The spirit of ’68 is in us all
In the halcyon days of the late 60s and 70s, students used to take over Heslington Hall seemingly as a matter of course, turfing out the senior management with hippy abandon and then proceeding to get high from the Vice-Chancellor’s personal stash. A week last Friday saw a protest on campus of a size and energy not seen since Jimi Hendrix was vomiting in Langwith bedrooms, and for this we should be proud.
Finally, York has awoken from a stupor to produce a petition with 2000 signatures on it demanding an end to any more investment in BAE systems or Rolls Royce. The inadequate corporate and social responsibility espoused by these companies means that a liberal, democratic institution like York has made what will hopefully be a lasting and decisive action to no longer invest money in these companies. BAE and Rolls Royce do nothing to move the world forward, and everything to hold back it back from peace and tolerance by supplying weaponry to corrupt regimes and morally ambiguous militias.
We must be aware, however, that a proposed ethical investment policy has been just that, a proposal and nothing more, for more than two years now. The senior management team at York are what may be called a slippery bunch. They have the linguistic agility of corporate lawyers and their eyes go for the bottom line every time – what we have achieved so far must not be diluted through clever semantics.
Something else the campaigners for this change must now consider is the issue of academics’ pensions and the fact that the organisation they are funded by, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), still invests in BAE. This issue could take York’s battle to the national stage, but the renewed fighting spirit in evidence on campus shows that we are more than ready for it.
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