HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Disarm UCL !

The UCL council yesterday looked at the proposal for ethical investment brought forward by the Disarm UCL campaign. Download the proposal here.

I have been told that Council members were impresssed and appreciated that our proposal is serious and well written. This is in line with the impression I had when chatting to some of the Council members in the corridor prior to the meeting.

Unfortunately the UCL Council yesterday did not have the confidence to make a very clear move towards ethical investment and decided that UCL will continue investing in arms trader Cobham.

Students, staff and alumni at UCL will be back at the beginning of next year with more creative campaigning to ditch the disgraceful arms shares and we will monitor the development of an ethical investment policy closely.

For the time being: We're going to hit the Union bar tonight for Birthday drinks: The Disarm UCL campaign is one year old today !

Everyone welcome ! We'll kick off at 7 pm in Easyjays in the Union ! See you there !

Disarm UCL article on New Statesman politics site today !

An article discussing UCL's arms investments is today featured on the New Statesman politics website.

Please comment on the article here.

More national press coverage for Disarm UCL

On Thursday the Times Higher on page 3 published a big photo from the Disarm UCL "graduation from university of war" photo stunt.

A picture of the protest and an article about the opposition to UCL's arms investment were also published in West End Extra on Friday.

Well done, everyone. You are brilliant ! And famous now :))

If Bentham had a grave he'd be spinning in it

UCL alumnus Richard Wilson has written another brilliant comment piece protesting against UCL's arms investments on the Guardian website. Check it out.

Read and comment here

The Independent today published link to Disarm UCL petition for readers to sign

The Higher Education Supplement of the Independent on page 2 has today reported about the Graduation cermony from "the university of war" Disarm UCL campaigners staged two days ago. They have also published the link to our online petition for interested readers to sign :).

On the same page a letter by UCL alumna Dr. Kate Wilson was published. Dr. Wilson wrote she was "dismayed" by UCL investments in Cobham and said that the ongoing arms investements call UCL's commitment to developing a sound, long-term ethical investement policy into question.

"UCL sticks to its guns"

"UCL sticks to its guns" was the headline in an article in the Evening Standard yesterday evening. The piece focused on UCL's ongoing investment in arms trader Cobham and mentioned the Disarm UCL protest yesterday.

Well done, everyone who came to the stunt ! You made the papers the very same day :). Good work !

UCL students stage graduation ceremony from “University of War”

UCL students gathered in front of UCL Dome today dressed in
camouflage uniforms and with mortarboards on their heads. As a protest against
UCL's investment in Cobham plc – a leading arms company – they staged a spoof
graduation ceremony in which a student dressed as a general handed out diplomas
and toy guns to students.

Most UCL students approached by the campaigners knew about UCL’s arms
investments and voiced their disgust at UCL’s investment decision. Over 700
people have backed the campaign calling on UCL to ditch the shares.

Craig Griffiths, a student campaigner said:

“UCL tells us that it wants to look into investing its money ethically. Clinging
on to the arms shares calls the commitment to ethical investment into question.
Many UCL alumni have told the Provost that they will not donate to UCL as long
as the arms investment continues. UCL students are outraged. It is time to
ditch the arms shares.”

UCL Student protest: Graduating from the University of War

Tuesday, 27 November, 12.30 - 1.30 pm, UCL Quad, Gower Street ,WC1

UCL students and alumni will gather in front of UCL Dome and “graduate” dressed in camouflage uniforms and mortarboards on their heads. This will be a protest against UCL's investment in arms company Cobham Plc.

One student dressed as a military general will hand out diplomas and toy guns in a spoof graduation ceremony. Other students will hold a banner protesting against the investment. UCL students and staff will sign a petition asking UCL to pull out of the arms trade.

Come along
Sign the petition
Get involved

Student Union tells UCL to ditch arms shares by 14 December

Great news:

The UCL Union Council voted tonight UNANIMOUSLY to lobby UCL to disinvest from Cobham PLC before the end of the 2007 winter term.

The amendment to an earlier ethical investment motion was brought forward by the Ethics and Environment officer of UCL Union.

NONE of the UCL Union Council members at the meeting even wanted to make a speech opposing the amendment. This is yet another prove that there is no one left at UCL who wants to stand up and defend the arms investments.

