Rossport solidarity camp gathering

by tracey - rossport solidarity camp Sun Apr 09, 2006 23:53 rossportsolidaitycamp at gmail dot com 097 20944

Rossport Solidarity Camp June Bank Holiday Gathering

In June 2006 it will be one year since the Rossport Solidarity Camp opened. We set this camp up to offer practical support and solidarity to the people of Erris, Co. Mayo in their struggle against the oil multinationals and the state. As many of you are aware Shell, Statoil and Marathon propose to build a dangerous high pressure raw gas pipeline through unstable bog land and farm land and to build a huge inland refinery that would seriously pollute the local area. For 5 years now they have been stopped.
Serious resistance began last summer with the jailing of the Rossport 5, the setting up of a solidarity camp and the emergence of a national campaign. Constant pickets prevented construction work and local fishermen threatened to blockade the worlds largest pipe laying ship if it attempted to lay the off shore section of the pipeline.
Solidarity actions and rallies took place all over the world.
To celebrate our 1-year anniversary and to get more people to Co. Mayo and involved with the campaign, we are hosting a June bank holiday weekend gathering on the camp.
The gathering will take place from the 2nd to the 5th of June. There will be movies, workshops, a forum on privatisation, practical demonstrations, a tour of the area, speeches and workshops by local residents, music etc.
Food and camping accommodation will be provided on the camp. We are also encouraging people with time to spare to come earlier in the week to help with set up.
Exact details of workshops and the weekend programme will follow soon.
For more information contact rossportsolidaritycamp@gmail.com
00 353 (0) 97 20944
00 353 (0) 87 6543425 (Tracey)
00 353 (0) 86 3588890 (Michael)

by phm Mon Apr 10, 2006 20:59

Shell is primarily owned, not by robber-barons, but by the pension-funds which hold the retirement-funds of ordinary people. The other big stake-holders in Shell are its tens of thousands of employees. In fact, these employees get about 80% of the after-tax wealth generated by Shell operations worldwide, with most of the balance going to the aforementioned pensioners. The tax paid by Shell in the Western democracies goes to pay for services such as health, education, and welfare (In other parts, particularly Nigeria, this tax is syphoned off by the local elites - that's a problem with Nigerian culture, not with Shell culture!).

On the other hand, the people who are obstructing the Rossport pipeline are the local land-owners who are miffed that they haven't managed to extract sufficient disturbance-compo to meet their expectations.

It is a symptom of the deep intellectual malaise into which the fringe left has sunk that it is lining up with these defenders of the absolutism of private property rights.

I presume that the deep philosophical reasoning underpinning this alliance is that the fringe atavistically supports anyone who is being negative and obstructive.

by tracey - rsc Fri Apr 14, 2006 15:30

you are a sad and deluded person, but all i want to say is the rossport 5 are not holding out for compensation. this has never been about money, its about people's health and safety and peolpe's right to have a say about what goes on in their communities and the whole countries right to benefit from our natural resources. do you think the campaign would still be going on if it was about compensation?
why do you bother reading indymedia if everything is so negative, don't you have anything better to do?

by Niall Fri Apr 14, 2006 18:11

.

by Terry - Rossport Solidarity Camp Fri May 12, 2006 15:19

This is a draft program for the Rossport Solidarity Camp Gathering happening on the June Bank Holiday Weekend June 2nd to 5th .
Here is a photo report of last years solidarity gathering - http://www.indymedia.ie/article/70173

On Friday evening, June 2nd, there will be an introductory talk about the camp, the campaign and the weekend, followed by film showings.
The main activities begin the following day…..

Saturday June 3rd
2.30 pm to 4.00 pm

A discussion about sex, race and class in Venezuela, where the new constitution uniquely recognises that housewives create added value and must be compensated with social security.

There will also be a range of practical workshops running at this time, the draft list of which includes printmaking, self-defence, and bike repair and bender construction.

4.00 to 5.00 pm

Lunch

5.00 pm

Privatisation Forum.

This will be focusing on the privatisation of natural resources and will have Bolivian speakers from the London based Bolivia Solidarity Campaign as control over oil and gas has been a major issue in the massive social struggles in Bolivia in recent years.
As part of this there will also be a speaker on the situation in regard to oil and gas here in Ireland.

7.00 pm Dinner.

