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Bringing a message from their imprisoned father,
Maria-Victoria Corvalan (left) and her sister Viviana, told a press conference in Moscow earlier this month
that their father, whom they have just visited, ““wished to express the deepest gratitude to the Soviet people

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for their solidarity with the embattled Chilean people.”

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Chilean Communist Party leader Luis Corvalan,

—TASS photo

Youth under Chile’s junta

Two-and-one-half years after the
coup of September 11, the young
people of Chile face acute suffering
under the fascist government.

Macerial gathered by the World
Federation of Democratic Youth
and published recently by its in-
ternational department reveals the
scope of that suffering that extends
from pre-school children through
those entering university and
young workers.

Even the rightist quarterly, El
Mercurio, noted in an editorial last
year that 50 per cent of all Chilean
children are afflicted by under-
nourishment in one form or
another.

Although the national debt in-
curred by the military junta is
mo ethan $400 million, the defence
budget for 1975 was -increased
substantially and exceeded the
combined amounts allocated to
health and education by 20 per
cent.

Repression against the Chilean
people has also reached un-
precedented levels as 95,000 people
continue to be detained, held in one
or another of 63 concentration
camps throughout the country.
20,000 have already been mur-
dered. -

Subject to particular repression
by military authorities are the sons
and daughters of Popular Unity
leaders, many of whom, like Luis
Corvalan, are themselves held in
prison camps.

In October last year Luis Alberto
Corvalan, son of the imprisoned
Communist leader, died in exile in
Sofia, Bulgaria as a result of in-
juries sustained during his im-
prisonment and torture in Chile.

Film salutes

Luis Corvalan:

Romen Karmen, a leading Soviet
documentary filmmaker has
recently completed a film on the
life of Chilean Communist Party
leader Luis Corvalan, imprisoned
since the fascist coup.

Entitled The Heart of Corvalan,
the 1-1/2-hour documentary in-
cludes in its footage, the story and
graphic sketches of Miguel
Launer, a former inmate of the
Dawson Island concentration
camp who spent eight months in
the same cell with Corvalan.

The film premiered in Moscow
January 15 and director Karmen
said it would be available for
showings abroad before long.

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Martin Elgueta, 21-year-old son
of the prominent Socialist Party
leader, also died in prison in Chile
after brutal torture.

Wherever repression has not
reached young people in Chile,
unemployment has, as the number
of jobless in the country reached
three million in 1975 — more than
20 per cent of the work force. In
many working class areas, the
percentage is much higher — an
estimated 40 per cent — with the
vast majority under 30 years of
age.

University education has also
suffered with the junta passing
several decrees bringing the once
autonomous universities under
military rule, facilitating control of
the student population. The
numbers of students have shrunk
to a fraction of what they were
under the Popular Unity govern-
ment as a result of soaring costs
and stringent screening.

Although 130,000 young Chileans
applied to enter an institute of
higher learning in 1975, only 40,000
were accepted. In the same year,
30,000 students had to abandon

their studies because of the
prohibitive costs.

The participation by Chilean
amateur athletes in international
sport has also brought the policies
of the regime into the world arena.
Where Chile has been able to
muster competitors, most have
complained of the terrible con-
ditions.

“Tt’s impossible to practice this
sport in Chile today because you
need adequate food;”” Luis Alberto
Ramirez, captain of the Chilean
cycling team, reported. ‘‘It’s
impossible to live in that hell. My
fellow cyclists have disappeared.”

Several Chilean athletes
defected during the Pan-American
games held in Mexico last October.

Lillian Vasquez, a member of the
Chilean junior table tennis team,
reported that she was only able to
eat properly when she went to the
championships in Colombia where
the Olympic Committee entitled
her to a sandwich and a “‘glass of
milk or coke.”

“But there’s nothing to eat at
home,”’ she told the Chilean daily,
La Tercera. “‘My father has been
unemployed for five months.”

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wing

By MIKE GIDORA

Emulating

Is there any reason that the
Western Caiiada Hockey League
should be allowed to continue
operations? Its recent history
suggests not.

In past years, the WCHL, a Tier-
One junior hockey league with
teams in the four western
provinces, provided hockey fans in
towns such as New Westminster,
Lethbridge and Flin Flon with an
entertaining brand of hockey.
Recently, the WCHL has become
more of a demolition derby ‘on
skates.

