Digging Your Own Grave

OVER THE visible divestment activists, men and women who for the most part have used non-confrontational means to make their position known. Consider the worst case scenario: What would happen to the Harvard divestment movement if the CRR kicked out all of these activists? Would we see an end to protest activity, as the administration certainly hopes? Or would the movement take a new turn, under a different set of leaders, tactics unknown?

While the CRR is unlikely to attempt a wholesale elimination of the divestment organization at Harvard, we have an example ready to hand of the damage done when those in power move against the very leaders who could do the most to resolve a potentionally explosive situation. The South African government has shown none of the restraint that we expect from Harvard and other American universities; while we have waited for the CRR's decision, Botha's government has lauched an unprecedented crackdown on leaders of internal dissent movements--especially more moderate leaders. As increasing numbers of committed non-violent dissenters are silenced, the regime has made it virtually certain that the country will see more deaths arising from leaderless chaos in the townships, or from the direction of a group of frustrated, more radical young leaders.

Newly released reports from South African jails of increasing amounts of torture and of incarceration of children give additional reason to fear that the Nationalists are destroying any hope for a non-catastrophic resolution. Under the current state of emergency the government is waging a war on its majority people--and in doing so is destroying their faith in non-violence and hastening the arrival of an all-out explosion.

AMONG THE 3000 who have been arrested since the state of emergency was declared on July 27 are virtually the entire leadership of the United Democratic Front, a multi-racial opposition group which has dedicated itself to non-violent protest methods. The recent detention and release of the Rev. Allan Boesak illustrates what is happening to committed non-violent leaders all over South Africa. Boesak, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, was charged with subversion after he called for school and consumer boycotts and withdrawal of foreign investments. He was freed on bail on September 20th after spending nearly a month in jail.

Although Boesak was greeted by a cheering crowd of 300 as he exited the jail, this man who has galvanized Black dissent over the past decade won't be seeing many crowds in the months to come. The government was careful to place 10 seriously limiting conditions on Boesak's release. He can not leave his home between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m; he can no longer address meetings of more than 10 people, organize boycotts or divestment drives, visit educational institutions, or attend funerals without police permissions.

Boesak has said that his detention only strengthened his resolve to fight apartheid, but the leader, who is required to report to the police every day, will obviously be limited in what he can do for the movement.

His case is not uncommon. In addition to large numbers of the UDF leadership, other old guard figures like Albertina Sisiulu, wife of jailed nationalist Walter Sisiulu, are facing treason charges. Nobel Prize-winning Bishop Desmond M. Tutu hit the nail on the head when, in a New York Times report last week, he expressed his fear that by removing activists capable of organizing protest, the regime is running the risk of amorphous chaos in the townships.

As Black South Africans understandably lose faith in the effectiveness of the non-violent philosophies of Boesak, Tutu and the rest, younger activists like Stephen Tshewete are gaining greater followings. A former prisoner who has urged that township unrest be brought into white areas, Tshewete's impassioned pleas are becoming increasingly popular. If moderates who want peaceful change are being thrown in jail, youths are saying to themselves, why should they continue to limit their tactics?

UUNDER THE TENUOUS LEGAL framework of the state of emergency, which gives the government a virtual blank check on arrest and detention, the reasons for moderate response on the part of Blacks have quickly faded. A preliminary report on the condition of South African jails released last week found that 83 percent of the 176 former prisoners in the sample reported some sort of physical torture, including beatings, forced standing, electric shock and strangulation.

Recent studies also show that it is not uncommon for children--as young as 10 or 11--to be held in custody without their parents' knowledge for extended periods of time. As of last March, a report found that 570 unsentenced juveniles and 403 who had been sentenced were in prison. Authorities have been telling parents that under the state of emergency they are not required to tell them where their children are or what condition they are in.

The news from South Africa is more discouraging than it has ever been. The government--by cracking down on moderates and using ruthless violence itself--is giving Blacks fewer and fewer reasons to hope that peaceful tactics will ever lead to real change. In the 60's in the United States violent clashes erupted on campuses when officials and police cracked down on protesters. Here at Harvard a 200-person occupation of University Hall in April 1969 mushroomed into a 5,000-person rally after police forcibly and violently removed the original handful of non-violent, student protesters. The same arithmetic in South Africa could result in civil bloodshed on an almost unprecedented scale. The Nationalists are destroying any last hope, for either themselves or the people they oppress.

