Disinvestment

Disinvestment refers to the use of a concerted economic boycott to pressure a government, industry, or company towards a change in policy, or in the case of governments, even regime change. The term was first used in the 1980s, most commonly in the United States, to refer to the use of a concerted economic boycott designed to pressure the government of South Africa into abolishing its apartheid regime. The term has also been applied to actions targeting Iran, Sudan, Northern Ireland, Myanmar, Israel, China and Russia.

## Contents

* 1 Examples
* 1.1 Industries
* 1.2 Environment
* 1.3 Companies
* 1.4 Nations
* 1.4.1 Iran
* 1.4.2 South Africa
* 1.4.3 Northern Ireland
* 1.4.4 Cuba
* 1.4.5 Sudan
* 1.4.6 Israel
* 1.4.7 Russia
* 1.4.8 China
* 1.4.9 Others
* 2 Criticism
* 3 See also
* 4 Notes and references

## Examples

### Industries

This section is in list format, but may read better as prose. You can help by converting this section, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (March 2026)

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* Global Climate Coalition – Ford, General Motors, Texaco, Southern Company, Exxon, and other corporate members of the Global Climate Coalition – an industry group opposing the Kyoto Protocol – were the target of a national disinvestment campaign run by Ozone Action in 2000. According to The New York Times, when Ford Motor Company left the coalition, it was "the latest sign of divisions within heavy industry over how to respond to global warming".[1] After that, between December, 1999 and early March, 2000, the GCC was deserted by Daimler-Chrysler, Texaco, the Southern Company and General Motors.[2] The organization closed in 2002, or in their own words, 'deactivated'. People associated with the campaign were John Passacantando, who served as the executive director of Ozone Action, and Phil Radford, the then field director of the organization. Both men later served as the executive director of Greenpeace[3]
* Tobacco industry[4][5]
* Arms trade[6][7]
* Fossil fuels industry [8][9]
* Factory farming[10]

### Environment

There is a movement to disinvest from coal, oil and gas companies. It is a social movement which urges everyone from individual investors to large endowed institutions to remove their investments (to divest) from publicly listed oil, gas and coal companies, with the intention of combating climate change by reducing the amount of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere, and holding the oil, gas and coal companies responsible for their role in climate change.

Founder of the movement Bill McKibben, a researcher and academic from University of Victoria, and creator of the webpage 350.org stated: “If it is wrong to wreck the climate, then it is wrong to profit from the wreckage. We believe […] organizations that serve the public good should divest from fossil fuels”

### Companies

* Talisman Energy - because of its status as the main Western oil company in Sudan in the early 2000s.

### Nations

#### Iran

Eighteen American states have passed laws requiring the divestment of state pension funds from firms doing business with Iran.[11]

#### South Africa

Main article: Finance:Disinvestment from South Africa

The most frequently-encountered method of "dis-investing" was to persuade state, county and municipal governments to sell their stock in companies which had a presence in South Africa, such shares having been previously placed in the portfolio of the state's, county's or city's pension fund. Several states and localities did pass legislation ordering the sale of such securities, most notably the city of San Francisco. An array of celebrities, including singer Paul Simon, actively supported the cause.

Many conservatives opposed the disinvestment campaign, accusing its advocates of hypocrisy for not also proposing that the same sanctions be leveled on either the Soviet Union or the People's Republic of China. Ronald Reagan, who was the President of the United States during the time the disinvestment movement was at its peak, also opposed it, instead favoring a policy of "constructive engagement" with the Pretoria regime. Some offered as an alternative to disinvestment the so-called "Sullivan Principles", named after Reverend Leon Sullivan, an African-American clergyman who served on the Board of Directors of General Motors. These principles called for corporations doing business in South Africa to adhere to strict standards of non-discrimination in hiring and promotions, so as to set a positive example.

#### Northern Ireland

#### Cuba

Though in place long before the term "disinvestment" was coined, the United States embargo against Cuba meets many of the criteria for designation as such — and a provision more closely paralleling the disinvestment strategy aimed at South Africa was added in 1996, when the United States Congress passed the Helms-Burton Act, which penalized owners of foreign businesses which invested in former American firms that had been nationalized by Fidel Castro's government after the Cuban revolution of 1959. The passage of this law was widely seen as a reprisal for an incident in which Cuban military aircraft shot down two private planes flown by Cuban exiles living in Florida, who were searching for Cubans attempting to escape to Miami.

