Report back from Gluaiseacht Anti Shell actions in London

international | rights, freedoms and repression | feature Tuesday March 18, 2008 21:48 by Fergal - Gluaiseacht gluaiseacht at gmail dot com

Gluaiseacht travellers home from succesful trip to London.

On the move!

Gluaiseacht members along with Shell to Sea campaigners, friends and British supporters took part in 3 different actions over the weekend of St Patrick in London. Here is a summary of their story!

Having started at Ennis in County Clare at 11am on Friday the 14th picking up people along the way a full coach load of bewildered people arrived on Rampart street home of the The Rampart Social Center. It is soon to be evicted so we felt lucky to be there.

Related Links: Gluaisecaht Corrib S.O.S Mayo Gas Info

Having found a place to set up our various air beds and sleeping mats some put the head down for a few hours kip while most went out and about looking to do some site seeing, watch the rugby or catch up with friends or relations in London town.

The rest of the Day was made up of cooking food the masses and having planning meetings for the weekends actions.

THE ACTIONS

Having assembled at the given point on Sunday morning for our part in the Parade it was decided to keep our banners folded for the first few minutes until the parade got underway as he had received warning that organisers weren't happy with protesters in their parade and may ask police to confiscate political banners.

After about 5 mins of walking we unveiled the banners and began singing songs and passing out leaflets to the crowds. We were well received for the most part and the songs streaming out from our many megaphones seemed to lift the crowd on what was a wet and cold london day.

Just as the parade was near its end police did indeed try to take out banners but we were too fast for them. The were quoting the new SOCPA laws which prevent any protest at all within a mile of any point around Westminster Parliament building.

We had heard that Enda kenny and John Gormley were to make speeches at Ken Livingston's St Patrick's party in Trafalgar square later so we headed on up there. As we arrived Mr Gormley was making his speech. We were unable to get near to the stage so instead unveiled ours pipeline and banners at the top end of the square and some members of our group spoke on the mega phone to the assembled crowd about why they were there.

Wet but satisfied we made our way back home to the Rampart.

The SHELL HQ

The following morning we headed over to Waterloo home of Shell in London. The pipe was unwrapped again and presented at the Door of Shell by representatives of the different sections within our group. John from Mayo protesting the coercion of the local community, Bro Anthony from Limerick protesting the Robbery Irish natural resources and Laura from Italy protesting Shells record of crimes and against humanity and the environment world wide. Despite calls for a representative to receive the pipe om Shells behalf none were forthcoming. Then the party started and musicians and mobile sound system cranked out the tunes and the crowd danced Irish jigs outside the building. This helped to keep us warm and our spirits up.

Watch RTE footage here http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0317/corrib.html

The SHELL INVESTORS MEETING

This meeting was one for Shell to sell themselves to potential investors. We decided to remind these investors that it would be unwise to receive stolen property or to become accessories to worldwide human and environmental degradation. With this in mind we went off to The London Tower bridge hotel where the meeting was to take place. The group repeated the earlier performance of music and dancing while parading the pipeline out side the hotel and around the assembled police. Having found the conference room where the meeting was taking place members of the group advised any potential investors of the record of shell worldwide and asked police to arrest those inside for there murderous activities.

With that we all piled onto the bus again to head for home exhausted but exhilarated at the same time.