Petition asks Charlottesville to divest from weapons, fossil fuels

The City of Charlottesville has approximately $3 million invested in fossil fuel companies ($1.4 m in energy company bonds, plus approximately $1.6 m through funds invested in by Charlottesville’s retirement fund). It may have about the same in weapons companies, as it has $1.1 m directly invested in four “aerospace and defense” companies: Boeing, Heico, Honeywell, and Moog. Boeing and Honeywell are two of the biggest war profiteers including through the wars of Saudi Arabia that even the U.S. Congress is now turning against.

Yes, is the unfortunate answer to the obvious question: The whole time that Charlottesville has discussed possibly considering finding the nerve to take down a couple of its many offensive statues, has it been investing public dollars in the mass killing of dark-skinned people and the general destruction of a habitable planet?

See “Oily Question: Should Charlottesville Dump Its Fossil-Fuel Holdings?” by Carol Diggs, CVille Weekly, December 12-18, 2018, page 15, re proposal from Michael Payne.

These are the two documents the City Treasurer provides the public on investments:

• http://davidswanson.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/PositionsReport_11142018.xlsx
• http://davidswanson.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/OperatingFundStatement.pdf