The current trend away from political activism on college campuses is being countered at Harvard by a group of students who founded the Harvard-Radcliffe Committee on American Foreign Policy last spring.

The committee's goal is to bring about change in American diplomacy through political action, research and dissemination of information to the Harvard community.

The forty members wish to achieve "a conjunction of interests between the support of democratic movements around the world and America's own long-term self-interest," Martin Kernberg '76, head of the group's sub-committee on Latin America said Wednesday.

"Our group takes a position completely independent of the standard and over-worked cliches of both the right and the left," Kernberg said.

The committee will set up tables at University dining halls to attract new members and distribute information to the student body. During the year they plan to publish a bulletin, distribute position papers on various issues, hold discussion groups, organize rallies and letter-writing campaigns and sponsor a series of films and speakers.

The committee is sponsored by several Harvard professors, including Kenneth J. Arrow, professor of Economics, Nathan Glazer, professor of Education and Social Structure, and Nadav Safran '56, professor of Government.

Barry Levenfeld '76, chairman of the committee, said the organization's basic philosophy consists of opposition to imperialism, racism, military juntas, the oppression of women, minorities and labor, and the illegitimate use of violence in national or international situations.