Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Corporate ethics motions passed at York Uni

Elinor | 23.12.2005 21:37 | Education | Sheffield

Students at the University of York register their disapproval of Coke and BAE, passing Student Union motions calling for boycott and divestment, respectively. A motion calling for boycott of Nestle barely misses quoracy.

Students at the University of York have voted in favour of two corporate ethics motions in their Student Union, one calling for a boycott of Coca-Cola and the other demanding university divestment from BAE.

Although a recently signed five year contract made calling for an immediate SU or university boycott of Coca-Cola impossible, the motion requires the SU to take an active campaigning role on the issue and to refuse any further sponsorship or commercial relations with the corporation. At NUS conferences, a York representative will be required to call for a complete boycott of Coca-Cola. The SU president must write to the CEO of Coke registering our objections and to the SINAL TRAINAL union expression our solidarity. No further publicity from Coke will be permitted at SU events or in SU publications, and ads carrying information about Coke's crimes must be carried periodically in the SU's newsletter. The SU must also approach corporations which have a relationship both with the SU and Coke expressing our concerns and asking that they end their relationship with Coke as soon as possible. (133 For, 69 Against, 13 Abstaining)

Despite claiming to have an ethical investment policy, the University of York is the 7th highest university investor in BAE, holding 115,000 direct shares and 1,354,663 indirect shares through their pension fund. Therefore, the union resolves to lobby the university to institute a more effective ethical investment policy, such as those at Leed, UEA and Edinburgh. The SU must also demand that the university disclose the contents of its investment portfolio, making the information available to staff and students. Union funds shall be devoted to campaigning on this issue. (202 For, 29 Against, 11 Abstaining)

A motion calling for an immediate boycott of Nestle, including removal of all Nestle products from the SU store, missed quoracy by 5 votes. It will, of course, be resubmitted in the new year. (134 For, 61 Against and 8 Abstaining)

The sucess of these motions comes after two years of research and (low level) campaigning by a broad spectrum of student societies, from the campus anarchists (FreeSoc) to Socialist Students, People and Planet and the Young Greens. It's difficult to say how much the votes represent the broader spectrum of university opinion, however--as someone pointed out, if everyone on the Amnesty International mailing list voted, they would pass, so this may simply be the result of good coordination within groups of students already committed to fighting unethical corporations (or all corporations!). A couple of public meetings and a reasonably good publicity campaign in the run up to the vote may have helped broaden awareness however.

Concern with corporate involvement in the university has been growing over the past few years, however, and it has become a public issue at the University of York. Articles on it appear in student newspapers, there have been several protests, and the Club of Politics, Philosophy and Economics (entirely corporate-funded) recently hosted a public debate on the issue with FreeSoc.

Of course, we cannot trust the SU to take over the campaigning work for us and to do so effectively and democratically. This sucess simply needs to be encouragement for further actions.

Elinor

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech