B.P. Demo - 29 September 2000

The joint all day demonstration by the Free Tibet Vigil, Free Tibet Campaign and the Tibet Society took place outside the B.P. Headquarters from 11.00 am to 8.30 pm on Friday 29 September 2000.
BP with its $580m investment is the largest foreign stakeholder in Petro China, which is constructing a pipeline from Sebei Amdo Tibet to Langhou, China - the pipeline will seriously upset the delicate ecological system as well as opening the gate for an even larger transfer of Han Chinese depleting the all ready small local Tibetan population.

We started at 11.00 am with 4 participants - Alison Reynolds of the Free Tibet Campaign and a representative of the Tibet Office delivered a letter giving the case to the Chairman of B.P. Throughout the day we had 25 demonstrators, 5 of which stayed all day. There were 6 from the Free Tibet Campaign, 1 from the Tibet Society, and 13 from the Tibet Vigil. In spite of our small numbers a great deal of interest was shown by the public with over 200 people signing our petition and expressing an interest in our dispute with BP and the position of Tibet in general all of which was partly helped by refreshments provided by BP in exchange for some flowers presented by two demonstrators the previous week.		  
   
There was a drastic change in tempo in the evening at about 6.00 pm, just after BP had provided us with tea and coffee. The Police informed us that over 100 cyclists were heading our way. Something, we of course, were completely unaware of, and when asked if it was going to be peaceful we replied that as far as we knew it would be.
 
At around 7.00 pm to the sound of distant bicycle bells and signs of Police readying themselves - a wave of cyclists and other wheeled vehicles descended on Finsbury Circus and with the "cyclists" to the rescue, bells ringing, horns blowing, us shouting "BP out of Petro China, Out of Tibet" and other slogans an avalanche of cyclists rode several laps passed BP in a show of solidarity with us.		  

 

With all this excitement the Vigil ended on a high note and hopefully we can expect a larger turnout for the vigil at BP on 11 October 2000.

Report by Patricia Fennessy


I don't think BP or the Police knew exactly what hit them.
"THANKS CRITICAL MASS."
It was interesting that there were 2 Police cars and 1 motorcycle and 2 Police officers on foot for 150 cyclists and 10 demonstrators as opposed to the 21 Police and 3 motorcycles for 30 demonstrators with flowers at the Chinese Embassy on 23 August - is BP not so important or do the City Police have a better sense of proportion than the D.P.G.
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