions adopted by cities across the US, condemning Chevron and calling on the company to clean up its act,” said Amazon Watch campaigner Mitch Anderson.
He added: “The fact that this resolution is now being voted on in Chevron’s own backyard, shows how Chevron CEO David O’Reilly has brought the company to the brink of losing its social license to operate. We hope the San Francisco resolution sends a strong message to all senior executives in San Ramon that the company needs to move out of denial of its human rights and environmental violations and start acting like a responsible corporate citizen.”
Chevron’s human rights and environmental issues cited in the resolution include:
Burma: Chevron’s Yadana pipeline has provided revenues that have propped up the country’s repressive military dictatorship, while security forces guarding the pipeline have been accused of rape, murder and forced labor. The pipeline has also had significant direct and indirect environmental impacts on the Tenassirm region, one of the largest surviving tracts of tropical rainforest in Southeast Asia, including illegal logging, fishing and poaching. Meanwhile, the pipeline has exacerbated the human rights abuses perpetrated by Burmese security forces against the region’s Mon, Karen and Tavoyans indigenous peoples. Naw Musi, a Karen woman who lives in exile, attended the shareholder’s meeting.
Ecuador: Chevron is accused of causing the most extensive oil-related contamination on the planet. Chevron had admitted to deliberately dumping 18 billion gallons of toxic waste into Amazon waterways and abandoning almost 1,000 open-air toxic waste pits, leading to the decimation of indigenous groups. A court-appointed special master recently found 428 deaths from cancer in the region related to Chevron’s oil operations. In addition, community leaders heading the lawsuit have been subject to death threats, office break-ins, and assaults that have resulted in protective measures being ordered by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Iraq: Chevron has been a leading player in the Iraqi oil sector since the US occupation of Iraq. It was one of the first companies to win contracts in Iraq after the US attack on the country despite the absence of a democratically-elected government in the war-torn country possessing a genuine popular mandate to negotiate regarding Iraq’s natural resources. If the Bush-approved Iraqi Oil Law, effectively a privatization of Iraq’s oil reserves, is approved, Chevron is also expected to be one of the principal beneficiaries.
Nigeria: Security forces flown in and closely supervised by Chevron Nigeria shot nonviolent environmental protestors in an infamous case that will be the focus of two trials in San Francisco later this year. Two people died, several others were injured and some survivors of the attack were then tortured in a Nigerian jail. One decade after the incident, and after years of legal wrangling in American courts, Chevron management has yet to compensate the families of those killed and injured or resolve the original issues raised by the community.
Philippines: In Pandacan, Philippines, oil depots partially owned by Chevron threaten the health and safety of over 84,000 residents. In February 2008, following a deadly tanker explosion, the Philippine Supreme Court reaffirmed its decision to uphold a city ordinance forcing closure and relocation of the oil depots, citing the need to protect residents from "catastrophic devastation." Despite community opposition to the depots, Chevron has yet to comply;
United States: In Richmond, in the East Bay, 35,000 families live in the shadow of a Chevron refinery that spewed out three million pounds of contaminants during the last three years. Existing pollution from Chevron already causes premature death, cancer, and other health ailments. Richmond asthma rates are 5 times the state level. Now Chevron wants to expand the refinery, allowing it to process both more and dirtier crude oil, despite overwhelming opposition from local residents. Most of the people who live in the area are minorities, leading to charges of environmental racism.
Bay Area groups supporting the resolution include: Amazon Watch, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Burmese American Democratic Alliance, Center for Environmental Health, Communities for a Better Environment, Filipino/American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity, Forest Ethics, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Global Exchange, GreenAction for Health and Environmental Justice, International Accountability Project, International Rivers, Justice in Nigeria Now, Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala, and Rainforest Action Network.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
San Francisco Board of Supervisors vs. Chevron
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
SUNDAY, JUNE 08, 2008
San Francisco Board of Supervisors vs. Chevron
Please note that on June 10th at 5pm at San Francisco City Hall on Van Ness (off Civic Center BART), while the SF Board of Supervisors considers adopting a resolution condemning Chevron for global abuses, you can go there to make your voices heard.
