Demanding Divestment From Sudan
The student-led divestment movement against Sudan is gaining momentum, but can it really work?
By Christina Asquith
Bowing to student demands to “stop supporting genocide,” the University of California regents voted earlier this year to divest millions of dollars from companies working in the war-torn African nation of Sudan, the first major public university in the nation to take such action.
Since student protests on the subject began at Harvard University in late 2004, almost a dozen public and private universities have withdrawn their investments in companies doing business with Sudan. The students argue that these businesses are helping to prop up a government accused of genocide. The states of New Jersey, Illinois and Oregon have also joined the movement by approving divestment measures, and college students are actively trying to persuade workers unions to divest, such as the University of California Technical Workers and the California Teachers’ Association.
“The divestment movement is really picking up,” says Seth Izen, a sophomore at Williams College and co-chair of his campus’ Sudan Divestment Campaign. “We’re more organized and more centralized each day.”
Students from across the country conducted online research on companies, examined articles and even contacted the CIA to compile lists of companies who do business with Sudan. At Dartmouth College, students woke up early to make calls to European and Chinese companies trying to verify information about the company’s dealings in Sudan.
The student-led campaign stands as an example of university
administrations taking financial action as a result of student pressure. In recent years, similar divestment campaigns — including an attempt to pressure Harvard to return endowment money from the bin Laden family and a nationwide divestment campaign against Israel — have failed. Many say the last successful divestment campaign was in the 1980s, when a grassroots student movement in this country helped overturn South Africa’s apartheid government.
