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The company behind the hangman

Nigeria is the largest oil producer in Africa, pumping more than two million barrels a day. Shell accounts for nearly half of this production.

Shell started to look for oil in Nigeria in 1938 and found it in 1953 in the country’s Niger River Delta (the Delta). Shell’s policy of divide and rule has been particularly disastrous in the Delta. The region has been in a persistent state of unrest since oil was discovered, with armed conflicts, including the horrendous Biafra war (1967-70), extreme poverty and ruthless exploitation of people and the environment.

A report, quoted in the International Herald Tribune 11 June 2004, concluded “that oil companies like Shell have worsened fighting in the Niger Delta through payments for land use, environmental damage, corruption of company employees and reliance on Nigerian security forces... With over 50 years of presence in Nigeria, it is reasonable to say that the Shell companies in Nigeria have become an integral part of the Niger Delta conflict”.

The authors confirm this picture in detail and reach the same conclusion as the Nigerian trade unions: “Shell is the enemy of the people”. The first demonstration against Shell in the Delta took place in 1990. Shell appealed for an anti-riot squad, who shot dead 80 people and damaged a large number of homes. This bloody event got publicity in the West and highlighted the struggle of the Ogoni people in the Delta.

This struggle was met with brutal repression, including the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other members of his Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) in 1995. Shell was seen as being behind the hangman in 1995 and ever since the company has correctly been regarded as the real and ugly face of capitalism.