ORCA

Organisation of Radical Cambridge Activists for Environmental Liberation

SLB Out!

Since 2020, ORCA (and our previous guise, XRYC) have been campaigning against SLB (fka Schlumberger) – the biggest planet-killer you’ve never heard of.

Who the frack are Schlumberger?

SLB describe themselves as “the world’s premier oilfield services provider”. That means that they provide the tech and expertise for oil and gas expansion and extraction globally. They work with the likes of BP, Shell and Total on violent projects around the world.

Why campaign about them here?

SLB have a research laboratory on University of Cambridge land, on the West Cambridge site. This is where they work on drilling technologies, as well as other forms of oil, gas and mining research.

What do we want?

We’ve been campaigning for three main things:

  1. Cut all ties: University of Cambridge stop collaborating with SLB.
  2. Kick them out: SLB out of Cambridge.
  3. Repair the harm: SLB stop profiting off planetary destruction and commit to climate reparations.

How will we get it?

Lots of ways! We really strongly believe in a diversity of tactics and we work with lots of different people to achieve our aims. Some of the highlights include:

  1. An open letter signed by over 1,000 people including the likes of Mark Rylance and (former Archbishop of Canterbury) Rowan Williams.
  2. Many blockades of the SLB research building, causing (according to court documents) tens of thousands of pounds worth of costs to SLB.
  3. Soft pickets and creative actions at the SLB site.
  4. Marches and rallies across Cambridge and at SLB’s HQ in London.
  5. A very, very silly play called “Alice in Schlumberland”.
  6. Lots of meetings, teach-ins, leaflets and graphics to let everyone know how evil SLB are.
  7. Probably some other stuff we can’t remember…

How’s it going?

A lot of Cambridge’s ties to SLB have been cut: they’ve renamed their SLB professorship and ended various industrial partnerships to the company.

However, the building is still there – that means the University of Cambridge is still facilitating the expansion of the oil and gas industry. This is completely at odds with their own climate commitments, although we are unsurprised at them being hypocritical.

Neither the university nor SLB have ever responded to the call for climate and environmental reparations. Both are continuing to profit from violent extractivism with no regard for those people directly harmed by it.