Burnaby

Organizing Meeting: SFU Against Goldcorp and Gentrification (SAGG)

3:00pm
Friday October 8 2010

**ORGANIZING MEETING**
Friday October 8th
3pm
Graduate Students Society Conference Room
(Maggie Benson Centre Rm 2212)

Last Friday, more than 25 SFU students and faculty came to the first
organizing meeting of a new campus group: SFU Against Goldcorp and
Gentrification (SAGG). This ad hoc group began planning an ambitious
campaign to fight against the corporatization of the university, the
_community-washing_ of a mining company responsible for human rights
and environmental crimes, and SFU's participation in the
gentrification of the Downtown Eastside.

The four draft demands we agreed on (to be finalized this meeting) were:

i.     To remove Goldcorp's name from all SFU projects
ii.    That the university must develop procedures to give low income
residents of the DTES control over university developments in their
community
iii.     No funding from corporate human rights abusers like Goldcorp. We
demand control over private funding by students and faculty; and
iv.     We demand the end of the private funding problem through full
public funding of public education

The projects and actions we began work on include:

- An information and education campaign about Goldcorp
- A quick response public forum about Goldcorp's dirty-money funding
of the SFU arts school, and the meaning of it for students and faculty
and for the low income DTES community; and
- Outreaching other campus groups to gain support for the demands and
actions of the SAGG campaign

Come to the meeting this Friday to continue this important organizing
work and develop SFU's resistance against the corporatization of the
university, Goldcorp, and gentrification!

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For more info, contact: antigoldcorp@gmail.com

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Directions:
- Take bus #135 from Hastings street or other SFU busses from
University-Production Way Skytrain
- Get off at the first SFU stop (Exchange)
- Walk up the stairs and into the Maggie Benson Centre, by the coffee
shop, then down to the second floor

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Backgrounder:

In September, the office of the SFU president announced that Canadian
mining giant *Goldcorp* has donated $10million to the Woodwards based
SFU branch… which has been rebranded "The Goldcorp Centre for the
Arts."

A notorious environmental, human rights, and colonial criminal
company, Goldcorp is facing federal criminal charges in Honduras and
have been involved in legal battles in Argentina and Guatemala. The
Inter-American Commission for Human Rights recommended that a Goldcorp
mine in Guatemala be shut down because of widespread destruction and
contamination of land and water affecting territories of at least 18
communities of the Maya people.

Goldcorp claims that they considered the welfare of the "depressed"
Downtown Eastside and think they can be part of creating a "more
sustainable future" there. But according to the Carnegie Community
Action Project, the Woodwards project has had an immediate ripple
effect of massive rent increases and gentrification. No one, not SFU's
senior administration and certainly not Goldcorp ever asked if the
mining corporation was welcome in the community, or at our school.
Despite the rhetoric, the Goldcorp Arts Centre project is clearly
something the University is doing to the neighbourhood, not with it.

SFU students and faculty are being marred by this project. We are NOT
proud to be associated with a gentrification project, and we refuse to
be bought out by Goldcorp. We can join the struggles against
gentrification and colonial mining projects, and begin to create a
culture of accountability at SFU that holds the administration to the
ethics implied by their motto: "Thinking of the World."

For more info:

http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/blog/dawn/4695

http://www.straight.com/article-349701/vancouver/sfu-under-fire-acceptin...

And from the SFU website:

“Goldcorp is committed to making a positive difference here in
Vancouver as well as those where we operate our mines,” says Goldcorp
president Chuck Jeannes. “Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside has become one
of Canada’s most depressed neighbourhoods, and we are optimistic that
by working with Simon Fraser University, we will be able to reach out
to its businesses and residents to help create a more sustainable
future.”

SFU president Andrew Petter is enthusiastic about the opportunities
that the Goldcorp endowment will provide for the university to
strengthen its ties with the community. “This gift will ensure that
our Contemporary Arts program is not just located in the Downtown
Eastside, but also is a vital and contributing member of the
neighbourhood. It will enable us to offer new programs that are
specially tailored to the needs of the local community.”