Cambridge students protest arms and fossil fuel companies at careers fair

On the 22nd and 23rd October, students protested “unethical” companies attending a university careers fair.

Students distributed satirical leaflets, which highlighted he harms caused by recruiters un attendance and challenged the companies’ representatives directly.

One company in attendance, Wood PLC, received a £430 million UK government-backed loan for the green transition in 2021. They have since increased their oil and gas business by 17 per cent, while also reducing renewable energy efforts by 35 per cent. Other fossil fuel companies invited include Subsea 7 and Glencore, as well as AWE, who manufacture nuclear weapons.

Satirical leaflets distributed by the students (via Cambridge Climate Justice)

Subsea 7 is engaged in fossil fuel expansion off the coast of Brazil, while Glencore has committed to coal for the foreseeable future, and has pled guilty to corruption charges in the UK, US, and Brazil.

Cambridge Climate Justice is a student-led group campaigning for the University of Cambridge to end its relationship with environmentally destructive industries.

A spokesperson for Cambridge Climate Justice told The Cambridge Tab: “The University of Cambridge is allowing companies that are actively destroying the planet to recruit students at their careers fairs. Students agree that organisations who ignore scientific evidence and have pled guilty to corruption have no place at our university.

“So-called impartiality from the Careers Service when inviting these companies is unacceptable when it comes to the urgency of addressing climate change.”

In summer 2024, the University introduced a strong and explicit resolution against receiving research funding from companies not aligned with net zero by 2050, recognising that no fossil fuel company is currently aligned with such a goal.

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The Careers Service’s updated policy still permits such companies to attend careers events.

The protest is part of a month of action taking place across the UK as part of the Fossil Free Careers campaign, championed by the People & Planet movement.

A spokesperson for the campaign group Organisation of Radical Cambridge Activists (ORCA), a local group campaigning for environmental liberation, said: “It is shameful that Cambridge University continues to lend its brand and legitimacy to corporate violence.

“The Careers Service is supporting a pipeline of destruction, by giving space to extractive companies. The horrors of genocide and conflict in Gaza, Congo, Sudan, Xinjiang and elsewhere demand nothing less than full decolonisation and dissociation from complicit actors.”

AWE, Glencore, Wood Plc, Subsea 7 and the university have been contacted for comment.

Featured image credit: Lily Owens