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Counting the Cost: corporations and human rights abuses in the Niger Delta
New research reveals Shell paid militants who destroyed Nigerian towns Shell fuelled human rights abuses in Nigeria by paying huge contracts to armed militants, according to a new report published by Platform and a coalition of NGOs and featured today in The Guardian. [1] Counting the Cost implicates Shell in cases of serious violence in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta…
3 Oct 2011 admin -
Uganda demands end to oil clause that freezes weak regulation
The Ugandan government is insisting that British oil company Tullow Oil, France’s Total and Chinese group CNOOC drop the stabilisation clause from their oil contract of Lake Albert before approving the $10 billion oil project. The original contracts were leaked by PLATFORM in 2010. Meanwhile Ugandan opposition MPs are unhappy that Museveni’s government allowed disputes…
29 Sep 2011 admin -
President Jonathan: ‘Our system has collapsed’
In a speech to mark Nigeria’s 51st anniversary of independence from British colonial rule, President Goodluck Jonathan talked openly about how the systemic breakdown of government institutions in the ‘giant of Africa’. The Daily Trust reports: Jonathan said the country has been running on a deficit budget because the institutions that are supposed to protect public…
29 Sep 2011 admin -
UpRise Anti-Racism Festival was amazing
On Sunday, various Shakers were revelling in “Community is Home”, UpRise’s 2011 Festival happening across 14 venues in Dalston, Hackney. The day was bright and warm, and the vibe was fantastic. Boris Johnson’s decision to remove funding from the original “Rise” Festival did not deter the many committed individuals and organisations from making this incredibly…
27 Sep 2011 jane -
Free University of Liverpool, full of love
(a personal view…) “Why free?” “Who is it?” “What scares you?” “What trouble do you expect to get into?” “What existing structures and conventions of universities do we want to ditch?” “How Liverpool is it”? “Are we students? Who are we?” “How will we know when people/we are committed?” “Is it about curriculum or freeness?…
23 Sep 2011 jane -
Egyptian communities protest BP expansion plans
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…
21 Sep 2011 admin -
Event: Energy Security, A Toxic Frame For Progressives?
PLATFORM and PIRC are running a day-long workshop on the 4th of November in Machynlleth, Wales on the problems with using ‘energy security’ as a frame in campaigning. The rise of ‘energy security’ within policy discussions has led many civil society organisations to alter the way they talk about climate change and energy. Yet is…
20 Sep 2011 admin -
An abdication of responsibility
When a government responds to one of the worst oil spills in its waters for a decade by appointing the former Chairman of Shell to advise on cutting regulation of the offshore oil and gas industry, something has clearly gone wrong. If the government wants to ramp up extraction from deeper waters but is unwilling to…
15 Sep 2011 admin -
European Commission proposes increase in powers to control energy resources abroad; Libya next on the agenda
The European Commission has for the first time submitted proposals for a concerted public foreign energy policy – termed ‘External Energy Policy’ within Euro circles. The EU has been acting collectively to control oil & gas resources and transit routes for many years – financing pipelines with public funds, lobbying for access to African, Middle…
15 Sep 2011 admin
