News & events
(Event) STOP SHELL DESTROYING MARINE LIFE OFF THE WILD COAST, SOUTH AFRICA!
Picket Shell’s London HQ
2pm-4pm Saturday 4th December
Meet Jubilee Park and Garden, Belvedere Road, South Bank (near Waterloo)
Organised by the Marikana Solidarity Collective. Sponsored by Anti-Imperialists for Global Justice, Women of Colour – Global Women’s Strike, and others
Read the full pamphlet here: 4 Dec Leaflet Final.pdf
Call from Amadiba Crisis Committee, South Africa
“Only a month after the climate crisis conference in Glasgow, multinational Shell will explore the seabed in the ocean along the Wild Coast trying to find oil and gas. As a part of ‘Operation Phakisa’, Shell’s project has been allowed by our government, as if the threat of global heating from burning more and more fossil fuels doesn’t exist.
The high noise blasting of sonar canons under water for ‘seismic testing’ is a direct threat to whales, dolphins, our famous king fish and all kinds of marine life. It is also a threat against the livelihood of communities along the Wild Coast and in KZN that use the riches of the sea to put food on the table and to get an income. This is our ‘Ocean’s Economy’. It is about food, not about mining the ocean to make profit for the minority rich who think you can eat money.
Aside of the risk for future oil spill into the sea — if Shell really finds oil and gas — drilling in the seabed threatens to bring a host of toxic substances into the water, like mercury, lead, arsenic and barium. These toxins are devastating for the health of fish and ocean wildlife as well as all who live on the coast, like we do in Amadiba. But the lives of indigenous people are now under threat as well as the jobs of fishermen. The ocean is not only a part of our local economy. It is also a part of our spiritual life.
For over two decades, the coastal Amadiba community has fought against opencast mining on our land. Now we also must fight against mining of the ocean. Indigenous people along the whole coast of Africa must have the right to say no to projects that threatens their livelihood: the right to Free Prior and Informed Consent.
We call upon the South African government to acknowledge the climate crisis. More and more expansion of the fossil fuel economy is not the solution to the economic crisis. You cannot bring about the economic recovery by threatening our livelihoods and the ecology of the ocean. You cannot solve one problem by creating a new problem. Put the lives of people before profits. Withdraw the license given to Shell for preparing mining in the ocean…Global warming and destruction of our life environment affect us all.”
#PHANTSIEXTRACTIVISMPHANTSI!
– On Sunday 5 December, the people of Amadiba will march along the Wild Coast to demand the Shell Project is scrapped. Our picket is in solidarity with them and other communities.
– Shell can go to hell: Petition against Wild Coast shale gas exploration grows. Within days of its launch, “more than 87,000 people had signed a petition by the Oceans Not Oil coalition calling for an end to planned intense airgun blasts by Shell to probe for oil and gas off the Eastern Cape coast.” Daily Maverick 15 November 2021
This is one of many working peoples’ struggles round the world to stop fossil fuel multinationals destroying Mother Earth, for example the fight to stop Exxon’s Stabroek field off Guyana’s coast.
We have just started this campaign, which will not end until Shell and their partners are forced to stop and the South African government closes the project. Email: mambushlives@gmail.com