The Hackney Citizen reports:

Only one Hackney apprentice on Olympics site: MP Diane Abbott slams low numbers of opportunities for local people

After discovering that only one apprentice working on the Olympics site comes from Hackney, local MP Diane Abbott has called on the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) to address the low numbers of apprentices on the Olympic site as a matter of urgency.

Three Games, three eviction stories. In September 2009 Planning Theory and Practice Magazine published, in its Interface section, three articles on displacement caused by three different mega-events, the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The publication is attached.

In the Shadow of the Olympic Flame: A Report from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, the Poorest Neighborhood in Canada

Chemical discharge into the Old River Lea: July 2009, ©: Martin Slavin
On 25th of February 2010 the Hackney Gazette reported; “More than 500 people in the north-east of [London], ...including many from Hackney, [have complained]..that their water smells of faecal matter.” A week earlier it reported that one resident said, “The water smells like faecal material. If you taste it you want to spit it out.” Another complained of the water having, “an incredibly strong, acrid chemical, sour milk or sewage smell"..

A sizeable proportion of the Games' massive budget has been spent dredging waterways, to help move materials to the Olympic site. The plan was for up to a thousand tonnes a day to go by barge. But the amount of business so far is only a trickle compared with what was promised.

It would seem that the key concept for the 'actually existing Olympics' is signified by the word poor

photo © Marina Watson Peláez

On Saturday, 13 February at 12 noon, UK and Canadian environmental activists opened the ‘Oil-ympics’ at Canada House in Trafalgar Square. The event, timed to coincide with the opening of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, highlighted the role of British companies in the single biggest industrial project on earth, the Canadian Tar Sands (1).

The Oil-ympics event saw activists divided into three teams: BP, Shell and RBS, all ready to ‘Race to the Tar Sands’. Traditional winter sports were subverted to illustrate the irony of Canada portraying the Vancouver Winter Olympics as an event which celebrates Canadian indigenous culture and environmental sustainability, while in the neighbouring province of Alberta, Canadian First Nations are finding that their lands, communities and health are being devastated by the Tar Sands (2).

BP received special attention after it recently unveiled plans to embark on its first Tar Sands extraction project. BP had previously sold its potential stake in Alberta in 1999, when BP’s chief executive at the time, Lord Browne, deemed Tar Sands extraction to be economically unviable and environmentally unpleasant. However, BP’s new chief executive, Tony Hayward, is now set to make BP a major player in the Tar Sands with a partnership with Canada’s Husky Energy – a venture that is facing sharp criticism from BP’s own shareholders (3,4).

Alice Hargreaves, of the UK Tar Sands Network, said: “BP has been trying to prove that they are ‘Beyond Petroleum’ for years, but with their entry into the Tar Sands project, we can see the truth: Beyond Petroleum is nothing more than a Broken Promise.(5) BP shareholders are rebelling over this betrayal, and so are we. Over the next two months, we’ll be putting the pressure on to make sure BP get the message – stay out of the Tar Sands!”

Shell has been singled out as it is already a major operator in the Tar Sands, and RBS as it is the 7th biggest global investor in the Tar Sands. (6)
photo © Victoria Habermehl, tarsandsinfocus





Notes:
(1) Deposits of Tar Sands are spread out over 54,000 square miles of prime forest in northern Alberta, an area the size of England and Wales combined. Producing crude oil from the Tar Sands generates up to five times more carbon dioxide, the principal global warming gas, than conventional drilling: see Environment Canada, 2007, National Inventory Report Greenhouse Gas Sources and Sinks in Canada 1990–2005, http://www.ec.gc.ca/pdb/ghg/inventory_report/2006_report/som-sum_eng.cfm

(2) This action is in solidarity with Canadian First Nations who have called for a moratorium on the Tar Sands. For more information see the Indigenous Environmental Network: http://www.ienearth.org/cits.html

(3) BP has entered a joint venture with Husky Energy to develop a Tar Sands facility which will be capable of producing 200,000 barrels of crude a day by 2020. In return for a half share of Husky’s Sunrise field in the Athabasca region of Alberta, the epicentre of the Tar Sands industry, BP has sold its partner a 50 per cent stake in its Toledo oil refinery in Ohio. The companies plan to invest $10 billion in the project, making BP a major player in Tar Sands extraction. The final investment decision will be made in the next few months.

http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=2012968&contentId=7038865

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=aGw2sL7JwHG8

(4) A coalition of shareholders has tabled a resolution for BP’s AGM on April 15 highlighting the environmental and social risks of Tar Sands extraction. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article7018483.ece

(5) http://tarsandsinfocus.wordpress.com/bpbrokenpromises/

(6) For Shell Investments see http://www.foei.org/en/resources/publications/pdfs-members/economic-justice/shells-big-dirty-secret/view?searchterm=shell%27s%20big%20dirty%20secret

For RBS investments see http://understory.ran.org/2010/01/31/banks-ranked-and-spanked-on-tar-sands/

Originally posted on Indymedia UK by UK Tar Sands Network
- e-mail: tarsandsinfocus@googlemail.com
- Homepage: http://www.tarsandsinfocus.wordpress.com

Meanwhile in Brighton:

Climate Camp Invades BP Petrol Stations Over Tar Sands

On Saturday 13th February activists from the South Coast neighbourhood of the Camp for Climate Action invaded the three BP petrol stations in Brighton, on the Lewes Rd, Ditchling Rd and London Rd, to protest at BP's plans to invest in the Alberta Tar Sands in Canada. Moving by bicycle 8 activists carried a banner reading 'Tar Sands Oil Is Blood Oil'. They handed out information on the Canadian tar sands and BP's plans to invest in it to customers and urged them to boycott BP.

