Campaigning against fossil fuel company sponsorships

The civil service union PCS culture group is the over-arching body covering bargaining areas in the sport, culture and arts sector. It is a member of the Art Not Oil Coalition. This includes groups like Platform, which campaigns on the social, economic and environmental impacts of the global oil industry, and BP or not BP, a national network of actors who oppose fossil fuel companies funding the arts.

In July 2019, the PCS British Museum branch issued a statement expressing solidarity with author Ahdaf Soueif, who resigned from the Museum’s Board, in protest at oil company BP sponsorship.

The branch says access to culture is a human right, not a privilege bestowed by large corporations and that the museum’s association with BP is not compatible with this objective when its collection “is being used to greenwash the activities of a company whose actions threaten lives the world over, both now and in the future”.

In May 2019, the teachers’ union NEU national executive voted to oppose oil and gas company Ineos’s sponsorship of the Daily Mile initiative in schools, which aims to improve the physical and mental health of children. The union says the company endangers the future of young people through fracking and plastics production and is profiting from climate change. It urged Ineos to consider its position and the Daily Mile project to urgently seek a replacement sponsor.