Local Merchants Yield to Demands Of YPSL Pickets

The Young People's Socialist League scored a major success in its picketing of grape sellers in the Harvard Square area yesterday. Superior Market and Nini's Corner both consented late yesterday to sign agreements promising not to buy California grapes until the strike has ended.

YPSL cancelled pickets at a third store--the Broadway Market--after general manager David Lichter denied that he had broken a previous agreement signed over two months ago.

Only two stores still stock the grapes in the Square--Sage Market and the Brattle Florist.

At the end of the day's picketing, Steven P. Kelman '70, president of YPSL, announced that "Harvard Square will be cleared of grapes by tomorrow afternoon."

Kelman admitted that there had been a "mix-up" in organizing the boycott and that no one had actually checked the Broadway shelves. "Apparently there are no California grapes at the Broadway," said Marcos Munos, Massachusetts co-ordinator of the grape strike.

Farnum Pollard, general manager of the Sage Market, said that he is still "neutral" about the strike and will consider the YPSL demands today when he meets with Kelman.

The owner of the Brattle Florist said, "I don't mind the pickets. But they're not going to come in here and tell me how to run my business. I am not afraid."

Kelman also called on Harvard students and employees to join with "several Boston unions" in a picket line in front of Holyoke Center at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 1.

"Harvard's purchase of California grapes contributes to the impoverishment and oppression of American farm workers," Kelman said, "and allows the growers to deny their employees the basic right of collective bargaining."

Only seven persons were involved in the picketing yesterday. Several customers were seen walking away from the Superior Market after pickets accosted them when they entered.

However, when Charles Martin, a teaching fellow in Government, asked one elderly German lady to shop at Cahaly's where the grapes have been removed, she crustily replied, "Cahaly's is way the hell up the street. That's out of the way."