Copy of a letter to Carol Moseley Braun from Ann M. Werboff, National Organizer, Shell Boycott Education Project. The letter says on the recommendation of Kathy Devine of the Illinois Labor Network Against Apartheid, I am writing to ask your urgent assistance in one aspect of the international campaign to pressure Royal Dutch/Shell to leave South Africa. The letter says as you may know, the United Mine Workers is coordinating a boycott of Shell in cooperation with over 80 national labor, church, civil rights and citizen organizations, including the AFL-CIO, the National Council of Churches, the NAACP, the Free South Africa Movement and the National Organization for Women; the boycott is being...
Copy of a letter to Carol Moseley Braun from Ann M. Werboff, National Organizer, Shell Boycott Education Project. The letter says on the recommendation of Kathy Devine of the Illinois Labor Network Against Apartheid, I am writing to ask your urgent assistance in one aspect of the international campaign to pressure Royal Dutch/Shell to leave South Africa. The letter says as you may know, the United Mine Workers is coordinating a boycott of Shell in cooperation with over 80 national labor, church, civil rights and citizen organizations, including the AFL-CIO, the National Council of Churches, the NAACP, the Free South Africa Movement and the National Organization for Women; the boycott is being conducted in over 30 cities across the United States and is active in 13 additional countries around the world. The letter says as part of our effort, we have joined forces with Gordon E. Smith, Treasurer of the Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board of the American Baptist Churches, and Harrison J. Goldin, Comptroller of the City of New York, to attempt to convene a special meeting of Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. (the 60 percent owner of Royal Dutch/Shell) in order to vote on a resolution calling on Shell to leave South Africa; according to Royal Dutch Petroleum's Articles of Association, such a meeting is possible if the owners of ten percent of the outstanding shares--26.8 million shares-agree; this action was necessitated by the company's refusal to allow a vote on this issue at its annual shareholders meeting; to date, over five percent, or $1.58 billion worth of stock, has been committed by public employee pension funds, religious institutions and several large banks, including American National Bank and Trust Company of Chicago. The letter says another Chicago-based institution which holds Royal Dutch Petroleum stock is Northern Trust Company. Northern Trust held 541,290 shares as of the second quarter of 1988, of which Northern Trust had sole voting authority over 398,628 shares. The letter says in July of this year, Harrison Goldin and Gordon Smith wrote a letter to Weston Christopherson, Northern Trust's chairman, to seek his support of the initiative; I followed up with a call to Tom Hess, a member of the proxy committee which decides such matters, to arrange for a meeting between Northern Trust and a high-level delegation of local elected officials and labor and church leaders to discuss the issue in more detail; I was told that Northern Trust had not taken a stance on the issue of the extraordinary shareholders meeting and that they felt that a meeting with local leaders would be unnecessary since they had sole voting authority over such a small amount of stock (an amount they said was less than the 398,628 shares reported in their 13(F) filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.) The letter says no matter how much stock Northern Trust holds, it is still important and worthwhile for a meeting to be held to discuss the issue further. The letter says I hope you can assist us by writing a letter to Northern Trust to urge them to meet with the delegation from the Chicago community; I would also like to invite you to be part of the delegation. The letter says the letter should express concern over the fact that Northern Trust holds Royal Dutch Petroleum stock and should urge them to commit their shares to the convening of the extraordinary shareholders meeting; you may also want to express your support for the campaign against Royal Dutch/Shell as an important effort in the struggle for freedom and justice in South Africa. The letter says the letter should be sent as soon as possible to Tom Hess, Northern Trust Company, 50 S. LaSalle Street, Chicago, IL 60675; please send me a copy of the letter for our records; once Northern Trust has agreed to meet with us, either Kathy Devine or I will contact you to coordinate the meeting time.
