African Activist Archive

The report says in the first instance of its kind, a registered foreign agent has initiated a shareholders resolution against an American corporation; the U.S.-Namibia Trade and Cultural Council submitted three proposals in November 1981 to limit Gulf Oil Corporation's operations in Angola; the Council, incorporated in August 1980 as a non-profit corporation, is employed by the administrator general of the territory of South West Africa/Namibia, a South African-appointed official who governs the country. The report says the Council's officers include Carl Shipley, an attorney and Republican Party activist and Marion Smoak, a retired U.S. ambassador and former protocol chief in the Nixon administration; the council was organized to seek to build closer security, trade and cultural ties between the United States and South African-ruled Namibia. The report says Gulf is no stranger to shareholder resolutions protesting its role in Africa; in the early 1970s, shareholder initiatives opposed its royalty payments to the Portuguese colonial authorities; anti-apartheid activists claimed some success with their boycott of Gulf Oil in the early 1970s, as shown in Gulf's declining revenues in that period. The report says the Council is one of several lobbyists funded by South African sources; its reports files with the Justice Department indicate it received $388,470 between September 1980 and September 1981, almost double the budget of the next South Africa-related lobbying organization, the South Africa Foundation. The report discusses Cabinda, the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO), the Securities and Exchange Commission, the 1973 Mideast War, bantustans, Michigan Democrat Howard Wolpe, and the House Africa subcommittee in Congress. The report says Carole Collins is Guest Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and national coordinator of the Campaign to Oppose Bank Loans to South Africa.

African Activist Archive

REGISTERED FOREIGN AGENT INITIATES SHAREHOLDERS ACTION AGAINST GULF OIL

Creator

Place Created

Date

Type of Item

Length/duration

Description

Organization

Coverage Africa

Language

Digital Format

Rights Management

Collection