A good old demonstration can do wonders for your morale and the company’s way-too-polished profile. Here are a few pointers; • Ensure the companies are mentioned by name in banners and placards. • Tag your photos with “Kosmos Energy”, “Cairn Energy”, “Glencore”, “Total” and “San Leon” on Instagram and Facebook. • Email photos and information about the protest to Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) so that we can help you to publicize it. • Try to get local media interested in your protest. • Link your protests to the latest available news on the companies’ involvement. Check WSRW’s website for recent updates. • Where to protest? o In front of the companies’ headquarters and offices worldwide. A list is included in the annex. o At the Annual General Meetings of the companies
CHECK IF YOUR BANK OR PENSION FUND ARE INVESTING IN BLOOD OIL
Find out if your bank or pension fund is a shareholder of one or more of the companies involved in the oil exploration in occupied Western Sahara. Book a meeting with them to explain why you, their client, find that inacceptable. Ask your bank or pension fund to raise the matter with the companies, and ask them to divest.
Alternatively, if you are able to buy a share in any of the involved companies, you could get in touch with the companies yourself, or attend their Annual General Meetings, in the capacity of a shareholder. They might be more responsive that way.
Morocco occupies the major part of its neighbouring country, Western Sahara. Entering into business deals with Moroccan companies or authorities in the occupied territories gives an impression of political legitimacy to the occupation. It also gives job opportunities to Moroccan settlers and income to the Moroccan government. Western Sahara Resource Watch demands foreign companies leave Western Sahara until a solution to the conflict is found.
It's not easy keeping up with all the different legal proceedings relating to Western Sahara. For the sake of clarity, here's an overview of the five different cases at the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Leading activists from Western Sahara are condemned to sentences ranging from 20 years to life imprisonment in connection to a mass protest in 2010 denouncing the Saharawi people’s social and economic marginalization in their occupied land; the Gdeim Izik protest camp.
At COP22, beware of what you read about Morocco’s renewable energy efforts. An increasing part of the projects take place in the occupied territory of Western Sahara and is used for mineral plunder, new WSRW report documents.
