Open letter: BP can’t buy our silence
Aug 2, 2016
Today’s Times has published an open letter from Mark Rylance, Naomi Klein, Nnimmo Bassey, Matthew Herbert, and 215 artists, actors, arts managers, musicians, frontline activists, campaigners, and scientists, arguing: We cannot afford another five years of BP-branded culture. Last Thursday BP announced the renewal of its flagship sponsorship programme. Its partners, this time: British Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Royal...
Sadiq’s ‘Energy Revolution’ must go beyond Boris’s dodgy deal with Big Energy
Jul 28, 2016
This week, Sadiq Khan announced that the first stage of Energy for Londoners would be continuing Boris’s controversial License Lite scheme. Platform is part of the Switched on London campaign, so we’re cross-posting 3 reasons why this is not the ‘Energy Revolution London’ needs. With London lagging behind other major European cities on clean energy,...
“Unprecedented Change”? What does a corporation in transition look like? – notes from the Shell AGM 2016
Jun 9, 2016
“Innovation and care are in our DNA”, says the soft female voice-over that accompanies the new promotional video by Shell. We, the attendees at the corporation’s 2016 Annual General Meeting in the Circus Theater, Scheveningen, sit comfortably in our red velvet seats watching the massive screen above the heads of the Shell directors on the...
We’re taking Tate to the Information Tribunal over #BPsecrets
May 5, 2016
Next Wednesday, we’re taking Tate to the Information Tribunal for refusing to reveal details of BP sponsorship. The disputed information is the amounts BP gave after 2006 and until 2012. This is despite a previous court ruling, and despite the fact that the sponsorship deal is ending in 2017. Thanks to a heap of internal...
Ffos-y-Fran and Nant Llseg – the struggle to #keepitintheground
May 5, 2016
On the morning of 3rd May 2016 there was a successful occupation at the Ffos-y-Fran opencast mine in South Wales by Reclaim the Power. This blog was written in the build up to that action. We’re heading for our tent in the incessant drizzle, weaving between clusters of newly sprouted tents and trying hard to...
Drawing Red Lines – from Paris to Ffos-y-fran
Apr 29, 2016
I watched the twitter feed and followed the news early last December filled with a mixture of excitement at what unfolded in Paris and mild envy of companions who were immersed in the ebb and flow of events around COP 21, the 21st Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC. As the reports of the...
“You come from the premise that we are guilty already” – notes from the BP AGM 2016
Apr 20, 2016
Bob Dudley, Chief Executive, who appears tired, pale and jowly, looks up from his notes and addresses a set of questions that have been put to the Board. This particular set from delegates at the Annual General Meeting of BP, are grouped together under the bracket of ‘concerned with climate change’. He peers out at...
Edinburgh Festival drops BP. And 1 in 2 Londoners think British Museum should do the same
Apr 6, 2016
The news is just in: the Edinburgh International Festival is not renewing its BP sponsorship – as confirmed by the festival on Twitter. Last year, Festival star Simon McBurney criticised the BP relationship, alongside Emma Thompson, Mark Rylance, and Caryl Churchill. Several theatres including London’s Royal Court and Arcola have joined the Fossil Funds Free...
Help find Platform a new home in 2016
Mar 30, 2016
Platform needs a new home. Platform is facing a problem familiar to many in London. We’re being priced out. The rent on our humble basement office is more than doubling. We’re going to use this as opportunity to find a better home for Platform. We’re quite fond of our office. For us it represents twenty...
In Memory of Doreen Massey
Mar 24, 2016
She was taken away in mid conversation. The last time I saw Doreen, we met at the usual place, Small & Beautiful in Kilburn at 6.30. Doreen liked to eat early and the restaurant was near her flat. We set off on a rolling, rollicking exchange during which we voyaged over Brexit, birdwatching, Corbyn, capitalism,...
We’ve kicked BP out of Tate – but the work’s not done yet
Mar 21, 2016
Tate’s BP sponsorship is ending. Last Saturday Liberate Tate released a spectacular cloud of confetti through the huge space of Tate’s Turbine Hall to celebrate. In kicking BP out of Tate, the movement for fossil free culture has achieved something that appeared impossible. This post is based on a slideshow we projected inside the Turbine...
6 reasons why #Budget2016 really really shouldn’t subsidise North Sea oil even more
Mar 15, 2016
Osborne is announcing his #Budget2016 on Weds, and there’s lots of pressure from the oil barons for more subsidies and tax cuts. Their income has been hit by the falling oil price, and in all those years of bonanza profits they never thought to save for this rainy day (even though it was predictable given the mostly cyclical...
