Divesting from Darfur

How could those who seek holiness earn money from companies that do business with a government accused of committing genocide? That's the question an increasing number of religious groups are asking, according to today's LA Times.

The article quotes Father Paul Spellman, who convinced the Archdiocese of Los Angeles' Council of Priests, to urge its retirement manager, Fidelity, to stop investing in companies that do business with Sudan. The Sudanese government has been accused of arming the janjaweed militias and ordering attacks against rebels. At least 200,000 -- many experts put the number at 400,000 -- have been killed in the Darfur regions and millions left homeless.

Spurred on by celebrities including Mia Farrow, Don Cheadle and George Clooney, the grass-roots campaign to use America's economic heft to help halt the violence in Sudan is gathering steam. The divestment movement is expanding from college campuses to Jewish organizations, evangelical Christians, African American leaders and security-minded conservatives.

Forty-two colleges and universities, including the University of California, Stanford and Harvard, have restricted their holdings in companies with links to Sudan, said the Sudan Divestment Task Force, a Washington-based umbrella group. California and seven other states have begun selling off Sudan-related investments and 17 more are considering doing so.

In February, the city of LA announced it would divest its pension fund from Darfur, stripping an estimated $27 million from businesses associated with Sudan. That push was largely led by Rabbi Harold Schulweis and his Encino humanitarian group, Jewish World Watch. California and other states have done the same.

Alhough U.S. companies are prohibited from doing business in Sudan because of its human-rights violations, it's not illegal for Americans to invest in companies making money there.

"Back in World War II, the U.S. government's policies denied visas to Anne Frank's family and many others in the same situation," Bernard Elbaum, an economics professor at UC Santa Cruz, whose parents were Polish Jews who lost most of their families in the Holocaust, told the Times.

"You can't just look to the government."