It is getting tougher at the top of America’s big tobacco companies. Not only do you have ever more billions of dollars to husband for your shareholders, mostly institutions whose only concern is the profit you make for them and the growth in value of their holdings, but every year your annual general meeting (AGM) gets more stressful. In the past, it must have been a rather nice day out from the office, cheered by applause from the floor as you announced greatly increased sales and profits, lit up by the flashlights of photographers from the financial press, all followed by a nice lunch with your colleagues.

Things are rather different now. Those attending and staging protest activities around tobacco company AGMs this year included representatives from a wider range of organisations and locations than ever before. More than a hundred youth and adult health and community activists from many US states and worldwide, including many developing country representatives; campaigning priest Father Michael Crosby; and nurses from the Nightingales, making their fourth consecutive appearance at tobacco company …