Shell Targeted across Edinburgh

11 Nov 2007
In sol­i­dar­i­ty with the peo­ple of Ross­port and Nige­ria, the Shell petrol sta­tion on Dal­ry Road was block­ad­ed for 2 hours on Sat­ur­day by 20 peo­ple includ­ing mem­bers of the Clown Army. The Comis­ton Shell Petrol Sta­tion was sub­ject­ed to a night­time redec­o­ra­tion.
‘From Ogani­land to Ross­port’ was the mes­sage of anti-Shell pro­test­ers blockad­ing Shell
Petrol Sta­tion in Dal­ry Road, Edin­burgh, this morn­ing (Sat­ur­day 10 Novem­ber).

The group of around twen­ty pro­test­ers shut off the petrol sta­tion by block­ing entrances and hoist­ing signs. The pro­test­ers aimed to edu­cate and enter­tain those pre­vent­ed
from access­ing the sta­tion, bring­ing with them an array of musi­cal instru­ments and games
as well as infor­ma­tion about Shell.

An activist explained. ‘This action is not only a protest against Shel­l’s atro­cious envi­ron­men­tal record in the Niger Delta and Ross­port, Coun­ty Mayo, but also a ges­ture of sol­i­dar­i­ty with those who have already suf­fered so much at the hands of Shell. Today marks the twelfth anniver­sary of the death of Ken Saro-Wiwa who was exe­cut­ed by the
Niger­ian gov­ern­ment for his attempts to pro­tect the lands of his peo­ple, the Ogani com­mu­ni­ty. In addi­tion this time last year the Irish Gar­da police baton charged a peace­ful block­ade of the Shell refin­ery in Ross­port, injur­ing unarmed mem­bers of the Ross­port com­mu­ni­ty who were peace­ful­ly try­ing to pro­tect their homes from com­mer­cial exploita­tion. We stand in sup­port of these brave peo­ple and aim to draw atten­tion to the world­wide issue of Shel­l’s vio­la­tion of both human rights and the health of our plan­et in
pur­suit of prof­it’

Also attend­ing the block­ade was a gag­gle of clowns from the Clan­des­tine Insur­gent Rebel Clown Army, who brought a sense of com­ic fes­tiv­i­ty to the oth­er­wise somber anniver­sary.

Sergeant Toast explained: ‘We clowns rep­re­sent the sane in an insane world, where the prof­it of multi­na­tion­al com­pa­nies comes before the rights and lives of com­mu­ni­ties. Even the likes of Shell and their actions in the world can­not quell our sense of the joy­ous­ness and beau­ty of life and our deter­mi­na­tion to replace these com­mer­cial val­ues
with out own-those of play­ful­ness, free­dom and love. Join the Clan­des­tine Insur­gent Rebel
Clown Army and help us pro­tect our world and free­doms!’

The Ross­port com­mu­ni­ty of Coun­ty Mayo, Ire­land, have since 2000 waged an ongo­ing resis­tance to the attempts of Shell to turn their coast-land into the site of a tox­ic refin­ery with a high pres­sure gas pipeline which will cut through the com­mu­ni­ty, in same cas­es run­ning just 70metres from peo­ples homes. The ‘Ross­port 5’-farmers who refused to
obey a com­pul­so­ry pur­chase order to seize their land-were impris­oned in 2005, and their
efforts are sup­port­ed by the whole com­mu­ni­ty, wor­thy of nation wide and inter­na­tion­al
sup­port for the strug­gle they are brave­ly main­tain­ing. (www.struggle.ws/rsc, www.shelltosea.com)

Nige­ria-On Novem­ber 10th 1995 Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight Ogo­ni col­leagues were exe­cut­ed by the Niger­ian state for cam­paign­ing against the dev­as­ta­tion of the Niger Delta by oil com­pa­nies, espe­cial­ly Shell and Chevron. (www.remembersarowiwa.com)

In an unre­lat­ed inci­dent the Shell petrol sta­tion at Comis­ton was tar­get­ed in a night time attack. Mes­sages were spray paint­ed, locks were glued and the petrol pump dials ren­dered unread­able. (see http://edinburghnews.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=1802622007)