In a move that should be an example to all other public (and private) institutions in the country, UMass has announced that it will divest from Sudan due to the genocide in Darfur.
The Globe has it here.
BOSTON –The University of Massachusetts is to withdraw more than $530,000 of its funds invested in Sudan, to pressure the government of Africa’s largest country to end the war in its western region of Darfur.
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annem says
margot says
has been introduced in the State Legislature in both the House and the Senate. The sponsors are Harriette Chandler in the Senate and Jay Kaufman in the House. Senator Chandler told me that the Senate might act on it this week and is likely to pass it easily; the House members need more of a push. The Senate bill number is 2217.
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Here is part of the summary of the bill:
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I have the summary as 2-page Word document; I don’t think it’s online anywhere to post a link to it. Is there a way to do that here? If not, you can get it from Senator Chandler’s office. Here is the email address of her aide who sent it to me: Timothy.E.Daley@state.ma.us.
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Here in Central Mass we have been sending postcards to reps to urge them to support the bill. I’ll update you later as to how to get some of them.
medic1 says
Thanks for the post by Margot on the bill that calls for the state pension fund to divest from Sudan. For those of you who missed the hearing on this bill, Lt. Governor Tim Murray gave a great speech on why the state should divest from Sudan. State Senator Ed Augustus had also filed a bill that was merged into the Chandler Bill and he has been a big supporter of the divestment effort. It is great to see our state legislature (that by the way was the first state legislature to divest from South Africa) to take a stand on this issue! The bill should be coming up for a vote and people should make sure to contact Legislators and ask them to support the bill.