Category: Climate Chaos

May 3, 2009
Direct action against Shell in Mayo
Around 100 mem­bers of the Erris com­mu­ni­ty are cur­rent­ly remov­ing shel­l’s ille­gal fenc­ing in Glen­gadd. Whilst some peo­ple have locked onto the fence more have thrown ropes over oth­er sec­tions of the fence and are attempt­ing to pull the pal­lisade fenc­ing down. The pri­vate secu­ri­ty firm IRMS (with links to euro­pean fas­cists) have a heavy pres­ence and are attempt­ing to cut the ropes.
A gar­da pres­ence is start­ing to assem­ble. The mood is pos­i­tive.

This is the third time in ten days Shel­l’s com­pound has faced direct action from the com­mu­ni­ty

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Sat­ur­day 9th May, 2009 at 6pm — Day of Action — Sup­port Need­ed to Remove Shell Fences from Glen­gad.

Tear­ing Down the Bar­ri­cades
This is a Call Out from the unit­ed com­mu­ni­ty of Erris Co Mayo to all our nation­al and inter­na­tion­al sup­port­ers, ask­ing you to come to Glen­gad this com­ing Sat­ur­day 9th May at 6pm in the evening, on a Day of Action to help us remove Shel­l’s ille­gal fences from the area.

As you know, Shell returned to Glen­gad with fences and machin­ery on Wednes­day 22nd April, with force and vio­lence. Since then there have been a num­ber of attempts at remov­ing the fences and stop­ping the work, with a mix­ture of fail­ure and suc­cess.

As you can see from the pho­tos and footage below, the will is clear­ly there to fight Shell, in spite of the fact that large num­bers of Shell secu­ri­ty and Gar­dai have been draft­ed into the area. But what is also clear is that num­bers are need­ed to achieve suc­cess. Num­bers, Peo­ple, Bod­ies. That means you. Please come.

Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp Con­tact Details: Phone 085 1141170 or email ross­port­sol­i­dar­i­ty­camp (at) gmail (dot) com
By way of back­ground to the cur­rent mood in Erris, let’s remind our­selves of 2 key recent events.

In the ear­ly hours of Thurs­day 13rd April, Shell mer­ce­nar­ies vicious­ly attacked Willie Cor­duff with­in the con­fines of the Shell com­pound.

On Thurs­day 30th April at a com­mu­ni­ty meet­ing with Min­is­ters Eamon Ryan and Eamon O’Cuiv, peo­ple realised that try­ing to ‘talk’ to these guys was a fruit­less exer­cise. There were calls from all cor­ners of the com­mu­ni­ty for civ­il dis­obe­di­ence, the phys­i­cal stop­ping of the project and the tak­ing of the ‘law into our own hands’, when the min­is­ters refused to invite Shell to pull back to allow breath­ing space to resolve the con­flict.

This is seri­ous stuff. The mood in Erris now is that peo­ple are will­ing to pay any price to Stop Shell, and to take action accord­ing­ly.

But we need sup­port, in num­bers, to achieve the crit­i­cal mass of peo­ple required to be effec­tive. To be effec­tive in pulling down Shell fences in order to remove them.

This protest is about tak­ing direct action against the Shell machine and remov­ing it from Glen­gad.

The pic­tures and footage includ­ed in this arti­cle, which show local peo­ple attempt­ing to remove fences today, demon­strate that Action has begun in earnest this Spring and will con­tin­ue in the com­ing weeks and months. But it’s going to be a bat­tle, when faced, like today, with strong fences and large num­bers of Shell secu­ri­ty and Gar­dai. A sim­i­lar attempt was made last Fri­day by mem­bers of the local com­mu­ni­ty which includ­ed Pobal Le Cheile, Pobal Cill Chomain, the Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp and Shell to Sea, but num­bers were lim­it­ed. All groups agreed, at a meet­ing on the ground, that a Nation­al Day of Action next Sat­ur­day 9th May was required to build momen­tum. That is why local peo­ple are call­ing for sup­port, in num­bers, to build strength against the show of force against us.

The weath­er is improv­ing steadi­ly and The Ross­port Sol­i­dar­i­ty Camp is being rebuilt near the shore. Peo­ple are wel­come to come and stay at the camp or the camp house. Phone 085 1141170 or email ross­port­sol­i­dar­i­ty­camp (at) gmail (dot) com

Join us in tak­ing action against Shell. Don’t come emp­ty-hand­ed. Please spread the word amongst your friends, groups and net­works.

See you in Glen­gad.

http://www.shelltosea.com