Reposted from the Eye
On the Amazon
Chevron continued its unprecedented campaign of attacking
its critics last week when I
was forcibly removed from a half-day conference I paid $75 to attend simply
because I was affiliated with Amazon Watch. The strangest part was the
excuse given for the outrageous step was that it was a preemptive act for
something they feared I might do.
In a flagrant violation of my right of association,
last Wednesday, the Oakland
Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce (OMCC) held an "Economic
Development Summit for Energy and Sustainability" sponsored by Chevron. As
an Oakland-based environmental organization it would seem to follow that Amazon
Watch would be a welcome participant at just such an event. However, the moment
my affiliation was made known I was told "Amazon Watch is not welcome
here." And security was called to remove me. Why exactly?
Of course, Amazon Watch has repeatedly spoken out against
Chevron attempts to greenwash itself of its Ecuador disaster. And so
apparently, when Amazon Watch tweeted that
we planned to attend a "sustainability summit" to ask why Chevron was
the primary sponsor (given their record) that was deemed justification to have
me forcibly removed. While at the conference I spoke to only one person in
attendance and when asked if I was planning to "hand out information"
I answered politely: "No. I am simply here to attend the conference and
listen to the presentations." So despite my assurances that I was doing
nothing more than attending, somehow the conference organizers deduced that I
was going to be "disruptive" and took "preemptive action".
I wonder if the OMCC thinks the national
news coverage and angry calls, emails and tweets they've received
since their outrageous acts were more "disturbing" than allowing me
to stand and listen at their conference.
Once ejected, I immediately called the office of Oakland's
mayor Jean Quan. The mayor had been a speaker at the conference less than an
hour before the incident. Her office did reach out to the OMCC on my behalf,
but they were "too busy" to answer the repeated calls. Perhaps they
were on the other line with Chevron at the time.
Later that day the OMCC issued what the mayor's office
referred to as an apology. It states:
"We're sorry to have asked a
paying attendee to leave, and have reimbursed the cost of his ticket. Previous
actions by Amazon Watch in other venues and their social-media messaging in
advance of our conference raised our concern that this attendee (an employee of
Amazon Watch) intended to be disruptive. We regret any misunderstanding on our
part."
Of course, that was a lie. Chevron and the OMCC were
determined to make sure Amazon Watch was not permitted to attend. The excuse
that they feared we were going to be disruptive is unacceptable. Nor was this
an isolated incident, but rather part of a growing
threat to environmental advocacy for corporate accountability.
Chevron is so scared of the truth that even having someone
in the room who might talk about their acts is a threat. Is it any wonder
they've spent hundreds of millions of dollars on greenwashing ads, fake
news websites, bribes and
retaliatory legal attacks?