Rossport Solidarity Camp update

Hello to allSorry we haven't sent any reports recently, things have been very busyhere and a lot of us have been away on publicity tours.Firstly I attended the World Social Forum in Venezuela at the end ofJanuary. The Shell to Sea campaign was invited to give a presentationand lucky me I got to go. It was a fantastic opportunity to speak topeople from all over the world about the campaign. About 100 peopleattended the presentation which was great as there were about 20 or 30other presentations happening all over Caracas city at the same time.People from Chile, Venezuela, Brazil, Bolivia, The States, Canada, andAustralia were present. We had a really interesting discussion aftermy talk and we made valuable contacts. I also gave interviews to American and Canadian media. A lot of people I met here have been keeping up to date with the campaign through Irish indymedia and spreading the word in their local areas.Immediately after I got back 4 of us from the camp headed off for apublicity tour of Scotland. We visited protest camps, social centres,housing coops etc. We travelled down to Nottingham to catch up withShell to Sea supporters there and then down to London for actiontraining with Greenpeace. You can read a full report of this tour onwww.indymedia.ie/article/74287We came away from this trip with loads of contacts, great ideas forour camp, equipment for the camp and we were so impressed with thelevel of support we came across.Things are really heating up here and we getting lots of interest fromthe corporate media. Bob who's a camp spokesperson spoke to quite alot of media this weekend. We had called for 2 days of solidarityactions on Friday and Saturday past. We got a great response. Therewere actions in Cork, Dublin, Tralee, Galway, London, Nottingham,Liverpool and Sweden as far as we know. You can read reports of theseon www.indymedia.ieThanks so much to everyone who organised or took part in theseactions, we had great interest from both national and internationalmedia and we had a valuable chance to plug the reopening date of thecamp.We have also been busy doing national public meetings. Last week Evespoke at a meeting in Belfast and I spoke at two meetings in Cork.So the camp reopens this weekend! The winter has passed so quicklyit's hard to believe its time to go out camping again. So we are alsorelocating the camp, this time we will be camping on Glengad beach,the landfall site, that is, if the project were to go ahead this isthe place where the pipe would come out of the sea and meet land.We'll be here as both a physical and symbolic block to the project.Its quite a nice place to camp, right out on the Atlantic ocean, thesand dunes will give us a little shelter too. This weekend wereexpecting a good lot of people from Dublin, Cork and Galway up to helpbuild the camp. Everyone is welcome to come up this weekend there'sloads of work to be done, erecting a marquee, building benders andother shelters, making compost toilets, painting caravans, makingsigns etc etc. We can accommodate and feed people. But as well as thisweekend we need people in the coming weeks to help build and maintainthe camp.Get in touch with us at 097 20944 or 087 6543525 orrossportsolidaritycamp@gmail.comWe have recently made loads of come to the camp flyers. They alsocontain all the issues involved in the campaign. If anyone wants someto pass around get in touch with us.Locally here in Mayo things are heating up a bit. A few weeks ago agroup of non-executive directors of Shell came to the area for privatemeeting with some of the people involved in this project. It was aninvitation only meeting and it excluded local Shell to Sea campaignersmany of whom are directly affected by this project. So about 60 localpeople invited themselves to the meeting and put the Shell directorsstraight on a few matters. You can read the report atwww.indymedia.ie/article/74344Also the environmental works saga at Bellanaboy continues. You canread all about this at www.indymedia.ie/article/73953Thanks again to everyone who helped out with the Scotland tour and toall who took part in the solidarity actions. I hope to see you all onthe camp this year!Tracey