Unusually the public gallery was packed last night at the meeting of the Brent Council Pensions Sub-Committee that oversees the council's Local Government Pension Scheme. Brent Council workers and non-teaching school staff form the bulk of members of the scheme. Chair of the Pension Sub-committee Cllr Robert Johnson declared an interest at the meeting as he is a member of the Scheme as a former Brent Council employee.
The full presentation and response can be seen in the short video above. The Chair of Brent and Harrow Palestine Solidarity Campaign told the Sub-Committee that more than 2,000 residents. local workers and students had now signed the petition calling for divestment from funds complicit in human rights abuses in Palestine and elsewhere. The Council should take urgent action as it did over South African apartheid in the past.
The call for ethical investment was shared by many including environmental campaigners.
The Council's response was carefully worded and took less than two minutes. Listen to it above to see whether it fully answers the points made earlier in the presentation.
The presentation asked for a list of the LGPS investments. This was supplied to national PSC in 2020 but when asked last year Brent Coucnil said they were unable to supply a list.
These were the top five of their complicit investments in 2020 and a check on whether they still have such investments would be helpful:
HSBC £4,663,056
HSBC invests over £830million in, and provides financial services worth up to £19billion for, companies arming Israel. These investments include up to £100million worth of shares in the company Caterpillar, who supply the Israeli army with bulldozers which are weaponised and used to demolish Palestinian communities, build Israel’s illegal settlements and apartheid infrastructure including the apartheid wall and military checkpoints. For more info: https://www.palestinecampaign.org/campaigns/stop-arming-israel/
Barclays £1,252,342
Barclays is a British multinational bank and financial services company. Barclays hold approximately £1,167.6 million of investments in companies that are known to supply the Israeli military. This includes Babcock, BAE and Boeing, Cobham and Rolls Royce. More information available in War on Want’s 2017 ‘Deadly Investments’ report.
BAE Systems £970,233
According to CAAT, “BAE Systems is the world’s fourth largest arms producer. Its portfolio includes fighter aircraft, warships, tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery, missiles and small arms ammunition. It has military customers in over 100 countries. BAE has a workshare agreement with Lockheed Martin producing the US F-35 stealth combat aircraft. Israel, for example, took delivery of its first F-35 in 2016. According to Investigate, a project by the American Friends Service Committee, BAE has worked in cooperation with Lockheed Martin and Rafael to produce and market the naval Protector drone used to maintain the siege of Gaza along the Mediterranean coast.
Smiths Group £316,811
According to CAAT “Smiths Group is a global technology company with five divisions: John Crane, Smiths Medical, Smiths Detection, Smiths Interconnect and Flex-Tek. Smiths Connectors is part of Smiths Interconnect and comprises Hypertac, IDI and Sabritec brands. Products include connectors used in fighting vehicles, unmanned vehicles and avionics systems.” They have applied for a number of military export licences to Israel.
Rolls Royce £294,535
Rolls-Royce is a British manufacturer that produces military aircraft engines, naval engines and cores for nuclear submarines. Despite arms comprising only 26% of its total sales, it is still the world’s 17th largest Arms trade. In 2014, the year of Israel’s arial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, which killed over 2,200 civilians, nearly a quarter of them children, Rolls-Royce was granted export licenses for engines for military aircrafts to Israel.
