As poverty deepens
Nigerian women take over Chevron Texaco
By Monica Moorehead
The quest for reparations by nationally oppressed peoples
worldwide takes many forms. But the basis for this fundamental
right is universal: just compensation to help bring about long
overdue economic and political rights. Bold, heroic actions
initiated by a group of African women in recent weeks must be
viewed within this context and will certainly inspire the most
oppressed everywhere to take similar actions as capitalist
greed allows the rich to get richer as the poor get poorer.
Hundreds of Nigerian women staged two separate dramatic
takeovers of a U.S.-owned Chevron Texaco oil subsidiary called
Escravos west of Lagos, Nigeria's capitol. Escravos is a former
slave pickup site, and the name itself means slave in
Portuguese. What a tragic irony.
This takeover included taking a couple of thousand employees
and managers hostage. In two separate takeovers, these indigent
women virtually brought oil production to a halt. This
subsidiary normally produces half a million barrels daily.
Nigeria as a whole produces 1.8 million barrels of oil a day,
creating billions in profits for Big Oil.
Why have these women risked their lives to carry out these
actions? They simply wanted to force a written agreement from
Chevron Texaco, a multibillion-dollar global conglomerate, that
it would provide their communities with electricity, schools,
water systems, health clinics and other infrastructure to raise
the level of their living standards. The women are also
demanding that jobs be provided, including to their unemployed
sons, and that pensions be provided for people over the age of
60.
The women protesters also decided to take these actions
because, when their male counterparts attempted similar
actions, they faced a greater risk of being arrested or
physically harmed by police.
This protest took place in the heart of the Niger Delta.
Like so much of the African continent, this region is super
abundant in natural resources--in this case oil--but super
underdeveloped because of the legacy of the trans-Atlantic
slave trade, colonialism and neocolonialism. It is considered
one of the poorest regions in Africa.
Any commodity production within the developing economies
exists mainly for export on the world capitalist market and not
to serve the interests of the indigenous population. For
instance, Nigeria is the world's sixth-largest exporter of oil
and the fifth-largest supplier of oil to the U.S.
'Why do they treat us like animals?'
The first stage of the takeover took place on July 8 when an
estimated 150 women took over four stations at the refinery.
One of the brilliant tactics the women used was to occupy the
aircraft runaway, helipad and dock at the facility. No roads
lead to this plant--only swamps and rivers. This technological
underdevelopment, rooted in imperialist plunder, is the root
cause of this protest.
An engineer among the hostages told Agence France-Presse
that the women "are complaining that their children have not
been given employment. They are not armed or violent. Most of
them are women over 45 and there is no way we would lay a
finger on them." The majority of the workers in this plant are
from the U.S., Canada and England. There are some Nigerian
workers as well.
This particular phase of the protest ended on July 17 when
protesters won a verbal agreement from Chevron Texaco that
their demands would be met.
Another takeover occurred on July 18 by women at four more
Chevron Texaco facilities, 50 miles east of the first protest.
Their demands were similar to the ones that inspired the first
takeover.
These women demanded that the Chevron officials visit their
village to see firsthand the unspeakable poverty they have been
forced to endure compared to the state-of-the-art hospital,
cafeteria, satellite television and other modern conveniences
provided for the Chevron employees.
Athonia Okuro, a 28-year-old protester, suffered the loss of
her husband from an unknown disease. Her children are
chronically sick from mosquito bites that are the main
transmission route of malaria. She commented, "I don't know how
[Chevron Texaco] can allow other human beings to live like
this. Why do they treat us like animals?" (Associated Press,
July 18)
The protesters also charged Chevron Texaco with
environmental damage, especially the destruction of fish and
cassava crops, both main staples of the Nigerian people, by the
flaring up of natural gas.
Anunu Uwawah, a leader of the first takeover, stated, "I
give one piece of advice to all women in all countries: they
shouldn't let any company cheat them." (Salon, July 19)
Reprinted from the Aug. 1, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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