Campaigns // We Only Want the Earth!

‘We Only Want the Earth!’

Given that individual éirígí activists had been campaigning on the issue of the ownership of Ireland’s natural resources since the imprisonment of the Rossport Five in 2005, it was logical that éirígí would launch its own campaign calling for the nationalisation of those same resources. That campaign was launched in the summer of 2006, only weeks after éirígi itself was founded.

The name of the campaign ‘We Only Want The Earth!’ is taken from the title of the famous James Connolly verse of the same name.

‘We Only Want the Earth!’, while advocating the public ownership of all natural resources, has focused on two specific areas, namely that of the giveaway of Ireland’s oil and gas reserves and the attempts to introduce water charges in both the Six and Twenty-Six County states. On these fronts the campaign has to date:

• Highlighted and directly challenged the Dublin government on its oil and gas giveaway
• Directly challenged the private energy companies involved in the robbery of Ireland’s oil and gas reserves
• Assisted in building popular opposition to the oil and gas giveaway
• Offered solidarity and practical support to individuals, organisations and communities that are actively resisting the oil and gas giveaway
• Directly challenged the introduction of domestic water charges in the Six Counties
• Offered solidarity and support to individuals, organisations and communities that are actively resisting the introduction of water charges

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Civil Disobedience in Defence of the Corrib Gas:

On numerous occasions éirígí activists have travelled to Mayo to directly challenge the Shell Corporation as it attempts to bring the Corrib gas ashore. Using the long-established tactic of civil disobedience éirígí activists have joined with members of the local community and concerned citizens from across the country in sit-down protests and occupations of the site of Shell’s gas refinery.

These peaceful protests have been met with state violence as hundreds of Gardai have followed a ‘no-arrest’ policy. The logic behind this official policy was outlined in the ‘Garda Review’ magazine (November 2006). In it Supt Joe Gannon, who was in charge of policing at the protests, stated ‘There were no arrests. That was part of our strategy: we did not want to facilitate anyone down there with a route to martyrdom. That has been the policy ever since.’

Thus the rule of the boot and the fist replaces the rule of law. Scores of protesters have been injured as a direct result of this ‘no arrest’ policy, with one éirígí activist Gary Ronaghan being injured by a lorry that drove over his foot. The driver of the lorry was following Garda instructions at the time.

A rare exception to this ‘no arrest’ policy occurred on November 9 2007 when two éirígi activists, Dominic McGlinchey and Rab Jackson, were arrested during the course of a protest at the gates of the Shell refinery in Ballinaboy, Co Mayo.

At the trial that followed it became apparent that the two had been specifically singled out for arrest by the Gardai. It is widely believed that the Gardai arrested the men as part of a black propaganda exercise designed to further the myth of ‘external troublemakers’ being responsible for the protests in Erris. Dominic McGlinchey is an éirígí activist from South Derry whilst éirígí General Secretary Rab Jackson is a republican ex-POW from Belfast.

Click on the links below for related stories from the éirígí news archives.

Bringing it Home to Shell & Statoil:

Nothing would suit Shell, Statoil and Marathon better then the containment in Erris of opposition to their plans for the Corrib gas. éirígi activists, along with others, have ensured that this has not happened by bringing the scandal of the Corrib gas robbery home to roost for Shell and Statoil. Both companies’ service stations and corporate headquarters have seen countless protests over the last three years.

Click on the links below for related stories from the éirígí news archives.

Challenging the Dublin Government:

While the issue of how Ireland’s oil and gas reserves had been given away came to higher prominence while Bertie Ahern was Taoiseach few in Ireland realise that it was Ahern, when serving as minister for finance, who halved the rate of tax payable by private energy companies from 50% to 25%. This was, of course, only the icing on the cake for the energy companies – a cake which Ahern’s close friend and disgraced former minister Ray Burke had made.

Given his personal role in the giveaway of Ireland’s oil and gas éirígi activists organised a series of protests at Ahern’s constituency office, the infamous St Lukes, in Dublin’s Drumcondra.

