Pulling
By REED KRAMER
Foreign investment fell by
nearly half in South Africa be-
tween 1975 and 1976 and at least
15 major corporations are con-
sidering withdrawal from the
country due to widespread so-
cial unrest, recent financial re-
ports have revealed.
But whether these investment
cutbacks have anything to do
with the last year of student
and church protests in the U.S.
is ambiguous.
"It is difficult to measure the
effect we are having on deci-
sions, but the whole corporate
responsibility movement, and
the churches' part in it can-
not be denied," says Tim Smith,
director of the nationwide In-
terfaith Center on Corporate Re-
sponsibility (ICCR). The Center,
an affiliate of the National Coun-
cil of Churches, coordinates
shareholder protests and reform
efforts for some 50 Protestant
and Catholip agencies.
MEYER FELDBERG, dean
of the Commerce Faculty at
the University of Cape Town,
took a poll of Fortune Maga-
zine's 500 largest corporations
earlier this year, from which
he concluded that "church or-
ganizations had been particular-
ly effective in their opposition."
Corporate executives here and
in South Africa have consistent-
ly declined comment on the ef-
fect of U.S. protests. But official
company statements leave no
doubt the sometimes violent tur-
moil in the apartheid country
the purse strings on apartheid
itself has left an indelible mark
on investment policy.
"Sooth Africa has been experi-
encing severe civil disturbanc-
es," a General Motors announce-
nent noted recently, 'the sin-
gle most important factor in
the creation of a more promis-
ing investment climate is a posi-
tive resolution of the country's
pressing social problems, which
have their origin in the apart-
heid system."
The most widely publicized
corporate response to date is
a "statement of principles" is-
sued in March by Ford and 11
other U.S. corporations pledging
equalized pay between the'
races, integrated eating and
working facilities and improved
training and promotion oppor-
tunities for blacks. One GM
board member, Rev. Leon Sulli-
van, pastor of the Mt. Zion Bap-
tist Church in Philadelphia, saw
the statement as a mark of
real progress.
"I AM TRYING to see if com-
panies can be moved to create
change," Sullivan says, "be-
chuse if that doesn't happen,
there is no justification for them
staying at all." Sullivan is GM's
first black board member.
GM has declared a freeze on
investment there until South Af-
rica resolves its problems "on
a basis which is just and equit-
able to all."
If the reasons for the invest-
ment decisions are not certain,
the effects are. The spring re-
port of the South African Re-
serve Bank - the equivalent
of the U.S. Federal Reserve -
showed that the net inflow of
funds dropped for $1.9 billion in
1975 to about $1 billion last year.
That report, combined with a
confidential Cape Town Univer-
sity study of U.S. corporations
that have considered leaving,
has spread measured panic
through the nation's financial
circles.
A NEW REGULATION effect-
ed April 1 by South African Fi-
nance Minister Owen Horwood
barred U.S. oil and auto com-
panies from repatriating profits
earned before January 1, 1975.
Explaining the goverhment's
new hard line on outside invest-
ments, one Johannesburg finan-
cial analyst said that U.S. af-
filiates had hiked the remission
Letters should be typed
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The Daily reserves the
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of their earnings to their parent
firms by 20 to 30 per cent. U.S.
direct investment there will
probably rise little if at all this
year, he said.
. David Rockefeller, speaking
to Chase Manhattan sharehold-
ers last month, declared that
his bank "should seek to avoid
business with identifiably harm-
ful results." Chase Manhattan,"
he said, had adopted "a lend-
ing policy which specificallyex-
cludes loans that, in our judg-
ment, tend to support apartheid
policies."
Dwight Watt, head of Union
Carbide's African operations,
acknowledged the - church
groups' impact on South African
policy. Testifying before a Sen-
ate committee last year he said
his company's "contacts with
Washington and with church
groups have increased our sen-
sitivity." Wait was explaining
why Union Carbide had estab-
lished a minimum wage for its
South African employes 25 per
cent above the poverty level.
For the ICCR's Tin? Smith,
such adjustments in working
conditions are "too little, too
late - an attempt to deflect
discussion from the real issue
- political power."
Many specialists on African
affairs agree that it muay be too
late for simply liberalizing
apartheid policies. Since violent
protests erupted in Johannes-
burg's Soweto township a year
ago, black resistance to any mi-
nority, white control has grown
steadily.
"We see the time horizon for
South Africa as very short," one
London banker explains, "for
once Rhodesia goes, it will be
South Africa's turn."
Reed Kramer .covers the State
Department and Embassy Row
for the Durham, N.C., Africa
News Service.
Editoriols and cartoons that
appear on the right side at
the Editorial Pave gre the
opinion of the a u t hor
artist, and not necessarily
the opinion of the poaer.
The Michigan Daily
Edited and managed by Students at the
University of Michigan
Friday, June 10, 1977
News Phone: 764-0552
Squeeze afruit for Anita:
An unfunny joke is over
AFETER WAGING a celebrity war against gay rights in
Dade County, Florida, Anita Bryant threatens to
briig the focus of her campaign to the national level.
Discrimination against persons whose sexual prefer-
ences differ from those of the status quo, however le-
gal' such discrimination may be, is not in the true
spirit of the law. All persons -- whether homosexuals,
women or members of minorities -- should be viewed
as equals in the eyes of the law.
But with an unjustified fear of the unknown, Bry-
ant and supporters typified homosexuals as abnormal
beings which are to be considered dangerous in an
unscrupulous campaign.
Bryant's alleged save the children campaign wants
to deprive certain individuals of their rights, and use
the laws and discrimination to curb sexual behavior
of which they may not approve.
That Bryant depicts herself as fit to act as the mouth-
piece of any supreme being and as adjudicator of human
behavior is beyond belief.
Ours is not a country predicated upon the propaga-
tion of the status quo, but rather, ours is a country
founded on individualism and dissent.
Bryant is overtly trying to deny that national heri-
tage and quash the rights of some individual dissent-
ers.
"Save Our Children," she says. Yes, let's,
Save our children from forced conformity.
Save our children from prejudicial attitudes.
Save our children from ignorance; fear and unfound-
ed discrimination.
But, most importantly, ave our children from the}
likes of Anita Bryant's "Save Our Children" Agency.
y- -
r
i
Letters to The Daily
min. wage hike
To The Daily:
The recent announcement that the amount
of income needed by a family of four to exist
at the poverty level has increased again points
up the urgency of increasing the federal mini-
mum wage for that segment of society known
as the "working poor."
They -are known as the "working poor" be-
cause they labor long and hard for the federal
minimum wage of $2.30 an hour - nearly 70
cents an hour below the poverty level. In most
cases these "working poor" earn less by work-
ing than if they did nothing and went on wel-
fare.
Others earn so little, even though they work
a full week, that their meager income must be
supplemented at taxpayer expense with welfare
payments. The AFL-CIO has proposed a catch-
up increase - the first since 1974, to $3.00 an
hour and future adjustments based on 60% of the
average factory wages. Congressman John Dent
(D-Pa.), has introduced legislation, H.R. 3744,
which would raise the mimimum wage of $2.85
and provide for adequate future increases.;
We would hope that all students would join
in supporting a meaningful increase in the mimi-
mum wage, and convey that message to their
congressional representatives. This increase would
affect many of us in our own summer employ-
ment. Others are calling for no increase at all.
or ,a meager increase which would -still leave
te minimum wage worker substantil'y ltV
what the government itself considers a pitt
wage level.
It is ridiculous that in this country thete is
some people who believe paying workers less that
a living wage is good for our country. It is ont
good for those who make a profit out of poverty
Forcing full time workers onto welfare wil
never solve anything and to prevent this fron
happening we- need a substantial increase in the
federal minimum wage.
The Executive Committee, GEO
reviewer reviewed
To The Daily:
I was considerably surprised to learn from
Susan Barry's review of A Thousand Clowns that
the production "lunged for laughs."
As a member of Thursday night's audience,
I can testify that the performance was greet-
ed with outright prolonged laughter borderingd 0
hysteria. Did I see the same show as that dis-
sected by The Daily's somber review?
I learned, by chance discovery, that I had
not! Reviewer Barry, I was told, saw 1000 Clowns
in dress rehearsal, without an audience. Isn't
that a bit unfair to a theatrical comedy?
The theater is a hot medium which doesn't
fully exist without an audience. It seems to be
particularly unjust of Ms. Barry to'not have men-
tioned in her review that she hadn't actually
witnessed the total event.
Dennis Norse