DIVEST/INVEST - #CopsOffCampus

Defund the police.

On Wednesday May 18 @UCDivest Coalition will give public comment at the annual UC Regents’ meeting + rally outside the @luskinhotella . We call for the complete divestment of UC funds from weapons manufacturing. 🧵 Thread 🧵 on how decades of work make total divestment possible.

Reminder that UCLA's student government passed a resolution in 2021 to divest from war. THE STUDENT BODY WANTS DIVESTMENT. Open thread. 🧵

We stand in solidarity with the UC Divest Coalition in demanding the divestment of billions of dollars in companies like BlackRock and Lockheed Martin and calling out @UofCalifornia's refusal to defund the racist UCPD. #UCDivestNow #CopsOffCampus

cancelmybaildebt.org ^tell a Californian to use this tool

Join #UCLA Activist-in-Residence @TheoHen95302259 of @WeTheUnhoused for a📝🙋🏽‍♀️TEACH-IN this Tuesday, May 10th @ 4pm PT. Organized by the @ChallengeIneq Student Advisory Board for #AbolitionMay. Walk-ins are welcome, click here for what to bring + more info: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

Join us at UCLA tomorrow (Tuesday 5/3) to demand UC divest from militarism and the police state! ✊🏾

🧵The UC Divest Coalition at UCLA is calling on students to demonstrate in Bruin Plaza on Tuesday, May 3rd from 12-2pm. The action will put pressure on the UC to divest from unethical industries through the juggernaut firm Blackrock. Open the thread for more! [1/12]

The UC is a shareholder in and client of the investment management company BlackRock. Blackrock puts billions of $$$ in the weapons manufacturing industry, directly funding forever war, climate change, and imperialism. [2/12]

Blackrock received a FAILING GRADE from Weapon Free Funds, a site that rates companies on their unethical involvement in weapon and gun manufacturing. [3/12]

Through BlackRock, the UC invests money in Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, General Electric, and General Dynamics — key targets of BDS and other anti-war/divestment movements. [4/12]

That means YOUR tuition money is contributing to military occupation, funding global war machines, contributing to climate change, and destabilizing entire markets in the Global South. [5/12]

Not only do they enforce and engender military occupation: BlackRock and its affiliates are directly contributing to drastic climate change, holding huge stakes & investments in fossil fuel companies. [6/12]

If the UC divested from fossil fuels, WHY are they affiliated with BlackRock, a company that invests over $100 BILLION in the fossil fuel industry?? (spglobal.com/marketintellig…) [7/12]

Even without these connections, BlackRock effectively controls where university money–funded largely from tuition—goes (bloombergquint.com/business/black…) [9/12]

BlackRock also holds significant assets in foreign countries, effectively privatizing large swaths of Mexican infrastructure, including toll roads, hospitals, gas pipelines, prisons, oil exploration businesses, and power plants. [10/12]

There is precedent for this kind of divestment, but we need pressure. UC divested from investments with apartheid South Africa affiliated govts in 1986—the largest university divestment in the country—and can certainly do so again. [11/12]

As a shareholder and a key source of income for Blackrock and its clients, UC divestment could stop university investment in unethical firms once and for all. Let’s make it happen again at UCLA. Come out on Tuesday, May 3rd, to pressure UC Regents to divest! [12/12]

"It makes me, and many other students, feel unsafe and disrespected to not get any information about such a big threat," a UCLA student told Newsweek. #Echobox=1643723184" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">newsweek.com/students-accus…

Someone had time to write an entire LA Times article before UCLA even sent out an email latimes.com/california/sto…