Many of BP's customers where shocked to hear about BP's proposed involvement in one of the dirtiest businesses on earth, especially in the light of its past attend to project a green image, and in some cases left immediately left to get their fuel somewhere else. This action is the start of a campaign, which is hoped will spread across the UK. A one of the Brighton activists said: "We hope that other concerned local people across the UK will follow our example and begin putting the pressure on BP in their areas. Tar sands are an appalling example of placing insane greed ahead of the whole planet and everyone on it."

Tar sands are deposits of tar, sand and clay under the forests of Alberta in western Canada. Tar sands extraction is an ecological disaster, sometimes referred to as 'The biggest environmental crime in history'. Oil produced from tar sands is the filthiest most carbon intensive oil (over 3 times as much CO2 to produce as conventional oil). The Athabasca tar sands operations are the largest single industrial emitter of CO2 on the planet. Enough natural gas is used every day extracting this oil to heat 3.2 million Canadian homes.

Tar sands extraction involves the wholesale destruction of vast tracts of ancient forest over an area the size of England and Wales and the use of huge amounts of water that is left so contaminated that it must be stored in giant ponds. The toxic tailings ponds are so vast they can be seen from space. Leaks for these ponds are poisoning local rivers and the indigenous peoples that live there. The rush to extract oil from tar sands is also trampling on the rights of the local indigenous peoples.

While the tar sands are in Canada, much of the financing is coming from UK companies. BP which once tried to rebrand itself as `Beyond Petroleum' to give itself a green image is planning on investing $10billion in the Sunrise Project a tar sands extraction project in Alberta. This week a number BP's shareholders have started a revolt and are pressuring BP to stop. Other UK companies that are involved in tar sands include Shell, RBS and Barcalys.

Democracy Now reports on protests by up to 3000 demonstrators in Vancouver, largely ignored by the mainstream media.

By Paul Charman and Mike Wells

After spending hundreds of millions of tax payers’ money on a high profile ‘clean-up’, it has become clear that the 2012 Olympic Park actually remains classified as a contaminated brownfield site.

In a long running story already reported on Games Monitor the green credentials of the 2012 Olympics have come under further strain as the Olympic Delivery Authority continues to refuse to fit polluting non road mobile machinery (NRMM) with exhaust after treatment. While the rest of the UK has complied with European air quality standards London has failed to do so.

NOGOE
No to Greenwich Olympic Equestrian Events
17 City Business Centre, Lower Road, London SE16 2XB
www.nogoe2012.com

In mid 2009 IWW members produced a report on health and safety at Stratford City. Regrettably, it seems their concerns about the nature of working practices on the site have proved well-founded. On 16th December 2009, Shaun Scurry, an employee of Firesafe Installations, died after suffering serious injuries in a lift accident on 9th December 2009 at the Westfield Stratford City shopping centre site. Shaun from Kirkby, Liverpool, was 39, the father of two sons and engaged to be married. He was reportedly trapped between a steel beam and an industrial lift when he was installing lagging to ductwork. The accident is being investigated by the Health and Safety Executive. In January 2010, the IWW members updated their report, which is attached.

The LDA has now provided the information I asked for, see below*. Ms Adams says 'If it is helpful, I address each aspect of your request below for the sake of clarity.' That is certainly useful and, 'for the sake of clarity', would indeed have been helpful first time round! Still, let's not be churlish and thank the LDA for providing the information requested.

In a mealy-mouthed response to my request for information about the costs of acquiring several pieces of land in the north of the Olympic Park the LDA says ‘The Commissioner in that Decision Notice required the LDA to disclose to you the “withheld information”. That term is not specifically defined…’ The LDA then goes on to argue, in its letter of 26th September 2008 (attached), that the information withheld related to the leasehold of the Clays Lane estate and the freehold of the Park Village estate “and not in relation to the other pieces of land requested by you on 15th September 2008”.

The 2012 blog continues to churn out the same misleading information. A recent posting by a local resident reminded me of the experience of going through the compulsory purchase inquiry and having our estate and community dismissed by the LDA. I tried to post a comment but, not for the first time, that was disallowed. Like a true colonialist operation the ODA claims to listen to ordinary people and to practise inclusion, but its own publicly funded website refuses to allow a proper debate.

Holding the Equestrian Olympics in Greenwich Park is a bad idea, and it may never have got off the ground if the bid company: a) had not over-estimated the size of the Park; b) had carried out rudimentary environmental research; and c) had done a cost-benefit analysis against comparative sites.

