UC Divestment from Prisons and its Financiers:
Putting Wells Fargo on Notice
The Afrikan Black Coalition (ABC), a statewide Black youth organization based in California, announced last month that the University of California will have sold under $30 million in private prison holdings by December 31, 2015. However, despite selling shares in Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), The GEO Group (GEO), and G4S, the University of California still maintains their $425 million investment in Wells Fargo. To continue to support Wells Fargo is both unethical and financially risky for four reasons:
Wells Fargo owns nearly 1.5 million shares in CCA and GEO, effectively financing the dehumanization of Black and migrant people.
Wells Fargo acts as a syndication agent and issuing lender on CCA’s $900 million line of credit as of 2013.
Wells Fargo serves as the bond trustee to GEO's $300 million corporate debt as of 2012.
Wells Fargo settled for $175 million in 2012 to cover up discriminatory lending practices where Black and brown borrowers paid higher fees than their white counterparts.
Given these four unethical practices, the Afrikan Black Coalition hereby puts Wells Fargo on notice to sell all shares and terminate the stated business relations with private prisons by February 20th, 2016. If Wells Fargo does not stop funding the dehumanization of Black and migrant people, Wells Fargo will be met with the relentless force of Black organizers who are committed to Black liberation. Locally, ABC will push the University of California to divest the $425 million invested in Wells Fargo. Nationally, ABC and our allies will call for a boycott of Wells Fargo by our supporters and all those who stand for freedom, equality, and justice. We encourage Wells Fargo to protect the human rights of all people, rather than continuing to fund the criminal and racist prison industrial complex.
