TO DIVEST FROM FOSSIL FUELS, UEA MUST DIVEST FROM BARCLAYS

Posted on September 8, 2020 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged Barclays, BP, careers events, climate change, climate emergency, Divest Barclays, divestment, education, employment, energy, engineering, ethical investment, featured, fossil free, Fossil Free UEA, fossil fuels, graduates, higher education, Loughborough University, media, norwich, oil, people and planet, Portsmouth University, recruitment, Shell, student activism, students, students' unions, UEA, universities, zero carbon.

By Henry Webb

Higher Education institutions have the power to decide whether the fossil fuel industry lives or dies. The dominant players in the energy sector may seem unstoppable. After all, as long as the oil keeps flowing, they’ll find someone to buy it. Their lobbyists will make sure of that. But these behemoths require resources beyond those of just the raw coal, oil, and gas that we are so dependent on – they need capital. Without investment banks to finance everything from pipelines to offshore rigs, the costly infrastructure needed for fossil fuel extraction just wouldn’t exist.

IN DEFENCE OF STUDENT POLITICS

Posted on August 26, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged 1968, activism, anti-apartheid, climate change, criticism, featured, fossil free, higher education, Hogwarts, marketisation, medicine, mental health, nurses, NUS, palestine, politics, postgraduate, precarious labour, privilege, science, social work, solidarity, stereotypes, student activism, student debt, student politics, students, students' unions, teachers, trade unions, vietnam war, voting, working class.

By Bradley Allsop

The only way to make the word ‘politics’, that great indicator of all manner of corruption and trickery, more contemptible is to plonk the word ‘student’ in front of it. It almost feels like you‘re not pronouncing ‘student politics’ right if you do it without a sneer, or at least a shudder. Student politics has an image problem.

THERE’S MORE TO STUDENT ACTIVISM THAN #PEOPLESVOTE

Posted on February 20, 2019 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged Amatey Doku, Brexit, bursaries, class, defend education, featured, fossil free, Free Education, george osborne, grants, grassroots, guardian, higher education, history, marketisation, NUS, politics, Remain, solidarity, student activism, student movement, student politics, students, students' unions, The People's Vote, tony blair, tuition fees.

By Robyn Banks

Amatey Doku is right: student activism isn’t dead. In a recently published interview with the Guardian, the NUS Vice President of Higher Education proclaimed that students’ response to Brexit and their engagement with the People’s Vote campaign has shown that student activism is thriving anew, after years without a “unifying cause”. But what about the fight for free education that has been active on our campuses since 2012? For many activists in the last few generations of students, it was the issue that brought us together and gave us the skills to take the fight to the powerful. But for Doku, it was too “inward looking” to inspire a “genuine” movement.

A TRULY RADICAL NUS – BEYOND TUITION FEES #2

Posted on April 13, 2018 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged #FreeEdNOW, #NUSNC18, 2010 student protests, academic staff, anti-apartheid, Barclays, Barclays boycott, Beyond Tuition Fees, Blair era, boycott, bureaucracy, centrism, corbyn, cuts, direct action, Divest Barclays, divestment, featured, filibustering, fossil free, fossil fuels, Free Education, higher education, Labour, lgbt+ rights, living wage, mental health, NCAFC, NUS, occupation, plastic, South Africa, student activism, student mental health crisis, student welfare, tuition fees, UCU, uk, universities, university staff, USS strikes, votes at 16.

By Robyn Banks

It is a time of extraordinary potential for change in UK Higher Education. Labour’s promise to end tuition fees has defied the critics and united many behind Corbyn’s political project. But what will the implications for universities be if this comes to pass? And what can we do to leverage this progress? In this series, the Norwich Radical and Bright Green are bringing together perspectives from across the sector to explore these questions.

Over the last year the NUS has been a shadow of its former self, riddled with accusations of bullying from its President and marked by its failure to engage with the largest upswelling of campus activism this country has seen in years. It was bizarre enough that it refused to back demonstrations for Free Education last year, implying a denial that the end of tuition fees would be a benefit for students. But that pales in comparison to the extraordinary lack of NUS involvement in the recent UCU strikes. While its members joined the picket lines and entered occupation up and down the country, NUS chose to stay silent when our academic staff most needed their support. Continue Reading

UEA: BANKING ON IMMORALITY

Posted on December 8, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged Apartheid, banking, Barclays Bank, BDS, boycott, climate change, climate research, Dakota Access Pipeline, divest, Divest Barclays, divestment, Elbit Systems, environment, environmentalism, Ethical Consumer, ethical consumption, ethical investment, ethics, extreme fossil fuels, finance, fossil free, Fossil Free UEA, fossil fuels, fracking, Green, investment, israel, Israeli-Palestine conflict, morality, norwich, occupation, palestine, people and planet, profit, profiteering, Ryedale, sanctions, Sheffield Students' Union, student money, students' unions, Third Energy, tuition fees, UEA, UEA SU, war, yorkshire.

by Robyn Banks

If it’s not one thing it’s another with UEA. Weeks after their announcement that they’ve finally divested from fossil fuel companies, People and Planet UEA have discovered that the university has nearly £23 million invested with Barclays Bank. This won’t be particularly surprising to most – there is a branch on campus after all – but it shows the university’s ongoing decision to disregard the unfolding environmental and ethical situation of the world it operates in.

EDUCATION’S SUCH A MESS, BUT WHERE THE FUCK IS NUS?

Posted on November 24, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged #FreeEdNOW, 2010, Barclays, campaign wins, campaigning, demonstration, direct action, divestment, fossil free, Free Education, grassroots, lobbying, london, NCAFC, NUS, people and planet, power, protests, rent strikes, student debt, student movement, student protest, students' unions, tuition fees, UCL cut the rent.

by Robyn Banks

Last week students from around the UK marched through London to pressure the government into finally delivering free education. The march has become a yearly spectacle and a symbol of the importance of direct action to the student movement. This year however, the National Union of Students decided not to back the demo, claiming that putting more energy into lobbying will have a greater impact than this direct action could. This shift of attitude isn’t just found in the higher ranks of NUS; it is also becoming commonplace in more and more student unions across the country.

UEA: FOSSIL FREE AT LAST

Posted on November 10, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged BHP Billington, BP, campaigning, carbon emissions, climate change, david richardson, direct action, divestment, fossil free, Fossil Free UEA, fossil fuels, Free Education, global warming, news, NUS, occupation, people and planet, People and Planet UEA, Rio Tinto, Royal Dutch Shell, students, UEA.

by Robyn Banks, on behalf of Fossil Free UEA

I can’t quite believe I’m writing this, but after 4 long years of campaigning, UEA has finally divested from fossil fuels. People and Planet UEA received the following statement from the University yesterday:

“Over the past 50 years UEA’s researchers have played a leading role globally in developing the science and understanding of climate change and links with carbon emissions. The University remains committed to reducing its own carbon emissions and is investing £6.5million to reduce our carbon footprint from 23,000 tonnes to 12,800 tonnes by 2020. We can confirm that UEA does not have any investments in fossil fuel companies.”*

IGNITING STUDENT ACTIVISM #3 – WORKING TOWARDS THE FUTURE

Posted on September 1, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged activism, burnout, call to action, campaign planning, campaigning, campaigns, change, commitment, conferences, deadlines, democracy, determination, direct action, divestment, Education Act 1994, email campaigns, empowerment, energy, fossil free, Fossil Free QUB, fossil fuels, future, future focus, goals, handover, health, Igniting Student Activism, justice, leafleting, local media, machinery of state, Margaret Mead, mental health, MPs, networking, petitions, politics, progress, protests, Queens' University Belfast, raising awareness, recruitment, research, sabbatical officers, sacrifice, self care, social justice, social media, state, strategy, student activism, student media, student union elections, students, students' unions, tactics, targeting, the good fight, training, universities, workshops, young people.

by Bradley Allsop & Calum Watt

Rarely in our lifetimes has there been a more exciting time for young people to engage in politics. Change is in the air and nowhere else offers more opportunities to engage in this conversation, to learn valuable skills and to help shape society than university campuses. This series of articles seeks to offer some guidance for those aiming to ignite student activism at their institutions. Drawing on our experiences as campaigners we hope to highlight some common challenges and give you some advice on how to combat them.

IGNITING STUDENT ACTIVISM #1 – FIRST STEPS

Posted on July 28, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged activism, call to action, campaign planning, campaigning, campaigns, change, commitment, deadlines, direct action, divestment, Education Act 1994, email campaigns, empowerment, energy, fossil free, fossil fuels, goals, Igniting Student Activism, leafleting, local media, machinery of state, MPs, petitions, politics, protests, raising awareness, recruitment, research, sabbatical officers, social media, state, strategy, student activism, student media, students, students' unions, tactics, targeting, time, universities, young people.

by Bradley Allsop and Calum Watt

DIRTY MONEY – HOW ETHICAL ARE OUR UNIVERSITIES’ INVESTMENTS?

Posted on June 30, 2017 by Norwich Radical in Student and tagged BHP Billiton, BP, business, climate change, curriculum, direct action, divestment, education, energy, energy policy, Erasmus University, ethical investment, ethics, ExxonMobil, fossil free, fossil fuel industry, fossil fuels, global, global community, global warming, growth, higher education, hunger strike, innovation, investment, King's College London, lobbying, local, money, morality, non-profit universities, Norwich University of the Arts, occupation, People & Planet, progress, renewable energy, renewables research, research, research funding, Rio Tinto, Roger Hallam, Rotterdam School of Management, Shell, student activism, students, sustainability, tuition fees, universities, university community, University of East Anglia, venture capital.

by Laura Potts

Each university is different from one another. Moreover, they are very different from most other institutions of all types. On one hand they are educational institutions; on the other they are businesses. As businesses they make investments, though this is not something we would usually think of as a priority of educators. It is worth taking the time to investigate what your university is truly involved with and if their investments are ethical, not only for moral peace of mind but also to have a clearer idea of what your tuition fees are being put toward.

fossil free

TO DIVEST FROM FOSSIL FUELS, UEA MUST DIVEST FROM BARCLAYS

By Henry Webb

THERE’S MORE TO STUDENT ACTIVISM THAN #PEOPLESVOTE

A TRULY RADICAL NUS – BEYOND TUITION FEES #2

UEA: BANKING ON IMMORALITY

EDUCATION’S SUCH A MESS, BUT WHERE THE FUCK IS NUS?

UEA: FOSSIL FREE AT LAST

DIRTY MONEY – HOW ETHICAL ARE OUR UNIVERSITIES’ INVESTMENTS?

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