00s 2002 Greenpeace helps defeat a major drive by Japan and its supporters to re-introduce commercial whaling through the International Whaling Commission (IWC). While it cannot be proved beyond doubt that the Japanese government has used its aid money to get votes in support of its position in the IWC, there is a strong link between the votes for Japan and the aid money some of the member countries of the IWC received. More than 600 Greenpeace volunteers from around the world shut down oil company Esso’s petrol stations in Luxembourg in a protest against Esso’s continued sabotage of international efforts to protect the climate.
image 1 IWC meeting in Shimonoseki, Japan © Greenpeace / Hiroto Kiryu image 2 Action outside Japanese embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, against Japanese votebuying within the IWC © Greenpeace / Christian Aslund image 3 Greenpeace Japan’s whales campaigner Mitoji Nagasawa tells the media that the world is watching Japan’s votebuying programme at the IWC © Greenpeace / Hiroto Kiryu images 4 to 10 Action against Esso, throughout Luxembourg - image 4 © Greenpeace / Philip Reynaers, images 5 to 9 © Greenpeace / Bas Beentjes, image 10 © Greenpeace / Pierre Gleizes
126 THE GREENPEACE chronicles