30 years old today

30 years old today

Platform has no precedence in this country: a theatre group that does not believe in directors or actors; a political group that does not believe in leaving politics to politicians. It exists to heal the division of creative artist from passive audience, the division between specialist disciplines. (Manifesto, 1987) Rummaging in the archive recently, we...

Live With It! a new iPhone app from Shell-apps.com

With Arctic drilling imminent, significant expansion into the tar sands and over 50 years of damage in Nigeria, the case for targeting the oil giant Shell has rarely been greater. A new campaign launched this month by Friends of the Earth Netherlands is challenging Shell to clean up its oil spills in Nigeria’s oil rich...

Video: Chevron rig blazes off the coast of Nigeria

This disturbing video from Al Jazeera shows what’s left of Chevron’s KS Endeavour gas rig, which exploded on 16 January 2012. Over 20 days later the site is still ablaze and the intense flames and plumes of smoke can be seen from the nearby fishing village. Local community activists released this footage:  

Sweet Crude: the movie

“To an oil company, it’s liquid gold.” That’s how filmmaker Sandi Cioffi describes Nigerian oil, known as ‘sweet crude’ because it is low in sulphur and therefore cheaper and easier to refine. The trailer below is for Sweet Crude, the film. An amazing and insightful documentary by Sandi Cioffi, it looks at the appalling legacy of...

Aljazeera: UN slams Shell over Nigeria pollution

Aljazeera produced this excellent video about Shell’s oil spills in Ogoni. In it, Ledum Mittee of MOSOP (the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People) calls on the Nigerian government to revoke Shell’s licence.

“Nowhere and no-one has escaped” – message from Bodo, Nigeria

This video, made by Amnesty International, shows the horrifying extent of the pollution in Bodo village, where two oil spills from a burst Shell pipeline devastated the land and water which 70,000 local villagers depend on for their survival.

The Biggest Oil Spill in the World

PLATFORM featured on Channel 4 News this evening, providing analysis on two current news stories – the revelations of the full extent of environmental devastation in Ogoni land contained in the UN’s new report, and Shell’s admission of liability for two recent oil spills in Bodo, Ogoniland. Campaigner Ben Amunwa helped provide background research as the story...

Ballad of the Black Gold

From the RSW blog: “New from Talib Kweli, this hard-hitting music video unpacks the story of of Nigeria’s oil curse, the Ogoni struggle and the complicit role of Western governments and companies. Warning: this video contains strong political lyrics.”  

Ballad of the Black Gold

New from Talib Kweli, this hard-hitting music video unpacks the story of  of Nigeria’s oil curse, the Ogoni struggle and the complicit role of Western governments and companies. Warning: this video contains strong political language.

FT folds to Shell pressure before AGM

The Financial Times pulled an Amnesty advert challenging Shell’s pollution in the Niger Delta today. The full page ad was due to appear the morning of Shell’s AGM, to contrast the company’s $9.8 billion profit with its role in causing Nigerian communities to drink polluted water, eat contaminated fish, farm on spoiled land, and breathe in air...

‘Blood And Oil’: BBC Drama on the Niger Delta Crisis

The Niger Delta crisis is coming to an audience of millions as BBC 2 screen the long anticipated and award-winning drama, ‘Blood and Oil’ on prime time television. Guy Hibbert’s tense thriller (starring Naomi Harris (28 Days Later), Johdi May (Defiance) Patterson Joseph and David Oyelowo) follows two women as they investigate the  circumstances that...

The Great Climate Swoop comes to Nottingham

17-18 OCTOBER 2009, RATCLIFFE-ON-SOAR Climate Camp is back – next weekend, hundreds of people will descend on E.ON’s coal power station near Nottingham and occupy it for the weekend.   Fences 2.0 from the very co-operative on Vimeo. Great Climate Swoop: “Don’t be confused – 2009 is just another year of climate talks, in which governments and corporations will...