shell garage closed twice by protest in london

the old street shell petrol garage in london was closed down twice yesterday evening by protestors highlighting shell's repression of local people in county mayo, ireland, and linking it to the 11th anniversary of the murder of the ogoni 9 in nigeria, where shell is proven to have been involved in the killing of ken saro-wiwa.

garage enjoys calm b4 the storm

shell HELL

keep out banner

closed for business

the first macho police making up laws

at about 6.40 last night, rhythms of resistance samba band closed one entrance to the garage, while protestors from 'london rising tide' held a banner across the other. more helpers hung a huge 'keep out' banner between lamp-posts at the front of the garage as others handed out leaflets to passers-by, traffic, and to passengers at the bus-stop opposite.

the garage was successfully blockaded for nearly half an hour. the first police turned up after about twenty minutes, but despite much bravado and threats, including physically stopping an nuj journalist from photographing them and trying to snatch beaters away from samba players, they didn't get very far and had to wait for back-up. several more police cars arrived with blazing sirens, and the protestors split up and left the premises. these particular police seemed to have bizarre views of the law, threatening one reporter with arrest 'for filming members of the public'.

some police remained at the petrol station for about half an hour, while the activists took a refreshment break. once the coast was clear, they all returned and set up once more, closing the garage for a further quarter of an hour. once again, police cars came down the road in a hissy-fit of blue lights and noise, whizzed past the garage, stopped and turned a couple of hundred yards down the road and finally found it. as more cars and a van turned up, the protestors dissappeared into the night. one small group was followed by some police and threatened, but they were helped by a man who identified himself as a locally resident city lawyer who corrected the police on some finer points of the law and helped deflate the inappropriate machismo.

before and after the protest, the garage was clearly enjoying a very busy friday evening trade, and so this small but effective protest must have cost shell a pretty penny and once again re-inforced the point that supporters of the rossport struggle in county mayo are everywhere.

short film of the action will be available later on indymedia.

rikki
e-mail: rikkiindymedia@googlemail.com