TIAA-CREF Divestment Campaign Protest Action
 
When: Tuesday, July 19, 2011, 5:30 pm
 
Where: Downtown Washington, DC, at the corner of 7th and H Streets, N.W. (Gallery Place/Chinatown Metro – near the Chinatown Arch)
 
Why:  To protest retirement giant TIAA-CREF’s attempt to prevent its own investors from speaking out against the company’s support of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and peoples.  By doing so, we will draw attention to the realities of the occupation and the growing movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions!
 
Despite its slogan of “financial services for the greater good,” TIAA-CREF recently censored a shareholder resolution calling for an investigation of companies in TIAA-CREF’s portfolio which profit off of Israel’s occupation. TIAA-CREF not only refused to allow the resolution to be introduced at its annual shareholder meeting on July 19th, it moved the meeting from New York City to Charlotte, NC, in an attempt to avoid protests.
 
We will join activists from across the country on the 19th to demand that TIAA-CREF stop denying its investors the opportunity to voice their own opinions about how their own money is used to build the Apartheid wall, bulldoze homes, operate apartheid transportation systems, build bombs and drones that Israel uses to kill civilians and destroy homes, schools and hospitals.
 
The DC TIAA-CREF divestment protest action will feature live music with signs and songs specifically designed for the event.
 
The national TIAA-CREF divestment campaign was initiated by Jewish Voice for Peace and is led by a coalition of groups, including the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, American Friends Service Committee, Grassroots International and Adalah-NY.
 
For more information about the TIAA-CREF divestment campaign, see www.wedivest.org.

For more information about the DC protest action on July 19th, contact Shelley Fudge at 301-580-9224.