Waiting For Environmental Justice to Come

Environmental toxins and pollutants know no class or race, and yet government policies and corporate activities place an undue burden on the health of the poor and communities of color.

Throughout the United States, children of color and poor children are disproportionately exposed to health hazards while attending public school, placing them at high risk. Often, this problem is unaddressed in urban centers. However, one group of New York City parents is bringing attention to polluted schools, holding elected officials accountable, and in the process, becoming a focal point in the environmental justice movement.

Is Oil Worth More Than Blood In Nigeria?

By David A. Love, BlackCommentator.com

Listen to David's radio interview with Mark Thompson and Dick Gregory here.

On May 26, 2009, a potentially historic human rights trial will take place in a federal court in New York. At issue: What did Royal Dutch/Shell, the multinational oil giant, do in Nigeria?

The case is over a decade in the making. The suit, filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and EarthRights International, claims that Shell Oil and Brian Anderson—who was the managing director of Shell Nigeria—were complicit in the commission of human rights violations in that country. Specifically, the suit seeks to hold Shell accountable for summary executions, crimes against humanity, torture, inhuman treatment and the arbitrary arrest and detention of Nigerians. The plaintiffs in the case allege that the corporation had a hand in the November 1995 hangings of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other human rights activists by Nigeria’s then-ruling military junta. These leaders were non-violently protesting against Shell’s abusive practices in the Ogoni region in the Niger River Delta, including the trail of environmental devastation the corporation has left in its wake. They are known collectively as the Ogoni Nine.

Saro-Wiwa, who with the other activists was convicted and hanged on trumped-up murder charges, demanded a cleanup of Shell’s hundreds of oil spills throughout the region. In addition, and perhaps more poignantly—because wherever there is oil there are monied interests to protect and poor people to potentially exploit—they were pushing for a greater share of oil revenues to the Ogoni people. Presently, nearly 85% of the oil revenues are in the hands of a mere 1% of the Nigerian population, in a country where, according to the African Development Bank, over 70% of people live on less than US$1 a day.

Environmental devastation

The once-fertile Niger Delta region was known as the breadbasket of Nigeria. According to an independent team of Nigerian, American and British scientists, the region is “one of the world’s most severely impacted ecosystems,” and “one of the 10 most important wetlands and marine ecosystems in the world. Millions of people depend on the Delta’s natural resources for survival, including the poor in many other West African countries who rely on the migratory fish from the Delta.” For the people in the region, who rely on subsistence farming and fishing, Shell’s drilling, deforestation and other activities have created poverty.

Further, the World Bank says that gas-flaring in Nigeria—the process by which an oil company burns off the excess natural gas caused by oil drilling—has created more greenhouse gas emissions than in the rest of sub-Saharan Africa combined. And an estimated 1.5 million tons of oil have spilled into the Niger Delta over the past 50 years—the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez spill every year. The environmental degradation has created health problems in the region. Dr. Owens Wiwa, brother of Ken Saro-Wiwa who was detained and beaten by the Nigerian military, said that the people in the area have a high incidence of asthma, cancer and bronchitis. He also made note of “some bizarre skin diseases and a high level of miscarriages, which is quite different from other areas in Nigeria that are not producing oil.”

Shell and the military

Forty percent of Nigeria’s oil goes to the U.S., and Shell is a major player in Nigeria. For the more than 50 years Shell has engaged in oil production in Nigeria, human rights groups note, the corporation has worked closely with the Nigerian government to suppress local opposition to its presence there. In the early 1990s, when Saro-Wiwa’s human rights group MOSOP (The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People) was formed, Shell asked for armed assistance against local protestors, and armed and financed Nigerian soldiers. There was a reign of terror, in which the Nigerian military, with help from Shell according to human rights groups, falsely arrested, beat, raped and tortured people. After Shell requested military backup to build an oil pipeline in Ogoni, one woman who protested the bulldozing of her crops was shot by Nigerian soldiers and lost her arm.

