Latest news on the struggle against Shell in the West of Ireland. Large numbers at pickets prevent entry into refinery construction site. Shell’s public relations efforts come to naught.
Picket in front of main gate to the site
Security guards on site
Aerial view of main gate to the site, picket is at the top by the red bus.
According to a Shell press release sent out on the 3rd of August: “No construction work has taken place at the Bellanaboy Terminal site for the past year. This voluntary suspension was undertaken so as to allow time and space for the safety review and mediation process to be completed. The first step in resuming work is to expand the water treatment system on the Bellanaboy site and this necessary environmental work will commence in September.”
The following day, Friday August 4th, the headline in the Irish Times read: ‘Shell set to resume work on gas terminal’.
In the last few weeks the nature of their ‘voluntary suspension’ has been revealed – they can’t get into the site.
On Tuesday September the 12th there was an extra mobilisation at gates of what once was the refinery construction site. Over one hundred people turned out, as we had some forewarning that they would attempt entry on to the site. Machinery destined for the site ended up coming to halt a couple of miles away.
A picket has been consistently carried on at Bellanaboy since July 2005.
All through this month numbers at the picket each morning have been higher than usual. But the mobilisation has by no means reached its’ maximum extent – many of the picketers have more family members or friends they could call out if it came to the crunch, and the Rossport Solidarity Camp has a wide network of supporters it could call upon.
When Shell originally claimed a ‘voluntary suspension’ in the summer of 2005 it was to last two weeks, or ten working days. They still havn’t resumed control of their sites.
Last weekend T.J. Carey – one of their local sub-contractors, had to skulk around the Rossport compound to fix a generator in the middle of the night. Presumably his employees were unwilling to carry out this task. On two occasions over the weekend he, or Shell hired security guards, sought, and received, a police escort to assist his exit from the premises.
Over the course of 2006 Shell embarked on a public relations extravaganza seeking to mollify local opinion, much like the U.S. Army’s ‘hearts and minds’ exercises in Vietnam, and about as forlorn.
This included the hiring of various local public figures, including former footballers and journalists. See:
http://indymedia.ie/article/74861
As well as this there was a ‘mediation process’ between Shell and some of the men imprisoned at the company’s behest in 2005. This involved a former Trade Union bureaucrat Peter Cassells travelling back and forth between the two parties like a ping pong ball. He eventually gave up and produced a very pro-Shell report and series of recommendations, see: http://indymedia.ie/article/77806
Part of this involves the modification of the production gas pipeline route. This is something Shell now claim they are involved in ‘consultation’ about and are apparently studying other possibilities in the general Rossport area.
However they are still seeking planning permission for parts of the compound that is to be the base for building the pipeline on the start of its original route, after a legal case found that they didn’t have permission when they needed it. Something which would suggest that any modification is to be very minor.
Another part of their propaganda effort is the production and apparent door-to-door distribution of glossy brochures. The latest of which, 6 A-4 pages of it, is principally concerned with their apparent pipeline route change and apparent resumption of work on the refinery. The schedule of development within it puts building the pipeline back to 2008, and has the following work on the refinery; from September 2006 to Spring 2007, water treatment and preparatory civil engineering, from mid-Spring 2007 peat removal, and from mid July 2007 full scale construction of the refinery.
(the small print reads ‘timelines shown are for indicative purposes only’ – you don’t say?)
The very cynical might think that ‘pipeline route modification’ is about removing some of the flak they have got for the pipeline off their backs while they build the refinery, and then, with that built, they can go back to building the pipeline on the original route. What Shell lie?
This is all smoke and mirrors. If they thought that pr would win this for them then numbers at the picket each morning has shown that to be a falsehood.
They are faced with no alternative other than full-scale state repression.
The reality is the refinery is the number one environmental threat, not the pipeline, and that even if they did move the pipe, delivering the problem on to someone else’s doorstep is not acceptable to the campaign, and it is likely that moving it would simply draw more people into active opposition to Shell.
In any case there is a distribution problem with their glossy new brochure. Presumably it was intended to reach everyone in the area, but it hasn’t been going into the letterboxes of Shell to Sea campaigners. I actually had to search for the thing.
One of the men they have to deliver the thing claims it is necessary to carry a baseball bat around with him while doing so.
