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— page 6

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Probe demanded of racist firebomb

The Vancouver and District
Labor Council demanded Tuesday
that. attorney-general Allan
Williams instruct the RCMP and
Delta police to conduct a complete
investigation and to bring those
responsible for the racist firebomb-
ing in Delta Saturday ‘“‘to
account.”

A similar demand had earlier
been voiced by Communist Party
leader Maurice Rush who called on
the attorney-general’s department
to order a full probe of the
firebombing incident which
destroyed the home of Gurdev
Sidhu.

The fire was started Saturday
morning when a firebomb, made
up of a five-gallon container of
gasoline, was hurled through a
basement window. The eight
members of the East Indian family
sleeping inside _only escaped
because of swift action by
Balwinder Sidhu who heard the
window smashing and raised the
alarm. She later said that she saw
two men fleeing from the scene.

The Sidhu home had earlier been

the target of attacks and had been

compelled to install plexiglass win-
dows to prevent more breakages.
The attack was seen as part of a
growing pattern of racist violence
— and the labor council Tuesday

ILWU bars hardware to El Salvador

The International Long-
shoremen’s and Warehousemen’s
Union has declared it will boycott
all military cargo bound for El
Salvador.

“Our hope is that by thus -

dramatizing the tragic situation in
El Salvador and by refusing to be
Party to it, we can, in some small
| Way, assist in ending this nightmare
and in restoring security and
freedom to the Salvadoran
People,” Jim Herman, ILWU
President, said in a statement ac-
Companying the union’s boycott
decision, Dec. 24.

Immediately tied up by the
Ycott was a ‘‘substantial ship-
Ment’? of military equipment

located at Pier 30-32 at the San
Francisco docks.

‘Herman attacked the Carter ad-
ministration for continuing to pro-
vide ‘‘so-called riot control equip-
ment’’ to El Salvador when it had
said earlier it was severing all
military aid to the bloody regime.

“Our policy is in line with the
suspension of military systems
ordered by president Carter earlier
in December. But military aid,
which was authorized in the fiscal
year which ended September 30,
continues to be delivered.

“We believe that this is an eva-
sion of the stated policy of the U.S.
government and of the desires of
the American people.”’

The executive board of the

United Electrical, Radio and
Machine Workers of America
(UE), representing 165,000
members, also demanded that the
Carter administration cut all finan-
cial and military support to the rul-
ing government in El Salvador.

A statement unanimously en-
dorsed by the union’s executive
condemned the murders of more
than 9,000 people in El Salvador,
including six leaders of the nation’s
democratic coalition, the Revolu-
tionary Democratic Front (FDR),
U.S. nuns, trade union and peasant
leaders, a number of priests and
Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo
Romero.

Events in El Salvador ‘‘follow a
pattern of U.S. actions that. have

contributed to the suppression of
the democratic movements in
Guatemala, Chile, the Dominican
Republic, the Philippines, South
Korea and other countries where
the U.S. corporations and U.S.
banks have been deeply involved.”

An average of 30 political deaths
are reported in El Salvador daily,
following the recent reshuffling of
the government.

The appointment of a civilian
president, Jose Napoleon Duarte
was to quell worldwide protest
against U.S. aid to- the fascist
regime but the reshuffle only con-
solidated fascist elements in the
country by placing Col. Jaime
Gutierrez in full control of the ar-
my and the national guard.

laid the blame for at least some of it
on the provincial government for
its refusal to take decisive action
against racist incidents and racist
groups in the province.

The executive motion adopted at
Tuesday’s meeting, instructed the
council ‘‘to communicate with the
attorney-general that we believe his
refusal to grant permission to
charge the Ku Klux Klan under the
Criminal Code is creating a more
favorable climate for racists and
racist violence.”’

A-G Allan Williams has refused
to give his assent — necessary
under the provisions of the
Criminal Code — to charges
against the KKK laid by Delecia
Crump, a Black community leader
and chairperson of the Coalition
against Racism. Scores of ethnic
and other organizations have also
pressed Williams to allow the
charges to go ahead.

CP leader Maurice Rush cited
Williams’ refusal to give his assent
to the charges against the Klan and
warned that he could only ignore
the latest incident at the risk of fur-
ther violence.

He was also critical of Delta
police chief Doug MacCloud who
has repeatedly discounted racial
motivations in the firebombing in-
cident. ‘‘I don’t think we are seeing
any outbreak of racial violence in
Delta,” MacCloud said Sunday,
insisting that the attack was the
work of vandals.

“Those statements merely give
the green light to racists to continue
their attacks,’’ Rush charged, ad-
ding that the Delta police had not
taken action to stop the earlier
racist attacks on the Sidhu home.

“This is all the more reason why
the A-G should act.”

‘‘What happened at the Sidhu
home in Delta demonstrates that if
small racist attacks go unchecked
they lead to bigger attacks until
human life and property are
threatened,”’ he warned:

On Sunday some 300 people
marched outside the Delta police
station to protest the incident. On
Jan. 18 at 4 p.m., the East Indian
Workers Association will hold a
public meeting on the issue at the
Delta Community Hall at 4734 -
51st St. in Ladner.

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