Please come in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Nigeria who daily live with the impacts of this company that is earning record multibillion dollar profits, while destroying the ability for local residents to live a simple subsistence lifestyle.
Here is the Resolution that the Board of Supervisors is considering...thank you.
REMEMBER, AMERICA TAKES NEARLY HALF OF NIGERIA'S OIL SO YOU ARE A CONSUMER OF NIGERIA'S OIL!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 3, 2008
CONTACTS: Simeon Tegel: 510-962-0195; Mitch Anderson: 415-342-4783
San Francisco Board of Supervisors to Vote on Resolution Condemning Chevron’s Abuses Worldwide
Resolution Criticizes Chevron’s Profiteering in Iraq, Nigeria Slayings and Ecuador Disaster
San Francisco -—-- The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is to vote on a resolution condemning Chevron for its disturbing record of human rights abuses and environmental destruction around the world.
Citing transgressions including profiteering from the Iraq war, the dumping of 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater in an inhabited area of the Ecuadorian Amazon, and complicity in the slayings of peaceful protestors in Nigeria, the resolution was filed today by Supervisors Tom Ammiano, Chris Daly, Ross Mirkarimi and Aaron Peskin.
It “condemns Chevron Corporation for a systematic pattern of socially irresponsible activities and complicity in human rights violations that is at odds with the values of the citizens of San Francisco, and at odds with the standards of ethical conduct those citizens expect from corporations based in the Bay Area, in our own communities as well as abroad.”
The resolution is due to be voted on next Tuesday, June 10th. It is regarded as unusual for the Board of Supervisors to adopt resolutions criticizing specific companies. Based in San Ramon, Chevron is the second largest US oil major and one of Northern California’s largest corporations. The resolution reflects a groundswell of public opinion in the Bay Area against the apparently systemic nature of Chevron’s flouting of basic human rights and environmental norms and legislation in numerous countries where it operates.
In a joint written statement introducing the resolution, the four Supervisors said they “condemn Chevron for its consistent, systematic pattern of environmental destruction and complicity in human rights violations; and to demand that Chevron serve as a better ambassador for the Bay Area around the world, by conducting business in accordance with the values that our citizens hold dear.”
The proposed San Francisco resolution follows another resolution adopted by the City of Berkeley in January to boycott Chevron products. “We expect there to be a growing number of similar resolutions adopted by cities across the US, condemning Chevron and calling on the company to clean up its act,” said Amazon Watch campaigner Mitch Anderson.
He added: “The fact that this resolution is now being voted on in Chevron’s own backyard, shows how Chevron CEO David O’Reilly has brought the company to the brink of losing its social license to operate. We hope the San Francisco resolution sends a strong message to all senior executives in San Ramon that the company needs to move out of denial of its human rights and environmental violations and start acting like a responsible corporate citizen.”
Chevron’s human rights and environmental issues cited in the resolution include:
Burma: Chevron’s Yadana pipeline has provided revenues that have propped up the country’s repressive military dictatorship, while security forces guarding the pipeline have been accused of rape, murder and forced labor. The pipeline has also had significant direct and indirect environmental impacts on the Tenassirm region, one of the largest surviving tracts of tropical rainforest in Southeast Asia, including illegal logging, fishing and poaching. Meanwhile, the pipeline has exacerbated the human rights abuses perpetrated by Burmese security forces against the region’s Mon, Karen and Tavoyans indigenous peoples. Naw Musi, a Karen woman who lives in exile, attended the shareholder’s meeting.
Ecuador: Chevron is accused of causing the most extensive oil-related contamination on the planet. Chevron had admitted to deliberately dumping 18 billion gallons of toxic waste into Amazon waterways and abandoning almost 1,000 open-air toxic waste pits, leading to the decimation of indigenous groups. A court-appointed special master recently found 428 deaths from cancer in the region related to Chevron’s oil operations. In addition, community leaders heading the lawsuit have been subject to death threats, office break-ins, and assaults that have resulted in protective measures being ordered by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
Iraq: Chevron has been a leading player in the Iraqi oil sector since the US occupation of Iraq. It was one of the first companies to win contracts in Iraq after the US attack on the country despite the absence of a democratically-elected government in the war-torn country possessing a genuine popular mandate to negotiate regarding Iraq’s natural resources. If the Bush-approved Iraqi Oil Law, effectively a privatization of Iraq’s oil reserves, is approved, Chevron is also expected to be one of the principal beneficiaries.
Nigeria: Security forces flown in and closely supervised by Chevron Nigeria shot nonviolent environmental protestors in an infamous case that will be the focus of two trials in San Francisco later this year. Two people died, several others were injured and some survivors of the attack were then tortured in a Nigerian jail. One decade after the incident, and after years of legal wrangling in American courts, Chevron management has yet to compensate the families of those killed and injured or resolve the original issues raised by the community.
Philippines: In Pandacan, Philippines, oil depots partially owned by Chevron threaten the health and safety of over 84,000 residents. In February 2008, following a deadly tanker explosion, the Philippine Supreme Court reaffirmed its decision to uphold a city ordinance forcing closure and relocation of the oil depots, citing the need to protect residents from "catastrophic devastation." Despite community opposition to the depots, Chevron has yet to comply;
United States: In Richmond, in the East Bay, 35,000 families live in the shadow of a Chevron refinery that spewed out three million pounds of contaminants during the last three years. Existing pollution from Chevron already causes premature death, cancer, and other health ailments. Richmond asthma rates are 5 times the state level. Now Chevron wants to expand the refinery, allowing it to process both more and dirtier crude oil, despite overwhelming opposition from local residents. Most of the people who live in the area are minorities, leading to charges of environmental racism.
Bay Area groups supporting the resolution include: Amazon Watch, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Burmese American Democratic Alliance, Center for Environmental Health, Communities for a Better Environment, Filipino/American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity, Forest Ethics, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Global Exchange, GreenAction for Health and Environmental Justice, International Accountability Project, International Rivers, Justice in Nigeria Now, Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala, and Rainforest Action Network.
POSTED BY ED KASHI AT 6:26 PM
6 COMMENTS:
Anonymous said...
What planet is SF from and how the hell did they get here. Just goes to show how ignorant politicians are and how f'd up SF has become.
10:13 PM
Anonymous said...
Ye gods! Only half the facts there, you have to wonder, didn't Texaco stop operating in Ecuador 18 years ago? Wasn't it a joint venture? Wasn't Petro Ecuador (i.e. the Ecuador government)a 2/3 majority stakeholder for most of the alleged "abuse" - don't they still as 100% owners keep polluting - WTH has that got to do with Chevron other than "DEEP POCKETS"? As for Nigeria - while I can empathize that there is suffering - I'm afraid their major export is NOT oil but Fraud and 419 Scams thus I unfortunately discount rhetoric from there? Is this simply a "Big Oil" US company demonization project. OK let's all jump on the bandwagon, hobble the US companies, drive them out of business and lose more jobs and foul up the economy some more while we boost the profits of Royal DUTCH Shell, BRITISH Petroleum, and CHINA National Oil. Yeah that'll help get the US to 3rd world status even faster!!!!
2:13 PM
Anonymous said...
I worked for three years as an oilfield services technician in Nigera, I have seen myself the squalid conditions of many of the communities there. All of the oil company employees I worked with try to spend time helping these communities, special school classes, building a clinic, fixing up a road but we never seem to see this reported in the news :( I know its hard to feel any sympathy for "BIG OIL" but looking at it from their POV they are governed by very strict guidelines that when in another country they must only deal with whatever passes as the "legititimate" government and community leaders such as tribal chiefs. For most western countries there are few problems. Unfortunately, in the case of Nigeria the corruption is rife, the money never reaches those who need it most forcing them to take action, often very dangerous. Most of my work involved patching up broken facilities where locals had attempted to steal equipment or tap pipelines. I have to give Chevron their due, whenever we were called in to work there, the priority was always to attend to people first, equipment later, i.e. assist any of the injured locals and get them medical attention before all else! Seeing this blatant attack on Chevron saddens me that people get so blinded and can be so ignorant of all the facts - they simply want to lash out or provide ammunition for a political agenda :(
2:39 PM
Ed Kashi said...
