The Darfur group on campus sent out an e-mail this morning with the (amazing) news that the UC Regents have voted to divest from companies with interests in Darfur or which may be indirectly supporting the Sudanese government. From the LA Times article (possibly subscription required):

The University of California’s Board of Regents voted unanimously Thursday to pull out of investments in nine companies with ties to the Sudanese government, responding to a student activist campaign that had urged divestment for more than a year…

The nine companies, many involved in energy and oil, have provided financial or military support to the Sudanese government and showed “little or no interest in the situation in Darfur,” according to the Sudan Divestment Study Group, a panel created by the regents to examine the issue…

The violence in Darfur, a western region of the country, erupted in 2003 between government-supported, mostly Arab militia and non-Arab rebels who say the political leadership oppresses black Africans. Although no official count exists, some tolls suggest tens of thousands have died.

With Thursday’s vote, the UC system joined a handful of private institutions — including Stanford, Yale and Harvard universities — that have divested from companies linked to the Sudanese government. The Illinois and New Jersey state governments have made similar moves…

I have been on the Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) e-mail list since the summer so I have been recieving periodic updates about the divestment efforts. It always seemed to me that the students throughout the UC system who were working on this campaign weren’t going to have any success with their efforts, and I’m pleasantly surprised to see how this vote turned out. [Not that they didn’t have truth and justice on their side… I just am so used to small activist groups standing up for what is right and losing that I assumed that is what would happen.]

Below the fold I am including the e-mail that I received this morning with information about the efforts that led to this vote, as well as what these students are planning for the future. There is also an extensive list of the media coverage of this issue and ways for people to help.
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17 Little Bears said...