Various political groups to help Shell to Sea Campaign to impact on General Election

dublin | politics / elections | other press Sunday July 02, 2006 22:24 by Dublin Shell To Sea

The Sunday Business Post reports that a number of disparate groups have pledged to work together to deliver a new leaflet, which seeks to raise the Corrib Gas Scheme as an election issue in Dublin.

From the beginning, Shell to Sea has depended on support from the Socialist Workers Party, Sinn Féin, the Workers Solidarity Movement, the Greens, and other smaller groups, working together in a way that has been effective and efficient, all around the country. Links between various parties and groups have shown that the Left can work together cohesively.

Shell to Sea has identified vulnerable TD's who will need transfers from other parties to get elected. Many politicians have fudged whether they support the scheme, implying that Shell's plans have no direct import for their constituents. News that voters in Dublin are to receive clear, concise and up to date information on the issue, bringing home the truth that the millions of euro profits from Ireland's natural gas reserves will go to big business rather than pay for improvements in services in health, education, and justice, will wake them up to the fact that they have to make public whether or not they think the "great gas giveaway" is such a good idea after all.

The fact that the community in Erris are just as opposed to the plan for a giant refinery at Bellinaboy as they are to the pipeline itself, give the lie to the notion that simply re-routing the pipeline will be enough to placate protesters. The Shell to Sea Campaign says the whole scheme needs to be scrapped and the deal re-negotiated. Politicians who support this position should have no trouble making this clear.

All sorts of groups have pledged to help the Shell to Sea campaign

SF to deliver leaflets for Shell protest

The Sunday Business Post 02 July 2006
By Laura Noonan

Sinn Féin, the Socialist Workers Party, the Workers Solidarity Movement and Eirgi, a new republican organisation, will help Shell to Sea campaigners deliver 40,000 information leaflets in Dublin this summer.

The leaflets were launched at the Dail last week, a year after five Mayomen were jailed for refusing to undertake not to obstruct a Shell E&P gas pipeline bringing gas from the Corrib field onshore.

‘‘We’re not running any candidates, and we’re not telling people how to vote,” said Tadhg McGrath of the Dublin Shell to Sea campaign.

‘‘What the leaflet suggests is that people ask their candidates how they are going to respond to the Corrib scheme if they get into power.

‘‘It goes a little bit into the history o f the scheme and says that the people involved most closely with the scheme were Frank Fahey, Bertie Ahern and Ray Burke, who are all Fianna Fail people.

‘‘When Bertie Ahern knocks on people’s doors, we want people to ask: ‘Why did you do this?”‘ Sources at the Shell to Sea campaign said that Anarchist Youth, the Socialist Party, the Green Party and Labour Youth were also likely to become involved in the leaflet campaign. Shell to Sea has produced 50,000 of the leaflets at a cost of €3,000.

The organisation’s draft distribution plan provides for 40,000 leaflets to be delivered in the Dublin area, with the remainder distributed in Galway, Clare, Waterford and Dundalk.

Some 4,000 leaflets will be distributed in Dublin Central, the constituency of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern. Dublin Mid-West, the constituency of Tanaiste and Progressive Democrat leader Mary Harney, will get the same number of leaflets.

In Dublin, Eirgi will deliver 4,000 leaflets to homes in Rathmines, Ranelagh, Harold’s Cross and the South Circular Road. Shell to Sea’s draft plan notes the area has been selected because ‘‘Michael McDowell is TD for the area. Strong Green Party and Labour vote.”

Swords and Balbriggan, in the Dublin North area, will also be leafleted because Fianna Fail TD GV Wright is stepping down in the next election. Crumlin and Inchicore, in Dublin’s South Central electoral area, will also receive 4,000 leaflets.

‘‘Two Fianna Fail TDs. A very strong left wing vote across the constituency,” Shell to Sea noted.

Finglas East and Glasnevin will also be leafleted because there are two Fianna Fail TDs, and the government ‘‘will be under pressure to hold both [seats],” according to Shell to Sea. Similarly, Dublin North East is home to two Fianna Fail TDs, and constituents in Donaghmede and Baldoyle will receive 4,000 leaflets. Leafleting in this area is likely to be carried out by Sinn Fein.