Chevron RALLY & Direct Action: Richmond Point Part I

Police blocked route TO the rally at Richmond Point which may have prevented more rally participants from showing up (according to KPFA broadcast at 5:30pm). Nevertheless there were about 500 people at the park rally site, and almost as many marched toward the refinery starting at about 1:30pm. Some marchers including the Raging Grannies traveling in the Grannymobile were blocked by police from proceding to the Nonviolent Direct Action at the Chevron's Richmond Refinery (100 Chevron Way).

Chevron is driving the war and occupation in Iraq, refining over a million barrels of Iraqi oil in Richmond a month, and actively lobbying for the privatization of Iraq's oil fields.

Chevron has a long and highly profitable history with Iraq—one it wants to see significantly expanded.

In Richmond, a city with a population of about 100,000, the vast majority of whom are low-income people of color, 17,000 people live within just three miles of the Chevron refinery, including in two public housing projects. Richmond has a higher rate of cancer and asthma than the rest of California and the US, which many believe to be caused by pollution from the refinery. The Environmental Protection Agency has said that Chevron is in "severe non-compliance" with air pollution standards.