An Activist Stance

In an apparent shift to a more active stnance, the Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR) Wednesday recommended that the Harvard Corporation support a series of shareholder resolutions demanding that one U.S.corportion withdraw completely from South Africa, and another company to stop proposed expansion there.

Last week the ACSR voted against a resolution demanding that Manufacturer's Hanover Trust stop lending money to the South African government.

In an unprecedented action, the Corporation this week voted in favor of a shareholder resolution attempting to curtail the Arab boycott of Israel. The anti-boycott move came on a vote-which Harvard cast yesterday at Manufacturers Hanover Trust's annual shareholders meeting-seeking to stop the bank from issuing restrictive letters of credit complying with the Arab boycott.

Although a four-member sub-committee of the Corporation usually has the final say on how Harvard will vote on the resolutions, George Putnam, treasurer of the College and a member of the Corporation subcommittee, yesterday decided Harvard's positions on the South Africa resolutions alone.

The subcommittee members could not find a convenient time to discuss the resolutions by conference phone call, as they had originally planned, Putnam said.

Putnam accepted ACSR's recommendation, deciding that Harvard will support the resolution requiring Union Crbide not to expand its South African operations.

But he broke with the ACSR on one resolution. Although student-faculty-alumni group voted in favor of forcing General Electric to withdraw totally from South Africa-one ACSR member this week cited the committee's belief that G.E. has shown a "complete lack of interest in the fate of the black South African worker"-Putnam decided Harvard will abstain on the resolution.

Putnam said yesterday he made the decision because he believes G.E. is a "responsible employer" and is "better than the European employer" who would move in and take G.E.'s place if it were forced to withdraw.