UCL Union also calls on UCL to give a formal role to students and alumni in the developmental process of an ethical investment policy and to establish this policy swiftly, with the process and timetable for designing and implementing it made clear and publicly available.

Read the full text of the motion here

We call on decision makers at UCL not to ignore the voices of students any longer ! Ditch the arms shares NOW !

Please sign and promote our online petition here

Disarm UCL campaign week - great success !

Thanks to everyone who helped out with Disarm UCL campaign week. We really had a successful week. Our lunchtime stalls in the Union went well and we got a lot of signatures for our petition.

We also developed a proposal for ethical investment at UCL (download the proposal here) and discussed our suggestions with Lord Joffe and Edwin Glasgow, who is looking into ethical investment at UCL.

We still need to get a few more signatures for our petition to hit our target so please help us promote the online petition and get all your mates to sign it.

You can also print out a paper petition here and pass it round in your lectures. Please return signed petitions to: UCLU People and Planet Society, 2nd floor Bloomsbury Theatre (behind reception). Cheers.

Please come to our next meeting: Thursday, 22 November at 5 pm at CSC meeting room, 2nd floor Bloomsbury theatre.

At the meeting we will plan our next Disarm UCL photostunt.

Don't miss it !

Sign the BRAND NEW petition.

PLEASE SIGN HERE TO TELL UCL TO DITCH THE ARMS SHARES NOW

DISARM UCL BIG IN THE NEWS

Disarm UCL features in an article on universities and ethical investment
in the INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE.

Read it here.

Also: Disarm UCL is sharing the secrets behind the success of getting UCL to move towards ethical investment on the New Statesman website.

Read and comment on it here.

All your questions on ethical investment answered

Want to find out more about universities and ethical investment ?

Students campaigning for ethical investment have set up an ethical investment wiki.

It's a great resource. Check it out !

It also features a mailing list you can post questions to regarding ethical investment.

DISARM UCL CAMPAIGN WEEK 12th - 16th November

Watch out for the up-coming Disarm UCL campaign week

The week will see the launch a new petition calling for immediate divestment from arms trader Cobham PLC and for a serious commitment to ethical investment at UCL.

Disarm UCL will have a stall in the Union at lunchtime on 14, 15 and 16 November. Come and sign our petition and talk to us about the issue.

If you want to help out with collecting signatures - just show up at the stall between 12 - 2 pm.

During the campaign week members of Disarm UCL will be meeting with Lord Joel Joffe to discuss ethical investment and our suggestions to UCL Council on how to move forward on this matter.

Thanks a lot to everyone who voted for the Disarm UCL campaign bid. Your vote helped us win !

Disarm UCL alumni network

UCL alumni who are dismayed by UCL's investments in arms companies have set up a Disarm UCL alumni network.

If you are an ex-UCL student and would like to get involved there are two easy things you can do:

1) Join us on facebook ! Join the Disarm UCL alumni group here.

2) Contact our alumni coordinator Dan ! E-mail him for more information on how you can make a difference: info@disarmucl.com

Next Meeting: 1 November @ 6 pm

The next campaign meeting for Disarm UCL will be in the CSC main room (2nd floor bloomsbury theatre building) tomorrow (1st Nov) at 6pm.

We will discuss the current situation regarding UCL and the arms shares and tentative moves towards an ethical investment policy. Come along to get involved and come up with creative campaigning ideas, or just to find out more about UCL's investments in the arms trade and the campaign for ethical investment and to ditch the shameful arms shares.

See you there !

The trade that killed my sister

Disarm UCL got mentioned in the October/November issue of Red Pepper magazine.

On page 64 Red Pepper has published an interview with Disarm UCL supporter Richard Wilson, an UCL alumnus:

"Richard Wilson has campaigned against the arms trade since the death of his sister Charlotte in Burundi in 2000. He is the author of Titanic Express, which tells the story of his search for the truth behind Charlotte's death. He told Symon Hill why he is determined to work against companies profiting from war. (...)"

It's a moving interview. Do read it if you get the chance.

NEXT MEETING ON MONDAY, 15 OCTOBER

Everyone is most welcome to come to our next meeting on Monday, 15 October at 7 pm.

Place: Wilkins Jeremy Bentham Room

We will be discussing what fun and creative ways we will use for campaigning this year and our ideas for an ethical investment policy.

