Blossoming With the Spring Flowers

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.

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.

Their efforts that year were paid off with the greatest university concession to the movement in its history. The Corporation, which decides the policy on Harvard's investment portfolio, agreed to sell its stock in banks that gave direct loans to South Africa. When the university tried to pull back on that policy in the spring of 1982, SASC shook itself out of a four-year dormancy to maintain the policy.

Three years ago, activists held rallies drawing hundreds of people, and seven students staged a brief hunger strike, garnering national news attention. They also founded the Endowment for Divestiture as an alternative to the senior gift. Money raised for the Endowment will not be given to Harvard until the university divests.

But at times in the past, the divestment movement has been relatively quiet. At times there have been so few people in the movement that it cannot concentrate on both agitation and education. Two years ago marked a particular low in the movement, and much of last year was spent attempting to regain some of the momentum the movement had lost, SASC members say. This year, SASC numbers 30 core members.

"A year ago [at this time] nothing had happened on campus and nothing had happened the year before that," says Weissman. "Since then, we've created a strong vibrant movement that we've shown has broad support and a large number of committed activists."

Back to the Present

While last year, divestment activists concentrated on recapturing the fervor of the past, this year they will be concentrating on branching out and attempting to reach a broader section of the Harvard community. Members continue to solicit alumni support two nights a week, because as Sara L. Szanton '88, SASC coordinator of the drive, says "alumni are a lot more powerful than we are."

And now, SASC is attempting to coordinate its activities with faculty members, partially spurred on by Dartmouth's success at persuading faculty members to join the movement, say SASC members. "The Dartmouth faculty certainly showed that faculty can play an important part in putting pressure on the administration," says Dane F. Smith '88, a SASC member who is involved in establishing a link between the divestment group and the faculty.

Bourke says that this expansion and other expansions in the divestment movement "are making it clear that Harvard wants divestiture and making it clear that the people who don't want divestiture do not represent Harvard's opinion."

But he cautions against thinking of the Harvard community as analagous to some of the other campuses which have had active divestment movements this spring. "We have a different kind of faculty than Dartmouth, a different kind of community than Brandeis, and there is a different relationship between us and the people who make the decisions," he says.

SASC and TWSA will start formalizing plans for the April rally this week and next week, while the faculty will discuss the issue of divestment in a full faculty meeting on March 11. SASC members agree that in no way will the divestment movement this spring be unnoticeable.

"The divestment movement has been around for over a decade and is not something that is going to go away," says Stam. "The driving force does not hinge on any one group of individuals. SASC is going to keep on putting political pressure on the administration and insure that the administration remains accountable to the Harvard community.