Alternative G20 summit cancelled

University of East London shuts down for duration of G20 talks and cancels alternative summit

The university that suspended a professor for inciting criminal action at this week's G20 summit has cancelled plans to host an "alternative G20 summit" and is to close its doors for the duration of the talks.

Prof Chris Knight, an expert in anthropology at the University of East London for 20 years, was suspended last week for "inciting criminal action, specifically violence against policemen and women and damage to banking institutions" in a newspaper interview he gave last week.

The university said campus buildings and libraries would be closed from 9pm tonight until the end of Thursday, reopening on Friday, to avoid any disruption arising from the summit.

A spokesman said: "We're just a few hundred metres from the ExCel centre [where the summit is being held] so will be affected by transport and other disruptions. Because of our duty of care to students and staff, we decided it would be safest to close the university for the duration."

The alternative summit that was scheduled for Wednesday evening has also been cancelled, because the university feared it had become linked to direct action protests.

The University and College Union said the event had been cancelled at the last minute because the university had withdrawn its backing to host it at UEL's Docklands campus.

A UCU official at UEL said: "The union had invited a number of academics, writers, trade unionists and activists to spark real debate around global justice – discussions unlikely to take place at the main G20 event just down the road at the ExCel centre.

"We wanted to provide a forum for debate about world crisis, hunger and conflict – and how we can tackle them in the interests of the majority of people.

"As academics proud of the radical and critical tradition held by many staff at UEL, we intended this to be an event of which the whole institution could be proud. UEL management has now refused access to its facilities."

A spokesperson for the university said: "The alternative G20 summit was originally proposed as an academic forum for discussion and debate around global justice, and the University of East London would have been proud to support such an event. However, in recent days, the event has been linked to possible direct action protests against the G20 summit, which have been widely publicised in the media.

"As a university, we have a duty of care, and our primary responsibility is to maintain a safe and secure campus environment for staff, students and visitors. Following discussions on Friday with UCU representatives, it was agreed that the potential scale of the event and associated risks had become unmanageable, and we would be unable to accommodate safely an event of this nature."