Reunions

Still Plugging Away

This time we weren't rallying on the Green or occupying the President's office. Last August about 40 former members of the Dartmouth Community for Divestment gathered around conference tables in the 1930 Room of the Rockefeller Center. After a full day visiting and sharing stories, the group was still buzzing.

I lev en years ago the DCD, an informal collective of students, professors, and community members, organized to compel the Trustees to divest the College's holdings in South .Africa. There were rallies, shanties in the middle of the Green, the sledgehammer attack on the shanties by members of The Dartmouth Review and the ensuing takeover of Parkhurst that forced a moratorium on classes to address racism.

Dodging smoke around the oil-drum stove between the shanties, in our classes and in our dorm rooms, we hashed out ideas about what drives political power, how ordinary people can influence authorities, about the ethical bounds on action directed toward righting injustice.

Around the tables in Rockefeller we discovered that we are still activists. Kim Porteus 88 worked for the Coalition of South African Trade Unions before her current job with a health project in South Africa. In London Rajiv Menon '86 worked for an organization that fought racism and now is a barrister in criminal defense and legal aid. Scott Nova 87 directs The Preamble Collective, a progressive think-tank in Washington, D.C. Kanani Kauka '88 edits The Lambda Book Report, a gay and lesbian book review.

In one way or another the issues that the DCD struggled with, not least the question of personal accountability, have remained a part of our lives.

For some protesters, blasts aren't just from the past.