Killing us softly with their words?

Corporate Europe Observatory / PLATFORM Press Release
Monday 2 February 2009
Immediate release

OIL GIANT ACCUSED OF STEERING EU ENERGY POLICY

Brussels/London - Oil industry lobbying at the heart of the EU has
left European member states vulnerable to energy shortages and has
undermined EU efforts to tackle climate change, according to a new
report published today (Monday 2 February) by Corporate Europe
Observatory and PLATFORM [1].

The report, "BP - Extracting Influence at the Heart of the EU"
highlights how BP has positioned itself at the centre of EU energy
policy, building high level contacts and persuading EU Commissioners,
officials and government ministers of a "shared agenda" in working
together. It follows news that former German Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder is joining the board of BP's Russian venture [2].

BP has enjoyed high level EU support for its Russian venture, with the
EU increasingly dependent on Russian gas [3]. The company also played
a key role in developing the EU's emissions trading scheme, which is
now being promoted in the US [4].

But the research suggests that the EU's interests would have been
better-served, had BP's profit-driven agenda been shelved in favour of
less fashionable messages on energy efficiency and investments in
renewables.

James Marriott, a partner at PLATFORM said:
"BP has established an impressive Brussels power base, with key
figures strategically placed inside EU institutions. The result seems
to be that some within the EU think that what works for BP must be in
the best interests of the EU's citizens, but it is far from clear that
this is the case."

The report highlights how BP chairman Peter Sutherland simultaneously
acted as Commission President Jose Barroso's adviser on energy and
climate change from 2007 [5].

BP's chief executive of refining and marketing, Iain Conn, also played
a key role on the Commission's High Level Group (HLG) on
Competitiveness, Energy and the Environment, inputting on future
energy policy [6].

The oil giant also funds a team of Brussels lobbyists and works
through numerous industry bodies [7].

BP appears keen to downplay its lobbying activities. It recently
entered its lobbying interests on the Commission's register [8],
claiming that it spent just 200,000 - 250,000 euro on lobbying
activities in 2008. But campaigners say the estimate is ridiculously
low and reflects the inadequacy of the Commission's guidelines for the
voluntary register. In comparison, ExxonMobil declared expenditure of
900,000 - 950,000 euro for the same period, while Microsoft said it
spent 1,300,000 euro in 2008.

Corporate Europe Observatory campaigner Olivier Hoedeman said:
"BP's reach and influence show how powerful some corporations have
become within the EU. The EU Commission and member state governments
seem happy to sit back and let big business dictate their so-called
shared agenda, with little thought as to whether it is actually in the
public interest. To add insult to injury, the weakness of EU lobby
transparency rules means the public is still denied the right to know
which companies are influencing policy making or how much they are
spending on playing political games."

BP provided key advice to the EU on emissions trading, having already
established its own in-house scheme and advised on the UK-wide carbon
market. The company made substantial profits from both the UK scheme
and the first phase of the EU scheme - although neither delivered
significant reductions in emissions [9].

ENDS

Media contacts:
London - Benjamin Diss, Platform: +44 (0)794 1519 445
Brussels - Olivier Hoedeman, Corporate Europe Observatory: +32 (0) 25126646 /
+32 (0) 4 74486545


Notes:

[1] BP - Extracting influence at the heart of the EU,
http://www.corporateeurope.org/extractinginfluence.html

[2] Schroeder to join TNK-BP board, Financial Times, 15 January 2009,
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d639c878-e33c-11dd-a5cf-0000779fd2ac,print=yes.html

[3] BP and the Russian bear, case study from BP - Extracting influence
at the heart of the EU,
http://www.corporateeurope.org/docs/extracting_influence_russia.pdf

[4] EU urges US climate commitment,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7856120.stm

[5] DG Communication (2007) Rapid - Press Releases - EUROPA - World
renowned experts to advise President Barroso on energy and climate
change, 06 April 2007,
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/283

[6] European Commission (2005) Rapid - Press Releases - EUROPA -
Energy Environment Competitiveness - Commission Launches High Level
Group, Press release 24 February 2005,
"Stakeholders - Iain Conn - UK - Renewables Gas Petroleum - Executive
director of the BP Group, has responsibility for Europe"
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/06/226

[7] BP's Brussels office is on Rondpoint Schumann, adjacent to the EU
Commission.

