https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/under-pressure-over-israel-portland-divests-all-corporations
Portland, Oregon, has voted to
divest all city funds from corporations, in a move that is being greeted with a
mixture of praise and disappointment from activists who have been pushing for a
socially responsible investment policy for years.
The 5 April city council vote
came after the city worked for more than two years to create a mechanism to
ensure that it does not invest in corporations that are complicit in a range of
abuses.
The grassroots divestment push
began four years
ago, when a coalition of activists came together to campaign against
city investments in Wells Fargo
bank and Caterpillar,
corporations involved in the private prison industry and human rights abuses of
Palestinians.
In December 2014, the city created the Socially
Responsible Investments Committee, which was tasked with devising a “do not
buy” list of corporations.
Last September, the committee published
its first report, naming nine companies whose practices violate environmental,
health, labor, business or human rights standards.
The report specifically cited
Caterpillar’s “practice of selling custom weaponized military equipment and its
involvement in human rights controversies, including direct maintenance and
support of Israeli military bulldozers during attacks on Palestinian
residences, orchards and other property.”
Blanket ban
But what began as a rigorous
process to determine which corporations should be placed on a “do not buy”
list, ended last week with a blanket prohibition on investing in any company.
Last week’s vote overcame top
city officials’ attempts to continue investing in companies they see as crucial
revenue streams for the city.
“This is a win,” Hyung Nam, a
member of the Socially Responsible Investments Committee, told media.
“The city is actually willing to lose money to their budget because they want
to get out of these big corporate nightmares.”
But others regret that by
imposing a blanket ban on corporate investments, the city avoids rebuking the
most egregious bad actors.
“We thought it was important
for the city to specifically call out corporations for violating socially
responsible criteria,” Rod Such told
The Electronic Intifada.
Such, a member of the Occupation-Free Portland
coalition and a regular
contributor to The Electronic Intifada, said there was “a little
disappointment” among the broad coalition of groups that had worked for divestment.
“Behind the scenes”
Such believes that part of the
motivation to impose the blanket ban was to avoid dealing with a new campaign
every year, with a new corporate target.
He also fears that some city
officials wanted to avoid denouncing corporations like Caterpillar, whose
equipment Israel uses as
weapons against Palestinians.
“The goal was to get someone
on the city council to openly make a public statement condemning Caterpillar’s
role in the occupation,” Such said. “Even the most progressive member of the
city council said, ‘I won’t go there.’”
“In one sense our goal was to
get the city to stop investing in Caterpillar. In that sense we won,” Such
said. “But in the large political sense, we didn’t win. But I think we got a
step closer.”
According to Such, the Jewish
Federation of Portland and the Israeli
government-funded group StandWithUs testified
against listing Caterpillar on the do not buy list.
The Jewish Federation says it
also went into
action “behind the scenes – and quietly” to defend several other
companies involved in Israel’s occupation – Hewlett-Packard, G4S and Motorola.
“Victory for citizen activism”
In December 2016, the city
council decided to suspend
all corporate investments until the city treasury reassessed the investment policy.
At the 5 April city council
meeting, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler proposed
scrapping the city’s own do not buy list and instead deferring to a New York-based
ratings firm that helps identify responsible companies for city investments.
Wheeler argued that the city
could not afford the loss in revenue from moving all of its investments out of
corporations.
The city treasurer estimates
it will cost an annual $3-5 million dollars.
About one-third of Portland’s
$1.7 billion investment portfolio is currently
in corporate bonds and securities.
Wheeler also said he was
generally against
divestment, because “he sees it as a lost opportunity to influence
corporations from the inside,” according to a local report.
But city commissioner Dan
Saltzman argued for an outright ban on corporate investments.
“I think it’s the wiser course
to get out of the business altogether, because I don’t really want to have to
do this once or twice a year, and have the same discussion over 21 companies,”
Saltzman said.
In casting her vote with
Saltzman, city commissioner Chloe Eudaly said, “I can’t dismiss the symbolism
and meaning of Portland taking a stand on these issues.”
“This decision is a huge
victory for citizen activism,” Maxine Fookson, of Jewish Voice for Peace and
Occupation-Free Portland, said in a press release.
Fookson added that although
activists would have preferred the city to keep its socially responsible
investment policy, the decision to pull all corporate investments “at least
ensures that our tax money will not be complicit in human rights violations in
Israel/Palestine and elsewhere.”
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