Having won the bid, the organiser, LOCOG, is determined to go through with its plans despite the problems posed by holding such a major event in a fragile World Heritage Site. Its determination is rooted in the fact that equestrian is in decline; an iconic setting in an urban location might help to promote it, and the International Equestrian Federation has made it clear that, if Greenwich Park is not used, then the prospects for the sport in future Olympics are in peril. Hence the pressure to take risks.

The LDA has been told in a ruling by the Information Commissioner to supply details of how much it paid for a number of sites, including the Clays Lane estate, purchased under the Compulsory Purchase Order, and to whom this money was paid. The original request was made in July 2008, see attachment ‘LDA FoI response on cpo statements’. Curiously the complaint was upheld because, despite claiming an exemption, the LDA failed to offer a reason why it should apply.

Local food suppliers and health and animal welfare campaigners have criticised LOCOG’s recently issued Food Vision. LOCOG claims it will 'showcase the best of British food in 2012'. However, Compassion in World Farming and the RSPCA disagree. Rowen West-Henzell, Compassion in World Farming’s Head of Food Business said: "The resulting food vision is conspicuous - not for being visionary, but for being completely out of touch with the growing food culture in Britain and what, as a nation, we might wish to eat at our Games." The British Heart Foundation complain that about 3 million of the 14 million meals will be served by McDonalds. Ruairi O'Connor, head of policy at the British Heart Foundation, said: "Health does not seem to be high on the agenda."

From: Alex Hundert, Narrative Resistance

It was not out of place for us to protest the Olympics today, as one might potentially suggest, on the Global Day of Action against Climate Change. For one thing, the City of Kitchener was holding a pre-torch Olympic celebration yesterday on public property at City Hall. Second, because Olympic sponsor RBC and the country of Canada are using the Olympics as a greenwashing campaign, to cover up their true record on climate change and the environment.

While traveling to Vancouver, Canada to speak at the Vancouver Public Library at a benefit for community radio stations, Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman and her two colleagues were detained by Canadian authorities. The armed interrogators were particularly interested in whether she would be speaking about the upcoming Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Amy was questioned extensively about the speech she intended to give; their car was gone through by armed border guards, and their papers and laptop computers were scoured.

Edgeland from sallymc on Vimeo.

Olympic Games displace people through eviction. They also result in higher land values and the consequent displacement of poorer residents through rises in rents and higher house prices. A recent report by Dr Georgios Kavetsos of the Cass Business School has confirmed that this process is underway in the vicinity of the 2012 London Olympic Park.

This video recently arrived in our email inbox.

Reproduced here is the letter sent to the Hackney Gazette from Hackney Marshes User Group. Please note that the final sentence was edited by the Gazette such that it's meaning was lost when published in the print edition of Thursday 5th November 2009.

2010 Olympic Torch Relay Starts Off Disgraced, Delayed, and Disrupted

Pan American Games. Rio 2007.

Tom Tresser - (Tom is an educator, organizer and consultant in Chicago's creative community.)

[ Note -- I was one of the three No Games Chicago delegates who travelled to Copenhagen last week to deliver materials and messages to the members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)]

Two presidents, two prime ministers and a monarch cavorted in front of the unelected, unaccountable members of the IOC begging to be allowed to spend billions on their three week circus. In the end it was Rio, the poorest of the four cities but the one which had promised to spend the most with a budget of $14.4bn (£9.90bn) for construction and $2.8bn (£1.92bn) for operating costs - all of which will be underwritten by the government, that was rolled over. That may well not be the end of it. In 2007 Brazil’s Pan American Games was four times over budget, just like London’s Olympic budget. Similar concerns exist about a likely overspend on Brazil's hosting of the 2014 World Cup. Even a Brazilian sports paper, Lance, has said the 2014 bid was a confidence trick and the money should have gone on health and education.

During his recent foray into East London with the cabinet Gordon Brown once again played up the job benefits of the Olympics saying "Thanks to the Olympics, thousands of jobs are being created and protected in some of the industries worst hit by the recession - and in some of Britain's most deprived areas." Back in January he claimed the 2012 Olympics would create 50,000 new jobs, a considerable advance on the Compulsory Purchase Inquiry in 2006 when the LDA was saying there would be 6,000 net new jobs arising from the Olympics. With a budget of £9.34billion and rising, along with more spending to come after Games, there should indeed be some new jobs, but specifically how many, in what employment sectors and how many would have been created if the Olympics hadn’t happened? I decided to ask some Freedom of Information questions to see if the LDA could be more specific.

After more than a year of seriously annoying and disturbing the residents of Leabank Square with dust and noise from its construction project the Olympic Delivery Authority has further turned the screw by insisting that residents should desist from denouncing a member of staff. In comments, although not in articles, posted on the Leabank Square blogspot residents had vigorously condemned the performance of the ODA’s community relations manager, Giorgia Sharpe. The author of the blog was threatened by an ODA lawyer with libel action if he didn’t remove the criticisms.