Having been informed that July 21st was to be a national day of action against Shell, decided that this was an important day for the Swansea group to take part in. Rather worrying that we would be just a handful of volunteers, began to be surprised when the phone calls and emails started trickling in of new volunteers offering their services for the protest. So the saturday morning arrived, materials prepared and met at a nearby cafe. At first only a few of us, and my heart sunk a bit, people often say they'll turn up but then don't, but no gradually more people drifted in and it began to look like a good showing.
So at the alloted time we went to the Shell station with Bob handing in the letter to the station attendant explaining our reasons for being there - the concern over their plans to be the first oil company to drill for oil in the Arctic and potential devastating consequences for the environment and climate. So the rest of us spread out with our banners and posters on the pavement in the busy shopping area of Sketty and with still more people joining us, we began to look like a crowd and that we really made an impact. Our morale grew as passing motorists tooted in support and there seemed to be a favourable response with motorists coming in to the garage. As there were a good number of us decided to tackle another Shell station not too far away, so about a third of us drove over to the station on the Mumbles Road.
We did feel a bit more thin on the ground here - on the busy double lane seafront road it was hard for us to make an impact with most cars passing at speed. Also found that the response here was pretty negative - it was hard to get any motorists coming in to the garage to stop and talk, many were in fancy petrol-guzzling cars so maybe it was guilt....... After an hour here had the message from the others that they were finishing at their end, so we packed up and joined them. It seems their protest had gone pretty well, although the police had been called with one of the policemen quite thuggish in attitude, but otherwise no trouble. So all in all a really good turn out and despite the indifference encountered at our garage, I think a brilliant day and certainly an amazing statement from Greenpeace with groups around the country carrying out protests and also internationally - Shell can hardly ignore us now!
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