Berkeley, Wellesley, B.U. See Protests

Berkeley police yesterday arrested more than 100 people as they moved in on a shantytown set up on the University of California campus in an anti-apartheid protest, and at least 11 people were injured in an ensuing clash, officials said.

Fighting broke out between clubwielding officers and demonstrators who hurled bottles and rocks while attempting to block police buses by throwing trash cans, constructing barricades or sitting in roadways.

University spokesman Tom Debley said 11 people were hurt in the protest over Berkeley's $2.4 billion in South Africa-related stock. Another spokesman, Ray Colvig, said one of them was a police officer hurt by a flying brick.

It was the second series of arrests in anti-apartheid demonstrations this week at the campus, which has been a center of student activism for more than two decades.

Colvig said the action began before dawn when police placed between 100 and 120 demonstrators in the buses. Hundreds of other protesters quickly surrounded the buses, preventing police from taking them to jail.

The standoff continued with the demonstrators confronting about 100 university police officers plus additional officers called in from nearby cities.

At 7:30 a.m., the buses moved out, with baton-swinging officers struggling with demonstrators who hurled objects and blocked the buses.

About 150 demonstrators and 100 police remained after the buses left, but the campus returned to its usual calm. Colvig said some 50 demonstrators who could not fit on the buses were photographed by police and will be subject to arrest later.

All those arrested were served with a copy of a temporary restraining order issued by a judge Wednesday. Superior Court Judge Harry Ramsey barred demonstrators from erecting the shanties close enough to any campus building to constitute a fire danger.

Meanwhile, a group of Wellesley undergraduates yesterday staged a sit-in at the college's administrative hall, calling on visiting trustees to schedule immediately complete divestment of its $36 million in South Africa-related stock.

"We want to show the trustees how strongly we feel that divestment should begin now with a timetable for complete divestment within two years," said sophomore and protest co-organizer Helene Alpert.

Student organizers said they and about 40 other members of the "Ad Hoc Committee for Divestment Now" entered the building about 4 a.m. The students said they took up positions outside the offices of the president and deans, preventing them from conducting business when they arrived later that morning.

Wellesley President Nan Keohane said yesterday that the administration had not taken action against the students because they were carrying out their protest, which coincided with a general meeting of the governing board, "in an efffective, well-organized, and responsible way."

Keohane said, however, that the administration's response is based on the understanding that the protest is directed specifically at the trustee meeting and is only for a short time. "If it becomes more indefinite, we will have to reassess our position," she said.

Wellesley announced in February that it had divested $2.9 million from companies not adhering to the Sullivan principles, which call for, among other things, racial integration in the workplace. Protesters at the sit-in called for complete divestment of the remaining $36 million.

Boston University

Eighteen Boston University students yesterday continued an eight-day hunger strike protesting the school's $19 million investment in companies doing business in South Africa.

The activists want to express their objection to "B.U.'s immoral investment policy," "the systematic harassment of anti-apartheid activists" at the school and "raise awareness about the anti-apartheid movement," said Yosef I. Abramowitz, a student who initiated the strike.

The fasters have taken refuge against possible administrative intervention by moving into Hillel House, the only building on campus not owned by the school. They are eating no solid food and plan to fast "until it's counterproductive to continue," Abramowitz said.

Abramowitz said that although the strike may not directly effect change in school policy, "it plays a central role in the dynamics that cause a change in the policy."

B.U. has not taken any action against the fasters, but Dean of Students Ronald L. Carter said that, "If [Abramowitz] thinks that his hunger strike is going to force us to change our position, I can only say that I will take him to the hospital when he falls into a coma."

Carter also said that "he is lying about any harassment of a SATF group."