October 29, 2008

On Bowoto v. Chevron

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chevron-protest-1-300x200.jpgThe long-awaited Bowoto v. Chevron trial opened this week in San Francisco federal court. The international human rights case—over what happened in 1998 to Nigerian villagers protesting the energy behemoth’s environmental impact—is rare for its use of the Alien Tort Claims Statute against a multinational corporation. To keep up with the trial, (expected to last into December), read this account of the first day, then keep an eye here for more good reporting on the case.

In these photos, Nigerians and “corporate accountability” activists protest in front of a Chevron station in San Francisco.

chevron-protest-3-300x200.jpg

Photos by Jin Zhu.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

The short of it: Last year, we had to cut $1 million from our budget so we could have any chance of breaking even by the time our fiscal year ended in June. And despite a huge rally from so many of you leading up to the deadline, we still came up a bit short on the whole. We can’t let that happen again. We have no wiggle room to begin with, and now we have a hole to dig out of.

Readers also told us to just give it to you straight when we need to ask for your support, and seeing how matter-of-factly explaining our inner workings, our challenges and finances, can bring more of you in has been a real silver lining. So our online membership lead, Brian, lays it all out for you in his personal, insider account (that literally puts his skin in the game!) of how urgent things are right now.

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