The controversial documentary about the pending lawsuit against Chevron in Ecuador, CRUDE, may just reach the people that could make a difference: Chevron employees. Activist Trudie Styler has invited all 6,000 San Francisco Bay area Chevron employees to view a free screening of the film.
Styler, also known as wife of the musician Sting, sent a personal invitation to all the Chevron employees in the Bay area, including Chevron’s CEO David O’Reilly.
In her invitation, she mentioned her experience visiting the communities in Ecuador which have to live with the results of the company’s operations there, including contaminated drinking water, and tries to find a common ground with the employees:
“Many people will assume that you and I must be on different sides of the fence on this issue. But I don’t believe that. I’m willing to bet that you and I, and all of your colleagues, agree that everyone has the fundamental right to the life-supporting elements of clean air and clean water…I’d like to give you the opportunity to make up your own mind about what has been going on in Ecuador, and to consider how justice can be achieved for the people suffering there. I’d like to invite you to the movies.”
The acclaimed documentary covers the legal battle of the 30,000 Amazon rainforest inhabitants affected by the big oil company’s dumping of 18 billion gallons of toxic wastewater and its 900 abandoned crude oil pits in the area. The actions of Chevron have been called the largest oil-related environmental catastrophe in the world.
“With the release of the film CRUDE, Chevron goes on trial in the court of public opinion. CRUDE allows the audience to judge for themselves how much responsibility Chevron bears for the ecological and public health crisis in the Ecuadorian Amazon.” – Mitchell Anderson, Corporate Accountability Campaigner for Amazon Watch.
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