California’s teachers and public workers associations would be prohibited from investing in the African country of Sudan if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger approves AB 2941.

If passed, the bill would prohibit the California State Teacher’s Retirement System and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System from any investment with companies that are active in Sudan, and all current investments with these companies would have to be divested, or sold.

The intention of this bill is to pressure the nine companies doing the most business with Sudan, said Patrick Cannon, an assistant professor in the Government Department.

These companies are mainly from China, Indonesia, Malaysia and France, Cannon said, and no U.S. companies have voiced concern over the bill.

The bill’s supporters also hope to put pressure on the Sudanese government, which has been accused of supporting the ongoing acts of genocide that have claimed over 400,000 lives since 2003 in the Darfur region of the country, according to www.savedarfur.org. Others have lost their homes.

Over 2.5 million people have been displaced, Cannon said. And even if this conflict were to stop today, they couldn’t return home.

This conflict first began in 2003 when several non-Muslim groups in the Darfur state of western Sudan violently rebelled against the Sudanese government, seeking independence or a new democratic national government. The government-sponsored militia known as Janjaweed responded by launching an offensive against non-Arabs in the region, according to a Physicians for Human Rights Field Team report.

Despite a cease-fire agreement signed in May, fighting continues in Darfur. The African Union said its peacekeeping forces currently in Sudan will leave the region when its mandate ends on Sept. 30, according to the British Broadcasting Channel. The BBC explained that Sudan has rejected the idea of any U.N. peacekeepers being deployed to the area.

The international community waited too long to respond to this conflict, Cannon said.

We could have prevented it from becoming as destructive as it has become, he said, adding that he hopes this bill will be a part in the process to solve this.

Bills like AB 2941 are important to set precedent for the future, he said.

Cannon also said this bill is an excellent model for students to pay attention to, because it came about when two college students took action.

Jason Miller, a graduate medical student at University of California, San Francisco, along with Adam Sterling, an African Politics graduate at UCLA, were the two founding members of The Sudan Divestment Task Force, an organization focused on organizing campaigns in support of divestment from Sudan. They are optimistic about the potential benefits of bills like AB 2941.

We know that Sudan is highly tuned to economic levers and even more highly tuned to the perception of economic threat, Miller said.

Literally, the entire movement hinges on Governor Schwarzenegger signing this bill, Miller said, explaining that similar movements are underway in over 15 other states, and that each of these states is looking to California for an example of a successful divestment.

In order for this movement to be successful, only certain companies can be targeted for divestment. Companies in Sudan that provide services like welfare, health care, education, agriculture and consumer goods will not be pressured by this bill, as the bill’s creators do not want more innocent civilians go hungry or suffer as a result of the divestment.

The organizers of this movement have been trying to gain more support through any means possible. According to www.dayfordarfur.org, they have even named Sept. 17 as Global Day for Darfur, and they encourage supporters to wear blue hats to “symbolize the urgent need to protect the people of Darfur with U.N. peacekeeping forces.

Cody Kitaura can be reached at [email protected]