Supporters

Supporters of the campaign against problem investment companies investing in Sudan

• Forty-six Massachusetts legislators - Co-signed letter asking Fidelity to divest to divest, Press Release
  "As we move toward divestment on Beacon Hill, we request that you also make strides to divest your funds from the most egregious companies who are serving as a lifeline for genocide. Companies must not be able to generate profit from unspeakable acts in Darfur...Through their pension funds, Americans own nearly fifty percent of corporate America, so it's not surprising that investment now goes hand-in-hand with social responsibility. Fidelity surely risks damaging its respected brand as a "trusted advisor" by failing to show corporate responsibility in such a clear and egregious case. We urge you to join us in divesting from Sudan."
  
• Jonah Burke - founder, The Darfur Foundation, www.DarfurFoundation.org, DarfurWall.org
  "Fidelity claims it has a responsibility to 'provide the highest possible returns to our customers.' That is true, but the human price of supporting the Sudanese government outweighs any possible financial return. We demand that Fidelity divest itself from PetroChina and Sinopec and stop perpetuating genocide."
  
• Michael Capuano - US Congressman, 8th District, Massachusetts (Full endorsement letter here)
  "Thank you for your efforts in urging Fidelity Investments to divest from PetroChina and Sinopec. ... Please add my name to your 400,000 Voices for 400,000 Lives Campaign. Because of your divestment campaign, I am currently reviewing my retirement fund investments. If I find that any of those funds are invested with PetroChina or Sinopec, I will direct that they be moved to a different retirement plan as soon as allowable. I believe that your efforts will prompt many Americans to do the same."
  
• Charlie Clements - President, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, Drumbeat for Darfur campaign
  "Since our founding in the late 1930s to help rescue victims of the Holocaust, we have been fighting for social justice and human rights around the world. What cause could be more important today than aiding the current victims of genocide, the people of Darfur? Targeted divestment from Sudan is not only the right thing to do, but also is a powerful action we can take as individuals, congregations, and larger institutions to help bring an end to this crisis. UUSC strongly supports the efforts of Fidelity Out of Sudan to promote divestment from the companies that are abetting the regime responsible for the genocide."
• Eric Cohen - chair, FidelityOutOfSudan Campaign; co-chair, Massachusetts Coalition to Save Darfur
  "Berkshire Hathaway and Fidelity, by virtue of their very large holdings in PetroChina, are especially well positioned to play an important role in helping to end the genocide. They can either strenuously and publicly engage PetroChina to effect a change in the behavior of the government of Sudan or divest. However, instead of taking decisive action, they both have advanced weak rationalizations in an attempt to justify their investments. They miss the central moral factor that is evident and has been voiced by thousands -- Americans do not want their savings invested in companies that are helping to fund the genocide in Darfur."
• Bob Edgar - General Secretary, National Council of Churches USA
  "I, along with millions of Americans of faith, will not be silent on the issue of Darfur. I believe that Fidelity, Berkshire Hathaway, and other institutional investors must divest from PetroChina and similar companies funding the genocide. This act of principle will make the world finally focus on the genocide in Darfur. Other international investors will follow behind their moral leadership and call on all governments to stop the genocide NOW.  If the commandment to "love our neighbors as ourselves" means anything, it means we should try every means available to stop those neighbors from being killed. Standing up for the people of Darfur through personal divestment is one way we can all follow this central teaching.
  
• Mia Farrow - actress; UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, MiaFarrow.org
  "The people of Darfur and eastern Chad are never out of my thoughts. Four years of failed diplomacy have made it clear that we must each assume responsibility to act where we can to help Darfur. Each of us can send a clear message to Fidelity that we don't want our money used to slaughter innocent people, that financial profit from Sudan comes at the cost of human lives. As many as a half a million people have died since 2003 with the remaining 6 million civilians at risk. As members of the human family we have a shared responsibility; when one member is suffering, we all suffer. And, when we turn away, we are without question, diminished in the most significant ways. Together we must stand against this genocide, and every genocide with every resource at our disposal."
• Joe Madison - talk show host; President of The Sudan Campaign, www.SudanCampaign.com
  "This is the first genocide of the 21st century. None of us can simply be a witness to genocide or simply declare our opposition. Genocide is a responsibility word. There is a moral and ethical obligation to end the act of genocide. Ending genocide in Darfur in not an act of charity , it is act of justice. The question that Fidelity and their investors must answer is, 'What side of history will they be on?"
  
• Ruth Messinger - President, American Jewish World Service, AJWS announcement, AJWS website
  "Murder and devastation continue daily in Darfur, and our money absolutely cannot be used to support this genocide. Targeted divestment is an effective strategy for citizens to express their outrage and put economic pressure on the government of Sudan to change its ruthless behavior."
  
• Samantha Power - author, "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide, Pulitzer Prize 2003; professor at Harvard University
  "There is no question that genocide is underway in Darfur. It has all the ingredients – mass murder, rape, and systematic ethnic cleansing as a way of destroying non-Arab groups. Fidelity says they are about making money, a basic business premise. But there are some times when circumstances are so exceptionally grave that underlying premises have to give way. This is a case where the US State Department, for the first time in history, has issued a genocide finding. There are lots of close calls in balancing interests and values, but this isn't one of them. The Chinese government and Chinese business people will think twice about their uncritical engagement with Khartoum if divestment action in the US begins affecting Chinese companies."
  
• John Prendergast - former Director for African Affairs at the National Security Council, Clinton administration
  "Citizen action is once again at the forefront of organizing and pressing for a bolder U.S. response to the crisis in Darfur. American citizens have already led the way in this urgent cause with rallies, letters to elected officials and donations for humanitarian relief. Now there is a new and powerful action being advocated by concerned citizens. It involves money. I believe that for this reason it has real potential to effect a policy change by the genocidal regime in Khartoum."
  
  "I urge all Americans to evaluate their personal savings investments -- including their 401Ks and their pension accounts -- to ensure that they are not being invested in any companies, such as PetroChina or Sinopec, that provide revenues to the Sudanese regime. Likewise, Fidelity and other investment institutions should evaluate their investment portfolios and divest completely from these companies. There are many other financially-sound investment alternatives that do not lead to the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children. In the face of these atrocities, we must use every resource at our disposal to intervene."
  
• Eric Reeves - Sudan analyst; professor at Smith College, www.SudanReeves.org
  "Fidelity stands as the terrible emblem of a refusal to consider the consequences of investing in companies complicit in the Darfur genocide. With its ghastly premiere role in such investments, Fidelity warrants very particular attention by those determined to end US capital market participation that works to support the genocidal Khartoum regime."
• Gloria White-Hammond - chairperson, Million Voices for Darfur Campaign; co-pastor, Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Boston; co-founder, My Sister's Keeper
  "For years, Fidelity has invested in oil companies doing business with the Government of Sudan. No matter that the government is comprised of serial genocidaires. No matter that President Omar Bashir has presided over three genocides in southern Sudan, the Nuba Mountains, and now Darfur in western Sudan. For too long, Fidelity has tip-toed around the issue of genocide, avoiding its responsibility to humanity. We ask that Fidelity choose life for the people of Darfur."