Ken Klippenstein: Changing Raytheon from the inside

Changing Raytheon from the inside

It might sound idiotic but there is a history of “shareholder activism” that began with mainline churches using their stakes in defense contractors in Vietnam as a ticket into shareholders meetings where they could directly confront corporate leaders en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shareho...

Shareholder activism - Wikipediaen.m.wikipedia.org

Right—mainline churches, not college student organizations. That’s the idiotic part, no?

I mean, there are instances in civil rights history where some sympathetic ally donated a share to an activist so they could get in and grab the mic. I’m not saying it’s easy, but it’s been done

The question is, did that move the needle at all, though?

Last I checked Raytheon is doing quite a brisk business.

So not by investing then, but by getting a rich person to do it for them?

To be clear though, this was not like "influencing corporate policy by voting on the board members" this was "because we're shareholders they have to let us into the meetings, so we will go and start yelling at guys", right?

Correct. And maybe convince other shareholders to join us.

The genuinely tricky thing is that management is figuring out countermeasures intended to burn groups that do this down to the ground. news.bloomberglaw.com/esg/exxon-pu...

Oh yeah, the first wave caught them off guard but the defenses are up more now

As part of an ethics and cyber law course we had to analyze how companies acted and determine what guiding ethical model fit their behavior and the defense industry, i can't really see small stakeholder activism working against them, the ethical shift being demanded is just to large

Really interesting and unexpected turn in this story www.ft.com/content/f069...

Live news: US pension giant Calpers to vote against re-election of Exxon board and CEOwww.ft.com

Nothing wrong with the suggestion activist investing can sometimes work I suppose--though I highly doubt Lockheed Martin could be swayed here--but *scolding* undergrad students for not activist investing is a bit much!

Oh agreed. I was merely noting that the practice has a history, not endorsing it as the best way to protest

Yeah critiquing the screenshot here!

I assume the people proposing this have been reading classic SF and thinking it's accurate about the stock market.

Gladiator-At-Law - Wikipediaen.m.wikipedia.org

Is it just my screen that makes me think that's Harlan Ellison on that cover?

It's a 1955 book, I suppose a young Ellison (b. 1934) could have been moving in the same circles as the illustrator?

It has a history sure. A history from like 50 years ago. Just looking at Raytheon, if Google is to be believed, there are 1.329 billion outstanding shares at 100 dollars a pop. So, no, investor activism by groups of individuals will not be a factor in this particular political moment.

If only they didn't squander their money on lattes ....

Yeah i just dont think that unorganized students have the capital or the means to aggregate their wealth to do this effectivey

Has anyone ever tried to use investments from university endowments this way?

That’s a great question. I can’t think of an administration that has led with this but there have been plenty of student led campaigns See this: bos.bard.edu/sric/

Socially Responsible Investment Committee (SRIC) at Bard Collegebos.bard.edu Socially Responsible Investment Committee (SRIC)

Many universities have taken this approach with fossil fuel companies when they weren’t ready to take the leap of divestment (not sure how many were admin or faculty led). Obviously the results have been limited…

The leader in this space; www.asyousow.org/about-us . Also Ceres and among higher education, Intentional Endowment Initiative www.intentionalendowments.org

Intentional Endowments Networkwww.intentionalendowments.org

And as a result shareholder meetings give fewer opportunities for tiny shareholders to confront said corporate leaders, right?

theres people trying that right now in videogames in companies like activision bliozzard. it has resulted in them having nowhere near enough votes to get anything done and the continued misery mining for profit the company is best at

I'd love to be wrong but I'd bet the farm that the reaction would be "we have a fiduciary duty to our shareholders that we hold sacred and paramount" and then they move on to the next item

Yeah, but you can cough antiwar cooties onto other shareholders.

... worth it.

I have met people who participated in that effort.

I think the more ludicrous thing is filing a financially based suit against a company you are a shareholder in for doing what is most profitable for the company and other shareholders. Big difference between that and stopping the captured Tesla directors from giving Elmo his giant payday.

That makes sense. Churches tend to have more capital than undergrads.

I think I finally discovered what I want to do in my retirement in a few years. BRB, looking to see what stocks I can buy.

I said decades ago, to a proto-performative-wokeness grad school colleague (white/male/cis like myself), "universities get changed by people who say *in them*, and don't give up on *changing them*. I'm still chewing on taht.

Kevin Kruse is correct.

You know, like the Boeing Whistleblowers. It worked fine for them.

The Boeing Whistleblowers are my favorite band but you've probably never heard from them

I heard them once and they were never heard from again.

Damn you, I read this while drinking

Nah they got famous, but only after they died

But we original heads know, we just didn’t say anything because we didn’t want to end up like them

why don't student protesters instead choose to be billionaires, a much more effective method of social change

we picobillionaires can really change things if we vote with our wallets,

“picobillionaires” i need to go lie down

I think it would just be a nano billionaire? Unless your wealth is less than a thousandth of a dollar, sorry I shouldn't assume.

It’s a company that relies on war to exist how much could it cost Michael? 10$?

Winning!

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