While California is declaring bankruptcy,and the overall U.S. unemployment rate is sitting just under 9%,[1]I find comfort in the fact that Chevron's CEO David J. O'Reilly only made 47 million dollars this last year.[2] It's good to know one is not struggling alone in this economic crisis. Sadly this sarcastic observation only accounts for the least bitter part of this letter. Let us for a moment just dwell on these numbers, 8.9% of the U.S. worker-eligible population...that's about 240,000 people. This is a difficult number to grasp, but 47 million is just mind boggling, while there is 240,000 able-bodied individuals making 0 dollars an hour (not to mention the costs of rent, mortgages, insurance(s), gasoline, and groceries) there is one individual making 47 million dollars. What makes this economic disparity even more disgusting however is that Chevron is under heavy fire from both environmental and human rights activists for being complicit in the dumping of billions of pounds of waste in the Amazonian jungle. Not only is the besmirching one of the world's most important biospheres it also has resulted in the direct deaths of 1,400 indigenous Ecuadorians[3] who live and cultivate the land in the Amazon.
Unfortunately this vile behavior does not represent an isolated issue. As seen above Americans in Richmond, VA are involved not only because they are sympathetic to the plight of indigenous suffering in Ecuador but because Chevron is seeking to burn an even more "dirty" type of oil at a nearby refinery. This new crude oil that Chevron is pushing for has been shown to release even more pollutants and toxins in the air than the oil they regularly refine. In Nigeria Chevron has been accused of being directly involved with the bloody military campaign being carried out by the JTF (Joint Task Force) which has displaced hundreds of women and children who dwell near the Nigerian Delta a geographic area of "special interest" to Chevron. The bold inhumanity of Chevron took a step in the direction of absurd when earlier this year it counter-sued Nigerian villagers for 485,000 dollars (U.S.)[4] Chevron wanted recoup money it spent defending itself successfully against a suit filed by Nigerian villagers. The U.S. judge presiding over the case (which was thrown out) had this to say, “The economic disparity between plaintiffs, who are Nigerian villagers, and defendants, international oil companies, cannot be more stark,”[5] This story goes on and on in similar fashion in multiple countries: Burma, Canada, Iraq, Kazakhstan, and the Philippines have all suffered immensely.
There are several media outlets and journals covering this story, however I think out of all the mainstream press 60 Minutes did a great job showing Chevron's devastation in action. I frankly paid little attention to the issue until I listened to a woman speaking on the radio yesterday morning on 90.7FM. The Economist and the Financial Times not surprisingly indirectly defended Chevron in their articles that touched upon the issue.[6][7] The Media Advisor for Chevron Latin America James Craig has accused the lawsuits from the Ecuadorians as mere money grabs set up by U.S. trial lawyers out to make a quick buck off of middle-class U.S. shareholders. Well I don't know about you guys but producing a 4,000 page indictment doesn't sound like quick cash to me. This criminal activity needs to stop now. Today marks Chevron's annual shareholder meeting and I ask you brothers and sisters to take heed and join the struggle. This is a working class issue, this is an environmental issue, this is a civil rights issue, and most importantly this is a human rights issue. We must join the comrades who have built this movement internationally and fight against this corporate fascism and naked capitalism. Here are important sources to arm yourself with in the fight against the oil industry's tyranny and specifically Chevron's human rights abuses:
http://truecostofchevron.com
http://texacotoxico.org/eng
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/26/antonia_juhasz_on_the_true_cost
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95465269
http://justiceinnigerianow.org
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P.S. Yesterday rebels in Nigeria blew up a giant oil pipeline costing Chevron 100,000 barrels of oil per day. The MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Nigerian Delta) has took responsibility and has issued this statement:
"The impoverished and neglected inhabitants of oil-producing communities consider our actions to these structures as good riddance to bad rubbish.
Oil exploration has brought only pain to them by way of environmental damage, harassment from the military and rape of under-aged girls by soldiers, extra-judicial killings of young men and development and wealth to other parts of the country at their detriment,"[7]>
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SOURCES:
1: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm
2: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2009/12/best-boss-09_David-J-OReilly_XASH.html
3: http://texacotoxico.org/eng/node/220
4: http://justiceinnigerianow.org
5: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9f8111bc-4a55-11de-8e7e-00144feabdc0.html
6: http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13707679
7: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2008/09/200892095943158979.html
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