The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) manages one of the largest public pension funds in the United States and is recognized globally as a powerful stakeholder. CalPERS has invested millions in General Dynamics, a company which contracts with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide support and training at the for-profit prison companies operated by CoreCivic and GEO Group. General Dynamics is also one of the largest weapons manufacturers in the world, profiting from wars and global conflicts through its billion-dollar international arms sales. The weapons company has been implicated in war crimes and the loss of countless innocent lives around the world. Sign the petition demanding CalPERS immediately talk to General Dynamics about it weapons of war.
When CalPERS meets with General Dynamics about its contracts with the for-profit prison companies, it also needs to raise the moral argument about its contribution to ongoing conflicts around the world- in particular, the war on Yemen. As one of the largest public pension funds in the U.S, CalPERS has a responsibility to start engaging with General Dynamics on its billion-dollar arms sales and its complicity in war crimes.
CalPERS has invested millions in a company which has been implicated in war crimes and the loss of countless innocent lives. In one of the most egregious cases, 54 were killed- 44 of whom were children- and countless more wounded in an airstrike on a Yemeni school bus with remnants of a General Dynamics guided metal fin found at the scene.
General Dynamics has a long-lasting contract with Saudi Arabia estimated at 1.3 billion dollars. This means that General Dynamics is providing weapons to a country which is waging a war on Yemen that has already killed an estimated six thousand innocent civilians. The company’s arms sales to despotic regimes like Saudi Arabia only contribute to the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis in the region, which creates strong resentment towards our country and contributes to the rise of violent extremism. Join CalPERS members in urging the pension fund address General Dynamics’ war profiteering.
Investing in peace,
Linda Helland, Roxanne, CODEPINK
and United for Peace & Justice
