Protest puppet during Chevron shareholder meeting May 30, 2012 Photo Credit: Global Exchange

Community members from around the world who have suffered from the impacts of Chevron’s actions gathered today outside Chevron’s headquarters in support of human rights, environmental, economic and climate justice. Global Exchange Director of Organizing Kirsten Moller was there:
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On May 30th, people gathered from around the world to descend on San Ramon, CA and confront Chevron at its annual shareholder meeting.

The protest space in front of Chevron has gotten smaller in the past two years—the wide open green lawn has been replaced by spiky succulents in bark dust and a new fence sweeps around the landscape to tastefully keep the protesters confined to the sidewalk.

That didn’t stop the spirited annual gathering of representatives from affected communities in Brazil, Nigeria, Angola, Ecuador and Richmond, California who came to let the shareholders know that their investments were in danger.

Global Exchange arrived with a pile of signs in the shape of brooms and barrels of oil calling on Chevron to clean up their messes wherever they make them  — oil spills in Brazil, toxic dumping in Ecuador and flaring in Africa – the list goes on and on.  Kate McLain (pictured below) was among the group of protestors. She recently returned from a  Global Exchange Reality Tours trip to Ecuador all fired up and ready to carry the message “Clean Up Chevron.” Meanwhile The  Brass Liberation Orchestra led us all in fierce chants of  “Chevron should pay up;  Chevron should clean up”  while a huge puppet welcomed shareholders to their meeting.

Chevron protester May 30, 2012 Photo Credit: Global Exchange

Inside representatives submitted more than 7 resolutions calling for more transparency and accountability.  Not all of the representatives were allowed inside, despite having valid proxies from shareholders.  Joao Antonio de Moraes of the Brazilian Federation of Oil Workers was one of them.

He had told us during a teach-in the night before that accidents can be avoided if worker’s rights to a safe environment are respected. Workers are on the front-line, and workers and environmentalists have a lot in common.

The teamsters and the steelworkers were there to second that idea!  Pitting workers against community members and jobs vs. the environment has been a key strategy of Chevron. We were there to say no more.

Kate McLain, Global Exchange Ecuador Reality Tour participant, at Chevron protest May 30, 2012 Photo Credit: Global Exchange

While we waited outside, Richmond community members talked about asthma, cancer, and how children are bribed with pencils and field trips to think that a company town is a good thing.  But members from the APEN, CBE and Progressive Richmond Alliance agreed on this message to the members inside:  “Shareholders, when you choose profit over the people in the communities, you will lose!”

While Richmond has succeeded in preventing any legal permits for refinery expansion and Ecuador has won an unprecedented $18 billion dollar settlement against Chevron, Chevron continues to act like a fugitive, running from its legal responsibilities. The Ecuadorian courts have upheld the judgment against the company and now the plaintiffs are poised to seize Chevron’s assets anywhere in the world.

The network gathered outside the headquarters were clear that we will not stop making connections and working together until Chevron pays for the damage it has caused.

Chevron, Chevron you can’t hide……

TAKE ACTION!

• Download this free True Cost of Chevron Report Alternative Annual Report for featuring new sections
  and accounts written by 40 authors from around the world.
• Travel to Ecuador: Take a Reality Tours trip where you’ll tour of Chevron’s toxic oil legacy in the Amazon; speak with the leaders and healers of affected communities

Dozens of activists including those from Angola, Nigeria, Canada, Alaska, and the U.S. Gulf Coast traveled to San Ramon, California to attend Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting to deliver a new report: The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report. This report includes accounts by more than 40 authors and records egregious corporate behavior in locations as diverse as California, Burma, Colombia, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, the Philippines and the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Outside the Chevron AGM, activists joined together to fight back in protest against the dire impacts of Chevron’s reckless pursuit of profits.

Two days before Chevron’s shareholder meeting, members of communities from around the world that have been impacted by Chevron’s reckless business operations participated in a True Cost of Chevron Teach-In.

