Anti-arms trade website will support university campaigners

In 2008/9 students across the UK made massive advances in breaking the links between universities and the arms trade, campaigning on issues such as university shareholdings in arms companies and military research. To build on that success, Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has launched a Universities Network website to assist students in their continuing campus campaigning.

CAAT Universities Network website is a platform that allows students to share materials and experiences. The aim is that, by pooling resources, students campaigning on anti-arms trade issues across the UK will be better equipped to overcome logistical and administrative problems.

The website already contains a wealth of information. It includes:

• guides on the Study War No More campaign
• advice on how to prepare for Freshers Fair
• a wide range of campaign materials, such as petitions, flyers and posters

Users will be able to download materials and use and adapt them for their own campaigns. This unique resource will continue to grow as students upload their own resources and support grassroots, student-led campaign plans, which will be developed at the CAAT Universities Network Gathering on 1 November in London.

Alongside the Clean Investment and Study War No More campaigns, students this year will be focusing on arms companies exhibiting at recruitment fairs. In 2008, student protests forced energy giant E.ON to abandon its recruitment tour of universities – and CAAT campaigners are hoping to do the same with arms companies such as BAE Systems and QinetiQ. The website will be instrumental in allowing student campaigners to share resources and information with the goal of kicking arms companies off campus.

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Notes

1. Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) works for the reduction and ultimate abolition of the international arms trade together with progressive demilitarisation within arms producing countries. Around 80% of CAAT’s funding comes from individual supporters.
2. CAAT’s Universities Network exists to provide students and staff in higher education with information on arms companies’ ties to universities and to encourage them to actively campaign and participate in breaking these ties. For more detail see CAAT’s Universities Network website
3. The website is part of CAAT’s expanding media profile. In addition to tweets on Twitter, CAAT now has a presence on Demotix and Flickr. For students, there is also the Universities Network Facebook group, another virtual platform to share experiences with fellow campaigners and keep up to date with anti-arms trade activities around the country.
4. The 2009 Universities Network Gathering will take place in London on Sunday 1 November. For further information, please contact our Universities Network Co-ordinator at universities(at)caat·org·uk.

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