Divestment campaigners protest Strathclyde Pension Funds

The Scotsman

Palestine solidarity, climate and trade union groups joined a demonstration outside Glasgow City Chambers today to call on the Strathclyde Pension Fund to stop investing an estimated £434 million in fossil fuel companies that are fuelling the climate crisis and the genocide in Palestine.  They are demanding an end to the fund’s investment in three of the world’s biggest polluters, Shell, TotalEnergies and Italian oil giant, Eni, and to commit to future divestment from arms and technology used in the ongoing genocide.  Recent research by Oil Change International revealed that all three companies are supplying oil to Israel and are complicit in fuelling the genocide of the Palestinian people.  According to the latest investment figures from March 2025, Strathclyde Pension Fund invests £41.3 million in Eni, £12.5 million in French oil company TotalEnergies and £11.8 million in Royal Dutch Shell.  Groups protesting included Unison Scotland, Glasgow Trades Union Council, Time to Divest Glasgow, Friends of the Earth Scotland, Extinction Rebellion Glasgow, Protest in Harmony Glasgow and Divest Strathclyde who gathered ahead of today’s Strathclyde Pension Fund Committee meeting.  Matthew Jones from Time to Divest Glasgow said, "It is clear that the genocide in Gaza will be seen as one of history’s great crimes. The International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court have stated that crimes are taking place, that the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank are illegal and that governments and other bodies including investors must act."  "Hundreds of legal experts in Britain have similarly demanded action because inaction will put responsible entities in breach of international and British law. It is time to divest from companies involved with Israel and particularly those directly involved in the genocide to protect ourselves and Strathclyde Pension Fund from being complicit in these war crimes."  The demonstration comes four years after the Glasgow City councillors voted in favour of divesting the Strathclyde Pension Fund from fossil fuels. The fund has still not set a timeline or strategy for ending investments to deliver on this demand.  Stuart Graham from the Unison Scotland International Committee said, "In 2021 Strathclyde Pension Fund claimed it was putting fossil fuel companies on notice that, if they don’t take their responsibilities on climate seriously, they would be dropped from the portfolio. Four years on, what progress has been made? The deferred wages of Council and public sector workers are literally fuelling the genocide of the Palestinian people by its investments in Eni, Shell and Total providing Israel with oil to continue its war crimes."  "We demand that Strathclyde Pension Fund invests in life and the local infrastructure Glasgow requires to move towards

Transcript

00:00We need to wake up, we need to wise up, we need to open our eyes and do it now, now, now.

00:08We need to build a better future and we need to start right now.

00:17We're on a planet that has a problem. We've got to solve it, get involved and do it now, now, now.

00:26We need to build a better future and we need to start right now.

00:34It's actions like this, it's protesting, it's emailing our MPs, it's meant that this genocide's not been allowed to just be swept under the rug as much as our government would love it to be.

00:47Us standing here and holding them to account is what's meant that the people in Palestine have not been forgotten.

00:52And it's time for Strathclyde Pension Fund to get their finger out and do the same.

01:00They're currently investing hundreds of millions of pounds in companies like BAE Systems, Safran and BP, which is not only enabling but allowing the genocide to continue.

01:12And they do this with money from our pension funds and also from money from every single one of us, as Stuart mentioned previously, from our council tax via employer contributions.

01:24We've all seen live streamed and in real time the genocide that's been allowed to happen on tens and hundreds of thousands of people in Palestine.

01:33Israel is only able to continue this attack because of investments into arms, military technology and oil, investments made by organisations like Strathclyde Pension Fund.

01:46Anyone with an ounce of humanity can see what's happening in Gaza, but this no longer just affects Palestinians, this is affecting us now as well.

01:57The carbon footprint from the first 15 months of Israel's genocide is the same as a year's worth of emissions from a hundred individual countries.

02:07We're demanding that Strathclyde Pension Fund divest from arms, military technology and energy companies that are shamelessly backing, and not only backing, but profiting from the war crimes that Israel is committing.

02:21And rather, invest that money in social housing, in public transport, and green initiatives that will actually make our planet a better place.

02:29Thank you very much.

02:30Thank you very much.

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