To find out more about what happened during these events, here’s info on photos, videos and press clippings for you:

PHOTOS OF CHEVRON AGM PROTEST

Check them out here on Flickr.

MEDIA CLIPPINGS

• Women Demand Environmental Justice from Chevron /Ms Magazine
• Chevron under siege at shareholder meeting in San Ramon/Mercury News
• Activists’ ‘True Cost’ report takes on Chevron/SF Gate
• Chevron critics hold protest at shareholders meeting/San Ramon Express

For more press clippings, visit our Energy Program in the News web page.

VIDEO FROM OUTSIDE THE CHEVRON AGM

Watch Videos from outside the Chevron AGM here.

Here’s one of Global Exchange Energy Program Director Antonia Juhashz:

NOW IS STILL THE TIME TO TAKE ACTION!

Get your copy of The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report. Download the report or make a $15 contribution to Global Exchange to receive a hard copy of the book.

Sign on to the petition “Leave it in the Ground: Statement against Arctic Offshore Drilling”: Please take 30 seconds to sign the petition here.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 25, 2011
Contact: Antonia Juhasz
antoniajuhasz@gmail.com
415-846-5447

–Photos, Video and Interviews Available–

San Ramon, CA — Today at Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting, 22 indigenous, First Nation, and other impacted community members and supporters who had traveled to the company’s headquarters from locations around the globe and across the state confronted CEO John Watson with the brutal human and environmental abuses caused by the oil giants operations.

Watson struggled to defend his company’s record in the face of the devastating criticism from institutional investors, shareholders, and impacted community members and was instead forced to turn multiple times to pre-packed video and slideshows prepared prior to the meeting.

Outside the meeting, 150 supporters rallied in a colorful and creative protest against the company’s operations around the world and across their home state. [video footage]

Community leaders from Angola, Ecuador, Nigeria, Indonesia, the tarsands of Canada, Alaska, Texas, and Richmond, and those representing communities in China, Australia, the Philippines, Kazakhstan, and more attended the meeting as share- and proxy-holders providing first-hand descriptions of their lives and environment in and around Chevron’s operations.

While Watson tried to highlight the company’s human rights, environmental, and economic successes, when the microphones were opened to shareholders, those successes quickly turned to failures. Half the meeting became a referendum on the company’s disastrous track record of supporting brutal dictators in Burma, decimating local livelihoods though its offshore operations in Alaska and Angola, and causing mass pollution and destruction of human health in locations as diverse as Ecuador, Richmond, California, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, and Nigeria.

Emem Okon of the Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre, who had come from Nigeria’s Niger Delta, challenged Watson’s assertions that the company had improved its record on flaring.

“I am here to represent the women of the Niger Delta who live in communities near gas flares and who suffer health issues of infertility, early menopause, miscarriages, cancer, rashes; women who fish in waters polluted by Chevron.” Ms. Okon asked CEO Watson, “When will Chevron stop environmental violence against women? When will Chevron stop the toxic flares in the Niger Delta. When will Chevron management meet with the women of the Niger Delta and their international allies.”

Thomas Evans of the Nanwalek Tribe spoke in response to Chevron’s claims of the health and safety of its offshore operations. Evans spoke of the harmful impacts from the toxic discharge of produced waste from Chevron’s offshore drilling rig on his community and environment in Cook Inlet, Alaska. Mr. Evans said he will return to Alaska and report to his Tribe that Chevron CEO Watson “does not care about our subsistence way of life, and is totally disrespectful of our culture, and of all the people dying of cancers.”

Gitz Crazyboy (Ryan) Deranger, of the First Nation Dene/Pikini (Blackfoot) people, came to the meeting from Alberta, Canada where Chevron is partner in extensive tarsands operations. “Chevron’s pollution is killing our way of life. Our moose and caribou are dying. Our fish are dying. Chevron is destroying our culture, Chevron is committing cultural genocide.”

Elias Isaac, of the Open Society Institute, traveled from Angola to attend the meeting and directly challenge Watson’s assertion that Chevron is supporting human rights and local economies in Angola. “Chevron’s understanding and definition of human rights is completely distorted. Their approach is to respond with charity work, but this does not address the long-term sustainable economic and social challenges facing the local fishing communities of Cabinda Province.”

Each speaker carried a copy of the True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report, on which all had worked. They provided the report to eager shareholders, but when Richmond resident Reverend Kenneth Davis attempted to hand the report to Watson, he was stopped by private security guards. Watson threatened to stop the entire meeting if the Reverend insisted on handing the report directly to him.

At the meetings conclusion, the community leaders exited to a cheering and supportive crowd. They called the meeting a success and vowed to return again next year.

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See Global Exchange’s True Cost of Chevron Network page for more information.

Cover of True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report

Last night I participated in an incredible event. One dozen community leaders from areas harmed by Chevron’s operations and experts from leading advocacy organizations traveled from all corners of the globe to come together as The True Cost of Chevron Network.

We exposed not only Chevron’s abuses, but also the incredible and powerful united front formed to take on the oil giant. Audience members attending the True Cost of Chevron Public Teach-in were crying, cheering, listening intently and ready to take action.

One of the 2011 True Cost of Chevron Ads

Today, we all can learn more as Global Exchange and The True Cost of Chevron Network release our third annual True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report and tomorrow we can take action at Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting.

CEO John Watson opened Chevron’s 2010 Annual Report by telling the corporation’s stockholders that “2010 was an outstanding year for Chevron.”

The communities who bear the costs of Chevron’s operations do not agree.

These communities have seen Chevron continue its long history of human rights violations, ignore longstanding decisions of Indigenous communities, destroy livelihoods, and convert dollars into unjust political influence in the United States and around the world.

This is why dozens of activists, including those from Angola, Nigeria, Canada, Alaska, and the U.S. Gulf Coast have traveled to San Ramon, California to attend Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting to deliver this new report: The True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report.

The report – being released to the public today – includes accounts by more than 40 authors and records egregious corporate behavior in locations as diverse as California, Burma, Colombia, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, the Philippines and the U.S. Gulf Coast, including new sections detailing Chevron’s pursuit of ever-riskier and ever-deeper offshore projects in the South China Sea, the North Sea, and the Canadian Arctic and its role in the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The report also profiles the historic victory and ongoing battle over Chevron’s crimes in Ecuador.

TAKE ACTION

Get your report today. Download the report, or make a $15 contribution to Global Exchange to receive a hard copy of the book.

In the Bay Area? Join the True Cost of Chevron Network to take on Chevron at their annual shareholder meeting tomorrow, May 25th. We will come together to fight back against the dire impacts of Chevron’s reckless pursuit of profits. Join us for a colorful and fun rally outside Chevron’s headquarters in support of those dozens of community leaders who will go into the meeting to demand human rights, environmental, economic and climate justice, and more.

Can’t make it to the protest? Follow updates right here on our Chevron Program blog, the Chevron Program Facebook page, and on Twitter. Also see the 2011 True Cost of Chevron Ads.

Protesting Chevron Shareholder Meeting 2010 Photo Credit: The Campaign for Justice in Ecuador

On May 25th, two days after an illuminating and informative True Cost of Chevron Teach-in, people will travel from around the world to descend on San Ramon, CA to confront Chevron at its annual shareholder meeting. They’ll come from Angola, Alaska, Ecuador, Nigeria, Indonesia, Canada, Texas, California, and more. They will all have two things in common: they all come from communities that have suffered the dire impacts of Chevron’s reckless pursuit of profits, and they’re all fighting back.

You’re welcome to join a rally outside Chevron’s headquarters in support of human rights, environmental, economic and climate justice, and more.

Across the globe, Chevron’s outdated practices are putting our climate and the health of communities at great risk. That’s why it’s the focus of a growing resistance movement. By expanding, strengthening, and highlighting this movement, we are building more allies and creating a powerful advocacy base for lasting change.

Chevron Protest Information

When: Wednesday, May 25 · 7:00am – 11:00am
Where: Chevron’s World Headquarters at 6001 Bollinger Canyon Rd San Ramon, California 94583

For more information: Check out the Facebook invite

Got questions about the protest? Check out the event on Facebook first, then contact Mike G. or Tonya Hennessey if you’ve still got questions.

Can’t make it to the protest? Follow updates on this blog, the Chevron Program Facebook page, and on Twitter.

Find out why Chevron’s shareholders should say NO to offshore drilling: Global Exchange Energy Program Director Antonia Juhasz’s Huffington Post article Chevron’s Shareholders Should Say No to Offshore Drilling spells it out for you.

P.S. The third annual True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report is coming out tomorrow! This report includes accounts by more than 40 authors – led by those on the front lines of Chevron’s operations — reporting egregious corporate behavior in locations around the world. To get your copy, check back here on our blog tomorrow for ordering info.

We’ll be at Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting in San Ramon, California on May 25. Will you join us?

Nearly two years ago, Global Exchange formed the Energy Program (previously the Chevron Program), to expand and better coordinate a network of communities directly impacted by Chevron’s operations across California, the U.S. and the world. With your help, we have done so with great success, establishing the True Cost of Chevron Network at an inspiring international strategy session following Chevron’s annual meeting last year in Houston.

This year, we will be back again to take on Chevron with an even stronger Network.

On May 23, we will host a public teach-in at the Brower Center in Berkeley. Learn more and RSVP on facebook – and please invite your friends.

On May 24, we will release the third annual True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report. Filled with an amazing array of first-hand accounts of Chevron’s abuses written by impacted community members from around the world, this year’s report includes new locations, such as China, the North Sea and the Beaufort Sea. There is also a special focus on Chevron and offshore drilling in the wake of the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon.

On May 25, we will attend Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting while a support protest rally takes place outside Chevron’s gates. Learn more and RSVP on facebook – and please invite your friends.

Allies joining us in the Bay Area include Humberto Piaguaje, Amazon Defense Coalition, Ecuador; Emem Okon, Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre, Nigeria; Mardan Pius Ginting, WALHI – Friends of the Earth Indonesia, Indonesia; Gitz Crazyboy, First Nation Dene/Pikini (Blackfoot), Alberta, Canada; Elias Isaac, Open Society Initiative, Angola; Bryan Parras and Liana Lopez, Texas Environmental Advocacy Services and the Gulf Coast Fund, Houston, Texas; Tom Evans, of the Native village of Nanwalek, CookInlet Keepers, Alaska, and more.

TAKE ACTION

• Attend the Teach-in on May 23 and Protest Rally on May 25!
• Order the True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report, available May 24.
• Donate funds to help support all our activities.

Stay tuned to the Chevron Program blog for continued updates about the upcoming Chevron shareholder meeting in San Ramon, California.

The following post was written by Tonya Hennessey, Global Exchange Energy Program’s Chevron AGM Campaign Coordinator:

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“2010 was an outstanding year for Chevron.”

With these words, CEO John Watson opens Chevron’s 2010 Annual Report.

The communities who bear the costs of Chevron’s operations do not agree. On May 23, you can hear directly from community leaders who will travel from Angola, Nigeria, Ecuador, Indonesia, the tar sands of Canada, Alaska, Texas, Richmond, CA and beyond to the Bay Area to share the true cost of Chevron’s operations where they live.

JOIN US AT A TEACH-IN ON THE TRUE COST OF CHEVRON

Monday, May 23 from 7-10 PM PST
David Brower Center, Tamalpais Room, 2150 Allston Way
Berkeley, California 94704
Tel: 510.809.0900

Elias Isaac will travel from Angola to share his story at the teach-in. Elias, of the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa, wrote in the forthcoming True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report for 2010 (our third installment of the report to be released soon):

“The impacts of oil activity in the Sea of Cabinda are so disastrous that most of the sand on the shores is polluted and black in color, and most of the beaches cannot be used. Chevron barely acknowledges or accepts responsibility for these impacts. According to fishermen, the shortage of fish in the Sea of Cabinda started in the 1980s, reaching its peak in the late 1990s when serious environmental destruction began.”

Also speaking at the teach-in is Mardan Pius Ginting of WAHLI-Friends of the Earth Indonesia. Pius wrote in the True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report for 2010:

“Chevron has employed brutal measures to quiet protests, including utilizing Indonesia’s notorious security services, bringing charges of human rights abuse, violence and intimidation.”

Other teach-in speakers traveling to the Bay Area from Chevron-affected communities include:

• Humberto Piaguaje, Amazon Defense Coalition, Ecuador
• Emem Okon, Kebetkache Women Development and Resource Centre, Nigeria
• Gitz Crazyboy (Ryan Deranger), First Nation Dene/Pikini (Blackfoot), Alberta, Canada
• Bryan Parras, Texas Environmental Advocacy Services and the Gulf Coast Fund, Houston, Texas
• Tom Evans, of the Native village of Nanwalek, CookInlet Keepers, Alaska

While the company touts its “Human Energy” PR message of corporate social responsibility, we will bear witness to the social and environmental costs that go unmentioned by Chevron. Chevron’s current “We Agree” ad campaign asks: “Oil Companies Should Support the Communities They’re a Part Of: Do You Agree?”

A close look at Chevron’s operations worldwide shows a very different picture.

JOIN SUPPORT RALLY DURING CHEVRON SHAREHOLDER MEETING

On May 25, these community leaders and many more will go to Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting in San Ramon. We ask you to join us there at a support rally outside of Chevron’s gates.

More information about this event will be available on our website soon.

Today, a judge in the Ecuadorian Amazon ruled that Chevron was responsible for polluting the Ecuadorean jungle and ordered Chevron to pay more than $9 billion in damages.

This ruling is in favor of the residents of Ecuador’s Amazon region who have spent the last 18 years seeking damages for crude oil pollution. Chevron has denied the allegations of environmental damage.

From San Francisco to New York and the UK, news is spreading fast about this momentous verdict.

Our friends at Amazon Watch and Rainforest Action Network had this to say about the ruling in a joint statement released earlier today:

As of today, Chevron’s guilt for extensive oil contamination in the Amazon rainforest is official. It is time Chevron takes responsibility for these environmental and public health damages, which they have fought for the past 18 years.

Today’s ruling in Ecuador against Chevron proves overwhelmingly that the oil giant is responsible for billions (of) gallons of highly toxic waste sludge deliberately dumped into local streams and rivers, which thousands depend on for drinking, bathing, and fishing.

Chevron has spent the last 18 years waging unprecedented public relations and lobbying campaigns to avoid cleaning up the environmental and public health catastrophe it left in the Amazon rainforest. Today’s guilty verdict sends a loud and clear message: It is time Chevron clean up its disastrous mess in Ecuador.

Today’s case is historic and unprecedented. It is the first time Indigenous people have sued a multinational corporation in the country where the crime was committed and won.

Today’s historic ruling against Chevron is a testament to the strength of the Ecuadorian people who have spent 18 years bringing Chevron to justice while suffering the effects of the company’s extensive oil contamination.

Though this ruling is in favor of the residents of Ecuador’s Amazon region, those who have worked hard to get this verdict passed acknowledge that it’s not time to celebrate, but rather, it’s time to demand that Chevron pay up. There is more work to be done, and a long road lay ahead.

Rally Tomorrow at Chevron: Help Declare “Chevron’s guilty!” at Chevron’s headquarters

Global Exchange supports the following call to action from Amazon Watch and Rainforest Action Network:

If you’re in the California Bay Area, please join others on Tue Feb 15th to gather at Chevron’s headquarters and declare “Chevron’s guilty!”

When: Tuesday, February 15th 11:30am
6001 Bollinger Canyon Road
San Ramon, CA
Where: You can either meet there or join the brigade at 10:00am as it departs on a bio-diesel bus near Justin Herman Plaza in San Francisco.
Contact: They have limited space on the bus, so if you’d like to join, call Maria at 202-257-8061.

