In the coming weeks, activists plan at least three
separate actions against Peoria-based Caterpillar Inc., protesting the
company’s role in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.
On June 13, participants in a peace-and-justice walk
from Springfield to Chicago will hold a vigil at Caterpillar’s
corporate headquarters. The next day, a group called Stop Caterpillar is
planning a protest at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in
Chicago. Finally, on June 15, when the General Assembly of the
nation’s largest Presbyterian denomination, the Presbyterian Church
(USA), convenes at its biannual meeting of the in Birmingham, Ala.,
divestment is expected to be a topic of discussion. Representatives from Caterpillar, a global
manufacturer of construction equipment, did not respond to requests for
comment from Illinois Times. However, a statement on the company’s Web site reads:
“As a well-respected and responsible global citizen, Caterpillar
fully complies with all local, U.S. and international laws and policies
governing sales of our products around the world, including the U.S.
Foreign Military Sales Program. In addition, we clearly have neither the
legal right nor the tangible ability to regulate how customers use their
machines.” In 2004, the PCUSA general assembly voted to
“initiate the process of selective, phased divestment” from
select multinational corporations doing business with the Israeli
government, including two Illinois companies — Caterpillar and
Schaumburg-based Motorola — as well as Citigroup, ITT Industries, and
United Technologies. Jewish groups — and a number of Presbyterians
— objected strenuously, calling the divestment resolution
anti-Israel. The Rev. Jerry L. Van Marter, a spokesman for the PCUSA, says
that the general-assembly voted for a process for divesting from selected multinational
corporations that are profiting from the conflict — not divestment
from Israel itself. Actual divestment of the some $2 million the church
has invested in the five targeted companies, Van Marter says, is a last
resort. Still, a movement has begun within the PCUSA to moderate the
church’s position, which has culminated in at least 20 different
alternate proposals for consideration at next week’s meeting,
including several to revoke the 2004 divestment decision. The Presbytery of Great Rivers, whose headquarters is
also in Peoria and governs most of central Illinois, introduced a
resolution to remove Caterpillar from the divestment list but move forward
with the others. Mike Orr, assistant to the pastor at
Springfield’s First Presbyterian Church, says church leaders there
aren’t taking sides, though that congregation, like the church, is
split on the issue. “It’s very complex, and it’s easy
and somewhat dangerous to take a position without a clear knowledge of all
those complexities,” Orr says. Sometimes likened to the push to end South African
apartheid in the 1980s, the Caterpillar divestment campaign began about
four years ago. In 2003, a Caterpillar D9 bulldozer operated by an
Israeli soldier was involved in the death of American activist Rachel
Corrie. Her death galvanized the worldwide divestment movement. Caterpillar machines, according to Stop Caterpillar,
are used by the Israeli government to raze Palestinian land in the occupied
territories. More specifically, Israeli bulldozers, such as the D9, are
used to demolish Palestinian homes and uproot olive groves, which families
use as a source of income. Furthermore, the group asserts, Caterpillar machines
are used to build Jewish settlements in the West Bank, as well as the
Israeli West Bank barrier, sometimes called the separation wall. Jeff Leys, one of the organizers of the “Walk
for Justice,” calls Caterpillar “the most significant symbol of
the Israel-Palestinian conflict.”
This article appears in Jun 1-7, 2006.
