Irate protesters targeted BP’s annual meeting to voice their anger against executive pay deals following the gulf disaster.
Climate change activists and fishermen and women from the Gulf coast which were affected by the oil spill protested against the oil company.
Some of them even bought BP shares to enable them to attend the meeting in London.
The protesters urged shareholders to vote against executive pay deals.
Diane Wilson, a fourth-generation fisherwoman from Texas, who attended the meeting by buying shares, covered herself in dark syrup to mimic oil. “This is the only thing they understand,” she said.
She added: “I am coming to articulate the anger of thousands of Gulf coast residents whose lives and livelihoods have been destroyed while the BP board continues to prosper.”
She was soon removed from the conference centre lobby by security.
The oil spill polluted fishing areas.
Byron Encalade, president of the Louisiana Oystermen Association, said many oystermen have been given insufficient payouts by BP.
“We’ve not been made whole: our fishing grounds have been depleted, our oysters are dead and we’re not receiving the funds we need to support and sustain ourselves,” Encalade said. “We’re seeing money going everywhere but at ground zero. We’re the communities at ground zero – the first to be
put out of work and we’re going to be the last to be able to go back to work and sustain ourselves.”
