Protesters will be picketing Shell garages in Bristol on St Patrick’s Day. The actions are part of an international day of action in solidarity with residents of Rossport, County Mayo, Ireland who are fighting the oil company’s plan to build a potentially devastating onshore oil refinery and high pressure pipeline in their remote and environmentally sensitive region.
The pickets are taking place on Monday 17th March, at the York Road Shell garage in Bedminister, from 7.30am until 9.30am and the Muller Road Shell garage, junction 2, of the M32, from 5pm until 7pm to coincide with rush hour. Please do come along. Musicians who play Irish music and Irish dancers will be particularly welcome. If you cannot dance brief lessons will be available at the Muller Road Shell on the day.
For more information text Rising Tide on 07917383517
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
This year´s St Paddy´s day (Ireland’s national day), the 17th March, has been called as an International day of action against shell, in solidarity with the people of Rossport, County Mayo, Ireland.
Since 2000 the small rural community of Rossport, have been engaged in an epic battle trying to prevent Shell, Statoil, and Marathon from building a potentially devastating toxic onshore gas refinery and high pressure pipeline in their remote and environmentally sensitive region.
People from all over Ireland are set to join forces and show their united strength by going all the way to London to demonstrate on shell´s front door step. Gluaiseacht, the Irish environmental network organising the trip, are calling for people to join them at the shell head office in London, or there is also a call out to take solidarity actions at shell garages and offices, St Paddy´s day parades and Irish embassies all over the world to coincide with the visit from 15th-17th March.
The London shell centre is located on the South Bank in front of Jubilee Gardens (SE1) right next to Waterloo train station and across from the London Eye.
What´s Wrong With shell? – The Corrib Pipeline Project
Shell are the biggest stakeholder and beneficiary of the project to build this potentially devastating toxic onshore gas refinery and high pressure pipeline, so have therefore been the main target of protest.
Community Strength
From the summer of 2005 mass pickets shut down the refinery construction site after five Rossport residents were imprisoned for refusing to allow Shell’s sub-contractors access to their and their neighbours’ small farms which the pipeline is to go through. But in October 2006 the Irish state came to the aid of shell by bringing in a massive two hundred strong police unit to physically force a path for Shell to commence work. A large police presence, consisting of Gardai (Irish police) from all over Ireland, has stayed at the site to aid the work to continue undisrupted.
The costs to the Environment, Community & Health
Since shell started building the refinery, Carrowmore Lake, which is a Special Area of Conservation as well as the local water supply to 10,000 people, has been polluted with dangerously high levels of aluminium coming from the building site.
The gas pipeline is to operate at such high pressure that according to the government’s safety study if ruptured could potentially kill people and destroy buildings for hundreds of metres around.
The waste from the refinery is to be dumped into Broadhaven bay, where 220 sightings of seven whale and dolphin species, plus sightings of two seal species have been recorded.
This is all not to mention the irreparable damage fossil fuels, like gas, are having on destabilising the global climate and the devastation shell projects have caused around the world.
Although the resistance to shell in County Mayo is strong, the Irish state & shell´s tactics of brutality, repression and intimidation has paid a price on the people fighting the pipeline project.
So mark St Paddy´s day by showing solidarity with their fight!
For more info:
http://www.indymedia.ie/mayo – Reports of news and actions about the pipeline
http://www.struggle.ws/rsc – Rossport Solidarity Camp setup to aid the campaign against shell
http://www.corribsos.com – Campaign group Shell to Sea