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The Reverend Peter Gomes, L'iemorial Church, Harvard University

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The Reverend Peter Gomes, L'iemorial Church, Harvard University The Reverend Peter Gomes, l'Iemorial Church, Harvard University. 14th Nove:nber, 1977 Dear Sir, As Harvard students, we must protest the invitation of Alan- Paton as this year's :illiam Belden Noble s-peaker. Harvard has only sponsored white members of South Africa's legal opposition to its official forums; .and the only South Africans to receive honourary degrees here -- Alan Paton and Helen Suz-nan -- are two such individuals. ro black South Africans have been so honoured. ,ihite South Africans certainly have a right to speak; but blacks have as ~uch a right -- and even more, because they have been denied it for so long. Furthermore, as the recent ~rackdown by the South African regime illustrates, the legal opposition in that country, of which Alan Paton is a part, no longer represents the feelings of the black majority. .hen organizations and individuals take a meahingful stann_ against apartheid, they are banned, detained or even m~rdered. But the legal white opposition has never posed a threat to the regina. In the 1950s,they played an important role; but as the situation has become more tense, they have been increasingly unwilling to take a strong stand against the white minority regi-na. rhe gap between the legal white opposition and black South Africans i.s shown clearly on one point: the question of foreign investment in South Africa. <hile.every black, and nany integrated, South African organizationshave called for a total econo.-'lic boycott of South Africa, Paton, in company with other white liberals -- notably Helen Suzman -- has refused to join this call. The political situation in South Africa proves one thing: that the initiative has nassed into the hands of the resistance to apartheid. Since 1976, a massive u~rising has rocked the country, and continues to undernine the authority of the white ~-regi11e. It has now forced the international community to impose sanctions on the apartheid regime. But in the midst of these events, Harvard has continued its consistent and unabated policy of giving privileges and heap­ ing honours on ~hite members of the legal opposition. Liberal white South Africans are hailed as heroes of the struggle in South Africa. The whites and blacks who are fighting and dying to free their country are denied any chance at such a forum. Furthermore, the University has continued to avoid giving concrete aid to the liberation struggle in South Africa, which it could do by voting for withdrawal of those companies in which it owns shares from South Africa; selling its shares in Ci ticorp and ?1lanufacturers Hanover, banks which have supported the apartheid regime by giving it huge loans; and publicly taking a position in opposition to foreign invesbnent in South Africa. ~ie woulr:1 welcome your presence at the ··•Southern Africa Solidarity Committee's evening on South Africa and Harvarr't at Emerson Hall this S8.turday, where these pdnts can be further explored. The M hoc Co·nmittee for Justice in South.Africa c/o Neva Seidmanl Cindy Ruskin Alams B-21, Harvard University •. .
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