The Strike Steering Committee, in a closed meeting, voted 17 to 12 last night to take militant action against the CFIA on Wednesday. This action came even though students at a mass meeting, sponsored by the committee, voted Sunday night for open meetings and action directed primarily at national, not University, tangets.

There will be no mass meeting to consider last night's decision. The Committee will "educate" its constituents at "teach-ins" today.

No Directives

The committee yesterday stated, "If we as a committee receive directives which undermine the pursuit of the four demands, we will consider this contrary to the original purpose of the strike and the nature of the Strike Steering Committee."

The implications are clear. The majority of the Strike Steering Committee members consider their only mandate to be the implementation of the four original demands. They fear that members of the Harvard community are hampering the committee's efforts to implement these demands in their desire not to strike against the University.

It appears that the Strike Steering Committee considers the mass meetings to be a powerless debating forum serving an advisory function.

NEWS ANALYSIS

The Committee chose to accept the advice of the Thursday mass meeting and sanction militant picketing in support of paying workers on strike. On Sunday night, in contrast, it chose to disregard the meeting's resolutions.

The divisive question lies with the interpretation of the Strike Committee's mandate. If the mandate of the Committee is only the implementation of the four original demands, the committee is acting fairly.

If the mandate is subject to re-interpretation and re-direction by thecommittee's constituency at mass meetings, the committee has acted irresponsibly by betraying its constituency.

The problem rests with the original passage of the demands. Many people voted for the demands, yet feel the strike should not be directed against the University. This is an internal contradiction, and it is splitting the strike.

People who voted for the original demands are new voting against militant picketing. Furthermore. non-strikers who are obviously not constituents of the Strike Committee have also voted at the meetings.