In 1994, the military blocked Saro-Wiwa and other Ogoni leaders from attending a gathering. Four Ogoni chiefs were subsequently killed at the gathering, and the military blamed Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP for the killings. The Ogoni Nine were arrested, and, the military raided 60 Ogoni towns, beating and arresting hundreds of suspected MOSOP members.

As one Nigerian military official wrote in a memorandum: “Shell operations still impossible unless ruthless military operations are undertaken for smooth economic activities to commence.” The Ogoni Nine bore the full brunt of that ruthlessness— with a sham, kangaroo trial, presided over by a shady, ruthless military regime, and with Shell attempting to bribe two men to testify against Saro-Wiwa, as the plaintiffs allege. Saro-Wiwa said the following in his closing statement at trial:

The military dictatorship holds down oil producing areas such as Ogoni by military decrees and the threat or actual use of physical violence so that Shell can wage its ecological war without hindrance… This cozy, if criminal, relationship was perceived to be rudely disrupted by the non-violent struggle of the Ogoni people under MOSOP. The allies decided to bloody the Ogoni in order to stop their example from spreading through the oil-rich Niger Delta.

Ken Saro-Wiwa, Jr. speaks out

Nearly 14 years after his father’s hanging execution, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Jr., a plaintiff in the lawsuit, recently reflected on his father’s death and the struggle for justice in Nigeria:

It was a pretty dark time, and you felt as if the world had collapsed. We put all pressure on the Nigerian government, and Shell was washing its hands. It felt that no one was willing to take responsibility for the horrendous injustice. My father was hanged for a crime he didn’t commit. The company was complicit in my father’s execution, and they washed their hands. It seemed like a shot in the dark. It is painful that no one wants to face up to what they did.

Mr. Saro-Wiwa, Jr. noted that Nigeria is an oil rich country whose people feel they are not benefitting from all of these rich resources, that everything the government does is for the benefit of transnational corporations and in the interests of Big Oil. As a result, people on the ground are protesting these conditions:

There is a lack of democracy in their country, and people are taking things into their own hands. As people take things into their own hands, it will create more instability, things will become more difficult. We must create a system that is fair.

Shell responds to the allegations

It is true that Nigerian Gen. Sani Abacha, the brutal and corrupt military dictator at the time, died in 1998. But the people of Nigeria’s Ogoni region still suffer. And observers would suggest that Shell, still an oil powerhouse in that country, cannot shake off the executions of the Ogoni Nine, despite all of the best greenwashing and public relations strategies that money can buy. In response to the suit filed against the corporation, Shell spokesman Stan Mays provided me with the following written statement:

• The allegations made in the complaints against Royal Dutch/Shell concerning the 1995 executions of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight fellow Ogonis are false and without merit. Shell in no way encouraged or advocated any act of violence against them or their fellow Ogonis. We believe that the evidence will show clearly that Shell was not responsible for these tragic events.

• The executions in 1995 of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his eight fellow Ogonis were tragic events that were carried out by the Nigerian government in power at the time.

• Shell attempted to persuade that government to grant clemency; to our deep regret, that appeal – and the appeals of many others – went unheard, and we were shocked and saddened when we heard the news.

• Shell remains committed to reconciliation, peace and return to normality in Ogoni land.

Corporations on notice

So, the question that arises is, why bring the current lawsuit in a U.S. court? Well, although the alleged crimes did not take place on U.S. soil, Shell does substantial business in the U.S. Moreover, the plaintiffs filed the case under the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 law which allows lawsuits in U.S. courts for international violations of human rights. In addition, the Torture Victim Prevention Act allows a plaintiff to seek damages for extrajudicial killing or torture, regardless of where it occurs in the world. The suit was also brought under the laws of New York, and international laws. “The case is significant because people doing business in the U.S. have to follow U.S. law, which includes human rights violations,” says Jennie Green of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), attorney for the plaintiffs. “These are universally recognized laws. This is more than a mere tort, it is something that is universally recognized. Shell should have known better.”

