Issue 45 – Autumn 2014
cheesegratermagazine.org
I HATE THESE
BLURRED MINES MIDSUMMER The Cheese Grater Digs Into UCL’s Mining Industry Connections. Ollie Phelan Anti-mining campaigners were left to dig themselves out of a hole last Thursday as their proposed talk, hosted by Fossil Free UCL, was cancelled at the last minute, forcing organisers to find an alternative venue at SOAS. The speakers, who had travelled from Colombia, Indonesia and the Phillipines, are currently touring the UK with the London Mining Network (LMN) to highlight the destructive activities of mining company BHP Billiton, who have a
whopping £6 million association with UCL. Along with Fossil Free UCL, LMN had organised a meeting to bring the university’s close relationship with the company to light and deliver letters voicing their concerns to the provost. Their plans were foiled, however, when their their room booking, which was organised weeks in advance, was cancelled with little explanation and their speakers were not permitted to appear on campus.
Pekka Piirainen from Fossil Free UCL cast doubt on the idea that the cancellation was due to bureaucratic error, saying “It smacks of bullshit considering it shouldn’t take two weeks to do a simple background check.” “Clearly UCL wants to close its eyes to the human rights abuses and the societal and environmental destruction done by its corporate donor. I’d imagine this played into the Union’s reluctance to let the speakers tell their stories at UCL” Continued on Page 3.