Professor Charlie Peevers, Professor of International Law (School of Law), University of Glasgow, gave a fascinating talk on Thursday 4 December at the St Magnus Centre, Kirkwall, where she set the Uranium protests which took place in Orkney 50 years ago into their International setting.

The talk has been recorded and can be viewed on The Orkney News YouTube channel or by clicking on the link above.

Professor Peever’s talk described the international scene as it was in the 1950’s, and 60’s where resistance grew to the exploitative practices of large mining and energy companies backed by powerful Western countries. Events like The Suez Crisis when not just the citizens but other countries resisted the exploitation of their resources by previous colonial powers.

The talk turned to Scotland, to movements in the Western Isles, Skye, and of course Orkney. This is recent history, within living memory, but is already being forgotten. The exploitative practices of large corporations, and governments at local and national level, continue to this day. In the Q&A which followed the presentation Professor Peevers explored those themes in more depth in response to concerns raised by members of the audience about what is happening today.

Fiona Grahame

Orkney’s Uranium Protests

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