8.30 pm Traditional Music Session in nearby pub, as Shell to Sea is the most musically proficient campaign around this session will feature the many Shell to Sea activists, local, national and international, who can bash out a tune or two.
See: http://www.mcgrathmusic.com/index.htm

Sunday June 4th
12.00 pm SHARP Tour of the area. See the many construction sites which have been shut down for the past year. See Carrowmore Lake, already polluted by Shell. See Ballinaboy, where Shell would like to build their refinery, picketed every working day since July. See how close the route of the proposed pipeline is to people’s houses in Rossport. Tours are an important part of what the camp does, and it really does have to be seen to be believed. We started holding tours at the Solidarity Gathering last year and have continued on this tradition. The development stretches over a considerable area, especially as there is a bay in between Glengad, Pollatomish, – where the camp is, and the more famous Rossport. This will be a bus trip and priority will be given to people who have not been here before, it will also cost some money to go on this trip. The tour will be given by local Shell to Sea activists and campers.
There will be some talks on the camp simultaneous with this:

Micheal O Sheighin will give a talk on the history of Erris, as he did last year at the Solidarity Gathering and which proved to be very popular.

There will also be another talk on Bolivia at this time.

Dinner will be at 5 to 6 pm.

At 8 pm the party starts on the beach with Cork based techno sound system Tir na gCasta. See: http://tirnagcasta.org/

Monday June 5th
Hangovers…..

Other things….
Bear in mind we would prefer if other people did not come with sound systems as we want to switch the music off at a particular hour.

This will all cost money so we will be asking for a set suggested donation per person and/or charging for food.

We will need volunteers all through the weekend for cleaning up, cooking etc…

It is best to bring your own tent, remember also you will not be too near shops, this a long way beyond Newlands cross, bring sanitary products, phone credit etc… with you.

The camp and its environs are peoples’ homes respect this.

Remember the camp is in Glengad, Pollatomish, follow signs for Pollatomish, look for there on the map NOT Rossport.

We have a bunch of guidelines they are listed below, we are having a party on Sunday so the no drink one is suspended, we would like if people supported some of the local pubs who are good supporters of the campaign by getting carry out locally rather than from a Lidl in Dublin. The no drugs rule isn’t lifted as we would prefer to be lifted for stopping Shell rather than for possession.

GUIDELINES:
•Alcohol and drugs are not permitted on the camp.
(note the first part of this does not apply to the Sunday night of the gathering)
•Sexual harassment will not be tolerated: we have a Positive Spaces Policy
for dealing with problematic behaviour.
•Everyone on the camp is treated as equal and work is shared equally.
•We are pursuing our goals through non-violent direct action.
•Everyone on the camp is accountable to the camp; we don’t carry out
individualist actions.
•We use a collective decision-making process; everyone in the camp
contributes to decisions.
•We try to leave as light an ecological footprint as possible. This includes
recycling or composting our waste.

by anarchaeologist - Shell to Sea Dublin Sat May 13, 2006 00:30 086 8537281

Details of a bus to Rossport from Dublin on the Friday afternoon will be posted here in the next few days. In the meanwhile, any enquiries can be addressed to the above mobile number.

by colm durutti - GrassrootsDissent Tue May 16, 2006 15:54 086 8537281

Places are limited and filling up fast. If required, we can put on another bus from our collectivised fleet, but we'll need to know numbers by the middle of next week.

Illegible flyer for Rossport bus

by Eve - RSC Sat May 20, 2006 14:37

Report back by the Global Women's Strike from a recent trip to Venezuela where the grassroots, led by women, are organising for the return of the oil wealth and other resources into their communities. Including news of a recent victory where President Chavez announced that half a million women would get wages for housework. Includes showing of clips from the Strike film Talking of Power and news of a recent victory where President Chavez announced that half a million women would get wages for housework

by Mega Girl - Kids Block Thu Jun 01, 2006 22:08

See you in Rossport

Lovely sea

KIds Bloc say: 'Nothing In Nothing Out..'

by supp Fri Jun 02, 2006 04:34

via RTE http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0601/corrib.html

An Bord Pleanála has ruled that Shell requires planning permission for three aspects of work it is already conducting in relation to the Corrib gas field.

An Taisce had raised 14 questions in relation to different aspects of the work and today An Bord Pleanála ruled that three issues did require planning permission.

The ruling means that the company must stop work in these areas until permission has been secured.
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The areas include work widening an entrance to a landfill and the construction of a road through a protected habitat, as well as work on a station.

http://dynamic.rte.ie/av/2145554.smil

Great pics of shell pipes rusting away
http://www.corribsos.com/index.php?id=694