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Yoko Ono, fracking and the Southbank Centre
I ♥ Yoko Ono. I ♥ her effortless blurring of the boundaries between pop music and conceptual and visual art. I ♥ her constant stream of leftfield creativity in all sorts of projects. I ♥ her ‘disco not disco’ opus Walking on Thin Ice. I ♥ her strength and dignity in the face of the…
9 Nov 2012 admin -
Contradictory docs for Cairo refinery reveal disdain for transparency by European Bank officials in first major IFI-financed project since revolution started
A $3.7 billion PPP oil refinery expansion in Cairo is accompanied by contradictory project documents, making a mockery of claims by the public banks involved to be committed to “good governance” or democracy. Despite being presented as merely translations of one document, the Arabic and English “versions” are entirely different – with the Arabic markedly…
9 Nov 2012 admin -
The Russian roulette: Rosneft, BP, and the unknowns of Russian politics
TNK-BP, the British giant’s 50% joint venture with a group of Russian oligarchs, was bringing in about quarter of the firm’s production, and a lot of its political problems. BP’s solution: swap its shares in TNK-BP for cash and a near 20% stake in Rosneft, Russian state-owned company run by Igor Sechin, one of Vladimir…
7 Nov 2012 anna -
Arts cuts, oil sponsorship & Osborne’s North Sea tax breaks
This piece (originally titled “From oil to art, liberating culture”) is reprinted from The New Home Front II: Policies for Ecological, Social and Economic Renewal that was launched by Caroline Lucas MP in September 2012, outlining a range of policy proposals designed to set the UK on a path to a clean, green future. Since…
1 Nov 2012 admin -
The Oil Road – reviews, interviews and analysis
The Oil Road has been getting an incredible response from the press, blogs and activists alike. We’ve cobbled together a selection of the best quotes from reviews with links to the full articles. “An elegantly written travel book…a distinctive blend of travelogue, reportage and history…will make you think the next time you fill the tank”…
30 Oct 2012 admin -
Hobbling the ‘dash for gas’ – the West Burton occupation
A big, bombastic huzzah for the 20 climate activists that infiltrated and occupied West Burton Power Station this morning. This is the first of a new generation of some 20 gas fired plants that the government are planning on building, and represents a ‘line in the sand’ of climate change and energy policy much in…
29 Oct 2012 admin -
A secret military subsidy – pirates and oil corps
New Internationalist featured a blog from Platform on our new briefing A Secret Subsidy: Oil companies, the Navy and the response to piracy. Here’s what we wrote: This week the Combating Piracy Conference has been taking place in London, behind closed doors. This industry-organised event brings together representatives from European Union, NATO and oil and…
26 Oct 2012 admin -
BP partners with Rosneft, Russia’s top polluter – some background
BP confirmed today that it’s swapping its 50% stake in TNK-BP (which provided about a quarter of the company’s global output) for cash and shares in Rosneft, the Russian state-controlled oil company, becoming a nearly 20% shareholder in it as a result. The two companies have been looking for ways to partner up to exploit…
22 Oct 2012 anna -
Is it me or is he anti-BP? Check out the new Patrick Keiller @TateBritain
Having followed the now numerous stunning images of performance interventions at Tate galleries in response to BP sponsorship, when I visited Patrick Keiller’s The Robinson Institute exhibition last week, I was drawn to the BP related content and the ways it resonated with the protests that have taken place in the same space. I recommend…
15 Oct 2012 admin
