Two decades ago, UW-Madison demonstrated an unwillingness to support atrocities against human rights when it divested funds from all companies assisting the apartheid institution in South Africa. Now, as the university implements a similar policy against government-backed genocide in Darfur, it is apparent that the current divestment movement in Sudan is not only similar to the one in South Africa, but in many ways a product of it.
In fact, the South Africa divestments of the '80s deserve partial credit for popularizing the idea that corporations should be held socially responsible for their investments, according to UW-Madison sociology professor Gay Seidman. Seidman, who was active in the anti-apartheid movement on a national scale, said back then companies seldom acknowledged their social liability.
""One of the things that the anti-apartheid movement had to do first was insist that there was an ethical side to corporate investments,"" Seidman said. ""That was the real hurdle to get over, and having got over that through the anti-apartheid movement, it's a lot easier for people working on Darfur to say, ‘Look, these investments matter.'""
The campaign for anti-apartheid divestment also helped those currently lobbying for Action in Sudan by providing them with certain lessons. Regent Charles Pruitt said he has seen many student groups model their proposals for divestment in Sudan after the South African experience.
Pruitt added strong historical evidence of the substantial influence of the anti-apartheid divestments demonstrated the power such actions can yield and further strengthened student proposals.
Though anti-apartheid divestments may have helped pave the way for divestments in Sudan, it is yet to be seen whether the current campaign will obtain similar success. The Darfur situation is difficult because in a country beset by internal conflict for decades, it has been difficult for foreign countries to formally accuse the Sudanese government of genocide.
""I think it's going to be harder to solve [than apartheid],"" said anthropology professor and Darfur-specialist Sharon Hutchinson, ""because you have a government which would basically prefer to see certain percentages of the population disappear, and yet the government is the one according to international law that's supposed to protect the human rights of its citizens.""
""It gets to a point where those two things contradict each other to such an extreme, that other countries in the world are thinking of interceding and attempting to protect those laws,"" Hutchinson continued. ""Yet the international community hesitates because of the notion of state sovereignty.""
She emphasized the importance of divestment by UW-Madison and other universities from Sudan, claiming it plays a critical role in raising awareness.
""What we need is a grassroots movement all around,"" Hutchinson said. ""[Divestment is] not a silver bullet by any means, but as these companies become aware that people are noticing the fact that they're making money off the situation in Sudan, they're going to have to clean up their act.""
According to Seidman, divestment has the potential to spark a grassroots movement against genocide in Darfur. When she began campaigning for divestment in South Africa in the '70s, little was known about apartheid. Soon the movement took off, and by the early '80s everyone was discussing the issue.
As for the university's decision to divest, Pruitt said the action is rare. He said the regents are approached by many groups lobbying for divestment in various countries for a variety of reasons, including a recent grassroots movement lobbying for UW-Madison's divestment from interests in Israel. According to Pruitt, almost all of the groups are denied the ability to divest, either because there is more than one side to the debate or because the board feels divestment will not substantially affect the situation.
""In this case we felt that the case was so clear,"" Pruitt said.
""Keep in mind, there's no dispute that genocide is going on,"" UW System Board of Regents President David Walsh said. ""There's an ethnic cleansing going on and we don't approve of it.""
It is still unclear whether the divestment of UW-Madison and other universities in Sudan will be as successful as the anti-apartheid divestments in South Africa in the '80s, but awareness of the Darfur situation at least appears to be growing among students.
""Many students don't know the details of what's happening, but once they do learn about it, they show tremendous concern,"" political science professor Scott Stauss said. ""I think Madison students have been really admirable in their concern about Darfur.""
