Posted December 7, 2023 by srreview Waltzing With Wilson

Is Your Money That Good?

The University of Maine system has, as many universities do, a stock portfolio. This is nothing surprising, and at first glance, it looks like a long boring list of names that blend together in their vagueness. However, there is one small item on the list that stands out, and that name is Blackrock Strategic Income Opportunities. The University system has holdings in Blackrock to the tune of $17,010,510, making up 4.7% of its portfolio. Upon finding this in the course of an entirely different line of inquiry, I was struck by it. I had heard the name of Blackrock mentioned before, in a rather negative light, and so I kept that nugget of information tucked away.

Then I mentioned this fact to some peers in the course of discussing current events, and we did a little digging. This investment that the school has a stake in actually consists of investments in a great deal of diversified options. Two of the options on that long, long list should be immediately recognizable to anybody with a working knowledge of war profiteering: Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. Normally, this would simply look a little bad — oh no, investing companies invest in defense contractors, what else is new — but current events warrant a different response.

Off of ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’, this song was penned in response to the Cold War, the missile crisis, all of those pre-Vietnam nuclear-paranoia conflicts. Far from being lyrically hazy and obtuse, as some of Dylan’s 60s work is labeled, this song is painfully clear. He despises the people whose hands pull the strings of conflict for their own sake, regardless of the suffering of others. He names no names or times. It is always relevant. It has enjoyed over half a century of relevance, and it will not stop resonating as long as people can make a buck by killing somebody.

Lockheed Martin has provided Israel with its fleet of F-35 and F-16 fighter jets. On October 31st, an F-16 bombed the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza City and killed upwards of 50 people. These planes have been bombing civilian houses, infrastructure, hospitals, schools, bakeries… everything required for a population to live. And the University of Maine system has a stake in that. In its own far-off way, justifiable to itself, it has a stake in that. The University of Maine may not have blood on its hands, but it has blood in its pockets.

The University has said (see Administrative Practice Letter IV-J or the November 2019 Investment Committee Meeting materials) that it is committed to ethical operations and practices, but that cleverly sidesteps addressing itself and associated companies that engage in operations that aren’t moral. Killing children, bombing the families of journalists… Those are accomplished by Lockheed Martin following all legal and ethical practices in its work. The work itself is what’s wrong here. They treat their employees fairly, there’s no fraud, nothing against the law. But their business is the killing of innocents halfway across the world. And the University invests in this.

I’ve only got two semesters left here at UMF; less and less to lose. So this will be my initial public condemnation of the University of Maine. I call upon the administration of the University system to divest their holdings in Blackrock Strategic Income Opportunities. That’s seventeen million dollars put up for some of the worst human rights abuses in a generation. I’ll let Dylan tell you the rest.

“All the money you’ve made will never buy back your soul.”

Follow the money: