Naked Ploy Is Latest Threat in Oil Wars

July 31 -- Nigerian villagers who have long clashed with oil companies doing business in their backyards are trying a creative protest tactic. They've dropped their guns, and some have even threatened to drop their clothes.

Hundreds of unarmed women from local tribes in the oil-rich but desperately poor Niger Delta region brought production to a halt recently at pipeline facilities owned by ChevronTexaco by merely occupying the sites. Several dozen village women are still holed-up today.

To make their point, the women threatened to disrobe — a strong local shaming symbol — and managed to strike a deal with ChevronTexaco that will bring jobs and funding for schools, hospitals and other services into their struggling community.

In the past, local actions against oil and gas companies have come from armed gangs who frequently take to kidnapping and sabotage to demand jobs or money.

But experts say ChevronTexaco's peaceful negotiations with the local women highlights the strengthened bargaining power villagers wield and how multinational corporations, under significant international pressure, are increasingly bowing to local demands.

"This shows the kind of pressure on the oil companies to come through with ever higher levels of contributions," said J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Africa program at Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The pressure has been building for a long, long time."

An Otherwise Violent History

Unlike the peaceful Nigerian women's protest, the relationship between locals and oil companies often has been violent and tumultuous.

Shell came under fire after riotous protests related to the death of organizer Kan Saro-Wiwa in 1995. The native playwright was executed on trumped-up murder charges by the military dictatorship in Nigeria after he organized a protest movement aimed at the oil company.

Such troubles are not unique to West Africa.

Human rights activists have sued ExxonMobil in U.S. federal court, accusing the company of hiring Indonesian government security forces who allegedly committed atrocities against locals, including murder, torture and kidnapping. The company denies the allegations.