#### Sudan

During the late 1990s and early 2000s several Christian groups in North America campaigned for disinvestment from Sudan because of the Muslim-dominated government's long conflict with the breakaway, mostly Christian region of Southern Sudan. One particular target of this campaign was the Canadian oil company, Talisman Energy which eventually left the country, and was supplanted by Chinese investors.[12][13]

The Sudan Divestment Task Force[14] has organized a nationwide group which advocates a targeted divestment policy, to minimize any negative effects on Sudanese civilians while still placing financial pressure on the government. The so-called 'targeted divestment approach' generally permits investment in Sudan, and is thus radically different from the comprehensive divestment that ended apartheid in South Africa.

Under this approach, sponsored by State Senator Jacqueline Collins, public pensions are prohibited from investing in any corporation or private equity firm that conducts business in Sudan, unless authorized to do so by the U.S. Government.

#### Israel

This section is an excerpt from Disinvestment from Israel[ edit ]

#### Russia

Main article: Finance:Boycott of Russia and Belarus

Several companies, such as oil giants BP and Shell, have disinvested from Russia following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. TikTok, also as a result of the invasion, also no longer allows new posts to be published in Russian territory, and YouTube does not allow Russian-backed channels to be monetised on the platform.[15]

#### China

In January 2020, students at University of California, Los Angeles passed a resolution calling for divestment from China. In August 2020, Under Secretary of State Keith Krach called upon university administrators in the United States to divest their endowments from companies in China. In the letter, Krach cited an open letter released nationally in May 2020 by College Democrats and College Republicans that was written by the student-organized Athenai Institute, and numerous other organizations and individuals which called for the disclosure of all ties "between centers of higher learning and all Chinese state agencies and proxies".[16]

In October 2021, students at The Catholic University of America unanimously passed a resolution, with the Athenai Institute calling upon their university administration to divest its endowment from companies complicit in the genocide of Uyghurs conducted by the Chinese government.[17] This resulted in Catholic University committing to audit and divest its endowment, becoming the first university in the world to do so. According to Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin, this action marked the beginning of the "Uyghur Genocide University Divestment Movement".[18] Following this, the Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility at Yale University committed to examine potential investments in Chinese companies tied to human rights abuses.[19] In January 2022, students at Georgetown University circulated an open letter calling for divestment from China. The letter was supported by a coalition of Georgetown's College Democrats, College Republicans, Muslim Student Association, Hong Kong Student Association, as well as individuals. Following this, the Georgetown University Student Association introduced and unanimously passed a resolution calling upon the university to divest its endowment.[20] Similar action was taken by a coalition of students at the George Washington University in February 2022.[21]

#### Others

Myanmar (formerly Burma) has also been the target of disinvestment campaigns (most notably the Massachusetts Burma Law initiated by the state of Massachusetts). Divestment campaigns have also been directed against Saudi Arabia due to allegations of "gender apartheid". The University of California, Riverside's Hillel chapter has a Saudi Divestment petition circulating as of 2007.

In 2007, several major international and Canadian oil companies threatened to withdraw investment from the province of Alberta because of a proposed increase in royalty rates.[22]

## Criticism

Some hold that disinvestment campaigns are based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how stock markets work. John Silber, former president of Boston University, observed that while boycotting a company's products would actually affect their business, "once a stock issue has been made, the corporation doesn't care whether you sell it, burn it, or anything else, because they've already got all the money they're ever going to get from that stock. So they don't care."[23]

Regarding the more specific case of South Africa, John Silber recalled:

> ...when the students were protesting the South African situation, I met with them, and they said BU must disinvest in General Motors and IBM. And I said, "Why should we do that? Is it immoral to own that stock?" Absolutely immoral to own it. And I said, "So then, we're supposed to sell it to somebody? We can't disinvest unless we sell it to somebody. And if we burn the stock, that just helps General Motors, because it reduces the amount of stock outstanding, so that can't be right. If we sell it to somebody, we have just gotten rid of our guilt in order to impose guilt on somebody else."[23]

One criticism of disinvestment focuses on the belief that institutional selling of a certain stock lowers its market value. Therefore, the company's net worth becomes devalued and the owners of the company may lose substantial paper assets. In addition, institutional disinvestment may encourage other investors to sell their stocks for fear of lower prices, which in turn lowers prices even further. Finally, lower stock prices limits a corporation's ability to sell a portion of their stocks in order to raise funds to expand the business.This assumption about the intent behind many disinvestment movements is often incorrect. Disinvestment executions are often forms of denouncement and delegitimization of an industry, such as in the fossil-fuel disinvestment movement. Negative public perception can lead to reform and changes in policy, both privately for the company and in the public sphere.[citation needed]

