Merseyside Pension Fund members want no profit from attempted genocide
Birkenhead Town Hall, 11 December 2023
Hello, salaam alaykum, shalom, peace be upon you. Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now. Ceasefire now.
Since the temporary pause in the bombardment stopped on the first of December, the Israeli army has killed another 4,000 men, women and children.
Israel continues to destroy the food, water, electricity, homes and hospitals of 2,200,000 people who cannot leave Gaza.
This is attempted genocide and of course it is wrong.
It’s also wrong to profit from war - to take money from people's suffering. We need to end our complicity in the war machine that is contributing to the situation we see on the TV every day.
The Green Party, who I represent also, the Green Party supports boycott divestment and sanctions. We need to boycott Israeli occupation, to divest our pensions and impose sanctions against the warmongers.
We know who they are. We know who supports them. We know who doesn’t vote FOR ceasefire. We need to be saying no ceasefire, no vote. No ceasefire, no vote!
Some of the people we elect are our councillors who serve on the pensions committee for Merseyside Pension Fund. There’s one councillor from each of the boroughs and quite a few from Wirral because Wirral administers the Pension Fund on behalf of Merseyside.
22 months ago, pensions committee considered a motion to just investigate the complicity of companies trading with illegal Israeli settlements. The vote was split 7 - 4. Green and LibDems voted to investigate this.
Labour? Most of them didn’t turn up - they had something better to do. Two of them that did turn up - abstained. One Labour councillor voted FOR - the same as Greens and LibDems. The other Labour councillors voted AGAINST investigating companies who are complicit in illegal occupation. Ie the same vote that Conservative councillors cast. It’s really shameful.
Councillor Ruth Molyneux is here today, Councillor Pat Cleary was here earlier. Green councillors of course will be supporting calls for divestment from arms companies, war and misery.
We need to be keeping the pressure up. Most of the Councillors have gone in through the side door and the committee meets at 6 o’clock. Come in! It’s a meeting held in public and you're all welcome to come in. It’s nice and warm inside. You can see the councillors for yourselves. It’s also webcast, you can watch it later for the next two years. [although strangely only part of the audio was recorded this time and the Labour Chair ordered no photos. A working group was set up to investigate pension investments].
The committee meets every three months. Keep coming back. Please show the strength of public feeling. Show that we mean business too. Show, like members of the Pension Fund have said, we don’t want our pension fund to be profiting from war.
Please do applaud the speakers that you like. People who have put questions in advance will be there and reading their statements out. Express your feelings to speakers who say things that you don’t agree with. Its completely fine, it’s a democracy. It’s a meeting held in public.
Please also be respectful. Councillors are here to represent the people who elect us and here, today, to make decisions on behalf of members of the whole Pension Fund. I hope you encourage them to make the right decisions now and in the future.
Thank you ever so much for coming. It means a huge amount.