_____________________________

Charles Steele

SCLC Leads National Boycott Against Oil Prices

By Gordon Jackson
Special to the NNPA from the Dallas Examiner

   DALLAS (NNPA)—Protesters, which included both national and local officers from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, joined forces with environmentalists and even some shareholders, lambasting oil giant ExxonMobil, along with other major oil companies, and demanding action that would help to reverse the skyrocketing gas prices crippling many Americans.
Bearing picket signs, the national SCLC led a protest outside ExxonMobil’s annual shareholders meeting, held May 28 at the Morton Meyerson Symphony Center. The organization came to Dallas to launch a direct action campaign and announce their rolling boycott of the top five oil companies started in May.
    ExxonMobil is the first station under SCLC’s boycott, to end June 12. The boycott will then “roll” on the 12th of each month to Shell, British Petroleum, Chevron and Phillips 66.
   “It’s not about the profit anymore—it’s the people,” said Derrick Bowman, president of the SCLC Dallas chapter.
“We’re [expecting] that by the end of the year, there’s a 25 percent price decrease. We’re here to join forces with the environmentalist groups to let ExxonMobil know, from an organization standpoint, that enough is enough.”
SCLC national president Charles Steele considers the gas crisis a definite civil rights issue and said his organization is exercising a moral responsibility to call for the boycott.
    Rev. Charles Stovall, pastor of Munger Place United Methodist Church and former SCLC state director, cited incidents where facilities run by ExxonMobil and other oil companies are, in neglect, emitting toxic chemicals that have caused serious diseases among citizens in mostly minority and low-income neighborhoods where the plants are closely located. It’s a matter of those major companies truly practicing Christian values and social principles, he said.

Posted June 4, 2008

  “I’m here because I’m a Christian, a concerned citizen and a man of conscience,” Stovall said.
   “It is simply immoral that everyday Americans face a gas crisis that is literally destroying homes while a company like ExxonMobil makes nearly $10 billion in profits during the first quarter alone,” Steele said. “The only way that gas prices are going to be brought down is if Americans take a stand and break the stifling silence of acceptance.
   “Enough is enough!”
    Civil rights activist Peter Johnson also called for oil companies to end “overt environmental racism.”
   “I’m with the voices against exploitation of American citizens with the price of oil and gas and also against our sacred earth,” Johnson said.
    Via a press release, Rex Tillerson, ExxonMobil chairman and CEO, said his company is consciously aware of all the issues plaguing the community.
   “Energy security, economic growth and environmental impacts are increasingly on the minds of people today,” Tillerson said. “We’re focused on safely and reliably meeting the growing energy demand while working to reduce our impact on the environment.”
    Steele added that the SCLC’s direct action campaign will include demonstrations at various oil companies, working with politicians to hold congressional hearings and other strategies.

Click Here to Subscribe to the New Journal and Guide.