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Blossoming With the Spring Flowers

Divestment Activists Gear Up for a Season of Protest

Last spring more than 5000 people crowded the steps of Memorial Church on the anniversary of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s death to listen to the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson and join a rally for divestment. That night, April 4, about 75 protesters camped outside President Derek C. Bok's office and created a non-violent obstacle course for the secretaries and executives attempting to enter the building. Three weeks later, 45 divestment activists staged an eight-hour sit-in at 17 Quincy St., the headquarters of Harvard's governing board. And the following week, about 200 activists attempted to barricade a room in which a top-ranking South African official was speaking.

But this year, it has been relatively quiet. No protests, no shantytowns, the symbolic shacks that have graced campuses throughout the U.S., and no major rallies have touched the Harvard campus since last spring. The divestment movement seems to have gone into hibernation for the winter. Divestment activists, however, say that this fall has been the most active fall in recent memory and that activity will not decline this spring.

They point to traces of the movement which periodically appeared this fall--an October rally against divestment, a lecture by Johannesburg Bishop Desmond M. Tutu, attempts by Southern African Solidarity Committee (SASC) members to meet with Bok and members of the Corporation, and the much publicized SASC report on the university's South Africa internship program.

The latter, in fact, is a source of much pride among SASC members for its throughness and effectiveness. "The report has had an effect. I think they [the administration] feel we are keeping a more close report on them and that they have to keep a more careful watch because they are accountable to the press," says Bradley R. Stam '87, a SASC member. "We can use the press to expose their actions--actions which are not acceptable."

SASC member Noah M. Berger '89 points to the internship program as an attempt by the university to stifle protests this spring. "They rushed ridiculously to get it out so by the time the protests begin they would have the internship program as something to point to [as an example of their concern about South Africa]," says Berger.

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Higher Temperatures

As spring nears and temperatures rise, so will the more public forms of activism at Harvard, SASC members say. "At this stage, we're more active than we've ever been," says SASC member Evan O. Grossman '87. "This spring is going to be as least as active as last spring." Other SASC members agree that with activities ranging from an April rally to teach-ins, this spring's political spectrum will not be gray.

SASC is still planning for the April rally which it is coordinating with the Third World Students Alliance (TWSA), SASC members say they are trying to line op a well-known speaker to lead the rally. Planned for April 4--the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assasination--the Harvard demonstration will coincide with a rally of New England college students on the steps of the Statehouse. In addition, throughout the nation, college campuses will join in demonstrations on April 4, a day on which divestment protests are traditionally held.

But SASC does not expect the protests to stop there. SASC members will lead university-wide teach-ins throughout the month to educate the community about the situation in South Africa. Protests could take the form of civil disobedience, divestment activists say, although nothing definite has been planned yet. And SASC members agree that this year has the potential to be the most politically active year since the 1960s.

While Harvard has revived its 1960s-era disciplinary board, the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities, SASC members say they plan many activities that are not punishable and that the threat of punishment will not deter them.

"This year won't be like last year because the movement had been losing steam. We weren't starting from a strong position. We built up slowly to April 4, and we hadn't concentrated on what we were going to do after April 4. It look us two weeks after that to get going," says Robert Weissman '88, a SASC member. "This year the planning won't just be for April 4; it will be for April. It won't only be one event, it will be a whole campaign."

The campaign will be sparked by ongoing events in South Africa, and this April will be a crucial month in that nation beset with racial tension SASC members say. "Things are going to be happening in South Africa like they haven't before," says SASC member Jaron R. Bourke '88. Earlier this year South African students went on strike, returning to school with the warning that if the South African apartheid policies had not improved by April, they would strike again. And the national labor force has also pledged a national strike in April if steps have not been taken to ameliorate the apartheid situation.

"We're very interested in what they're doing, and what we do here in this country is to try to support what they're doing," says Bourke, adding that the numbers of SASC members will increase throughout the spring as news of action in South Africa are featured in the news.

A History of Spring Activism

Born eight years ago, the South African divestment movement has had an uneven activism record. In the movement's first year, 3500 students participated in a divestment protest in Harvard Yard, complete with bullhorns, torches, and pickets. Hundreds of students spent that night encamped around Massachusetts Hall, preventing Bok from entering his office and forcing him to use Holyoke Center as a temporary office.

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