While the CRR is unlikely to attempt a wholesale elimination of the divestment organization at Harvard, we have an example ready to hand of the damage done when those in power move against the very leaders who could do the most to resolve a potentionally explosive situation. The South African government has shown none of the restraint that we expect from Harvard and other American universities; while we have waited for the CRR's decision, Botha's government has lauched an unprecedented crackdown on leaders of internal dissent movements--especially more moderate leaders. As increasing numbers of committed non-violent dissenters are silenced, the regime has made it virtually certain that the country will see more deaths arising from leaderless chaos in the townships, or from the direction of a group of frustrated, more radical young leaders.

Newly released reports from South African jails of increasing amounts of torture and of incarceration of children give additional reason to fear that the Nationalists are destroying any hope for a non-catastrophic resolution. Under the current state of emergency the government is waging a war on its majority people--and in doing so is destroying their faith in non-violence and hastening the arrival of an all-out explosion.

AMONG THE 3000 who have been arrested since the state of emergency was declared on July 27 are virtually the entire leadership of the United Democratic Front, a multi-racial opposition group which has dedicated itself to non-violent protest methods. The recent detention and release of the Rev. Allan Boesak illustrates what is happening to committed non-violent leaders all over South Africa. Boesak, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, was charged with subversion after he called for school and consumer boycotts and withdrawal of foreign investments. He was freed on bail on September 20th after spending nearly a month in jail.

Although Boesak was greeted by a cheering crowd of 300 as he exited the jail, this man who has galvanized Black dissent over the past decade won't be seeing many crowds in the months to come. The government was careful to place 10 seriously limiting conditions on Boesak's release. He can not leave his home between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m; he can no longer address meetings of more than 10 people, organize boycotts or divestment drives, visit educational institutions, or attend funerals without police permissions.

Boesak has said that his detention only strengthened his resolve to fight apartheid, but the leader, who is required to report to the police every day, will obviously be limited in what he can do for the movement.

His case is not uncommon. In addition to large numbers of the UDF leadership, other old guard figures like Albertina Sisiulu, wife of jailed nationalist Walter Sisiulu, are facing treason charges. Nobel Prize-winning Bishop Desmond M. Tutu hit the nail on the head when, in a New York Times report last week, he expressed his fear that by removing activists capable of organizing protest, the regime is running the risk of amorphous chaos in the townships.

As Black South Africans understandably lose faith in the effectiveness of the non-violent philosophies of Boesak, Tutu and the rest, younger activists like Stephen Tshewete are gaining greater followings. A former prisoner who has urged that township unrest be brought into white areas, Tshewete's impassioned pleas are becoming increasingly popular. If moderates who want peaceful change are being thrown in jail, youths are saying to themselves, why should they continue to limit their tactics?

UUNDER THE TENUOUS LEGAL framework of the state of emergency, which gives the government a virtual blank check on arrest and detention, the reasons for moderate response on the part of Blacks have quickly faded. A preliminary report on the condition of South African jails released last week found that 83 percent of the 176 former prisoners in the sample reported some sort of physical torture, including beatings, forced standing, electric shock and strangulation.

Recent studies also show that it is not uncommon for children--as young as 10 or 11--to be held in custody without their parents' knowledge for extended periods of time. As of last March, a report found that 570 unsentenced juveniles and 403 who had been sentenced were in prison. Authorities have been telling parents that under the state of emergency they are not required to tell them where their children are or what condition they are in.

The news from South Africa is more discouraging than it has ever been. The government--by cracking down on moderates and using ruthless violence itself--is giving Blacks fewer and fewer reasons to hope that peaceful tactics will ever lead to real change. In the 60's in the United States violent clashes erupted on campuses when officials and police cracked down on protesters. Here at Harvard a 200-person occupation of University Hall in April 1969 mushroomed into a 5,000-person rally after police forcibly and violently removed the original handful of non-violent, student protesters. The same arithmetic in South Africa could result in civil bloodshed on an almost unprecedented scale. The Nationalists are destroying any last hope, for either themselves or the people they oppress.