A word in your $hell...like...

The Irish Daily Mail, in their editorial comment from yesterday's edition, rails against the left-wing agitators who are attempting to stoke a conflict so they can revive a long-discredited ideology. The conflict in question is the long-standing protest over the Shell Corrib pipeline.

Precisely which long-discredited ideology the Daily Mail has in mind is left unsaid, but through the references later in the piece where the protesters are described as dreamers who seek to turn back the tide of internationalisation and global trade. Admittedly, there are two distinct threads to the protests against the pipeline and the tendency has been for the two to become intertwined. The first thread of the protests objects to the pipeline route on the grounds of public safety. The second objection is broader and encompasses the economics of the project, and in particular the lack of benefit to the Irish people - the beneficiaries will be Norway's Statoil - who own a 36.5% stake, Shell - who own a 45% stake and Marathon - who own the remaining 18.5%. That the government of Ireland has been selling off the national resources at bargain-basement prices is evident, when even the likes of Mike Cunningham, the former director of Statoil Exploration (Ireland) stated that "No other country in the world has given such favourable terms as Ireland."

The Irish media have largely been subservient to the corporate cause, liberally sprinkling their editorial comment with anonymous allegations claiming that protesters are only interested in violence and destruction.

For instance the Sunday Independent of July 17th, 2005 claimed that:

Paramilitary style death threats have been made against workers on Shell's controversial Corrib gas pipeline project in Co Mayo.

The article in the Sunday Independent went on to claim that:

Two Scottish workers employed by the Norwegian-owned Statoil corporation were approached by a gang of men outside a pub in Belmullet and told they would be shot "in the back of the head".

What the Sunday Independent article did not make clear in that article, or in any article on the subject since then, is that their owner, Tony O'Reilly, is also part-owner of an Irish exploration company, Providence Resources, in which he holds a 45 per cent stake. Through this company he is the part-owner, along with Exxon-Mobil, of oil and gas fields off the coast of County Clare.

He has even admitted that he (mis)used his position as a "media mogul" to access the most lucrative exploration licenses, when in September 1983, he told Forbes magazine that “Since I own 35 per cent of the newspapers in Ireland I have close contact with the politicians. I got the blocks he wanted". The "he" referred to in the statement is the geologist working for the company.

So the Sunday Independent can hardly claim to be neutral on this issue - leaving aside their obvious attachment to neo-liberal economic principles. Whether the The Irish Daily Mail and their sister paper, the Sunday Mail, have any fiscal interest in the project is open to question, but their religious belief in the legalised pillage that goes by the name of globalisation - and the attendant repressive legislation to stiffle protest most certainly is not.

Going back to the Irish Daily Mail editorial, the ideology to which they refer - which is best expressed as economic nationalism - is hardly long-discredited, despite how much their wags might like to think it is. It is the reason why Iraq was invaded (forget the toppling a repressive regime excuse - the coalition of the willing tolerate far more repressive regimes elsewhere). It is the reason why Iran is ripe for invasion. It is the reason why Hugo Chavez is being demonised. It is the underlying motive for the constant attacks on the administration of Vladimir Putin, despite the fact that his alleged "crimes" pale in comparison to those of the current U.S. administration.

This ideology is a straightforward concept that states that the exploitation of the natural resources of a country should directly benefit all the people of that country and not just line the pockets of a few vested interests, and it is rapidly gaining ground. Globalisation - the legalised and unhindered plundering of the assets of countries and the exploitation of their peoples by corporations - is, on the other hand, becoming increasingly unpopular - despite how many times the Daily Mail stamp their collective feet in opposition.

Despite the attempts by the likes of the Daily Mail to smear all opposition as "left wing", opposition to the dominance of corporations is far from exclusively left-wing territory, as anyone who reads the writings of the likes of Paul Craig Roberts - a former advisor to former U.S. President Ronald Reagan will conclude.