PALC, Afro to Prepare Rebuttal to Farber Study

Representatives of the student groups which were responsible for last Spring's protests against the Gulf Oil Corporation last night expressed strong disapproval and disagreement with the report on Gulf and Angola that Stephen B. Farber '63, assistant to President Bok, issued yesterday.

The Pan-African Liberation Committee (PALC) and Afro, the two groups which led last year's protests, said that they will release a "rebuttal" to Farber's report next week.

Although spokesmen for both groups were hesitant to detail their disagreements with the study prior to release of the rebuttal, they said they felt Farber's report represented no change from the past position of the University.

Prefer Collective Statement

Spokesmen for the groups said they wished to remain unidentified. They said they preferred a collective statement instead of individual responses, and needed more time to study the 11,000-word report.

Last April, protests by PALC and Afro culminated in a week-long occupation of Massachusetts Hall to demand that Harvard sell its 700,000 shares of Gulf stock.

The protesters said that in holding the stock, the University was supporting Gulf, which they said aids Portugal in maintaining colonial rule over Angola.

Farber's report -- the result of a four-week trip to Angola this summer -- concluded that Gulf was unimportant to the continuation of Portuguese rule in the colony, and the effect of Harvard's selling its stock would be "extremely limited."

'A Symbolic Act'

Farber said that selling the Gulf stock would be "a symbolic rather than a practical act," and would "appear to have no practical effect in advancing the independence of black Angolans."

Farber's conclusion that a withdrawal of Gulf from Angola would have little effect on Portuguese policies toward its African colonies was based on his assertion that neither the oil that Gulf produces in Angola nor the revenues that, it brings the Portuguese government had been a major factor in Portuguese decision-making.