Israel-Gaza war protestors have gathered at Worthing Town Hall to call for divestment in the borough council’s pension fund.
The protest, organised by Parents for Peace Worthing, saw volunteers wrap Worthing Town Hall in 165 metres of fabric in the colours of the Palestinian flag before the meeting of the full council on Tuesday, October 15.
The group called on the council to review investments made by the Local Government Pension Fund, run by West Sussex County Council, and remove, or divest from, companies supporting arms sales to Israel or settlements in Gaza and the West Bank.
According to one member of Parents for Peace, a counter-protest turned up before the group to the town hall, but dispersed shortly after they arrived.
Police were present for the protest, checking people at the entrance to the meeting for ‘protesting materials’ such as signs, and controlling the number of people let in, according to council staff.
Parents for Peace organiser Rebecca Sinclair told the full council that, according to the UN, since October 2023 over 40,000 people including 16,456 children have been killed in Gaza, and asked the council to publicly disclose its pension investments.
She said: “We’re aware that the West Sussex County Council Local Government Pension scheme invests in at least four companies that have ties to arms sales and illegal Israeli settlements. Worthing Borough Council employer’s contributions make up 5.4 per cent of this pension scheme, will the leader of the council therefore commit to writing urgently to West Sussex County Council to lobby them to divest from these?”
Leader of the Council Sophie Cox (Lab, Castle) said the council invests on a rolling basis on an average period of ten days, and details were not ‘easily disclosed’ as the list of investments ‘does constantly change’.
She said the annual treasury strategy sets out the ‘investment principles’ for the council, and that the council could look to include the group’s request as part of that strategy going forward.
She said: “That’s something we do need to be looking into and I will work with Councillor Turley on that.”
One Worthing resident, who addressed the full council during public question time, said the main purpose of the pension fund is fiduciary, and to ‘maximise’ return on investments for workers covered by the fund.
She said, according to a report backed by the UK Supreme Court: “In cases where the issue is clearly controversial courts may well expect trustees to focus on financial factors. In the case of Worthing council pension fund investment and passive funds, fund managers have no control over which companies are included in these funds and that any motion, notion to interfere with such should be rejected as null and void.”
Cabinet Member for Resources John Turley (Lab, Gaisford) said although performance of the fund was ‘paramount’, fund managers also take into account non-financial factors when investing.
He said ‘many’ pension schemes, including West Sussex’s, had moved away from investing in fossil fuels due to their impact on climate change, despite a strong market performance.
“The pension fund only invests in active management. In other words our fund managers will choose which specific investments are made”, Cllr Turley said.
“We can say our portfolios have no exposure to arms manufacturers selling directly to Israel. I have been advised that the portfolios do not include companies considered by the offic of the UN High Commission of Human Rights to be supporting Israeli settlements.”
Parents for Peace announced the protest on social media on October 7 ahead of the full council meeting, asking for 150 volunteers to help them with the wrap the town hall in the Palestinian flag’s colours.
