9th May 2000 : Balfour Beatty Gets Shut Down

There was so many Group 4 security staff present I reckon there must have only been about 2 warden's left working throughout the entire prison service. I am convinced a mass jailbreak was possible Tuesday, as all of Group 4 seemed to be protecting the fat and immoral arses of Lord Weir and the rest of the Balfour Beatty board. But the great thing about buying a share in the company is they have to let you in. Which explains why nearly 50 supporters of the Ilisu Dam Campaign mingled with the bankers, fund managers and Kingsley Amis lookalikes, handing out leaflets to bemused shareholders.

As the AGM was about to start, with Group 4 surrounding the room like prefects at a school assembly, the board took to the stage. Before they could sit down 15 people lined up at the back of the room facing the board, each with a t-shirt with one letter printed on it, spelling out "STOP THE ILISU DAM." Cheers and applause filled the room from the supporters and in fact several other shareholders joined in, not quite realising why they were, nodding and clapping approval like they were watching a cricket match.

Lord Weir who was chairing the meeting looked mildly exasperated. It was an expression we were to see used to it's full range throughout the proceedings, especially when he was quizzed about why the board had allowed the company to be embroiled in a controversial project, mired in blood, like Ilisu.

The AGM was always going to be slightly surreal. I sat opposite Lord Avebury (the most consistent and verciferous human rights campaigner in Parliament) and in front of a Big Issue seller called Giles, who had come to express his disgust at the company making Kurds homeless. In front of me sat a man who could frown only in the way that people born and breed in certain parts of Sussex can and whose sole vocal expression was "Tut!"

Questions on the Ilisu Dam Project were promised to be heard by Balfour Beatty. Several Kurds stood and passionately explained how they had lost relatives, victims of Turkish militarism and ethnic cleansing, asking why were Balfour Beatty working with a torturing state? Only to be dismissed with the corporate mantra of "It's not up to us, you should speak to the government." As the question of human rights in SouthEast Turkey/Kurdistan is raised 40 supporters stood holding up pictures of torture victims. One shareholder looked at a picture of Turkish soldiers holding severed human heads like trophies and said" These are probably faked you know, itıs easy enough to mock up pictures like this."

Lord Weir looked on at the scene of environmentalists, human rights campaigners, Parliamentarians, Big Issue sellers and Kurds holding these pictures and promptly declared questions on Ilisu over. Suddenly, angry campaigners were all over the room, standing on chairs, trying to get the Board to just look at the photos we had, others rushed towards the Boardıs platform demanding the company account for their actions. Group 4 started to earn their fee, Lord Weir shouted he was suspending the meeting and the Board fleed the platform amidst catcalls. And we suddenly realised, as Balfour Beatty still had items on its agenda for the meeting; we had just shut the AGM down.

So what did we achieve? We received more coverage for the campaign, which is good. Several shareholders we talked to were shocked that Balfour Beatty are involved in the dam and wanted to find out more, which is really nice. And most importantly a group of people ranging from Kurds to Lords worked together to make sure that the company know one fact for sure. This is just the beginning!

P.S. My moment of symapthy came when holding the microphone I stated to the board " The Lesotho court case, where Balfour Beatty stand accused of bribery and corruption, opened earlier this month. The Ilisu Dam will only attract more adverse publicity. If the share price does go down, as I have done a number of charity fund raising benefits in the past, I would be only too happy to do a benefit concert for the board." I'm not sure they appreciated my offer.