Newcastle University goes military

As a student of Newcastle University, I am deeply concerned to learn of the new relationship between the institution and multinational defence firm Leonardo. The company’s role in several notorious conflicts, including in Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, is documented, and there is speculation about the implementation of its technology in Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza. The willingness to contribute to the development of weapons would seem to stand in stark contrast to the university’s stated aims of ‘providing ideas and solutions of economic, social and cultural benefit for our world… [promoting] a culture of welcome, engagement and safety for people fleeing persecution and violence.’ Offering (competitively priced) haven whilst also creating the conditions for those very instances of persecution and violence is tantamount to disaster capitalism.

Universities are traditionally imagined as bastions of progressive thought and the possibility of equitable human and global betterment, yet my own academic home has put paid to any such outdated notions in one fell swoop. Just down the road at Northumbria University, there is a similarly cushy arrangement in place with Lockheed Martin, also complicit in civilian murder in dystopic war zones including Yemen.

It is incumbent upon students and lecturers alike to speak out against these flagrant breaches of academic, institutional and moral integrity, and to reimagine universities beyond their current manifestations as lapdogs of the neoliberal machine.

Follow Leonardo Off Campus to join the fight.

‘We must envision the university as a central site for revolutionary struggle, a site where we can work to educate for critical consciousness, where we can have a pedagogy of liberation.’ [hooks, b. (2015). Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black, New York: Routledge, p. 31]