Please do come along. Everyone welcome.

And in case you haven't voted for the Disarm UCL campaigning bid yet: Today is your last chance ! Click here to vote.

YOUR VOTE FOR DISARM UCL

If you think UCLs arms shares are a disgrace and that your uni should ditch the shares in arms trader Cobham please support the Disarm UCL campaigning bid.

Click here to vote for Disarm UCL

It only takes 10 seconds to vote and all you have to do is enter your UCL e-mail address. Get your mates to vote as well.

Every single vote is much needed and much appreciated :)

Many Freshers are aware of UCLs arms investments - and oppose them !

Thanks a lot to everyone who came to speak to us at the Disarm UCL stall at Freshers Fayre. It was great to talk to so many supportive people. Many of those we spoke to were already aware of UCLs investments in arms trader Cobham PLC. It surprised us a little bit that so many Freshers and graduate students who just started to study at UCL had already heard about the arms investments. The vast majority of them were supportive of the Disarm UCL campaign. It just goes to show how damaging the arms shares are for UCLs reputation.

The next meeting of Disarm UCL will take place on Monday, 15 October. Exact time and place to be announced. Will be great to see you all then.

In the meantime: Join our facebook group and invite all your mates to join as well.

New round of campaigning to Disarm UCL

As a new academic year is about to start students and staff at UCL are getting ready for a new round of campaigning to Disarm UCL.

UCL still invests in arms trader Cobham plc. As at 31 August 2007 the
market value of shares held in Cobham PLC was 884 000 Pounds.

We call on UCL to divest from Cobham PLC asap.

The UCL Councils decision to set up a working group to develop an ethical investment policy came as a great success for our campaign at the end of last academic year.

Read the minutes of the Council meeting of 13 June here. You will need a UCL username and password to log in.

Disarm UCL welcomes the establishment of the working group. We will make sure that students and staff get their say on ethical investment of their university, too. Get in touch !

Disarm UCL was a great campaign to be involved in last year. We hope to make it even more fun and more succesful this year. Join us !

Join our facebook group and come and chat to us at Freshers Fayre (North Cloisters - N 29) !

UCL Provost comes clean on investment following Disarm UCL campaign

UCL students, staff and alumni have welcomed UCL Provost Malcolm Grant’s support for adopting an ethical investment policy. The Provost in yesterday’s UCL Council meeting agreed that it was time for UCL to invest its money ethically. The announcement follows a dynamic and broadly-based campaign, which called on UCL to divest from its’ £ 900,000 worth of shares in arms trader Cobham plc. Over 1200 UCL students, staff and alumni have signed a petition in support of the Disarm UCL campaign.

Environment and Ethics UCL Student Union officer Joyce Ngai said:

“We are delighted with the wise decision that the UCL Provost and the UCL Council have taken. Ethical investment is the future. UCL has proven itself to be a truly global and innovative leader. We believe this ground-breaking move will be an inspiration to other universities to take the issue of ethical investment seriously."

UCL student and campaigner Jonny Mears said:

“Selling the shares in arms trader Cobham must be UCL’s priority now. A future ethical investment policy must exclude investment in arms companies. We will monitor the progress on this issue closely. We hope that our fellow students around the UK will take heart from this fantastic result here at UCL, and push for clean investment at their own university.”

Please comment here on Disarm UCL campaign success !

Global university without a global conscience

The New Statesman website has today published a comment piece on UCL's investment in arms companies prior to the UCL Council meeting tomorrow.

Quite a few people have left comments and have called on the UCL Council to support an ethical investment policy for UCL.

Join the debate: Read and comment here.

UP IN ARMS AT UCL

A letter from the Disarm UCL campaign was published last Thursday (7 June) in the Independent - Higher Education Supplement (p. 2):

"As the first year of top-up fees comes to an end, many universities are describing students as consumers. Unfortunately, they do not always realise that students are amongst Britain's most ethical consumers. In this regard, the focus of University College London (UCL) leaves much to be desired.

Over 1,200 UCL students, staff and alumni last week called on UCL Provost Malcolm Grant to divest over £ 900,000 worth of shares in the arms trader Cobham PLC and to adopt an ethical investment policy. In a meeting with campaigners, Grant refused genuinely to engage with the question of divestment from Cobham.