A brief glance at the league’s
past three weeks’ activities reveals
that since February 4 two team
coaches have been suspended,
either for being unable to control
their teams while on the ice, or for
physically assaulting game of-
ficials. One coach, Ernie McLean
of the New Westminster Bruins,
has been suspended twice for a
total of seven games in that period

‘of time.

A whole number of players were
suspended in that same period of
time, again for either assaulting
game officials or for instances of
“excessive violence.”

Since February 4, there have
been two particular cases of total
savagery involving WCHL teams,
either one of which would serve as
enough justification, in this
writer’s. view, to suspend the
operation of the teams involved for
the duration of the season.

On February in New West-
minster, Bruin forward Allen
Fleck beat Gord Blumenschein of
the Winnipeg Clubs so severely
that he had to be helped from the
playing surface, his face nothing
more than a bloody pulp. This was
not a fight, which is bad enough in
hockey but still somewhat ac-
cepted, but an assault, pure and
simple. Blumenschein offered no
resistance, did not try to retaliate
and only sought to protect himself
from the hail of punches that Fleck
delivered. For his part, Fleck was
roundly cheered by both his
teammates and the New West-
minster crowd.

Fleck was suspended for 10

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Facing with declining membership with its singers busy in a host of other fields, the labor choir, Union Train,

has reluctantly announced its dissolution. Formed September, 1974, the group’s talents were in constant

demand over its short history at trade union conventions, meetings and celebrations. It was also a feature at

The Tribune’s 40th anniversary concert last year and although it won’t be singing for the paper again, one of

the last decisions made by the group’s remaining executive members was to turn the contents of its treasury
over to The Tribune for the upcoming press drive.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 27, 1976—Page 10

—Carey Robson photo

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the NHL?

games for his effort whil@
Blumenschein went to the hospital ji
But still, the most disturbing)
aspect of this incident, other thal)».
the brutal beating which was) ~
administered, was the respons?
from Bruin coach Ernie McLeall
who felt that the suspension was Su
too severe.
McLean also said that he didn! !
think that the incident would alte!
the Bruins’ well known rough style |
of play. ‘‘People come out to see us
play the way we do, and they like
it. Why should we change?’’ he
said.
_ The other incident took place last
week in Saskatoon. A game bel |
ween the Saskatoon Blades and
Victoria Cougars was interrupt
for nearly one hour due to a braw))
on the ice. Three Saskatool a
players were hospitalized, one with
serious eye injuries, and two othels
with concussions. A_ fourth th
Saskatoon player was cut for #|
stitches during the fight. be
The aftermath of that game sal
the Saskatoon city council close tht
city-owned arena for Sunday®
scheduled rematch, forcing cal!
cellation of the game. ;

These two events aré lt aA

unrelated, nor are they isolat
incidents. A review of all hocké)
summaries involving WCHL team te
from B.C. since February 4 point py
out that in only one of those gam@
was therenot a major fight. Why ® w
this so? th

Quite simply put, the whol
concept of a league such as W
WCHL can provide nothing els¢ yw:
The WCHL is a_ busines at
proposition. All of the teams al B,
owned privately. They all charg! yy
fairly steep admission prices, all”
they draw crowds averaging aboul
2,500 per game. To stay in busine
they have to draw the crowds, all
the players are under pressure
do so.

Players of junior age are als
trying to attract a professiom
contract and to do that, in th
times anyway, it appears that yo
have to have a great left hook
anybody can learn to skate afte!
they’ve signed a profession4)
contract: |

What is the alternative availabl)
to curb the direction of the WCHL) |
The one suggested by th!
Saskatoon city council — close tht
buildings the games are played i!)
Revoke the city business licens
the teams operate under. Hd
team owners and managemél
responsible for the actions of thé
teams on the ice by levying hea
fines and lengthy suspensions W
the owners and operators of a
teams. Lay assault charges C

a

counselling-to-assault chargé
against team owners and coach
whose teams are consistent
involved in assassination sty
hockey. And finally, suspend th
operations of entire teams W
thrive on violence.

In short, make teal
managements aware that they 4
ultimately responsible for wh
occurs on the ice, and that they ¥
pay for it.

To those that feel that such #
terference in the operations 0
hockey league by city 4
provincial officials is
warranted, remember, if th
WCHL had to operate by the sa”
rules that movie theatres i
nearly every game would carry 4
warning ‘‘frequent scenes
violence and brutality.”

Would that be hockey?

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