Dear Anonymous,
thanks so much for writing in. Your voice in incredibly valuable and I agree with a lot of what you're saying. My personal feeling is that it's primarily the Nigerian government's responsibility to protect their land, resources and people. And they have done a terrible job of it for the past 50 years. The oil companies are doing work, when one sees it up close, that is nearly "man on the moon" stuff in terms of the engineering, skills, dangers and immense physical challenges of bringing oil out of the earth and seas. Whatever I may feel about the evils of oil from where and who it comes out of the earth, to the end results of distribution and consumption of this resource, the bottom line is we are dependent on it and must appreciate the super human efforts to get this precious resource to market safely. I don't blame the oil workers and realize the companies are often doing the best they can in a hostile and difficult physical environment.
What are your suggestions for solving this vexing issue? Do you feel resolution like the one SF is considering to be pointless and places the blame at the wrong culprits? What do you do now? Don't you see how the oil companies have/can take advantage of this disfunction in the Nigerian government? Don't the oil companies bear some responsibility? I certainly saw my fair share of situations where I thought the oil companies could have taken greater care of the environment or helped host communities more. I saw many villages and communities without schools, clinics, running water, etc. I saw "community development programs financed by the oil companies that lay abandoned, unfinished and or in ruins. I realize working with the host communities can often be an impossible task due to the corruption and mistrust that has developed over the years in the Niger Delta. We must also remember the historical significance of this place. Outsiders have been coming to the Delta for centuries, first to take slaves, then palm oil and now petroleum. There is a very, very long tradition of outsiders coming to take local resources, so likewise, there have been centuries of corrupt local leaders who have learned that they can profit from these activities. It's very troubling to witness this dynamic, but we mustn't turn our backs on it. That is why I posted this notice about the SF resolution. Anything that can draw attention to this terrible situation, where people will hopefully educate themselves, is a positive step forward.
Thanks again for writing and sharing your valuable experience and thoughts.
4:02 PM
Anonymous said...
I completely agree that these issues need to be raised. I wouldn't say that the SF supervisor's resolution is pointless but it does lay the blame at the wrong door. My other concern here is that this is a tenuous situation here - too much pressure on a US oil company and they simply pull out. I sincerely believe that we need to do all we can to KEEP US and European companies operating in countries like Nigeria. At least there's some control and hope of ecological moderation. The alternatives are Chinese and Russian companies and heaven-help the local ecology and human rights then!
I am most concerned that openly condemning US companies in this way is a dangerous approach. The potential to backfire is significant and that can only ultimately hurt the local population not help them.
As you point out, in the Niger Delta, exploitation of the area has been going on for centuries with the likes of the oba of Benin. Knowledge in the West only goes as far back as 1471 when the Portuguese were introduced to a new profitable venture which by then was already centuries old locally - namely slavery! With close to a millennium of human rights and corrupt practices to overcome - that's a tough road to tackle over there. Having said that - just because it's tough doesn't mean we shouldn't try :)
The only viable way forward for places like Nigera can be through extensive education, non-corrupt business nurturing, population control, healthcare and societal change on a gargantuan scale. Unfortunately there seems to be more countries that are already in, or falling (often being pushed) into the same quagmire.
5:49 PM
Ed Kashi said...
Anon....you are dead on in your comments...and this is the problem with polemical dialogue and debates. Usually the answers and progress come from bringing people together to make change, not alienating and pushing people to more extreme positions. I hope other people join this important conversation. You remind me of work I did in the Redwoods year ago, where I had the rare chance to photograph and watch a 1500 year old ancient old growth redwood cut down by Pacific Lumber. As you can imagine, my liberal/environmental skin was singed by this. Yet the lumberjacks, who were second and third generation workers in this field, who were brought up in awe of their fathers and granddads, and who were raised to believe what they did was admirable and necessary, were living in a new world where logs were being spiked and causing terrible injuries, they were jeered and made to feel like demons. And then I thought about how everyone wants redwood decks and hot tubs, and where do those come from?? Sometimes life doesn't reconcile itself so easily. Things to consider....
6:02 PM
POST A COMMENT
<< Home
Post a Comment