Sullivan Principles Take 2: New Rules for South Africa

THE author of the Sullivan principles, which asked businesses to promote integration and equal opportunity in South Africa, has developed a new set of rules for those planning a return to that nation.

The Rev. Leon Sullivan led the drafting of the follow-up rules, which call for companies and other investors to be socially responsible in returning to South Africa. They also ask that their efforts be monitored by the public and government officials.

The Baptist minister from Philadelphia formulated the original Sullivan principles 17 years ago. He worked later to get businesses out of South Africa in protest of apartheid, the practice of racial segregation. Mr. Sullivan said Tuesday in Phoenix that the new rules represent ``sort of a sequel.''

The statement containing the rules says businesses returning to South Africa should provide equal opportunity, training, education, workers' rights, and nondiscriminatory working and living conditions. Consumer protection, environmental protection, and the support and empowerment of black businesses also are necessary, it says.

The statement was developed from discussions Sullivan had over the last two months with corporate and elected black leaders, as well as a representative of the African National Congress. Whither Confederate battle flag?

THE Confederate battle flag has been appropriated as a symbol of hate groups and should be removed from atop the state Capitol, Gov. Carroll Campbell (R) of South Carolina said Tuesday.

Governor Campbell said the battle flag should be moved to a Confederate soldiers monument in front of the Statehouse and be replaced on the Capitol dome with the Stars and Bars, the initial national flag of the Confederacy.

``The only reason I say that is the skinheads and the Ku Klux Klan and those have appropriated [the battle flag] as some sort of symbol for them, and I'm not real interested in associating with them,'' the governor said. ``But I am interested in the history of this state, and I'm interested in our heritage, and I think we've got to someway, somehow, got to try to deal with this problem.''

Campbell's remarks were his strongest to date on the issue. But state legislators, who have kept the flag flying over the Capitol since 1962, indicated his statement would have little effect on them. Legislators have taken no formal action on the battle flag this year, and just one Senate committee has even discussed the matter.

South Carolina is the only state still flying the battle flag over its Capitol. Alabama's flag came down last year. Georgia and Mississippi incorporate the battle flag into their state flags.