eee | i ss releases and appeal have come out of. the iE put " a ochaekean Canoe Bloom and Adelstein, officers
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in this instance by the suspension o Te Cena Union. .These student leaders, by accepting a oes decision of the Union placed themselves at variance with the authori ° “The following excerpts are from a letter circulated by the "Committee of 34" on behalf of the LSE Student Union. After much debate, Union decided on Saturday to continue the sit-in and boycott. We deeply. resont being branded irresponsible, and hope in this letter to demonstrate why we. feel our course of acion is justified and necessery. under the circumstances, We began these demonstrations in response to the Board of Discipline's decision to suspend David Adelstein and }arshall Bloom for three months. We opposed and rejected these decisions on three grounds. 1) We as a Union were responsible for the vote that was taken on 31- January. it was consequently a clear case of victimisation to single out two individuals for trial and punishment. It was indeed their duty as our representatives to act as they did. 2) Even if they had be»n solely responsible for adminstering the vote, the precise point on which the decision was based was a highly technical consideration. After the appeel, the one remaining charge. -- that of having disobeyed an order of the Director -- was based only on the fact that they had tried to take a vote. They had not been ordered not to take a vote. But because one of the possible outcomes of this vote would have been a decision to enter the Old Theatre, which would have been such disobedience, therefore, ‘or this reason alone, they were suspended for three months. As the ccnvictions were based on such a technicality, the sentences imposed seemed highly exorbitant 2nd unjust. 3) The whole procedure, as well as the convictions, implied an attitude to students of singular disrespect. Both the Board of Discipline and the Appeal Bard were clearly structurally biased against us. Also, we saw that, while we are expected to have responsibilities within the LSE, our rights to free speech and assembly, as embodied in this challenge to the Director's order, were completely denied. These three considerations were fundamental in our minds as we began our demonstrations, and were indeed its causes. During the demonstration we have been making a great effort to communicate, both to the administration and the staff, our sense of urgency about these issues. This was indeed the central point of the sit-in and the boycott. On Tuesday, thirteen students began a ninety-six hour hunger strike. (mn Friday, the fact that over 1500 students from other universities supported us on the "Daffodil March" showed that the principles we were upholding were shared by students throughout the country. Also on Friday, Union officially sent a negotiating committee to discuss with these representatives of the Standing Committee of the Board of Governors our concern with these matters, and particularly to discuss possiblities for an acceptable compromise on the relevant issues. As the meeting began on Saturday, ir. Kidd arrived with a statement from Lord Bridges, the Director and himself. We were infromed that the decision of the standing Committee regarding the initial suspensions of Adelstein and Bloom will stand; that "They have never been, and never will be, a matter for negotiation." .
This announcement was greeted with cries of "Shame". Mr. Adelstein said that
"This is perhaps the most incredibly disturbing thing that has happened" Mr.
Zender of the Law Department commented that "Just at the very moment when the
whole situetion could conceivably be resolved, lir. Kidd's wretched little
statement has put the whole thing in jecnardy."
Union could not accept lr. Kidd's statement as final; nor, in the light of
the near total rejection of our three original points, could we accept as
final the findings of the Standing Committee. It was in the light of this
verdict. of the Standing Committee and the announcement by Mr. Kidd, that
the decision to continue the boycott and sit-in was made.