Socialists Protest Congo 'Murder,' Meet Hostile Students in Square

Eggs, taunts, leaflets, and near violence greeted a small band of Young Socialists Saturday afternoon when they demonstrated in the Square against the "murder" of former Congolese premier Patrice Lumumba.

The picketers ran into sharp, vocal hostility in the attempt to stir up sympathy for their cause. Marching down Massachusetts Avenue towards the Square, they met with cries from Wigglesworth Hall of "Go back to Moscow!"

A crowd of over 30 waited at the Square for the picketers. After the demonstrators turned the corner at Lehman Hall, the crowd pelted them with eggs, hitting Robert Shann, YSA chairman, squarely on the back of his head. Most of the eggs smashed harmlessly on the pavement, however.

After circling the Square, the Socialists found more trouble in front of Phillips Book Store. Nearly 50 students blocked the sidewalk menacingly. When the picketers tried to advance, Alex W. "Pete" Hart '62 quickly stopped them by ripping two signs.

Instead of resisting, the demonstrators waited patiently for police to arrive and clear the street. One girl screamed, "You can rip our signs, but just don't use your hands on us!"

The picketing continued with police protection for another half hour, drawing jeers and amused stares. Police finally ordered students in Wigglesworth to shut their windows and their mouths.

While the Socialists were passing out literature accusing the U.N. of permitting Lumumba to be "murdered . . . in the name of peace," several freshmen distributed a statement declaring: "that the Young Socialist Alliance makes this man (Lumumba) a martyr is comic indeed, but more than that, it is tragic."

Leader Attacks "Fascists"

Robert Shann, leader of the picketers and an M.I.T. graduate, stated "the article in the CRIMSON probably alerted these incipient Fascists to organizing." The nervous, tense, egg-bespattered Socialist charged the hecklers with "using Fascist tactics to suppress expression."

When questioned later, Hart, who will captain the Crimson football team next fall, said he had made no advance plans to clash with the YSA. "We were showing prospective football players around . . . and this sort of thing did not look good to us."

Commenting on the purpose of such a demonstration, Shann said his group "supports independence movements and wants to put its name down as the organization that took a stand" on the issue.