Socialist View (Summer 2006) - Rossport: The corrib gasfield theft

The imprisonment of five small farmers from Rossport in Mayo for 94 days in June of last year resulted in mass protests. The five men were thrown into jail for opposing the construction of a potentially lethal pipeline near their homes. A consortium consisting of Shell multinational, Statoil and Marathon oil had sought to build the pipeline in order to refine the gas from the Corrib gas field, which lies off the coast of Mayo, on land thus significantly reducing the cost of doing so.

It is estimated that the value of the gas could be as much as €21 billion. In the aftermath of the release of the men the government set up a sham mediation process between Shell and the people of Rossport with former Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) general secretary Peter Cassells acting as a mediator. This resulted in the publication of the Advantica report which to no ones surprise came out in favour of the construction of the pipeline. The only recommendation that it made was that the pressure of the pipeline be reduced from 345 bar to 144 bar. This seemed to give the impression that the question of the safety of the pipeline was being addressed.

However the level of pressure recommended in the report still poses enormous environmental and safety hazards. It is believed that an explosion of the pipeline at such a level could result in any house within 80 metres being burned and destroyed and any person within 57 metres of it being killed. In August 2000 a pipeline with a pressure of 45 bar exploded in New Mexico resulting in the death of a family of 12 who were 230 metres away. The fire service could not get within 1.2 km of the site because of the intense radiated heat that the explosion produced. Therefore it is was absolutely correct for the people of Rossport to reject the findings of the Advantica report. The report however was immediately welcomed by Minister for the Marine, Noel Dempsey who claimed that anyone three metres away from the explosion of a 144 bar gas pipeline would be perfectly safe! This incredible statement was followed by a public exercise in cynicism on the part of Shell itself who in supporting the findings of the report said that it “regretted” the imprisonment of the men and the “hurt that this had caused to the local community”. Despite these supposedly conciliatory gestures it is still determined to force through the building of the pipeline.

This sets the scene for another confrontation between the Rossport community on the one hand and the Shell led consortium and the state on the other. It is still undoubtedly the case that any stand taken the people of Rossport will still have a significant amount of public support. A recent opinion poll done in the Irish Times found that 61% were in favour of the pipeline being scrapped or re-routed. Tapping into this support amongst working people will be crucial in order for Shell and the state to be defeated. There are many important lessons to be learnt from the events of the last year surrounding the events in Rossport and the imprisonment of the five men. Like the bin tax campaign it demolishes the myth that the state and the government are some how neutral arbitrators when it comes to the struggles between the working class and big business. This was not only shown by the role of the judiciary in allowing the Rossport five to languish in jail for 94 days but also by the shameful fact that €933,000 has been spent to date by the Gardai in protecting the pipeline. In February of this year the Minister for Justice Michael McDowell admitted in the Dail that included in this cost was the surveillance of activists opposed to the pipeline.

That Shell and Statoil have exclusive rights for the gas and oil exploration in the Corrib gasfield also highlights the scandal of Southern Ireland’s lucrative natural resources being handed over to big business. Changes made to the fiscal and licensing laws in the late eighties and early nineties by the then Minister for Finances Ray Burke and Bertie Ahern means that the not one cent from the vast wealth from gas and oil exploration will go to the state. Legislation which meant that 50% of any royalties made from this exploration automatically went to the state was scrapped. The tax rate on profits made by oil and gas companies was reduced from 50% to 25%, the lowest in the world. However this cosy deal between the government and the big oil companies did not end there, given that they could write off expenses that they had incurred through drilling oil against tax. This rip off of the Irish people did not go un-rewarded, Marathon Oil went on later to donate large sums of money to their friends in Fianna Fail. The plunder of this vast amount of wealth has not stopped with the Corrib gasfield. In the past year the government has given an exclusive licence to Providence Resources, Sosina Ltd. and Exxon Oil to drill for gas and oil in the Danquin field off the south west coast. Providence Resources is a company to which the media tycoon Tony O’Reilly has a 45% share. It is believed that there is 25 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and four billion barrels of oil in the Danquin field with an estimated value of €20 billion. Again while none of this wealth will be seen by the Irish people, O’Reilly is due to make a personal fortune of €1.4 billion from the deal.

Given the dramatic rise in oil and gas prices in recent years as well as improvements in technology, oil and gas companies are hoping to get their hands on new exploration deals. This month the government is due to announce the issuing of a fresh number of frontier licences in the Slyne, Erris and Donegal basins off the north west coast. Already there have been five applicants from oil companies for these licences. The Socialist Party believes it is important that any campaign that against Shell and the state should be linked in within the demand for public ownership of the natural resources that lie off the coast of Ireland. This could be linked in with a demand for the setting up of a state exploration company that could drill for any oil and gas that may exist. It could easily be pointed out that the wealth from these natural resources could be used to address the problems facing the majority of Irish people such as the lack of affordable housing or the crisis in the health service. Such an approach would stand in stark contrast to the successive Irish governments who have been more concerned about helping multinationals like Shell or Tony O’Reilly to make obscene amount of profits that using these resources for the benefit of the people. We believe these demands would undoubtedly find a favourable response from working class people.

