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2014: ten moments of a culture beyond oil
What will we remember about the oil industry in 2014? Aside from falling oil prices and ongoing debates about fracking (did you know New York state just banned it?), there are more and more signs this year that ‘social licence’ is becoming the industry’s largest challenge (like this Canadian industry expert points out). Where would oil companies be without…
18 Dec 2014 anna -
Send your favourite quote to an Azerbaijan Political Prisoner
Our allies in Azerbaijan are under attack, right now, and we are asking people to send them solidarity messages and inspirational quotes. On 5 December investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova was arrested in Baku, Azerbaijan. As Khadija was bundled into a car camera flashes popped, people jostled and her friends banged on the car roof and shouted…
17 Dec 2014 admin -
Tate director’s puzzling response to the call to #DropBP
This is a guest post by Tate Member Oliver Grant. Oliver came to Tate Members’ AGM last week and asked Tate Director Nick Serota to respond to Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s call for “people of conscience to break their ties with corporations financing the injustice of climate change.” Oliver reflects on Serota’s response. The AGM was a…
15 Dec 2014 anna -
EBRD plan Azerbaijan loan as regime’s fiercest critic is imprisoned
One of the most famous critics of the Aliyev regime has been imprisoned in Baku. Khadija Ismayilova, an award winning investigative journalist was arrested for ‘inciting suicide’. If found guilty she faces up to seven years in prison. Ismayilova has spent years uncovering corruption in Azerbaijan, which she has traced all the way up to…
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What we discovered at Tate Members’ AGM last week
Tate Trustees will be reviewing the BP sponsorship agreement in 2016. – said Tate director Nicholas Serota in response to members’ questioning of the BP relationship. This means we have approximately a year to persuade Tate (as well as three other institutions – British Museum, Royal Opera House, and National Portrait Gallery) to take the challenge of climate change…
10 Dec 2014 anna -
Tate, Big Oil, and the savage inequality of capital
Just over a week ago Tate Modern and its new landmark extension got a bit of a mauling from writer Will Self, who argued in the print version of The Guardian that it “symbolises the savage inequality of the capital”. It’s an interesting piece about art, privilege and the hyper-rich, and has got people arguing…
1 Dec 2014 jane -
We forced Shell to commit to cleaning up the Niger Delta. Now let’s make it a reality.
When we launched our Action Saro-Wiwa campaign back in May we had no idea how many of you would get involved and we could never have imagined that a breakthrough could happen so soon. After all, communities have suffered the deadly effects of widespread pollution in the Niger Delta for over 50 years. But your…
28 Nov 2014 admin -
سياسات النفط والصراع علي كوباني
كان يفترض أن تسقط كوباني. فعند هجوم داعش علي البلدة، حاصرتها القوات التركية من الشمال، مانعة عنها أي تعزيزات ومعتقلة مئات النازحين. وقد قصفت الطائرات الأمريكية قوات داعش في أماكن أخري، لتقودهم نحو روج آفا: المنطقة الكردية الكبيرة في شمالي سوريا والتي تحكمها ذاتيا الحركة من أجل مجتمع ديمقراطي (تيف-ديم،) والتي يرأسها سياسا حزب الاتحاد…
25 Nov 2014 admin -
Where do we go from here? Climate change, arts & Culture Shift
We’re very excited about Culture Shift – the new report by Emergence on how artists are responding to sustainability. (It’s also available in Welsh). Culture Shift includes a great idea for a “Gablik Test” for the arts, learning from the Bechdel Test. Here is an extract from the report. “If the scientists are right,…
24 Nov 2014 admin
