Pressuring GM to Address Apartheid South Africa in 1970:
Podcast Episode to Examine Key Anti-Apartheid Fight for Faith-Based Investors
Interfaith Coalition on Corporate Responsibility Puts Co-founder Paul Neuhauser in the Spotlight; Shareholder Pioneer Recounts Efforts that Ultimately Ended in the Abolition of Apartheid.
NEW YORK CITY///July 17, 2009///One of the crucial – but little understood -- aspects of how U.S. shareholders played a key role in starting the process of helping to end apartheid rule in South Africa is being told today in the latest installment of a podcast series.
As its 40th anniversary nears, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is telling its story through a year-long series of monthly audio podcasts. The series, entitled The Arc of Change, relates how ICCR pioneered the practice of shareholder activism, which has significantly shifted widespread corporate practices to be more in line with the tenets of environmental and social sustainability. ICCR is a coalition of nearly 300 faith-based institutional investors representing over $100 billion in invested capital.
Attorney Paul Neuhauser was instrumental in forming the coalition of churches that eventually became the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, or ICCR. In the new podcast, Neuhauser recounts how, in the early 1970s, the newly-formed Socially Responsible Investment Committee of the Episcopal Church filed one of the first-ever shareholder resolutions. It asked GM to get out of apartheid South Africa, an appeal that set in motion a long chain of events that ultimately ended in the abolition of apartheid in South Africa.
Speaking on the direct outcome of shareholder actions against GM in the 1970s, Paul Neuhauser said: “The most significant results stemming from of our efforts – the initial proxy that we filed and the events that followed – was the Sullivan Principles. The Sullivan principles were workplace principles for companies operating in South Africa that mandated desegregation of restrooms and drinking fountains, equal pay for equal work, and a whole series of important steps that led to altering the work culture of segregation. This created a modus vivendi within the General Motors Board to reform what they were doing in South Africa, as opposed to leaving the country altogether. In order to make it more palatable, they formed a coalition of American companies with the same goals, and virtually all of the larger US firms, including Ford and Goodyear, signed on to the Sullivan principles to reform their own workplaces.”
ICCR Executive Director Laura Berry said: “… [Even in today’s challenging markets it is clear that ICCR’s work continues to be centered on the original idea that shareholders’ responsibilities include monitoring the ethical underpinnings of the investments they hold. As investors with a stake in the common good, our vision of a more just and sustainable world continues to push all investors to examine the business practices of the corporations we own as shareholders, in trust for future beneficiaries. As we work together to rebuild global financial systems, ICCR members will continue to consider HOW profits are made, while never losing site of our responsibility to deliver the investment performance needed to fund the work of all ICCR’s member organizations. …”
The ICCR podcast series is being produced by Bill Baue and Francesca Rheannon of Sea Change Media, who interviewed over a dozen key shareholder activist figures recounting stories of their struggles – and successes – in convincing companies to change.
Upcoming segments will focus on:
* Capuchin Franciscan friar Mike Crosby and former ICCR Executive Director Tim Smith relate how ICCR expanded its ecumenical approach early on by bridging Protestant and Catholic activism.
* Sister Barbara Aires describes how the keys to success in effecting corporate change are consistent articulation of a moral voice, meeting directly with decision makers (such as Jack Welch of GE and Rob Walton of Wal-Mart), and analyzing the power.
* Jeffrey Dekro of Jewish Funds for Justice discusses the genesis of the Isaiah Fund, an interfaith community investing fund for the Gulf Regions impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and how this enacts the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam, or “repairing the world.”
* ICCR Deputy Director KC Burton discusses the future evolution and diversification of ICCR.
“Until now, ICCR’s story has unfolded largely behind-the-scenes – in corporate boardrooms, at company annual shareholder meetings, and on the ground in communities impacted by corporate decisions,” said Sea Change Co-Director Bill Baue. “We feel privileged to be conveying the unheard, untold stories behind ICCR’s world-changing work in The Arc of Change podcast series,” added Sea Change Co-Director Francesca Rheannon.
The Arc of Change will be available on the ICCR website (http://podcast.iccr.org) for webstreaming, downloading, and podcasting. Listen to the latest episode featuring Paul Neuhauser at the following link: http://podcast.iccr.org/2009/07/paul-neuhauser-the-beginning-of-shareholder-activism-the-end-of-apartheid/.
ABOUT ICCR
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility is a coalition of nearly 300 faith-based institutional investors representing over $100 billion in invested capital. ICCR members bridge the divide between morality and markets by envisioning a civic economy that integrates ethical, environmental and social values. Inspired by faith, committed to action, ICCR members work to build a just and sustainable global community.
ABOUT SEA CHANGE MEDIA
The mission of Sea Change Media is to make connections that advance the shift to social, environmental, and economic sustainability. Its main project, Sea Change Radio, is nationally syndicated on over 20 stations and globally podcasted from the Sea Change website (http://www.cchange.net). Sea Change also produces audio podcasts and videos, blogs, conducts research, and consults with organizations committed to sustainability, including CSRwire.com, 3BL Media, the Investor Environmental Health Network, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, Audubon, the Harvard-Kennedy School’s Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative and the office of the UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights. Sea Change Media is a division of the Trusteeship Institute, a 501(c)3 non-profit.
CONTACT:
Patrick Mitchell, (703) 276-3266 or pmitchell@hastingsgroup.com.