22 Seotember 2005
Press release and invite
Big Oil Caught in Civil Society Spotlight!
As the bosses of big oil gather in South Africa for the 18th
World Petroleum Conference [1], concerned
citizens and activists around the world unite to condemn the
oil industry.
At every point in the fossil fuel production chain, where
the bosses 'add value' and make profit, ordinary people, workers
and their environments are assaulted and impoverished. Where
oil is drilled, pumped, processed and used, in Africa as elsewhere,
ecological systems have been trashed, peoples' livelihoods
have been destroyed and their democratic aspirations and their
rights and cultures trampled.
groundWork [2] together with civil society
organisations from South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Mozambique,
Angola, the USA, Chad, Burma, The Netherlands gather on:
Friday Evening 23rd and Saturday, 24 September 2005, at
the Cedar Park Hotel, 120 Western Service Road, Woodmead,
Sandton, from 09:00 hrs to 17:00 hrs,
where discussions will be held to understand the link between
global poverty, war, illegitimate government, climate change
and the oil industry [3 – Agenda and Directions],
at groundWork Anti-Oil gathering.
The groundWork Report 2005 – “Whose energy future?
Big oil against people in Africa!” will be launched
at the gathering. The report unpacks the role of big oil in
Africa, looking at how communities suffer human rights abuses
and environmental injustices as a result of the power nexus
between oil and government.
“The small elite, in business and in governments whose
prosperity and power depends on the profits of the oil industry,
does not speak for those who are made poor by this industry.
The elite who get together – without attracting to much
attention – at this World Petroleum Conference cannot
claim that the energy future they will plot is an energy future
for our world and its peoples. Their energy future is modelled
on the interests of over-consuming, energy-intensive, fossil-fuel-burning
wealthy classes whose reckless and selfish lifestyles not
only impoverish others but threaten the global environment,
imposing on all of us the chaos and uncertainty of climate
change and the violence and destruction of war” warns
Mark Butler and David Hallowes, authors of the report.
Nnimmo Bassey, of the Nigerian organisation Environmental
Rights Action who will talk about Shell and the Delta at the
Anti-Oil Gathering remembers Ken Saro-Wiwa, Dr. Barinem Kiobel,
Saturday Dorbee, Paul Levura, Nordu Eawo, Felix Nuate, Daniel
Gboko, John Kpuine and Baribor Bera: executed ten years ago
by the Nigerian state for their activism against the injustices
of this industry.
The report’s [4] conclusions have
to date been endorsed by more than 200 individuals and organisations
from 45 different countries. http://www.foei.org/cyberaction/groundwork.php
For more information call:
Bobby Peek – 033 342 5662 / 082 464 1383
Footnotes:
[1] The 18th World Petroleum Conference will
be held in Sandton from the 25-29 September.
[2] groundWork is an environmental justice
organisation working focusing on air pollution, waste and
corporate abuse and works with community organisations living
adjacent to petro-chemical facilities in south Durban, Sasolburg,
Secunda and Cape Town. (www.groundwork.org.za)
[3] “Another energy future is necessary”
On the eve of the 18th 'World Petroleum Conference' to be
held in Sandton (September 25-29th), which brings together
all the big players in the oil industry, groundWork is hosting
a civil society forum to show the world the true face of big
oil.
The event will publicise a sign-on statement condemning the
oil industry on all sorts of fronts, and marks the launch
of "The groundWork Report 2005" which focuses on
oil in Africa and locates it in the global context. The report
and the statement implicate the oil industry not only in ecological
wars conducted against the poor in Africa but also fundamentally
in the geo-military-politics of the global capitalist order.
groundWork invites you to participate in the forum discussions:
Dates: Friday Evening 23rd and Saturday, 24th September
2005
Venue: The Cedar Park Hotel
120 Western Service Rd
Woodmead
Sandton
Tel: +27 (0)11 804 3777
Fax +27 (0)11 802 1004
Agenda
Friday, September 23, 2005
19:00 hrs – 21:00 hrs: “Braai, Dinner, Barbeque”
Siziwe Khanyile and Bobby Peek – groundWork, Friends
of the Earth, South Africa
Welcome and Introductions: Informal over Dinner
“The oil industry in South Africa – injustices
from the fence lines
groundWork, Friends of the Earth, South Africa is an environmental
justice organisation working with community people living
next to big oil facilities in South Africa. groundWork also
has a Waste and Corporate campaign and Corporate Accountability
Campaign.
Sat, September 24 Panels
9:00 hrs to 10:15 hrs
Noble Wadzah – Friends of the Earth, Ghana.
“West African Gas Pipeline Treaty - undermining the
national sovereignty of Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria and
the right to seek alternative energy options”
Foe Ghana is a civil society organisation working with local
communities in Ghana resisting neo-liberal policies that threaten
people’s local livelihoods in Ghana.
Nnimmo Bassey – Environmental Rights Action.
“Shell’s 30 years of broken promises –
Gas flaring in the Delta”
ERA is a civil society organisation working with local communities
in Nigeria resisting and challenging the ravages of oil in
Nigeria.
10:15 hrs to 10:45 hrs Tea
10:45 hrs to 11:15 hrs
Launch of The groundWork Report 2005: Whose energy
future? Big oil against people in Africa!
11:15 hrs to 12:30 hrs
Salim Vally
“Oil, Iraq and the US Empire”
Salim Vally is with the Anti-War Coalition in Johannesburg
and is a senior researcher at Education Policy Unit at the
University of the Witwatersrand.
Patrick Bond – Centre for Civil Society
“How oil companies skirt their CO2 responsibilities:
Carbon trading and the commodification of the air”
Patrick Bond directs the Centre for Civil Society at the
Kwa Zulu-Natal University.
12:30 hrs to 13:45 hrs Lunch
13:45 hrs to 15:00 hrs
Richard Spoor - Ntuli, Noble and Spoor Attorneys
“Big oil and killing of labour”
Richard Spoor is a lawyer who has been working with labour
to hold industry accountable for worker deaths and injuries
due to their poor health and safety practises in their push
for higher profits.
Graham Bailey – Free Burma Campaign
"The Real Axis of Ev (o) il"
Graham Bailey is a human rights activist working with the
Free Burma Campaign in South Africa and internationally.
15:00 hrs to 15:15 hrs Short tea break
Abias Huongo – Juventude Ecológica Angolana
(JEA)
“Oil in Angola – the challenge within Cabinda.”
JEA is an environmental justice youth organisation based
in the Cabinda province in Northern Angola, which is separated
from Angola by a strip of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
JEA has been instrumental in mobilising people in the area
against the injustices of oil industry.
Maurício Sulila – Livaningo
“Mozambique’s energy future?”
Livaningo was launched in 1998, and was Mozambique’s
first environmental justice organisation. Livaningo is part
of Oilwatch Africa and monitors Sasol’s gas extraction
operations with local communities in Mozambique.
16:30 hrs – 16:45 hrs
Closing comments – Bobby Peek, groundWork
Directions
From Johannesburg
Take the M1 direction North towards Pretoria.
Take the Woodmead off-ramp
Give way left onto the R 55 towards Kyalami.
Turn left at first set of traffic lights into Woodlands Drive
Turn Left at first set of traffic lights into Western Service
Road
1.2 km/s along Western Service Road. The hotel is on the right
hand side entering directly off the main road
From Johannesburg International Airport
Take the R24 direction towards Johannesburg
At Gilloolys interchange take N3 North Direction towards Pretoria
Pass Linksfield, London and Marlboro off-ramps
At Buccleuch Interchange take M1 Direction to Johannesburg
Take the Woodmead off-ramp
Turn right at traffic lights into R55 towards Kyalami
Turn left at first set of traffic lights into Woodlands Drive
Turn Left at first set of traffic lights into Western Service
Road
1.2 km/s along Western Service Road. The hotel is on the right
hand side entering directly off the main road
From Roodepoort
Take N1 direction North toward Johannesburg/ Sandton
Pass William Nicol and Rivonia Road off –ramps
At Bucceleuch interchange take M1 South towards Johannesburg
Take the Woodmead off-ramp
Turn Right at the traffic lights into R55 towards Kyalami
Turn left at first set of traffic lights into Woodlands Drive
Turn Left at first set of traffic lights into Western Service
Road
1.2 km/s along Western Service Road. The hotel is on the right
hand side entering directly off the main road
[4] For electronic copies of report, please
call Bobby Peek (082 4641383).
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