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Serco
Group plc shareholding campaign: legal and fun!
Serco is part of the consortium that runs Aldermaston, and
it is the only company that has British shareholders and
an annual AGM held in the UK. Since the company began its
involvement with the British nuclear weapons programme,
women from the Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp(aign) (AWPC)
began organising a shareholder campaign.
This
year will be our third as Serco Group plc shareholders,
and we pride ourselves on taking an active part in the Annual
General Meetings (AGM). Every shareholder is entitled to
attend the AGM, and to ask questions about the Annual Review
document. How nice it is to be on the right side of the
law for a change! We attend the AGM with three main aims
in mind:
- To
inform the Board - and the other shareholders who attend
the meeting - about AWE Aldermaston, what goes on there
and why nuclear weapons are illegal, immoral and unacceptable.
- To
ensure that as long as Serco Group plc go on making profits
out of making nuclear weapons there will not be "business
as usual" at the AGM.
- To
ask genuine questions and make requests for information
about what is happening at Aldermaston.
Making
an impression
Before the April 2004 meeting, we had attended three AGMs,
and I think it would be fair to say that we have made quite
an impression!
As Serco Group plc is a huge and rapidly expanding company
we had expected their AGM to be a moderately impressive
affair: not a bit! Whilst the coffee and apple Danish were
pretty classy, and the atmosphere reeks of money, privilege
and power, the meetings themselves are very small and short.
The first two meetings Aldermaston Women attended (2001
and 2002) were held the National Physical Laboratory on
the outskirts of London, and consisted of a board of about
ten people on the platform and an audience of about twenty
people in a small conference room.
They had no idea what to do with us. Consequently, although
there were only about five women from AWPC, we were able
to hold the floor and rant about Aldermaston for about half
an hour, get the meeting adjourned, interrupt it frequently,
and end with a rousing poem and a colourful banner. Bemused
directors who knew nothing about Aldermaston looked sheepish
as they sipped their coffee and tried to answer our questions.
New
tactics needed!
In 2003 the AGM was moved to a central London venue - the
Queen Elizabeth Conference Centre (opposite Big Ben!), something
that was both good and bad for campaigners.
Good because we felt that Serco were on the run, and that
our actions both inside and outside the AGM were now taking
place in a much more visible and important location. Bad
because the security at the QEII, who have years of practice
at "containing" other shareholder actions (eg
at Shell, BaeS AGMs), rudely interrupted our speeches and
removed us one by one … and rather quickly.
However we had a banner outside and some passers-by showed
an interest: we also learnt that we need new tactics for
how we approach the AGM - and how we develop the campaign
as a whole -for 2004.
Women-only
action
The most recent AGM was held on 30 April, but at the time
of writing this text it had not taken place! This year we
were hoping to build a large visible, noisy, exciting presence
outside the building: both men and women are needed to take
an active part in this aspect of our protest, though only
women may become shareholders in our campaign and participate
in the AGM (this reflects our desire to create a women-only
action inside the AGM).
Inside the AGM we anticipated opportunities for single speeches,
joint interruptions, and serious questions and, depending
on what women chose to do, experience suggests that several
will be "escorted" out of the building by security
guards.
The Serco shareholder campaign is in its infancy and there
are many avenues to explore and potential locations for
applying pressure. As part of our resistance to Britain's
nuclear weapons, Aldermaston Women will continue to investigate…
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