Rising Tide Banner Drop - Oil Festival Hall

That is so good! - the giant banner, the perfect drop, the timing, the pics...
Fantastic work! Let's gather on the 15th to push the message home.

Join London Rising Tide to protest against BP at its Annual General Meeting on
Thursday April 15th at the Oil - sorry, Royal - Festival Hall

Last year, London Rising Tide 'celebrated' BP's Annual General Meeting (AGM) by holding a Carnival Against Oil Wars and Climate Chaos and alternative AGM outside. Several concerned members of the public also entered the meeting in order to make absolutely sure their concerns hadn't been swamped by the mile high tide of greenwash that had engulfed the Oil Festival Hall (OFH) for the day.

12 months have now passed, and what have we seen..?

BP, Shell, ExxonMobil and all the other big oil companies have profited handsomely from a murderous, deceit-ridden war in Iraq; fossil fuel-induced climate chaos hit Europe in August, killing tens of thousands in record-breaking temperatures; BP's Baku-Ceyhan pipeline is under construction and has become an enormous embarrassment, proving the company's green and socially responsible rhetoric to be nothing but top dollar public relations (www.baku.org.uk); and BP boss Lord Browne's salary soared to the just under the £5m mark, just as his company's North Sea and other oilworkers saw their personal safety, union rights and wages increasingly in tatters.

BP's AGM falls this year on Thursday April 15th, again at the OFH. London Rising Tide will be taking action as well, partly against BP, but also as part of its ongoing campaign to persuade the OFH, sometimes known as the People's Palace, not to shut its doors to the public for the day in exchange for BP's hefty fee, and to protect its reputation by cancelling next year's BP booking. LRT invites you to get involved with its preparations, or to come along on the day - get in touch for more details. And don't forget to spread the word far and wide.

While we're at it, the winner of this year's BP-sponsored National Portrait Award will be announced on June 21st, so to coincide with that, LRT and friends are setting up a series of actions and events dubbed at least for now as ‘An Exhibition of Resistance to BP and Big Oil’ to run alongside it. We are inviting people to contribute artworks that are a true portrait of an oil company, or with a political, social and/or ecological perspective. The exhibition will also discuss and display positive, community-owned and run solutions to our energy needs. Let us know if you'd like more info on that, or if you'd like to help out in any way; (help with web design is particularly needed.)

Thanks for reading, and keep on doing what you can for peace, justice, the environment and the long-term survival of our planet.

London Rising Tide: 07969 786770
 london@risingtide.org.uk
c/o 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES
www.londonrisingtide.org.uk (under construction)
www.burningplanet.net
See also Rising Tide UK: www.risingtide.org.uk

Last year, London Rising Tide 'celebrated' BP's Annual General Meeting (AGM) by holding a Carnival Against Oil Wars and Climate Chaos and alternative AGM outside. Several concerned members of the public also entered the meeting to make absolutely sure their concerns hadn't been swamped by the mile high tide of greenwash that had engulfed the building.

You may remember it, especially if you were working that day. The People's Palace was shut down by BP. Public access was severely curtailed, free public cultural events were nonexistent, the BP public relations people were out in force, as were many hundreds of police, BP-sub-contracted security and the shareholders themselves, many looking to have a nice day out snaffling vol-au-vents, watching their favourite oil multinational at work and tut-tutting at the noisy antics of the protesters. All in all, it was a perfect example of the way BP values private profit above public good, and attempts to hide its horrifically destructive activities with the stranglehold sponsorship of London's cultural institutions.

12 months have now passed, and what have we seen..?

BP, Shell, ExxonMobil and all the other big oil companies are profiting handsomely from a murderous, deceit-ridden war in Iraq; fossil fuel-induced climate chaos hit Europe in August, killing tens of thousands in record-breaking temperatures; BP's Baku-Ceyhan pipeline is under construction and has become an enormous embarrassment, proving the company's green and socially responsible rhetoric to be nothing but top dollar public relations (www.baku.org.uk); and BP boss Lord Browne's salary soared to the just under the £5m mark, just as his company's North Sea and other oilworkers saw their personal safety, union rights and wages increasingly in tatters.

BP's AGM falls this year on Thursday April 15th, again at the RFH. Some will raise dissenting voices inside the meeting, while LRT will be taking action outside from 10am until the meeting ends, partly against BP, but also as part of our ongoing campaign to persuade the RFH not to shut its doors to the public for the day in exchange for BP's hefty fee, and to protect its reputation by cancelling next year's BP booking.

We've made several attempts to discuss our concerns with RFH management since early 2003, but have received no response. Maybe you could have more success from the inside? We're asking you, as people working for or in the RFH, to make your feelings known in whatever way you can on this issue. It could be by raising it amongst workmates, at union meetings, refusing to work on April 15th, chatting to AGM participants on the day or getting in touch with us - it's up to you...(You might also be up for coming along to the 'Exhibition of Resistance to BP and Big Oil' that we're setting up to run alongside the BP-sponsored National Portrait Award in June this year.)

Thanks for reading, and keep on doing what you can for peace, justice, the environment and the long-term survival of our planet.

London Rising Tide: 07969 786770
 london@risingtide.org.uk
c/o 62 Fieldgate Street, London E1 1ES
www.londonrisingtide.org.uk (under construction)
www.burningplanet.net
See also Rising Tide UK: www.risingtide.org.uk