In what appears to be a “shell game,” Green noted that Shell has spent years dragging its feet; fighting the case on the grounds that it did not belong in the U.S.; attempting, without success, to petition the Supreme Court, and claiming that the Netherlands-based parent company Royal Dutch/Shell had nothing to do with the case, but rather that Shell Nigeria was the proper defendant.

During these troubled times in America— when the nation’s underbelly is exposed for all the world to see—matters of corporate corruption and malfeasance, and environmental devastation are on the minds of many. If the plaintiffs in Wiwa v. Shell are victorious, this would be the first time that a multinational corporation is held liable in a U.S. court for human rights violations overseas. CCR’s Green believes that these days, a U.S. jury is more likely to believe that a corporation and its officers are capable of such corruption that they would harm individuals in this manner. “Here in the U.S. the message has been brought home,” said Ken Saro-Wiwa, Jr. “Corporations have to be held accountable, and it is difficult for sovereign nations to hold them accountable because of the fluidity of capital. There is a gap between global capital and systems of law.”

And this is a time when transnational corporations are being put on notice. A clear signal is being sent to them that the world is no longer their oyster. Neocolonialism is over. They cannot run roughshod over the world for the sake of the almighty profit, conducting business around the globe without regard for U.S. law and the law of nations. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is presently investigating Shell for engaging in graft in Nigeria, a violation the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. In February, the Halliburton spinoff KBR admitted to paying bribes to secure contracts related to the construction of a liquefied natural gas facility in Nigeria. Halliburton and KBR agreed to pay fines of over $579 million, the largest fine ever in a U.S. corruption case. And the notorious U.S. military contractor Blackwater (now called Xe), has been sued in the U.S., and some of its employee-mercenaries federally indicted for firing upon and killing unarmed civilians in Baghdad in 2007.

And a federal judge in New York has paved the way for South African plaintiffs to pursue lawsuits against GM, Ford, Daimler, and IBM “for aiding and abetting torture ... extrajudicial killing, and apartheid.”

When I asked him about his thoughts regarding Shell, the struggles of the Niger Delta and the upcoming trial, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Jr. said that “When you look at what is happening in the world, there is no justice.” At the same time, he emphasized that “Gandhi said that good always triumphs over evil in the end.” Indeed, these words will be put to the test again very soon.

Government needs to reform auto industry

By David A. Love
Progressive Media Project/
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
November 28, 2008

The U.S. auto industry is solely to blame for its problems, and any government aid package must have strings attached.

As someone who worked for two of the Big Three automakers, I witnessed firsthand the problems in the industry: large, inefficient bureaucracies that kill good ideas, a crippling, top-down, military-style chain of command and a system that churns out bland, uninspiring products.

In the 1970s, the Big Three were manufacturing their gas guzzlers when the United States was hit by the oil crisis. Unprepared for change, they were served up as lunch by their Japanese and European competitors, which offered smaller, attractive, fuel-efficient cars.

In the 1990s, General Motors introduced a battery electric vehicle, the EV1. But GM killed the car.

Instead, GM, as well as Chrysler and Ford, invested in SUVs, Hummers and other tank-like vehicles that boasted single-digit fuel economy, yet reaped great profits for their manufacturers. Then the price of oil soared, and like three decades earlier, reality caught up with the Big Three.

And yet, for all of their failures, America's car companies continue to lavishly reward their executives. For example, Ford CEO Alan Mulally earned $39.1 million in the first four months of 2006, in a year when his company posted a $12.7 billion loss, according to Reuters.

Rick Wagoner, GM's CEO, received a 33 percent pay raise in 2008 and equity compensation of at least $1.68 million in 2007, a year when GM reported a $38.7 billion loss, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, the head of Toyota makes roughly $1 million a year, and the Japanese automaker will likely make a total of $5 billion in this recessionary year. After all, that company manufacturers cars that people actually want to buy.

