Features

California lawmakers took action against the genocide in Darfur Wednesday, aided by three East Bay teenagers who read written testimony submitted by U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee. 

Afterwards, the Assembly Committee on Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security passed legislation that calls on the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) to divest from stocks of firms that do business in the Sudan. 

Lee’s testimony was read by Natalia Casella, 16, of Berkeley, Veronica Gutierrez, 17, of Oakland, and Laura Byrne, 15, of Richmond. 

According to Rep. Lee’s office, CalPERS holds $7.5 billion in investments in firms doing business in Sudan. 

Similar legislation was adopted last month in New Jersey and other measures are working their through the legislative process in Texas, Massachusetts, Illinois and Arizona. 

In 1986, California led the way in divestment in the apartheid South Africa, and by the time the regime was voted out eight years later, 113 state, county and local governments had followed suit. 

Because California has the largest public employee pension fund in the nation, the Assembly action carries special weight. 

In her written testimony, Rep. Lee recalled her own visits to camps housing refugees from the North African violence. 

“I witnessed first-hand the depths of the human suffering; I saw the missing limbs, and I looked in the eyes of the girls who had been raped,” she said. 

“The experience only strengthened my conviction that we must take every action to end the ongoing genocide in Darfur. And it only strengthened my conviction that we need to go beyond diplomacy to end the killing.”