GAAF protest blocks entrance to University building 

This follows a warning from the student activist group that they had been ‘left with no option but to take part in further direct action’.

The student activist group Glasgow Against Arms and Fossil Fuels (GAAF) blocked access to the Rankine building as part of a protest against the University’s involvement with arms companies. The protest lasted from approximately 8am to 2pm today.

GAAF formed a hard picket around all entrances to the building, which houses the University’s Engineering department, and contains labs, seminar rooms, and lecture theatres. As well as Engineering, its teaching spaces are also used by a number of other subjects.

GAAF posted on instagram announcing the hard picket, saying: “We have blocked all entrances to the Rankine building whilst the Department of Engineering maintains £23 million in partnerships with the arms industry. We will continue to disrupt their genocidal business.

“UofG has 23 active grants totalling £60,343,849 in partnerships with - or directly funded by - 10 ‘defence’ companies. The Engineering department have research partnerships with Leonardo, Thales, BAE systems, and QinetiQ who produce drones, aircrafts, and warships to the Israeli regime.”

Interestingly this protest is similar to one carried out by the UCU in 2022 in which they picketed the Rankine building during a strike. This protest also only lasted a number of hours. 

By approximately 2pm this afternoon the protesters had left the building. GAAF and the University are yet to make a statement.

Published 27 November 2024