As consumers we want some influence on where our money goes. According to the Financial Times in 2005, the Church of England's ethical fund, which rules out the arms trade, performed second best out of 1,000 funds surveyed.

As students, staff and alumni, we want UCL to have a good name. We don’t believe that the arms shares, which constitute only about 1% of UCLs overall investment, are worth the damage to UCL’s reputation.

As people, we want our global university to have a global conscience."

Richard Wilson and Sara Hall

Disarm UCL campaign

Students go to war against uni's arms company funding

Anyone seen the article in the Camden New Journal from last Thursday (7 June). ?

In case you've missed it here's how it starts:

"Furious students have criticised their university for using their fees to "fund murder" and line the pockets of wealthy arms companies.

Camouflaged campaigners wearing mortarboards and wielding toy guns stormed the main quad of University College London last week to protest against university bosses' ongoing decision to fund Cobham Plc, an arms company that supplies weapons parts to conflicts in the Middle East. (...)"

pretty cool, eh ?

1,000 UCL students tell provost to ditch arms shares

UCL Provost Malcolm Grant was yesterday presented with a petition signed by over1,000 UCL staff and students calling on him to sell UCL’s shares in an arms company. The provost also received a hand-signed copy of a book by UCL alumnus Richard Wilson, in which he describes how his sister died as a result of thearms trade.

Richard Wilson is just one of the UCL graduates who has given his backing to Disarm UCL, which calls for the College to divest from arms trader Cobham plc and to adopt an ethical investment policy. Malcolm Grant now has the chance to read Richard’s account of his sister Charlotte’s death at the hands of a militia in Burundi. Her killers told her that she was dying because of “the white people supplying the weapons in Africa”.

Richard Wilson said:“By handing this company over £ 900, 000 with which to do business, UCL is making itself complicit in that business, and its impact on the world. In producing components for military aircraft which are then sold to some of the most depraved regimes on the planet, Cobham is as responsible for the deaths that result as the people who produced the bullets that killed my sister.”

UCL student and campaigner Ed Hood said:“There is no reason at all to invest in business that kills. Financially UCLwould do equally well if it were to invest in ethical business. UCL prides itself to be a global university. We want a global university to show a global conscience.”

After meeting the provost student and alumni campaigners protested in UCL’s main quad dressed in camouflage uniforms, with toy guns in their hands and mortarboards on their heads.

The Gower Street Gunrunners

UCL alumnus Richard Wilson has written a brilliant comment piece “The Gower Street Gunrunners” on UCLs’ arms investments on the Guardian Comment is free website.

It has caused some lively debate. Check it out !

Disarm UCL gig - don't miss it !

On Monday, 28 May the UCL Union Live Music Society will hold a gig in association with Disarm UCL.

This will be a great way of celebrating the successes of the campaign so far and the end of the academic year. And of course to hear some great bands: BUEN CHICO, CHIK BUDO, THE REBECAS and SEXYKIDS. Do come along !

The gig will take place on Monday 28 May at The Fly, opposite centre point and down a bit (tottenham court road tube). Doors open from 7.30.

It's 4 quid for good music and a good cause ! Don't miss it !

Alumni pledge to write to Provost to Disarm UCL

UCL alumnus Dan Ozarow set up an online pledge for other alumni to rally behind the Disarm UCL campaign. Within one week the pledge was successful: the required number of alumni signed up to write to the Provost to tell him to ditch UCL's shares in arms companies.

Missed it? It’s not too late: the pledge is still open for signatures until 17 May.
Sign here

UCL Union votes to Disarm UCL!

Yesterday, at the UCL Union council meeting the union voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Disarm UCL motion on Ethical Investment.

This will really help our campaign, particularly when we go and speak to the provost in the next couple of weeks. Thanks to those of you that turned up and helped argue in support of the motion.

There's still much more work to do, and if you haven't signed the petition yet then please do add your voice to the campaign.

Next meeting

The next Disarm UCL meeting will be happening on Monday 19 February at 5pm in the Clubs and Societies Centre, 2nd floor of the Bloomsbury Building. We will be discussing what we have achieved so far, the recent UCL AGM and our upcoming meeting with the provost.

Please come along and get involved.

