For someone with a clear sense of direction. Guy Molyneux '81-4 has championed a series of fairly disparate campus movements. From the 1978 torchlight march protesting Harvard's investments in companies that do business in South Africa, to the boycott of a cap and gown manufacturer over a union dispute, to the condemnation of Arnold C. Harberger's appointment as head of the Harvard Institute of International Development, to the formation of the progressive "Coop Group." Molyneux has had a hand in nearly every even vaguely leftist student campaign in his almost five years in Cambridge.

But for Guy Molyneux, the ideological connection among these protests, demonstrations, unionization movements, conferences and campaigns runs deep. "Most of these problems are tied to great concentrations of wealth and hence power," he begins, retelling a familiar story.

He tells you immediately he's a democratic socialist, committed to equality and democracy--principles he says he tries to apply to his activities both on and off campus. He took last year off to work for the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC) in Boston, and now serves as the national organizational secretary of its youth section.

Although he works for fashionable causes such as El Salvador and divestment, the Delmar, N.Y. native defies a radi-chic characterization. His parents both teach high school and Guy, a public school graduate, has always worked as part of his financial aid package; he now holds down a job as assistant to the publisher at Working Papers, a progressive bi-monthly political magazine.

The elder Molyneuxs instilled in their only son the values they grew up with. Guy calls his mother a "red diaper baby" and his father is active in the local teachers' union. For Guy, too, labor activity has provided a common thread of interest. He spent much of freshman year and a summer in Albany working on union issues. He helped organize the 1978-79 boycott of J.P. Stevens, a southern textile company with a history of anti-union activity. A concern for labor also led Molyneux to spearhead a drive to remove Cotrell and Leonard caps and gowns from the Coop's shelves.

Molyneux says he is happiest about the Cotrell and Leonard protest, because it drew support from a large majority of the senior class. The company went before the National Labor Relations Board on charges of anti-union activity, and later went out of business as a result. Some Coop board members have criticized the student protest because it eventually cost Cotrell and Leonard workers their jobs, says Molyneux. But of the company he adds. "I'm convinced the world's better off without it. I don't feel I'm responsible for their losing their jobs."

A unionization attempt closer to home--at 1400 Mass Ave --also won Molyneux's support and has him to form the Coop Group, a slate of candidates dedicated to more progressive labor practices and improving services to students. He's institutional in more than cheaper socks and underwear, and in that he says he's succeeded: These's been a real change. Students have access to more information. If the decision made three years ago to open a downtown store were being made now. I don't think there would have been a downtown store."

Even in the age of Reagan, Molyneux remains optimistic. "There is generation of people coming up who will hopefully redefine public debate on certain issues" such as who controls investments and who controls capital. Molyneux says, explaining that one of his primary aims is to raise the political consciousness of those who will become society's leaders. "Despite the '70s being characterized as a period of apathy...I never felt politically marginalized. There was less militancy but I think there was a lot of passive support for the same type of causes."

A close friend calls him "calmly committed" but in strategy sessions and ideological discussions, he earns characterizions from some associates of "hardheaded", "arrogant", and "abrasive". Others suggest he is modest--more interested in promoting his ideas than plugging himself. A facile speaker, Molyneux may smile in conversation, but to make his point forsakes bubbly enthusiasm for the steady gaze and the hard sell.

"He's perceived by those people who know him as a real political operative," who may tend to ride roughshod over a younger colleague's argument, says one political ally. "He's very quick and sometimes people mistake that for arrogance," he adds.

Molyneux concedes, "I would not say that I am personally ideally suited for coalition work," adding, "I tend to be a fairly tense person...On the other hand. I think it's what makes me one of the best political organizers on campus--once I take something on it gets done."

Friends say he releases that tension by partying--and Molyneux admits this activities cut into academic more than social time. He attributes his academic successes (and tutor Joseph Schwartz calls him "one of the most respected students in Social Studies") to Harvard's reading period system, which gives him a chance to catch up.

He is not so enthusiastic about other aspects of the way the University is run: "I do not leave Harvard feeling good about its president or about the University as an institution."

Take, for instance, the divestiture movement. The activist joined the Southern Africa Solidarity Committee (SASC) during the heated months before the torchlight parade through the square that drew over 1000 students and constituted the largest demonstration since the anti-Vietnam movement days. Some heat remains in his tone now when he discusses the student-faculty committee that advises the corporation on its investments: "I don't know how anybody can sit on the ACSR without a certain sense of shame because they are so clearly being used--unless they went on specifically to change the committee."

Molyneux also attacks the notion that the University can remain "neutral" on issues such as divestment of holdings in companies linked with South Africa. And although Harvard claims it has little impact on the actions of other institutions, says Molyneux, President Bok's statements on South Africa and other issues always appear in The New York Times. The Boston Globe and even in the white South African press. "He uses publicity when he refuses student demands, not when Harvard takes one of its few steps to meet its social responsibility."