And back on campus, Harvard’s divestment has energized a flurry of Sudan-related activity.
Most recently, under pressure from students, University Dining Services launched the “Swipe-for-Darfur” program, which allows undergraduates to use their Crimson Cash dollars to support African Union peacekeepers in Sudan.
“Two of the only tangible things that have been done for Darfur writ large have happened at this University,” Power said in May, referring to divestment and Swipe-for-Darfur.
Divestment activists have begun to look beyond college campuses and towards “the logical next step—state pension funds,” according to Thomas-Jensen.
Last month, lawmakers in Springfield overwhelmingly passed legislation sponsored by State Senator Jacqueline Y. Collins that would require Illinois to sell more than $1 billion worth of stock in several dozen companies with alleged links to Khartoum.
Collins, who holds two masters degrees from Harvard, says she expects that Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich will sign the bill by mid-July.
But elsewhere, divestment legislation has stalled. A bill similar to Collins’ overwhelmingly passed the New Jersey Assembly in February, but is now stuck in the State Senate.
OUT OF THE WOODS
In the first indication that divestment campaigns are having an impact on the Sudanese regime’s business partners, ABB Ltd.—which holds a contract to improve Sudan’s electric grid—announced in April that it is “considering whether doing business [there] is the right thing.”
“That was a huge statement,” Reeves says. “In Khartoum, it went off like a bomb....The first company to leave will put enormous pressure on all the others.”
Meanwhile, Reeves is receiving encouraging signs on another front.
Last month, the Smith College professor finished his first cycle of chemotherapy, and he reports that his recovery is proceeding steadily.
For years, Reeves had been a “voice crying in the wilderness,” Collins says.
But with divestment advocates emerging at Harvard and beyond, Reeves’ lone voice is growing into a chorus.
—Staff writer Daniel J. Hemel can be reached at hemel@fas.harvard.edu.