Don't Bank on the Bomb -- cut the ties.

Friends,

 Below is a letter I delivered to SunTrust Bank indicating I was closing my small savings account as the bank was providing financial assistance to nuclear weapons producers.  I then instead opened a savings account in a local community bank.

 Should you have any interest in examining your bank’s investments, go to https://www.dontbankonthebomb.com/whos-financing-them/.  The web site answers this question: Which banks, pension funds, insurance companies, asset managers and other financial institutions around the globe are financing the 20 major nuclear weapons companies examined in this report?  The report identifies 179 US financial institutions that are substantively involved in the financing of nuclear weapons producers. They represent approximately half of all financial institutions listed in the report.  

Kagiso, Max

325 East 25th Street

Baltimore, MD 21218

October 9, 2018

SunTrust Bank

548 E. Belvedere Avenue

Baltimore, MD 21212

To whom it may concern:

   I have been a SunTrust Bank customer for a number of years.  Unfortunately I discovered that SunTrust is involved in providing financial assistance to corporations involved in the production of nuclear weapons.  This information was provided by the Don’t bank on the bomb Campaign.  As an activist working on the abolition of nuclear weapons, I want to close my account with SunTrust.

   The report, produced by PAX, a member of the Nobel Peace Prize winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear weapons (ICAN) details the global investments by financial institutions in companies producing nuclear weapons between January 2014 and October 2017. SunTrust is on the list.

    ICAN executive director Beatrice Fihn makes this point: “If you have been wondering who benefits from Donald Trump’s threats of nuclear war, this report has that answer. These are the companies that stand to profit from indiscriminate mass murder of civilians. We grow less safe while they cash in on chaos by banking on Armageddon.”

   More and more financial institutions have policies in place to not invest in nuclear weapon producers. In addition, Dutch pension fund ABP, the 5th largest pension fund in the world, announced in January 2018 that it will divest from all nuclear weapon producers. Norway’s Government Pension Fund, the second largest fund in the world, recently also announced the exclusion of more nuclear weapon producers. Since the adoption of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in July 2017, 30 financial institutions have ceased investing in nuclear weapon producers.  At the same time, a large majority of countries around the world are calling for the abolition of all nuclear weapons arsenals.

  So the closure of my savings account with SunTrust is based on my conscience.  More than 120 countries have stated that nuclear weapons must be abolished.  I agree, and thus must terminate my relationship with SunTrust.  I sincerely hope that SunTrust will eventually have a policy in which the bank does not provide funds to nuclear weapons producers.

In peace,

Max Obuszewski

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.  Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs