The Importers from Hell - Shoreham II!

Earth First! And Shoreham Wilderness Defence present:

The second anniversary of the Battle of Shoreham harbour is upon us. Now an even greater battle faces us - against the ecologically destructive practices of the global corporations. By taking Direct Action against live exports in 1995 we stopped the trade at Shoreham. With our combined strength we can do the same again.

Those months of struggle around the harbour have given us an unprecedented insight into the port. Unsurprisingly many of the other trades at Shoreham show the callous greed of the companies at work. The three main industries are Timber, Oil, and Aggregates. Communities just like ours are fighting these corporations all over the earth. Wild nature and the homes and lives of tribal people are being destroyed to feed the demands of western consumer culture.

Timber

“Shoreham is consistently placed second or third in the national hierarchy; by capturing timber trade from the Scandinavian, Baltic and Russian regions, Brazil, West Africa and Canada " - The Port of Shoreham, p 4.

The main timber trade lobbying group admits that only 0.001% of timber sold internationally is ‘sustainable’. Even this is an overestimate. When the timber hasn’t come from dead forests it comes from plantations which leach the soil of nutrients and prevent renewal of ancient forests. People know of the deforestation of Brazil, but many are still not aware of the reality of timber extraction in the Boreal and Temperate rainforests. Shoreham is strewn with timber from these forests which is just as important.

The rate of logging in BC has increased dramatically: the volume cut in 1990 was 3 times that of 1960. 1 acre falls every 5 seconds. Most of BC is land that the indigenous tribes have never ceded to the Canadian Government and it has no jurisdiction in most of BC under international law. Therefore the invasion of Indigenous lands and oppression of their peoples by logging companies and state police is an act of WAR! So far over 2,000 people have been arrested protecting these forests. Blocking logging roads and docks, occupying offices, tree sitting, sabotaging machinery, sinking timber ships etc.

“We can only win if communities like ourselves... take action against these corporations, their offices, their products, their docks. If we all work together maybe there will be a future for the wolves, the bears and the great towering canopies of BC” - James Toughton, Save Clayoquot Sound Action Committee

Much Shoreham timber is from Scandinavia, and these companies often claim to be green. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Although much of the Scandinavian land base is tree covered, they are mainly monoculture tree deserts lacking in any diversity. Finland has the dubious honour of being the world’s leading peatland destroyer. In the 50’s, peatlands in Finland were the richest in Europe. Now one fifth of the country, (an area the size of Ireland,) consists of ploughed and planted peatland. Irreplacable old growth wilderness is being destroyed for profit. It is not enough to save the remaining 5%, the system that demands domination of the other 95% must itself be questioned. Questioning the very idea of progress and industrial civilization.

In Finland, a group called ‘The Nature League’ has been trekking into areas scheduled to be destroyed, blocking logging roads and setting up action camps, often hundreds of miles from the nearest town. Their direct actions slow the destruction, but they need help. They want people to take action against Finnish timber companies around the globe. The situation is similar in Norway and Sweden. Britain is Sweden’s biggest timber market and one of the biggest consumers of Scandinavian timber as a whole. Shoreham plays a major role in this. For the other countries represented at Shoreham the story is much the same: massive clearcutting through West Africa, the Baltic and Russia For the sake of the Earth and all its living creatures, (including ourselves), we must attack these industries!

Oil

The Sea Empress incident with Texaco is an example of the lengths an oil company will go to maximise profit at the environment’s expense. Shell were taught a lesson with the Brent Spar fiasco. They thought they could get away with dumping at sea, but in the end had to submit to the pressure of thousands of people, blockading and boycotting all over Europe. In some places petrol stations were burnt to the ground. Shells policy is representative of the petrochemical industry as a whole. There are hundreds of oil spills every year. Even the burning oil wells of the GuIf War pale into insignificance when compared to the billions of oil fires in the combustion engines of the world’s cars.

An average car releases its own weight in carbon each year. To fuel this, oil companies access wild areas, often by force, extract oil and leave behind a legacy of toxic pollution. Both BP and Texaco, (each has a base in Shoreham,) were heavily involved in exploration in Ecuador. Explosives detonated at 100 metre intervals generate soundwaves for analysis and this is done without any regard for the proximity of homes, streams or lakes. Wildlife is scattered by the noise of chainsaws, drills and explosions and large amounts of toxic waste are discharged from the exploratory wells. Once established, contamination from the wells is constant, releasing high levels of toxins and heavy metals into the earth and water.

Open production pits are characteristic of forest drilling. Animals and wildfowl are attracted by the salts and expanse of water, consequently the pits are often full of decomposing bodies. Many of the rivers can no longer support fish or the forest people who depend on them. When they resist the destruction of their land they are shot or imprisoned. The political murders and right wing land seizures carried out by the government and right wing death squads in Ecuador were essential for the oil industry. The Ecuadorian economy, like those of many third world countries, is underpinned by oil accounting for 65% of its export income.

Governments are little more than servants of the multinational oil corporations. Ecuador is an example. It is not the exception, it is the rule. The oil corporations are responsible for mass murder and are undermining the very life support systems of the earth. People around the world are resisting them, it is time for us to join them.

Aggregates

This is another major industry at Shoreham, two examples of companies operating there are ARC and Pioneer. As well as being wrapped up in road building, they are involved in major quarry battles with communities in the South West. For five years ARC have been trying to get planning permission to expand the quarry at Whatley. Since Spring 1992 there have been actions against the quarry, so far with great success, but now ARC is pushing the application through again. So far protesters have been blockading lorries and trains, occupying offices and depots and halting explosions by entering the detonation areas immediately before ignition. ARC’s parent company, Hanson Plc, are involved in similar activities all around the globe, including radioactive mining in the Black Hills, the most sacred site for many native North American tribes.

Animal Rights

Although the transport of live animals from the port of Shoreham has now ceased, the above industries are as responsible for animal abuse as any meat trade -deforestation leading to loss of habitat; oil spills killing thousands of marine creatures; road construction carving through the last remaining wildlife havens - the list is endless. These are reasons enough to take action at Shoreham, but an even more poignant link lies with the fact that a suspected live exporter - “Greens” - has family and business connections with the owners of “Covers Timber merchants” - a major importer of foreign wood. By bringing these issues together and combining the forces of animal rights activists and Earth First!ers, all trade and industry at Shoreham can be halted!

Consumer Culture

It is pointless blaming these companies and protesting against corporate destruction if we do nothing to change our own habits, which ultimately are the reason these atrocities keep happening. Until we stop consuming the raw materials will have to come from somewhere. Campaigning to stop a particular logging operation, for example, may save a particular piece of forest, but will achieve nothing for forests as a whole. Demand will remain and other forests will be destroyed.

The real cause of forest destruction is the products we buy. Only by reducing our consumption can we hope to reduce our impact on this planet. Alternate consumption means alternate destruction. We do not need any of the goods imported through Shoreham, except to support the over-consumption, which already causes misery for much of the world and which will ultimately kill us all. By ignoring single issues and attacking the whole thing, we can begin to highlight the consumption end of the process. This is why the campaign against Shoreham Harbour is so urgent.

No more single issues - it is time to take on the entirety of modern civilization.