7 Arrested in Apartheid Protest

Seven anti-apartheid demonstrators were arrested for blocking the entrance of IBM’s Los Angeles headquarters Friday in protest of the firm’s selling of computers to South Africa.

Rod Bush, a spokesman for the demonstrators, charged that IBM’s computers help South Africa’s white-minority government monitor and control the activities of blacks.

Rick Weiner, an IBM spokesman, confirmed that the firm sells computers to South Africa. But he noted that “it would be misleading to suggest that any manufacturer can control how its products are used.”

“We do not sell and we will not sell to the police, the military and any other governmental agency involved with the passbook (identity documents) system promoting apartheid,” Weiner said.