Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions by Barghouti Omar;

Author:Barghouti, Omar;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Haymarket Books
Published: 2011-02-18T00:00:00+00:00

Weeks after this meaningful defeat for Veolia in Sweden, its partner in the JLR project suffered just as momentous a setback when the Swedish national pension fund, AP7, decided to exclude Alstom from its investment portfolio.26 Considering the size of the Swedish fund, $15 billion, this decision was bound to have serious consequences for Alstom and other companies in a similar situation. This time, however, the decision was explicitly justified on the grounds of Alstom’s involvement in the illegal JLR project, reflecting the intensifying discontent in the Swedish public, especially after Gaza, with companies that profit from unethical and illegal Israeli projects and a determination to make them—literally—pay for it.

In March 2009, Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) in the West Midlands, United Kingdom, celebrated another significant victory in the campaign against the JLR. The Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council decided not to consider further Veolia’s bid for the Waste Improvement Plan contract, which is worth about $1.5 billion over twenty years.27 Again, the council insisted that the decision was commercial, not political. And again, the public pressure that was brought to bear before the decision looked too sweeping to ignore.

Elsewhere in the UK, several local campaigns have sprouted to derail Veolia from a number of large public works contracts. From Hampshire County to Liverpool to Camden to South Yorkshire, local authorities are facing mounting political, and sometimes legal, pressure from Palestine solidarity groups, mainly associated with PSC, to exclude Veolia from bidding for public projects.

Most recently, Veolia started feeling the heat right at home. The Greater Bordeaux local government announced that it was awarding—on commercial grounds, of course—a $1 billion contract for the biggest urban network in France to Veolia’s competitor, despite intense lobbying by Veolia. La Plateforme BDS Bordeaux marked this achievement by saying, “Veolia’s involvement in the situation of [Israeli] apartheid has already led to its loss of several contracts, and this is just the beginning.”28

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.