Banks in front line of
nuclear arms campaign By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - The world's
nuclear weapons industry is being funded - and
kept alive - by more than 300 banks, pension
funds, insurance companies and asset managers in
30 countries, according to a new study.
And these
institutions have substantial investments in
nuclear arms producers.
Released by the International
Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), the
180-page study says that nuclear-armed nations
spend over US$100 billion each year assembling new
warheads, modernizing old ones, and building
ballistic missiles, bombers and submarines to
launch them.
Much of this work, the report
points out, is carried out by corporations such as
BAE Systems and Babcock International in the UK,
Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman in the
United
States, Thales and Safran in
France, and Larsen & Toubro in India.
"Financial institutions
invest in these companies by providing loans and
purchasing shares and bonds," says the report,
described as the first of its kind.
Titled "Don't Bank on the
Bomb: The Global Financing of Nuclear Weapons
Producers", the study provides details of
financial transactions with 20 companies heavily
involved in the manufacture, maintenance and
modernization of US, British, French and Indian
nuclear forces.
A coordinated global campaign
for nuclear weapons divestment is urgently needed,
it says.
Such a movement could help
put a halt to modernization programs, strengthen
the international norm against nuclear weapons,
and build momentum towards negotiations on a
universal nuclear weapons ban, it adds.
"Divestment from nuclear
weapons companies is an effective way for the
corporate world to advance the goal of nuclear
abolition."
The study appeals to
financial institutions to stop investing in the
nuclear arms industry.
"Any
use of nuclear weapons would violate international
law and have catastrophic humanitarian
consequences. By investing in nuclear weapons
producers, financial institutions are in effect
facilitating the build-up of nuclear forces," it
says.
In a foreword to the report,
Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu writes, "No
one should be profiting from this terrible
industry of death, which threatens us all."
The
South African peace activist has urged financial
institutions to do the right thing and assist,
rather than impede, efforts to eliminate the
threat of radioactive incineration, pointing out
that divestment was a vital part of the successful
campaign to end apartheid in South Africa.
The
same tactic can - and must - be employed to
challenge man's most evil creation: the nuclear
bomb, he said.
Tim Wright, ICAN campaign
director and co-author of the report, told IPS
some of the financial institutions identified in
the study "have already indicated to us they
intend to adopt policies proscribing investments
in nuclear arms makers".
Asked how confident he was of
the success of the divestment campaign, Wright
said, "Our divestment campaign will probably be
most successful in places where opposition to
nuclear weapons is strongest, for example, Japan
and Scandinavia."
He said more and more banks
are coming to accept that some kind of ethical
criteria should be applied to investment
decisions, and manufacturing weapons capable of
destroying entire cities in an instant is clearly
unethical.
Of the 322 financial
institutions identified in the report, about half
are based in the United States and a third in
Europe. The study also singles out Asian,
Australian and Middle Eastern institutions. However, the institutions
most heavily involved in financing nuclear arms
makers include Bank of America, BlackRock and
JPMorgan Chase in the United States; BNP Paribas
in France; Allianz and Deutsche Bank in Germany;
Mistubishi UJF Financial in Japan; BBVA and Banco
Santander in Spain; Credit Suisse and UBS in
Switzerland; and Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds and Royal
Bank of Scotland in Britain.
The
report emphasizes the humanitarian, legal and
environmental arguments for divestment, noting the
unique destructive potential of nuclear weapons.
Asked if it would be feasible
to launch a global campaign to boycott these
financial institutions, Wright told IPS, "If banks
refuse to divest, customers should seek ethical
alternatives."
There is no shortage of
banks, particularly smaller banks, that refuse to
have anything to do this this industry, he said.
"If people begin to leave en masse, this will send
a powerful signal to the bank that its support for
nuclear weapons companies is unacceptable."
For
multinational banks, he said, a coordinated
boycott campaign in several countries could be
effective.
The study also quotes Setsuko
Thurlow, a survivor of the US atomic bombing of
Hiroshima in 1945, who points out that anyone with
a bank account or pension fund has the power to
choose to invest his or her money ethically in a
way that does not contribute to this
Earth-endangering enterprise.
In
addition to stating the ethical case for
divestment, the report warns of the reputational
risks associated with financing nuclear arms, and
highlights the positive role that financial
institutions could play in the quest for a world
free from such weapons.
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