CDE UK message to declarers Sadler’s Wells
18 Sep 2024
CDE UK supports Cultural Workers Against Genocide’s calls to Sadler’s Wells to cut ties with Barclays Bank and join discussions on ethical funding. Barclays remain the largest European financier of fossil fuels and invests over £2 billion in and provides loans and underwriting worth £6.1 billion to nine companies whose weapons, components and military technology are used in Israel’s attacks on Palestinians.
Sadler’s Wells Theatre is a declaring organisation with CDE. In July 2021, a delegation from the CDE movement met with Alistair Spalding and Britannia Morton to invite conversation about ethical funding. Three years later, there has been no evidence that Sadler’s Wells intends to cut ties with Barclays Bank. Nigel Higgins remains chair of Sadler’s Wells’ board of trustees. He is also Barclays Bank’s Group Chairman and Chairman of Barclays Bank PLC.
CDE does not produce or police red lines around an ‘acceptable’ ethical level regarding financing. However, we support actions to encourage our cultural organisations to honour their moral obligations and core values and consider how their cultural influence is being used to provide social licence to the degenerative, genocidal, and ecocidal practices of global corporations.
We invite Sadler’s Wells leadership to read our guidance on ethical funding, honour their communities, and engage in critical debate to fertilise change.
