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summer of heat
NYC Protesters Target AIG Over East African Crude Oil Pipeline
EACOP is set to run nearly 900 miles from Uganda's Lake Albert oilfields to the port of Tanga in Tanzania. Rights groups have sounded the alarm about how the project has devastated the lives and livelihoods of people in its path as well as violence endured by African activists, who have been "kidnapped, arbitrarily arrested, detained, or subjected to different forms of harassment."
Ugandan climate activist Hillary Taylor Seguya declared Friday that "EACOP is a carbon bomb being built in my backyard."
"Thousands of communities in Uganda are being displaced because of corporate greed," added the campaigner, who is affiliated with StopEACOP. "Today, as Ugandans, as Tanzanians, as Africans, we want to be loud and clear that we shall not allow any pipeline to put oil in our backyards."
Friday's demonstration targeting AIG's office in New York City was organized by activists from the Ugandan diaspora and groups including 350.org, the Black Hive, and Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM).
"I am here to ask AIG to refuse to insure EACOP, and to insure our future instead," said Joseph Senyonjo, a Ugandan diaspora activist. "AIG is one of the biggest insurance companies in the world, and they still haven't ruled out insuring EACOP. So we are here to say: We don't want carbon bombs, we don't want fossil fuels. We want renewable energy. Insure our futures instead."
Protesters held signs and banners with messaging that included: "AIG = Climate Crimes," "Protect Our Land," "People Not Profits," "Stop Funding Our Destruction," "Stop Insuring Climate Chaos," and "The People Say: Stop EACOP!"
Demonstrators hold banner that says, "Global South Diaspora for Reparations + Repair," while protesting AIG and EACOP in New York City on July 26, 2024. (Photo: 350.org)
"From the pipeline's path in East Africa, to the corporate offices here, to our government institutions, we need to make our message clear: Stop EACOP!" said Evan Bell of 350 Mass. "I am willing to do what it takes to make sure AIG does not insure EACOP."
Bell noted that he is afraid of the New York Police Department, "especially after their brutal response to campus protesters peacefully demonstrating for an end to genocide in Gaza."
"But I am more afraid of runaway climate change," he added. "I'm more concerned about the current human rights abuses in Uganda and Tanzania. But we are more determined than we are scared."
Molly Ornati of 350 Brooklyn emphasized that "the EACOP pipeline is a doubly destructive disaster—for the people of Uganda and Tanzania, and the planet. The construction of the 900-mile pipeline will disrupt and destroy the homes, land, and livelihood of 100,000 people along the route, as well as the surrounding water and ecosystems."
"Once built, it will be a carbon bomb for humanity," Ornati warned. "In the climate crisis there are no borders, and we are a global movement, united in support of frontline communities, fighting to stop the greed of fossil fuel finance."
DRUM's Mohiba Ahmed delivered a similar message of unity, saying that "we add our communities' voices to the growing international demand 'Stop EACOP!' because we know that our struggles are one and interconnected."
"Our peoples in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Guyana, and Trinidad are similarly harmed by foreign domination, imperialism, and capitalist projects that reduce our lives to investments, profit margins, and coins," she stressed.
"Our people and homelands contribute the least to the human-caused climate crisis but disproportionately suffer the most," she added, "and that is why we will continue to stand in solidarity and fight together with our African comrades to stop EACOP, to stop the plunder of our homelands, to stop the displacement of our peoples, and to stop imperialist climate destruction."
Opponents of EACOP block AIG's office with a banner in New York City on July 26, 2024. (Photo: 350.org)
Beth Yirga of the Black Hive—part of the Movement for Black Lives—highlighted the frontline resistance to the pipeline, declaring that "we stand with Ugandans and Tanzanians, whose bravery and stories of resistance to stop EACOP are inspiring."
"The climate crisis we are facing exacerbates the oppressive systems designed to extract the most from our planet and global majority community, and unites us that are most impacted," she said. "From Cancer Alley on the riverbanks of the Mississippi River to the lead in Flint, Michigan's water, to the attempts of crude oil extraction in Western Uganda, to the ongoing cobalt mining crisis in Congo, the destructive practices of environmental racism on Black communities is collectively held and felt across the world."
"As we fight to stop climate injustices globally," Yirga added, "we also collaborate to imagine and build a world free of the capitalistic pillaging of Mother Earth."
My Arrest at a NYC Insurance Protest—Why I Traveled from Texas to Fight Climate Injustice
Insurers like Chubb have an integral role in securing a livable future. Everything oil and gas companies do needs insurance. Without insurance new projects would be all but impossible to build. We’ve repeatedly invited Chubb, AIG, and other insurers to our communities to show them the harm these projects are causing. We’ve shown them the documents—the explosions, shutdowns, and emission flarings—and have been met with silence, patronizing promises, or feet dragging.
Unified, determined, and honestly pissed off, over 200 of us marched down 6th Avenue to Chubb’s office. There I linked arms with fellow community members, two of whom were also from Corpus Christi and occupied the lobby. Originally, I was going to leave the group once the NYPD started to warn that they would begin arrests if we didn’t disperse. But as I sat there, I thought about the community that I love back home. I thought about the many heartbreaking conversations I’ve had with community members who are suffering the consequences of living so close to dozens of different poisonous facilities and having no direct avenue to holding the industry or those who insure it accountable.
I knew that this was my opportunity to use my body to demand justice on behalf of those who couldn’t be there with us in person. I was really scared, but I heard the chants outside coming from hundreds of my fellow Gulf South residents and I felt my good friends squeeze my hand tighter, letting me know that I wasn’t alone. I knew there was no other place on Earth that I’d rather be than in that lobby and that I would proudly give up a few hours of freedom if it meant contributing to bending the long arc of history toward justice.
Frontline activists, including the author (second from right) locking arms inside the Chubb headquarters during the direct action on June 26, 2024. (Photo Credit: Toben Dilworth/Rainforest Action Network)
As the arresting officer placed my hands behind my back and tightly zip-tied my hands together, I thought about the cruel irony inherent in arresting people who are working to protect our communities while those enabling the poisoning of our air and water are allowed to continue business as usual in their offices above us. It’s an apt encapsulation of the environmental and economic injustice we experience every day.
We traveled over 1,500 miles to New York to make sure these insurance executives understood the real-world consequences of their decisions. Our fight isn’t just about numbers; it’s about our lives, our homes, and our future. We won't stop disturbing their peace until they stop disturbing ours. Chubb, we’ll be back unless you stop insuring the destruction of our communities.
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