Shell recruitment event disrupted in Oxford [+ video]

21.10.2009
Shel­l’s annu­al grad­u­ate recruit­ment event aimed at schmooz­ing Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents was dis­rupt­ed by local activists tonight who heck­led, switched off dis­plays and audio equip­ment, gave an alter­na­tive speech and chat­ted to the stu­dents.

21.10.2009
Shel­l’s annu­al grad­u­ate recruit­ment event aimed at schmooz­ing Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty stu­dents was dis­rupt­ed by local activists tonight who heck­led, switched off dis­plays and audio equip­ment, gave an alter­na­tive speech and chat­ted to the stu­dents.

Less than a week after BP’s recruit­ment event at the same venue got sim­i­lar treat­ment, a last-minute gath­er­ing of folks from Thames Val­ley Cli­mate Action made sure that Shel­l’s PR gloss did not go unchal­lenged either.

Just like all oil com­pa­nies, Shell are not only destroy­ing all our futures by fuelling cli­mate change, they also destroy com­mu­ni­ties on a local lev­el, from the Tar Sands of Alber­ta, Cana­da, to Ross­port, Ire­land, Nige­ria and beyond. Our action was in sol­i­dar­i­ty with all those affect­ed by Shel­l’s oper­a­tions, mind­ful of the much greater risks and repres­sions they face.

While their pre­sen­ta­tion was inter­rupt­ed by an alter­na­tive speech, the PA sys­tem was being unplugged and shiny dis­plays turned off to lev­el the play­ing field a lit­tle. At this point a cou­ple of us were dragged out by the heav­ies, mak­ing sure that every­one was loud­ly aware of why we were there in the process.

But with only a cou­ple of secu­ri­ty guards busy keep­ing an eye on the rest of the room, no-one was guard­ing the hotel door, and we were able to go straight back in for anoth­er round of rant­i­ng. Ooops; bit of an over­sight on their part! Dragged out again, this time even more grumpi­ly, and my friend was petu­lant­ly kneed in the leg on the way out just for the sake of it. Won­der what they were so pissed off about? 🙂

I don’t know the details of what hap­pened next, but there were plen­ty of activists still in the room so I’m sure Shell were even fur­ther embar­rassed. Hope­ful­ly more reports will be post­ed soon, prob­a­bly with pho­tos and videos too.

http://blip.tv/play/njSBrORbAg

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TVCA — http://tvca.ox4.org/
Recent action at BP event — http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/23240
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Cor­po­rate Watch pro­file of Shell — http://www.corporatewatch.org/?lid=305
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Tar Sands Watch — http://www.tarsandswatch.org/
Indige­nous Envi­ron­men­tal Net­work — http://www.ienearth.org/
Dirty Oil Sands — http://dirtyoilsands.org/
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Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp — http://www.rossportsolidaritycamp.110mb.com/
Shell To Sea — http://www.shelltosea.com/
Recent Ross­port action — http://earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/23272