[8] See:
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/transparency/regrin/consultation/displaylobbyist.do?id=3394026642-58
and also:
http://www.alter-eu.org/en/system/files/publications/Commission+Register+Fails+Transparency+Test.pdf

[9] Putting the Fox in Charge of the Henhouse: How BP'S Emissions
Trading Scheme Was Sold To The EU,
http://www.corporateeurope.org/docs/extracting_influence_ets.pdf



See: http://www.corporateeurope.org
and Unravelling the Carbon Web at http://www.platformlondon.org for
more information.

----------
Media contacts:
London - Benjamin Diss, Platform: +44 (0)794 1519 445
Brussels - Olivier Hoedeman, Corporate Europe Observatory: +32 (0) 25126646 /
+32 (0) 4 74486545


PLATFORM,
7 Horselydown Lane,
Tower Bridge,
Bermondsey,
London, SE1 2LN.

+44 (0)20 7403 3738
http://www.platformlondon.org

Peter Tatchell 'a secular saint'

Well having fulminated at those turncoats in Dublin and their friends in the porketariat, I was inspired by this post, there are many Green Party members doing a lot of very good work...long may they prosper.

One of them is Peter Tatchell, this is a report on his fundraising night of caberet from my friend Joseph Healy.

Both Peter and Joseph are Green Party candidates and do excellent work. Joseph is I believe from Dublin.


David Hoyle introduced Peter on to the stage as "a secular saint" and that is indeed a very good description of what he is. For years he has carried out virtually a one man crusade against many different forms of oppression, winning supporters along the way, sometimes from the most unusual sources such as the rightwing press. Peter, of course, joined the Green Party and is now the parliamentary candidate for Oxford East. I always wonder at his energy and sheer chutzpah, not to mention his willingness to put himself forward as a spokesman for many campaigns which others would ignore.

Peter explained at the end of the evening how busy he was and the importance of his fund. He receives on average 600 emails per day requesting his help and assistance from all over the world. One of the amazing facts that Peter told us is that Stonewall, the main LGBT rights organisation in this country, and which has strong links with New Labour, refuses to deal with any individual cases. This to me is astonishing as they have a fairly large income and regularly pass themselves off as the main campaigning organisation for LGBT rights.

More from Joseph here

Useless Irish Green Party cut 300 buses

Dublin Bus drivers are due to stage a two-hour protest outside the Green Party Head office in Suffolk Street in Dublin this morning.

The action - due to begin at 11am - is not expected to disrupt bus services.

The demonstration is being held to highlight what organisers say is the Green Party's silence over the removal of over 300 buses from the fleets of Dublin Bus and Bus Éireann

Just because it is called a 'Green Party' does not actually mean it is a Green Party, Viva Cynthia McKinney and real greens everywhere, the Irish experience is pretty depressing...in power with no power but obviously some salaries.

The Porketeriat of Fianna Fail need to be challenged not supported in government.

Bolivarian Revolution spreads to Europe.

It's not just Iceland.



http://www.rte.ie/news/2009/0130/wedgwood.html


and

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/90900

long may it continue! The starry plough (Banner of the Irish Citizen Army http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starry_Plough_(flag) ) is now being flown above Waterford Crystal!

In Britain we are all off work today cos of the snow...well we are in London, no buses, very few trains or underground...

BLACK IN IRAQ

Had this from Mumia, interesting article as usual.

BLACK IN IRAQ
[col. writ. 1/25/09] (c) '09 Mumia Abu-Jamal


Several days ago I read an interesting article in the paper on the tiny Black community in Basra, Iraq. The piece was basically a foreign take on the impacts of the Obama election, for Black Iraqis hoped this would signal better conditions for them in the land of their ancestors.

Black people are hardly new to Iraq.

Their present population stems from slave importations from over a thousand years ago, when the city of Basra, in Iraq's southern sliver, was the seat of Mesopotamia. Africans were kidnapped into bondage, and forced to work (I kid you not) in the region's salt mines.

In the early third of the seventh century (ca. 820 C. E.), Blacks staged a powerful rebellion, which forced the government to flee. This revolution, called "The Revolt of the Zenj" by Arab historians, lasted for over 20 years. This revolution was betrayed, and the rebels were slain and some put back into bondage.

