Divestment

To the Editors of The Crimson:

In "Fundraising, Not Frustration" (September 29) David Graham argues that the anti-apartheid movement should shift its focus from advocating divestment to raising money for South African causes. Graham's well-intentioned column contains a number of misconceptions about the Harvard anti-apartheid movement that should be cleared up.

First misconception: the anti-apartheid movement has not devoted energy to raising money for South Africans. Raising money is one part of a many-pronged approach that the movement takes. When Archbishop Desmond Tutu spoke here in January, he was presented with a $10,000 honorarium which benefitted the anti-apartheid world of the South African Council of Churches.

Second misconception: the anti-apartheid movement has not tried to influence the use of President Derek C. Bok's $1 million fund to be used for educational opportunities for Black South Africans. Even though students were given no role in the committee that administers the fund, the Southern Africa Solidarity Committee (SASC) was responsible for preventing the money from being spent on a misguided and harmful internship program.

Third misconception: Divestment is only a "moral statement." Divestment and disinvestment are the most prominent and important demands South Africans have made of Americans, and will contribute materially to the South African struggle by removing one of the most important props of the apartheid regime--the American corporations.

The campaign for divestment has implications beyond the Harvard campus. As politicians ranging from Senator Richard Lugar to Senator Edward Kennedy have stated, without the campus divestment movement, the sanctions bill would not have successfully passed through Congress.

In addition, Graham's analysis ignores the importance calls for divestment have in raising the issue of student participation in the decision-making structure of the University. Though polls show a significant majority of students favor divestment, Harvard continues to invest in the brutal apartheid system.

It is to be hoped that the struggle for divestment will contribute not only to the attainment of a more democratic South Africa, but to a more democratic university as well. Robert Weissman '88-'89