Press release reported demonstrations on over 50 campuses and in communities nationwide on the National Protest Days for South African Divestment and Sanctions. Events on campuses on October 10 expressed opposition to apartheid and continued U.S. ties to South Africa; October 11 featured community-based protests and emphasized solidarity with political prisoners. At a protest on Wall Street calling for full corporate withdrawal from South Africa, eight people were arrested for blocking the main intersection outside the New York Stock Exchange. A rally at this event was addressed by the African National Congress, Barry Markman of the statewide Public Employees Federation, Jim Webb of Local 420,...
Press release reported demonstrations on over 50 campuses and in communities nationwide on the National Protest Days for South African Divestment and Sanctions. Events on campuses on October 10 expressed opposition to apartheid and continued U.S. ties to South Africa; October 11 featured community-based protests and emphasized solidarity with political prisoners. At a protest on Wall Street calling for full corporate withdrawal from South Africa, eight people were arrested for blocking the main intersection outside the New York Stock Exchange. A rally at this event was addressed by the African National Congress, Barry Markman of the statewide Public Employees Federation, Jim Webb of Local 420, Local 1199, Elombe Brath of the Patrice Lumumba Coalition, Larry Holmes of the All Peoples Congress, and student representatives from Medgar Evers, York, Queens, and Hunter Colleges. The DC Student Coalition Against Apartheid and Racism organized a march to the White House involving 300 students from ten area campuses which called for full sanctions against South Africa and an end to U.S. aid to UNITA in Angola. In Nashville, 375 students marched from Vanderbilt and Fisk Universities to the Legislative Plaza calling for state divestment and an end to attacks on the status of local Black universities. Five hundred students from MIT, Harvard, Tufts, Brandeis and Northeastern held a rally at Boston University sponsored by New England Students Against Apartheid. Shantytowns were built on numerous campuses, including Texas Christian University, and the Universities of Michigan, Wisconsin (Madison), Houston, Missouri, and Texas, as well as Cornell University, where 23 students were arrested while rebuilding and defending the shanties four times. In Hawaii, graduate student Antonio Rosa was on a 10-day water-only fast which he vows to continue until the University of Hawaii (UH) divests. Students from UH also joined in a downtown demonstration against Reagan's policy of "constructive engagement." Alumni at Keene State College in New Hampshire constructed a shanty during a rally of 150 people, and students there will host a regional conference against apartheid and racism on October 18. University of Utah students built shanties on campus following a federal District Court ruling that held shanties to be symbolic speech protected under the First Amendment. Following their historic $3.1 billion divestment victory, 300 students rallied at UC/Santa Barbara to end campus purchase and sale of products from companies involved in South Africa; 100 protesters then marched into the campus bookstore and had all Avery Company products removed from the shelves. At California State/Sacramento, a community-student rally of 150 people demanded that the school's fundraising foundation divest South Africa linked holdings and called for more effective Congressional sanctions; there were also rallies at UCLA and UC/Santa Cruz. At Penn State University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Grinnell College, student actions made a link between divestment and campaigns for the release of southern African political prisoners. In Omaha, the high school-based Youths for Peace wore shirts with the names of political prisoners and appeared bound hand to foot during a rally protesting Merrill Lynch's links to South Africa. At the University of Illinois in Champaign, students held a night-time rally and during the day sent 500 postcards demanding the release of South African detainees, and 130 Drew University students held a memorial involving black armbands and a funeral procession. At Yale, where 23 protesters were arrested in September, and at Princeton, students wore armbands and observed a minute of silence for political prisoners during rallies. Students at the University of Mississippi in Oxford marched from campus to a rally in the town square. Other actions in the South occurred at the University of Alabama/Tuscaloosa, University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida International University, University of Delaware, and outside Coca Cola headquarters in Atlanta. In Washington state, there were anti-apartheid events at the University of Washington, involving a focus on state divestment and the Shell boycott, Seattle University, Whitworth and Whitman Colleges, and an all-day program at a Junior High school in Tacoma sponsored by Mothers Against Apartheid (MAA). Rallies were held at a university in Montana and at the Macedonia Baptist Church in Denver featuring Congresswoman Pat Schroeder. In Kalamazoo, a march from City Hall focusing on city divestment ended on the Western Michigan University campus with an anti-apartheid concert. Other schools which held divestment actions included Northwestern University, Purdue, Carlton College (in Minnesota), UPENN, Dartmouth, Bryn Mawr, and Hamilton Colleges, as well as Bowling Green and Wright Universities in Ohio. At a community-based rally in Los Angeles, protesters wearing black armbands marched to a rally at Leimert Park in support of total sanctions and the Shell boycott; the rally was addressed by Mayor Tom Bradley, Assemblywoman Maxine Waters, Senator Alan Cranston, and representatives of the African National Congress and SWAPO. The mayor of San Diego proclaimed October 11 as Anti-Apartheid Day, and a rally was held against apartheid and local police brutality. In Albany, anti-apartheid groups and the Pledge of Resistance targeted Senator D'Amato for his support of aid to UNITA in Angola and the Nicaraguan Contras. In Portland, a rally opposite City Hall called for full sanctions, solidarity with the Front-line states, and the release of all political prisoners; this was also the focus of events in Phoenix, Minneapolis, Rochester, Buffalo, and San Francisco. In Cleveland, a major trade union conference was held on the Shell Oil boycott, and protests occurred at Shell stations in Arlington (VA) and Cherry Hill (NJ). The press release mentions Joshua Nessen.
