The Left is Wrong About the "Militarisation of British Universities"

It was genuinely hard to sit through a Manchester socialist society event on the militarisation of British universities without thundering cries of agony. But how, you might ask, could one support something that sounds as terrifying and fascist as "militarisation of universities"? Surely only a military-industrial complex lobbyist in a top hat and a pipe in his mouth would do that.

But the truth is that the ongoing campaign by Stop the War and Demilitarise Education against the recently launched Defence Universities Alliance is not Vietnam or Iraq War-era pacifism, it’s suicidal recklessness.

The Defence Universities Alliance launched under Sir Keir Starmer seeks to give students greater access to defence careers, boost defence industry skills and research into new defence technologies, and strengthen connections between academia and the defence sector.

Campaigners argue that British universities should cut their ties to the arms industry and defend education as a space for the pursuit of "collective liberation". Sounds great as long as a certain elephant in the room gets ignored.

Throughout the event I attended, many countries where people are dying supposedly due to the militarisation of society were mentioned: Palestine, the Philippines, and India. Yet, one country curiously didn’t receive international socialist solidarity and that was of course Ukraine. This wasn’t due to speakers’ genuine ignorance of the war there, but rather because Ukraine isn’t a convenient asset for their narrative. The West supporting a country against a brutal invasion and thus – hold on to your seats – doing something good? No thank you.

The deafening silence on Ukraine was at times interrupted by quiet whispers of jaw-dropping Tucker Carlson-style Russian propaganda.

One speaker unironically referred to "Schrödinger's Russia" – i. e. the Western narrative being both that Russia is about to invade all NATO members and that it is very weak and will soon be defeated in Ukraine. Of course, history knows of no cases of powerful countries making incompetent decisions during wars. Nazi Germany’s invasion of the USSR was a masterclass in strategic restraint…

Another shied away from conversation by saying: "well, we oppose all wars" but wouldn’t say Britain should support Ukraine militarily. It’s abysmal that I should hear a British demilitarisation activist speak like a Russian pro-war propagandist.

I believe these examples illustrate the inability, indeed unwillingness, of many on the left to see threats to international peace and to all the causes they believe in when the West cannot be blamed. And the threats are indeed there.

As Russian warships fire in the English Channel and their drones hit Romanian residential blocks (which United Russia’s Chairman says will "continue to happen"), the evidence is ubiquitous that now may not be the best time for Europe to neglect its defence.

Not only that – the Pentagon is reviewing NATO allies’ defence commitments on which Britain is somewhat behind as it spends 2.6% of its GDP on defence instead of meeting its promise of 5%. Indeed, America is threatening to withdraw American support for UK sovereignty over the Falklands, emboldening President Milei to claim they need to be "recovered".

With a war raging in Europe that threatens every state not run by a dictator and explicit threats being made to British territory and backed by the world’s strongest superpower, it couldn’t be clearer what the government response should be. This is the time to invest in and improve British defence, not to cut its vital ties with the education sector, the space producing the country’s – and Europe’s – future defenders.

How else do the demilitarisation activists think we should help Ukraine against Russia’s invasion? By adopting Zack Polanski’s plan to shift responsibility to the UN and ask Putin (but, curiously, not Ukraine) what he wants?

This isn’t a case of "if you want peace, prepare for war", this is a case of "if you are in the middle of a war, you better be prepared for war".