In the last few weeks, tens or perhaps hundreds of people have been killed in Nigeria. Their crime was to attempt the eviction of some unwelcome guests from their lands. These guests are some of the world's largest and most polluting corporations.The Ijaw nation has suffered the presence of companies like Shell and Chevron for thirty years. These companies' activities have fouled their drinking water and their food yet the Ijaw have seen almost nothing of the vast profits acquired from oil produced there. Worse still, revenues from these companies' operations continue to support the vicious military regime that is now slaughtering them, as it did the Ogoni. Meanwhile in the UK, those same companies tell us they exert gentle persuasion to bring about a more peaceful regime.
It is hard for us in the comfort of the West to understand the desperation the Ijaw must feel in order to risk the wrath of the dictatorship, courting their own massacre. The Ijaw have non-violently occupied oil rigs and flow stations and shut down over a quarter of the area's oil production. They have lost their lives taking the only action left to them in order to bring the world's attention to their crisis. Yet the British media has looked the other way. Nigeria's military has resorted to violence because their actions go to the heart of the problem. By threatening the oil companies they threaten the state.
What would we feel if the British government gunned down activists at the Birmingham Northern Relief Road, or at a Reclaim the Streets demonstration? How would we react? It can seem difficult to connect such extreme brutality with the educated respectable men who must accept a share of the responsibility for these atrocities.
When the Ijaw nation demanded the oil giants leave, in December's Kaiama Declaration, one wonders how much time the boards of directors ever gave over to seriously considering their terms. Not one of the oil companies left. After all, the board is bound by a legal duty to maximise profits for their shareholders. The question must be asked, for all their macho posturing, do the men who make the tough decisions ever take the more difficult choices?
In this issue we are led to consider another aspect of the oil industry - its relationship to universities and colleges (pp. 22-24). In an age when we may face extinction due to man-made climate change, that relationship and the invisible subsidy it gives to the industry looks increasingly insane. Our report was commissioned in order to inspire activism on British campuses. We cannot do what the Ijaw have done, but we can offer them support and solidarity in challenging the oil giants. We have to recognise that it's time for an end to the oil industry. And in the UK we have a responsibility to fight for that, for the sake of the Ijaw, the U'wa, the Nahua, and others, and for the human race as a whole. Looking at the power base of the oil industry, we see that many of its intellectual and personnel bases are in this country. If we can stem the flow of ideas and graduate recruits to the industry, we can really weaken its grip.
It’s about power. Corporations seek money but they need the power of the state in order to keep their operations safe. States seek power but they need the corporations to make money. Democracy only gets in the way of this convenient relationship, as we discover in our section devoted to issues of globalisation (pp.4-13). The real centres of economic power remain aloof and inaccessible, protected by commercial interests. Free trade agreements, the constitutions of the global economy are being written in secret, exclusively for the benefit of the world’s multinational corporations. Notions of democracy, of real participation in the process, are paid only lip service. As yet the global elite still fail to see the links between the global economy and society.
We live now in a society where our security and policing are being handed over to the pursuit of profit, with horrible consequences, as we can see from a brief look at the one of the largest private security firms - Group 4 (pp. 17-19). And in spite of their atrocious record we now learn that they may acquire legal powers of arrest. Even schoolchildren have become a commodity - 'virgin ground as far as marketing is concerned' - to be auctioned to the highest bidder (p. 25)
But activism is growing massively. 1999 will be a big year for challenging corporate rule. On June 18th we hope to see the largest and most global protest against corporate power in history (p.13). Resistance shall be as transnational as capital!
Later on we take a look at another unpleasant industrial by-product, toxic chemicals (pp. 26-31). The pollution in Ijawland wouldn't happen here, would it? The stories presented here are truly horrible. No one really wants to know about it. So much easier to forget about, but imagine how it feels for the people who have to live with it everyday. Yes, it does happen here.
We have to conclude that when the really hard choices have to be made, the hard men of big business will usually take the easier option. Although it is insanity in the long term we have to accept the unpleasant truth about the nature of corporate capitalism - the faster the buck the more valuable it becomes.
Chris Grimshaw