Dozens of financial institutions in the United States invest in companies doing nuclear weapons research, development and production, and you dear reader may have some skin in the game. Aetna? Allstate? American Family? These firms all claim to have your back but are banking on your demise. The group Don’t Bank on the Bomb (DBB) has been making headway in its campaign against these. The Swedish pension funds AP4 and AP, the Belgian bank KBC, and Germany’s giant Deutch Bank have all halted investments in nuclear weapons. Scores of other businesses have done the same, including Japan’s 5th largest banking group, Resona Holdings. By slashing investors’ dollars from investment firms and weapons contractors, DBB campaigners hope to force the nuclear bomb biz to simply, slowly, dry up. US companies behind the Bomb include among others Aecom, Aerojet Rocketdyne, BAE Systems, Bechtel, Boeing, BWX Technologies, CH2M Hill, Fluor, General Dynamics, Honeywell, Huntington Ingalls, Jacobs Engineering, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Orbital ATK. Don’t Bank on the Bomb is pressuring the Dutch multinational banking and financial services firm ING Group in Amsterdam, to dump the $756 million it currently has tied up in weapons production. Activists recently projected onto ING’s headquarters an image of the company’s mascot lion kicking the bomb (above).
Information on the financial affairs of the nuclear weapons industry, so lacking in the US, can be found on the dontbankonthebomb.com website. Get the latest news about who produces the weapons, which companies make the most, which ones have divested and earned a spot in the Hall of Fame. Take advantage of this organization’s amazing research. The site contains resources so you can begin your own local divestment campaign. Check to see if you unknowingly invest in nuclear weapons—then divest.
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