A Time To be Heard

THE REAGAN ADMINISTRATION announced late last week that it will case restrictions on trade with South Africa, significantly loosening the controls imposed by former President Jimmy Carter four years ago. At about the same time, the federal government's most recent envoy to the apartheid-ruled nation cautioned U.S. officials to avoid making statements that could anger the ruling Botha regime. Those twin developments make it all the more imperative that other U.S. institutions from Congress on down to corporations and universities act vigorously to reprove South Africa for its repressive and discriminatory system.

But Harvard, if anything, seems to be retreating from its previous reluctance to deal with South Africa. The Corporation recently proposed an end to Harvard's absolute ban on investments in banks that loan directly to South Africa. And just two weeks ago, members confirmed that the Corporation has already temporarily scrapped the total ban, pending others' advice.

We have long counseled against any case-by-case approach because it would strip the University of the moral leverage of an absolute ban, and because, in others' hands, it has proven unable to sway the repressive Botha regime. And we continue to favor total divestiture of Harvard's holdings in all corporations that deal with South Africa.

Tonight, students have what is probably their last chance to force the Corporation to re-affirm the absolute ban of years past, a concession students won through their protests in 1978. The Advisory Committee on Shareholder Responsibility meets at 7:30 p.m. to consider the case-by-case proposal: if the ACSR lends its support to that recommendation, the Corporation is virtually certain to approve it permanently. Only the loudest of objections by the ACSR has a chance to influence the Corporation and only the loudest of protests by students, in turn, seems likely to move the ACSR.

The ACSR's rare open meeting, slated for Emerson 105, affords students an opportunity to air their views and to convince Harvard to stick by its less objectionable stance. We hope all students will attend, make their voices head, and prove to Harvard and the nation that some people continue to care about injustice in South Africa. If they do not, the moral retrenchment of the University and the government can only get worse.