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11:30 a.m.: Festival/Rally at Richmond BART (16th St & MacDonald Avenue)
Followed by 1:00 p.m.: March on Chevron oil refinery
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Organized by the Mobilization for Climate Justice - West
Phone/email: 415 373 3825,
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Activists and community members from around
the Bay Area will be joining Richmond, California residents to protest
the Chevron corporation's devastating environmental and human rights
record around the world. They'll be working with a coalition of
dozens of social justice and environmental organizations, called the
Mobilization for Climate Justice, to highlight and stop Chevron's
legacy of criminality. From faulty environmental impact reports for a
dirty crude expansion and ongoing pollution in Richmond, to using the
Nigerian military to murder environmental activists in the Niger
Delta, to toxic waste sites and subsequent harm to human health (that
dwarfs the Exxon-Valdez spill) in the Ecuadorian Amazon, Chevron is
responsible for a substantial roster of injured people and denuded
environments throughout the globe - not the least of which are the
lands and people of Iraq.
Chevron is directly responsible for the war in Iraq. From the
era of the Saddam Hussein dictatorship, Chevron has worked diligently
to gain access to Iraqi oil. (The relationship started even earlier,
following World War I, as Gulf Oil, which became Chevron, maneuvered
to control Iraq's oil in the Mandate period.) Since then it has
created marketing agreements to sell Iraqi oil, working around the US
imposed sanctions with the UN Oil for Food program, deemed genocidal
by two directors of the program who resigned is disgust. At the same
time, Chevron illegally bribed Iraqi officials to sell oil outside of
the program, making the government an estimated $11 billion,
strengthening the dictatorship.
Chevron was also instrumental in preparing the illegal
aggression and occupation of Iraq. Part of the infamous "Cheney
Energy Task Force" that met just days after George W. Bush was
inaugurated, the Task Force worked with the National Security Council
to merge "operational policies toward rogue states" with
"actions regarding the capture of new and existing oil and gas
fields." Since the invasion Chevron has pushed heavily for
production contracts and production sharing agreements through the
failed Iraq Oil Law. Now western oil companies' best hope to
directly extract Iraqi oil is the second round of extraction and
production negotiations set for November. All the while Chevron
maintains its marketing agreements with Iraq, refining millions of
barrels of Iraqi oil at its Richmond refinery, profiting from the US
war and occupation.
US wars of aggression are often driven by our addiction to fossil
fuels. As these resources deplete, the competition for them
intensifies, furthering conflict and the resort to military
"solutions." The government spends trillions of dollars on the wars,
and corporations reap record profits in the billions, while spending
for social infrastructure, health care, schools, and investments to
green our economy dwindle. Oil companies like Chevron profit from the
wars, profit from the oil extraction, and profit while their actions
heat the planet to unprecedented levels. Ultimately, ending the wars
and cooling the planet are part of the same struggle, as unaccountable
corporations poison our environment, disregard our future, and use
government military intervention to acquire more oil. They must be
stopped; at the top of the list is Chevron.
World Can't Wait will flyer at the event to expose
War crime charge(s):
- Complicity in the commission of a war crime - torture, ill-treatment of detainees.
- In 2002 Haynes recommended a menu of 15 dehumanizing interrogation techniques to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
- Ignored warnings by Criminal Investigative Task Force (CITF) of DoD and other military officials that what was going on in Guantanamo was cruel and unlawful.
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War Criminals Watch Events 
