By Greta Zarro, Mapping Nuclear Legacies, December 14, 2025

On Nov. 20, 2025, the Philadelphia City Council passed a City Council resolution in favor of nuclear weapons divestment! The resolution calls on the City of Philadelphia Board of Pensions and Retirement to invest in what residents need, such as safe and healthy homes, affordable transit, working utilities, and childcare, rather than weapons that threaten life on our planet. The Nov. 20 resolution was the direct result of six years of campaigning by the Divest Philly from the War Machine Coalition.

History of the Campaign

Founded in 2019, the Divest Philly from the War Machine Coalition consists of 29 local and national organizations raising awareness about the dangers of nuclear weapons and why Philadelphia should divest. Founding member organizations include Peace, Justice, Sustainability NOW!, WILPF Greater Philadelphia Branch, Philadelphia Green Party, World BEYOND War, Granny Peace Brigade Philadelphia, and CODEPINK: Greater Philadelphia. The coalition came together around the shared goal of nuclear weapons divestment and disarmament, referencing Don’t Bank on the Bomb’s annually updated research about which companies manufacture nuclear weapons systems and the financial institutions that invest in them. The campaign has been mostly volunteer-run and activist-led, with considerable logistical support by both CODEPINK and World BEYOND War, who guided the process from its inception.

Pension funds are notoriously difficult to divest, given that they are often controlled by a board that is not publicly elected. In Philadelphia, after repeated attempts to work with the pension board directly, Divest Philly pivoted to a City Council-focused strategy, knowing that constituents would have more of an impact on their elected City Councilors. The coalition centered on the goal of passing a City Council resolution, which, although non-binding, would help put pressure on the pension board by demonstrating that City Council is behind this effort.

Amassing Grassroots Support

To pass a City Council resolution, Divest Philly knew that we needed to build widespread grassroots support. We collected hundreds of petition signatures, phonebanked City Council offices, tabled at fairs and forums, passed out hundreds of flyers on street corners, hosted Zoom educational workshops and networking events, trained constituents on how to lobby their Councilmembers, and had countless meetings with Council offices.

A breakthrough happened when divestment garnered attention during spring budget hearings in early 2025. After Divest Philly’s meeting with Councilmember Nina Ahmad, Ahmad used the opportunity of the budget hearings to question the pension board directly about its nuclear weapons investments. In its subsequent April 8 communication to City Council, acquired through Council offices, the pension board admitted that 0.7751% of the fund is invested in Don’t Bank on the Bomb’s top 24 nuclear weapons producers, which amounts to a not insignificant $99 million of a fully funded $12.8 billion pension fund.

Equipped with this data, Divest Philly began another round of City Council meetings and also forged a partnership with the Philadelphia Public Banking Coalition. The Philadelphia Public Banking Coalition had been lobbying the pension board to reinvest 2% of the fund into the local economy, demonstrating research that economically targeted investments (ETIs) deliver competitive market-rate returns while generating measurable economic development benefits in the communities where pension beneficiaries live and work. A community investing strategy would also save the City $20 million in annual management fees paid to Wall Street firms, which, the Philadelphia Public Banking Coalition argues, “systematically eliminate jobs and extract wealth from the very neighborhoods where these workers live and retire—all while delivering inferior returns compared to simple index funds.” Divest Philly’s partnership with the Philadelphia Public Banking Coalition was a natural fit, since divesting from nuclear weapons would get nearly halfway towards their 2% goal for local investments.

Centering our Work within a Broader Municipal and Global Framework

Throughout the campaign, a point that Divest Philly repeatedly emphasized in our meetings with Council offices is that our work builds on Philadelphia’s long history of anti-nuclear policy and of divestment from various sectors and countries, including tobacco, gun manufacturers, private prisons, Russia, and El Salvador. Philadelphia has long shown its support for pro-peace, anti-nuclear initiatives: it became a member of Mayors for Peace in 1985, which was founded by the mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; the City Council passed resolution #190841 in 2019, which endorsed the UN Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW); and resolution #230336 was passed in 2023, endorsing the arrival of the Golden Rule peace boat in Philly’s harbors, whose mission is to bring awareness to the TPNW.

Divesting the City from nuclear weapons also helps meet the objectives of City Council resolution #210010, passed in 2021, which calls on the pension board to adopt a socially and environmentally responsible investment policy, often called ESG. Nuclear weapons—which pose the greatest danger to civilization that the world has ever known—don’t fit the bill.

In addition to centering the Divest Philly campaign within the city’s own legacy, we situated our work within the broader national and global movement for nuclear weapons divestment, underscoring that our ask was not an outlier nor was it financially risky. A growing list of financial institutions, municipalities, and even countries are divesting from nuclear weapons, including New York City; Burlington, Vermont; Charlottesville, Virginia; San Luis Obispo, California; Stuttgart, Germany; Münster, Germany; Lichtenstein; New Zealand; Norway; and Switzerland. Since the TPNW entered into force in 2021, the number of financial institutions investing in nuclear weapons has dropped, as more companies view these investments as controversial.

The Urgency for Action

This past August marked the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Investing in nuclear weapons accelerates a global arms race that makes using these weapons systems more, not less, likely. At a time of increasing militarization worldwide, municipal divestment presents an opportunity for local officials to stand on the side of peace and help move the needle on the national and international level — such as how municipal and state divestment from Apartheid South Africa in the 1980s turned the tide in Congress, ultimately leading to the passage of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act.

Nuclear weapons made international headlines at the end of October, when U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to restart U.S. nuclear weapons testing for the first time in over 30 years. This worrying news elevated the public’s concern about nuclear weapons, which made Divest Philly’s campaign even more relevant. On top of that, the Trump administration put forth a proposal to build a nuclear-powered submarine right here in Philadelphia. These two concerning developments propelled the rapid introduction of the divestment resolution on Nov. 13 by Councilmember Nicolas O’Rourke (At Large), sponsored by Councilmember Jamie Gauthier (District 3) and Councilmember Kendra Brooks (At Large), and its unanimous passage by City Council on Nov. 20.

In the six years of campaigning in Philadelphia, meeting with Councilmembers legislative session after legislative session, what became clear is the ongoing tug of war between Council and the Pension Board. Although a City Council resolution is non-binding and does not force the Pension Board to act, passing this resolution is a critical step to advance this campaign, showing the pension board that we have the support of our local elected officials behind us.

The campaign is not over. Now is the time for the pension board to act by screening out nuclear weapons from the fund’s portfolio and reinvesting in local needs.

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Greta Zarro is the Organizing Director of World BEYOND War, part of the Divest Philly from the War Machine Coalition

The post How Philadelphia Joined the Global Movement for Nuclear Weapons Divestment appeared first on World BEYOND War.

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