Lewisham council urged to divest pensions from arms suppliers
Residents and activists held a rally outside Lewisham Town Hall yesterday to urge the council to divest its pensions fund from the arms companies supplying Israel.
Protesters from Lewisham Divest For Palestine and Lewisham Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) gathered outside the council’s offices in Catford Road, as the borough’s councillors held their monthly meeting.
Campaigners allege that 13.4 per cent of Lewisham council’s pension fund is managed by Blackrock, an asset management firm which holds investments in Israel and in arms companies.
A spokesman for Blackrock said the company has investments in companies which “may be linked to Israel” but these are “all controlled by third parties”.
Following yesterday’s council meeting, a Lewisham council spokesman said: “While our pension funds hold a small number of investments in the Aerospace and Defence sector – representing 0.1 per cent of the total fund – we have sought assurances that the funds we pay into do not directly fund arms manufacture and have been given that assurance by the fund managers.”
On September, 19, the Pensions Investment Committee introduced a resolution, proposed by Lewisham Labour councillor Tauseef Anwar and seconded by Cllr Liam Shrivastava, to divest its pension investments away from the arms trade.
Cllr Anwar said: “The arms trade, wars and human rights breaches are the three main reasons that create refugees.
“We can’t be complicit, we should divest from these companies so that we can call ourselves a true Borough of Sanctuary.”
On Wednesday, the committee also agreed on a set of Responsible Investment Beliefs as part of its investment strategy, which set out how the fund will deliver on its Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) values.
The Pensions Investment Committee will engage with Pension Fund Managers over the coming months to ensure that investments continue to align with these values, the council spokesman said.
But, Harvey Irving, 28, from Deptford, an organiser with Lewisham Divest For Palestine, said: “Several people asked questions about why the council had failed to divest its pensions from companies complicit in Israel’s genocide and the answers we got were disappointing to say the least.”
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israeli military attacks in Gaza since the October 7, Hamas-led attack on Israel, according to the Palestinian health ministry. That number equates to around 1.7 per cent of the population of the territory.
A Lewisham council spokesman said: “Our pensions fund is governed by councillors appointed to the Pensions Investment Committee. The primary duty of the councillors appointed to this committee is their Fiduciary Duty.
“This means their foremost responsibility is to act in the interests of its beneficiaries and ensure that we can continue to pay the pensions of retired staff.”
Pictured top: Activists hold a rally outside Lewisham Town Hall on Wednesday (Picture: Lewisham Divest For Palestine)