One hundred and three students came up on trial last Monday in Colchester, They were charged with offences ranging from obstruction to criminal damage. The Inter charge can carry up to a 15 year sentence. The charges arose from the long struggle that was waged by students at Essex University to defend their standard of living and their right to organise. Nearly all the charges came from an incident where over 400 policemen broke up the students picket in one of the largest scale battles ever on a picket line in the last year.
A fairly major event one would have thought. Particularly in view of the fact that the struggle hit the front page in every newspaper in the country for three weeks. Leading figures in the academic world foresaw it as the end of academic freedom and the leaders of the NUS swore that all their resources would be swung behind those militants who were leading the student movement in their stand against harassment and police repression.
When the trial came up the press went silent. Not surprising, as spotlighting another example of massive The union officials have stabbed police harassment of students so soon after the death of Kevin Gately is a bit too much for Fleet Street.
PICKET
There was a picket of students from universities and colleges all over the country - notably from Sheffield, Kent, Oxford, Norwich, London: a speaker from Doncaster NUM; a contingent of shop stewards and workers from the Sheffleld and mittee, and a speaker from Warwick University where Kevin Gately was a student. But not one of the demagogues from the NUS Executive, Communist Party or the International Socialist.
The small size of the picket was also a lirtle surprising until one was told by the militants present that the Broad Left' members of the Essex Student Union had done every thing conceivable to sabotage any mobilisation on that day — even to the extent of locking up the letters that were to be sent to various bodies in the labour movement, to try to ensure that they went out too late.
On 20 June a meeting was arrange with the sational officers of the TGWU, the AUER, ASTMS and the Sheet Metal Workers.
At a mass meeting the next day of HE NEATESTER KITECT members, the officials told the workers that if they did not accept the company's offer of 250,000 compensation, the unions would withdraw support. This was against the policy of mass meeting of strikers which had voted for a policy of all jobs back and no money compenSECT SCELES.
Faced with the attitude of their union officials a majority voted for accepting the offer. Local officials had Said they "were too busy to organise a lucal conference to build support for the strike. They were not howerer too busy later to put the knife in leading members were. The police no douht having in mied the Arrowsmith case, also closely questioned thom about asked whether they would incite troops to disaffect, and what they wouk say to a hypothetical wildier.
The TOM inteods to make a formal complaint to the police ahout this unwarranted harassment, and has also com tacted the Manchester Evering Newz. The TOM intends to Saflet Ancoats again on Tuesday 25 June, to show that we will not be intimidated by the police action.
Red Weekly, 97 Caledonian Road, N.I.
Pace g No thanks to the efforts of the NUS Executive and their co-thinkers in Essex University, most of the pickets received conditional dis charges on their charges of obstruc tion. Others were more unfortunate and will face trial by jury largely on criminal damage charges ly and the crisis in the police force contributed more to the release of those in the court than did all the 'efforts' of the Broad Left and the Rotherham Shrewsbury Defence Com- International Socialists. The forces of "law and order" have rather more on their plates at the moment than they can manage as far as relations with the stadent movement go.
in its coverage of this event it is only fuir to recall that the NUS Executive was nor totally unrepresented on Monday. Alistair Stewart, a member of NUS Executive and heavily tipped as the next president of the NUS was in Colchester, However in the manner beloved of NUS bureaucrats he found the hurly-burly of the picket line a little overpowering and was forced to spend his stay in Colchester in a local pub.
RAY BURNS Squatters at the Canal Flats, Harrow battle with police and bailiffs on - they were Among those on strike for thresholds are canteen workers at all Ford plants The strikes for threshold agree.