An aldermanic resolution calling on the City of St. Louis’ retirement system to divest from companies that profit from war found approval today—but not before things got heated. Ten members of the board voted for Alderman Rasheen Aldridge’s non-binding resolution. Three voted present and one no.
The resolution was inspired by the Not Another Nickel campaign, a pro-Palestinian activist group calling for investments to be directed away from Israel and companies that make money off armaments. The campaign swiftly issued a press release declaring that St. Louis had just become the largest city in the United States to pass a resolution divesting from corporations complicit in human rights violations.
Aldridge said that research conducted by the campaign found that the city’s retirement board had money invested in 17 companies deemed to be “complicit in perpetuating violence against people within our city or abroad.” The 17 companies identified by the group include Boeing, one of the region’s biggest employers, as well as Chevron, Caterpillar, and Lockheed Martin. Aldridge noted that the city had only around 1 percent of its total investment portfolio in these companies, but that passing the resolution would show that “St. Louis is a city ready to stand, not on war, but on peace.”…