pee. Pert

Angela Davis (left) attends a press conference held by Billy Dean

Smith following his acquittal on fragging charges. Smith charged
Army with attempted frame-up because of his opposition to the war.

Civil rights battles
continue in the US.

The police murder of two
black students at Southern Uni-
versity in Baton Rouge Nov. 17
has been described as “crimi-
nal” by CPUSA national chair-
man Henry Winston. “It is a
logical extension of Nixon’s
Southern strategy and his
speech against permissiveness,”
Winston stated.

The students were part of a
sit-in at the university’s admin-
istration building protesting the
“plantation approach to educa-
tion” at the nation’s largest
black university. They were de-
manding reforms including im-
proved transit facilities, permis-
sion to sell their used books to
the campus bookstore and the
right to fly the Black Liberation
Flag — a right already granted
by the State Board of Education.

These demands were met by
200 armed police who fired a
10-minute barrage into the stu-
dent ranks killing two and injur-
_ ing several others. Guns, attack
dogs and tear gas was the
mayor’s meaning when he told
the press, “we are going to get
the administration back at any
rashes

ae * *

A military jury of seven offic-
ers found Pvt. Billy D. Smith
innocent of the ‘“fragging”
deaths of two Army officers in
Vietnam.

Smith, 24, of the Watts area
of Los Angeles, went on trial
nine weeks ago on charges of
setting off a fragmentation gre-
nade at an officers’ barracks at

Bien Hoa Army Base in Vietnam
on March 15, 1971.

The defense, in a seven-hour
closing argument called the
Army’s investigation “slipshod”
and the charge against Smith
“preposterous.”

Several major prosecution wit-
nesses in open court contradict-
ed testimony they had given in
pretrial © dispositions against
Smith.

According to the Army Times,
there have been 550 incidents of
fragging in the past four years,
including 86 deaths.

In 1971, 22 soldiers were con-
victed of such incidents, the
paper said, mostly in Vietnam.

* * *

A U.S. appeals court last
week reversed the convictions
of five of the Chicago Seven de-
fendants found guilty by Judge
Julius Hoffman of crossing state
lines to incite rioting during the
1968 Democratic convention.

The decision showed that the
attitude of Hoffman and the
prosecuting attorney alone
would justify reversal, but cited
other errors in jury questioning,
in not inquiring into the effects
of the news media and other
steps that would guarantee the
defendants a fair trial.

Defense attorney William
Kunstler said: “I felt from the
beginning’ that the judge and
prosecutor were deeply involved
in an attempt to convict these
defendants and I’m glad the
court of appeals finally said so,
too.”

Hill speaks at Lakehead

THUNDER BAY — Tom Hill
spoke about the 50th annivers-
ary of the USSR here at a meet-
ing in the Finnish hall where a
full-length film ‘““(Omena Putoaa”
(Apple Falls) was shown.

One of the grand veterans of
the Communist Party and the

Finnish workers’ movement in.

Canada, Tom Hill dealt with the
leadership given by the CPSU
in building the new society in
the USSR, fighting for peaceful
coexistence and assistance to
the anti-imperialist struggles.
He welcomed the continua-
tion of Finland-Soviet friendship
and mutual aid treaties, and the
participation of Finland in rally-
ing the all-European conference
on security and cooperation, and
denounced the chauvinist  in-
trigues of Chinese Maoist lead-
ership in the UN striving to line

‘ap ‘West’ European® “capitalist
against \'the 2:Soviet:
PAGIEFCTRIBUNE-HERIDAY, DECEMBER SD 1 L972 PAGE 4-

countries

Union and other socialist states.

Speaking of sacrifices made in
the workers’ cause he men-
tioned the murder of Finnish
Canadiari Communists and union
organizers Rosval -and~ Vouti-
lainen in the battle against
paper monopolies, which even-
tually moved the lumber work-
ers to a general strike move-
ment and forced the lumber
barons to negotiate agreements
with the union.

The pioneering work done by
the Communist Party has laid
down a program which will take
us on the road to socialism, he
said. The experience of the
Soviet people during 55 years
and the Leninist policies of self
determination of nations and
unity of nationalities expressed
in the USSR, is helping us to
solve our tasks in the national

~question in our-two-nation.coun-;
FED DT

tHe

eGht B20

try: uis

Communist leaders meet

Rich election experience

By JIM LEECH

Meeting in Toronto, Nov. 25-
26, members of the Central
Committee of the’ Communist
Party of Canada, party leaders
from the provinces and in
various fields of public activity,
among them many who were
candidates in the recent federal
election, shaped policy to meet
the immediate situation facing
the Canadian people and the
prospect of a new federal elec-
tion soon.