Chevron announced on Friday that it will withdraw from all of its coal operations by the end of 2011.

This is a crucial victory.

We began exposing Chevron’s dirty coal secret in 2009 in our first True Cost of Chevron: An Alternative Annual Report.

We then reached out to those communities on the front lines of Chevron’s current and planned coal operations, who told their own stories in our 2010 Alternative Annual Report.

John Kinney of Black Warrior Riverkeeper in Alabama described Chevron’s North River Coal Mine in Berry, and its constant toxic waste polluting local ground and surface waters.

Brad Mohrmann of Powder River Basin Sierra Club in Wyoming warned of Chevron’s plans to develop the first new coal mine in the Powder River Basin area in at least a decade. The mine would sit along the Tongue River, an area of both environmental and cultural importance to the Northern Cheyenne Native American community.

Chevron already operates the giant Kemmerer Coal Mine in Wyoming, named one of the most dangerous mines in the nation by Congressman George Miller. This mine was highlighted in our “Thank you, Chevron” Ad campaign by Underground Ads (pictured below.)

Elouise Brown of Dooda Desert Rock in New Mexico wrote of Chevron’s McKinley Mine near Window Rock, 60% of which sits on Navajo land. After 40 years of constant production, the mine is now just about tapped out and concerns now abound as to how the land will be made safe from the deadly contaminants that have been polluting the community for decades.

We made Chevron’s coal operations a central part of our messaging to the press, the public, activists, advocates, policy makers, and Chevron’s shareholders, its board members, and its executives last year, including at Chevron’s Annual Shareholder Meeting.

Together, we demanded that Chevron drop its dirty coal operations – and it did.

TAKE ACTION!

Contact Chevron. Thank the company for declaring its plans to sell its coal operations by the end of the year, tell them you’ll be watching to make sure that this pledge is fullfilled, and that the company should now spread this environmental and social commitment to all of its operations.

Contact the groups fighting Chevron’s coal operations in their own communities and offer your help and support (see links above).

Get Ready! The 2011 Alternative Annual Report is in the works as are plans for Chevron’s 2011 Annual Shareholder Meeting.

Stay connected and learn more about how you can contribute in the weeks to come. Here are a few ways to connect:

• Check our website for updates
• Follow our Energy Program on Twitter
• Follow our Energy Program on Facebook!

Our goal: figure out a way to offer new Global Exchange members this holiday season a little something extra beyond the standard membership benefits, in exchange for their support.

The recession kept coming up in conversation. We figured most people would have limited funds to spend on gifts this year, so why not offer supporters who give Global Exchange gift memberships this holiday season some cool freebies to go along with the membership. More bang for your buck, so to speak.

We came up with six different Membership Gift Packages, so folks could choose the theme that interests their gift recipient the most. Each one would cost the standard Global Exchange membership rate ($35) but in addition to the usual perks (including discounts to our Fair Trade stores and quarterly newsletters), we’d also include both Fair Trade chocolate AND coffee, PLUS a whole other gift (depending on which gift package they choose.)

One of the packages is called the End Dirty Energy Gift Membership Package.

What it comes with: In addition to the Fair Trade chocolate, coffee, and gift membership certificate, you’ll get a a copy of the book The Tyranny of Oil: the World’s Most Powerful Industry–And What We Must Do To Stop It written by Antonia Juhasz, Global Exchange’s Energy Program Director.
Your gift allows its recipient a chance to be a part of a campaign that exposes Chevron’s greenwashing, unites and supports oil-affected communities, and works to build alternative energy solutions.

If you’re as excited as we are about this gift, then go online to order yours soon. As one might suspect, it’s a ‘while supplies last’ type of situation.

Remember, in addition to the End Dirty Energy Membership Package, there are 5 other packages to choose from!

Happy choosing and happy holidays, from all of us here at Global Exchange!