FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Contact: Linda Jacobs (415) 410-4484
ATTN: Daybook/News Desk
PHOTO OPS: Dramatizations (art and action) of Gulf Disaster
One Hundred Protests Nationwide Mark 100 Days of Gulf Disaster
Berkeley Protest to Gather at New UC/BP Facility
On Friday afternoon, July 30, a demonstration led by World Can’t Wait will mark the 100th day since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Activists, scientists, students, and community members will gather at the new BP (British Petroleum) “research” facility in Berkeley to speak out and visually dramatize their outrage over the Gulf disaster and BP’s arrival on the university campus.
EVENT: SPEAK OUT, COMMUNITY WITNESS, RALLY
WHEN: 5:30 PM, Friday July 30, 2010
WHERE: BP’s new $500 million “research” site (under construction)
Shattuck Avenue and Berkeley Way, just off University Avenue, Berkeley
Shattuck Avenue and Berkeley Way, just off University Avenue, Berkeley
ACTION: Speakers and audience members will display messages, facts, and artworks.
The color BLACK will symbolize the destruction-by-oil of ocean, human, and planetary life.
This event is one of 100 actions affiliated with the New Orleans-based Emergency Committee to Stop the Gulf Oil Disaster [http://www.stopgulfoildisaster.org] “because we’re not stopping until the well is sealed and the Gulf is healed!” Protesters in Berkeley are joining a nationwide movement demanding genuine solutions to the disaster in the Gulf.
“The exploded well may or may not be really capped—and this is NOT yet totally clear,” said World Can’t Wait’s Stephanie Tang in Berkeley today. “But either way, this oil disaster is far from over. The environment and the people, particularly along the Gulf coast, remain seriously threatened… A broad, determined, and powerful peoples’ response is needed, because as the Emergency Committee says: the government and British Petroleum have proven unable and unwilling to stop the disaster, protect the Gulf –or even tell the truth."
In 2007 despite protests from much of the University of California community, for just $500 million BP bought entry into UC’s prestigious academic and scientific resources. BP’s presence at Berkeley is seen by many commentators as a prime example of corporate encroachment into academia. Especially now in the aftermath of the Gulf oil spill, members of the UC and the wider Berkeley communities are again beginning to speak out, challenging the legitimacy of the UC-BP relationship. See for example Daily Californian 7/26/10 “Berkeley-BP Deal Only Looks Worse Post-Spill” by Miguel Altieri: http://www.dailycal.org/article/109882/berkeley-bp_deal_only_looks_worse_post-spill)