The name "Revolt of the Zenj" is so named because Blacks from the southeast coast of Africa, called "Zenjabar" by the Arabs (later Zanzibar, and today a part of Tanzania) were captured by the millions and sold into slavery throughout the Arab world.

The hundreds of thousands of Black Iraqis today are among their descendants. As such, they live lives of discrimination, poor education, under-and-unemployment and poverty.

One Basra father explained his decision to remove his daughter from school because she was teased with the term abd (Arabic for slave) by her classmates.

The father said, "it is my wish that she will read and write, but I cannot let her have these...problems."

The Black Iraqi population numbers in the thousands, not the millions. But even after a millennia and a half in Iraq, they still sing ancient songs of a distant African memory.

(c) '09 maj

[Source: Madhani, AAmer, "Obama's Rise Inspires Arab Iraqis in Politics", USA Today, Jan. 19, 2009, 9A.; Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples (N.Y. ; Faber and Faber, 1991) ]
=======


The Power of Truth is Final -- Free Mumia!

Audio of most of Mumia's essays are at: http://www.prisonradio.org

PLEASE CONTACT:
International Concerned Family & Friends of MAJ
P.O. Box 19709
Philadelphia, PA 19143
Phone - 215-476-8812/ Fax - 215-476-6180
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Web - www.freemumia.com
AND OFFER YOUR SERVICES!

Send our brotha some LOVE and LIGHT at:
Mumia Abu-Jamal
AM 8335
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175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370

WE WHO BELIEVE IN FREEDOM CAN *NOT* REST!!

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[Check out Mumia's latest: *WE WANT FREEDOM:
A Life in the Black Panther Party*, from South
End Press (http://www.southendpress.org); Ph.
#1-800-533-8478.]

Pope welcomes homphobic hate priest back into Catholic Church

"Take another example of this grave disruption of nature in the U.S.A. today: the invasion of public life by gays and lesbians, men and women being "delivered up to shameful affections...changing the natural use into that which is against nature" (Rom. I, 26, 27), then flaunting their unnatural vice in public and being rewarded by the vile media with a blaze of publicity. And decent citizens seem unable to do much about it, partly no doubt because "in countries known as progressive and enlightened, we have created a senseless, filthy, abominable literature" (Pr. 14)

Is apparently a quotation from Bishop Richard Williamson, at least, according to a right wing website

Richard Williamson has recently been allowed back into the Catholic Church by the Pope, despite or because of such right wing, sentiments.

Williamson's support for holocaust deniers and extreme anti-semites has been chronicled extensively by the media.

Stop the War AGM

I am getting trapped by detailed research on the ITP, IHS, Richard Williamson, etc but still intend to get a post on this down today...while you are waiting here is some info from Joseph on Stop the War.



Dear all,

Stop the War have changed the date of their AGM. They are also keen to have
new offices and storage space. If anyone knows of anywhere, please get back
to me.

Cheers
Joseph Healy
STWC Delegate

Subject: New date for AGM

Dear affiliate/member,

We are writing to let you know that we are moving the date of the Stop the
War Coalition Annual General Meeting. Originally this was to have taken
place on 14/15 March, combining the AGM with more general discussions
around Afghanistan and the war on terror. Obviously, much has changed
since we planned that. The mass campaign in solidarity with Gaza has
resulted in four major London demonstrations, hundreds of local
demonstrations and events, many meetings and activities. The campaign is
continuing at a very high level.

In addition, we have to move offices between now and early March. We also
have major mobilisations for protests against the G20 on 2 April in
Strasbourg on 4 April.

In the circumstances, it has been very difficult for us to proceed with
organising the conference in a way which would ensure a full and informed
debate. We are therefore proposing a conference on Saturday 25 April in
London, which follows on from the mobilisations and from the Easter break.

We will shortly be sending out details for delegation to the conference,
submission of motions etc. We hope you will appreciate the need to make
this change.

Please note that to come to conference as an affiliate or member your
affliation or membership for 2009 must be up to date.

Best wishes,

Lindsey German
Convenor
Andrew Murray
Chair
on behalf of the officers of Stop the War Coalition