Gulf Managers Score Angola Proxy Victory

Critics of Gulf Oil's policies in Angola took on management at the company's annual meeting Tuesday and, after the smoke had cleared, management was the predictable winner.

By overwhelming margins, Gulf shareholders voted down four proposals introduced by the Gulf Angola Project, which directed proxy solicitation for the United Presbyterian Church. Harvard announced Friday that it was voting its 671,187 shares (worth $15,437,301) for management.

The four Gulf Angola Project proposals, which management opposed, are;

A resolution establishing a committee to study Gulf's involvement in Portuguese Africa. It received 2.1 million votes for, 172.3 million votes against.

A resolution requiring disclosure of charitable gifts. It received 2.2 million votes for, 172.2 million votes against.

A resolution expanding the Board of Directors to provide representation for non-shareholder groups "affected by the activities of the Corporation." It received 1.1 million votes for, 173.1 million votes against.

A resolution forbidding Gulf to invest in colonial areas. It received 980.000 votes for, 173.3 million votes against.

A Gulf spokesman said yesterday that the resolutions would not appear on next year's proxy statement.

According to Securities Exchange Commission regulations, if a proposal receives under three per cent of the shareholders' votes, management is released from its obligation to include it on the proxy statement for the next three years.

Steven A. Bookshester, a coordinator of the Project, said yesterday he was pleased but not overjoyed with the results.

"We can honestly say we got far more votes than we had any idea that we had," Bookshester said. "We would like to have gotten more than three per cent, and if we had gotten support from some more large institutions, like Harvard, we might have."

Organizations supporting at least one Gulf Angola Project proposal include the American Friends Service Committee, the Field Foundation of New York, the City and County of San Francisco Retirement System. Pomona College and Wayne State University.

The Ford Foundation, Bryn Mawr College, Oberlin College and Columbia University were among groups that abstained.

At the meeting, dissident groups not affiliated with the Gulf Angola Project proposed six candidates to challenge the management three-man state for the Board of Directors.

The six candidates were Willie S. Brow Jr., California state assemblyman; Angela Davis, the radical scholar awaiting trial on murder charges; Ailees Hernandez, a former member of the U.S. Equal Opportunities Commission; the Rev. Andrew Young of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; and Augustinho Neta and Amilear Gabral, leaders of liberation movements in Angola and Portuguese Guinea, respectively.

The candidates were all easily defeated. They each received about 20,000 votes, ranging from a high of 26.488 (Young) to a low of 15,541 (Davis).