Social justice & stock portfolios
Members of Hillel and SPHR debate ethical investments at McGill
The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has found that, since 1967, Caterpillar Inc. bulldozers have destroyed 15,000 Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories. McGill uses the company for much of the construction work done on campus. The money that students give the University in tuition and fees contributes in a tangible way to oppression and exploitation.
As students in the Western world, we often fail to recognize and take accountability for the role that our actions play in international conflicts. The nature of globalization and the world economic system have created mechanisms through which dollars spent in Canada can have an impact in Burma, Mexico, El Salvador, and Palestine – nations where Canadian investment has been linked to wide-scale human rights violations.
It is in this view that the McGill chapter of Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) has put forward a motion for this Wednesday’s SSMU General Assembly. The motion for the defense of human rights, social justice, and environmental protection seeks to restore our agency in the use of our money worldwide. The motion is intended to increase transparency and accountability in University finances. For these reasons, the motion proposes that SSMU “will thoroughly investigate McGill University’s involvement with companies on the basis of negative ethical practices, and will, on behalf of the students of McGill University, call upon the administration to divest from companies that do not meet specified criteria for ethical investment.”
The motion’s critics will attempt to portray this proposal as a radical or leftist condemnation of the State of Israel. They will argue that SPHR has singled out Israeli human rights violations and not those of human rights violators like Saudi Arabia or Iran. SPHR names Israel’s illegal occupations in the whereas clauses because it fulfills our mandate to raise awareness about Palestinian oppression. Israel has simply violated more United Nations resolutions than any other member country. The motion’s strength, however, is in the breadth of its focus. It corresponds to ethical investment in all parts of the world, not solely the Occupied Territories. If the world’s most powerful countries refuse to abide by international law, this motion will at least ensure that SSMU and McGill do so. McGill’s commitment to the U.N. is longstanding; Faculty of Law professor John Humphrey was instrumental in the drafting of the 1948 U.N. Declaration of Human Rights.
The motion further ensures that McGill’s primary financial contributors – students – can be assured that their money is not being used for the contravention of international law. The Israeli occupation of Palestine is mentioned here simply as a human rights violation in which we, the McGill student body, are particularly economically implicated. The spirit of the motion is not exclusive to SPHR McGill. It coincides with the Canadian Private members’ bill C-300, which intends to force Canadian corporations operating abroad to act in a manner consistent with environmentally ethical practices and with Canada’s commitments to international human rights.
The student body must vote “yes” for the creation of a corporate social responsibility watchdog who will advocate for social justice, human rights, and environmental protection.
Urooj Nizami is a U0 Arts student and the incoming vice president internal of SPHR. Write her at uro_niz@hotmail.com.
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Adam wrote:
"SPHR names Israel’s illegal occupations in the whereas clauses because it fulfills our mandate to raise awareness about Palestinian oppression."
Yes, but that's too convenient. You've only told us why SPHR should mention Israel, not why it shouldn't mention others.
SPHR could have added Iran because right now it seems obvious that Iranian students need solidarity, as they are trying to effect change in their country. They are being arrested, raped and executed, and it would have been to SPHR's credit to say something about them in the preamble -- perhaps saying we are willing to divest from companies that do business with Iran if the reformers want us to.
Many people in SPHR also know that the UN Security Council recognizes Morocco as running an illegal occupation of Western Sahara and its people. If you were truly concerned about illegal occupations alleged by UN resolutions, you should have mentioned more situations than only Israel's status quo with the Palestinians. It would have been to SPHR's credit and made them more believable as a human rights voice instead of as simply an ethnic lobby (not that there's anything wrong about that).
I don't think that none of your members care about Western Saharans or Iranian students, or about Iran's colonial rule of the oil-rich land of the Ahwazi Arabs, whose situation is as bad as SPHR's worst nightmares about Palestinians. It's more likely that some members of SPHR would get angry if Iran or Morocco were mentioned, and you want full support from all your members for this motion that prompts SSMU's committee to make a future connection between Israel's stances and divestment.
Writing that SPHR mentioned only the Palestinian territories because (a) "it fulfills our mandate" AND because (b) "Israel has simply violated more [...] resolutions than any other member country" is a self-refutation of your argument about intent.
If your only motive to allude to Israel was "A," that would be one thing. But "B" implies that you would have put another country (Iran, Saudi Arabia, etc.) in the preamble IF you believed it was doing badness that compared to your view of the badness of Israel's behavior.
But you started out writing that "students in the Western world" need "to recognize and take accountability for the role that our actions play in international conflicts." So then why did you write the preamble to not recognize them and begin to think about accountability?
From a political science POV, it's pathetic that the group that speaks up for Palestinians doesn't realize how much more effective it would be for Palestinians if it showed even token solidarity to other groups.
Feb 8, 2010 at 01:47 AM
Adam wrote:
...
2 BTWs:
(1) Your preamble mischaracterizes many UN resolutions, and Article 1 of the Charter, besides not saying which resolutions reflect the votes of non-representative governments (the examples are not just "baddies" like North Korea, Iran, Zimbabwe, etc.) and which resolutions are binding as having passed through the Security Council.
(2) After the preamble, your motion sucks. Sorry.
FERC should report their assessments to the students for their vote on divestment in different situations. It's more democratic, and SPHR is pro-democracy right?
Besides, a student body vote will be less likely than a committee of just a few appointed people to divest ON A WHIM, perhaps screwing over workers in various developing countries and having a disastrous effect on their lives.
Feb 8, 2010 at 01:54 AM
Eve wrote:
Dearest Adam,
I strongly support you in your boycott of Moroccan clementines. Please email me so that we can start a society to remove these vile products of oppression from campus.
While we're at it let's also, stop using Saudi, Moroccan, and Iranian petroleum products. Pedal power FTW!
Love,
Eve
Feb 8, 2010 at 11:08 AM
Adam wrote:
Dear Eve,
Divestment means not doing business with COMPANIES who do business with the indicted countries. Duh.
Didn't you read what SPHR says about Catepillar, which is not an Israeli company? And I suppose the Iranian students who want us to divest from Siemens -- for helping the Iranian government in cell phone surveillance -- are to be turned down because you are afraid of a slippery slope that deprives you of Iranian petroleum for your car and your vasoline ...
So congratulations on trivializing Morocco's occupation, since I guess, that's about all your comment has accomplished.
Feb 8, 2010 at 12:02 PM
eli wrote:
McGill’s primary financial contributors are not the students - it's the government by far. Whereas tuition received and kept by McGill from every UG student (including out of province and international students due to the agreement with the Quebec Ministry of Education) amounts to under $2000, the amount of money received from the Quebec government for every student is over $11000.
I have long felt that student government and student activists are afforded way too much power and way too much say in the university's affairs.
The university is funded by the government for the long-term benefit of Quebec society, and though student input is important, it should not be the most important consideration - especially given the unrepresentative self-selected nature of the people who usually choose to run for student government positions and who are most active within the student government apparatus. In other words, those who don't have an ideological agenda to pursue choose to focus on our studies and extracurricular interests rather than waste time attending largely meaningless GAs and committee hearings of all sorts.
Feb 9, 2010 at 04:03 AM
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