Petition for Divestment: Multnomah County
Multnomah County Board and Treasury
Amazon signed a $1.22 billion joint contract with Google called Project Nimbus, in which both companies provide cloud computing services, such as facial recognition and AI technology, to the Israeli government, military, and weapons manufacturers. This technology mass surveils Palestinians and targets them so the Israeli Occupation Forces can efficiently kill them. Israel has killed nearly 40,000 people in the past eight months and injured over 85,000.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) also uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers and cloud computing services for surveillance. ICE uses AWS servers to house public and private data of US immigrants and often deport them. AWS hosts the Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology database for ICE's parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, which houses at least 270 million profiles of people, including 1.1 billion images of faces.
Additionally, Amazon stole 40,000 hours of wages from workers in Oregon. The company's PDX9 Warehouse in Troutdale injures a quarter of its workers. When workers attempt to unionize to protect themselves, Amazon stops that too. Amazon spent over $14.2 million on anti-union consultants in 2022 alone. It has had over 220 unfair labor practices cases with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
In addition to retaliating against unionization, according to the NLRB, Amazon has also illegally retaliated against workers who protest its climate injustice. Amazon successfully lobbied against Oregon House Bill 2816, which would have regulated emissions from its data centers and required them to run on clean energy by 2040. In 2019, Amazon pledged to become carbon neutral by 2040. However, their carbon emissions increased nearly 40 percent in the following two years. An increase that was severely undercounted, according to an investigation from Reveal.
Multnomah County's investment portfolio includes nearly $20 million in Amazon securities, actively reaping returns from the suffering of Palestinians, immigrants, asylum seekers, workers, and the environment. This raises ethical concerns about the county's corporate investments, causing us to question whether the county truly stands by its values of racial, economic, and climate justice. A further look into the county's most recent investment report substantiates these concerns.
The county also has Bank of America, Apple, and Citibank holdings. Bank of America, along with Wells Fargo, Capital One, Regions Bank, BNP Paribas, and Bank of Montreal Harris provided a $500 million dollar loan to Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer. Bank of America also had to pay $250 million in government penalties. This is because the bank illegally accessed private customer information to open fraudulent accounts on people's behalf without their consent. It also wrongfully withheld credit cards and double-charged its customers. Apple's support of child labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) shows an apparent disregard for human rights. The DRC recently called on Apple to substantiate its mineral sourcing claims, explaining that there is little evidence to support that Apple ethically sources the minerals used to manufacture its products. Citibank has "the largest foreign financial presence of any institution in Israel." Citibank is financing the IOF's weapons and funding the tech that Israel uses to surveil Palestinians.
We demand that the county migrate its data away from Amazon Web Services.
We demand that the county divest from Amazon and any corporations complicit in genocide and human rights violations and prohibit future investment in such corporations.
We demand that the county divest from any holdings contrary to its stated values of racial, economic, and climate justice and prohibit future investment in such corporations.
We demand that the county investigate the pooled funds it invests in. We demand that the county divest from the Oregon Short Term Fund, as it holds fossil fuel bonds and invests in corporations that are complicit in genocide.
We demand that the county inform constituents how it determines its future holdings with a clear and public metric.
We demand that the county encourage other governments, universities, foundations, and other for-profit and non-profit organizations to join Multnomah County in investing responsibly.
We demand that the county reinvest the funds in a way that serves its constituents. Alternative strategies to conventional investing, such as Economically Targeted Investments (ETI), should be pursued to improve the county's infrastructure and services while continuing to have a portfolio with an acceptable rate of return.
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To:
Multnomah County Board and Treasury
From:
[Your Name]
Amazon signed a $1.22 billion joint contract with Google called Project Nimbus, in which both companies provide cloud computing services, such as facial recognition and AI technology, to the Israeli government, military, and weapons manufacturers. This technology mass surveils Palestinians and targets them so the Israeli Occupation Forces can efficiently kill them. Israel has killed nearly 40,000 people in the past eight months and injured over 85,000.
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) also uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) servers and cloud computing services for surveillance. ICE uses AWS servers to house public and private data of US immigrants and often deport them. AWS hosts the Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology database for ICE's parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, which houses at least 270 million profiles of people, including 1.1 billion images of faces.
Additionally, Amazon stole 40,000 hours of wages from workers in Oregon. The company's PDX9 Warehouse in Troutdale injures a quarter of its workers. When workers attempt to unionize to protect themselves, Amazon stops that too. Amazon spent over $14.2 million on anti-union consultants in 2022 alone. It has had over 220 unfair labor practices cases with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
In addition to retaliating against unionization, according to the NLRB, Amazon has also illegally retaliated against workers who protest its climate injustice. Amazon successfully lobbied against Oregon House Bill 2816, which would have regulated emissions from its data centers and required them to run on clean energy by 2040. In 2019, Amazon pledged to become carbon neutral by 2040. However, their carbon emissions increased nearly 40 percent in the following two years. An increase that was severely undercounted, according to an investigation from Reveal.
Multnomah County's investment portfolio includes nearly $20 million in Amazon securities, actively reaping returns from the suffering of Palestinians, immigrants, asylum seekers, workers, and the environment. This raises ethical concerns about the county's corporate investments, causing us to question whether the county truly stands by its values of racial, economic, and climate justice. A further look into the county's most recent investment report substantiates these concerns.
The county also has Bank of America, Apple, and Citibank holdings. Bank of America, along with Wells Fargo, Capital One, Regions Bank, BNP Paribas, and Bank of Montreal Harris provided a $500 million dollar loan to Elbit Systems, an Israeli weapons manufacturer. Bank of America also had to pay $250 million in government penalties. This is because the bank illegally accessed private customer information to open fraudulent accounts on people's behalf without their consent. It also wrongfully withheld credit cards and double-charged its customers. Apple's support of child labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) shows an apparent disregard for human rights. The DRC recently called on Apple to substantiate its mineral sourcing claims, explaining that there is little evidence to support that Apple ethically sources the minerals used to manufacture its products. Citibank has "the largest foreign financial presence of any institution in Israel." Citibank is financing the IOF's weapons and funding the tech that Israel uses to surveil Palestinians.
We demand that the county migrate its data away from Amazon Web Services.
We demand that the county divest from Amazon and any corporations complicit in genocide and human rights violations and prohibit future investment in such corporations.
We demand that the county divest from any holdings contrary to its stated values of racial, economic, and climate justice and prohibit future investment in such corporations.
We demand that the county investigate the pooled funds it invests in. We demand that the county divest from the Oregon Short Term Fund, as it holds fossil fuel bonds and invests in corporations that are complicit in genocide.
We demand that the county inform constituents how it determines its future holdings with a clear and public metric.
We demand that the county encourage other governments, universities, foundations, and other for-profit and non-profit organizations to join Multnomah County in investing responsibly.
We demand that the county reinvest the funds in a way that serves its constituents. Alternative strategies to conventional investing, such as Economically Targeted Investments (ETI), should be pursued to improve the county's infrastructure and services while continuing to have a portfolio with an acceptable rate of return.