Why this is important to the cost of living and our pensions
In our globalised world, atrocities abroad impact your wallet at home. Companies which UWE partners with such as BAE Systems have lobbied for and made a killing from the illegal war on Iran, while that very war has led inflation and UK energy bills to skyrocket. War-driven inflation also impacts government bonds, typically causing bond prices to fall and yields to rise. This volatility negatively impacts investment returns and pension funds. UWE holds hundreds of millions of its reserves in bonds rather than giving most staff even a moderate pay increase. The closely contested vote last year on our Avon Pension Fund means it continues to invest in the military. The ‘rollercoaster’ of the bond market is having a negative impact on members close to retirement and those purchasing annuities.
The ethical and legal impacts of war
In the last 8 years, UWE has taken over £200k from the arms trade for research, consultancy and training. Many of these companies such as BAE Systems, Leonardo, and QinetiQ, manufacture parts for the F-35 jets which are sold to the Israeli state and used as the primary weapon for the Gaza genocide. Since October 2023, over 72,000 Palestinians have been killed by the IDF and 90% of the Gaza population have had to flee their homes. Millions face starvation and the healthcare system has collapsed. Weapons made by UK arms companies are also being used to perpetrate the genocide in Sudan via the UAE. More than 150,000 people have been killed in the last three years.
Furthermore, severing these links is essential to any genuine commitment to international law. UK arms companies have fuelled war crimes in Sudan, Palestine, Yemen, and the UK risks being dragged into Trump’s illegal war in Iran. And although the UK Government has revoked some of its arms export licenses to Israel to claim it still adheres to international law, UK arms companies are still actively involved in the global F-35 programme which a UN report identifies as ‘integral’ to the Gaza genocide.
UWE has already recognised the severe ethical limitations of the arms trade. The university’s own Ethical Banking and Investment Policy states that ‘[t]he University has never held investments in fossil fuel companies or arms companies and we will not do so in the future’; yet UWE continues to support those industries through other means and profit from crimes against humanity.
Without the research, consultancy and training offered by universities, the arms trade could not function. Through these links, UWE is actively complicit in genocide and environmental devastation. These partnerships are an affront to UWE’s stated support for human rights and sustainability, and to the workers who genuinely hold those values.
We know that many parts of the university benefit from these links, including but not limited to the School of Engineering. And we recognise that our scientists and engineers are uniquely placed to create a more sustainable and peaceful world. In the spirit of a Just Transition, we want UWE to redirect its expertise including retraining if necessary and establishing sustainable partnership alternatives, so that no one is left behind by these changes.
Only the wealthy and warmongers have bunkers
The proliferation of war is also an environmental catastrophe and prevents the international cooperation needed to solve climate change. The Ministry of Defence calculated its 2022-23 emissions as 3.1m tons of CO2, representing an astounding 50% of all government emissions. However, independent estimates suggest the figure to be closer to 13 million tons, once ‘scope 3+’ factors such as clearing unexploded ordnance or rebuilding shattered infrastructure are considered. Claims that charred bodies can have carbon emission offsets is a sign of cognitive dissonance!
To stop being complicit in genocide and environmental devastation, we are calling for UWE to:
1. Formally adopt the Demilitarise Education Treaty.
This document serves as a foundational framework for UK university administrations to publicly commit to and implement demilitarisation. Adopting this treaty will end all partnerships that contravene the stated mission of the University of “shaping the health and sustainability of our communities and creating solutions to global challenges.”
2. Be transparent about its current partnerships and links to arms companies involved in human rights abuses and war crimes.
While some of UWE’s links to the arms trade have been disclosed through the Freedom of Information Act, we know that the full extent of these links is likely still not in the public domain. UWE should disclose all its links to the arms trade and military as a necessary first step for this ethical transition.
3. Make all relevant university policies clear, public and accessible.
We need to be assured of the increased limitations put on all partnerships with arms companies, including in research. While UWE’s Ethical Investment and Banking Policy explicitly screens out investments in the arms trade, this clarity is absent in UWE’s other policies such as its Corporate Ethics, Ethical Careers, Research Ethics and Sustainability policies. We are calling for UWE to resolve this inconsistency and ensure that no UWE partnership profits from genocide and environmental destruction.
You can support this campaign by:
- Signing the Demilitarise Education open letter against Universities’ partnerships with the arms trade
- Speaking with your Rep or emailing unison@uwe.ac.uk to support us.
- Promoting the union in your workplace and recruiting new members. The more of us there are, the harder we are to ignore.
- Attending our upcoming event with Demilitarise Education (details TBC)
We support student-staff solidarity and recognise the strength of student feeling on this issue. If you are a student, you can support this campaign by:
Engaging with the Students’ Union: let your Presidents, student reps and LSRs know your opposition to the restructure, or create a Student Idea to shape SU policy.
Emailing us at unison@uwe.ac.uk and asking how we can work together.
Signing the Demilitarise Education open letter against Universities’ partnerships with the arms trade.
Refuse to be complicit
Staff have a legal right to refuse work that contradicts their philosophical belief under the Equality Act 2010 if they can evidence a commitment to that position. This has been legally tested at the University of Bristol where the management had to payout a member of staff after he successfully won an employment tribunal. Find out more about our Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign at this link: https://canva.link/4fk992wo221j18h
Additional information:
Open Letter from dED – https://ded1.co/how-we-do-it/open-letter-2025
dED Treaty – https://ded1.co/how-we-do-it/treaty
Current UWE research and academic partnership with Arms Companies – https://ded1.co/data/university/uwe
Current UWE Ethical Banking and Investment Policy – https://www.uwe.ac.uk/-/media/uwe/documents/about/sustainability/ethical-investment-policy.pdf
The university’s Handbook of Research Ethics states that ‘it is very possible for research to cause significant harm… to people, animals and/or the environment’ but only identifies the tobacco industry as an ‘absolute prohibition on research funding.’
The university’s Corporate Ethics Policy states that it will ‘[l]ook to engage with external organisations (regionally, nationally and internationally) which display responsible employment practices, adopt sustainable environmental practices and demonstrate excellent corporate governance and the observance of the rule of law.’
The university’s Ethical Careers Framework states that the university will ‘promote careers that make a meaningful, positive impact on both people and the planet.’
The current UWE Climate Action and Sustainability Strategy seeks to shape ‘the health and sustainability of our communities and creating solutions to global challenges.’
The SIPRI Top 100 arms-producing and military services companies in the world, 2023 – https://www.sipri.org/visualizations/2024/sipri-top-100-arms-producing-and-military-services-companies-world-2023
A/HRC/59/23: From economy of occupation to economy of genocide – Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967- https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ahrc5923-economy-occupation-economy-genocide-report-special-rapporteur
American Friends Service Committee, Companies Profiting from the Gaza Genocide – https://afsc.org/gaza-genocide-companies