PALC, Afro Plan to Rally at Forbes To Protest CRR Mass Hall Hearings

The Strategy Committee of Harvard-Radcliffe Afro and the Pan-African Liberation Committee (PALC) yesterday announced plans to hold a mass rally in Forbes Plaza on Monday to protest the Committee on Rights and Responsibilities (CRR) hearings on the April 20 take-over of Massachusetts Hall.

The University has charged 19 of the demonstrators with "interfering with the normal and ordinary performance by officers of the University of their duties."

On April 20, 35 black students seized mass Hall in an attempt to force the University to sell its shares of Gulf Oil stock because of the company's investments in Angola. The students occupied the building for Seven days.

According to PALC spokesman James L. Winston, a third-year law student, the group will present a statement at the CRR hearings on Monday declaring that it does not view the CRR as a legitimate disciplinary bode. Winston refused to speculate whether the group would attend additional hearings.

Charles W. Burnham, chairman of the CRR, was unavailable for comment yesterday.

A statement signed by 35 people claiming to be the occupiers of Mass Hall and released to the Crimson yesterday says in part. "It is not acceptable to expel 19 students under the guise of protecting the chastity of academia, a purity already violated by the political entanglements in which Harvard is wrapped."

The statement added. "The actual crime committed is the holding of 681,000 shared of Gulf Oil stock by the Harvard Corporation, not the occupation of Massachusetts Hall."

The building's occupiers have hired Boston attorney Buford Kegler to represent them at the hearings. Feigner is presently attempting to get the University to change the format of the CRR proceedings from 19 separate hearings to one hearing.

In addition to the rally at Forbes Plaza, Afro and PALC plan to circulate a petition among black students saying that "any action takes against the occupiers of Massachusetts Hall will be viewed as an action against all black students."