Friday, July 23, 1976

20°

VOL. 38, No. 29

iSUINE

Thirty-three protesters were arrested outside the Toronto Cricket Club

“On July 10 when a demonstration was held against the visit of a South

African team. Included among those arrested was Canadian Tribune
feporter Jackie Greatbatch. Top photo shows the anti-apartheid
demonstration. Below, protestors lie on cricket pitch, halting the game,
While South African players (in background) and police wait for

Paddywagon.

‘Peltier is target’
AIM leaders warn

In a statement issued this week
by the Leonard Peltier Defence
Committee in Vancouver. attention
is drawn to the recent acquittal of
two of Leonard Peltier’s co-
defendants on charges of murder
stemming from a shooting incident
in South Dakota’s Pine Ridge
Indian reservation on June 26, 1975.

Robert Robideau and Darrell
Butler were freed after an attempt
by the U.S. government to convict
these two members of the

American Indian Movement for:

the death of two FBI agents who
died in the course of a shoot-out. As
yet, no one is being held or charged
with the death of Joseph Stuntz, a
native resident of the Pine Ridge
reservation who was killed in the
Same incident.

The jury, sitting in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, found the two men
not guilty after having heard

testimony of FBI misconduct in _

their investigation, including their
coercion and intimidation of
prosecution witnesses. One wit-
ness, William Draper, presented
testimony fo the jury to the effect
that he was picked up by the FBI in
Arizona for investigation and held
Strapped to a chair and _in-
terrogated for four hours. He
testified that the two co-defendants
were present on the reservation on
June 26 only after being threatened

by the FBI that he himself would

face murder charges if he refused
to cooperate. -

FBI director Clarence Kelley
contradicted himself by calling the
American Indian Movement both.a
“subversive” organization and an
organization with ‘‘fine goals.’’ He
said that FBI agents
helicopters and fixed-wing air-

"ie

with |

planes patrolled the reservations
and that FBI agents were issued
automatic weapons, bullet-proof
vests and army-type clothing.
The Vancouver Defence Com-
mittee says the acquittal of
Robideau ‘and Butler leaves the
U.S. prosecutors with just two
more AIM members on whom to
place the blame for the alleged
murders. One is Jimmy. Eagle,
who was, up to the last moment,
tried with the two acquitted AIM
members. Eagle awaits trial in
see PELTIER pg. 8

Fed parley meets

a

Pledging full support for the
Canadian Labor Congress’ plan for
a nationwide work stoppage to
protest the federal government’s
wage control program, 250
delegates representing about
230,000 organized workers meeting
at the call of the B.C. Federation of
Labor at a special parley Tuesday,
urged all affiliates and = labor
councils to appoint committees to
prepare for a work stoppage.

After.hearing CLC president Joe
Morris Tuesday morning, and
speeches by BCFL president
George Johnston and secretary-

-treasurer Len Guy, the parley

adopted a resolution which said:

‘‘Whereas the adverse effects on
working people of federal wage
control legislation and its im-
plementation by the Anti-Inflation
Board is increasingly evident, and

“Whereas it is essential to
demonstrate solid and determined
opposition to this anti-worker
program by supporting the CLC’s
preparation for a nationwide work
stoppage;

“Therefore be it resolved that
this conference pledges full sup-
port for the CLC’s program, and

‘Be it further resolved that this
conference recommends that the
federation executive council urge
all affiliates and all labor councils
to appoint committees responsible
for preparing all members for the
work stoppages, and

“Be it finally resolved that we
urge that the federation officers
continue to intensify efforts to
acquaint trade unionists and other
British Columbians with the
necessity of such a demonstration
to make clear labor’s unalterable
opposition to this anti-worker
legislation.”’

Later, at a. press conference,
Johnsion said he will be attending
a meeting of the executive council

of the CLC next Thursday in Ot-
tawa which may fix a date for a
general strike but it may not be
immediately announced.

In his speech to the delegates
Johnston. expressed “‘deep con-
cern” over the “grave danger
which threatens working people in
this province.”

“The living standards, the
economic security and the social
advancements achieved by British
Columbia workers over the last
decade are under attack by the
federal wage control program and
the machinations of the Anti-
Inflation Board. At the same time,
a viciously anti-worker  govern-
ment in Victoria has begun what
will be a continuing assault on the
strength of the trade union
movement in this province.”’

