Decades of neglect, years of waiting: it’s time to clean up Ogoniland’s oil pollution

Decades of neglect, years of waiting: it’s time to clean up Ogoniland’s oil pollution

Two years ago, the Nigerian Government officially launched a clean-up programme of Shell’s oil pollution in Ogoniland. But today communities are still waiting for emergency measures on drinking water and health protection and the clean-up to begin. Here’s what Godwin Uyi Ojo, Executive Director, Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria had to say about it:...
Win! Mayor of London and More Councils Back Divestment

Win! Mayor of London and More Councils Back Divestment

Yesterday, the Mayor of London joined the divestment movement. Sadiq Khan announced plans to divest the London Pension Fund from fossil fuels, calling on other London boroughs to do the same. We are seeing a wave of divestment pledges across the capital. Lambeth and Islington Labour have announced divestment commitments in their manifestos. With some local...
Home is a Hostile Lover - ending the UK Government's racist deportations regime

Home is a Hostile Lover – ending the UK Government’s racist deportations regime

‘Home is a hostile lover’  a poem by Selina Nwulu is read from the concrete steps of Chelmsford Crown Court. London’s former young poet laureate, gives a powerful indictment of the UK’s ‘hostile environment’. Hundreds listen in the chill morning outside Chelmsford Crown Court to stand in solidarity with fifteen people who begin trial this week...
No TAP. No TANAP. Not here. Not anywhere.

No TAP. No TANAP. Not here. Not anywhere.

Earlier this morning, a group of us demonstrated outside the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to demand that the bank rescinds its Oct 18th commitment to finance $500 for TANAP – the middle and largest pipeline of the Southern Gas Corridor, and does not fund the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) or any part...
Bribes, bulldozers and BP: what makes a gas mega pipeline?

Bribes, bulldozers and BP: what makes a gas mega pipeline?

Earlier this week, the Guardian’s Azerbaijani Laundromat investigation uncovered thousands of covert payments totaling £2.2bn from Azerbaijan’s ruling elite to prominent Europeans through a network of opaque British companies. Today, Platform and other organisations had a letter published in the Guardian, filling in the blanks in the story.  Azerbaijan is particularly keen to present a...
UK High Court: Shell won't answer for Nigeria spills

UK High Court: Shell won’t answer for Nigeria spills

News just in: UK’s High Court has blocked a court case by 42,000 people in the Niger Delta seeking justice for Shell’s oil spills poisoning their land. The ruling could create a dangerous precedent, showing that communities subjected to abuses by UK corporations cannot seek compensation through the legal system here. Shell has gone to great...
Invest council pension funds in our communities not fossil fuel corporations

Invest council pension funds in our communities not fossil fuel corporations

Do you want to get more active on fossil fuel divestment? On 4 May 2017, local elections will be held across much of the UK. These elections are a great opportunity to build local support and see more local councils divest their pensions from fossil fuels and re-invest in our communities. Whilst many of us are...
We took the stage for jailed Egyptian activists at British Museum's BP-branded big lecture

We took the stage for jailed Egyptian activists at British Museum’s BP-branded big lecture

Today, at the BP sponsored British Museum, we remembered political prisoners and friends jailed in Egypt. In particular, we remembered Alaa Abd El Fattah, Aya Hejazi, Ahmed Maher, Ahmed Douma, Yousef Shabaan, Mahmoud Shawkan, and Abdullah Al Fakhrani, who are amongst the tens of thousands of dissidents imprisoned by Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s regime. Holding larger-than-life...
We are still feeling the aftershocks of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s murder 21 years later

We are still feeling the aftershocks of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s murder 21 years later

November 10th marked the 21st anniversary of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s murder by Nigeria’s military dictatorship for challenging Shell’s devastation of his home – Ogoniland. His only remaining son died a few weeks before this terrible anniversary. His funeral was this week. Last year, at the request of allies in the Niger Delta still resisting Shell’s oil...
Solidarity with Black Lives Matter UK shutdown at City Airport

Solidarity with Black Lives Matter UK shutdown at City Airport

Platform has signed a statement of solidarity with Black Lives Matter and their shutdown at City Airport. We stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter UK and fully support the inspiring shutdown of London City Airport that they led on 6 September to oppose the airport’s expansion. We agree that the climate crisis is a...
We need to hear Black Lives Matter on climate and pollution

We need to hear Black Lives Matter on climate and pollution

Tuesday’s news was dominated by Black Lives Matter’s audacious action to shut down City Airport and to force the issue of racism into the media discourse on climate change and environment. You would think that reportedly swimming or paddling their way across a dock to reach the runway was no mean feat but their success...
Find out about Shake's new youth-led research collective and its new work on public space, young people and 'violence'

Find out about Shake’s new youth-led research collective and its new work on public space, young people and ‘violence’

Shake! is excited to launch its youth-led research collective. It starts from questions about power that come up time and again as we make and remake Shake! Why are we young people always the objects of ‘research’ and ‘policy’? And why young people of colour in particular? We are not interested in being described, explained, being told...