Protesting American investments in South Africa on the tenth anniversary of the "Sharpeville Massacre" in South Africa, a group of about 70 rallied in front of Holyoke Center at 1 p.m. Saturday to hear 30 minutes of speeches.

Police in South Africa killed 67 demonstrators and wounded 186 others participating in a rally at Sharpeville on March 21, 1960 The demonstrators were protesting apartheid in South Africa.

American Holdings

Four hundred fifty American corporations have investments totaling at least $1.6 billion in South Africa, Patty Gordon, the first speaker at Saturday's rally, said. She denied that these corporations could offer any defense of their role in protecting South Africa's policies towards its black citizens.

An unidentified male speaker took the microphone, however, to argue that American investments in South Africa are "helping to keep the United States' economy strong." While the crowd tried to shout him down he said that "attacking American corporations is like attacking the United States itself."

Dennis Brutus, a South African who teaches courses in African literature and poetry at the University of Denver, told those at the rally that "the men and women who have taken up arms in [the] revolutionary struggle [in South Africa] ... look to you for support."

Wherever They Are

"We challenge the racists wherever they are. We challenge them in the south of Africa, we challenge them in the south of America," he said. Brutus is a leader in the movement to keep South Africa out of the Olympic games.

An ad hoc committee of black and white South Africans from the Boston area were the sponsors of Saturday's rally.