Coalition Starts

Leaders of 7 national labor unions joined with faculty and students to form an alliance Wednesday night at the Harvard Faculty Club. Their first act was to issue a statement condemning the current invasion of Laos, and calling for a complete withdrawal of all American forces from Indochina.

The "Labor-University Alliance," which seeks to create a large political constituency from the ranks of labor and academia, will try to initiate basic political and economic changes within the U. S.

The establishment of the organization brings to fruition efforts towards such a grouping begun last August by George Wald, Higgins Professor of Biology.

Labor representatives at Wednesday's meeting included Leonard Woodcock, president of the UAW; Harold Gibbons, international vice president of the Teamsters; Howard Samuel, of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers (AFL-CIO); James Matles, of the United Electrical Workers; and John Hein, assistant to the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Workers (AFL-CIO).

In addition to making public their opposition to the war, the labor-university group issued "A Call to American Workers, Faculty and Students."

"We believe that the time has come to open a means whereby pro-

gressive elements in the universities, among both faculty and students, can begin to work together with progressive elements in the labor movement to achieve common social and political objectives," the statement said.

The alliance is trying to recruit a general secretary, who will be employed full-time. The funding for the group's activities will come initially from the unions, since, Wald said, "they are the only ones who right now are in a position to finance something as big as this." Subsequent funds are to come from annual dues paid by individual members.

Gibbons suggested that a membership of 100,000 students and workers was not an unreasonable target for the newly formed organization.

Wald said that "a major objective of the alliance is to weld a constituency that can operate politically on a package of political and social issues. And the time will presumably come when we will back candidates who back those issues."

Wald said that the "Labor-University Alliance" is in contact with John Gardner's "Common Cause," and indicated that the two groups will be working together on at least some issues. But, Wald added, the two groups are not duplicating efforts. "We are talking to a different constituency. I doubt that Common Cause is dipping very deeply into labor unions or students for their membership," he said.