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Shut Down Chevron Texaco World Headquarters! Mass Nonviolent Civil Disobedience and Support Rally
Monday April 14, 2003
Bollinger
Canyon Road at Sunset (Immediately East of Hwy 680) Everyone Welcome For BART, driving directions
and more information, go to Demands No Stolen Iraqi Crude refined in Richmond. End the Chemical Assault on Richmond and compensate the communities suffering health, economic and environmental injustice. Publicly denounce the War against Iraq. Use ChevronTexaco's intimate ties to the administration to demand an end to the brutality and full withdrawl. For more information, contact:
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No War on Iraq and No Toxic War on Our Communities! ChevronTexaco: Toxic Terrorists and War Profiteers "Iraq
possesses huge reserves of oil and gas - reserves I'd love With former Chevron Director, Condoleezza Rice, as National Security Advisor, ChevronTexaco will have access to Iraqi reserves if we don't stop the war. Much of that crude will get processed in Richmond, where communities of color are subject to daily assault of toxins from the ChevronTexaco refinery, the biggest polluter in Richmond. On Monday April 14th, instead of going to work or school, increase the resistance to stop this war by participating in or supporting mass nonviolent direct action in any way possible. Prepare now and clear your calendar: form an affinity group and participate in a nonviolent direct action training. BACKGROUND TOXIC TERRORISM IN RICHMOND, CA The ChevronTexaco refinery in Richmond spews a deadly array of toxins into the air, water, and land, including dioxins, on the largely African American, South East Asian and Latino communities. Since 1999, there has been a 20% increase in toxic emissions in Richmond and most of the increase can be attributed to the Chevron Refinery, the largest polluter in the city, according to the Environmental Protection Agency Toxic Release Inventory for 2002. The Refinery and plant have had hundreds of accidents, including major fires, spills, leaks, explosions, toxic gas releases, flaring and air contaminations. These operations have inflicted severe injuries and illnesses, including asthma and deadly cancers, on the people of Richmond. WAR ON COMMUNITIES AROUND THE WORLD Between 1971 and 1991, Texaco extracted more than 1.5 billion barrels of oil from the Ecuadorian Amazon. In order to save millions of dollars, Texaco simply dumped the toxic wastes from its operations into the pristine rivers, forest streams and wetlands, ignoring industry standards. Texaco's oil operations devastated one of the most biologically fragile places on earth. 2.5 million acres of rainforest were lost; Oil spills equivalent to 2 Exxon Valdez disasters have contaminated the land and water; and the company recklessly dumped 20 billion gallons of highly toxic wastewater into streams and rivers. Since the merger of Chevron and Texaco, the new company has denied the rights of the effected people of Ecuador's right to compensation. And without having dealt with their toxic legacy, ChevronTexaco is trying to get back into Ecuador. Over nearly 40 years of operations in Nigeria, ChevronTexaco has propped up military regimes and military forces, flared billions of cubic feet of natural gas, instead of re-injecting it and has widened canals in the Niger Delta, resulting in salination of fresh water. Frequent oil spills, combined with the acid rain from flaring and the dumping of toxic drilling waters into rivers has severely depleted fish stocks, which the people of the delta rely on. When people protest to demand clean up and compensation, ChevronTexaco doesn't hesitate to call the dreaded mobile police or the military, which violently serve the company interests. WAR PROFITEERING ChevronTexaco refinery has been processing crude oil from Iraq, which it only recently halted due to concerns over "stability." In 2002, the company loaded 44 million gallons of Iraqi crude, through the corrupt 'Oil for Food' program, which has failed to adequately address the humanitarian crisis in Iraq caused by over a decade of sanctions and bombing. The 'Oil for Food' program has, however, resulted in profitable contracts for multi-national corporations, including ChevronTexaco, ExxonMobil and Cheney's own, Halliburton. According to ChevronTexaco's own spokesman, "We still have an interest in Iraqi crude." Former CEO, Ken Derr said it best when he said, "Iraq possesses huge reserves of oil and gas - reserves I'd love Chevron to have access to." National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, a driving force behind the Oil War in Iraq is a former Director of Chevron and continues to maintain close ties with the company. If we don't stop this war, stolen Iraqi crude will be toxicly processed in Richmond. Toxic Terrorism in Richmond and War Profiteering in Iraq leads to big bucks for big oil, right here in the Bay Area. Our Goals: 1) If the government and corporate war makers won't stop the war, we'll shut down the operations! We will raise the economic, social and political costs of waging this war, and continue to stop business as usual until the war stops. We are publicly declaring and organizing mass nonviolent direct action now with the express intention of stopping this war against Iraq and future wars. 2) Assert our power to transform our cities and towns from profits, oil and war to resistance and life! We will create open, welcoming, inspiring actions that gives voice to the anti-war majority as an assertion of real democracy. 3) Uproot the system behind the war and behind the war at home (racism, poverty, environmental injustice, corporate globalization...); Help catalyze mass movements to challenge corporate and government power and create socially just, directly democratic, ecological, peaceful alternatives. |