By Louise Lucas
Published: February 12 2010 02:00
What to make of the “peaceful corporate revolution” being urged on Royal Dutch Shell, where nameless, ostensible employees are taking it to task over activities in Nigeria?
Big companies, particularly those dredging the heavily geopolitical waters of oil, inevitably come under attack. When you produce something that generates big money, often in countries where poverty is rife and human rights abuses abound, there is plenty of scope for criticism. There is also plenty of scope for confusion as to what an oil giant can and cannot do: insisting that a government’s oil revenues are funnelled into hospitals and schools is laudable, but presidents of countries are free to think otherwise.
In many ways, Shell has got off lightly. These are not a whistleblower’s revelations – regardless of what the writers say, the grievances have all been rehearsed before. The self-styled dissidents, assuming they are genuine employees, are supposedly 100-odd strong, hardly enough to launch even a gentle rearguard action, and intent on protecting their anonymity.Amateurism hangs over the campaign. The list of employees which has been leaked is, Shell says, six months out of date. Guesstimates made in the 36,000-word manifesto are as pointless as they are painful: “Almost all (99.5%) of common & low-level Shell employees” are unaware of Shell’s behaviour in Nigeria as are “possibly all (100%) of Shell’s institutional investors”. It is sometimes repetitive and ungrammatical and occasionally more earnest than coherent – not dissimilar to an undergraduate thesis.
That said, big business can no more ignore the hippies, whether within its ranks or not, than it can shrug off Hollywood (for whom corporate malfeasance has provided a rich seam – from Erin Brockovich to The Constant Gardner ). Slow-burning protests do sometimes assume a life of their own: in China, PetroChina’s flotation was dogged by its activities in Sudan. That is why Shell cannot ignore the claims, however flaky they may appear.
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Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
