Left Archive: Ireland’s Resources, the Case for State Control, Resources Protection Campaign, 1975

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Many thanks to the person who forwarded this to the Archive.

This document, dating from 1975, was one of many produced by the Resources Study Group, later the Resources Protection Campaign. As the Archive notes:

The Resources Protection Campaign was formed on October 10th 1973 and campaigned for state responsibility for the extraction of natural resources, and against tax breaks and low-cost sell-offs for private exploitation. It succeeded the Resources Study Group.

The RSG/RPC were very close to Official Sinn Féin and the latter, as noted in The Lost Revolution, ‘became a key area of SF agitation’. This document argues that:

The necessity to retain State control of Irish nature resources in order that the real benefits accuse to the Irish people has never been more evident. The RPC is anon-political public education campaign which has as its main objective the development of State companies to explore for, produce and develop industries from our immense natural wealth. As authors of this booklet we ask you to form your local branch and assist in the campaign’s objectives which are of crucial importance to the future development of this country. 

The document is divided into a number of chapters – some dealing with the history of resources extraction in Ireland, others noting the prominence of state resource development companies in other states. It notes the fact that there were already state resource companies such as Bord na Mona. And in relation to that example it states ‘BnaM is a perfect example of what can be achieved with State enterprise and a natural fuel in Ireland. It is a considerable success story which has contributed quietly to Ireland’s economy for thirty years, creating employment, using a native file, and developing its own technology which has now been copied by other countries’.