Tell University of Manchester to divest from Caterpillar

UK universities remain deeply complicit with Israel’s apartheid regime through their investment and institutional links, despite many holding “social responsibility policies”. These policies often include restrictions on investing in companies who conduct business which leads to human rights violations. One example includes University of Manchester (UoM), who invest in the company Caterpillar. Caterpillar supplies the armoured bulldozers for the Israeli army to demolish Palestinian homes, schools olive groves and communities.

Students at the UoM BDS campaign, have been campaigning for the university to divest for the past three years. Support their campaign and help pressure the institution into divesting from Caterpillar and getting #ApartheidOffCampus.

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Dear Dame Nancy Rothwell,
 
I’m writing to you as a concerned citizen, in regards to the University of Manchester’s problematic investments in Caterpillar Inc, which has been raised on several occasions from hundreds of your own students, as well as academics, societies and members of the alumni.
 
Students participating in a campaign which has been ongoing for three years have worked tirelessly to call on the University of Manchester to adhere to its own <a href="http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=659">‘Socially Responsible’ Investment policy</a> and divest from Caterpillar for human rights violations and armament sales to military regimes.
 
Socially Responsible Investment (SRI):
 
The University of Manchester’s <a href="http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/DocuInfo.aspx?DocID=659">SRI policy</a> [April 2018] clearly states that the university, as part of its Manchester 2020 Strategic Plan, explicitly commits to ensuring that, “social, economic and environmental factors are built into our processes for the procurement of goods and services and how we invest our money”.
 
The policy then enlists Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues that lead to elimination of investments which are as follows:
 
1) Human rights violations
2) Armament sales to military regimes        
3) Racial Discrimination
4) Environmental degradation
 
While I commend the University of Manchester for standing out among other UK universities for having its own socially-responsible investment policy and holding the values of social responsibility within its top 3 aims, I recognise that its investments do not reflect the SRI policy. On the contrary, I am alarmed at the university’s problematic investments in the company Caterpillar.
 
We understand that the University of Manchester invests £487,840.44 in Caterpillar - according to the number of shares invested (4895) and the share price ($127.75) as of 14th November 2018.
 
Caterpillar sells its bulldozers to the Israeli military, at which point they are weaponised by Israeli Military Industries, recently purchased by Elbit Systems, and Israel Aerospace Industries. These bulldozers are used to <a href="https://waronwant.org/sites/default/files/Caterpillar%20-%20The%20Alternative%20Report.pdf">demolish</a> Palestinian homes, factories, agricultural land and civilian infrastructure, including water pipes and networks on Palestinian territory assigned by the UN. Caterpillar also <a href="https://waronwant.org/sites/default/files/Caterpillar%20-%20The%20Alternative%20Report.pdf">provides equipment</a> used to reinforce the illegal Apartheid Wall on the West Bank as well as the wall in Gaza, and for the construction of illegal settlements and settlement infrastructure on stolen Palestinian land.
 
Crucially, Caterpillar’s actions encapsulate every single ESG issue outlined in the SRI policy above.  However the University of Manchester’s SRI policy and Investment Charter [April 2018] condones the following strategy to pressure corporations that contravene the policy:
 
“Where a company in which the University currently holds shares does not respond positively to concerns about its practices and is deemed to be in fundamental breach of acceptable standards of ethical and/or environmental practice, the University will divest itself of shares in that Company and require the Investment Manager to inform the Company of its reasons for doing so.”
 
Thus, if the University of Manchester seeks to adhere to its proclaimed values of social responsibility, then it must immediately divest from Caterpillar Inc.

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Tell University of Manchester to divest from Caterpillar