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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 4, 1986)
< 1 ^ -o ^ ^ ^ ^ ~p ^ 5 P-^lTi? o S3 -3 Sc i: d J3 2 a S .S S3 -'%. £r £ J= -d 23 S % Anti-apartheid movement grows By Tricia Parker Co-editor When Dr. Terry Ander son wrote “APARTHEID’' on the board of his History 105 class last fall, three of his stu dents knew what it meant. “And one thought it had something to do with the Soviet Union,” he says. But thanks to the efforts of Students Against Apartheid, many can define it and more think it’s wrong. This increased awareness, as well as increased activism and divestiture of the University’s stock in companies that do business in South Af rica, are the goals of the Texas A£pM group. The organization, with An derson as advisor, was formed last summer. It is connected to a growing national network of anti-apartheid groups, accord ing to president Norman Mu- raya. At A&M, it was ba sically, like Winnie Mandela had said, an idea whose time had come,” Muraya says. “It really started in the summer when the rest of organizations were completely dead but we had regular meetings every two weeks.” Muraya says the organization grew rapidly. Equally swift was its plan of action — in August the group began picketing the Texas Coin Exchange which was selling Krugerands. “They were taking out full- page ads in the papers advertis ing the coins,” he says. “They immediately stopped the ads and they no longer sell the coins.” The organization continued to protest with a rally on Anti- Apartheid day in October. Later, it sponsored a Students Against Apartheid concert at the now-defunct Dr. G’s with a reggae band, The Killer Bees. Finally, it organized a march on Rudder Tower to draw atten tion to the situation in South Africa. “We probably had the largest protest march in the history of the University,” Muraya says. “We had about 200 (people) there.” More than 500 people at tended last semester’s concert, says treasurer Jack Purdue, the proceeds of which went to sup porting the group and its “Free South Africa” t-shirt sales. This year, the group will sponsor a concert featuring I- Tex, sched uled for Fridav night at Dr. G’s. ut the marches, rallies and meetings are just a means to an end. The organization’s goal, through their attention- grabbing activities, is to pres sure the Board of Regents into divesting the $2.95 million the University has invested in cor porations doing business with South Africa. The investments, which in clude $250,000 in American Ex press Credit, $125,000 in Inter- first Corporation and numerous other investments in Pepsico, Inc., Eastman Kodak, I.B.M., and Exxon, make up about one percent of the University’s in vestment portfolio. Muraya says he believes the University’s money could be as profitably or more profitably invested in other companies without South African connec tions. asically, what we’re trying to show is that by divest ing, the school would not be losing any money,” Muraya says. “It would be an outstand ing moral statement on the part of the University system, saying continued on p.10 (left) Students Against Apartheid staged a protest march last fall to draw attention to the situation in South Africa. Goals of the group include increasing awareness about apartheid and getting Texas A&M to divest itself of investments in com panies that do business in South Africa. The group plans to hold another march today which will begin at 4:30 p.m. at the College Station City Hall. Photo by John Makely.