OpEd: Recommendation against Caterpillar a stand for Portland values 

posted on: Mar 25, 2016

By Ned Rosch and Steven Goldberg

If we ignore facts, forget about history, throw away common sense and disregard international standards, Saturday’s editorial valley, “Bulldozed by delusion,” might be plausible.

But include facts, history, common sense and internationally accepted legal norms, and then the real story becomes the editorial board trashing a courageous group of citizens taking a stand to recommend that our city not invest in a company that thumbs its nose at Portland values.

In 2014, Portland’s City Council unanimously adopted a resolution to establish a Socially Responsible Investments Committee (SRIC) to screen companies based on seven criteria, which include unfair labor practices, human rights abuses, health concerns (including weapons production), corrupt ethics and environmental destruction.

Implementing their mandate, the SRIC recommended that the city not invest in Caterpillar, a corporation that violates all five of the above-mentioned criteria. (Its harmful environmental practices, for example, include fracking.)

The editorial board lambasted this recommendation stating that Caterpillar “just makes tractors” and should not be held responsible for human rights violations committed by Israel when they employ heavily-militarized D9 bulldozers specifically designed by Caterpillar to demolish Palestinian homes, destroy the urban infrastructure (water lines, telecommunications, electrical grids and sewage systems) of Palestinian cities and level whole neighborhoods in Gaza. 

A number of churches and respected human rights organizations have engaged unsuccessfully with Caterpillar for a decade imploring them to end their complicity with these human rights violations and war crimes. 

But the editorial board asserts that Caterpillar is not at fault for any outcomes from the use of its equipment. Under applicable international principles, however, that assertion is flatly wrong. In 2011, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights were unanimously adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in a resolution cosponsored by the U.S. The principles provide a blueprint for companies to demonstrate respect for human rights. 

Guiding Principle 19 makes clear that businesses are responsible not just for their own acts. They are also responsible for the acts of their business partners (like the Israeli military) that use their products (Caterpillar’s militarized D9 bulldozers) to cause human rights impacts, even if Caterpillar itself has not contributed to those impacts. Compliance with these UN principles is a powerful statement of what the world expects from companies.

The editorial agreed with SRIC member Robert Landauer, who voted against the recommendation and said we would be “on the precipice of absurdity” to put Caterpillar on a “do-not-invest” list. The truth is Portland would be on the precipice of absurdity if we were to continue to invest in a company with a horrible track record on environment, labor, ethics, human rights, and health concerns, including weapons production.

A world-class city aligns its investments with its highest values.

The Oregonian/OregonLive editorial board should be ashamed of itself for failing to recognize that the SRIC has become the moral conscience of our city for recommending divestment from Caterpillar.

Ned Rosch and Steven Goldberg are members of Jewish Voice for Peace and Occupation-Free Portland.

Source: www.oregonlive.com