African Activist Archive

Letter to Pennsylvania State Representative David Richardson from Patrick Hagopian, coordinator of the University of Pennsylvania Southern Africa Solidarity Group. Hagopian points out a possible shortcoming in House Bill No. 1400. The intent of the bill is apparently to discourage investment of State-related universities' funds from Republic of South Africa or from firms and banks doing business with South Africa. Most groups that support divestment insist that both parent companies and subsidiaries be included. Consider a U.S. motor vehicle manufacturer with a subsidiary doing business with South Africa. If a university were to divest funds from the subsidiary but continued to invest in the parent corporation, the parent corporation could shift capital to its subsidiary, easily counteracting the effect of this divestment. The present wording of the legislation apparently would allow a university to divest itself of a subsidiary doing business in South Africa and immediately reinvest its funds in the parent company. In the case of the University of Pennsylvania, these corporations include Ford, General Motors, IBM, Sperry, and General Electric - companies that are supporting apartheid by doing business with the South African police and military, cooperating with its emergency security procedures, and providing computerized mechanisms for controlling the country's population. It is these corporate policies and activities that the Southern Africa Solidarity Group is opposing, along with numerous U.S. and international groups and bodies (including the NAACP, AFL-CIO, the World Council of Churches, and the United Nations) and representative organizations of the majority people of South Africa.

African Activist Archive

[Re. House Bill No, 1400, and other South Africa-related legislation]

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