W O R K E R S Twenty two years of Irish Anarchist News FREE! SOLIDARITY Number 94 Dec 2006 SHELLA consortium of Shell, Statoil, and Mara- ’S COPS! thon do a deal with the government al- lowing them exclusive exploitation rights to the Corrib gas field, off Mayo. Not only that, but they are allowed to write off their costs against taxes, meaning that the whole project is being funded by the PAYE taxpayer, who will receive noth- ing, not even lower gas prices. It may sound a bit iffy but there is no garda in- vestigation into possible bribery or cor- ruption. The locals in Rossport have a problem with a high-pressure gas pipeline going close to their homes, and want the gas re- fined offshore instead. That shouldn’t be a problem, Shell can well afford it, last year they made a profit of !2.39 million every single hour. But the companies don’t care and the government, after ‘listening’ and ‘con- sulting’, takes the side of big business. Above: Gardai film peaceful picketers in Rossport pic:indymedia So the locals, having petitioned, lobbied and pleaded, decide they have no option Of course not. Their one initiative was of Shell is more important the needs of left but to obstruct construction of the to appoint former Dublin City Manag- working families? In a capitalist so- pipeline and refinery. er, John Fitzgerald, to “co-ordinate ini- ciety those with capital (and oil & gas tiatives at tackling social exclusion in giants have shedloads of it) come first. The government springs into action, Moyross”. This is the man who was in It’s not called capitalism for nothing. ‘law and order’ must be upheld. Over a charge when anti-bin tax activists were hundred gardai are sent to this sparsely jailed. He was also the one who tried The gardai sometimes do a good job, populated rural community. Locals are to ban postering, so that only those rich putting drunk drivers off the road is provoked, called names, pushed about. enough to buy newspaper ads could ad- one example. Sometimes they do a bad They have never experienced anything vertise their events. one, like the Donegal frame-ups. And like this before. sometimes they do a deadly one, like He will ‘consult’, publish expensive re- the unexplained deaths of Brian Ros- Meanwhile, down in Limerick residents ports, and tell us that things are getting siter and Terence Wheelock in garda of Moyross have been subjected to in- better. His job is not to do anything stations. timidation, arson and shootouts between much, just to make it look as if the gov- gangs of drug dealers. This has gone on ernment ‘cares’. If the government get Whatever your experience of them is, for years. Has the government done any- around to doing anything useful it will it is clear that their main and most im- thing to uphold ‘law and order’ there? be because they feel under pressure, portant function is not upholding some Have they moved in hundreds of gardai not because they care. If they cared impartial ‘law and order’, but uphold- to close down the gangs? Have they put they would have done it already. ing the power and privilege of the mil- in cash for education and jobs to provide lionaires. a future for young people? Should we be surprised that the greed Rossport Seomra Clandestines state defiance Spraoi book review social space NEWSPAPER OF ANARCHISTS IN IRELAND Anarchism & Ecology Workers Struggle Anarchist Ideas book review contract workers on organisation Rossport: In Defiance of the State The month of October saw the com- where a teacher is involved in the cam- munity of Rossport occupied by the paign, for two hours. Gardai Siochana. This occupation is the State response to a commu- This accompanied the daily assault of com- nity trying to protect themselves munity members as they tried to peace- against Shell: a multinational with fully protest. The media were more than a track record for maltreating com- willing to aid the gardai when they printed munities which they operate in. stories claiming that the local community were the ones harassing people. In Erris the State coldly laid its relationship to big business bare for all to see. The po- The most interesting aspect of this cam- lice came in with clear orders to brutalise paign has been the community reaction to the community. The gardai have shown in it. Many of us imagined we would back Donegal and Dublin’s inner city that they down in the face of such might against us. are more than able for such a task. They However the community has not been in- have lived up to this reputation in Erris. timidated. They have turned out day af- ter day to protest or blockade against the On the first day in their attempt to break destruction of their community. Indeed, the picket