Kansas nuns hold corporate giants accountable through investment activism

The Benedictine sisters from Kansas, United States, buy shares in corporations, not just to profit from them. What is investor activism?

Among the most persistent corporate activists in the United States are 80 nuns from a monastery near Kansas City. The Benedictine sisters from Mount St. Scholastica have taken on companies such as Google, Target, and Citigroup. They call on the largest companies to take specific social and ecological actions.

Sister Barbara McCracken, who leads the nuns' corporate responsibility program, told euronews.com: "Some of these companies really hate us." In 2004, the sisters from Mount St. Scholastica joined the Benedictine Coalition for Responsible Investment, an umbrella group led by Sister Susan Mika, a nun from a Texas monastery who has been working in this field since the 1980s.

Until the 1990s, the Benedictines did not invest. This changed when they started saving and investing money for the care of elderly sisters. Sister Rose Marie Stallbaumer, the community's treasurer for years, explained: "It was very important for us to do this responsibly. We wanted to ensure we weren’t raising funds just for our benefit at the expense of others."

By investing even small amounts in stocks, the Benedictine sisters join the ranks of company shareholders, giving them the right to ask questions, submit proposals, and speak at general meetings. The sisters asked the energy company Chevron to explain its human rights policies, and Amazon to disclose its lobbying expenditures. They also urged Netflix to implement a more detailed code of ethics to ensure non-discrimination and diversity on the board.

The Benedictine sisters suggested several pharmaceutical companies reconsider patent practices that could raise drug prices. Their resolutions rarely pass; even if they do, they are usually non-binding. However, they serve as an educational tool for the nuns and a means of raising awareness within corporations. In many companies where they hold shares, support for their initiatives grows over time.

The basis of what the sisters from Mount St. Scholastica do is the belief that the rich have too much, the poor have too little, and more should be shared for the benefit of all. In Catholic language: for the common good. Sister McCracken justified the nuns' activist investments: "For me, it is a continuation of Catholic social teaching." McCracken joined the Benedictine community in 1961. She describes herself as a "strange extrovert" in monastic life who "hates to miss out on parties".

Other nuns spoke about her involvement in anti-war, anti-racist activism and supporting labour unions. Nearly 85 years old, McCracken cannot be as active as she once was, but investing provides her with a "sitting job when you can't go out on the streets". The Benedictines do not retire. "We don't use that word," said McCracken. She added: "If we still have enough sense, we just keep going, you know?"

Source: euronews.com