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Sheffield Uni students disrupt arms dealers at careers fair

Sheffield student activist | 01.11.2007 15:01 | Anti-militarism | Sheffield

A group of activists from Sheffield University disrupted the stalls of arms companies Yorkshire Autumn Graduate Careers Fair on Tuesday 30th October. A banner was unfurled and anti-arms trade leaflets were given out.

The Yorkshire Autumn Graduate Recruitment Fair saw stalls from various companies and recruiters, including the Army, BAE, Proctor & Gamble, the Police, Tesco, Bechtel, the MoD and many more...instead of just opposing all "unethical" employers, a tactical decision was made to focus on the four arms companies present (BAE, GKN, QinetiQ, and Rolls-Royce), and so, shortly after noon on Tuesday 30th Oct, a group of activists entered the fair, unrolled two banners (reading "get your bloody hands off our graduates" and "study war no more") outside the Rolls-Royce stall, and began leafleting (which was banned inside the fair) until security turned up, at which point some activists began negotiating with them, while others snuck away and started leafleting outside the BAE and QinetiQ stalls, which went fairly well. After running out of the initial supply of leaflets, some of us attempted to re-enter the fair, but were thrown out again as soon as we began leafleting, and just leafleted outside until running out. Nothing terribly dramatic, but it put the various death-dealers and profiteers present on the defensive, and maybe it'll have helped to change a few graduates' minds, who knows?

Sheffield student activist

Comments

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Good stuff

01.11.2007 16:06

Well done.

Funny that Universities agree to boycott this or that product, and some university bans Viz magasine for being sexist, but ARMS DEALERS, PEOPLE WHO SELL GUNS AND BOMBS manage to creep under their radar.

Keep your eyes peeled, universities are business like any other, profit is the bottom line.

Bill Posters
- Homepage: http://afed.org.uk

Nasty dirty capitalist arms dealers

01.11.2007 19:43

I think Bill posters is correct - except also to say that profit is probably both the top and bottom line with the "so called universities" these days.

Well done the student activist lot - for their leafletting and banner - showing.
Please keep on keeping on with that.

I wonder if they are aware that there is a mainstream Sheffield Campaign Against the Arms Trade, and that there is a CAAT public meeting - on BAe - on Weds 14th November at 7pm, Broomhall Centre, Broomspring Lane.

Speakers are Ann Feltham - C.A.A.T. and Tony Hildyard - from The Corner House.

Plug over. SHAME on the University for having those nasty, evil warmongers on - or anywhere near, the Campus......year on year mind you!!

Fight war not wars.


Post billsters

to Post Billsters

06.11.2007 16:49

Keep in mind mate that Sheffield University along with Hallam (and about 10 to 15 uni's nationwide) are part of the OTC; the Officers Training Core. Originally set up for Public schools such as Eton, Harrow and Stowe, the OTC is the TA for kids - they become 'members' of the British Army for which they are paid, by the taxpayer of course, wear uniforms, do drills and army training such as war games, shooting and toasting the queen. The OTC is run by genuine soldiers who will have probably been in Ireland or Iraq, but the students are not committed to the army in any way. The TA can actually be called up but the OTC can't. The whole exercise is intended to give the next business leaders and politicians a sympathetic view of the armed forces, to make them feel part of the team, complicit. Many do go into the army from the OTC, but not at entry level (the hint is in the 'Officer' part) - they are advanced as of course their class background demands. The OTC is the the reason why the upper class went straight into safe officer positions under conscription in the first World War whilst normal people were used as cannon fodder.

Considering the OTC is not simply tolerated but a PROUD PART of the university, allowed to recruit freely throughout the University i don't think the institution will feel much shame over allowing a few gun runners into their careers day.

Bill Posters