(College Insurrection) - The University of California
Student Association board – which represents all 233,000 students enrolled in
the UC system’s 10 campuses – approved a resolution on Sunday that calls on the
system’s leaders to financially divest from the United States.
The measure cited alleged human rights violations by America
such as drone strikes that have killed civilians, and claimed the country’s
criminal justice system is racist, among other accusations.
The “Resolution Toward Socially Responsible Investment at
the University of California” passed with an overwhelming majority vote of
11-1-3.
“The government of
the United States of America is engaged in drone strikes that have killed over
2,400 people in Pakistan and Yemen, many of them civilians,” the resolution
stated. “The government oversees, by far, the highest rate of imprisonment in
the world, and racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately targeted by
law enforcement agencies, particularly for drug-related offences. 400,000
undocumented immigrants are held in detention centers every year, and millions
have been deported since the current administration took office, and the
government is directly supporting and propping up numerous dictatorships around
the world with weapons sales and foreign aid.”
The resolution also called on UC system leaders “to withdraw
investments in securities, endowments, mutual funds, and other monetary
instruments with holdings” from the governments of Brazil, Egypt, Indonesia,
Russia, Turkey, Israel, Sri Lanka and Mexico, as well as the U.S.
“This resolution aims neither to condemn entire countries,
peoples, or communities nor to determine political solutions, but is solely
aimed at ending our university’s support of governments that directly engage in
and enable human rights violations,” it stated.
A separate resolution passed with a 9-1-6 vote Sunday called
for divestment from companies that do business with Israel. That vote was
described as a “landmark decision” by progressives for being the “first
multi-campus student association to vote in favor of divestment.” The decision
was preceded by protests from a large contingent of students who vehemently
opposed the measure.
“UC student groups staged a vocal protest during the UCSA
meeting, chanting, ‘stop the hate, against the only Jewish state,’ and holding
signs telling the UCSA to ‘stop dividing the UCs for an unjust cause,’” StandWithUs
reported in a news release.
It is common for universities’ student governments to
approve nonbinding resolutions asking their leaders to divest from Israel in
what has become known as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. UC
Irvine, UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, UC Riverside, UC Los Angeles have all passed
Israel divestment measures, as have many other student associations at colleges
across the nation.
But it’s rare to see a call to divest from America itself.
“Think about that. If they had their way, the student
government of the U. Cal. system would require divestment from U.S. Treasuries
and most of the world,” Cornell University law Professor William Jacobson
points out on Legal Insurrection, responding to the vote. “The U. Cal. student
government has proven a point I’ve made repeatedly in terms of the academic
boycott: If you are going to boycott Israel, then you need to apply those
standards to the whole world, which will result in boycotting yourselves.”
“I’m not glad that the Israel divestment passed, but at
least it passed combined with a resolution which made the anti-Israel students
and U. Cal student government look like fools.”
But student groups who helped passed the measures have
pledged to take their fight to the UC Regents, the 26-member board which
governs the University of California.
Source:http://www.teaparty.org/university-california-passes-resolution-divest-evil-racist-america-82173/
http://www.thecollegefix.com/post/21178/
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