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MacDonald cites key NEW INDICTMENT FOR 91

tasks facing labor

A fightback against the employers’ attack on labor, action
to provide jobs and labor political action to defeat introduction
of anti-union legislation are “the three key tasks facing us to-
day,” .Dona]jd MacDonald, secretary-treasurer of the Canadian
labor Congress, told 350 delegates attending the B.C. Federa-
tion of Labor convention here this week.

Some MacDonald quotes:

Attack on labor: “This cam-
paign, evil in conception and
even more evil in its imple-
mentation, can be defeated if
we utilize otr collective
strength and ability to bring
home the true story of labor to
the public.”

Unemployment: “Last March
there were 883,660 jobless —
an indictment of the economic
system under which we live.
One of labor’s main responsi-
bilities is to organize the un-
organized.”

Political action: “Through
their legislative monkeys and
minions and lackeys, employ-
ers are trying to achieve re-
strictive legislation to ham-
string labor.

“We are determined they
shall not succeed; come hell
or high water. Political action
on our part is essential.

“The CLC laid down a policy

in April, and we hope all pro-
vincial federations will ‘sup-
port this policy. Not to be-
come an appendage to a_poli-
tical party — I would fight
against this to the last drop
of my blood — but I do be-
lieve there ig a way and a
means to be free and independ-
ent and to create a true poli-
cical vehicle to serve the best
interests of the labor move-
ment and Canada as a whole.”

Fall-out affects birds

LONDON-—Radioactive fall-
out from H-tests may be caus-
ing abnormal changes in _the
plumage of migrating birds, in
the opinion of British zoolog-
ist Dr. A. J. Marshall. Many

birds are arriving south, in -

summer instead of normal
winter plumage and some have
been found to be radioactive.

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Mass treason trial
collapse in S. Afric

awn the indictment against 91_men and

CAPETOWN—The government has withdr ;
but with a threat to draw up a new indict

men in South Africa’s two-year-old treason trial,

Meantime the Pretoria court stands adjourned.

Though the accused are still not dicharged and can still be re-indicted, this: marks a ma
setback to the Verwoerd government's attempts to crush opposition to_ apartheid by

means.

The withdrawal on October
13 followed 18 days of court
arguments on procedure. When
I. A. Maisels, QC, opposed the
prosecution’s application for
amendments to the indictment,
Judge Rumpff said that ap-
parently the attorney-general
“did not consider the impli-
eation of allegations of treason
in peacetime.”

The trial began in Decem-
ber 1956 when 156 people were
arrésted in dawn raids in a
mass attémpt to intimidate op-
ponents of the government

From that time the pro-
ceedings have been marked by
growing world-wide opposi-
tion and the increasing diffi-
culties of the prosecution with
an indictment the defense
described as ‘‘vague, contra-
dictory, embarrassing, prejudi-
cal and unintelligible.”

The - hearing lasted! over a
year. The- prosecution pro-
duced some 12,000 documents
—ranging from the UN Dec-.
laration of Human Rights to
a book of Russian recipes. Its
evidence ran to some 2,500,000
words.

* Purpose of West German
President Theodor Heuss’
visit to Britain is to reconcile

the British people to the pros-
pect of a Germany army equip-
ped with nuclear weapons.
Heuss is the man who signed
the Paris and Bonn treaties in
1955 creating a new German
Wehrmacht officered by many
of Hitler’s generals.

DECEMBER 1957: The prose-
cution withdrew its allegations
against 61 of the accused.

JANUARY 1958: One of the
prosecution’s witnesses who al-
leged the accused planned, an
organization on Mau Mau
lines, admitted he had lived
by “cheating, fraud and lies.”

The remaining 95 accused
—58 Africans, 17 Whites, 18
Indians and two Colored—were
committed for trial. They
pleaded not guilty to the main
charge of treason.

This alleged they had been
preparing (between 1952 and
1956) to overthrow the gév-
ernmenteby force and set up
a Communist ‘or some other
state.” There were two al-
ternative charges under the
Suppression of Communism
Act. :

FEBUARY 1958: Treason al-
legations against J. Lee-Ward-
en, an M.P., and two Indians
were withdrawn.

JULY 1958: The govern-
ment put a bill through par-
liament to enable a Special
Criminal Court with three

Togliatti speaks of |

ROME — Italy’s Communist
leader, Palmiro Togliatti, last
week described the late Pope
Pius XII as “one of the out-
standing figurés of the epoch”
who battled through his reign
with the passion of a man
who saw defeat looming ever
nearer.

Writing in the Communist
daily Unita, Togliatti said:

“Mixed with passion there
was also the strange, uneasy,
but continuous search for a
wide if superficial contact with
the most diverse aspects of
modern life.

“It expressed itself particu-
larly in the speeches, dedi-
cated to the most surprising
themes, delivered to all sorts
and categories of people, and
not always profound in their
content.

“Were they not the effort
of a man who felt deveolp-

October 24, 1958 — PACIFIC TR

judges and no jury to wy i
the accused. ,
AUGUST 1958:
proper began in a fo
synagogue in Pretoria
after defense objections
of the judges, Justice JO
Ludorf, withdrew
African aécused
charged on medic wl
During August and Sep oe.
ber, ‘the two charges vit
nl
(

The tle
pel

the Suppression of Com!

hism Act were dropped at
was the claim that the Pas
cused had acted in Clim
and with common purport) t
Prosecutor Oswald Pu
told the court: “If the re
fails to prove a conspiracy ©
accused could go free” i :
In Britain a campalgt i. 4
j
|

which the Labor Party: ae
ing Christian figure Tn ‘
men, artists. and MPs aise’ }
, joined, has already 5s
some $175,000. “pal
A recital‘ given DY cath |
Robeson in St. Pauls ed
edral earlier this month a |
$950 for the defense ga |,
from a congregation °~ mere

oe hh
ments slipping out ©
trol and tried by

|

Pop Pius, said rogliat oe j
rected his most vi0le™ mul 1
against Communism, ¢ fhe i
so that ‘the divisio® itabl? r
world ‘into two ite :
camps became almos’ ord |
of principle in his ave i

“Thus his really ane ‘
appeal in 1959 for cat?

demnation of ator” ice!
could have no r a
fect.” th
“ . wl |i pe }
Pope Pius cided ;

. os ne
capitalist countre cot
farthest from *, Waoij
vision of the WF. in Mn ||
it is the Communls ’ are P |
of everything, wigs BO gil
the road which le : Fi
Togliatti said. : face
are renewing the
earth.” pase