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ACCORDING TO LIZ - Netanyahu and his Israeli military forces are escalating the genocide of the Palestinian people and the laying waste of Gaza’s infrastructure.
Chevron, the international oil and gas giant, is helping power these actions.
On Wednesday, May 21, people around the world are mobilizing for Anti-Chevron Day to denounce the multinational’s complicity, and demand Chevron stop fueling this genocide.
The date was specifically chosen to raise awareness and anger a week prior to Chevron's annual shareholder meeting, where investors will vote on a proposal requiring the company to audit its worldwide human rights abuses.
Although supporting massacre and devastation may currently be a profitable line item, Chevron only entered the Israeli market in 2020. Without decades-long embedded infrastructure investment, the loss of which would spook shareholders, massive worldwide pressure can and should leverage their divestment from this ugly side-hustle.
One of the forces behind the coordinated protest next Wednesday is the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the Quaker-founded non-profit which has reached far beyond its religious roots to champion peace and social justice causes around the world for more than a century. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for relief efforts in the wake of World War Two, it was also invited by the United Nations to aid relief efforts for Palestinians displaced by the creation of Israel. Yup. Almost 80 years ago.
Their seminal pamphlet, Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence, in 1955 helped lay the groundwork for Martin Luther King, Jr.’s rise in the Civil Rights movement and the widespread swell of opposition to the Vietnam War and, later, the human carnage caused by wars of aggression in Afghanistan and Iraq. The AFSC stands against the prison-industrial complex and for all racially and economically disenfranchised Americans.
Another is the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, villainized by the present and previous US administrations in their efforts to curry favor with the Israeli despot and his American millionaire mafia skilled at buying the votes necessary to quash freedom of expression. BDS has, however, proven successful internationally through “strategically targeting objectives at the intersection of maximum impact and winnability”.
Now both activist groups have joined with the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights and other like organizations, global and domestic, to focus attention on Chevron’s complicity in the murderous actions of the Netanyahu government and its destruction of homes, hospitals, places of worship, schools, and infrastructure in Gaza and, to a lesser extent, on the West Bank.
Five ways anyone can help are:
- BOYCOTT & PICKET: Consumers can boycott Chevron stations and auto stores/big box retailers that sell Chevron-branded products including Delo, Havoline, ISOCLEAN, Techron, Meropa, Rando, Taro, Techron, Ursa, and VARTECH. Ask others to respect or join picketers. Put lawn signs out and window signs up. Carry picketing signs in areas of high visibility.
- DIVEST: Start a campaign calling on the City Council, colleges and universities, unions and churches, job fairs and events to divest from Chevron and/or specifically exclude it from contracts.
- DROP SPONSORSHIPS: Organize a sign-on letter, e-mail campaign, and/or pressure campaign calling on community activities and sports venues to end existing Chevron sponsorships and partnerships.
- MOBILIZE: Do a banner drop or organize a protest at a Chevron location.
- EDUCATE: Write op-eds and letters to the editor. Talk to friends and family. Host an educational event on Chevron’s deadly contributions to environmental, social and political injustices. Reach out to franchise owners and operators to ask them to escalate consumer concerns about the company’s support for the genocide in Gaza to Chevron management.
You won’t be alone. Anyone who wants to get involved can find suggestions, toolkits, and other resources on the Boycott Chevron page.
SoCal opportunities abound, given its massive Big Oil infrastructure – pumping operations and refineries, shipping, offices, consumer gas stations, high-visibility corporate sponsorships – interlocked with Angelenos’ propensity towards activism born of long-term abuses of labor and minorities.
If you don’t have the drive to organize, seek out opportunities with existing organizations.
Chevron funneled over $462 million in tax revenue to Israeli government coffers through the acquisition of Noble Energy, an Israeli gas extraction company. That money helps fuel the bombardment of 92% of homes in Gaza and the violent displacement of Palestinians.
Chevron gas fuels nearly 50% of Israel’s electricity grid, which includes Israeli military bases, prisons, and settlements. Chevron’s gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea play a key role in keeping Israel’s genocide machine running.
It is your fight, too.
Chevron has a long history of environmental ruination, harming people and the planet from Ecuador to Richmond in California.
The intensity of escalating climate collapse around the world is connected to rising fossil fuel emissions. The LA fires have burned over 12,000 homes to the ground, including razing the majority Black and people of color community of Altadena to the ground.
Chevron is a partner of professional men's soccer team Los Angeles FC, and a founding sponsor of the Manhattan Wine Auction.
The AFSC has categorized Chevron locations by type (i.e. gas station, corporate offices, refineries, etc.).
The Palestinian people’s lives and future are on the line. No step towards liberation is too small.
If people here don’t take a stand now, who will for them when the plutocracy on high spreads like the infectious disease it is – one that has jumped from the boardroom to the government.
When California is sectioned into enclaves and a militarized police force let loose on anyone with whom the leadership disagrees.
The American Friends Service Committee mission and goals.
The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights.
- Amplify this message by posting on your social media and sending it to your friends and contacts.
- Follow the @boycott_chevron page on Instagram.
- Sign the petition: Tell Chevron CEO Mike Wirth You’re Boycotting Chevron.
- Read the case study of South by Southwest for an example of a sponsorships campaign.
- Put up stickers and posters around Chevron locations to raise awareness of their crimes.
(Liz Amsden is a former Angeleno who now resides in Vermont and is a regular contributor to CityWatch on issues that she is passionate about. She can be reached at [email protected].)