This is where the U.S. government comes in. Now is the time for the government to force the Big Three to change their product line.

President-elect Barack Obama's plan to put 1 million electric vehicles on the road in 10 years sets the proper tone for a nation that wants to grow its industry and save the environment. Detroit must commit itself to manufacturing efficient and affordable vehicles that operate on alternative fuel sources.

At the same time, government must ensure that unions are strong in a revitalized auto industry. They should not have to pay for the foolish decisions of management.

What's more, if we had universal health care in this country, it would make the auto companies more competitive with their Asian and European competitors.

Never has there been a greater opportunity for an ailing automobile industry to turn their lemons into lemonade. But they do not deserve a blank check.

If the Big Three don't agree to go green, then let ExxonMobil bail them out.

In Philly, They’ll Cut Off Your Gas For A Laugh

Color of Law
By David A. Love
BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board
June 26, 2008

Recently, in Philadelphia I heard the most insulting radio commercial of all time.

It was an ad for Philadelphia Gas Works, or PGW, a local city-owned utility. The narrator, a woman, lectures to the audience that if they do not pay their gas bill, PGW will cut off their service. In the background, throughout the commercial, is the sound of a man singing in the shower. Suddenly, towards the end of the commercial, he starts screaming in agony, presumably because PGW shut off his hot water.

Now, PGW tried to make light of a matter which is anything but amusing. It would seem to represent the worst, most inappropriate and most poorly timed public relations strategy in recent memory, but no one seems to talk about it. The PGW people are inferring that people are trying to beat the system, to have gas heat without paying for it.

Here’s a novel idea: perhaps poor and working people cannot afford fuel costs. Philadelphia, like other cities, is hurting from the recession, but for many people, every day is a recession. One-third of the city is mired in poverty, and the city has the highest per capita incarcerated population in the nation. There are no summer jobs for the kids, and for many of them there may not be any free bus passes when they return to school.

But the problem is bigger than Philly. The city’s current administration is as able as any, and seemingly abler than those who preceded it, but they inherited problems that are shouldered by states and localities throughout this nation. It will take a national strategy to solve them.

To make it simple, people cannot afford to live in America.

There is the energy crisis, where profiteers and speculators are making out like bandits from the high price of oil, and companies such as Exxon Mobil are posting record profits, while common people cannot afford their energy needs. Alternative fuels will save the environment and unleash new industries and spur job creation, but the corporate giants that killed the street cars throughout the nation, and the electric cars in California, stand in our way.

The energy crisis relates to the food crisis, because the high cost of energy increases the cost of food.

Then, of course, there is the subprime mortgage crisis, where the financial giants and Wall Street banks defrauded millions of people with home loans with unconscionable terms they could not possibly afford. These people are continuing to lose their homes in cities throughout the country, in what has become a loss of wealth of historic proportions.

Related to the mortgage crisis is the emerging school loan crisis, where colleges and universities make unholy alliances with lenders. The result is tuition that rises well in excess of the rate of inflation, and students that graduate with a mortgage-sized, high-interest loan. The massive amounts of debt with which these young people are saddled - before they even start their career in a job market of fewer opportunities and outsourcing abroad - will gravely affect their life choices and career choices.

Finally, there is the crumbling infrastructure crisis. The levies broke in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina, but now the levies are breaking everywhere. And our children and families are levies, too, and they cannot stand the pressure. There are inadequate public investments in physical infrastructure such as roads and bridges, and spending for social welfare and education takes a back seat to prison and war profiteering.

What caused this problem? To make a long story short, much of it has to do with the conservative revolution, perverse public policy choices that shift wealth upward, deregulation, hatred of government as a force for social change, and unscrupulous politicians who run the track each and every day to make that money for their corporate pimps.

The PGW commercial represents the common Dickensian strategy, American-style, of callously blaming the poor for their own problems, calling for personal responsibility, and criminalizing them as a means of shutting them up, shutting them down and keeping them in line. But what do you do when most people are poor or are becoming poor, as is the case with the U.S.?

