ORCA

Organisation of Radical Cambridge Activists for Environmental Liberation

Category: Press Releases

  • BILLIONAIRES OUT!

    BILLIONAIRES OUT!

    This week, activists in Cambridge took action against Churchill College, where this year’s Multi-Generational Leadership Program was taking place. The program, organised by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, alongside Philip Marcovici- a wealth management expert with ties to the royal family -and Iraj Ispahani of the Ispahani dynasty, is exclusively for those with “multi-generational” wealth, and seeks to teach them to “evolve their legacy”, and all for the summary cost of just under £14,000 (not including accommodation). Activists specifically targeted Churchill’s large plaque, in defiance of its overt dedications to prime ministers Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher, both of whom laid the groundwork for Britain’s enormous class divide, privatisation and expansionist capitalist-colonialism.

    In taking action the activists wrote the following:

    “We aren’t stupid, we know what this really means, it’s yet another scheme by CISL to foment the ultra-wealthy as leaders of the world, while we- the ordinary people whom the wealthy rely upon for their extraordinary wealth -face the consequences of the environmental destruction laid out by their greed and imperialism. As recent document leaks have shown the ultra-wealthy’s complicity in sex trafficking, and recent history has shown their participation in environmental destruction and genocide in Sudan, Lebanon and Palestine, we take umbrage with any notion that ‘Multi-generational Leadership’ can be anything but a disaster for our planet and its denizens. Cambridge is the most unequal city in the country, if we- its residents -want any resolution to that, we must demand one thing: BILLIONAIRES OUT!”

    This action follows a May 17th rally outside Great St Mary’s in which spokespersons from a number of Cambridge groups called out the Multi-Generational Leadership Program and the university’s dealings with the ultra-wealthy, and a noise demo against Tyler Goodspeed of ExxonMobil’s visit to the university’s Bill Gates Sr. building.

    Pictures

  • Press Release: Activists stage May Day weapons protest at University of Cambridge

    Press Release: Activists stage May Day weapons protest at University of Cambridge

    This afternoon, ORCA and Cambridge for Palestine activists have staged a protest against the University of Cambridge’s ties to weapons companies Rolls Royce, BAE Systems and Boeing. At lunchtime, they dropped a large banner saying “End Arms Complicity” over the balcony of the busy West Hub building, at the centre of the university’s sciences campus. Chanting “Free Palestine”, activists threw paper aeroplanes bearing information on arms complicity from a balcony into the foyer. 

    The main target of the protest was the university’s Aviation Impact Accelerator, an initiative between the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, the Whittle Lab and industry partners. Connected companies include Rolls Royce and Boeing as well as private jet company 4Air. Campaigners have called the project “greenwash”, alluding to the conflict between its environmental framing and the records of contributing partners. 

    One activist said: “The AIA is yet another empty greenwash project from the University of Cambridge. What’s worse is they’re actively helping arms companies to launder their reputation while they profit from war and genocide. It’s disgusting to talk about making these weapons more efficient.”

    Campaigners also identified the Institute for Manufacturing’s “Cambridge Service Alliance” as a site of arms complicity, pointing to their ongoing partnership with weapons manufacturer BAE Systems. The Service Alliance, founded in 2010, forms part of the University’s industrial engagement strategy. 

    Rolls Royce, Boeing and BAE Systems are among the world’s largest manufacturers of weapons. All three are noted for their complicity in the Israeli genocide of Palestinians and their ongoing attacks on Lebanon. Among others, the triad also supply arms to US, Saudi, UK and UAE regimes. 

    Another activist said: “May Day is a day for international solidarity. We will not stay silent while weapons companies conduct research and reputation-laundering in our city. We reject the industries and academics who profit from death.”

    This collaborative action is part of ORCA’s broader campaign against greenwashing and environmental violence. The campaign focuses on Aviation Impact Accelerator lead Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership. Cambridge for Palestine launched on May 5th 2023 and have since campaigned against the University’s complicity in ongoing genocide in Palestine. 

    Read more:

  • Press release: Cambridge activists disrupt dinner in protest against greenwash ties

    Press release: Cambridge activists disrupt dinner in protest against greenwash ties

    On the evening of Friday 10 April 2026, ORCA activists staged a noisy demonstration outside a pre-graduation dinner at Jesus College. The protest called attention to the college’s £10 million deal with Suzano, a paper and wood pulp multinational based in Brazil. Although the company claims to be working toward biodiversity, activists in Brazil and around the world have claimed Suzano is greenwashing land-grabs, violence and ecologically harmful monoculture farming.

    The Jesus College deal, announced in 2024, promised to fund “education and research into areas including the conservation of biodiversity, enhancing business sustainability and the restoration of natural habitats“. However, activists suggest this is an attempt to launder Suzano’s reputation in the Global North following increasing resistance in the Amazon. Movimento Sem Terra (the Landless Workers Movement) has been organising for decades to resist the rise of agribusiness in the Amazon and across Brazil. For MST, Suzano represents illegal displacements of Indigenous and local people, the use of dangerous pesticides and harm to the land.

    An activist from ORCA said “the green reputation of Suzano shows the lie of the whole corporate ESG system. Companies greenwash themselves with educational and social initiatives, but continue to hoard land and harm people. Jesus College – and the university as a whole – must stop participating in these hollow charades. Suzano represent a system it is not worth sustaining.”

