Dons' Mass Pay Protest

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As we go to press, six of them, including a 14-year-old boy, remain custody, where they have spent the past four weeks, charged with robbery.

In arguing against bail, the police have announced their intention to swoop again, a môve which the release of the other youth • might, they claim, hinder.

Two of those arrested are members of the Lewisham 21, all of whom are still awaiting trial on a bewildering variety of charges, including conspiracy.

The midnight visits of police are only the most spectacular aspect of "legal" intimidation.

Minor charges

By a conservative estimate, some 50 or 60 Lewisham youth are waiting to come The lobby of Parliament by members of the Association of University Teachers on Wednesday, 16 November, succeeded beyond the wildest dreams of its leaders.

Seven thousand dons, many of them clad in gowns and mortarboards, converged on Westminster in support of their "demand" for higher pay.

Indeed, so many queued up to hear AUT Secretary Laurie Sapper's rousing call to "Rectify the Anomaly" that he was forced to hold a second show.

It may be that the spectre of professors on strike does Dons aress up for their protest not make the Government quake in its boots.

Not a word was uttered against the savage effects of cuts in education spending.

The only concern of the bureaucrats-and, it must be admitted, of many "rank and file" AÚT| members-is to persuade Minister for Education Shirley Williams that a hefty rise for the dons does not really break the pay policy, since it was promised before Phase I.

The main anomaly needing "rectification" is the AUT's widespread elitism and complete refusal to fight shoulder-to-shoulder with non-academic and student umons in defence across the board of the education system.

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PHOTO: Laurence Sparbam, IFL PHOTO:

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