All that was required was to squeeze a bit. Dow may be dropped!

[trackwhack]

London 2012 Olympics: British politicians demand London drops Dow as Olympic Stadium sponsor - Telegraph

We just need to play hardball and they will come around. Going soft has never got us anything.

By Jacquelin Magnay, Olympics Editor

Simon Hughes, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, Labour's London mayor candidate Ken Livingstone and Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith are among those from across the political spectrum to have lent support to the campaign. They are joined by international figures from the arts and entertainment such as British sculptor Antony Gormley, actor Martin Sheen and television personality Nancy Dell'Ollio.


This comes as the association of Olympians in India has reignited calls for a boycott of the London Games ahead of a critical meeting of the Indian Olympic Association tomorrow.


Olympian Association of India (OAI) president Aslam Sher Khan, who has helped present the petition, said: "Being an Olympian, I do understand the feeling of players who work hard to participate in event like Olympics and that how important it is for their careers.


"But, being a Bhopali, I think India should not participate in London Olympics if Dow Chemicals is not removed from sponsorship.''


Dow Chemical now owns Union Carbide, the company responsible for thousands of deaths in the Bhopal chemical spill in 1984. Their sponsorship of the Olympic Stadium wrap has been fiercely defended by Locog and its chairman Lord Sebastian Coe.

But the petition also includes names of the three 'Olympic boroughs' of Hackney, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest.

The Indian Olympic Association president VK Malhotra confirmed he was pressuring Locog to remove the Dow sponsorship and was seeking a coordinated response from the Indian government before tomorrow's meeting.

Malhotra said: "Olympics are about love, brotherhood and transparency and this company [Dow] is linked with another which was responsible for killing thousands of Indian people. It's unacceptable that such a company is a sponsor in the Olympics. So we will ask the London organisers to remove the company from being a sponsor," Malhotra said.

Locog officials say they have not yet received a request from the Indians to remove the wrap.

Meanwhile, Barry Gardiner, Labour MP for Brent North, has claimed officials of the London organising committee (Locog) presented misleading details about elements of the sponsorship and has demanded an urgent Government inquiry.

Gardiner said the real savings attributable to Dow Chemical's sponsorship of the wrap will be a little more than £1.5million and not £7m as previously claimed by Locog.

He said he has received complaints from other companies involved in the tendering process of the wrap, which he says "calls into question whether it was genuinely open and transparent".

Gardiner said: "I have brought these to the attention of the chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee asking for an urgent inquiry into the procurement process."

Gardiner also claims Locog failed to understand the reputational risk to the London Olympics by appointing Dow Chemical as a sponsor. He said a Dow Chemical subsidiary was blacklisted by the Indian government for bribing officials, while the company has also been issued a cease and desist order by the New York stock exchange relating to corruption of officials.

A Locog spokeswoman said the £7m referred to was the savings to the Government when the wrap was removed and the real cost of the wrap also includes installation, taking it down and re-using it. She said an independent assessment of the procurement process by the sustainability commissioner Shaun McCarthy had validated the process.

Who has signed the petition?
Among the 11,000 are:

Celebrities: Noam Chomsky (academic), Martin Sheen (actor), Shekhar Kapur (Bollywood director), Antony Gormley (artist), Paul Oakenfold (DJ), Nancy Dell'Ollio (TV personality), Gary Hume (artist), Jake and Dinos Chapman (artists),Tim Noble and Sue Webster (artists), Dominique Lapierre (author), Javier Moro (author), Ben Langlands & Nikki Bell (artists), Hamish McAlpine (film maker), Ragu Rai (photographer), Meaghan Delahunt (novelist), Aditya Patel (Indian racing driver), Robin Nicholson CBE (architect, former depouty chair CABE), Indra Sinha (writer), Meaghan Delahunt (writer), Pradip Krishen (film maker, writer, activist).

Olympic Boroughs:Tower Hamlets, Hackney, Waltham Forrest

Politicians:

Labour MPs: Ken Livingstone (Labour candidate for Mayor of London), Barry Gardiner MP (Chair of Labour Friends of India), Rushanara Ali MP (Labour), Keith Vaz MP(Labour), Graeme Stringer MP (Labour),, Andy Love MP (Labour), John Robertson MP (Labour), Theresa Pearce MP (Labour),Geraint Davies MP (Labour), John McDonnell MP (Labour), Heidi Alexander MP (Labour), Stephen Pound MP (Labour), Jeremy Corbyn MP (Labour), Gareth Thomas MP (Labour), John Cryer MP (Labour), Jim Sheridan MP (Labour), Kate Hoey MP (Labour), Thomas Docherty MP (Labour), Joan Wallley MP (Labour), Kate Green MP (Labour).

Conservative MPs: Bob Blackman MP (Conservative), Priti Patel MP (Conservative), Dan Byles MP (Conservative), Zac Goldsmith MP (Conservative).

Liberal Democrat MPs: Simon Hughes MP (Deputy Leader, Liberal Democrats), Duncan Hames MP (Liberal Democrat), Julian Huppert MP (Liberal Democrat), Bob Russell MP (Liberal Democrat)

 

[nrj]

What Laxmi Mittal has to say on the issue?

He is sponsoring the event iirc.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

A better outcome than Indian competitors staying home because of a boycott..

 

[Ray]

Dow and other exploiting mega companies must be reminded of their social responsibilities too!