Fidelity Funds and Genocide

A week a go I wrote about Google's board urging shareholders to vote against resolutions that will make the company more humane (i.e. take human rights into business decisions and refuse to cooperate with censorship). I urged my fellow shareholders to vote FOR the resolutions (read My Vote Counts!)

But Google is not the only company whose share holders would like to see behave more humanly. Today I received an invitation to vote on several Fidelity Funds stocks that I hold. I usually throw out those letters - but this time, this caught my eye:

You see, some people would like the board to screen out stocks of companies that "substantially contribute" to genocide (I guess if you contribute just a little, it's Ok). But the board would like you to vote against this. "We don't care how they make their money, just how much money they make" - should be the new motto.

Needless to say, I voted FOR the proposal. And again I would like to urge my fellow human beings to vote for this or any similar resolution you come across. Take a second to look at what your boards are asking you to vote on - and vote with your conscience.

I re-wrote the title of this post several times, just so I won't end up at the sharp end of a law suite. This is the mildest I could make it.