In confident mood, the meet-
ing heard Party leader William
Kashtan present the main re-
port, on the outcome of the Oc-
tober Federal Election and Tasks
of the Party; and speakers en-
riched it with experiences from
their own campaigns.

The analysis at the Party’s
November 1971 convention had
proven accurate, the report re-
called:

“What is qualitatively new is
that a polarization of class forc-
es cutting across party lines as
well as a fragmentation within
the traditional bourgeois par-
ties, is taking place in Canadian
political life. This process of
developing shifts and changes
creates a fluidity in Canadian
politics which suggests that the
return of a majority government
may be shortlived and that the
next federal elections may con-
ceivably return a minority gov-
ernment.”

No single factor. determined
the election outcome, the report
said, although economic and so-
cial policies of the government
were dominant. The implications
of the elections were, it said,
“a picture of a contradictory
process, a tendency to the right
as well as a tendency to the

left,” evidenced by Conservative -

gains and by an increase in
seats and votes by the NDP.
The Right-Left struggle thus ex-
pressed “will now be continued
in Parliament as well as outside
it's

Notable in speeches of dele-
gates was an enthusiasm born
of the vigorous election cam-
paign. Speaker after speaker
recounted the readiness of Can-

John Sweet, aldermanic can-
didate in North York’s Ward
One, has been active in
neighborhood groups for 22
years and served several years
on the Executive Committee of
the Metro Toronto Tax Reform
Council. He has promised to

that the costs of education,
hospital construction and wel-
fare should not be paid
through property tax...

tell the provincial government |

as eo ee i oy ey as

adians now to listen to Com-
munist candidates and_ pro-
posals.

There was every indication
that the Central: Corhmittee
members’ mood reflected ad-
vances back home, particularly
in the recruiting or activizing
of young people. From Edmon-
ton, Montreal, Ontario cities
and other places across the
country the on-the-move spirit
was present, though gains were
acknowledged as still modest.

“At no time since World War
II,” said Bill Ross, Party leader
in Manitoba, “have we had so
many opportunities to speak to
people and advance our Party
program.

“The action taken by com-
rades in Toronto, against the
media blackout opened doors
for us,” he said.

The pervading spirit of the
meeting on the electoral front,
was in favor of more Commu-
nist Party candidates in what
Wm. Kashtan called “the next
round.’? The selection of con-
stituencies and candidates was
voted immediate attention, with
a view to fielding double the
number that ran this year.

The report stressed the urg-
ency of the.struggle “to compel
the U.S. government to sign the
agreement with the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam.” It con-
demned the Nixon strategem to
continue the war with other
people’s hands; the U.S. “has
not given up its aim of impos-
ing a military settlement on the
DRV and on the peoples of Viet-
nam,” it charged.

“The struggle for peace is an
integral and important part of
the struggle against imperial-
ism,” said Jean Vautour, organ-
izational-secretary of the Cana-

dian Peace Congress, denoun®
ing the U.S. plot to leave be
hind in Vietnam the third large
est air force in the world, an
other military might.

With strong support from the
trade unionists present, the
meeting pledged the Party to 4
fight within unions and labor
bodies for the legal rights of
Communist workers.

The meeting determined 10
combat more vigorously ant
communism, anti-Sovietism a!
the poison of the ultra-left. The
main report stressed:

“In conditions when mond
poly capital and its henchmen
are doing everything in thelr
power to encourage opportun:
ist trends and tendencies amoné
working people, ideologic@
work by our Party is of major
importance.”

In deep-going discussion, the
meeting dealt with the resolu:
tion on building the Communist
Party, the Young Communist
League and the Party press, am
for much wider distribution °
the Canadian Tribune, Combat,
Pacific Tribune and Younes
Worker to plants, union halls
and meetings.

In two resolutions described
by speakers as “landmarks” 19
the work of the Party, the meet-
ing expressed its resolve 0
come to grips with the prob-
lems of immigrant workers, an
listed six facets of the work t0
be handled by sub-committees
newly decided upon.

Fittingly, in this 50th an:
niversary year of the founding
of the Union of Soviet Social-
ist Republics, the meeting g@V©
rousing approval to a state-
ment, presented by Tribune
editor John Weir, which greet
ed the Soviet anniversary.

“Spoedaup; nov, Fill; we'xe past. the: SeahS-2ci, ow?

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