Divest From The War Machine

World BEYOND War organizes to remove public and private assets from weapons manufacturers, military contractors, and war profiteers.

Related posts.

Congratulations to Charlottesville, Virginia, for divesting from fossil fuels and war! Thanks to a successful campaign led by World BEYOND War’s Co-Founder & Executive Director David Swanson. Click here to read the story of Charlottesville’s success. Contact us to start up a campaign in your area!

#DivestFromWar #NoWar #WorldBEYONDWar

We’re using our grassroots people power to cut ties to the war economy where investors make a killing on killing.

ABOUT DIVESTMENT

CAMPAIGN TOOLS

TOP WEAPONS DEALERS

REGIONAL WEAPONS INVESTMENT DATA

WHAT IS DIVESTMENT?

Divestment is organizing to remove public and private assets from weapons manufacturers, military contractors, and war profiteers. Grassroots-led war divestment campaigns are springing up all over the world, from students organizing to divest university endowments from weapons manufacturers and war profiteers, to municipalities and states coming together to divest public pension funds from the war machine. Sign the Declaration of Peace here & check “divestment” to get involved.

Public pension and retirement funds are often invested, directly and indirectly, in weapons companies. Teachers and other public servants whose interests ought to lie with promoting human needs have their retirement security tied up with maintaining or enlarging the war industry. Every dollar currently invested in weapons and war is a dollar that could be better spent on job creation, education, housing, healthcare, food security, and so much more.

War profiteering is largely normalized today. We’re working to stigmatize the war machine. World BEYOND War is a founding member of the Divest from the War Machine Coalition.

Contact us to start up a campaign in your area!

CAMPAIGN TOOLS:

Divest Campaign Guide: Learn about divestment and how to start a campaign.

Divest List: A list of the major weapons manufacturing companies and military contractors. The Norwegians have set a great example of transparency on their federal divestment policy. Here is the list of companies that Norway excludes from its government pension fund, and the reasons for this exclusion.

Don’t Bank on the Bomb Investors List: A searchable database of the top financial institutions invested in nukes.

Divest Your City Toolkit: Template for passing a city council resolution.

Divest Your School: University guide for student activists.

Template letter to portfolio managers about divestment here. (Template created by Ingrid Style.)

Sample resolutions/legislation: Examples of divestment policies adopted around the world

Handbook: How to divest from nuclear weapons

Powerpoint Presentations: Case studies of divestment campaigns

Weapon Free Funds Database: A searchable database of mutual fund and ETFS that ranks companies by % invested in weapons of war. Here’s a primer about how to use the database.

Divest 101 Webinar: On Tuesday, July 2, 2019, World BEYOND War hosted a webinar on divestment, featuring David Swanson of World BEYOND War, Maya Rommwatt of CODEPINK, and Susi Snyder of PAX/Don’t Bank on the Bomb. On this webinar, we talk about different divestment models, and the strategies and tactics needed to run a successful divestment campaign.

TOP WEAPONS DEALERS:

Here are the company names of the top 20 weapons dealers in the world:
Lockheed Martin Corp.
Boeing
Northrop Grumman Corp.
Raytheon
General Dynamics Corp.
BAE Systems
Airbus Group
BAE Systems Inc. (BAE Systems UK)
Leonardo
Almaz-Antey
Thales
United Technologies Corp.
L3 Technologies
Huntington Ingalls Industries
Honeywell International
United Aircraft Corp.
Leidos
Harris Corp.
United Shipbuilding Corp.
Booz Allen Hamilton
Rolls-Royce
Naval Group

REGIONAL WEAPONS INVESTMENT DATA:

If you live in Philadelphia, PA, join the local Divest Philly from the War Machine Coalition.
If you live in the U.S., click here to email your state legislators to divest state pension funds from war.

Click on your region below to learn about its investments in weapons and war. Want to help with divestment research? Email us.

Canada
Japan
California
Delaware
Illinois
Michigan
New York
North Dakota
Texas
Wisconsin

CANADA
As of March 31 2020, the Canada Pension Plan has these investments in 10 of the top 20 global weapons dealers:
Lockheed Martin: 159,000 shares, market value $77M
Boeing: 280,000 shares, market value $59M
Northrop Grumman: 117,000 shares, market value $51M
Raytheon: 155,000 shares, market value $29M
BAE Systems UK: 3,073,000 shares, market value $28M
Airbus SE: 2,429,000 shares, market value $225M
Leonardo:  918,000 shares, market value $9M
United Technologies: 228,000 shares, market value $31M
L3Harris Technologies: 190,000 shares, market value $49M
Honeywell International: 462,000 shares, market value $88M

JAPAN
The single largest pension fund on earth is the Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan.[2]
Its investments include:

CALIFORNIA
The California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) is the second largest pension fund in the U.S. and the seventh largest in the world, with total holdings at $307 billion. Using the latest data available (as of June 2018), the following chart documents the billions of dollars that CalPERS invests in weapons manufacturers around the world. (Sources: SIPRI rankings, CalPERS holdings.)[5][6]

In addition, the California State Teachers Retirement System (CALSTRS) as of June 30, 2016 is invested in the following. The first number is that of shares, the second the market value in thousands of dollars:

Domestic Equities:
Lockheed Martin Corp          738,165         183,190
Boeing Co/The          1,635,727      212,432
Raytheon Company  1,632,503      221,939
Northrop Grumman Corp    865,662         192,419
General Dynamics Corp        827,634         115,240
United Technologies Corp    2,061,864      211,444
L 3 Communications Holdings         183,143         26,865
Huntington Ingalls Industrie           146,966         24,695
Honeywell International Inc            2,201,040      256,025
Textron Inc    644,048         23,546

International Equities:
BAE Systems Plc        4,286,549      30,027
Airbus Group Se        1,149,559      66,064
Thales Sa        287,942         23,995
Rolls Royce Holdings Plc       3,158,670      30,043
Safran Sa        575,968         38,981[7]

DELAWARE
The Delaware Public Employees Retirement System is invested in United Technologies Corporation in the amount of $29,927,361 — which is 0.32% of its holdings, and 269,786 shares of the company. This is one of the top 10 investments of this fund which may be invested in other weapons companies as well that are not in its top 10 investments.

ILLINOIS
The Municipal Employees’ Annuity and Benefit Fund of Chicago is invested in these weapons dealers:
Lockheed Martin $8,127,707 — 0.7% — 37,429 shares — Unrealised Gain/Loss $5,358,314
Honeywell International $7,153,787 — 0.7% — 69,072 shares — Unrealised Gain/Loss $3,407,048
These are two of the top 10 investments of this fund which may be invested in other weapons companies as well that are not in its top 10 investments.

MICHIGAN
The Municipal Employees Retirement System of Michigan is invested in these weapons dealers:
United Technologies Corporation $18,001,693 — 0.2%
Honeywell International, Inc. $15,566,882 — 0.18%
These are two of the top 10 investments of this fund which may be invested in other weapons companies as well that are not in its top 10 investments.

NEW YORK
The New York State Teachers Retirement System (the 22nd biggest pension fund on earth[8]) is invested (see these two PDFs for details: One. Two.) in Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, United Technologies, Honeywell, Huntington Ingalls Industries, and Textron. What lesson is this teaching New York’s students?

In addition, the New York City Employees Retirement System is invested in United Technologies to the tune of $71,899,692 — 0.4% — 703,383 shares. This is one of the top 10 investments of this fund which may be invested in other weapons companies as well that are not in its top 10 investments.

Further, the New York State Common Retirement Fund, which comprises the New York State and Local Employees’ Retirement System (ERS) and the New York State and Local Police and Fire Retirement System (PFRS) and which is managed by the Division of Pension Investment and Cash Management in the Office of the State Comptroller, is invested in the following war profiteers:
Boeing 901,785 shares  139,921 value  9/30/16
General Dynamics  1,632,825  shares
Raytheon  906,000 shares
General Dynamics  901,785 shares
Lockheed Martin  765,900 shares
United Technologies  2,331,020  shares
Honeywell  2,908,100  shares[9]

More information on the investments of the New York State Common Retirement Fund is available. As of March 31, 2016, they are as follows. The first number is that of shares, the second the cost of shares, the third the value as of March 31, 2016:
Lockheed Martin Corp. 742,600 56,362,293 164,485,900
Boeing Company/The 1,806,182 83,791,299 229,276,743
BAE Systems plc 3,157,759 19,892,919 23,101,713
Raytheon Company 867,400 48,594,251 106,369,262
Northrop Grumman Corp. 591,303 42,705,500 117,018,864
General Dynamics Corp. 887,380 55,909,841 116,575,111
Airbus Group Nv 449,650 27,737,120 29,898,461
United Technologies Corp. 2,508,971 115,531,837 251,147,997
L-3 Communications Holdings, Inc. 198,900 24,205,180 23,569,650
Thales S.A. 178,352 9,241,933 15,649,558
Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. 158,416 8,795,662 21,693,487
Rolls-Royce Holdings plc 228,359 2,951,416 2,238,463
Safran S.A. 215,919 15,120,612 15,127,184
Honeywell International, Inc. 2,117,900 77,284,056 237,310,695
Textron, Inc. 687,696 30,201,721 25,073,396[10]

