ACSR and Arabs

ALTHOUGH THE Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR) should be commended for its recent statement opposing the Arab nations' economic boycott of Israel, the ACSR's recommendation that Harvard abstain from voting on shareholder resolutions aimed against the Arab boycotts betrays a misplaced faith in the actions of the federal government.

In its recommendation, which urges the Harvard Corporation abstain on resolutions requiring corporations to disclose whether they comply with the boycott, the ACSR stated that it believes governmental action against the boycott is now more appropriate than shareholder action, and that disclosure resolutions are therefore premature.

Although it is true that Congressional committees and the State and Commerce departments are currently investigating American firms' compliance with the Arab boycott, no action against the boycott is imminent. In fact, in return for the Saudi Arabian government's agreement to let American Jews enter Saudi Arabia to work on joint U.S.-Saudi projects, the Ford administration reportedly assured the Saudis that it would not move against the Arab boycott.

The ACSR's chairman, Donald F. Turner, professor of Law, says the ACSR feels that disclosure of compliance would not be the most effective way to fight the Arab boycott. But such disclosure would serve to define the problem more sharply by allowing the public and the government to accurately gauge its impact on American commerce.

The information requested by the disclosure resolutions would also reveal whether American firms, in complying with the boycott, discriminate against other American firms that trade with Israel or employ Jews in management positions.

The Corporation should not use the excuse of possible government action to absolve itself of the responsibility to vote its shares on the basis of moral and ethical considerations. In accordance with the ACSR recommendation, the Corporation should notify corporations that Harvard is strongly opposed to compliance with the Arab boycott. But the Corporation should ignore the ACSR's recommendation of abstention by voting Harvard's proxies in favor of the resolutions demanding disclosure of corporate responses to the Arab boycott.