No dash for gas: Activist group protests at Royal School of Mines

The Royal School of Mines (RSM) entrance was occupied on Monday 1st June by a group of students and members of the public representing the activist group ‘Reclaim the Power’.

The protest consisted of the presentation of a degree in Petroleum Geophysics to “brainwashed student #5102”, which claimed to enable “students to contribute to global warming and social injustice”, followed by a sit in by the group of 10 protesters. Some Imperial students joined the protesters.

Security officers restricted access to the entrance lobby, and appeared to phone the police. The protest vacated the lobby peacefully before any police officers arrived, and the call was retracted. One protester we talked to said “one of the security officers showed solidarity with us. It’s clearly an issue that’s on the mind at Imperial”. Reclaim the Power did not contact the security office prior to the protest taking place.

The RSM sit-in was protesting the level of investment from the fossil fuel industry received by universities, and Imperial College in particular. The complaint runs that since university departments are so dependent on this investment, the direction of research (and therefore public money) is directed by the fossil fuel industry.

A press release by Reclaim the Power states that “they [Imperial College] invite oil executives onto university committees and present themselves publicly as “a fossil fuel university””. The College’s President, Alice Gast, also sits on the board of directors at Chevron, which in 2010 sold 3.1 million barrels per day of refined oil products such as gasoline, diesel and jet fuel. The company received the 2015 Lifetime Award of the Public Eye, a platform for substantial criticism of “purely profit-oriented globalisation”.

This action reflects recent campaigns by Fossil Free campaigns at UK universities. Oxford University recently agreed not to take coal and tar sands investments, while Edinburgh University more controversially refused to divest, following a three year campaign by the students. Within the past year, Galhow University, the University of Bedfordshire, and SOAS, University of London have agreed to divest from fossil fuels entirely.

Reclaim The Power ran a total of 18 actions during the day, and 11 protesters were arrested across the country. Other actions have included a blockade on the steps outside the Department of Energy and Climate Change, office occupations of PR firms Mediazoo and Camargue, and a rooftop occupation of RWE Npower’s Swindon headquarters. The last of these resulted in the arrest of the two protesters involved.

Reclaim the Power also ran a “Mass Action Camp” at Didcot power station from 29th May to 2nd June, which aimed to offer “actions with more of an arrest risk” in conjunction with “actions that are suitable for families with children (and face paint!)”.

Fossil Free Imperial said of the protest “Reclaim the Power’s action shows that the pressure on fossil fuel companies and their associates is growing and has wide ranging vocal support. Their campaign highlights the inconvenient truth about the strong ties between Imperial and the fossil fuel industry that go far beyond its endowment fund. It is clear that Imperial needs to take a strong stance on its position in a low carbon future, and not allow this to become its Kodak moment.”