Burma: We don’t want our Pay and Council Tax used to support the Military Junta.

I found out last night at the Tower Hamlets Council Pension Investment Panel, that one of our fund managers have £2.3 million invested in Total (the 2nd highest holding in that particular fund) and £1.3 million in Chevron (7th biggest holding).

I suspect that our other Global equity fund will have similar investments in companies who have trading interests in Burma. We also own shares in companies such as GlaxoSmithKline (the huge British based drug company) who according to the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC – click on this link for a full list) has business links with the Burma.

Many members of the pension scheme are furious that their pension contributions and council tax are being invested in companies that support the Burmese military junta and allow the murder of unarmed monks and civilians who are peacefully calling for democracy.

This is part of a complaint that local Tower Hamlets resident, UNISON member and Head Caretaker, Tony Boyce, has sent off to his Labour councillors (seen left with his granddaughter).

“I have been a member of the Tower Hamlets pension scheme and a Council tax payer for over 20 years. I have lived in Tower Hamlets for all my life. I am looking forward to eventually retiring and then being able to spend more time seeing my grandchildren grow up.

I would like to think that I would be able to help them out with them going to college or leaving home and getting their own place. What I would hate to think, is that my pension (which is my deferred pay) is being paid out in part, out of money earned from investing in Burma.

Burma is a horrible military dictatorship, which kills and enslaves its own people. I think that due to sanctions and criminal legal investigations that the pension fund could also lose money if they continue to invest in Burma. I ask the trustees of my pension scheme to stop investing my money in Burma”.

The Labour Councillors present, Bill Turner (Chair of the Pension and Accounts Committee) and Joshua Peck (Cabinet and Lead member for Performance and Resources) asked for a full report on what companies the fund held that had business interests in Burma. I volunteered to send over the ITUC list.

At the same meeting we discussed the scheme signing up for the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI)

Finally, to illustrate how difficult these issues are – I asked the Global Equities fund manager after he gave his presentation to the Council investment panel (who are quasi-pension trustees) about the financial risk of sanctions, boycotts, criminal prosecutions and the reputational risk of investing pension money in Burma. Surely, the pension fund was facing a financial risk of continuing to invest in Burma?

He argued that the proportion of Total or Chevron assets invested in Burma may appear to be a large figure (up to $1.2 billion) however; they are only a tiny part of the total assets of that country. So if they lost money over Burma it would arguably not make that much of a difference to the company share price (I disagree).

Also, this fund manager is what they call a “quantitative” investor. That is they try to emotionally detach themselves from the companies that they invest in and only concentrate on the financial “fundamentals” (balance sheet, long term profits, market share, share price compared to profits, orders etc).

They actively invest in companies where they think the fundamentals are sound but where due to “market sentiment” the price of a company is lower than they should be.

(I accept that I have probably not adequately explained this properly, remember the usual health warning, this is my report back to members, my interpretation, not that of the Tower Hamlets Pension fund)

So we may have this crazy, crazy situation where some investors think that now is the time invest in Burma because many investors are pulling out on political sentiment rather than economic fundamentals

Personally, I think since it is now accepted that owners of capital in modern day democracies won't make money out of trading in opium then equally they should not think it is acceptable to make money out of Burma.

Lyn Brown MP - Alfresco in Canning Town South (& CPA Bigots)

Yesterday I went to help out at Lyn’s latest constituency development event which was held in the brand new Keizan Primary School, Elkington Road E13 (aka as “Tea or coffee mornings”).

The meeting is in Canning Town South ward, which is the only ward in Newham held by the extremist right wing fundamentalist party, the “Christian People Alliance” (CPL).

Ironically the only opposition parties to Labour in Newham are on the one hand the extremist “Shari Socialists” of so-called “Respect” in Green Street West and the fundamentalist Christian bigots in the CPL. Two sides of the same coin as far as I am concerned.

Unfortunately (or perhaps not) the first part of the meeting had to be held outside the school since the caretaker had gone to the wrong school to open up and had the wrong keys. (PFI School – no comment). For the first 30 minutes or so, Lyn and local councillors, Clive Furness and Paul Schafer held open air surgeries outside the schools.

Middle Picture is of top UNISON London Labour Link committee member and West Ham Labour Party Secretary, Alan Griffith, behind bars (no comment).

BTW - One of the CPA Canning Town South Councillors, Simon Ademolake, has been charged with assault on Police following a dispute between him and court bailiffs over unpaid parking tickets. He has apparently denied all the allegations.

I have no knowledge whatsoever about whether Ademolake is guilty or not about assaulting anyone. However I note that he won a civil court case recently over a parking ticket which a Warden was unable to put on his vehicle because he had driven off. A few years ago I represented a UNISON Parking attendant who was nearly killed by a motorist driving off at high speed to avoid having a ticket placed on his windscreen. If you have committed an offence does it really matter if a "ticket" is placed on the vehicle or not? Doesn’t Ademolake realise (or care) that every year Parking Wardens are seriously injured (and no doubt someone will one day will be killed) by people driving off in order to stop a ticket being physically put on their car? Guess not.