Click on the links below for related stories from the éirígí news archives.

Bord Gáis ‘Bill’:

As part of the ‘We Only Want the Earth’ campaign éirígí, in the winter of 2006, produced 50,000 information leaflets focused on the handover of Ireland’s oil and gas reserves to private energy companies. A section of the leaflet also explained why energy prices were rising and what the human cost of those rises would be, in the form of increased mortality as a result of fuel poverty.

The outside of the leaflet was deliberately designed to resemble a Bord Gáis bill notifying customers of an 88% increase in the price of gas, which was the average amount by which gas bills had risen in the four years preceding publication of the éirígi leaflet.

Bord Gáis, a semi-state body, is the dominant supplier of gas to homes across the Twenty-Six county state and as such its bills would be familiar to a huge section of the population. This familiarity lead to readers opening the ‘bill’ to discover that it was in fact an éirígí information leaflet.

Bord Gáis, however, did not appreciate éirígí’s use of the mock ‘bill’ or the highlighting of the information it contained and promptly issued legal proceedings. Solicitors acting on behalf of Bord Gáis threatened to have the éirígí website – which contained an electronic version of the ‘bill’ - shut down for alleged ‘intellectual infringement’.

Faced with the prospect of a lengthy and expensive legal battle éirígí altered the online version of the information leaflet by blurring the Bord Gáis logo, but not before the 50,000 information leaflets were delivered to homes across Dublin city.

Click on the image on the right to view the 2006 éirígí natural resource information leaflet, complete with blurred Bord Gáis logo.

Click on the links below for related stories from the éirígi news archives.

We Won’t Pay Water Charges:

At the time that éirígí launched its campaign for the nationalisation of Ireland’s natural resources the London government was in the process of introducing water charges to homes in the occupied Six Counties. éirígi activists based in the Six Counties immediately became active in the ‘We Won’t Pay Campaign’ which was encouraging a campaign of mass non-payment of the new charges.

While the British government subsequently postponed the introduction of water charges the possibility of them being introduced at some point in the near future remains very real. éirígí remains committed to standing with the people of occupied Ireland as they resist the introduction of this unjust double taxation, instead believing that a service as basic as water should be paid for through central taxation.

In the Twenty-Six Counties the issue of water charges came to prominence in late 2007 when it emerged that schools would not be exempted from paying water charges under an EU directive that will come into full effect in 2010. Under this directive schools will be billed on the basis of the amount of wastewater generated. éirígi is opposed to the introduction of such a system believing that monies allocated for education should be used for education and not for the payment of a basic service that should be funded by central government.

Click here for related stories from the éirígí news archives.

We Only Want the Earth

We Only Want the Earth
Some men, faint-hearted, ever seek
Our programme to retouch,
And will insist, whene’er they speak
That we demand too much.
’Tis passing strange, yet I declare
Such statements give me mirth,
For our demands most moderate are,
We only want the earth.

“Be moderate,” the trimmers cry,
Who dread the tyrants’ thunder.
“You ask too much and people By
From you aghast in wonder.”
’Tis passing strange, for I declare
Such statements give me mirth,
For our demands most moderate are,
We only want the earth.

Our masters all a godly crew,
Whose hearts throb for the poor,
Their sympathies assure us, too,
If our demands were fewer.
Most generous souls! But please observe,
What they enjoy from birth
Is all we ever had the nerve
To ask, that is, the earth.

The “labour fakir” full of guile,
Base doctrine ever preaches,
And whilst he bleeds the rank and file
Tame moderation teaches.
Yet, in despite, we’ll see the day
When, with sword in its girth,
Labour shall march in war array
To realize its own, the earth.

For labour long, with sighs and tears,
To its oppressors knelt.
But never yet, to aught save fears,
Did the heart of tyrant melt.
We need not kneel, our cause no dearth
Of loyal soldiers’ needs
And our victorious rallying cry
Shall be we want the earth!

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