Washington workers want to divest their state pensions and retirement from Weapons of War, Genocide, Israeli Apartheid, Climate Polluters, and Fossil Fuel companies.
In March, the MLK Labor Council, which represents 150 labor unions and 220,000 workers, passed a resolution in support of responsible investing. A financial policy that reviews the current investment portfolio of pensions and retirement funds of the state’s workforce and provides a framework and pathway to divest from harmful companies.
In April, pressure from the organizers of the Cut Ties Campaign forced the State Treasurer to end bonds totaling 62 million dollars with Caterpillar.
Caterpillar provides the armed machinery used to ethnically cleanse and displace Palestinians. It is the machinery used to demolish the homes of Palestinians. It is also the same military machinery used to murder an activist from Washington state, Rachel Corrie, in 2003.
Cut Ties Campaign will organize and mobilize workers and the public to provide testimony in Olympia to the Washington State Investment Board. Be on the lookout for this mobilization from Washington for Peace and Justice and Jewish Voice for Peace.
What would a divestment framework do? It would successfully divest 1 billion dollars worth of investments from complicit companies. From weapons manufacturers to fossil fuels companies and private corporations that run immigration detention centers.
Who are these companies:
Chevron
Lockheed Martin
Boeing
RTX
Northrop Grumman
Honeywell International
BAE Systems
Elbit Systems
Primo Water Corporation
Textron
General Dynamics
These are a few of a long list of targets for ethical financial responsibility reviews and divestments.
We call on the Washington State Investment Board, Governor Ferguson, the State Treasurer, and our city, county, and state elected representatives to take action to do the following:
- Divest from holdings in companies that profit from the ongoing genocide, ethnic cleansing, and the illegal occupation of Palestinian land.
- Divest from holdings in Israeli corporations and bonds.
- Commit to not purchasing Israel Bonds now or in the future.
Counties and cities across the country have already divested from weapons manufacturers, Israeli bonds, and complicit companies.