Farmers Unite With Hydro-Fracking Activists

By Adam McGib­bon, www.newint.org

As the G8 Sum­mit began in Fer­managh, North­ern Ire­land, a group of farm­ers drove 60 trac­tors in a ‘go-slow’, bring­ing a 24-kilo­me­tre stretch of road to a halt. The 16 June action opposed hydraulic frac­tur­ing – frack­ing – which could take place on both sides of the Irish bor­der. It was fol­lowed by state­ments against frack­ing from the major farm­ers’ unions in the Repub­lic of Ire­land and in North­ern Ire­land.

This is a sig­nif­i­cant devel­op­ment in the fight against frack­ing in Ire­land and North­ern Ire­land, where at least four ener­gy com­pa­nies are seek­ing to rend the land­scape apart drilling for gas in the very area that the G8 took place. Although there is a tem­po­rary freeze on drilling in the Repub­lic, Cana­di­an com­pa­ny Tamb­o­ran Resources already have a license to start explor­ing for shale gas in North­ern Ire­land due to com­mence this year.

For over two years, the bat­tle against frack­ing in Ire­land has most­ly been the pre­serve of the sea­soned activist. But impres­sive orga­niz­ing efforts in Fer­managh over the past few years have mobi­lized com­mu­ni­ties as cam­paign groups harangue elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives.

Assem­bly mem­bers speak­ing against frack­ing are treat­ed like cranks by min­is­ters. Despite the sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly proven envi­ron­men­tal dev­as­ta­tion, the rub­bished claims of hun­dreds of ‘frack­ing jobs’, and the fact that frack­ing will make the cli­mate cri­sis worse, the slip­pery slope towards frack­ing in Ire­land has con­tin­ued.

But now, the endorse­ment of the offi­cial orga­ni­za­tions of the farm­ers lob­by could turn this oppo­si­tion into a mass move­ment. Giv­en their ambiva­lence on the issue not so long ago, this is refresh­ing news. After the ‘go-slow’ action, Pat Gilhoo­ley from the Irish Farm­ers Asso­ci­a­tion said frack­ing will be an elec­tion issue in the Republic’s local author­i­ty elec­tions in 2014. John Sheri­dan from the Ulster Farm­ers’ Union stat­ed that the risk to the farm­ing indus­try from frack­ing was too great. ‘We Deserve Bet­ter,’ runs the mon­ick­er of a new, cross-bor­der cam­paign, launched this month.

With the addi­tion of the farm­ing lob­by, it’s hard to imag­ine how the con­ser­v­a­tive Union­ist par­ties in the North­ern Ire­land Assem­bly, both heav­i­ly depen­dent on rur­al votes, can main­tain their sup­port or ambiva­lence for frack­ing for­ev­er. The North’s Min­is­ter for Enter­prise, Arlene Fos­ter, is aggres­sive­ly pro-frack­ing. Two years ago, alle­ga­tions of impro­pri­ety emerged when it turned out Foster’s hus­band owns 62 hectares of land with­in the gas explo­ration zone. With Fos­ter hold­ing a rur­al seat, the addi­tion of the orga­nized farm lob­by that could break the back of the cor­po­ra­tions and politi­cians that want frack­ing to take place in Ire­land.

There are def­i­nite­ly lessons to be learnt here for oth­er activists bat­tling frack­ing across the world. Frack­ing isn’t just an envi­ron­men­tal issue – it’s a live­stock issue. It’s a food issue. It’s a liveli­hood issue for those who toil to pro­vide us with food. The Left needs to make com­mon cause with rur­al com­mu­ni­ties on frack­ing; the myth that they are more con­ser­v­a­tive than urban areas needs to be shat­tered.

To win on frack­ing, links have to be made beyond the ‘usu­al sus­pects’ of activist groups. Inter­na­tion­al­ly, there are great exam­ples: In Aus­tralia, a group called Lock The Gate are suc­ceed­ing in unit­ing envi­ron­men­tal­ists, activists and farm­ers. In Ger­many, the unlike­ly allies have been found in the beer indus­try, which fears for the future of their prod­ucts. In France, where frack­ing is cur­rent­ly banned, farm­ers stand with activists gath­er­ing on their fields and hang protest ban­ners from hay bales to cam­paign to keep the ban in place.

Across the world, build­ing the broad­est coali­tion pos­si­ble to defeat frack­ing means get­ting out of the activist com­fort zone and work­ing with peo­ple we wouldn’t usu­al­ly work with – and peo­ple we might not agree with on many issues. Farm­ers, envi­ron­men­tal­ists, activists, con­ser­va­tion­ists must unite and fight.