Hackney’s stance unchanged as neighbouring council divests from firms linked to arms trade
Divestment protesters camped outside Hackney Town Hall in May. Photograph: Hackney Citizen
Hackney Council says it is focusing on ‘responsible investment’ after a neighbouring authority withdrew its pension fund’s stocks in businesses linked to the arms trade.
In August, Waltham Forest Council said it would pull investments from companies linked to arms production in line with its “updated” ethical investment policy.
But despite repeated calls to “divest” funds from businesses allegedly linked to war crimes in Palestine, Hackney Town Hall maintains that its hands are tied.
The decision falls on the council’s pensions committee, whose members are legally responsible for making sure the fund generates enough money to sustain the benefit.
While the pension fund does not directly own stocks or shares in individual companies, committee chair Cllr Kam Adams previously said there were passive investments worth £1.9m in “companies conducting business activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories”.
In July, the committee stated it total exposure was £3.5m, representing 0.17 per cent of the fund’s value.
Organisers for the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) have alleged this is much higher at £30m.
The PSC was part of an encampment outside the Town Hall which began in May, urging the council to take a clear stance on the Israel-Hamas war and to pull investments from stocks in Israeli arms producer Elbit Systems Ltd.
Protesters and campaigners had vowed to stay put “until the council divests” but the camp eventually wound up in July.
In June, Mayor Caroline Woodley spoke in support of “ethical divestment” but made it clear that her powers were limited on the matter, which she acknowledged was “frustrating”.
“I call on the government to bring scrutiny and transparency, to support ethical investment, and to uphold international humanitarian law,” she said.
Speaking to the Citizen, a council spokesperson repeated previous claims that “any divestment solely on ethical grounds would be in breach of the Law Commission guidance”.
“Responsible investment remains at the forefront of the [pensions] committee’s agenda, and it will review the updated investment strategies of other local authorities once they have been published,” they added.
So Waltham Forest Council have voted to divest from all companies linked to the arms trade. Presumably this includes British Arms firms or firms that trade with British arms firms. How clever – and all this to get at Israel, diminish its ability to defend itself and so bring about a second Holocaust? How nice.
For the information of WF Council, divesting from UK arms firms will breach the duty of care all Councils and the UK government have, to defend the UK from external and internal enemies by weakening our ability of self defence, not to mention the massive job losses in our arms industry and damage to our exports. Never mind; we can always buy our ams from the French instead, in order to fight off such wonderful regimes such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea to name just a few. I am sure everyone in the UK will be most satisfied and reassured.
By the way, Israel buys virtually nothing from the UK arms industry, but the UK purchases a great deal of life-saving electronic and technical equipment from Israel, which helps protect our brave forces, and those of our allies, round the world as they assist in confronting vicious, fascist , war-mongering, expansionist regimes around the world. God save us from the hard left Labour members and Green Party Jew-haters who crave to govern our country.
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