CAMPAIGNERS have held an “unhappy birthday party” to demand the Strathclyde Pension Fund ditch investments fuelling climate change and the genocide in Gaza on the scheme’s 50th anniversary.

The £31 billion scheme covers 180 employers and 289,000 workers, including local government, police and fire workers in the former Strathclyde Regional Council area. 

It holds vast investment in property and shares, including £400 million in fossil fuel companies such as Shell, TotalEnergies and Eni, as well as Airbus, who supply the Israeli war machine.

The latest Divest Strathclyde Pension Fund from Disaster demonstration — backed by Unison Scotland, Glasgow TUC, Time to Divest Glasgow, Friends of the Earth Scotland, Extinction Rebellion Glasgow and Divest Strathclyde — renewed the call in the wake of First Minister John Swinney’s commitment to sever links with Israel and cut funding for companies supplying it with arms.

Unison Scotland’s Stuart Graham said: “Four years since Strathclyde Pension Fund promised to cut ties with companies fuelling climate breakdown, but still no action has been taken. Now some of the same companies are literally fuelling the genocide in Palestine.  

“The hard-earned, deferred wages of our public-sector workers continue to be outrageously funnelled into investments that profit from disaster capitalism. 

“If you are a member of Strathclyde Pension Fund, are you happy in the knowledge that your current or future retirement is, with its current investment profile, based on companies that are complicit in genocide and climate catastrophe?  

“Or would you prefer it to be through ethical investments that create green jobs, housing and decent local infrastructure for Glasgow and beyond?”

The Pension Fund “must wake up and realise that life and building a better future for everyone is the biggest priority for investment,” he said.