Yesterday, activists from Cut The Ties occupied the entrance of BlackRock and staged a theatrical protest outside their City of London HQ.
BlackRock, Inc. is the world’s largest investment asset manager – its 11.6 trillion dollar assets under management are roughly worth the same as the ten wealthiest countries in the world, meaning that this American multi-national corporation has huge influence and the ability to direct policy.
Indeed, senior Labour figures met with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink prior to the last UK election, and the then Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves set up the British Infrastructure Council, attracting companies like Fink’s to provide private investment in housing, AI, energy and so on, rather than raising public funding. This is reminiscent of Blair’s NHS PPI schemes which helped hollow out the NHS ready for privatisation.
BlackRock is accused of ignoring the climate crisis by propping up fossil fuel companies like BP, Shell, Total Energies, Chevron and Equinor with more than $400 billions of funding. In 2020 they told their clients they believed in sustainability, repeatedly using the term ESG (environmental, social and governance) in their communications. But in 2024, Client Earth filed a letter of complaint which resulted in BlackRock actually changing the names of 14 out of 18 of their supposedly sustainable funds, but the case is still progressing at the French Financial Markets Authority.
BlackRock also invest hugely in arms companies directly aiding the Gazan genocide such as Elbit Systems, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Raytheon. A UN report in July exposed BlackRock’s complicity in funding arms, surveillance and energy companies directly aiding the Israeli governments assault on the Palestinians. The report highlights BlackRock’s part in a “joint criminal enterprise” to profit from genocide.
Cut The Ties are calling on BlackRock to:
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- cease all investment in the fossil fuel industry immediately.
- cease investing in companies destroying the Amazon and other crucial ecosystems.
- cease investing in all arms companies arming Israel.
They are calling on BlackRock’s employees to refuse to support unethical investments and to confidentially whistleblow via <cut-the-ties-confidential@proton.me>
They are also calling on the UK government to abandon plans to work with BlackRock while they continue to work against the wellbeing of people and planet.
More info: chuffed.org/project/cutthetiestofossilfuels
