2006 Clean Investment Campaign
In 2006, the number of companies we focussed on was broadened from the original UK-based six from the 2005 campaign -- BAE Systems, Cobham, GKN, Rolls-Royce, Smiths Group and VT Group -- to include another British company, Qinetiq, and six American arms companies, General Dynamics, General Electric, Halliburton, L3 Communications, Northrup Grumman and Raytheon. This now made thirteen in total. We also contacted an increased number of universities, 199 in all. 45 confirmed that they held shares in arms companies, providing us with the number and market` value where the shares were held directly. As in 2005, of those that confirmed they held no shares only a very small number stated also that an ethical investment policy had been implemented. We were also still unsure as to the situation of 73 universities, which either never responded to our enquiries or told us that their shares were held as part of a managed fund, which may or may not have included arms companies.
Throughout 2006, student activists acrosss the country won a number of great victories in the struggle to end universities' involvement with the gunrunners. At the beginning of the year, the Bangor Uni Liberal Democrat Society (BULDS), the Bangor Amnesty Student Group and the United Nations Youth and Students Association secured divestment and the adoption of an ethical investment policy by their university. Bangor University had held shares in Cobham and GKN. Around the same time in London, students at Goldsmiths College pressured management to stop investing in companies involved in the arms trade. And in Manchester, after an inspired, sustained campaign, students forced their university to sell the 251,000 shares it held in BAE Systems and Rolls-Royce by the end of the year. Up to that point, Manchester University had been the fourth largest investor in BAE Systems. Student groups were due to focus on the remaining shares the university held with Smiths Group and GKN.
Check the 2006 figures here