Campaigners and trade unionists call for Camden Council’s pension fund to divest from all unethical companies

Pro-Palestinian campaigners have joined forces with a trade union to call on Camden Council’s pensions committee to divest from all unethical companies.

The local branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) representatives of Unison made the pleas to councillors and officers at a meeting of the committee this week.

“You need to hear our voice about how our pensions are funded,” said Liz Wheatley, the borough’s Unison branch officer.

“We are really clearly saying that we don’t want our pensions to be funded by death and destruction, by war and occupation”.

Wheatley said she was pleased that, last year, the portion of the council’s pension fund investments into fossil fuels was reduced to 2.2 per cent.

But she added that those investments are “still over £20 million and that’s far too much money”.

“We think you’ve already had plenty of time to end fossil fuel investment, and we can only think now that there’s a lack of political will,” she added.

Wheatley urged Camden Council to target zero investments in fossil fuels, “because the climate crisis is here and now, and actually some of that investment is causing destruction of the planet, and death, illness and poverty for the people who live on it”.

Her deputation also reminded those present of the “180,000 or more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza”.

“Having any investment link to this, or to the expanding occupation in the West Bank, or to the wars and occupations in Sudan, Yemen, the DRC and more, is absolutely unacceptable to us and our members.”

She demanded the council divests money from “the arms industry, war and occupation… even if there is only £7.7 million invested in companies supporting the occupation of Palestine, that’s still £7.7 million too much”.

Wheatley’s pleas were reiterated by Camden Palestine Solidarity Campaign co-chair Luca Salice, who urged the council to “make their own assessment of the complicity of the companies it invests in”.

Labour’s abandonment of the last Conservative government’s boycott law “provides Camden with the opportunity to be at the forefront of the divestment movement,” Salice added.

The deputations were met with a mixed reception.

“The pension committee cannot and should not be involved in international politics,” said Belsize’s Liberal Democrat Cllr Matthew Kirk.

He justified the investments in arms companies, saying “any company generating arms to protect its country, Ukraine or Israel, is an ethical company and an ethical investment”.

Cllr Kirk said the pensions committee “holds ESG (environmental, social, and governance) investing at the core of what it does”, and that investments that not ESG compliant are a “tiny percentage of a £2 billion fund… approximately 1.5 per cent”.

He reminded the committee that “this money is the responsibility of the employers… and it’s the employers that own the investments, not the employees”.

Primrose Hill’s Labour councillor Anna Burrage appeared more willing to open a discourse with Unison and PSC, asking Salice and Wheatley for their contributions to a letter being written to all FTSE 100 companies.

The letter will pose “certain questions which will then give us a much more level playing field upon which we can understand the basis on which they make and maintain their investments in conflict zones”, said Burrage.

Concluding the discussion, committee chair Rishi Madlani said he “welcome[s] the challenge and questions here today” and that divestment is an “emerging area where we can do more”.

“I feel with you the emotions around this and have a lot of empathy for why this is so important to so many people,” he added.

“We need to really understand the data, and we [the pensions committee] are happy to see where we can share more.”