A group of around 15 activists gathered outside Ravensdown’s fertiliser factory at Ravensbourne last Tuesday, for a “morning of mourning” over a “shipload of shame”. On a cold, dark and wet morning, the black-clad protesters were opposing the “unwelcome” arrival of the Sea Breeze, a ship carrying an estimated 55,000 tonnes of phosphate from Western Sahara. Set to be sent to farms across Aotearoa, critics call this “blood phosphate,” citing its decades-long link to human rights abuses.
As the title would suggest, the protest was a solemn affair. People stood in a semicircle, symbolising the crescent in the flag of Western Sahara flag, listening to kōrero from the organisers. A spokesperson from protest organisers Environmental Justice Ōtepoti (EJŌ) said that they aimed to “send a message of solidarity to Western Sahara and to acknowledge the pain of Sahrawi people.” In a press release, the environmental activist organisation said: “We call on Ravensdown to stop this illegal purchase, to stop funding an ongoing war, which will allow the Sahrawi people to have an independent UN referendum liberating them from Moroccan rule for sovereignty on their homelands.” Their message was summarised by the protest chants that rang out across the harbour: “No blood phosphate! Free Western Sahara!”
Despite police presence as the ship was unloaded, tensions remained low throughout the morning. At one point, a police officer asked if anyone was planning to “jump the fence”, to which one protester responded: “Not at this stage, we need to go to work.” They then pointed to the Sea Breeze, asking: “Why don’t you arrest them?”
Western Sahara, where this phosphate was mined from, was invaded by Morocco in 1975 shortly following its independence from Spain. It has been under armed occupation since then, despite the United Nations insisting the local Sahrawi people have a “right to self-determination and independence”. In the subsequent conflict, characterised by near-daily bombings and separation of families, an estimated 200,000 native Sahrawi people have been displaced, resulting in one of the longest running refugee crises in modern history.
This “blood phosphate”, intimately linked to and indeed financing an illegal and violent occupation of land, is considered by much of the world to be so ethically tainted that it is untouchable. Indeed, on its journey between Morocco and Aotearoa, the Sea Breeze did not make any stops in Africa or South America, with most countries in the region shunning the product as “illegal”. Aotearoa, however, remains hooked: our largest fertiliser companies, farmer-owned cooperatives Ravensdown and Ballance Agri-Nutrients, are Morocco’s biggest customers for this “blood phosphate”, and among the last buyers of the stuff anywhere in the world. “If there’s legislative power for [a ban] to be done there, why isn’t it done here?” asked an EJŌ spokesperson.
With the arrival of spring, EJŌ expects more ships carrying this “blood phosphate” to arrive, although the certainty of protest action means their schedules are often shrouded in secrecy. “The fact that they’re bringing more ships in more often shows that it's only getting worse,” said one young protestor. “Students are the next generation [and] it’s our role as young people to stand up.”
Ravensdown did not respond to our latest request for comment. However, in a previous statement (as published in issue 8), a spokesperson said they had no problem buying Western Saharan phosphate because OCP, the Moroccan state-owned company that supplies the phosphate, “complies with the UN framework” by “promoting economic advancement”, providing “non-discriminatory working conditions” and “conducting operations rationally and sustainably”. They sidestepped questions regarding the “complex geopolitical situation,” saying that: “The right place to reach any kind of solution for such a complex geopolitical issue is through the UN.” In fact, the UN has been vocally opposed to the Moroccan occupation for the past 40 years.