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Mutual fund shareholders can join Investors Against Genocide, a UUSC ally in the fight to end the Darfur genocide, by saying NO to investments in genocide.

If you are a mutual fund shareholder, you have a vote in the way your money is managed, just as you have a vote in the presidential election.

Investors Against Genocide has submitted shareholder proposals on genocide-free investing to more than 50 mutual funds. Shareholders now have the unprecedented opportunity to vote their proxies to tell mutual funds that they don’t want their money invested in companies that abet genocide.

Proxy materials and proxy ballots that include this shareholder proposal are now being distributed by Fidelity for its Contrafund and eleven other Fidelity funds holding shareholder meetings on March 19.

You can vote your proxy ballot up until the 19th if you own any of these Fidelity funds:

Blue Chip Growth, Blue Chip Value, Capital & Income, Contrafund, Dividend Growth, Equity Income, Growth & Income Fund, Low Priced Stock, Puritan, Real Estate Investment, Select Health Care Portfolio, and Utilities.

How to vote

When you receive your proxy materials and proxy ballot, DON'T THROW THEM AWAY OR DELETE THE E-MAIL! These are the first of your unique opportunities to vote for genocide-free investing. Vote FOR Proposal #3 on your ballot card.

If you have already discarded the proxy materials, or have already voted and want to change your vote, you can. You can revise your vote right up until the meeting on March 19. Contact Fidelity for instructions.

Whether you own one share or thousands, you can have a voice in genocide-free investing. Please vote your shares by returning your proxy ballot, by voting online or by attending the shareholder meeting

Votes at more Fidelity funds plus other major fund companies, including Vanguard, Franklin Templeton and Barclays, will follow in coming months. To see the latest list of mutual funds with votes pending on genocide-free investing, visit the website of Investors Against Genocide.


Help Investors Against Genocide submit more shareholder proposals

Now that Investors Against Genocide’s shareholder proposal has proven acceptable to the SEC, the group wants to submit the proposal to many more mutual funds, in order to cover as many funds and mutual fund companies as possible.

If you own shares of mutual funds, please join this historic effort for genocide-free investing. Investors Against Genocide has made it easy for you to submit a resolution. Learn how here.

Background

UUSC has been working in alliance with Investors Against Genocide and its founding organization, the Fidelity Out of Sudan campaign, to urge U.S. mutual funds to divest from companies doing business with Sudan.

Most recently, on September 5, 2007, UUSC President Charlie Clements took part in a protest organized by Investors Against Genocide staged at Fidelity’s Boston headquarters. Clements helped deliver more than 150,000 signed petitions calling upon the firm to divest its remaining shares of PetroChina, a Chinese oil company whose business dealings with Sudan provide much of the funds to purchase military weapons used to carry out the genocide.