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February 29, 2000
GE Shareholder Asks Company to Renounce Landmines
A resolution filed with General Electric may be the first one addressing antipersonnel landmines to
come to a vote.
SocialFunds.com --
General Electric makes more than refrigerators and lightbulbs, and is commonly called by
shareholders to account for its involvement in manufacturing military weapons or their components.
But this is the first year a resolution has been filed with them regarding the production of
antipersonnel landmines and cluster bombs, the most indiscriminate killers in the world's arsenal.
 Landmines maim or kill 26,000 people a year.
Most of these people are civilians, up to 40 percent of them children, living in countries trying
to rebuild their society after the horrors of war. General Electric was a supplier of integrated
circuit components and other parts from 1989 through 1993, or possibly later, and has refused to
join a Human Rights Watch initiative to renounce further involvement in landmine production.
"Land mines are a significant cause of the harmful effects of global militarism and therefore a
significant piece of the larger picture of military contracts," said Regina Murphy, Director of the
Militarism and Violence program at the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR). ICCR
is a coalition of religious, institutional, and individual investors committed to promoting
corporate responsibility through shareholder activism.
A resolution filed by an individual
shareholder, Jeffrey Scott Harwood, a resident of Maryland, asks GE to establish a firm policy
renouncing further involvement in landmine and cluster bomb production. The resolution has been
filed with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), who decided in favor of the shareholder, and
if it makes it to the April 26 annual meeting without being withdrawn it will be the first landmine
resolution to come to a vote.
In 1993 a resolution asking for a cessation of land mine
production was filed with
Motorola, Olin, and Raytheon, but all three were withdrawn. Then in
1996 a similar resolution was submitted to Alliant Techsystems, but was omitted by the SEC because
it was deemed "ordinary business," not subject to the judgment of shareholders. Apparently, the SEC
has changed its view this year.
"That the SEC has changed its 1996 decision that landmines
were "ordinary business" is very important for shareholders who would want to address other
companies involved in landmines," said Murphy. Mr. Hardwood's resolution is one of several
ICCR-promoted resolutions addressing the military contracts of corporations, but the only one
specific to landmines.
There is a global moratorium on the export of landmines, but until
1992 the U.S. was one of the biggest exporters. The U.S. still maintains a stockpile of
approximately 14 million landmines, and refused to sign an international treaty banning their
production.
Other companies have taken the lead in renouncing future involvement in
landmine production. Motorola was the first to respond to the Human Rights Watch initiative in
1997, and 16 other companies have followed suit.
In 1998 GE wrote to Tim Smith, Executive
Director of ICCR, specifying that "GE does not supply materials or components to any manufacturer
of landmines, and we have no intention of becoming involved in such activity." But they have not
joined the Human Rights Watch initiative, nor established a firm policy regarding the issue.
GE is the subject of at least 11 shareholder resolutions this year, addressing production of
nuclear reactors, sexual orientation policy, executive pay, foreign military sales, and corporate
welfare, to name a few. This broad offensive nominates GE as the corporation shareholders love to
hate, but also points to the broad and complex problems of any large multinational corporation.
The historic vote on Harwood's landmine resolution will not only send a signal to GE that
the public is distressed at the production of weapons that are presently frustrating the post-war
reconstruction in a dozen countries, including ironically threatening the lives of U.S.
peacekeeping troops. It will also send the same message to other corporations that have been
involved in landmine production.
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