Brown ‘Ashamed’ of UC Regents’ South African Investment Stance

BERKELEY —  Protesting students cheered Thursday when Assembly Speaker Willie Brown told them that he is “ashamed” of his fellow UC regents for not selling the university’s financial investments in companies that do business in racist South Africa.

“The University of California is a symbol to other institutions across the nation,” said Brown, a San Francisco Democrat and ex-officio regent, “and the regents should make it clear: No money earned from the sweat and blood and life and breath of people denied equal participation shall ever be used to educate our children.”

He promised “prayerful deliberation” over the UC budget if the Board of Regents does not divest soon. He refused to be more specific, and when asked if he meant he will try to hold up the budget, he said: “I did not say that.”

On Wednesday, Assemblywoman Maxine Waters, a powerful Los Angeles Democrat and Brown ally, told protesters: “We are considering looking at ways of not funding particular items or portions of the UC budget unless they (the regents) divest.”

UC President David P. Gardner declined to discuss Brown’s comments.

Union Support

Before Brown spoke, dozens of union members waved banners as their leaders pledged support for the week-old demonstration.

More than 2,000 people packed the steps of Sproul Hall for the third large demonstration in as many days. The turnout gave protesters confidence in their ability to continue the demonstration through a four-day school holiday that began Thursday.

Students and others have camped on the steps of the administration building since April 10 in a bid to convince UC regents to sell the university’s $1.7 billion worth of investments in firms doing business in South Africa. That nation denies its majority black population basic civil liberties.

On Tuesday, 158 anti-apartheid protesters were arrested for blocking the entrance to two administration buildings on campus.

Many speakers praised the live-in protesters for their courage and likened them to civil rights and anti-war demonstrators of the 1960s.

Movements Linked

“One of the fundamental differences we have today,” said Jack Heyman of the Inland Boatmen’s Union of the Pacific, “is a linking of the labor and the student movements.” He asked students to support dockworkers’ plans to refuse to handle cargo going to or coming from South Africa in May.

In a meeting after the rally, Brown encouraged sympathetic faculty members to press the regents to discuss divestiture at their May meeting in Berkeley rather than in June as planned.

Students complain that a discussion in June will deny many of them a chance to participate because school ends in May. University officials have said that a treasurer’s report on the issue will not be ready until June.

“It’s unconscionable,” Brown said, “that this university--which should be the ultimate repository of democracy--is dragging its feet in dealing with any government that . . . denies full political participation to its citizens.”