'Shell Sells Suicide' in the National Theatre foyer (London)

international | miscellaneous | news report

Friday January 09, 2009 21:01

by Carbon Town Cryer - Art Not Oil

A tune a day keeps the oily sponsor away?

Saturday January 3rd, Art Not Oil activists put on an impromptu
performance in the foyer of the National Theatre prior to the matinee
performance of Shell-sponsored 'Oedipus'.

While a singer took to the stage (where there was a conveniently placed
live microphone), another activist handed out leaflets, including a glossy
spoof that looked like the National Theatre was inviting an open
discussion about the morality of accepting oil company sponsorship. A
third person joined in on cornet as security guards surrounded the singer.

After singing, playing and speaking their point for a few minutes, they
ended the protest, to a gratifying round of applause from the theatregoers
who had watched the performance with interest.

After leaving the building, the three activists and a friend continued to
leaflet latecomers outside the main doors. The response was generally
good.

A short film of the action is available. Find it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojb_Tv2TzN4&feature=chan..._page
and here:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/01/417273.html

...where you can also find more on Art Not Oil's 'farewell to Shell' on
Jan 3rd and 4th, as well as how to tell the NT what you think of their
corporate bedfellow(s)
------------
'The National Theatre should clean up its act and ditch Shell'
by Chris Wilkinson
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2009/jan/08...ted=1
-----------
Who to tell about Shell, and some evidence...

If you think Shell's out of order as a company, and perhaps a deeply dodgy
sponsor for this series of 'Classic Drama' at the UK's most prestigious
theatre, maybe drop a polite line to this address:
feedback@nationaltheatre.org.uk
&, if you can, bcc.
info@artnotoil.org.uk

PS. Here is some evidence, with a little commentary, but your own words
will be more effective:

Despite ploughing serious money into cultural sponsorship and advertising
campaigns that trumpet their greener-than-thou credentials, both Shell and
BP are still going hell for leather to bring as much oil and gas to market
as they possibly can. This is the same oil and gas that, when burnt, is
destabilising our climate to such an alarming degree. All oil companies
are up to no good, with Shell no exception. Could it be time to say
‘enough!’?

* ‘Shell rapped by ASA for 'greenwash' advert’: “Oil company's claim that
its work in Alberta's tar sands was 'sustainable' is branded 'misleading'
by Advertising Standards Authority”, (Gdn, 13.8.08); www.carbonweb.org

* In the 3rd quarter of 2008, Shell made £72m per day.

* Shell’s planned refinery/pipeline project in NW Ireland, threatens a
pristine ecosystem, not to mention the homes and livelihoods of the
inhabitants. A spirited local campaign is resisting the project;
corribsos.com

* ‘Pentagon Hands Iraq Oil Deal to Shell’, www.alternet.org, 2.10.08

* Shell is poised to drill in the newly-melted waters of the Chukchi Sea
off Alaska; www.subhankarbanerjee.org

* ‘Shell Ordered to Stop Wasteful, Poisonous Gas Flaring in Nigeria’
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/1115-02.htm

* Lastly, Shell’s Sakhalin development in Russia is threatening the
survival of the Western Pacific Grey Whale; www.pacificenvironment.org
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Here are the words to the song sung blue in the NT foyer:

'there’s a bird dressed in black
there’s a world nearly cracked
there is me, there is you -
what the hell shall we do?

it’s not hard to explain
all the ways we can gain
from a world without oil
no more spills, no more spoils

Shell sells suicide on the forecourt
Shell sells suicide
Shell sells suicide with such forethought
Shells sells suicide

(Verse from a Shell AGM:)
there I stood with one share
asking Shell - could it care?
when I knew it could not -
of Big Oil let's get shot

Shell smells sweet gas off the seashore in Mayo
they think it’s theirs just ‘cos the government says so
but they forgot about the will of the people
and the people of Mayo say ‘No, no, no, no, no, no, no -
it’s Shell that’s got to go!’

here I stand by the river
asking it what it plans to deliver
‘will you dump a hundred thousand tonnes of water
into the foyer of this Shell-sponsored theatre?’
the beauty of that irony I can live without

there’s a bird dressed in black
there’s a world nearly cracked
there is me, there is you
what the hell shall we do?

(Verse for Jan 4th ’09, sung outside the day after the foyer
intervention): Monday 4th of January, nineteen ninety three,
Ken Saro-Wiwa said the people of the Delta must be free
Sunday 4th of January twenty oh-nine
it surely must be time
to stop Shell’s climate crimes

And an alternate verse:
Shell buys South Bank silence completely
Shell sells wild lies
Shell kills wildlife and still smiles so sweetly
Shell kills wildlife...'

(Carbon Town Cryer: http://www.myspace.com/carbontowncryer)
-----------------
Here's more on Ogoni Day:

'on 4th January 1993, some 300,000 Ogoni celebrated the Year of Indigenous
Peoples by peacefully protesting against Shell's activities and the
environmental destruction of Ogoniland. It remains the largest
demonstration against an oil company ever. "We have woken up to find our
lands devastated by agents of death called oil companies. Our atmosphere
has been totally polluted, our lands degraded, our waters contaminated,
our trees poisoned, so much so that our flora and fauna have virtually
disappeared", said an Ogoni leader to the crowd. 4th January became known
as Ogoni Day.'
( http://www.remembersarowiwa.com/struggle.htm)

Jan 4th is also the date the head office of Shell UK in 1999 was occupied
- ten years to the day!
http://www.eco-action.org/dod/no8/shell.html