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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 -
Bust-up between Aliyev and BP reveals corporate profiteering as Azeri oil peaks
Azerbaijan’s President, Ilham Aliyev, gave a speech last week accusing oil company BP of “false promises” and “gross mistakes”. In a country where regime and corporation are closely intertwined – and almost symbiotic – what is going on behind the political theatre? Why the public outburst? Aliyev revealed that Azerbaijan had lost $8 billion in…
15 Oct 2012 admin -
National Gallery ends arms money – what it means for oil & the arts
There was some wonderful news today as the National Gallery announced the end of its long-standing sponsorship arrangement with controversial weapons manufacturer Finmeccanica a year before the contract was due to run its course. Organisations like CAAT and Stop the Arms Fair have conducted an amazing campaign, using public pressure and creative interventions to make…
10 Oct 2012 admin -
This is about oil sponsorship, not corporate sponsorship, of the arts
At the end of September, the merry band of Bard-based interventionists, the Reclaim Shakespeare Company struck again in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Shortly before the BP-sponsored performance of Twelfth Night was due to begin, three actors took to the stage to perform a short piece addressing the issue of the controversial sponsorship relationship, including lines such as: Alas,…
9 Oct 2012 admin -
Kate Tempest, Matthew Herbert & BP Saturdays at Tate
On Saturday, September 22nd, an exciting collaborative installation took place at Tate Britain, involving the innovative pioneers of immersive performance, Punchdrunk. However at least two of the artists who were taking part in the didn’t seem to be aware and comfortable with the fact that the event had the top line BP sponsorship attached to…
8 Oct 2012 admin -
BP’s Caucasus gas pipeline blows up, as conflict escalates along route
A blast on the Turkish section of BP’s South Caucasus Gas Pipeline has shut down fuel exports, putting a stop to gas exports fromย Azerbaijan to Turkey. The explosion took place in a forest between the villages of Yagbasan and Catag, in remote north-eastern Turkey, near the borders with Georgia & Armenia. The Turkish Ministry…
7 Oct 2012 admin -
Thirty national & international groups call for support of tar sands blockade
We’re honoured to be one of the groups to be standing in solidarity with this inspiring direct action taking place in Texas attempting to block construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. The activists have been facing a variety of awful police responses, including pepper spray, choke holds and tasers. For more information on the…
6 Oct 2012 admin
