Workers Solidarity Movement

An interview with a member of the Workers Solidarity Movement who is at the Rossport Solidarity Camp and has been joining the pickets preventing Shells attempts to resume work on their planned refinery this week.

If the population of Ireland needs any more reason to doubt the word, or integrity, of Royal Dutch Shell, you can pretty much look anywhere on the planet and find plenty to shake your faith in profit driven ‘progess’. This is just a brief round-up of some of the swirling mess that Shell brings where ever it goes. However you are unlikely to see these stories covered in the Irish mainstream media in such a way as to portray the various realities of those that resist such ‘progress.’

Over 60 anarchists and environmentalists gathered in Rossport over the August bank holiday weekend for two days of planning construction and fun. A contingent of WSM members from Dublin and cork along with our American Comrade Wayne Price (NEFAC) and his wife Anne traveled down to participate.

The June bank holiday saw over half the membership of the WSM travel across Ireland to take part in a weekend of activity organised by the Rossport Solidarity Camp. Rossport is a very isolated village on the Atlantic shore where Shell and Statoil are trying to impose a dangerous gas pipeline on the local population. Last year five local men spent months in prison for defying Shell. We asked one of the RSC organisers to write for our paper about the weekend.

Rosssport Solidarity Camp is re-opening at the moment, in preparation for any attempt by Shell to recommence work, something that they couldn’t do over winter, due to the fatal combination of rain and bog.

The battle by the community in Rossport Co. Mayo to prevent Shell from riding roughshod over their rights and safety shot to national prominence late last year when 5 local men (who became known as the Rossport 5) spent over 3 months in jail. The men were imprisoned for protesting against attempts by Shell to bring a high-pressure gas pipeline across their lands in close proximity to their homes.

Though the issue of the Rossport pipeline was last in the news when the the five local men were released from prison, the conflict with Shell hasn't gone away. Since then the government commissioned a report, which essentially whitewashed Shell and gave the go ahead to build this dangerous pipeline