University of Virginia Library

Students Choose To Extend Strike To Monday

Speeches, Discussions At Lawn Rallies
Change Movement Direction, Strategies

By Donn Kessler
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

Photo By Roger Holtman

Kent State Student Visits The Grounds

Rally Was Held Partly In Memory Of Seven Kent State Dead

Over 900 students attended two rallies
yesterday to limit strike issues, plan a
schedule of future events for the strike,
and to hear a list of speakers on the
situation in Cambodia and on other
university campuses.

The first issue discussed by the strikers
was the referendum to be held Monday.
Tuesday night Student Council voted
against having a referendum on the issues
of the strike but yesterday morning
Council received a list of 600 names
asking for a referendum on the list of
demands issued by the Virginia Strike
Committee.

According to the Council constitution
passed last semester, any petition signed
by 5 per cent of the student body for a
referendum forces the Council to hold
such a vote.

Ballot boxes for Monday's referendum will
be placed outside of all classroom buildings. In
addition, the Council is organizing students to
persuade people around the Grounds to vote in
the referendum. Poll watchers will be placed
around the ballot boxes.

Following the announcement of the
referendum, leaders of the strike committee
discussed the issues of the strike with the
audience.

King Golden, president-elect of the Law
School told the audience that he supported the
strike but felt it should be discontinued if "it is
continued to be led by those who have no
concern for student moderates or libertarian
ideals."

Open Meeting Cancelled

Mr. Golden stated that the leaders had
cancelled a promised open meeting of all
students at University Hall Wednesday night
because they were scared that the strike was
dying.

Bud Ogle, former President of Council, told
the audience that no open meeting had be
promised and that the alienation following the
speeches Wednesday night made the situation in
University Hall unsuitable for any meeting.

Tom Steele, a fourth yearman in the
College, then indicated that the strike needed a
unifying issue and that he "did not care what it
was as long as the strike still centered on the
Cambodian issue."

Arthur Waskow of the Institute for Policy
Studies in Washington spoke to the audience on
student demands.

Mr. Waskow stated that the war in Vietnam
and in Cambodia has "made people all over the
country realize that the rulers of the nation are
mad and that it is essential that the people must
become ran."

"These political debates in the student
strikes," he continued, "remind me of the
debates at New England town meetings where
people meet in solidarity to organize their own
ideas on changing their society."

Mr. Waskow also stated that the strikes
against the extension of the war in Southeast
Asia is spreading outside the universities. He
told the audience that the United Auto Workers
in Framingham, Massachusetts, are planning a
"sick-out" because "they are sick of the war in
Asia."

Teamsters Act

He also said that the Teamsters Union in
Boston were now recognizing student picket
lines at Harvard University.

Concerning Saturday's March in Washington
to protest the war, Mr. Waskow stated that the
students must be non-violent. "Some property
is so violent that it has no right to exist," he
said, "but Washington belongs to the people
and only after the whole community comes to
a decision on that property can any action be
taken on those institutions."

Bruce Wine, a fourth-year College student,
then told the crowd that he was "sick of the
rhetoric, sick over the numbers game, and sick
over the marches that are getting us nowhere."

Mr. Wine told the students that they must
get unified and stay behind the two issues of
Cambodia and Kent State.

Mr. Ogle then suggested that the strike
remain open-ended on its goals until the issues
are decided upon in Monday's referendum.

Students were invited to speak on the issues.

YAF Member Speaks

Chris White, a fourth-yearman and a
member of the Young Americans for Freedom,
stated that he felt that the strike was getting
out of hand and that the students should "cool
it." Mr. White indicated that someone had tried
to set fire to the Army ROTC supply room in
Old Cabell Hall Wednesday evening.

Following Mr. White, other students
indicated that the strike should be continued
on the Cambodian and Kent State issues.

After approximately ten students spoke to
the crowd a vote was taken concerning the
future of the strike. The students decided by
voice vote to continue the strike on the issues
of Cambodia and Kent State until Monday's
referendum.

The striking students then adjourned until
the afternoon. During the break, approximately