After a short briefing session at Speaker's Corner, a group of about fifty activists armed with AMEC shares descended on the Portman Square Hotel for the AMEC AGM this morning. Many were armed with whistles and we also all had red cards (foorball ref style) to hold up at appropriate moments. The plan was for three waves of noise disruption. We were joined by other groups at the hotel and ended up outnumbering the non-activist shareholders that had attended.

The Chairman Sydney Gillibrand began the meeting with a stern warning as to the conduct of the meeting and a threat that offenders would be forcibly ejected after a formal warning. There were twenty or more suited security men (there must be a growing market for this type of corporate gibbon - they looked too old to be nightclub bouncers and too rough to be diplomatic bodyguards!).

Each resolution was easily voted down by the activists which meant that the company would have to conduct a poll after the meeting. Questions were raised from the floor about such matters as the continued involvement of AMEC through the French company Spie Batignolle in the controversial Yusufeli Dam campaign, their involvement in the Chalillo Dam in Belize, their involvement with the highly destructive and corrupt Indonesian paper company APRIL, and their involvement in two British road schemes (Bingley and Birmingham Bypasses).

The first noise demo occured after about twenty minutes with red cards held high and a constant ear-splitting volume. This resulted in the forcible removal of a dozen or so demonstrators, one of whom was threatened by security guards with a key against their neck and a comment that they could easily fall down the stairs (subject of a formal police complaint later). Another demonstrator being removed staged an epileptic fit that caused extreme consternation to the security people (to much amusement later). Mark Thomas was among the first group to be evicted.

Despite searches and warnings not to video or take photos, I did manage to take a couple amongst the scuffles (unfortunately I'm on a steam camera so I'll post them when the film's developed in about a week!).

A second wave of noisy protests occured maybe another half hour later, and a few more people were dragged out.

As well as the direct action protests, the whole meeting was successfully hijacked by the sheer range and quality of questions from the floor. At one point, after a particularly patronising response from Sydney, Hannah Griffiths (from FoE) got him to agree to give her a copy of the environmental assessment on the Yusufeli dam. However, in a follow up question he realised what he had done and had to backtrack and retract claiming that he had mistaken what she had asked. It was a delight to see this patronising tosser squirm and wriggle his way so blatantly out of his cock-up and the few remaining 'whistlers' managed to make a fair bit of noise without getting chucked out.

Another highlight of the morning was after a question about the environmental report and geological survey of the Chalillo Dam, when a factual error (or deliberate deceit?) was pointed out that there was no granite in the rock at the site. The Head of their North American Division actually said in defence "well, it looked like granite"!!!!

All in all, the board looked foolish and evasive, and much of their attempts to 'Greenwash' their shareholders was exposed as the PR exercise that it is. One impartial shareholder that had nothing to do with the protest groups actually stood up to berate the board for dragging the company into this sort of situation.

A great morning's work then, and a big signal to other companies that the grassroots movements are becoming more savvy and focussed in their campaigning. There was generally great support between the various protest groups and a wide range of tactics on show.