With an overwhelming chorus of “aye” votes, the California Assembly passed a bill on Wednesday that would require state public retirement systems to divest from companies with holdings in Sudan.
As of Wednesday, the vote was 53-2 in favor of the bill, AB 2941, but the count was not yet official: Assemblymen and assemblywomen who were absent from Wednesday’s session were still submitting votes.
The bill, proposed by Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, will now move on to the state Senate. If passed by both the Senate and the Assembly, the bill will mandate that the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System divest from a selection of companies with holdings in Sudan.
Passage of the bill is part of a nationwide campaign aimed at pressuring the Sudanese government to end the violence in Darfur that has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and many more displacements over the past three years. The Sudanese government has been accused of being complacent in the killings, and the conflict has been labeled a genocide by the U.S. government.
“I was born 10 years after the Holocaust and thought that nothing like that would ever be allowed to happen again,” Koretz said in a recent statement on the state’s divestment campaign. “I’m shocked to see history repeating itself ... and the international community not doing anything.”
Companies targeted for divestment per the bill include those that provide substantial revenue to the Sudanese government without providing benefits to the civilian population or humanitarian organizations. The bill also targets companies that have not stated a policy on the situation in Darfur.
“It’s a very targeted program,” said Sandra DeBourelando, chief of staff for Koretz.
This targeted divestment program follows the same model as the plan the UC Board of Regents adopted, and after the regents voted to divest. Koretz said in a statement that he expected the UC model to act as a template for other divestment decisions.
Thirty-three companies are now listed as potential targets for divestment, and if the bill passes, CalPERS and CalSTRS would be required to divest from about 20 companies, said Adam Sterling, chairman of the UC Sudan Divestment Taskforce. The task force has been instrumental in the UC’s decision to divest, and in writing and lobbying for AB 2941.
“These are the companies that have been completely unresponsive to shareholder pressure – the worst of the worst,” Sterling said.