Anti-militarists disrupt careers fair.
Sheffield Activist Network | 29.04.2009 13:15 | Anti-militarism | Sheffield
STUDENTS SPRING INTO ACTION TO SAY NO TO MILITARY RECRUITERS!
29th April 2009
Sheffield students today targeted military recruiters and arms dealers at the University’s careers fair, demanding they have a say over who is allowed on campus. The stalls of QinetiQ, Rolls Royce, the Army and the Navy were all dismantled with protesters bagging up materials from the stalls and removing them from campus.
Today activists from Sheffield university continued what is now a growing line of actions highlighting the university’s links to arms companies and military recruiters. The careers fairs held in university buildings are events run by private companies for a profit and often include employers such as the Army, Navy, Rolls Royce and Quinetiq. Rolls Royce is renowned for its arms deals providing billions of pounds of weapons to countries across the world every year. Students also protested about the military, including the Army and Navy, being allowed on campus. These institutions whilst advertising a nice safe job to graduates continues with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and lures graduates in with promises of free further training which is in fact given in return for years of service. Rolls Royce is one of the top investors in the university, investing in research which ultimately is used in weapons manufacture, students attacking the company felt our students’ education and expertise should not be used for arms companies purely because they are willing to pile money into it! Students and staff should have a say in how money is spent and where funding comes from in this university instead of the university being run as a business in the interests of profit, especially when it comes to careers fairs selling our graduates on to employers such as Rolls Royce. The university has repeatedly refused to listen to the large body of students at staff who wish to end the university’s ties with the military and arms trade, and when students occupied in desperation to get the university to listen they were taken to court!
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS:
1. For more information and quotes contact 07872166911
2. For information on the arms trade at Sheffield university see - http://www.studywarnomore.org.uk/data/sheffield.html
Sheffield Activist Network
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