Big oil is responsible for a lot of heinous crimes. They fund death squads cloaked as “private security” and help install brutal dictatorships that are friendly to their business. Being from Texas, I’ve had my share of run-ins with nasty members of the oilagarchy like Exxonmobil and Halliburton. But living in the Bay Area, I thought I’d no longer be living in the shadow of Big Oil.
Not so. Actually San Francisco is home to one of nastiest members of that cabal-Chevron.
They pollute, poison, maim and kill all over the world. Burma, Nigeria, Iraq, Ecuador, Richmond CA and the Tar Sands.
At 7am, about 100 of us met the company’s shareholders as the went into their annual meeting. Outside we donned Tyvek suits and set out the Clean Up Chevron. Inside a number of shareholder activists sparred with CEO Dave O’Reilly about their horrible human rights and environmental record.
And just to be clear, communities from all over the world were represented there today. It’s a broad multi-issue campaign against this corporate criminal. In a way, they are like the WTO as they have a lot of people with beefs against them.
Here are some news reports from inside and outside the meeting.