In the University of Manchester, ‘social responsibility’ means collaborating in genocide

Professor Adam Habib, the vice-chancellor of SOAS University of London, recently questioned whether universities invoking institutional neutrality on Palestine would have done the same in relation to Nazi Germany or apartheid-era South Africa. The vice-chancellor of the University of Manchester, Dame Nancy Rothwell, made her position clear last month in an open meeting with students at the School of Health Sciences. During a discussion about the university’s ties to BAE Systems and Tel Aviv University in the context of the ongoing genocide of Palestinians, Dame Rothwell was asked whether she would have sold weapons to Nazi Germany. Her response was no. “Because the UK Government was not neutral. We are neutral where the UK government is neutral.”

For the University of Manchester, neutrality takes the form of extensive ties with companies and institutions directly complicit in the genocide of Palestinians. This includes a £822,000 contract with BAE Systems, the company producing around 15% of each of the F-35 fighter jets currently bombing homes, schools, and hospitals in Gaza, and an ongoing research collaboration with Tel Aviv University, creator of the Dahiya doctrine of “disproportionate force” against civilian targets. It is difficult to square this with a statement released by Professor Nalin Thakkar, Vice President for Social Responsibility, in June 2020. “If we need to be reminded,” as he quoted Edmund Burke “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men (and women) to do nothing.”

Despite university leadership’s commitment to collaboration in the ongoing genocide, staff, students, and local activists are fighting back, shutting down events with complicit companies, disrupting meetings, and holding protests inside and outside university buildings. 

A recent protest at the university co-organized by local activist organization Youth Front For Palestine (YFFP), and student group Manchester Leftist Action, drew a crowd of staff, students, and members of the public. They gathered at the Whitworth Arches and marched into the Alliance Manchester Business School, which is currently two years into a four-year defense collaboration with BAE Systems. A member of Manchester Leftist Action told me that the solidarity between staff and students has been an important part of organizing on campus. “We’re coming at the university from as many angles as possible,” he said.

The University of Manchester is proud of its “unique” commitment to social responsibility, claiming a “fundamental belief that the purpose of our University is to deliver benefit to society and the environment.” 

However, according to a spokesperson from YFFP, this is far from the truth.

“Universities cannot be allowed to get away with any links to arms dealers like BAE Systems, who are directly complicit in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and the bombing of Yemen,” the spokesperson said. “Unfortunately, the University of Manchester is not the humanitarian, socially-conscious institution it claims to be — it needs to be confronted, shamed, and disrupted into cutting these ties. That is exactly what students, staff, and the local community are committed to doing.”

You won’t find any information about the defense collaboration on the University of Manchester website. Since it was linked to in an open letter signed by over 300 staff and postgraduate researchers calling on the university to cut ties with BAE Systems, the article announcing the collaboration seems to have been removed, but it can still be found on the WayBack Machine. Staff and students aren’t convinced by the university’s claims either. 

“It is shamefully hypocritical of the university to claim leadership in social responsibility while forging ties with institutions complicit in a genocide,” one lecturer told me. “It also cheapens and undermines the social-responsibility agenda, turning it into little more than a branding exercise, and this at a time of severe global challenges when it is needed more than ever.”

Manchester Leftist Action and YFFP have consistently shut down events by BAE Systems and BNY Mellon, another target of the campaign. One student described protesters shutting down a BNY Mellon careers event organized by the Computer Science Society: “About ten minutes into the event, about 20 protesters came in with banners saying ‘BNY Mellon funds Elbit murderers.’ Two of the protestors spoke about how BNY Mellon was funding ongoing genocide, and by the time security showed up most of the students had left and they had to cancel the event.”

A careers event in February that would have included both the University and BAE Systems as exhibitors was canceled the night before. Attendees received an email explaining the event wouldn’t go ahead due to the possibility of boycotts and protests. The student from MLA told me that a day-long “recruiter in residence” event with BAE Systems planned on campus for March 14 was also quietly canceled. “The fact that BAE hasn’t come back is telling, and they know they won’t be welcome on campus,” the student said.

A motion calling on the University to end the complicit ties has already been passed by the university’s large schools of Environment, Education, and Development and Arts, Languages, and Cultures. Students have occupied university buildings in support of the motion’s demands twice within the last month, with the second occupation starting on April 8 and lasting almost two weeks. Despite the recent suspension of one student activist by the university, the occupying students aren’t deterred. When I visited the occupation, one of the students told me they would continue taking action against the university until their demands were met.

When the motion from the school boards was considered at the University’s senate on April 17, they declined to vote. It’s clear that the University’s leadership won’t take action until they’re forced to, and staff, students, and local organizers will keep fighting until the University of Manchester follows its ethical duty to cut genocidal ties.