Building for the Re-opening of Rossport Solidarity Camp
mayo |
environment |
news report 
Wednesday December 21, 2005 03:19
by Terry - Rossport Solidarity Camp (personal capacity)
rossportsolidaritycamp at gmail dot com
Details of recent and upcoming events and activities pertaining to Rossport Solidarity Camp, including the re-launch date.
Participants in, and supporters of, Rossport Solidarity Camp, are currently involved in an extensive program of preparation for re-opening the camp in the New Year. A number of different events have taken place over the last months. At Halloween a skillshare weekend took place at the house in Erris into which a number of campers have moved to prepare for next year. While in late October and November speaking tours saw public meetings across England and in various locations in Ireland.
Meanwhile a camp website has been set up as a hub of basic information about the camp. On it is a wishlist of items necessary to build a strong, versatile and successful camp, should there be sufficient donations of such items from around the country the loan of a lorry has been secured to go around and gather them. If you are making plans to collect material which is on the wishlist please contact us first in regard to quantity and such.
The Future:
A very successful Rossport Solidarity Camp meeting took place in Clare last weekend.
A whole host of projects were approved at it, or developed out of it.
A number of fundraising gigs will be taking place in January, we are also seeking to hold further public meetings both around the country and internationally, and we will be printing up come to the camp leaflets and stickers in the tens of thousand. The date of Saturday the 25th of February was chosen as the date to re-open the camp. This is very close to the time that Shell hope to start work. According to the word on the ground
they have been block booking accommodation, and have been visiting schools in an effort to recruit 5th and 6th years for “summer work”.
In addition a series of “Building Rossport Solidarity Camp” open organising meetings are planned for around the country, for people to come along and get involved and add their input in a participatory fashion.
The first is provisionally pencilled in for Dublin on Saturday the 21st of January.
Everyone Has Her Or His Own Part To Play:
Everyone has her or his own part to play, we need people to distribute leaflets, to make media, to raise funds, to find bits and bobs that can build the camp, but particularly to add their passion, ingenuity, and imagination to a diverse collective effort which has defeated Shell and the State thus far and can continue to do so.
The camp can only be a spearhead attached to a shaft of logistical, promotional, and financial support in which anyone across the island and overseas can participate in according to their desires and aptitudes.
But we also especially need people to come to the camp, for 3 days or 3 months, for a weekend to help us build, or for a couple of days to gain first hand information to spread to others. All are welcome. Thus far the camp has had people from every corner of this island and from many other places, people of all ages, interests, and skills are a part of this movement.
Turning the Tide:
To re-cap from what I wrote previously:
From June 18th onwards there have been no deliveries of construction materials to the compound at Rossport.
From June 30th onwards pickets closed the Rossport compound and the refinery construction site at Ballinaboy.
In August Shell was forced to cancel the arrival of the Solitaire, one of the world’s largest pipelaying ships, due to a planned blockade by fishermen.
On September 30th the Rossport Five were released due to popular pressure.
This is the best opportunity to defeat and turn to dust the plans for a major environmentally hazardous development since Carnsore.
Have no doubt about it this struggle has been watched and has been an inspiration to people outside its ranks. A victory here can build the sort of confidence and combatively to turn the tide elsewhere, and that victory will ultimately be decided in the seas, beaches, fields and roads of north-west Mayo.
No state will bow to mere opinion, if one would then we would surely have the best and most efficient public health service in the world, it is not like people do not want such.
Success will only come from the willingness to put ones’ body in the way of the capitalist project, a willingness displayed by Brazilian landless peasants, by Argentinean unemployed, by Irish Ferries workers, and by pickets of the refinery site at Ballinaboy, which have continued on into the depths of winter.
Power never concedes anything without out a demand, it never has and it never will. Every single benefit the European working class enjoys, education, social welfare, a modicum of civil freedoms, a, in global terms, high standard of living, was wrested from the bloody grasping hands of money and power with a struggle.
If you care about yourself, if you don’t want to live under the rule of corporations where a polite and lawful state jackboot will ensure they can imperil people’s lives at will, if you don’t want to see your natural resources handed over to the highest bidder at a tent in the Galway Races or in the backroom of a pub, then you will, if you can, come to Rossport Solidarity Camp.
Meanwhile Dublin Shell to Sea have launched an innovative fund-raising appeal:
Shell to Sea Campaigners in Dublin have issued a set of gift vouchers so that supporters can donate towards equipment for the Rossport Solidarity Camp. The vouchers, similar to those issued by charities, include items such as bolt cutters and night vision goggles.
The camp was set up in June on land owned by Philip and Maureen McGrath.
Activists from all over Ireland are expected to flock to the camp in the spring, to help local people resist attempts by Shell contractors to force the controversial gas pipeline scheme through the north Mayo Gaeltacht village of Rossport.
Supporters can buy a greeting card which depicts the pipeline for sale on the Internet auction site EBay. Campaigners put the illegally installed section of pipe up for auction when Shell was slow to remove it in the autumn.
The back of the card shows a map of the Erris region. It is expected that many supporters and interested people will visit the area in the New Year to see exactly where Shell intends to install the dangerous experimental pipeline.
Since the government supports the scheme, it is feared that the Gardaí and defence forces will be used to support Shell's contractors in their attempts to force the high-pressure pipeline through the scenic area. The camp will act as a focal point for those who wish to help defend the area against the controversial scheme. Equipment shown on the gift vouchers includes waterproof clothing, a wind turbine, bolt cutters, a digital camcorder, night vision goggles and a 25KG sack of lentils.
The gift cards are available in Connolly Books on the Millennium Bridge Walkway and at the Sinn Féin Bookshop on Parnell Square.
For further information call Tadhg on 0876181620.
Dublinshelltosea@gmail.com
