No Consent

The 10th of November 2006 was the 11th anniversary of Ken Sara Wiva's death. It was also the first time in my life that I experienced police brutality. The thing that connects these two facts is the corrupt power of Royal Dutch Shell. Something that was highlighted again yesterday with the emerging in the media of a recording of Gardai discussing raping women they have just arrested. It is horrifying and shocking to hear men in a position of power repeatedly use the word rape as part of an attempt to joke, what i feel is even worse is their raucous lads laughter that now rings in my ears. The women they arrested were peacefully protesting against the raw gas pipeline that shell is building in Mayo against the consent of the local community there. There is a good article on the whole sickening incident on Indymedia. What is illustrated by this recording is the dominance and brutality towards campaigners that has marked the policing operation since 2006.

November 2006 wasn't the first time that I had been to Mayo in solidarity with the campaign there. I had previously been very impressed to find such a strong and energetic community there determined not to let Shell walk all over them. I had met members of the community in pubs, outside the refinery site and at the solidarity camp and they had all said how welcome any help was. This is why I responded to the national day of action that was called for the 10th of November. It was a long and scarey day in which I was not only dragged along a road by my hair but was also thrown very forcibly into a ditch full of barbed wire. The 10th of November 2006 was also the first day that a Gardai baton charge was ever used in Erris and only the 2nd time in the history of the state. That evening local people and people who had travelled in solidarity gathered in the pub. Everyone was battered and bruised and we watched horrified as Bertie Ahern said on the TV that the project was going ahead and "that is it".

Initially I was reluctant to return for a while, In retrospect I was quite shaken by the whole thing and returning didn't feel safe. But my urge to get back there, to where a community is fighting a multinational oil company to try and protect themselves and their environment, won out in the end. I still travel several times a year to meet and support the amazing people who live there. The policing hasn't gotten any better. There are a catalogue of disturbing incidents involving prominent campaigners being targeted and attacked like Willie Corduff and Pat O Donnell. I don't ever enjoy interacting with Gardai in Mayo. It feels horrible to be pushed and held by men who are bigger and stronger than me the fact that they are Gardai doesn't make it any better. Now however, my worst fears of how they may think about us as campaigners have been confirmed. I have scars on my legs from the barbed wire I was thrown onto in 2006 but they are now accompanied by much deeper scars from hearing the Gardai talk and laugh about raping people like me.

The Freinds of the Earth press releaes on Corrib police recording is here.

For more information

www.shelltosea.com

www.rossportsolidaritycamp.org