Tuesday 22nd May at the Shell AGM in Barbican, London
Peoples, NGOs and shareholders! Quit with your jeers!
- “Is Shell working with the League of Cockroaches to take down humans?*”
- “…”
They didn’t deny it. Either Shell weren’t prepared for such a biting question or the League of Cockroaches PR team is better than we thought. I’m leaning towards option B. Those crafty, crafty cockroaches.
Which segways me neatly onto the Shell board of directors (ZING!) and the barrage they took from indignant parties, peoples and shareholders at their AGM held jointly in The Hague and London last Tuesday.
With most questions raising serious issues about Shell’s policies, strategies and lack of concern for local communities (80%-95% of total Q’s according to my rudimentary poll of ‘asking-people-as-they-left-the-Barbican’) there is room to be encouraged. Shell’s public image isn’t in the best of shape and until they make real, positive changes it is only going to get worse.
*Question posed/thought up by activists at the UK Tar Sands Network. Not by myself (curses) sadly.
Outside
I stood outside the Barbican with other volunteers and activists protesting Shell’s past, present and future screw-ups. Steve was the first person I spoke to. He was a grizzled hedgehog of a man, spikes at the ready. Portly, with an intermitte
nt twitch he donned the black cloak and Shell death mask but kept his trilby hat on. He looked like a cross between the Grim Reaper and Tom Waits. Which is basically how Tom Waits has looked since 1985.
He was polite in his leafleting duties aside from his “Think of your grandchildren!” mantra repeated to any refusing passer-by. Which worked fine when the women were 50+ but there was certainly some disconnect when directed at a young woman in her 20’s. She just looked confused. I chuckled.
“There’s nothing you can do. Things won’t change.” Said two elderly women on their way to the AGM as Steve attempted to hand them flyers. He held a conversation with them for the next couple of minutes as he made the case for the environment and change. The elderly women weren’t having any of it.
- “I couldn’t believe it, how can they think like that. This will be what I take away from this day.”
- “Well, you can’t change everyone’s mind. Some people have just lost hope.”
- “It’s shocking.”
In many ways it was a shame Steve left the protest early, he was a chatty and earthly fellow. However his ‘shocking’ impression from the day was hitting his head against a blue-rinse wall. If only he had stayed a half-hour longer he would have met the young and engaging activists protesting inside the Barbican – heard their stories – and perhaps left without feeling grim and fearful for our planet.
Inside
The silent protest started inside the London AGM circa 11am and attendees in The Hague were treated to some deathly images beamed across the North Sea on a big screen. It’s curious the Shell board of directors did not switch the feed. It’s curious that the protesters were able to keep their Shell-death masks on for so long. There is nothing quite like (it seems) the sudden appearance of silent grim reapers to effectively paralyze the brains of Shell security long enough to make a peaceful, nonviolent exit.
In any case, what Shell security did or didn’t do made no difference. Jo, Emily, Mary and the rest of the motley (and mostly female) crew had made their point, created their image. That image was reflected outside the Barbican by Steve and the other volunteers. Screw you, League of Cockroaches PR department.
It is always tough to categorize activism, critical questions and protest as ‘a success’ at a corporate AGM. What is success? Is it even possible? Why do I stress myself out with esoteric questions? It would be naïve to think that the death-mask images of protestors can change the world. ‘Change the world.’ As a phrase it sounds so empty, clichéd and funny. Of course, images themselves cannot change anything. That would be ridiculous! But images can provoke reactions in people and those reactions have caused change to happen before. Hmm, this blog piece has morphed into a TED talk... When needing help to answer troubling questions that stress my brain I find it best to cheat quote others... So, as one green geek put it on Tuesday, "we showed them that we're still here, and we're not going away." Now that is a tagline. And what I took away from the day."
All images within the text courtesy of Rikki at Indymedia.
Original blog post can be found at http://real-lifedisorientation.com/
Cool Links
Press Release courtesy of UK Tar Sands Network
Risking Ruin report profiling Shell's current activities courtesy of UK Tar Sands Network in partnership with the Indigenous Environmental Network and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation.
Out In The Cold report on why Shell's arctic plans are a risky investment courtesy of Greenpeace in partnership with PlatformLondon and FairPensions.
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