Understandably the main focus of the people of the Rossport community has been on the immediate issue of the pipeline and the confrontation that is likely to take place between it and Shell in the near future. Like any capitalist entity the only concern of Shell is the make vast sums of profits for its shareholders. In the first quarter of this year it made profits of €1.5 million an hour. Its role in Nigeria shows Shell’s complete indifference to the rights of people in pursuit of these profits. There they were willing to back the ruthless military dictatorship in order that its interests be protected in the Niger Delta where Nigeria’s oil is situated. This was graphically shown in 1995 with the execution Ken Saro Wivi and eight other activists from the Ogoniland in Nigeria because of their opposition to Shell in this region. It is generally accepted that these executions were carried out at its behest. While the issue of the health and safety of the pipeline is of critical importance the campaign of the people of Rossport would be assisted if they campaigned on both the issue of health and safety with the theft of the country’s natural resources by the multinationals. The Shell led consortium will seek to give the impression in the months ahead that it is willing to make concessions on the issue of the pipeline by reducing its pressure to an even lower bar than 145. Undoubtedly they will be backed up by the media and the government who will try to portray Shell as being the reasonable and compromising party in this dispute and vilify the Rossport community. Such a campaign could have an effect in shaping public opinion as was shown in the recent hunger strikers of the Afghan men in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. While it is important that such lies are countered which the Shell to Sea campaign have successfully done up until now it also necessary to broaden out the issue and to point out how the government as backed up Shell and other oil companies from the start which is linked with its general pro-big business agenda.

The battle by the people of North Mayo to stop the construction of the gas pipeline has not been easy or straight forward. While a damaged government will be anxious to avoid a confrontation with the Rossport community this side of a general election, Shell are determined that the pipeline be built. And when they move to begin construction the government will use the power and forces of the state to back them up. This will not only take the form of intimidation and threats from the courts but also the Gardai and possibly the army will be sent into to prevent the community obstructing to the pipeline’s construction. Therefore it will be crucial that the people of Rossport receive support from working class people from around the country. The Socialist Party believes that the trade unions can play a decisive role in this battle. An illustration of the power of the working class when organised by the trade union movement was shown last December when 150,000 took to the streets in support of the Irish Ferries workers. This power should be mobilised in support of the Rossport community.

As well as supporting the people of North Mayo in a just fight against a multinational and a state intent on riding roughshod over their opposition, the trade unions cannot allow another attack on the democratic right to protest. In the last few years we have witnessed a series of events in which working class people have been jailed and attempts have been made to stop protests through state intimidation. The jailing by the High Court of three building workers engaged in a dispute with Collen construction went unchallenged by the leadership of the wider trade union movement. And the during the anti-bin tax struggle in 2003 the High Court jailed 23 protestors.

And the latest example of this is the draconian attempt by Limerick county council to jail residents from the communities of Kildimo and Pallaskenry in Co.Limerick for opposing a polluted river being used as their water source.

If the leadership of the trade unions were prepared to get fully behind the Rossport community and explained the importance of backing their demand to stop the pipeline and also linked it to a campaign for the nationalisation of the country’s natural resources it would gain widespread support. Mass demonstrations could putting enormous pressure on the government and these protests could be linked to mass pickets to physically prevent the contruction project from proceeding. The unions could also organise strike action by construction workers at the Rossport site and a blacking of the project by the trade union movement would rpevent the delivery of any building materials, supplies and machinery. The trade union leaders if they choose to can stop Shell from building this pipeline. Unfortunately while the Rossport five were incarcerated the leadership of the trade union movement did not show any willingness to back up their words of support with any significant action. In line with their general belief in “social partnership” they will probably counterpose the idea of further mediation between Shell and the Rossport community instead of direct action.

Mediation will not prevent the contruction of this pipeline as Shell have billions of euro in profits at stake. The confrontation in Rossport in indicative of the kind of society we live in today, where the health, safety and the democratic rights of a community are trampled on in the interests of big business. This fact alone as well the theft of our resources by profiteers like Tony O’Reilly is a good as reason as to why working people need to take a firm stand in solidarity with the Rossport community. A defeat for Shell in this battle will also be a defeat for Fianna Fail and the PDs and would be an important advance in building opposition to the right wing establishment parties agenda of neo-liberalism and the “race to the bottom”.