University has power but not will to demilitarise, say campaigners

The accusation comes following a meeting on the University’s divestment policy

In the campaign's view, “militarisation is baked into the climate crisis, imperial aggression is both motivated and fueled by the extraction of fossil fuels and natural resources."Oscar Simms

by Aoife Petrie

This article is 4 years old

Friday February 4 2022, 12:00am

The Demilitarise Cambridge Campaign have accused Cambridge University of having the power, but not the will, to divest from companies that profit off wars and violence.

At the Divestment Town Hall open meeting earlier this week (31/01), the CEO and Chief Investment Officer of the Cambridge University Endowment Fund (CUEF), Tilly Franklin, and the Senior Associate and Sustainable Investments Officer, Honor Fell, responded to questions about its sustainability programme.

When asked why Cambridge University continues to profit off the “violence and destruction of wars”, and if the University plans to review their divestment from “controversial industries”, Franklin answered: “the individual investment decisions are made by our third party fund managers so we don’t have discretion over individual investment decisions”.

Franklin continued: “If we had any ethical concerns about any of the companies that they invested in we would bring them up straight away and if they weren’t addressed then we would be able to withdraw the university’s capital from those funds”.

The campaign claimed this statement “confirms that if the university saw a problem with investing in arms, they could simply withdraw their capital from the funds involved”.

The inaction of the University was described by the campaign as “an insult to all the communities whose lives have been brutalised by imperial aggression and war”.

In a statement, Demilitarise Cambridge asked: “On the basis that Universities should not be profiting off the violence and destruction of wars, why has Cambridge chosen not to do the same and are there plans to review this?”

In the campaign’s view, “militarisation is baked into the climate crisis, imperial aggression is both motivated and fueled by the extraction of fossil fuels and natural resources. To say you will divest from one but not the other is to misunderstand the climate crisis.”

The inaction of the University was described by the Campaign as “an insult to all the communities whose lives have been brutalised by imperial aggression and war.”

Varsity approached the University of Cambridge for comment.

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