What is Divestment?
JWW supports and advocates for a method of economic pressure called targeted divestment. As the ultimate goal in our divestment campaign is to protect the victims in Darfur, the targeted divestment model which JWW supports is crafted so as to maximize the impact on the Sudanese government and its policies while they minimize adverse impacts on the innocent Sudanese people JWW is trying to help.
The divestment awareness campaign targets companies that are complicit in the genocide or that are benefiting from it, and companies that have refused to take a stance against the atrocities, but that offer only minimal benefits to the country’s oppressed and underprivileged.
Divestment from these types of companies (called “worst offenders”) causes the companies’ stocks to fall and share prices to decline. To protect their falling share prices, company executives convey to the Sudanese government that the genocide they are perpetrating in Darfur is bad for business. This economic pressure, in turn, forces the Sudanese government to recalculate its position on whether or not it can “afford” the genocide: either government behavior would have to change (in order to keep businesses in Sudan) or offending companies would leave Sudan, thereby withdrawing money that had been used to purchase military equipment for the genocide
For more information about targeted divestment, visit the Conflict Risk Network (formerly the Sudan Divestment Task Force).
For more information on genocide-free investing, please visit Investors Against Genocide.
JWW Divestment Projects
JWW has engaged in a campaign to educate and raise awareness on the part of the City of Los Angeles, the State of California, other local governments, and other entities and individuals about the value of divesting from companies doing business in Sudan.
JWW worked with the Sudan Divestment Task Force to convince the University of California regents to vote in favor of divestment and the state legislature to pass legislation signed by Governor Schwarzenegger, enacting UC divestment legislation and requiring divestment by the state retirement funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS.
JWW has also worked on divestment efforts at the local level, within the City of Los Angeles, and at the federal level.
California State Divestment Action:
Fact Sheet Regarding California State Divestment
Press Release
JWW remarks on Governor Schwarzenegger signing AB 2941 into law
UC Regents Divestment Remarks
California Chronicle
City of Los Angeles Divestment Action:
Fact Sheet Regarding Los Angeles Divestment
JWW Statment to L.A. City Council Intergovernmental Relations Committee
JWW Statement to LACERS
Temple Israel of Hollywood Youth Go to LA City Council
L.A. City Council Resolution
L.A. City Council Flyer
L.A. City Council Resolution Press Release
Announcement/Press Release of passage of LA City Council Resolution
Divestment Resources
Conflict Risk Network
Investors Against Genocide
List of Divested States and Universities
An Analysis of Companies’ Operations in Sudan (Yale Lowenstein Report)
