“Artists should be at the centre of society keeping alive a utopian vision, because society will not improve if the people envisioning a better society are politicians.” Peter Sellars The role of the artist in society is critical to communicate the injustices experienced daily by people. Art provides political expression beyond rhetoric, propaganda, and action,…
Platform’s report reveals that revenue distribution for Sakhalin II between the Russian government and Shell’s consortium (SEIC) is set at a grossly unfair level. The contract terms, defined in a 1994 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA), place the Russian state at a significant disadvantage.
By Greg Muttitt, PLATFORM Presentation at European Social Forum, October 2004 Shortly after the invasion of Iraq, development of Iraq’s oil industry was divided into two elements. The first was to repair and rebuild the existing infrastructure, to repair damage caused by the invasion, looting and sabotage, the second being to design a long-term future…
By Greg Muttitt and James Marriott In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, the same phrase was uttered to the British government by both of the UK’s two major oil corporations. BP and Shell both said that there should be a “level playing field” in the awarding of oil contracts after the removal of…
Jointly published by Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth, PLATFORM and Stakeholder Democracy Network. Open publication – Free publishing – More christian aid
Shell’s Sakhalin II integrated oil and gas project fails to comply with the Equator Principles on responsible lending. The project on Sakhalin Island in Russia’s Far East will have severe environmental impacts, including threatening the critically endangered Western Gray Whale with extinction, damaging habitats of endangered bird and fish species, and polluting important fisheries.
Since the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline was first conceived in the early 1990s, there has been much controversy over whether it is really financially viable. Is it too long and expensive to build? Are the available volumes of oil enough to fill the line? Are the political risks too high? To examine these issues, PLATFORM commissioned…
Presented at "Artist as Educator", Ikon Gallery and University of Central England, May 2003 as part of Arts Council England's "Interrupt" Symposia. Republished: a-n Collections April 2007. “The process of social change is in desperate need of creativity and imagination, and the aesthetic process in urgent need of social engagement” (from Course Document for the MA…
This report examines the relationship between the oil and gas industry and the UK higher education sector, and assesses this in the context of climate change. It asks if some parts of the higher education sector have been ‘captured’by the industry. The report looks in detail at how much influence oil and gas companies have…