But there is a better way. In this election season, as we are about to witness a potentially dramatic pendulum shift in the United States, there are clear choices as to what direction Americans want for the country. Whatever happens, people of good will must be part of a movement that brings sustained economic and social equity and justice, seeks quality jobs, healthcare and education as a human right, and ensures that government serves the people and is no longer used as a casino for multinational conglomerates. Although the next occupant of the White House can go a long way in setting the tone, an election result is not a magic wand, and there are no shortcuts for the hard work which must be done on the ground.

Shell Oil disregards human rights in Nigeria

(FROM THE ARCHIVES)

By David A. Love

Published by Progressive Media Project and Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service

June 25, 1998

The recent death of Nigeria's brutal and corrupt military dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha, has brought new hopes for democracy in that country. But the Abacha regime did not rule alone. It worked hand in glove with oil giant Royal Dutch Shell. It's time for Shell to come clean about its misdeeds in Nigeria and assist in the democratic process.

International human-rights groups have accused Shell of actively supporting Nigeria's military government, and participating in the regime's human-rights excesses.

Activist-playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other activists were hung for campaigning against Shell Oil's practices in the Ogoni region. Saro-Wiwa pushed for a greater share of oil revenues to the Ogoni people and a cleanup of Shell's hundreds of oil spills across the region. Human-rights organizations criticized Shell for failing to intervene on behalf of the activists, who were convicted on trumped up murder charges and executed in November 1995.

Shell produces more than half of Nigeria's oil. Formerly known as the breadbasket of Nigeria, this once fertile land in the Niger River delta is reportedly devastated by pollution. According to the British newspaper the Independent, the area emits 12 million tons of methane and 35 million tons of carbon dioxide each year, making it the world's greatest contributor to global warming.

The ecological damage in Ogoni -- caused by years of oil-drilling and flaring gas -- has resulted in health problems. Dr. Owens Wiwa, brother of Ken Saro-Wiwa, says there is a high incidence of asthma, cancer and bronchitis among people who live in the area. Wiwa also makes note of "some bizarre skin diseases and a high level of miscarriages, which is quite different from other areas in Nigeria that are not producing oil.''

Shell denies the charge.

"We have not caused environmental devastation in the Ogoniland,'' Shell International spokesman Eric Nickson recently told the Baltimore Sun. "In fact, we are trying to work with the community and improve life there.'' Nickson blamed the oil spills on sabotage by Ogoni activists.

Shell also must answer to charges that it participated in Abacha's human-rights abuses. According to internal government communications and other confidential sources, Shell asked for armed assistance against local protestors. A Nigerian military official wrote a memorandum stating: "Shell operations still impossible unless ruthless military operations are undertaken for smooth economic activities to commence.'' Shell admits it asked for help and bought handguns for the police guarding its facilities but denies paying the military.

A lawsuit filed in the Southern District Court of New York on behalf of the Wiwa family and the other activists alleges that the executions by Nigeria's military junta were conducted with "the knowledge, consent, and/or support'' of Shell Oil. The suit was filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which calls for federal jurisdiction for civil wrongs committed by foreigners who break international law or a U.S. treaty. The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights is the lead counsel in the case.

Shell has responded by asserting that it does not have legal responsibility over its Nigerian operations. The corporation claims it is a mere holding company, a conglomerate of independent subsidiaries and diversified investments. Opponents accuse the company of playing a "shell game,'' claiming that Shell is a tightly knit "super-corporation.''

Before being sentenced to death, Ken Saro-Wiwa addressed the military tribunal: "I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is here on trial. ... The company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come. ... The crime of the company's dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished.'' Shell must clean up its act. If Shell does not take responsibility for its actions in Nigeria, it will be hard for consumers to pump their gas with a clear conscience.

Copyright © 1998 by David A. Love