Posted on 11/12/2002 6:47:18 AM PST by syriacus
"Our weapon is our nakedness," Helen Odeworitse, a leader of 600 women who peacefully seized control of an oil terminal in Escravos, Nigeria, told the Associated Press. Odeworitse and other women held 700 western oil workers hostage and shut down a facility that exports half a million barrels of oil a day.
The unarmed women villagers, who ranged in age from 30 to 90, threatened to remove their clothes -- a traditional shaming gesture that would have humiliated and damned ChevronTexaco throughout the region.
Takeovers of oil sites are common in the oil-rich Niger Delta. Armed with machetes and guns, men routinely threaten corporate executives with kidnapping and sabotage. But the all-women protest stunned the corporation and, in the end, the women's threat worked. Rather than removing or harming the protesters, the oil company engaged in a 10-day marathon negotiation with them.
Desperation, the women later explained, is what led to their protest. Escravos is the Portuguese word for slaves and that's how these women view themselves. Despite its great oil wealth, the Niger Delta is among the poorest places in West Africa. While oil workers enjoy comfortable homes, a modern hospital and satellite television, villagers live in rusty tin-roofed shacks, without running water or electricity.
The women's demands reflected their determination to escape such grinding poverty. ChevronTexaco, they insisted, should help fund the development of the region. So, they demanded that the oil company employ 25 of their sons; install electricity and water systems in their communities; build schools, clinics and town halls; and help them build fish and chicken farms so that they can sell food to the corporation's cafeteria.
To their surprise and delight, ChevronTexaco agreed to their demands. As soon as the agreement was announced, the women -- many with babies bound to their backs -- celebrated by singing and dancing on the docks. Without harming a soul, they had forced a multinational corporation to help them transform impoverished villages into modern towns.
Dick Fligate, a ChevronTexaco executive, reportedly conceded that the protest was a wake-up call and that the corporation would have to pay greater attention to the needs of local communities. But he may change his mind. As soon as these protesters left the Escravos oil terminal, women from other villages seized four more ChevronTexaco oil facilities in southeastern Nigeria.
What is taking place in Nigeria is nothing like the anti-globalization protests westerners have watched on television. These women are local villagers who, by engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience, are demanding that the wealth that lies beneath their land be shared with them.
Whether their peaceful protests will succeed is hardly assured. Nigeria, let us not forget, is what the American government calls a "strategic interest": It is the fifth-largest oil supplier to the United States.
Still, their peaceful protest proved successful and has already inspired copycat occupations. As she left the Escravos oil terminal, Anunu Uwawah, a leader of the 10-day action, reportedly exulted, "I give one piece of advice to all women in all countries: They shouldn't let any company cheat them." Clearly, some women were listening.
Nigerian Women End ChevronTexaco Protest
After more than eight days of protest, 600 unarmed Nigerian women who took over ChevronTexaco’s Escravos oil terminal agreed today to end their siege after the company offered to hire at least 25 villagers and to build schools, electrical and water systems. Early last week, the women occupied the terminal and held 700 workers inside to demand that the corporation provide their oil-rich community with jobs and infrastructure development. The women plan to wait until the verbal agreement is put in writing and signed before they withdraw from the facility in southeastern Nigeria.[excerpt]The protest — organized by women between 30 and 90 years of age — has been peaceful. As a show of “good faith,” the women released 200 workers on Sunday. However, they have threatened nudity, a tribal shaming gesture against ChevronTexaco and its workers, if their demands go unmet.
................Your revolutionary sisters and brothers overseas are effective when THEY protest therefore.............Protest the War, Protest the Running Dog Capitalists, Protest Bush, Protest the Corrupt Corporations, Protest the Military, Protest the Republicans, Protest, Protest, Protest..............
This bipartisan message brought to you by the San Francisco Chronicle and Ruth Rosen.
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...but for the love of God, PLEASE don't take your clothes off. |
Isn't Nigeria the origin of these E-Mail scams about millions of dollars in bank accounts that need to be freed up by just transferring the money through a US bank account?...............all THEY need is the the information to access YOUR bank account and they'll give you a 25% fee for cooperating with them
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.................I think THEY already have a job; E-Mail scams.
Why? Because they have money and the locals don't? Because it'll be "nice?" Please.
"If that drill was in your backyard, wouldn't you want a cut too?"
I would fight like hell to never have the drill in my backyard in the first place. If I was made aware of plans for such an event I would organize others, sign petitions, protest and utilize the many facets of our republican form of govt to prevent it from happening. Sadly these thugs don't have those options but the burden is on THEM and them alone to raise a govt which will give them those tools of representation. Otherwise, to quote Dennis Leary: "Life sucks, get a helmet."
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