Union AGM woes

Thanks to everyone who came down to the UCL Union AGM, unfortunately we never got to hear our motion. Nick Barnard, the Union's Media & Communications officer explained why in an email to UCL students today.

First off, we’ll have a report on the paradoxically successful but ultimately disappointing UCLU AGM.

With around 100 people in Cruciform LT1, we are reliably informed it was the best-attended since 2004 and, with several motions sure to produce excellent debate on the agenda, things were looking good. However, during the discussion of the first motion, a request for a count to check quoracy was made.

For those of you unfamiliar, quoracy is a certain percentage of the potential membership that must attend a meeting before its decisions are outright binding. For our AGM, the quoracy is 1% of the total membership (which all of you), which works out to around 190 people. Unfortunately, the requisite numbers were not present, which meant that the meeting was forced to close.

Because the Annual Report and Audited Accounts had already been approved by the meeting, another General Meeting is not planned to be held. Instead, if the proposers wish, the motions submitted can be carried on to the next meeting of Union Council (Monday 26th February) and be voted on. All members of the Union are eligible (and indeed encouraged) to attend and be granted speaking rights.

You can still look over the motions submitted at
http://www.uclunion.org/student-union/noticeboard/index.php

This means we'll probably resubmit the motion and ask people to come down again and vote on the 26 February. We'll keep you up to date on what happens.

Use your vote: make the Union disarm UCL!

Please come to the UCL Union's Annual General Meeting between 4-6pm on Thursday 8 February at Cruciform Lecture Theatre 1, Cruciform Building, Gower Street to vote for UCL Union to oppose UCL's investments in arms companies.

We have submitted a motion to the union regarding UCLs ethical investment policy regarding the arms trade and calling on the union to oopppose UCLs investment in arms shares and to actively campaign for them to disinvest.

The full text can be seen here:
AGM Motion on Ethical Investment

We need to get as many people as possible along to the AGM so we can vote for this motion to be passed. The importance of this cannot be understated: the union holds a lot of sway with UCL because it represents the interests of all UCL students and as such can influence a lot of people. If the union passses the motion it will seriously help our campaign. We are also due to meet with Provost Malcolm Grant soon to discuss the shares so again Union backing would be very helpful.

Please come along on Thursday (remember to bring your ID and session cards) and bring as many people as you can!!!

Take it to the Quad!

Students officially launched the Disarm UCL campaign today with an action in the main entrance to the campus. Flyers were handed out to students aswell as collecting hundreds of signatures for the petition calling for the university to disinvest from companies involved in manufacturing weapons.

Thanks to everyone who came! More photos on the Facebook group.

Campaign meeting

The first meeting of the Disarm UCL campaign will be held on Monday 15 January at 6pm in the open area (where the computers are) of the Clubs & Societies Centre on the second floor of the Bloomsbury Building, Gordon Street.

Everyone is welcome to attend, so please come along if you have ideas for the campaign, or would like to get more involved.

Campaign poster

Please help to spread the word about UCL's arms investments, and get more people to join the petition by printing out our poster and getting it seen in places like departmental and halls of residence noticeboards, and anywhere else you can think.

Please poster responsibly!

Download the poster (PDF)

Professor Spyer interview

Below is an article published in the Sepember 2006 issue of RUMS magazine The Bell with UCL's Professor Mike Spyer. Please note that the figures for the amount of shares for Cobham in this article are now out of date - the most recent figures we have from UCL are £845,530.

Guns of Bloomsbury
UCL Vice-Provost and Dean of RUMS Professor Spyer interviewed on UCL and the arms industry

Previously The Bell reported about UCL’s investment in the arms industry. UCL union voted in March 2006 to lobby for ethical investment. Currently, UCL has £54,000 worth of Cobham PLC shares and a stake in the London University Superannuation Agreements, which has £1million invested in BAE Systems. In addition to this, UCL runs an MSc with BAE Systems in Systems Engineering. When similar investments were exposed at SOAS, protests by students and teaching staff led to a public disinvestment. Edinburgh University, Leeds University and Oriel College Oxford are amongst other educational establishments to have adopted Socially Responsible Investment policies. Professor Spyer, UCL Vice-Provost and Dean of the medical school agreed to talk to the Bell on this issue.

