Student climate activists and Cambridge for Palestine staged a protest this Tuesday (22/10) at the University’s Engineering and Tech Careers Fair.

Students from Cambridge Climate Justice, the Organisation for Radical Cambridge Activists, and Cambridge for Palestine protested outside the University Careers Centre in opposition to several companies invited to attend the fair. Activists handed out leaflets and chatted with students attending.

The companies targeted by protesters include North Slope Technologies, an AI development firm, Frazer-Nash, a consultancy firm that works with defense and fossil fuel companies, and Caterpillar, a mining and construction company.

Other firms called out by activists were CISCO, a technologies company, Alloyed, an advanced manufacturing firm, and AWE, a nuclear weapons manufacturer.

Activists allege that Caterpillar and CISCO have worked with the Israeli military (IDF), while Frazer-Nash, Alloyed, and AWE are involved in weapons development and manufacture. Protesters also pointed out that North Slope Technologies works with Palantir, a global weapons technology company.

A spokesperson for Cambridge Climate Justice said that the decision to host these firms at the engineering fair was “especially shameful, just days after the University announced it was divesting from controversial arms, including nuclear weapons”.

The protesters noted that AWE was added to the attendance list on the online careers platform Handshake only a day before the fair. They argue that this was potentially an attempt to “hide the attendance of this company,” on the part of the Careers Service.

These protests follow disruption organised by Cambridge for Palestine on the 10th of October at a graduate schemes careers fair. Activists at the earlier event protested the attendance of firms Charles River Associates and Baillie Gifford.

Another CCJ member stated about the protest, “The response was very positive: many students told us that they had no idea the University was platforming companies actively facilitating genocide or climate collapse, and that they decided to avoid the named companies as a result.”

The agitation also follows student protesters’ criticism of the University’s decision to host a talk with BP last Monday (20/10), a firm described by a Cambridge Climate Justice spokesperson as “one of the world’s most destructive fossil fuel companies”.

The spokesperson continued: “Unethical companies must be banned from all careers service events and promotions – including its website and Handshake.”

Cambridge for Palestine said that “the career services are directly platforming corporations complicit in genocide and apartheid in Palestine,” arguing that the University “chooses to sell its students to the war machine”.

Meanwhile, the Organisation for Radical Cambridge Activists added that “there can be no future in fossil fuels, in violent mining corporations, and in the arms trade”.

A CCJ member said: “Today’s protest was all about raising awareness. We were clear with students attending the fair that we don’t want to tread on anyone’s toes, but simply provide them with the facts so they can make thoughtful decisions about how they want to spend their futures.

“The response was very positive: many students told us that they had no idea the University was platforming companies actively facilitating genocide or climate collapse, and that they decided to avoid the named companies as a result.

“Our message is simple: the University must not continue to invite these morally egregious employers, no matter how lucrative their offers. Otherwise, it is responsible for sending some of the brightest minds of our generation away from solving the existential threats we face and towards building the weapons of destruction that hasten them.

“We will continue these protests so long as the University continues to host these arms, fossil fuels, and mining companies,” they added.

The University of Cambridge has been contacted for comment.