Ongoing Shell Activties In Madison, WI

[jepeck@students.wisc.edu (John E. Peck)]

  Hello friends,
  
          Just a brief update here from Madison, WI.  We've resumed our
  weekly picket of the Shell Station on Univ. Ave. each Wed. from 4:30 - 5:30
  (prime traffic period).  This has got to be one of the most ostentatious
  and frankly obnoxious Shell stations I have ever seen - it even includes a
  flower garden with a giant Shell logo in the middle (!) - and the owner
  reportedly just built a new $400,000 home with jacuzzi, so we have no
  qualms about adverseely affecting his business until he switches
  franchises.
  
          The weekend of Oct. 31 - Nov. 2 over 300 campus and community
  activists from all over the U.S. and Canada are expected to converge on the
  Univ. of Chicago for the Democracy Teach-In Organizing Conference.  Several
  folks from the Free Nigeria Movement (along with reps from Students for
  Free Tibet, Free Burma Coalition, and East Timor Action Network) will be
  speakers, plus other figures like Ralph Nader, Richard Grossman, Lawrence
  Soley, Njoki Njoroge-Njehu, etc.  This is a great chance for activists to
  network and get the skills needed to really challenge corporate power and
  reclaim democratic sovereignty, leading into a second round of worldwide
  Democracy Teach-Ins next spring (March 1-7).  To get registered for the
  conference call #617-354-9363 or #608-262-9036.
  
          On Thurs. Nov. 6 the UW Board of Regents is having its first annual
  public forum on socially responsible investment - in response to grassroots
  pressure that forced them to adopt a pseudo socially responsible investment
  policy and divest $240,000 worth of stock from Texaco last spring (due to
  its ties with the SLORC regime in Burma).  Dozens of campus and community
  activists from around the state are preparing to testify and the issue of
  UW's investment in corporations supporting the Abacha regime is sure to be
  mentioned.  As of now, UW does not own Royal Dutch Shell stock, but it does
  procure Shell gas for its fleet vehicles.
  
          Lastly, on Nov. 10th we are planning a much larger rush-hour picket
  at the aforementioned Shell station, hopefully with media coverage and
  later a candlelight vigil - possibly in conjunction with the Kristalnacht
  remembrance - where we'll offer tributes to Ken Saro-Wiwa and the other
  murdered Ogoni activists and read some of Ken's writings.  The next day
  Prof. Idris Makward in UW's African Languages and Literature Dept. (who
  apparently taught Ken at some point) will give a talk on the Nigerian
  crisis and Ken's legacy, preceded by a showing of the "Drilling Fields" or
  "Delta Force" video.   This is all part of a broader weeklong series on
  environmental racism and environmental justice put together by the Cross
  Cultures Cmmt of the WI Union Directorate.
  
          Keep up the great work everyone!  Nigeria will be free and the
  memory of Ken Saro-Wiwa will honored long after that of Royal Dutch Shell
  is consigned to the dustbin of human history.
  - John
  
  John Peck, c/o UW Greens, 731 State St., Madison WI  53703 #608-262-9036
  
  "Just as teenagers are the same all over the world, children are the same
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