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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 4, 1986)
continued from p.9 we are leaders in humanitarian causes as much as in agricul ture and engineering.” The organization has col lected more than 600 signatures on petitions seeking the divesti ture of University holdings with South African-related corpora tions. But although the group has had a chance to speak with Chancellor Arthur G. Hansen, a meeting with the Board of Re gents has not been forthcom ing. In a letter to Hansen, the re gents refused to see the group or put divestment on their agenda because, “...the subject matter is public policy matter and not policy that would be appropriately addressed by The Texas A&>M Board of Re gents...” JBespite this, Muraya says the University of Texas Board of Regents has met with supporters of divestment in Austin. Even though U.T.’s situ ation has been complicated by the larger amounts of money they have invested in South Af rica, Muraya says the U.T. re gents have promised to investi- gate the possibility of divestment. “That this is not ‘public pol icy’ or ‘within the purview of the Board’ is something I find hard to believe,” he says. “All the other schools that have di vested have had it come before their Board of Regents.” Muraya says that thus far, the organization has been un able to get a response to the is sue, much less a promise of ac tion, (or inaction, for that matter). “What we are basically looking for is an opportunity to be heard, to get a yes or no ans wer,” he says.- 1,400 blacks so far this year, have encouraged more people to join the protest. “The murders are doing it,” he says. “It’s just sheer moral outrage about a bunch of white racist butchers.” Anderson says the white mi nority controls 83 percent of the land and virtually all the sources of production in the country. The black homelands, ostensibly formed to allow blacks some measure of inde pendence and self-rule, lack the mineral wealth which is the backbone of the South African economy. rt w Mf you are black,” he says, “you are practically a non- person. If Americans lived in conditions like that, they’d be rioting in the streets.” Muraya, a native of Kenya, says black South African’s have been remarkably hon-violent given the barbarous conditions under which they live. He says their generally non-violent ap proach is responsible for the support they’ve received from around the world. It also belies the misconception that if the whites shared power with -/Achieving peaceful change is the goal of the anti- apartheid movement here and across the country. “Right now if two countries have a disagreement,” he says, “one of them drops a bomb. That results in killing and no body wins. This is a peaceful, new sort of economic pressure to bring about change.” To increase awareness of di vestment as a mechanism of so cial change, Students Against Apartheid will stage a protest march, beginning at 4:30 p.m. today at the College Station City Hall. The national Divestment Day march, timed to coincide with the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s death, will con tinue down Texas Avenue to University Drive, University to Houston Street and finally to Rudder Tower for a rally. The rally will be nothing if not peaceful, due to the moder ate nature of the movement here, Anderson says. r W 1 M he organization here is very moderate, extremely moderate,” he says. “They are not radicals who are going to “Right now if two countries have a dis agreement, one of them drops a bomb. That results in killing and nobody wins. This is a peaceful, new sort of economic pressure to bring about change.” Norman Muraya, president of Students Against Apartheid Divestment among uni versities has not been uncom mon lately, Muraya says. Eighty-one universities have di vested so far, six since last fall. “It’s almost directly propor tional to the human rights vio lations, which I find encoura ging,” he says. These human rights viola tions, as reported by the United Nations, include the South Afri can state policy of apartheid (meaning “separate devel opment”) itself, which denies blacks the right to vote, the right to move freelv from place to place and the right to assem ble freelv outside the black “ho melands” or “bantustans.” Anderson says the most fla grant abuses, the deaths of blacks, a tribal bloodbath would result. “If they say that,” Muraya says, “I always say they should look at Kenya. “When I was growing up, it was the same sit uation only not quite as bad. Blacks were sub-citizens.” Muraya says blacks were con sidered inferior and incapable of operating more technologi cally advanced equipment. An other misconception, one also held of South Africa, was the belief that if blacks ran the country, tribal infighting would cripple the the nation. But Ke nya is thriving, he says, show ing transition can come through peace. storm the Systems Building and stage a sit-in on the steps.” Nonetheless, the organiza tion still hopes to draw plenty of attention to their cause. Pur due says they are hoping for, but not expecting, a huge turn out. “I would like to say, yes, it will be overwhelming,” he says “but I don’t think that will be the case. At any rate, we will have said something, we will have tried.” Purdue savs he thinks stu dents here generallv don’t care what happens in South Africa because it doesn’t directlv affect them. “Also sometimes around here if you are going against the sta tus quo,” he says, “you get the feeling it’s like going against the government. It’s like disobeying orders.” Orders about what the group can and can’t do during their Friday march seem to confirm this, he says. ■ Bob Wiatt, chief of the Uni- versitv Police Department, says he issued the group a parade permit on the conditions that they lower their placards and signs and walk silently upon en tering the campus area. 1WM uraya says that at first, the police weren’t even' going to allow the group to march on campus. •“It’s a very surprising thing because I thought that was a very fundamental right,” he says. “It seems to me he’s afraid it might trigger a counter-reac tion from the surrounding dor mitories and pedestrians. But if there is someone against us, they can form an organization and engage us in debate. Those are the appropriate channels.” /■.nderson says the group will comply with the conditions of the permit, but has con tacted the Civil Liberties Union to see if their rights have been violated. “Well, there was this guy running around with a big cross screaming and he didn’t get arrested,” he says. “Then there’s the people in the brown shirts who run around with their guns in the air and their flags and they don’t get ar rested. I don’t know why any one should be afraid of free speech on a University camp us.” Purdue agrees. “They (the Corps) can run around shouting things about death and violence,” he says. “All we’re asking for is peace and change and we can’t shout. We can’t say a thing.” Purdue says he joined for a chance to speak out while he still could. As a computer sci ence major, he says he may one day work for a corporation like I.B.M., which does business in South Africa. IWMy cause is more rac ism than apartheid,” he says. “Apartheid, to me, is just a svmptom of racism. The reason I joined is that in a few years a lot of the things I’m doing now might very well go against the policies of the companies I might be working for, and I won't be able to do this."