Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Student Sit-In Halts LSE Oil Baron Peter Sutherland's Lecture

James Caspell | 22.11.2006 23:00 | Climate Chaos | Education | Globalisation | London

LSE students this evening demonstrated their opposition to the appointment of current BP Chair, Peter Sutherland, as the prospective Chair of LSE Court of Governors by staging a mass sit-in and halting a public lecture that he was due to give at the university.

LSE Students sit-in
LSE Students sit-in

LSE Students sit-in 2
LSE Students sit-in 2

LSE students sit-in 3
LSE students sit-in 3

LSE students sit-in
LSE students sit-in

LSE students sit-in
LSE students sit-in

LSE students sit-in
LSE students sit-in


Wednesday, 22 November 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Student Sit-In Halts LSE Oil Baron’s Lecture

LSE students this evening demonstrated their opposition to the appointment of current BP Chair, Peter Sutherland, as the prospective Chair of LSE Court of Governors by staging a mass sit-in and halting a public lecture that he was due to give at the university. Shortly before the beginning of the lecture, a large group of students entered the Old Theatre and took to the stage in peaceful demonstration, equipped with banners and placards outlining their opposition to his appointment and the human rights and environmental abuses that Sutherland has been implicated with throughout his career. At one point Sutherland attempted to begin his speech before being obstructed by the student demonstrators, who pledged not to leave until the school allowed a student-wide referendum on his appointment. This offer was refused by Sutherland and the School, and the event was eventually moved to an alternative venue after being delayed for almost an hour. A condensed version of the lecture was then given, although student press and activists were barred from entering by LSE security. Four police and four community support officers were called to the LSE campus to remove protestors.

Sutherland has been provisionally and controversially appointed as the new LSE Chair from 2008. Students are outraged that they were given no choice over the appointment and feel that his track record makes him totally unsuitable for the role. As Chair of BP, Sutherland is implicated in a series of human rights and environmental abuses across the world which undermine LSE's historic commitment to social justice and the "betterment of society". These abuses include: the Prudhoe Bay Alaskan Oil Spill, where BP spilled 265,000 oil barrels after being fined in 2002 for illegally failing to install a leak detection system promptly; the Baku-Tbilisi-Cehyan (BTC) Oil Pipeline, where BP’s contracts have overriden social and environmental legislation and undermined human rights and similar infractions cocnering pipelines in West Papua, Colombia and the North Sea. Sutherland also has a record of advocating the marketisation of public services in his time at the WTO and students are concerned that he will lobby the government to lift the cap on top-up fees when it is reviewed in 2010.

A student-led campaign against Sutherland’s appointment began in the Spring, when several student governors raised their objections at the Court of Governors meeting that ratified his appointment. Immediately after the appointment was made public, several prominent student representatives voices their concerns and a petition has so far been signed by almost 500 students. Now various student groups have come together and have vowed to campaign until he recognises the depth and opposition and agrees not to take up the post.

A spokesperson for the students said, “Many students are dismayed at this appointment and there is a broad coalition that want to make it clear that we do not want someone with Sutherland’s abysmal track record of human rights and environmental abuses to be the figurehead of our university. LSE is famed for it’s commitment to social justice and human rights and this appointment contradicts our founding aims and ethos. LSE students protested over the appointment of a director associated with racial segregation in the 1960's so similarly we are now protesting against someone associated with environmental degradation and human rights abuses. We also see it as another clear indication that the School is embracing an increasingly marketised perspective and increase tuition fees even more. Our aim was to make it clear to Sutherland and the School that students oppose his appointment and the way it was made, given that LSE has not listened to us. The appointment was railroaded through without any ackowledgement of our concerns. Tonight we forced them to listen to us and we hope they will take notice. "

Ends


Notes for Editors:

LSE students’ petition against Sutherland’s appointment:  http://www.petitiononline.com/lsesuth/petition.html

Article featuring controversy of Sutherland’s appointment:  http://www.london-student.net/content/view/330/29/

[Pictures attached] Free to use but accredit to Ali Moussavi

Contact:


Aled Fisher: 07817 588923

James Caspell: 07941 154912

James Caspell

Comments

Hide the following 7 comments

hypocritical

23.11.2006 01:38

The students at Britain's most expensive university trying to be champions of the poor. I am confused.

 http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/tableOfFees/2006-07.htm#E

unimpressed


Reclaim academia

23.11.2006 09:33

err....better than fighting for the rich you twit.

Well done LSE!

Boot the buisnessmen off all campuses now, deport New Labour fifth columists like Malcom Grant back to New Zealand and charge Tony Blair, Gordon Brown ect for the education they enjoyed for free from the tax payers.

Next year is the 40th anniversary of 68, this time lets not follow the french, lets us lead instead.

Reggie


Hey unimpressed, where does the article mention the poor?

23.11.2006 12:20

Strange load of codswallop comments on indymedia lately. Is this the same poster who accused Plane Stupid of attacking the working class by denying them cheap flights?
Someone certainly is living in the past here, this particular stuff isn't class war, it's about not endorsing and arse-licking someone with such an "abysmal track record of human rights and environmental abuses".

I'm with Reggie on this one, although I think it's the year after...

impressed


Cool

23.11.2006 13:34

I was thinking of applying to LSE but this has given me some doubts. Appointing such a figure to such a major position is shameful.

To unimpressed: all universities are just shitty capitalist corporate institutions these days. Your average "working class" low income student cares not a jot about campus politics. Unfortunately, I'd rather be in the company of middle class students who think than poor ones who are completely apathetic.

anon


congrats

23.11.2006 17:53

on getting up off your arses and giving a damn. needs to be more actions like this showing up the corporations that are taking over education.

good on you


Brilliant - don't stop!

24.11.2006 14:59

It's great to see people standing up against the corporate take-over of universities; Sutherland has no place in an educational institution and those within LSE who are allowing it should be ashamed - I hope the professors in the Human Rights department are joining in the protest!

Well done to all those who disrupted this event, I hope it carries on until he's gone!

bim


hypocrisy? hah!

12.12.2006 12:49

Firstly the link you post to the 'fees' LSE students pay is for masters programmes and international students - the fees are of course, shamefully high - but its exactly this kind of thing the protestors are angry about.

Further, this year is the first year top-up fees are being paid in the UK by students (LSE charges the maximum it can - the £3000 limit, soon to be raised by the government) Most of the students in the protest are second and third years - they pay no more for university than most other places around the country. They are not hypocrites at all, just students who are angry that in a few years time talented people like themselves wont be able to get into places like the LSE - only the rich will.

Sutherland's appointment is symptomatic of the marketisation the UK higher education system is undergoing to try and make it more 'competative' with the likes of the US.

lsestudent


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech