BY MICHELLE
PUBLISHED JANUARY 05, 2010 @ 09:19AM PT
Activists working for genocide-free investing celebrated an important victory yesterday: TIAA-CREF announced that it sold its stakes in four Asian oil companies accused of ties with the war-mongering Sudanese government, becoming the first large U.S. asset manager to do so.
Even more remarkable, TIAA-CREF recognized the importance of this action without requiring a vote from its shareholders. Activist organization Investors Against Genocide (IAG) withdrew a shareholder proposal from the ballot in March of last year after TIAA-CREF announced plans to engage the offender companies, and then announced yesterday the selling of $58 million in shares after unsatisfactory negotiations with China's PetroChina Co Ltd, CNPC Hong Kong, Sinopec, and Oil and Natural Gas Corp of New Delhi (ONGC). IAG Chairperson Eric Cohen contrasted TIAA-CREF's leadership with lack of action by Fidelity and Vanguard:
"While TIAA-CREF honored its commitment to divest when the problem companies did not show significant progress to help end the genocide, Vanguard promoted a toothless policy which gives them the appearance of doing the right thing while actually doing nothing."
Congratulations to IAG, and kudos to TIAA-CREF. It seems far too rare that we can commend large business interests for their moral leadership, and this is certainly a nice change of pace.
[Photo by KB35.]