Protesters Hold Teach-In When Polaroid Head Cancels Lecture

About 60 students protesting the Polaroid Corporation's involvement in South Africa yesterday forced Edwin H. Land '29, Polaroid's president and board chairman, to cancel his lecture on "colorvision" at Jefferson Hall near the Law School.

The protestors-members of the Harvard-Radcliffe Liberation Alliance (HRLA) and the National Movement Against Apartheid (NMAA)-held an informal teach-in on Polaroid's policies towards South Africa after Land left Jefferson Hall.

Kenneth Williams and Caroline Hunter, members of the Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement (PRWM), told the protestors in a pre-demonstration planning session that Polaroid products were used by the South African military and in the South African government's passbook identification system.

Polaroid recently announced, however, that it has discontinued film sales which might be used in the identification program.

According to South African law, blacks must carry identification papers and photographs. In 1960, South African police killed 69 people in anti-passbook demonstrations at Sharpeville, South Africa.

At 4:30 p. m. the demonstrators gathered outside the lecture hall in which Land was scheduled to speak. Several minutes later, Roy J. Glauber '46, professor of Physics and director of the physics colloquium which sponsored the lecture, announced Land's cancellation.

"Our colloquium no more intends to urge people to support Polaroid in South Africa than to urge them to buy Polaroid stock," Glauber said yesterday. "But these people are denying our right to talk about science, even though we are concerned about the uses to which science is put," he added.

'Teach-In'

The hour-long teach-in was held in the lecture room in which Land had been scheduled to speak, although few members of Land's audience stayed.

Margaret H. Marshall, a third-year student at the Ed School and a member of the African Research Group, charged that Polaroid refused to withdraw from South Africa "because of tension between the U. S. government and South Africa."

Polaroid claims that its decision to remain in South Africa-which was recommended by a biracial employee fact-finding team-is based on the desire to "undermine apartheid" from the inside.

In early January, Polaroid also promised to raise the salaries of non-white South African employees and to institute an executive training program for them.

Polaroid executives have earmarked money for the black-run Association for Education and Cultural Advancement and for grants for 500 South African black students and an unspecified number of teachers.

Marshall charged that Polaroid funds would be used to send black children to black schools where they are "educated for servitude." "And I think only a few black workers will be promoted as a token move," she added.

Caroline Hunter, who was suspended without pay from Polaroid on February 10 for publicly supporting a boycott of Polaroid products, said, "Polaroid thinks it has the right to interfere with free speech if free speech interferes with profits."

According to a memo issued by the Personnel Policy Committee of Polaroid on February 10, "Any public support of... a boycott of Polaroid products by Polaroid employees has been, is, and will continue to be misconduct detrimental to the best interests of the Company'... and any Polaroid employee so engaged has been, and is, subject to severe disciplinary action, including discharge."

HRLA, PRWM, and NMAA-the sponsors of last month's demonstration against Polaroid-have announced boycotts of the M. I. T. and Harvard Coops and other Cambridge camera stores which continue to sell Polaroid products.

Land could not be reached for comment last night. The physics department has "no plans at the moment to reschedule Land's talk," Glauber said yesterday.