Six people were arrested this afternoon on the site of Shell’s controversial refinery in Ballinaboy, Co Mayo. The six were part of a group of more then thirty who entered the site at 11am this morning as part of a ‘people's site inspection’. A five hour game of ‘cat and mouse’ ensued as Gardai and Shell’s private security personnel attempted to remove the protesters from the site. The six arrested were taken to Belmullet Garda station before being released.

Today’s site incursion was the latest in a series of similar actions and follows closely on yesterday’s site incursion by a group of female activists from both the local area and Cork Shell to Sea. Those involved in today’s action were from both the local area and the Dublin Shell to Sea group.

Related Links: Women's trespass at Bellanaboy on Friday 13th | Work halted at Bellanaboy as protesters gain entry to Shell's site, six arrested. | Corrib Gas pipeline route selection begins. | We can stop them | Shell to Sea activists blockade lorries at Bellanaboy | 04.04.07 Sees Yet More Aggression by Shell Cops |

So why doesn't Shell have a big banner outside their office announcing that they are making record profits? Why don't they issue a press release saying that they are doing better than ever, and things are improving for their shareholders like never before? Why aren't they celebrating?

On February 1st, Shell to Sea protesters in Dublin drew attention to just how much Shell are making by asking passers-by to calculate how long it would take for them to earn what Shell made last year.

Shell's profits don't include the amount of oil and gas reserves they own, or the huge amount of equipment and buildings they are leasing or that they own. This is money that they have after they have paid all the bills (although not the security costs at Bellanaboy- the taxpayer pays that), and everyone's salary. This is pure profit for their shareholders.

This year's figure - €20,000,000,000 - is deceptive because it hides the fact that the dollar is weak at the moment, and energy has to be traded in dollars (Saddam Hussein started to sell oil in euros a few years ago, and look what happened to him). Profits are way up this year.

The company never had it so good.

Related Links: Galway solidarity protest with Rossport   |   Vigil for Shell victims in Belfast   |   Shell to Sea banner display at Patrick's Bridge, Cork

The G8 will be visiting Germany next summer, and the “travelling circus” of protesters (as it was dubbed by Tony Blair) are already mobilising for the occasion. But it seems clear that the hey-day of summit protests is long past.

The great Seattle protest of 1999 put “anti-capitalism” on the mainstream agenda. Having been consigned to the dust-bin of history after 1989, the idea of a left-wing alternative to capitalism was again being discussed. It came as a bit of a shock for those, like Blair, who thought “socialism” had died out with New Romanticism and other naff 80s movements.

Related Links: Indymedia anti-capitalist articles | Indymedia Summit Mobilization stories | Irish Socialist Network |

A non-payment campaign has been launched by the Northern Ireland Committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions through ‘Trade Unions Against Water Charges’. They advocate non-payment of the charges, which are due to be introduced in April 2007, as the "best way to overturn the Government’s proposals".

Their campaign also opposes any plans to privatise the Water Service. A leaflet urging the public to join the non-payment campaign will be circulated to every household in Northern Ireland. There will be those who wonder if everyone on the ICTU executive is happy about this initiative, who if wonder whether they will cave in to pressure to call it off if the British government makes the tiniest concession.

Union Non-payment site | NIPSA’s anti-water charges page | Congress: Don’t pay twice, it’s all right | SP: Politicians and Water Charges | SP: December 2006 article | We won’t pay website | WSM: Lessons from beating the water charges |

“For the white man, one man, one vote, would be the greatest solution. It would encourage competition among blacks…and…eliminate the most important ground for critique abroad of the present regime. But it would not change the economic oppression of blacks. That would remain the same.”

It is over thirty years since South African leader Steve Biko said those words in an interview with journalist Donald Woods. In a recent book by Australian journalist John Pilger, Freedom Next Time, he closes a chapter on South Africa with those words, pointing out their uncanny accuracy at predicting what has come to pass.

Background: Indymedia – South Africa | Women’s Struggles | Shack Dwellers’ Movement | S.A. Anarchists | S.A. Communist Party | African National Congress | Congress of African Trade unions | Sinn Fein | Differences Within the Triple Alliance: Where now for the left?