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Pickets in ever mounting numbers also appeared in front of South African consulates in New York, Chicago, Seattle and Houston. In Boston, some 80 members of TransAfrica, the umbrella organization directing the national movement, picketed the offices of Attorney Richard Blankstein, the honorary consul for South Africa. After a brief shoving match with police, three protesters gained entry to Blankstein's building and met with him. They emerged 24 minutes later with his signed resignation. In San Francisco, members of a longshoremen's union refused to handle cargo from South Africa carried by a Dutch ship until shipowners got a federal judge to order them to do so.
A significant addition to the ranks of traditional liberal protesters came last week. Indiana's Republican Senator Richard Lugar, incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican Senator Nancy Kassebaum, head of a subcommittee on Africa, sent a letter to Reagan urging him to speak out more forcefully against apartheid. They complained that the State Department had failed to attack "the evils of apartheid and the violations of human rights in a straightforward, understandable manner." In addition, 35 conservative Congressmen, including such New Right Turks as Georgia Republican Newt Gingrich, invited South African Ambassador Bernardus Fourie to Capitol Hill and gave him a letter threatening to support economic sanctions against South Africa unless there is "a demonstrated sense of urgency about ending apartheid." South Africa, they warned, cannot count on "benign neglect" by American conservatives of its racial policies.
The Administration sought to stem the rising tide by having Chester Crocker, Assistant Secretary of State for African affairs, explain the Administration's policy of "constructive engagement." Crocker complained that the policy, largely his creation, has been misunderstood. "It is not an embracing of any status quo," he said, adding that the U.S. has supported those black union leaders, students, clergymen and businesses seeking reforms in South Africa. The Administration contends that economic sanctions have rarely proved effective and could not be expected to have a great influence on such an embedded practice as apartheid. Jimmy Carter's more confrontational approach had also made little difference, they argue, so working on a friendlier basis with the South African government is well worth a try. The Administration claims to share the protesters' moral indignation, but it faces the practical problem of deciding how best to remedy a bad situation.