75 Stage Demonstration At Gulf's Boston Office

Seventy-five demonstrators from the Cambridge Movement marched to the Gulf public relations office in "Government Center yesterday protesting Gulf's operations in Angola.

About 20 of the demonstrators staged a peaceful sit-in on the steps leading to the back entrance of the Gulf office. When the marchers arrived at the building around noon, they found the doors locked and ten policemen blocking off the entrance.

Members of the Cambridge Movement made no attempt to get inside.

Paul A. Sprecher '72, of the Cambridge Movement, told the police captain in charge--Henry M. Coughlin--that the demonstrators had no intention of confronting the police.

"We are here to create a presence, not to fight with the police." Sprecher said.

The demonstration lasted about an hour and a half. At 1:30 p.m. the demonstrators were joined by 200 people-- mostly from B.U. and U.Mass--who had finished picketing at the IBM building in downtown Boston. The groups merged and set up a picketline in front of the Gulf offices. They marched for 15 minutes as 50 members of the tactical police lined the area.

The demonstrators then marched across a plaza in front of the building to the Boston City Mall where they staged a brief rally.

James Winston, a spokesman for the Pan-African Liberation Committee, explained the reasons for the actions against Gulf and told the Crowd "This is only the beginning."

Winston said that members of PALC had left Harvard's Massachusetts Hall not because they were afraid of arrest, but because their protests would have been silenced if they were arrested.

Sprecher called the action "a victory." "In 1970 during the Cambodian intervention, we called for no business as usual. Today we have achieved that objective with Gulf," he said.

He said that Gulf "closed down because the P.R. wouldn't be so good if people got the real facts about their activities."

There were no blacks participating other than Winston. Winston said there were a number of reasons why blacks did not take part.

"First of all our people are battle weary. Second, we're holding strategy sessions today and people didn't have the time to come. Also many people just didn't know about this action," Winston said.

Winston declined comment on what course of action PALC would take in the future.

Robert, Markwell, regional vice-president of Gulf in charge of public relations, said yesterday afternoon from his office that the demonstration did not force him to call off any of his planned activities. "We always close the office at noon. I want over to the Admiralty Room with some of my clients for lunch and came back at 1:30 without any problems.