Each year since 2014, communities around the world affected by Chevron have come together on May 21 for a day of solidarity in action in anticipation of Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting. After years of being treated with disrespect and racism, many refuse to participate in company meetings, turning to community action instead.

This year, as we have done for a decade, Amazon Watch rallied in solidarity with the Richmond, CA community and brought messages from our allies in the Ecuadorian Amazon, the Union of People Affected by Chevron-Texaco.

Residents of both Richmond and the Ecuadorian Amazon refuse to live in the shadow of Chevron’s pollution – whether in the midst of 1,000 open-air toxic waste pits the company left in the Amazon rainforest, or the oil giant’s regular refinery flaring, fires, and toxic dumping into the San Francisco Bay.

Our decade of protests is too long to go ignored by Chevron management. In that time, two different CEOs have overseen Chevron operations, but neither has cared to consider the human rights and environmental impacts of Chevron operations. In fact, as readers of our blog know quite well, Chevron has distinguished itself by aggressively pursuing its critics in attempts to silence them.