Occupy London Joins March Against BHPB

On Thursday, 20th October a small group of protesters assembled at Occupy London to march two miles in solidarity with communities impacted by BHP Billiton (BHPB), the world’s largest mining company, in what was the Occupation’s first off-site protest action.During the march, protesters took turns on the megaphone, leading chants and sharing their personal reasons for joining the march. Their stories were as varied as the protesters’ backgrounds, from Anti-Fracking campaigners, to a Nigerian National, to people who had spent time with Aboriginal communities in Australia. There was also an ex-BHPB employee present.At BHPB’s shareholder meeting, Julio Cesar Gomez, President of the Federation of Communities Displaced by Mining in La Guajira, was on-site to represent the 115 communities that were set to be displaced by the expansion of BHPB’s Cerrejon mine in Colombia.

Generally, BHPB’s operations contribute to and benefit from the involuntary relocation of communities and the destruction of rural communities’ livelihoods. BHPB, through its mining of uranium, coal and gas, also make a massive contribution to worsening climate change and is creating deadly radioactive pollution for hundreds of thousands of years to come.

 

By Sakura Saunders