Kick 'em off campus @ Sheffield University

from email, 24 September 2008:

Did you know?

‐ That Sheffield University currently has the 4th highest level of military investment in the UK, with just short of £42 million provided to the university in the past decade. Most of this funding goes through departments such as Engineering, Computer Science and Physics with many courses allowing the military to advertise job opportunities for their students and offering scholarships with arms manufacturers.

‐ That Sheffield University supports an OTC (Officer Training Corp) programme. A reserve regiment in the British Army whose existence allows the government to send additional troops overseas supporting the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.

‐ That Sheffield University’s engineering department boasts a research facility for BAE. An arms manufacturer that not only provides fighter‐jets for the royal family of Saudi Arabia (a dictatorship renowned for its human rights abuses), but has also made soaring profits off the murder of millions of Iraqi civilians through its supply of weaponry for the invasion of Iraq.

Did you also know?
‐ That on the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq a group of local activists (including students from the university) blockaded a local army recruitment centre, disrupted its activities for the day and successfully made Sheffield city centre a military free zone.

‐ That when Air Marshall Stuart Peach (Head of Military Defence Intelligence Services and one of the architects of the invasion of Iraq) was invited to hold a guest lecture at the university on the “utility of aerial warfare” he was greeted by a coalition of antimilitary activists who set off an air siren and thirty‐five rape alarms in the hall where his speech was being held. Some rather enthusiastic participants even managed to utilise a bit of “aerial power” of their own, lobbing active alarms at the top brass in the front row and even one for the good Air Marshall himself.

‐ That Sheffield students have repeatedly invaded careers fairs to confront recruiters and arms manufacturers. Resulting, on one occasion, in a quite bizarre twist of events that ended with anti‐war activists taking over Barclay’s Bank vacant stall at the fair (usual cost £900‐£1000) setting up their banners and handing out their anti‐military leaflets for free! (much to the annoyance of the corporate sponsors of the event).

++++

Meetings

Tuesday 30th September
6-7pm in The Dales (Upstairs above the Source in the Student Union)

Come hear about our
ongoing campaign to kick army recruiters and arms manufacturers out of
our uni. Plus a student speaker from a successful campaign that banned military
recruitment from their university campus.

Freshers Week at Sheffield University is, for most students, the one and only time they will come into contact with the OTC. It is their one recruitment drive during the year and their only visible presence on campus. After that they retreat to their barracks to play war games for a another year.

Our activists aim to disrupt this recruitment as best they can and use the opportunity to promote the anti-militarist campaign.

See http://www.kickemoffcampus.org/

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