159 Protesting UC Ties to S. Africa Seized in Berkeley

In twin sweeps six hours apart, University of California police Tuesday arrested 159 anti-apartheid demonstrators who blockaded two campus buildings to protest the university’s financial interests in racist South Africa.

After the arrests, about 2,500 people gathered in front of Sproul Hall, the university administration building, to noisily denounce the arrests and pledge continued protests against the university’s $1.7 billion worth of funds invested in firms doing business in South Africa.

Despite the chance of more arrests, speakers at Tuesday’s noon rally--one of the biggest since the anti-war protests of the 1970s--urged demonstrators to continue their protest, and they applauded the idea.

“It’s not enough to be moral--you’ve got to be successful,” said former student leader Mario Savio, who led the Free Speech Movement from the same Sproul Hall steps in 1964.

Savio told protesters that they were part of a nationwide campaign supported by students at Columbia University in New York and at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. Protests at Rutgers began on Friday and at Columbia on April 4.

“They are watching you; don’t let them down,” Savio said, drawing cheers. “If they (authorities) can crush the Berkeley students, they can crush the others too. . . .

“They are trying to make examples of the people they have arrested. Turn those examples around. Build the movement on their stupidity,” Savio continued.

Urge Action by Regents

By day’s end, another 50 or so demonstrators had taken up positions on the steps in front of Sproul Hall, called “Steven Biko Hall” by protesters. Biko was a black student and leader of a moderate anti-apartheid group who died of massive head wounds while in the custody of South African police in 1977.

University spokesman Ray Colvig said he did not know if the new protesters would be arrested.

At the rally, some speakers urged that the protest be taken directly to university regents, who have rejected divestiture demands in the past.

“It will take more than just this to get the regents to divest,” said Pedro Noguero, elected Monday as the first black president of the Associated Students of the University of California. He said students must “apply more pressure” directly on UC system President David P. Gardner and the full Board of Regents.

Other protest organizers have discussed the possibility of a full student strike to close the Berkeley campus.

Of those arrested Tuesday, 140 were taken into custody shortly after dawn outside Sproul Hall, where demonstrators had been camped out since last Wednesday.

Taken to County Jail

Another person was arrested when the bus taking those people to jail was surrounded by sympathizers.

Shortly before noon, another 18 people were arrested while blocking the entrance to nearby University Hall, headquarters of the nine-campus University of California system.

Colvig said 83 of those arrested identified themselves as UC students, and the rest were either alumni or unidentified.

The arrested demonstrators were taken by bus to the Alameda County Jail at Santa Rita, Colvig said. About 30 gave their names as Steve or Stephanie Biko or as Winnie Mandela, wife of imprisoned South African apartheid foe Nelson Mandela.

Those arrested were booked for trespassing, illegal lodging or blocking a public thoroughfare, all misdemeanors. Another 30 people will be charged with resisting arrest, also a misdemeanor, Colvig said, and one person will be charged with battery for allegedly biting a police officer.

Those charged with resisting arrest and battery will be freed after posting a $2,500 bond, Colvig said, while the remainder will be released after signing citations releasing them on their own recognizance.

When the demonstrators began their protest last week, they called for the immediate sale of all of the university’s investments in companies doing business in South Africa.

They demanded, as a minimum, a public hearing on the matter within two weeks, a meeting with at least one regent and a vote by the full Board of Regents before the end of the current semester in May.

Public Forum Scheduled

W.M. Laetsch, vice chancellor for undergraduate affairs, agreed Tuesday to a public forum on the issue, which has been scheduled for April 24, but said the other demands were out of the university’s control.

The Board of Regents, which rejected South African divestiture in 1977, is scheduled to reconsider the issue during a meeting at the Santa Cruz campus in June, after students have left for summer vacation.

Laetsch said the university administration itself is opposed to apartheid. He, together with UC Senior Vice President Ronald Brady, said protesters were warned that their protest was unlawful and that charges against them will not be dropped.

“To remove the consequences of civil disobedience violates the rationale of its undertaking and robs the act of its moral basis,” Laetsch said in a written statement.