Internal Differences, Resignations Weaken Group Heading Strike

Weakened by massive resignations and seemingly at odds with the majority of strikers, the Harvard Strike Steering Committee now faces an uncertain future.

The committee has ceased to hold regular meetings and will meet in the future only when Strike Headquarters feels the need for a decision by the committee. The group had scheduled a meeting for last night but it failed to begin when most of the committee's present members didn't show up.

About half of the committee has now resigned. The crisis in the committee began after last Sunday's mass meeting. The majority of students at that meeting voted that strike tacties should be "non-violent" and moved that the University should serve as "a base, not as the primary target of the strike."

Mandate Ignored

Since students at the first mass meeting had voted to demand pay for all striking University workers. an end to University complicity with the war, and an end to political repression-which has been interpreted to mean an end to the CRR-many members of the committee felt that the vote at Sunday's meeting went against their mandate to work for all four strike demands.

At 3 a. m. Monday, the Strike Committee, with only one member dissenting, issued a statement in which it called the Sunday vote "contrary to the original purpose of the strike." The committee stated that it would therefore essentially disregard the vote at the Sunday-night meeting and continue to organize obstructive and non-obstructive actions against the University.

Then, on Monday night, the committee voted to support a militant demonstration at the Center for International Affairs.

CFIA Dispute

When the committee met again on Tuesday night, many members objected to the planned CFIA demonstration and the Monday-morning statement as counter to the wishes of the majority of strikers. During the meeting, five or six members walked out.

Before the walk-out, the committee rejected a motion to dissolve by a vote of 17-11, with six abstentions. But, after the walk-out, it approved a statement calling on all committee members "to return to their constituencies for discussions of their role and that of this committee, and for new elections where necessary." The committee also voted to call off plans for militant action against the CFIA and to hold a peaceful mill-in instead.

The committee's Tuesday-night statement declared that the group was still needed to implement "many actions which can and must be implemented only by this body." The statement also announced that the Strike Headquarters "will continue to coordinate activities in support of the four demands and will continue its intra-and extra-University information dissemination."

But it recognized that there are deep slits within the committee which "reflect deep splits within the entire striking community" and acknowledged that the Strike Committee "cannot fulfill all needs of all strikers."

This inability has led to a crisis of confidence within the committee. Without a broadly-accepted sense of purpose, the committee's future is uncertain.