APARTHEID PROTESTS: Strike Up The Boycott

Since last summer, Charles Laquidara has interrupted his rock-‘n’-roll rap on Boston’s WBCN-FM to urge commuters to boycott Shell Oil. Pointing out that an affiliate of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group supplies fuel to South Africa’s army and police, the deejay has persuaded more than 1,000 listeners to cut up their Shell credit cards.

Laquidara won his biggest convert last week when Mayor Ray Flynn signed an order making Boston the first U.S. city to ban municipal purchases of Shell products. The move is largely symbolic: the city has done only $2,500 in business with Shell in two years. Calling the action “misguided,” a Shell spokesman said the company has been a strong antiapartheid voice in South Africa. Boston was joined by Berkeley, whose city council ordered a similar boycott of Shell.