Heated exchanges at environmental group's boycotting of council working group

There were several heated exchanges in the Guildhall council chamber as the members of Derry City and Strabane District Council discussed the boycott of a council working group by north west environmental organisation, The Gathering.

The Gathering describes itself as “a collaboration of earth and water protectors, community groups, activists and individuals who come from all over the island of Ireland”.

The group was one of several local environmental groups invited to meet Council’s Planning Working Group on Wednesday (May 27) to discuss their submissions to the review of planning in the city and district.

The Planning Working Group meeting was attended by representatives from Faughan Anglers Limited and Prehen Historical and Environmental Society.

Independent councillor Gary Donnelly said the Planning Working Group had been “boycotted by the most significant environmental group in the city and throughout the island” because “in a lot of people’s opinions, it was a box-ticking exercise”.

He added: “There is a lot of anger out there about comments made in this chamber regarding environmentalists who presented in this chamber and the word ‘fascist’ was used.”

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Cllr Donnelly was referring to remarks made by Sinn Féin councillor Christopher Jackson at Council’s February regarding members of The Gathering and Save The Moat campaign who had made a presentation to Council’s Environment and Regeneration committee earlier in the month.

Responding, Cllr Jackson said he had been “shocked” to see the communication received by the Planning Working Group from The Gathering.

“That was the first time I've seen communication from The Gathering, who raised concerns about comments made in this chamber and, in my view, misconstrued comments that were made in this chamber,” said Cllr Jackson. “I just want to point out it was about three months later that I first heard of these concerns.

“The work of the Planning Working Group has been going on for years, so people that have decided they boycott it as a point of principle over a comment that was made three months ago just doesn't stack up.

“And to say it is a box-ticking exercise, I think is a bit unfair given the fact Council has spent an absolute fortune carrying out independent reviews.

“There has been quite extensive work undertaken by council to examine concerns that have been raised by some of those who attended yesterday, and it has come at some significant expense to Council and a significant expense to the ratepayers.

“Given the gravity of the concerns, we felt and it was supported by the vast majority of people in this chamber, we needed to explore it, we needed the process to be transparent.

“In relation to the ‘fascist’ comment, I stand over the comment I made. There were two environmental activists who attended a committee and gave a presentation. They made a suggested proposal. None of them are elected to Council. Some of them have tried to be elected to council but were unsuccessful, so they have come on and used that platform and made a proposal.

“There was nobody that was democratically elected to council who supported that proposal. They were heard, they were listened to and then it was raised at full Council and again there wasn't support for the proposal.”

The Waterside councillor said he had “reminded people that if we are going to be in a situation where people are making demands of Council and expecting other people to follow what they are dictating to us, that is fascism”.
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There is nobody within this Council chamber that would support that,” he added. “I made it very clear I welcomed the contribution from the environmental activists; I at no stage called them fascists and I never would but I am completely opposed to any form of fascism, any form of dictatorship and I will proudly stand against those who are trying to impose their views on others regardless of their democratic mandate or not.”

Thanking the groups who attended the Planning Working Group, People Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin added that Cllr Jackson’s comments “were really bizarre and actually quite dangerous”.

He said: “The reason why they are dangerous is because you you are talking about fascism and who is fascist in a period when we actually have the growth of fascism around the world, where we have the American President embracing actual fascist organisations, when we have Elon Musk giving a fascist salute at his inauguration, when we have people like Tommy Robinson trying to whip people up into a frenzy in Britain - targeting um minorities.

“We have fascists in the north and south of Ireland trying to whip people up into a frenzy against - the LGBTQ community - I just think it's wrongheaded to be talking about environmental and climate justice campaigners and associating them with fascism at all, full stop, which is what you were doing. And that's what the problem was with the last discussion.

“What you are saying is that organisations without a mandate, which is the vast majority of organizations and campaigners and community groups, they don't have an elected mandate but they have every right to come to this Council to make case, to appeal to organise protests and rallies and occupations and sit ins, to demand that government and local government do certain things.

“For years, women came to this chamber calling for the right to choose; they didn't have a mandate. Were they ever called fascist? We have Irish language campaigners demanding equality for the Irish language. Are they fascists when they come to chambers and organise protests? That’s why these comments are nonsense and wrongheaded and upside down. They were the wrong way to describe your disagreement with environmental justice campaigners who should be afforded a platform in this Council to actually come in and speak.”