éirígí keep up the pressure on Shell and Ahern

Wednesday December 13, 2006 12:33

by Cormac Ryan PRO éirígí - éirígí

éirígí activists staged two successful pickets over the past number of days. The pickets were designed to show both solidarity with the community of Erris, Co Mayo as they battle against Shells plans to build an unsafe refinery and pipeline and also to focus public attention on those responsible for the entire Corrib gas debacle. The two éirígí protests were thus focused on the two main culprits; Shell and the head of the government responsible for the giveaway of Ireland's gas reserves, Bertie Ahern.

The first picket was at the Shell service station on the N81 Tallaght By-Pass on the evening of Friday 8th of December. This station, like so many other Shell stations across the country, has been the focus of repeated protests in the battle to force Shell to Sea. Despite the appalling weather up to a dozen people took part in the protest. The protesters were heartened by the amount of motorists who hooted their car horns in support with only a handful of cars using the service station during the two hour duration of the protest.

2pm on Saturday afternoon and it was the turn of Bertie Aherns constituency office in Drumcondra. Ahern, along with his old friend Ray Burke, has been a central player in the natural resources giveaway, both in his time as Minister for finance and now as Taoiseach, which has seen tens of billions of euros worth of gas handed over to multinational corporations. The fact that this has been done at at time when the world is believed to be approaching, or to have passed, the point of peak oil is all the more inexcusable. It is éirígí's view that Ireland's natural resources should be used to the benefit of the people of Ireland. In the case of hydro-carbons this would see the revenue generated from these fuels used to meet the needs of the people in relation to healthcare, education, transport and in researching and in developing sustainable energy technology. As with the Tallaght protest there was a huge level of support for the protest from both passing motorists and pedestrians.

Shell on the Tallaght By-Pass