While this is unjustified paranoia it is with batons and not brochures that Shell and the state must proceed if they wish to see a refinery in Bellanaboy. It is unlikely that the state will give Shell the necessary support at least until after the next election, expected in the spring of 2007.
Recent reports from the pickets:
http://indymedia.ie/article/78427
http://indymedia.ie/article/78370
The following day, Friday August 4th, the headline in the Irish Times read: ‘Shell set to resume work on gas terminal’.
In the last few weeks the nature of their ‘voluntary suspension’ has been revealed – they can’t get into the site.
On Tuesday September the 12th there was an extra mobilisation at gates of what once was the refinery construction site. Over one hundred people turned out, as we had some forewarning that they would attempt entry on to the site. Machinery destined for the site ended up coming to halt a couple of miles away.
A picket has been consistently carried on at Bellanaboy since July 2005.
All through this month numbers at the picket each morning have been higher than usual. But the mobilisation has by no means reached its’ maximum extent – many of the picketers have more family members or friends they could call out if it came to the crunch, and the Rossport Solidarity Camp has a wide network of supporters it could call upon.
When Shell originally claimed a ‘voluntary suspension’ in the summer of 2005 it was to last two weeks, or ten working days. They still havn’t resumed control of their sites.
Last weekend T.J. Carey – one of their local sub-contractors, had to skulk around the Rossport compound to fix a generator in the middle of the night. Presumably his employees were unwilling to carry out this task. On two occasions over the weekend he, or Shell hired security guards, sought, and received, a police escort to assist his exit from the premises.
Over the course of 2006 Shell embarked on a public relations extravaganza seeking to mollify local opinion, much like the U.S. Army’s ‘hearts and minds’ exercises in Vietnam, and about as forlorn.
This included the hiring of various local public figures, including former footballers and journalists. See:
http://indymedia.ie/article/74861 As well as this there was a ‘mediation process’ between Shell and some of the men imprisoned at the company’s behest in 2005. This involved a former Trade Union bureaucrat Peter Cassells travelling back and forth between the two parties like a ping pong ball. He eventually gave up and produced a very pro-Shell report and series of recommendations, see:
http://indymedia.ie/article/77806 Part of this involves the modification of the production gas pipeline route. This is something Shell now claim they are involved in ‘consultation’ about and are apparently studying other possibilities in the general Rossport area.
However they are still seeking planning permission for parts of the compound that is to be the base for building the pipeline on the start of its original route, after a legal case found that they didn’t have permission when they needed it. Something which would suggest that any modification is to be very minor.
Another part of their propaganda effort is the production and apparent door-to-door distribution of glossy brochures. The latest of which, 6 A-4 pages of it, is principally concerned with their apparent pipeline route change and apparent resumption of work on the refinery. The schedule of development within it puts building the pipeline back to 2008, and has the following work on the refinery; from September 2006 to Spring 2007, water treatment and preparatory civil engineering, from mid-Spring 2007 peat removal, and from mid July 2007 full scale construction of the refinery.
(the small print reads ‘timelines shown are for indicative purposes only’ – you don’t say?)
The very cynical might think that ‘pipeline route modification’ is about removing some of the flak they have got for the pipeline off their backs while they build the refinery, and then, with that built, they can go back to building the pipeline on the original route. What Shell lie?
This is all smoke and mirrors. If they thought that pr would win this for them then numbers at the picket each morning has shown that to be a falsehood.
They are faced with no alternative other than full-scale state repression.
The reality is the refinery is the number one environmental threat, not the pipeline, and that even if they did move the pipe, delivering the problem on to someone else’s doorstep is not acceptable to the campaign, and it is likely that moving it would simply draw more people into active opposition to Shell.
In any case there is a distribution problem with their glossy new brochure. Presumably it was intended to reach everyone in the area, but it hasn’t been going into the letterboxes of Shell to Sea campaigners. I actually had to search for the thing.
One of the men they have to deliver the thing claims it is necessary to carry a baseball bat around with him while doing so.
While this is unjustified paranoia it is with batons and not brochures that Shell and the state must proceed if they wish to see a refinery in Bellanaboy. It is unlikely that the state will give Shell the necessary support at least until after the next election, expected in the spring of 2007.
Recent reports from the pickets:
http://indymedia.ie/article/78427 http://indymedia.ie/article/78370
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