NORTH DAKOTA
This is the state with a public bank that is invested in the Dakota Access Pipeline. The North Dakota Retirement and Investment Office is invested in these weapons dealers:
Boeing Company $18,613,588 — 134,181 shares
Safran SA $13,578,820 — 200,478 shares
These are two of the top 10 investments of this fund which may be invested in other weapons companies as well that are not in its top 10 investments.

In addition, the North Dakota Public Employees Retirement System is invested in:
Boeing Company $9,430,550
Safran SA $6,840,016
These are two of the top 10 investments of this fund which may be invested in other weapons companies as well that are not in its top 10 investments.

TEXAS
The Teacher Retirement System of Texas  (#18 on World’s Largest Pensions as of 2015 according to: pension360.org ) has these investments in 14 of the top 20 weapons dealers (in number of shares):
Lockheed Martin Corp 219,869.000
Boeing Co 408,212.000
BAE Systems 1,275,550.000
Raytheon Company 322,676.000
Northrop Grumman Corp 292,680.000
General Dynamic Corp 66,502.000
Airbus Group 727,144.000
United Technologies Corp 250,528.000
L3 Communications Holdings 311,140.000
Thales 354,221.000
Huntington Ingalls 393,237.000
Rolls Royce Group 3,788,702.000
Rolls Royce Hldgs 51,728,610.000
Rolls Royce Holdings 1,124,535.000
Safran 918,509.000
Honeywell 791,020.000
Textron 22,430.000[11]

WISCONSIN
The Wisconsin Investment Board (#24 on World’s Largest Pensions in 2015, according to: pension360.org) is invested in the following. The first number listed is that of shares and the second number represents the value as of December 31, 2014.
Core Retirement Investment Trust:
Lockheed Martin 225,673     43,457,850
Boeing 604,526     78,576,289
BAE Systems 3,018,388     22,214,309
Raytheon 513,783     55,575,907
Northrop Grumman 276,822     40,800,795
General Dynamics 181,544     24,984,085
Airbus Group 266,525     13,335,730
United Technologies 1,264,998     145,474,770
Finmeccanica 183,391     1,716,491
L-3 Communications Holdings 132,101     16,672,467
Thales 42,182     2,296,650
Huntington Ingalls 29,165     3,279,896
Rolls Royce Hldgs C 173,538,630     270,590
Rolls-Royce Holdings 1,749,286     23,729,896
Safran 740,482     45,921,038
Honeywell International 1,091,644     109,077,068
Textron 165,721     6,978,511

Variable Retirement Income Trust:
Lockheed Martin 58,926     11,347,380
Boeing 155,056     20,154,179
BAE Systems 332,151     2,444,518
Raytheon 96,929     10,484,810
Northrop Grumman 57,067     8,411,105
General Dynamics 57,033     7,848,881
Airbus Group 22,946     1,148,116
United Technologies 255,384     29,369,160
Finmeccanica 15,801     147,893
L-3 Communications Holdings 26,571     3,353,526
Thales 3,629     197,585
Huntington Ingalls 9,164     1,030,583
Rolls Royce Hldgs C 13,078,890     20,393
Rolls-Royce Holdings 136,015     1,845,108
Safran 68,955     4,276,249
Honeywell International 215,674     21,550,146
Textron 52,042     2,191,489 [12]

FOOTNOTES
1. Researched by Sarita Vogels.
2. According to pension360.org, researched by Corey Raths.
3. Researched by Gayle Morrow.
4. Researched by Gayle Morrow.
5. Researched by Jim Bearden.
6. See also pension360.org, researched by Corey Raths.
7. Researched by Corey Raths.
8. According to pension360.org, researched by Corey Raths.
9. Researched by Gayle Morrow in the Mergent Online database.
10. Researched by Corey Raths.
11. Researched by Corey Raths.
12. Researched by Corey Raths.