How to you feel about UCL’s investments in the arms trade?
UCL has a clear investment policy regarding tobacco investment. [commensurate with] the ethical values of the institution. We are constantly reviewing our investments in accordance with these values. Companies with large multinational arrangements make a range of products and it is virtually impossibly to avoid arms involvement.

But BAE Systems specifically make weapons.
It may be that BAE Systems’ involvement with academics. [may act as a] good influence. Most certainly I don’t think there are any problems whatsoever.

Are you aware that there are ethical investment options which may produce comparable financial returns?
Many ethical policies prohibit investment in companies linked to animal testing and this is completely against what I believe in.

How would you feel if students on the MSc course that UCL runs with BAE Systems developed a new cluster bomb?
That would never occur here-

The UCL website advertises “a programme which combines academic rigour and practical experience in the Aerospace and Defence industry” which could hypothetically include weapons development.
I could give you a totally uneducated opinion on that but I don’t think it would be appropriate.

As a doctor, how do you feel about the South African government spending £3.9 billion on a deal with BAE Systems at a time when it was refusing to provide antiretrovirals for its 5million HIV positive citizens?
These are post-colonial times and I think it would be highly inappropriate for Britain to go telling sovereign countries how to spend their budgets. South Africa is an independent country which has to make decisions about its own security. If it believes it requires such defence spending to protect its own integrity it’s up to its government to decide. I would be unhappy if any country used its weapons to suppress its own peoples and I may personally believe it might be better to spend that money on HIV prevention.

BAE Systems and Cobham PLC supplied arms for the invasions of Iraq and Afganistan. Do you think UCL’s ties to these arms suppliers constitute a security risk?
Has British government’s invasion of Iraq made us less safe? My own feeling it that it has. But it’s not appropriate to link this to BAE Systems.

At one point it was allowed for UCL to invest in tobacco companies, but now this is banned. Do you accept that its stance on arms investment could change?
The tobacco decision was made on biomedical factors alone. it is possible that the arms investments may be revoked at some time in the future. I would like to add that if we go back in time, I don’t think I would want to or anyone would want to invest in companies that produced the gas chambers to kill 6 million people in World War two.

Would you choose to invest your own money in the arms industry?
Personally I would not choose to invest in the arms industry.

And also, below, The Bell's satirical comment, published in the same issue.

Comment by John Rambo, Medical Student:
If I want to fly to the U.S, I want to fly to the U.S. I don’t care if I have to wait ten hours, I spent five years in a Vietcong dungeon. Yeah, I’ve got Afghanistan on my passport (you may remember Rambo 3 when I joined forces with the Mujahadeen.), and what? It’s hard being a misunderstood Buddhist former fighting machine with post-traumatic stress disorder. The VC messed with my mind, so does Professor Spyer.

First he comes across as the voice of the establishment all “I don’t think there are any problems whatsoever”. No problems with fighting wars for oil and then acting blameless when your enemies retaliate? No problems with BAE Systems record of supplying arms for the East Timor genocide, the DRC genocide and Iraq invasion? No problems with BAE Systems rampant corruption, extreme even for the arms industry?

Just when you get him lined up in your sights, he wriggles out of each trap, coming on all “post-colonial” and even saying his answers would be “uneducated”. Then he turns 180 degrees by alluding to companies like IBM that assisted the Holocaust and being all “I would choose not to invest in the arms industry”. It’s not the hardest punch that floors you, it’s the one you don’t see coming. He turned my mind into a Moebius strip, the kind of logic Tony Blair has perfected. If I was there, I would have said, “Professor Spyer, John Rambo will treat you as a brother, as his own brother, until you give him reason otherwise, is this reason otherwise?”

If Professor Spyer was against arms investment, what could he do? As Vice-Provost and Sub-Dean does he have any say at all in the matter? If not, what does this say about who controls this University? How far has the influence of Britain’s only remaining manufacturing industry pervaded this institution, with its trumpeted links to Bentham’s Utilitarianism, and what will be the consequences?

DISARM by text

It's now even easier to join the Disarm UCL petition! Thanks to the nice people at aql you can now join using you mobile phone by texting:

DISARM followed by a space and your FULL NAME to 64446

Texts are charged at your standard network rate, and it will be the best text you ever send, we promise!