Massive sell out
Predictably, the results were astoundingly awful. Some companies and sectors were listed on the rear of the flyer. Talk about an anti-capitalist's nightmare! The list included oil multinationals (ExxonMobil & Shell), banks (Barclays, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Royal Bank of Scotland), arms manufacturers & (ab)users (Army, BAE Systems, Ministry of Defence, Rolls Royce), and big pharma (AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline). There were many other activist "favourites" in there too: ASDA (Walmart), British Nuclear Group, Marks & Spencers, and McDonalds (tellingly). I'm sure if you're reading this website you don't really need any introduction to the multiple sins of these transnational villains. If, however, you do, I'd advise you to check out Corporate Watch, and the links i've (hurriedly) included above.
Of what remained, there were plenty of accounting and consultancy firms, financial services, marketing and media corporations. Mobile phone companies and supermarkets. The kind of really useful jobs that we couldn't live without. Ok, so the NHS did make it on there, and a teacher recruitment programme. And the truly fine body of men and women that make up the Metropolitan police (should have filed them under weapon abusers).
It would appear that students don't give a shit, except about the money of course. It could be that people genuinely don't know about the concerns that activists for social justice raise around some of these corporations. However, from a recent leafletting campaign around a careers fair at the university I took part in, I would say that it's mainly the "don't care" camp. Some people who read our leaflets about Shell and Rolls Royce were genuinely shocked, but most would just shrug their shoulders and continue their enquiries about pay and promotions. It's easy to brush out of sight concerns about the ultimate use (and possible great harm) of your future career, when listening to the seductive tones of a company rep. The companies wouldn't really be allowed to do these things, would they?
The necessary myth about the ultimately harmless nature of corporate activities, is a very worrying one. Whether we like it or not, students at universities like our own are going to be the captains of industry, the leading politicians, and influential thinkers of the imminent future. If there is no dissent about the choices that are acceptable to make in choosing a career, and if there is no questioning of the role of one's life except for personal profit, now whilst we are young and idealistic, god help us in 10 or 20 years time. Sure, we can have ethical careers fairs, and that's a good place to start in getting people thinking, but we have to be more radical than that. It's the idea of thinking about having a career, rather than having a full and complete life, that I object to. It's time we challenged the prostitution of our abilities, and the control that the corporate job market holds over people. We should be making people ask what they would prefer: someone to design the next generation of mobile phones that we all have to slavishly buy, or someone who's going to provide a useful role in a community. It's time we started thinking of what we 'should' be doing with our lives.