they hospitalised a local teenag- numbers have increased. er and broke the finger of Philip McGrath (one of the Rossport 5). This was followed This is not say people don’t have fears but up with a campaign of harassment, intimi- it shows that the power of capital and cor- Above: A Garda draws his baton pic - indymedia dation and provocation. porations isn’t almighty and through soli- previous isolation from the police. They darity we can help each other overcome have learned the upper class myth that Local people have been continually pho- their harassment. only troublemakers get hassle from the po- tographed, filmed randomly, stopped at lice is untrue. When you interfere, or even checkpoints. This campaign increased The community is now aware of the state’s threaten to interfere, with the status quo - in its ferocity from Monday October 9th. potential to escalate the situation. They be that to blockade Shell or just question This saw police patrol small villages of have learned this the hard way due to the the orders of those in power - they will use less than ten houses with riot vans. They Erris com- force, legal or illegal, against you. parked outside a local primary school, m u n i - - Sean Mallory t y ’s More at www.wsm.ie/story/1289 Backing from Waterford Council of Trade Unions “On behalf of the Waterford Council of Trade Unions, I would like to offer our sup- port to the Shell to Sea campaign and the people of Rossport who are facing down the might of Shell who are backed to the hilt by the forces of the state...The WCTU has agreed to contact the Irish Congress of Trade Unions requesting that ICTU ask all affiliated unions to ‘black’ the construc- tion of the pipeline to ensure that no trade unionist is party to the despicable actions of Shell.” At our recent national conference, the Workers Solidarity Movement donated !500 to the Rossport Solidarity Camp. You can donate directly to ‘Rossport Solidarity Camp’ Bank of Ireland account 24306733, sort code 90-52-99 TERROR BOMB PLOT Slaving your life away just so you On the road with an Irish pirate can make ends meet; having no NOT NEWSWORTHY? say in the major decisions that Clandestines, The Diary of an Irish Pirate Exile by Ramor Ryan AK Press !13.45 / £9.00 affect your life; criminal politi- Two men have appeared cians and businessmen plunder- While it can be hard to come across before magistrates accused ing the country. Try to do some- political documents that inspire, en- thing about it and they’ll lock of having “a master plan” tertain and amuse, Ramor Ryan‘s you up. Yes.. after what is believed to be Clandestines succeeds in doing just a record haul of chemicals that. Some may know Ryan from his used in making home-made articles in “We Are Everywhere” and bombs was found in Colne, “Confronting Capitalism” but Clan- destines is his first published book. northern England. Robert It is, for the main part, a travel diary Cottage and David Bolus and a readable mixture of personal were charged with “being in memoir and political essay written Two years after being set possession of an explosive over his many years as an anarchist up, the Private Residential Tenancies Board has still to substance for an unlawful activist. The book covers his jour- neys to a broad gamut of societies prosecute a single owner of purpose”. The 22 chemical in struggle, from Berlin to Northern the estimated 35,000 rented components recovered by Ireland, Nicaragua to Turkey and houses which have not been registered. Chasing down many places in between. police are believed to be the tax dodging landlords does largest haul ever found at a not appear to be a priority. house in England. The book is full of true, fantastic and Above: Ramor at Dublin book launch pic - indymedia Surprise, surprise. at times audacious tales seen through the eyes of an Irish anarchist who is Bagless vacuum cleaner Cottage is an ex-British Na- While the book could have fallen into In Turkey, he finds the volunteers experiencing an irreversibly chang- an unintelligible journal of wholly of the PKK in training, young men inventor James Dyson tional Party member who ing world first hand. The world separated and abstract events, Ryan and women willing to give up their awarded himself a £31.5m sterling payout last year. This stood as a candidate in the Ramor traverses sees the collapse of brings events and people together lives for their idea of a Marxist is the same guy who moved “communism” in Eastern Europe, a and finds a common theme, of the revolution, and a feeling that if Pendle Council elections in his vacuum and washing growing sense of revolution in South shaping of these characters from the world wasn’t ready for revolu- May.