by Aidan Ricketts - Author of "The Activist's Handbook" - More info
When the CSG company Metgasco first began its operations in the
northern rivers it was singing a sweet song of social license. How those
words have come back to haunt them. More recently the CEO is apt to use
threats of prosecution against protesters as he becomes increasingly
shrill in his condemnation of the local opposition.
This is just a symptom of Metgasco’s desperation, they have no social
license and they know it. The truth is that Metgasco can expect
protests to follow it everywhere it goes. The Northern Rivers community
is united and determined to stop Metgasco.
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| Protester stops truck with lock on device |
You could be forgiven for feeling the smallest amount of sympathy for
Metagsco’s investors. The company is the meat in the sandwich between
an out of touch state government that is determined to break the
community’s will over CSG and what is probably the most organized,
determined and united regions in the country opposing the industry.
Almost all of Metgasco’s exploration area and potential gas reserves lie
within the hotly contested Northern Rivers area where reliable polling
is showing around 90% opposition to unconventional gas mining across all
of the local government areas. It would be safe to say that Metgasco’s
gas reserves are rapidly becoming what is known in industry circles as a
‘stranded asset”.
The battle for the northern rivers promises to be a dramatic one.
Many see it as a make or break battle for the whole industry in NSW. A
company with nowhere else to go faces an ever growing protests movement
in one direction and market forces in the other. If it is a fight to the
death, no prizes for guessing whether it’s the community or the company
that will fail first. These locals are numerous and they are determined
to protect their region and they are not inexperienced.
The Northern Rivers led the way in forest protests in the 1970’s and
again in the 1990’s with the successful Nightcap and North East Forest
Alliance campaigns. This time around it’s CSG but the movement is bigger
than ever. Where the forest protesters were only ever relatively small
in numbers, this is not the case with csg.
Nor is this regional population uneducated. The Northern Rivers has
one of the highest per capita concentrations of PHDs and boasts an
impressive honour roll of some of the country’s more experienced
activists. Add to this a huge broad scale mass movement comprising
farmers, business people, and supporters from across the entire party
political spectrum, literally the 85%, and you have a powerful mix.
The regional group CSG free northern rivers
has been preparing the ground for a big battle with its uniquely
comprehensive consensus building model, the ‘gasfield free community
strategy’. There’s a lot involved, but in a nutshell, an ever expanding
network of communities are engaging in a very grassroots mobilization
process that actually involves reaching to every household and building
consensus to keep gas companies at bay. The Northern Rivers now has over
70 communities across all local government areas signed up into
“Gasfield free communities” and the comprehensive neighbor to neighbor
surveys are yielding surprising results. In 70 communities comprising
over 12000 households the anti csg vote remains in 90 percent range.
These results are independently verified by the AEC run Lismore poll in
September which recorded a massive 87% opposed to unconventional gas
mining across the entire Lismore LGA. Figures like this are as close to
social consensus as you can expect to get.
These communities are not just united; they are also actively involved in non-violent direct action training
and are pledged to mutual aid in the event of gas company incursions.
We are just beginning to see the first signs of this at Glenugie near
Grafton where local residents instituted a community vigil in late
November to keep gas company Metgasco at bay. After a Mexican standoff
of several weeks the trucks rolled in on 4th December. Within hours
numbers had swelled to over 80 people, 5 trucks were stopped and by mid
afternoon a protester was sucessfully locked on to a vehicle.
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| Line of trucks stopped at Glenugie blockade |
Metgasco is hoping the force of the Crimes Act and the Petroleum
Operations Act will be enough to deter these kinds of actions, but the
word on the street is that there are an ever growing number of people
quite prepared to risk arrest to stop this company. Non-violent protest
including voluntary arrest is a time honoured part of the tradition of
civil disobedience practices by great leaders like Martin Luther King
and Ghandi. Our courts have a long history of recognizing the role of
the conscientious objector, the police are familiar with people locking
on at protests, and it’s all part of a healthy democracy. What these
protesters know is that each blockade costs the industry dearly in the
court of public opinion, and probably even more dearly in the eyes of
nervous investors.
These communities are in for the long haul and already expect to lose
many individuals battles to win this war. As they say up here, this is
not just the fight of our lives this is the fight for our lives.
Non-violent…non-negotiable.!
The question is how long can the company and its investors hold the faith.
Aidan Rickettts
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