    This protest aligns with ORCA’s wider strategy of targeting what they call “Bad Environmentalisms“: apparently green companies and initiatives that are engaged in broader systemic harm. In 2025 the activist group launched a campaign against the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, and they have called for environmentalist solidarity across causes and movements.

    More info

    Read more about the partnership between Suzano and Jesus College.

  • Press release – Environmental liberation group pickets Cambridge Sustainability Institute

    On Thursday 31 July, environmental liberation group ORCA picketed a “sustainable innovation” project launch run by Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) in collaboration with the Crown Estate. This is part of a wider campaign against CISL’s corporate ties to arms manufacture, mining and fossil fuels, in which ORCA highlight dissonance between CISL’s sustainability-oriented communication and the activities of their corporate partners.

    CISL’s insurance partners include AXA, which has over $175 million invested in arms and over $600 million in fossil fuels1, 2. CISL’s partner Coca-Cola has long been accused of land theft, water expropriation and the use of paramilitary violence against Indigenous and local peoples in areas where they work34, 5. Both AXA and Coca-Cola are on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions list for their complicity in the occupation and ongoing genocide in Palestine6. ORCA also highlight extensive links to Anglo American, whose mining operations in Abya Yala (South America) and South Africa involve forced displacement, violent evictions and systemic violations of the principles of free, prior and informed consent7. 

    CISL also has ties to the arms industry through their Aviation work, which ties them to weapons manufacturers Boeing and Rolls Royce8. 

    An ORCA member said: “It’s completely hypocritical for CISL to be talking about a ‘sustainable built environment’ while they deal in the profits of displacement, land theft, war and genocide. How is it sustainable to bomb people’s homes, hospitals and schools? To violently evict whole communities from their lands? To pollute and steal the water with no accountability? CISL’s business model depends on the profits from these actions – they should be ashamed”. 

    ORCA is calling for an end to CISL’s ties with AXA, Coca-Cola and Anglo American, as well as with all companies in the arms and fossil fuel industries. Since the launch of the campaign in March, CISL has removed references to fossil fuel companies including BP and Total from their website, and claim that they no longer work with these oil majors. However, emails between ORCA and CISL demonstrate a refusal from CISL to be transparent on the matter of their education partnerships with oil companies, which have in the past included Petronas and Petroleum Development Oman, among others9.

    Notes

    1. https://boycottbloodyinsurance.org/report-ensuring-genocide/ ↩︎
    2. https://boycottbloodyinsurance.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Ensuring-Climate-Crisis-The-Insurance-Industry-and-Fossil-Fuel-Giants-1.pdf ↩︎
    3. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2003/jul/24/marketingandpr.colombia ↩︎
    4. https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/us-court-orders-coca-cola-company-to-turn-over-evidence-related-to-ongoing-class-action-lawsuit-against-mitr-phol-in-thai-courts-over-allegations-of-forced-eviction/rhg ↩︎
    5. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jul/28/water-is-the-real-thing-but-millions-of-mexicans-are-struggling-without-it ↩︎
    6.  https://bdsmovement.net/sites/default/files/2024-12/Guide%20to%20BDS%20Boycott%20%26%20Pressure%20Corporate%20Priority%20Targeting-30%20Nov%202024-Submitted%20by%20BDS%20movement.pdf ↩︎
    7. https://londonminingnetwork.org/2025/06/anglo-americans-agm-2025-a-theatre-of-greenwashing-and-denial/ ↩︎
    8. https://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/convening/aviation-impact-accelerator-aia ↩︎
    9. See our blog post about our discussion with CISL. ↩︎

  • Press release – Cambridge sustains green colonialism

    Press release – Cambridge sustains green colonialism

    Today we are disrupting The Nature Action Dialogues conference hosted at Jesus College.

    This conference is hosted by the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC)  and their Proteus Partnership and listed attendees include Ipieca, HSBC, Drax, Nestle, AngloAmerican and RWE.

    Through the Proteus Partnership the UN helps oil and gas and mining companies to greenwash their harmful extractive practices whist providing no real influence on the behaviour of these companies. This is evidenced from BPs recent rollback of their climate and renewables targets.

    Members of the Proteus Partnership include BP, Shell, Total Energies, Chevron, RioTinto, Equinor and AngloAmerican. 

    Drax power station has also just been granted huge new subsidies for burning trees despite recording massive profits. Drax’s wood burning is classed as ‘renewable’ energy despite being the UK’s largest carbon emitter and the worlds largest wood burning power station. Almost all of the wood burned at Drax is imported and has included old growth forest wood from Canada and wood from protected forests in Estonia

    By continuing to pretend that companies like those directly or indirectly represented at this conference will sacrifice profits and power to act on the climate and to stop the harm they are causing globally Cambridge is sustaining ecocide, neo-colonial violence, land theft and human rights violations world wide. 

    On this theme, today ORCA is launching our new campaign against CISL (Cambridge Institute for Sustainability leadership), the university’s greenwashing outfit. CISL works with many of the harmful corporations here today and many more and is responsible for supporting and sustaining the harm they have caused and are causing today through lending them the perceived prestige of Cambridge University and giving the appearance of caring about climate collapse.