UPDATE: Activists left the office without arrest after consultations with the European Manager of the firm about setting the record straight. Negociations continue.

VIDEO:
Watch this Video produced by www.beyondtv.org for Manchester Indymedia.

It's available as a Real Player and Quicktime format on the Beyondtv Website:

 http://www.beyondtv.org/pages/feature_page.php/103/

watch the RM file directly here
 http://relay.tornadonetworks.net/demand.php?c=users/undercurrents&m=risingtide/bakuerm.rm
and

here for the Quicktime one
 http://clients.tornadonetworks.net/users/undercurrents/risingtide/bakumanc.mov

PRESS RELEASE:

The Manchester Offices of environmental consultants ERM are being occupied by concerned people, in protest against the proposed Baku-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

This is the latest action in the the growing campaign against the pipeline, which critics say will lead to human rights abuses an climate change disaster. ERM are the environmental consultants to the project, but their assesment of the potential impacts of the pipeline is described as "severely flawed" by campaigners.

Today's non-violent direct action aims to convince the ERM to withdraw their support from the pipeline project. The campaigners plan to carry out a spoof "impact assesment" on the office, to investigate the effects of the occupation.

Graham Hughes from Manchester said "One of teh most shocking things about this destructive pipeline project is that, if it went ahead, it would be paid for by us, the British taxpayer. Our government is preparing to stump up £65 million of our money to pay for death and destruction in Eastern Europe. They can't find enough money to pay for public sector workers, but they seem to have plenty of cash for oil and war."

"ERM's environmental and social impact assesment of the pipeline is severely flawed. Independent researchers found a village supposedly 'consulted' by ERM had actually been empty and derelict for years. We will not leave their offices until they agree to repeat the assesment truthfully, or pull out of the project altogether"