Last week Anita Roddick wrote to the Financial Times demanding that Shell condemn the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa: "What power can stop it?" she asked "Shell can stop it".
The PR team at Shell must be tearing out their hair. Only days after the Brent Spar dumping had disap peared from the headlines the company's misdeeds are again at the centre of world attention. After what John Major called the "judicial killing" of nine minority rights activists in Nigeria the company is once again in the firing line.
Despite its disclaimers, Shell can only make its profits by the closest cooperation with the military regime. Its work inevitably means joint ventures with the government, especially the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Just as imporcantly, the government provides a repressive apparatus with which to suppress opposition to its activities.
Money from oil makes up 80 per cent of the federal government's total revenue and 90 per cent of Nigeria's foreign exchange earings. This is why the opposition in Nigeria sees their struggle as one against both the government and the big companies.
Compensation
One of Ken Saro-Wiwa's most important demands was for Shell to pay $10billion compensation to the people of the Ogoni region for their destructive exploitation of the area's natural resources.
The Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) was a challenge to the partnership of Shell with the federal government.
it combined the campaigns around environmental issues with self-determination: "the two things must go hand in hand" said SaroWiwa before his execution, "we've pren tishung for te cavitonment for a long time. Nobody listened, be. cause the environment was not a serious issue with anybody except those who were suffering. But when we made it a political case, ah, then that began to draw some attention".
The governmental backlash to the campaign was accompanied by violent raids on villages and the imposition of a special task force in the rexion. it culminaico in the caccutions.
Shell is directly implicated. The executed were all campaigning for a bigger share of the oil revenue, along ship of the oil beneath the land.
There is a long and brutal history and the military dictatorship. in the repression of struggles by the Ogoni people.
Unlike the other oil companies. such as Mobil and Chevron, Shell's production is based on land rather thap offshore. It operates 86 flowstations and 6200 pipelines in 31,000 square kilometres of the Niger delta. It has far more stake in keeping the •goverment friendly. Socialist Outlook, PO Box 1109 Shell's power actually increaseswhen regimes like Nigeria's go into crisis; the more vulnerable the leaders are, the more sway Shell has. Weakness means freedom to make profit.
The directors of Shell understand how Nigeria's economy depends on its natural resources. They are the mainstay of Abacha's position. Money from oil multi-nationals such as Shell, Elf and Agip keeps the military govemment in place.
The company accepts that it has caused some environmental problems, but that "these do not add up to devastation" it says.
Spillages
Greenpeace research shows that Shell spilt 1.6million gallons of oil in the delta region berween 1982-1992 - 40 per cent of its spills worldwide. The Times carried a better description of the environmental impact of the massive exploitation of the Niger dena. # looks like a tropical pare dise halfway through the apocalypse".
The Shell Development Company, part of the Royal Dutch Shell Group, has been in Nigeria for over Dictators in solidarity: Zaire's despol Mobutu Nigerian butcher General Sani Abacha 50 years. The 300,000 barrels of oil it pumps out of the country every day is 14 per cent of its worldwide production of crude oil, and half of the country's outpur.
In the mega-buck world of international capitalism Shell's profits are quite modest - a mere half a million dollars every day - but its commitment is long-term.
There is therefore, a world of difference between stopping the Brent Spar dumping and getting Shell to disengage from its destructive activiGreenpeace achieved a dramatic and inspiring victory in the Atlantic. But it was on a different scale to that needed to force Shell to back away interests.
As the Financial Times puts it "investment in Nigeria renresents an sm portant long-term commitment which can be clearly distinguished from the - probably short-term - fufore over executions".
Shell was prepared to put up with the opprobrium of the world in continuous investment in South Africa throughout the days of apartheid.
The future output from the proNa 20U. " 1995. All rights reserved. Printed by Newsfax International L plant in Nigeria has. for example. already been pre-sold to European utilities, even though it will not start flowing until 2000, and investor's dividends will not appear until 2007.
The preparatory technical appraisals alone have cost S500million. Four specialist ships have already been bought to take the fuel to Burope.
"Ethical consumption" has been an important movement in the last ten years. It expresses a deep seated bostility, especially by young people, at the activities of multi-national corporations.
Barclay's links with the apartheid regime in South Africa were the first significant target of consumer boycott - mainly organised through student unions.
Other important battles centered around Nestle's formula baby milk and the campaign for compensation Yet in all years of boycott Barclays Bank was affected little by students using different cheque books. Not so with Greenpeace and the Brent Spar - direct action had direct Weeks It took only weeks for the Greenpeace campaign against the proposal to dumpine brentspar ol strake buay in the Atlantic to make Shell back down.
Not only did the campaign score an immediate success, but - with the help of new technology - pictures of the protest were relayed all around the world.
Political protest, such as the picketing of Shell stations, remains the most effective way forward. The Lanot leave the fight to environmentalists and a small handful of supporters, but must build the campaign for a boycott of Shell and of all trade with the Nigerian junta.