Leafleters Acquitted

Six leafleters arrested Monday while supporting a strike at Morgan Memorial, Inc., "Goodwill Industries," were acquitted of charges of "obstructing free foot passage."

One of the six, Laura Anker, from Brown University, was convicted of "accosting an officer with obscenity" and was fined $10.

Of the six arrested, three were Harvard students and one is a Harvard lecturer.

At the trial Tuesday, the arresting officer testified that the six had stood together to block the sidewalk and had made 50 people walk into the street. He also said that the striking drivers and helpers did not want support from the students.

Richard N. Boyd, lecturer on philosophy and one of those arrested, said yesterday, "We had been talking to workers all day and had asked them whether they wanted our help," Boyd said. "When we were arrested, we were spread over a block and a half in groups of two and three, and couldn't possibly have blocked the 15 to 20 foot wide Berkeley St. side-walk," he said.

"Though we think that militant, closed picket lines are sometimes necessary, for example to stop scabs, we wanted to stop people from entering Morgan Memorial only with political arguments'" Boyd said.

"The officer said that Laura called him a 'mother-fucking pig-cop,'" Boyd said. "She said that she had called him a pig, but that he had severely twisted her arm when she was arrested and had shoved her around," he said.

Others of those arrested said that their defense was almost purely a political one. They said that they tried to arrange their defense in such a way as to explain the political issues of the strike.

The drivers and helpers voted Tuesday almost unanimously in favor of rep- resentation by Teamsters Local 82. They went back to work, allowing the union to negotiate their specific grievances with Morgan Memories.

About the strike, Boyd said, "We had hoped they would stay out to win their demands while they were winning. We think hat now they've gone back to work, their chances of winning all of their demands are somewhat lessened.