## See also

* Economic and political boycotts of Israel
* Ethical consumerism
* Fossil fuel divestment
* Municipal disinvestment
* Socially responsible investing
* Privatization

## Notes and references

1. ↑ Bradsher, Keith (1999-12-07). "Ford Announces Its Withdrawal From Global Climate Coalition". The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/07/business/ford-announces-its-withdrawal-from-global-climate-coalition.html.
2. ↑ "GCC Suffers Technical Knockout, Industry defections decimate Global Climate Coalition". June 2022. http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?id=3440&method=full.
3. ↑ "Canvassing Works". Canvassing Works. http://www.canvassingworks.org/canvassingworks/2006/09/alumni_update_p.html.
4. ↑ "ASH Scotland - Action on Smoking and Health - Investments in Tobacco Industry: Motions". http://www.ashscotland.org.uk/ash/4419.html.
5. ↑ "The Mac Weekly:News". http://www.macalester.edu/weekly/Archive/10-17-96/news/tobacco.html.
6. ↑ "Stop the War Coalition". http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=370&Itemid=115.
7. ↑ "Liverpool City Council votes to disinvest in arms trade". http://www.labournet.net/other/0710/lccawar1.html.
8. ↑ "Fossil Free". http://gofossilfree.org/.
9. ↑ Article title[Usurped!] Power Shift
10. ↑ Levitt, Tom (3 March 2016). "Factory farming divestment: what you need to know". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/mar/03/factory-farming-divestment-explain.
11. ↑ Elis, Niv. "The Pension Fund Attack On Iran". https://www.forbes.com/2009/10/16/iran-pension-divestment-business-washington-congress.html.
12. ↑ . http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1058/is_6_117/ai_60026681.
13. ↑ "The Episcopal Church (US) formally resolves to divest from shareholding in Talisman Energy, October 25, 2001 :: Sudanreeves.org :: Sudan Research, Analysis, and Advocacy". http://www.sudanreeves.org/Sections-req-viewarticle-artid-393-allpages-1-theme-Printer.html.
14. ↑ "genocideintervention.net". http://www.genocideintervention.net/.
15. ↑ Duprey, Rich (2022-03-10). "How Big of a Risk Is Russian Divestment?" (in en). https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/03/10/heres-why-investors-should-worry-about-calls-for-r/.
16. ↑ Allen-Ebrahimian, Bethany (2020-05-13). "College Democrats and Republicans denounce racism and the Chinese Communist Party" (in en). https://www.axios.com/college-democrats-republicans-china-communist-party-06a94e9a-7bf9-45aa-993d-e0e53258bdd7.html.
17. ↑ "The Catholic University of America Divestment Resolution" (in en). Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/the-catholic-university-of-america-divestment-resolution/0b003b3f-dfb7-4ea1-bf7a-df00a840e492/.
18. ↑ "Opinion | The Uyghur genocide university divestment movement is here" (in en-US). Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/11/24/uyghur-genocide-university-divestment-movement-is-here/.
19. ↑ Mousavizadeh, Philip (2022-01-26). "Yale to begin investigating potential Chinese investments in light of human rights concerns" (in en). https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2022/01/26/yale-to-begin-investigating-its-chinese-investments-in-light-of-human-rights-concerns/.
20. ↑ "GUSA passes a resolution calling for divestment connected to the genocide of Uyghur Muslims" (in en-US). 2022-02-08. https://georgetownvoice.com/2022/02/07/gusa-passes-a-resolution-calling-for-divestment-connected-to-the-genocide-of-uyghur-muslims/.
21. ↑ "Petition urges GW to divest from ties to Uyghur genocide". 2022-02-14. https://www.gwhatchet.com/2022/02/14/student-groups-demand-officials-investigate-endowment-for-potential-ties-to-uyghur-genocide/.
22. ↑ "EnCana says still studying Alberta royalty change". Reuters. 5 November 2007. https://www.reuters.com/article/mergersNews/idUSN0528089920071105.
23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 "The Lion in Winter: Full Transcript". 15 May 2006. http://www.bostonmagazine.com/2006/05/the-lion-in-winter-full-transcript/.

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