Workers Solidarity Movement

With the already intense pressure on Shell this week over the consents signed by Pat Carey on his last day in office, see http://www.indymedia.ie/article/99323 this event has been postponed by the organisers. Shell to Sea are therefore calling off the protest. Thanks to everyone who helped build for it

Challenge the Shell Lies - Join the Dublin Shell to Sea protest 6pm Thursday 24th March, Main Gate RDS, Merrion road.

Next Thursday 24th March Shell E&P Ireland Managing Director Terry Nolan will address a conference entitled 'Securing Ireland's Energy Needs' at the Minvera suite RDS, just inside the Main Gate on Merrion Road.

The election campaign and its aftermath have witnessed strident declarations that all has changed, changed utterly. Most prominent is the decimation of support for Fianna Fail, the party that has ruled 60 of the State’s 79 years of existence. Both Fine Gael and Labour have experienced remarkable success in the polls, unparallelled for the latter. These are not insignificant, but the context of continued economic crisis renders the changes in parliament relatively minor. Whatever government is formed, it will share the titanic debt burden of the previous administration. Although Fine Gael made suitably statesman-like noises about ‘renegotiation’ of the interest rate on the ECB bailout, their timid overtures won only tolerant obfuscation from Frankfurt during the campaign and categorical refusals since.

It has been revealed that the decade long resistance of the people of Erris to Shell's experimental gas pipeline has now wiped out Shell's projected profits from the project. Brian O’Cathain, the Managing Director of Enterprise Energy Ireland let the cat out of the bag at a debate at the IFI on the 4th December. Instead of the 650 million dollars the project was intended to cost, Shell & partners have now spent over 3 billion dollars.

A decade after the process was begun to impose an experimental raw gas pipeline and refinery on the people of Erris we are entering into the final stage of the battle opposing its construction. Shell are about to attempt to lay the onshore pipe. Shell always expected this to be the most difficult part of the struggle which is why they left the attempt to build this section of pipeline till last.

On Saturday members and supporters of Dublin Shell to Sea gathered the top of Grafton Street to distribute €540 billion ‘commemorative bank notes’ to members of the public, symbolising the cost to the exchequer of the extraordinary giveaway of Ireland’s oil and gas reserves. This was part of a national Shell to Sea day that saw leafletting in 8 other towns and cities around Ireland as well as Dublin.

At 2.00pm on Saturday 12th February, the WSM will be joining members of Dublin Shell to Sea and supporters who are gathering at the top of Grafton Street (St. Stephen's Green) to distribute €540 billion ‘commemorative bank notes’ to members of the public, symbolising the cost to the exchequer of the extraordinary giveaway of Ireland’s oil and gas reserves.

This film brings to the big screen the dramatic story of Shell’s blundering, sometimes violent, attempts to impose a high-pressure raw gas pipeline on a small North Mayo community. The documentary features footage taken over three years, from 2006 to 2008, by Risteard O’Domhnaill. It has all the ingredients, stunning landscapes, riveting action scenes and the real-life stories of local people who found themselves on the front line of the drama. The film is short on background to the whole issue and mentions very little on the actual dangers posed by the pipeline and refinery, as well as the giveaway terms the oil companies ‘extracted’ from Irish state.  However, in Willie Corduff, and particularly in Pat O’Donnell, the filmmaker has struck cinema gold. Through the words and, especially, the actions of these figures we get a good picture of just what’s at stake here and what it takes to engage in effective resistance.

On Thursday 20th January An Bord Pleanala announced their decision to approve the Shell high pressure raw gas pipeline. The decision shows the farce of project splitting, which allows authorities to pass dangerous sections of projects without going through a rigorous planning process. This is the last chance to resist this flawed project. It's time to stand up against the Irish Government, state bodies and Shell forcing their will on communities and on the country as a whole, regardless of proper process, economic sense, people’s safety, environmental laws and human rights. Whilst the people of Ireland are being crippled by the cuts in public services and forced in to huge EU and IMF debt, the great gas giveaway is the elephant in the room that could be our solution. The unjust deal can be renegotiated as we have successfully seen in other countries. The people of Ireland should have a say in how we sustainably manage our natural resources. The struggle against Shell is a struggle for everyone in Ireland. You can be part of it.

It is no great surprise that An Board Pleanála has granted permission for the final phase of the experimental Shell pipeline in North Mayo. The remaining 5 kilometers of pipe will be laid up the centre of Sruwaddacon Estuary, through Broadhaven bay, a place of great natural beauty and also an area which has been listed as a Special Area of Conservation [1] and a Special Protected Area for Birds,[2] along with being an E.U. protected Natural Heritage Area.[3] These sort of protections are now obviously meaningless when it comes up against multinationals like Shell.

Several hundred people took part in "A Spectacle Of Defiance And Hope" in Dublin Friday night to protest the way the government have cut funding to vital community services. Janice Feighery a co-ordinator at an after school computer program for young people said “Community programmes are being devastated by the cuts. Our work with young people is strangled by lack of funds."  The spectacle draws to a close the week of protests against the austerity budget.