[Fuusm-l] Business Resolution on Fossil Fuel Divestment

[Ted Goertzel]

Rebecca,

In response to your query about the resolution on disinvestment and
reparations, I don't like resolutions with long lists of "whereases".   By
voting for the resolution are you also supporting all the whereases?  Each
one of them makes factual assertions and moral judgments that would have to
be given due diligence, but treating all of them seriously would take hours
and hours of work, dominating the whole meeting.  Or, if the whereases are
just preamble and not being voted on, then why include them?

As to the substance, the UUA Board's position seems much more reasonable.
I would favor just voting this down.

My larger concern is that the UUA  a will be dominated by ideological
posturing and struggles over payoffs to interest groups, as it has been for
the last several years.. The black caucus or whatever it calls itself will
focus on statements about white supremacy ideology as a means of justifying
more money paid to them and racial preferences in hiring decisions.   They
have gone back to tactics that failed in the 1970s such as self-segregated,
blacks-only groupings.  The UUA message board has had a number of posts
recently from young (white) people who are questioning preparing for
careers in the UU ministry, and I would find it hard to encourage them.

Very little attention seems likely to be devoted to dealing with problems
that are central to the UU churches, especially the continuing steady
decline in religious education enrollments.  We don't have good answers to
the question of why UUism is in general decline among the younger
generations, along with other religious denominations, but I don't think
the answer is to double down on political posturing and reparations.

 I'll be interested to hear your impressions after you come back from the
meeting.  I would drop out of the UUA if there was individual membership,
and I favor FUUSM cutting its annual contribution substantially but the
Board rejected that.  As a FUUSM pledger, I have to accept that part of my
pledge goes to them when they clearly can't be bothered about us, as shown
by the fact that they didn't even answer the thoughtful letter George
Banziger sent them.

 I'm not sure we have the energy to actually rebuild the church, but I am
encouraged by what the Chalice Lighters group is proposing to do. I wish we
were spending our energies on that instead of on the UUA nonsense which
drains our energies and our resources.

Personally, I'm going to put more energy into helping to rebuild the Quaker
group.

On Sun, Jun 11, 2023 at 3:05 PM Rebecca Phillips via Fuusm-l <
fuusm-l at fuusm.org> wrote:

> Hello, all (again),
>
> This is likely the last email you will receive from me regarding this
> year's General Assembly. In addition to the Article II revisions and the
> Actions of Immediate Witness, delegates will be voting on a business
> resolution calling for immediate divestment from fossil fuels by the UU
> Common Endowment Fund and the use of those funds for reparations to
> communities harmed by fossil fuel development. The resolution was submitted
> by the Youth Divestment caucus.
>
> Some background: in 2014, the UUA voted to move toward fossil fuel
> divestment and began by divesting from directly-held stocks in fossil fuel
> companies other than select companies targeted for shareholder advocacy. It
> has retained shares in banks and other pooled funds that are invested in
> fossil fuels, in part because of a 2021 decision to engage in shareholder
> advocacy. The full proposal, the trustees' statement, and the UUA
> treasurer's statement are attached.
>
> The business resolution calls for immediate divestment because of the
> immediate nature of the climate change threat and the ongoing mistreatment
> of frontline communities, particularly communities of color. The
> reparations would come from those UU Common Endowment Funds belonging to
> the UUA, not those invested by individual congregations.
>
> The UUA trustees oppose the resolution, arguing that the advancement of UU
> values is better supported by following the processes adopted in 2014 and
> 2021 and continuing in some cases to work from within.
>
> The treasurer's statement primarily examines the numbers and claims that
> adopting the proposal as written would require approximately $700,000 from
> the UUA's annual income each year for twenty years to fund the reparations
> work, roughly the cost of seven staff positions when benefits are factored
> in. (I will add that members of the Youth Divestment Caucus have arrived at
> different numbers; I cannot evaluate them.)
>
> All three statements agree that divestment from climate-harming companies
> is the goal.
>
> Please let me know your thoughts by Tuesday evening.
>
> Rebecca
>
> "If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."--
> Cicero
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