page 10

At The Top
Mumblings

The executive, at its meeting of March 30, decided to have what would in effect be a boycott of lectures on Thursday, April 8.

This occurred through the artifice of certain executive members and other members of the association, and as a result of the amending motion put by President Tom Robins.

Early in the meeting, when the executive was ratifying decisions made at the two previous special executive meetings, Mr. Robins sucessfully amended the motion calling for a boycott "...within three weeks ..." of Friday March 26. The motion then read "... this executive expresses its firm intention to proceed with the proposed boycott at a date to be announced by Executive resolution...."

After three hours of discussion (and the passing of motions which appeared to these certain executive members to prejudice the Association's chances of ever having a boycott) the following motion was carried unanimously:

"That without prejudice to any other decision taken, this executive expresses its firm intention to hold a march to present student grievances and documentation to the Prime Minister and the Minister of Education on Thursday afternoon 8th April, 1965."

At approximately 1.30am the following morning this motion was passed:

"That the morning of Thursday, 8th April, 1965 be devoted to student social work in the city area. The organisation will become part of the duties set up under motion 151/65 and will entail seeking the active support of all members of VUWSA."

It can be seen that these two motions would have the same effect as a boycott: students participating in both the demonstration and the social work would not be attending lectures!

Mr. Robins, speaking to his amendment to the motion being ratified, said he did not believe that three weeks was sufficient time to prepare adequate documentation of the student case. He said that three weeks was too short a time to collect enough names for a convincing petition and to give the public time to recover from a hostile press.

He felt the Association should make the most out of the boycott by a gradual building up of pressure on public and government. He believed that this pressure should be climaxed by the boycott when executive deemed the time was right.

The opposition to Mr. Robins' amendment came from Alister Taylor, David Shand, Murray Boldt and Helen Sutch who all voted against the amendment when it was eventually put.

The change in plan was severely attacked by Alister Tayler and David Shand as another attempt to put off the boycott. David Shand said he believed that exec would be breaking faith with the decision of the SGM. He claimed "I do not believe that students will hold off the boycott indefinitely, which is in effect what the amendment means."

He said that all possible had been done to get the Government into action. "I do not believe deputations will get us any further. The Government is aware and it is not going to take action unless properly pressed."

Mr. Shand stated categorically that three weeks would be ample time to fully prepare all the documentation. He pointed out that all the ground work had been done in previous publications.

Shand concluded, "To delay matters an further, would make us guilty of procrastination, guilty of trifling with the decision of the SGM."

In one of his several replies, Mr. Robins said that exec would not be breaking faith since they would be using the boycott to the best possible advantage. "We should use the boycott for showing the public that the student; are concerned and are not having a boycott just for the sake of having a boycott."

The amendment was eventually passed by 7-4 and the main motion was passed 7-3.

Mr. Robins then moved a series of motions which in effect would have given him over-riding control of all phases of the boycott and other associated actions. Amidst strong protestations from many of the exec members, those were either defeated or amended.

It was shortly after this, that the motion concerning the march on April 8 was passed unanimously. At about 12.30am Mr. Boldt moved the motion concerning social work on the morning of April 8.

At this stage in the executive proceedings, members were stretched out across two chairs asleep and slumped in chairs while the President vainfully tried to keep order amongst the more vociferous and wide a wake exec members. At one point Mr. Robins lost control of the meeting to such an extent that he left the chair until order was restored of its own volition. Amidst mutterings the final motions were passed and the meeting was finally declared closed.