Shell in Mayo, Ireland


Since 2000 the people of Erris (on Ireland's remote northwest coast) have been resisting Shell's plans for an on-land refinery, served by a terrifyingly dangerous high pressure gas pipeline. Their land has been compulsorily purchased by the Irish government and they have been beaten and imprisoned. The government is letting Shell extract the gas for free, destroying national forest, peatland and ecologically precious mudflats to do it. The Irish people will not see a penny from the sale of their natural resources. A local headteacher is currently on hunger-strike and her husband will take over if she dies. And all because it would cost Shell two weeks' worth of profit to build the refinery at sea.



Shell in the Niger Delta


In 1993, having had villages destroyed by the laying of pipelines, farmland and rivers polluted by oil spills and air polluted by gas-flaring, the Ogoni people of Nigeria forced Shell virtually to abandon their land through peaceful protest. Shell provides nearly half of Nigeria's foreign income and of its military revenue. In 1994, after meeting with Shell, the Nigerian government announced "ruthless military operations." Shell supplied the guns. Dozens of villages were destroyed, hundreds of people were massacred. Shell offered to secure the release of nine key campaigners (including Nobel prize-winner Ken Saro Wiwa), if they called off the global protests which had erupted. They did not, and were hung in November 1995. The peoples of the Niger Delta continue to resist.


But it's not just Shell...
BP, Total, ExxonMobil, Elf and Esso all have Nigerian interests.


Total & Texaco's operations in Burma support the military dictatorship, which uses slave labour to clear rainforest for oil extraction in return.


ExxonMobil & Chevron support the dictatorship in Chad and opened a pipeline from there through Cameroon's pristine rainforest in 2003. This has opened up the forest and its communities to illegal logging and poaching and the influx of a largely male workforce has introduced diseases, including widespread HIV infections. Human rights abuses have increased in both countries with the flow of oil money.


BP invaded Australian aboriginal land and has also supported the Columbian security forces to get rid of opposition to its destruction of the Amazon.


Texaco is also not averse to mass Amazonian devastation and forcing out indigenous peoples, embargoing Ecuador in the '70s until the government gave in to all its demands.


Now that the ice is receding due to global warming, all the companies are turning their gaze on the Arctic Wildlife refuge in Alaska and other opportunities that will arise in the Arctic.


All these companies profit from our defence of their oil-fields in Iraq and from the the scramble for control of the gas supply line through Georgia and Azerbaijan – many more wars will be fought over resources and there will always be an excuse of sovereignty or democracy to back up the aggressors.


Why do we let this happen?


We are paying these companies to fuel our addiction to fossil fuels. But we are hurting ourselves too:


9 people are killed on the roads every day.

1 in 10 British children now has asthma.

Our sedentary lives have contributed to a massive rise in obesity.

Motor vehicles burn half the world's fossil fuels and climate chaos due to carbon emissions is beginning in the UK. As flooding and storms take their toll, we are feeling the effect directly.
Our collective psyche must be damaged if we can accept murder, torture, pollution and the destruction of the planet on which we depend – just to carry on our comfortable lifestyle.
We have allowed ourselves to become utterly dependent on fossil fuels for everything – our heating, food, textiles, power, movement, entertainment, healthcare. We are completely at the mercy of global money markets, corporations and rapidly decreasing natural resources.



There are positive, creative alternatives


Today we are celebrating the future and the power of community, love and resistance. Two of us are getting married on the forecourt of this Shell petrol station to symbolise our commitment to creating a different world, based on equality and co-operation:


where people give according to ability and receive according to their need

where work is fulfilling and creativity encouraged

where there are no hierarchies or authoritarian politics

where other beings and the earth are valued and respected in their own right rather than abused,
hunted, polluted and exploited for fun or greed

Where there is no discrimination and everyone has an equal say in the decisions which affect them

Social Alternatives


This is anarchism and we believe it is the best way out of the problems currently facing society and the planet. Non-hierarchical societies have always existed, although the remaining few are under threat from the ever-hungry capitalist system. Anti-authoritarian and community resistance is as old as time and the concept of 'anarchism' (no hierarchy) has been around for 150 years. An ever-growing community is learning from all this history and putting ideas into practice – we invite you to explore this further.


This wedding is an expression of the power of community. It is bringing together a diverse set of people in a celebration of the future we are building.



Practical Alternatives


Anarchist & non-anarchist groups all over the country (and the world) are showing how communities can take control of their land, their food and their lives and protect the earth for our future. Community-supported agriculture projects, food co-ops, shared vehicles, bike training, Local Exchange Training Schemes, climate cafe discussion/action groups, alternative energy co-ops, permaculture, Holistic Management, housing & worker co-ops, Transition Towns – the projects and the ideas are growing and multiplying.


We do not believe that reform will ever succeed in changing a system fundamentally committed to the abuse of humans, animals and the planet - if not in Ludlow, then elsewhere in the world, hidden but still in our name. All of us must change the way we think, live and love.