Johnston said that the successes
of B.C. labor over the years in
defending the rights of working
people were the direct result of ‘‘a
strong federation able to provide
leadership, and of the courage,
determination and unity on the
part of an active and militant
membership.”’

He criticized some union leaders
who “‘have become tired of the
struggle and have begun to look for
easy solutions to our problems.”
Pointing out that employers and
governments are seeking to
capitalize on it, Johnston said: ‘‘To
any trade union leaders at any
level who have become too weary
to dig in and fight and who are
seeking, instead, the easy path of
acceptance of imposed wages and
working conditions, I want to say
very simply and very clearly —
stand aside and let others who are
prepared to fight assume the
responsibilities of leadership.”

Johnston called on the trade
union movementin B.C. to ‘‘rely on
militant trade union action.’’ He

said ‘‘we must continue to put the
interests of the whole trade union
movement and of working people
generally ahead of the narrow
interests of any particular union,”
and added that ‘‘the people who are
the backbone of our labor
See PREPARE, pg. 8

PLC planning
Aug. 8 march

‘In an action commemorating the
bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, the Pacific Life Com-
munity intends to march its

~**Trident monster’’ across the

international boundary at Peace
Arch Park, August 8, and then
transport the apparatus to the
Bangor submarine base where
another demonstration will be
held.

Constructed of bamboo poles,
rope and strips of plastic, the
“Trident monster’? is a symbolic
representation of the Trident
nuclear submarines which are to
be housed at the Bangor,
Washington base.

The PLC, a pacifist group, has
sent letters to the American
consulate in Vancouver informing
the U.S. government of its in-
tentions and asking it to ‘‘respect
our nonviolent border crossing,”
and cancel the construction of the
base.

The action will coincide with the
Seattle trial of three American
members of the Pacific Life
Community who were charged
with “‘depredation of government
property”’ following an incident in
May in which the three cut down
some 150 feet of fence surrounding
the submarine base site.

Suspensions replace firings at Alcan

In a compromise ruling clearly
intended to defuse the still-
explosive situation in Kitimat, the
Labor Relations Board determined
last week that the Aluminum
Company of Canada could impose
discipline on strikers — in the form
of suspensions — but could not
carry out the wholesale firings that
it sought. :

The LRB decision, brought down
last Thursday by a board panel
consisting of vice-chairman John
Baigent and members John
Billings and John Brown had long
been awaited by both Alcan and the
Canadian Association of Smelter
and Allied Workers, 136 of whose
members are affected.

The company had sought, in the
wake of turbulent, 18-day strike
which ended June 20 with workers
voting to return to their jobs, to fire

30 workers, including CASAW
president Peter Burton, suspend 74
others and issue warning slips to 32
more.

However, the LRB ruled that
lengthy suspensions would replace
the firings and modified the terms
of the suspensions that Alcan
sought. The provisions for warning
slips were not changed.

Although the Board specified the
terms of suspensions — varying
from one week to two months — for
most of those affected, the terms to
be applied to three union leaders
were left to Alcan’s discretion
within board guidelines which
specified a maximum of six
months.

Alcan,
quickly to impose the maximum
six-month suspension on the three
— president Peter Burton,

predictably, moved’

recording secretary Jim Brisebois
and guard Wiheo Papenbrock.

Other suspensions were also
carried out quickly with the
company issuing notices to af-
fected workers on the first “shift
following announcement of the
LRB ruling.

In some instances, however,
Alcan was caught in a dilemma of
its own making as some key
positions in the smelter were held
by men all of whom were subject to
suspension.

Burton, in an interview with the
Tribune Tuesday, cited the case of
two first aid men who were both to
be suspended. AS a result, one of
the suspensions will have to be held
up until the other returns after his
term of suspension is expired.

Despite such dilemmas, Alcan
would have liked to go farther with

its recriminatory actions against
CASAW members and was ex-
pected to appeal the no-firing edict
of the Board in the hopes of
carrying out the dismissals that it
initially sought.

“If the Labor Relations Board
had allowed Alcan to carry out the
firings there would have been
another explosion among the
workers in the plant,”’ Burton said,
giving substance to the concern
that was reflected in the LRB
decision.

It was just such an aggravation
of the dispute that the Board
sought to avoid-in its ruling which
was based on the assessment that
both sides were guilty.

In reaching its decision, the LRB
reprimanded the CASAW
leadership for ‘“‘fostering’’ the

see CASAW pg. 8