Murder is Bad

EMAIL SENT TO SHELL EMPLOYEES

Dear ________,

Yesterday morning, your employer blocked you—and 71,009 other Shell employees whose emails we received from an anonymous source—from accessing a website with information and tools for speaking out on one of the most important Supreme Court cases of our time.

The case, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum, is an attempt to hold Shell responsible for collaborating with the the Nigerian military regime in a spate of extrajudicial killing, torture, and other crimes against humanity that left 800 people dead and 30,000 more displaced from their homes. The Nigerian government's violence—which could not have happened without Shell's assistance—was meant to suppress non-violent opposition to Shell's oil development plans.

To prevail in this case, Shell lawyers must overturn a 200-year-old law, the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), that compensates victims of international crimes. The law has been used to compensate Holocaust survivors who sued for restitution from corporations that profited from slavery and forced labor during World War II.

It is our belief that the vast majority of Shell's employees don't want their company to get away with human rights abuses, or to undermine laws that give victims power against those who kill and abuse them. We urge you to visit the blocked website at MurderIsBad.com (from home, if need be) and make your feelings known.

Dorothy W. Thomas
People Against Legalizing Murder (PALM)