UC Regents Divests from Sudan
I was lucky to be at the right place (UCLA) at the right time this past Thursday and got to witness the vote from the University of California’s Board of Regents in regards to the entire UC system’s divestment from nine companies that do business with the Sudanese government.
The moment was thrilling – as the thirty or so (by my visual calculation) board members sat around in a circle and discussed the issue, the students (those that were allowed in, and only after passing through security and metal detectors) rose from their seats, held up b&w photographs of Darfurians, and in an uncompromising spirit of hope and justice, waited to hear the vote.
Although we were told, while waiting on line outside, that we were not allowed to bring in cameras, I held on to mine and I did get video of the vote - it is HD though, and I don’t have time right this moment to bring it down to something bloggable.
The vote was unanimous in favor of disinvesting! “The UC students have worked diligently to achieve this victory” and the moment when the last vote was cast was just incredible – the tears of joy impossible to hold back. The numbers were not discussed at the meeting, but the UC system invests millions of dollars internationally, so this can potentially mean a real impact both on UC's financial portfolio and on the reality of the situation in Darfur.
Information on the UC Divest Sudan student campaign here.