Der ee erro eee leat tian tartan seattioel pa EP a ES PR OP TT = an rr Re FS Friday, March 12, 1976 20° Aimee Ss Sa VOL. 38, No. 10 PeiBnUNE ‘Corvalan frial delayed renewed protest urged The trial of the general secretary of the Chilean Communist Party, Luis Corvalan has been postponed indefinitely. Originally scheduled for January, the trial date was changed to March 22 by-the Chilean Junta and has once again been postponed. The probable reason for the latest postponement is that the Organization of American States has a meeting scheduled for Santiago in early April, and the Junta did not wish to be em- barrassed by the negative publicity which Corvalan’s trial Would bring in the international press at the time of the meeting. Coincident with the an- nouncement of the trial delay, the Communist Party of Chile issued an urgent appeal to defend Cor- valan’s life. The CPC statement Said that the ‘‘life of Corvalan and other imprisoned Popular Unity leaders can be guaranteed only if they are immediately set free. The trial’ in Valparaiso cannot be allowed to go on because it is a Monstrous and completely ar- bitrary force without the slightest Suarantee for the defendants.” In other events surrounding the trial, a Los Angeles attorney working with a multi-national team of lawyers to defend Corvalan, said that the massive international pressure being brought to bear * Upon the junta has forced them to announce that Corvalan will be given a “peace-time trial.’ Stanley Faulkner said that nobody really knew what constitutes a “peace-fime trial’? but it may mean that Corvalan will be tried in a civilian court rather than face a military court martial. He noted however that both the military and civilian judiciary are under the Control of the fascist junta. Faulkner said that the change in the trial rules showed the ef- fectiveness of international protest, and urged that it be stepped up to Save Corvalan’s life. REPRESSION SPARKS PROTEST Massive strike wave sweeps across Spain A wave of strikes and mass demonstrations of a magnitude unprecedented since the Civil War swept across Spain this week and last, bringing to a new crisis the regime of Juan Carlos as workers and students responded to stepped- up police violence with ever- widening anti-government action. Nine persons have been slain by police bullets in recent weeks, victims of the government policy of meeting any protest with increased repression. Although touted in the media as a liberal who would democratize the fascist regime in Spain, Juan Carlos has done little to change the " repressive rule of his predecessor, Generalissimo Franco. Close to half a million workers were on strike in northern Spain early this week in mass protest against the murder by police of four demonstrators last week in Victoria. : Three steelworkers and a student were killed by police gunfire in that city after barrages of tear gas had been fired into the San Francisco de Asis. Church DERA denied funds in ‘petty vendetta’ Vancouver city council voted 6-5 Tuesday night to cut off any city funding to the Downtown Eastside Residents Association despite the fact that 29 concerned individuals and community groups appeared EDUCATION CUTBACKS FEARED The British Columbia Student ‘available for students, support Federation is planning a province- Wide campaign against govern- Ment cutbacks in education Spending, which will culminate in intensive lobbying and rallying in ictoria.”’ The decision to launch such a Campaign came in a_ regular feneral meeting of the BCSF, a federation of all post secondary Students’ associations, last Weekend at the Langara Campus of Vancouver Community College. BCSF representatives. Lake Sagaris said that the campaign Would. focus on increasing com- Munity awareness of the govern- Ment cuts, and would include Petitioning and leaflet distributions. She said that the BCSF had chosen to concentrate on the communities involved because When cutbacks are introduced, € first programs to go are Outreach and continuing education Programs which are designed for Working people to take advantage of in night classes.”’ : Sagaris said that one of the Students’ main concerns is that the Cutbacks are only the first steps in 4 program of making post Secondary education less and less accessible to British Columbians. ‘Education in B.C. is a public Service and a right, not a privilege Sr a business enterprise,” she declared. Although no formal an- Nouncement on the size of University and college budgets for € upcoming year has been made Y education minister Pat McGeer, Cutbacks at all levels are an- ticipated. Sagaris said that signs of dget paring are already evident, Pointing out that on most campuses “here are fewer part time jobs . . . staff are being laid off and not recalled, and student services such as library hours are being reduced. She said that the BCSF meeting passed a special resolution calling for the ‘“‘creation of a common front of students, staff, faculty, and community to resist irresponsible Even wit house at city hall individuals — 29 in al reconsideration of an ear and arbitrary financing cutbacks to post secondary education.’’ Sagaris explained that all four groups would be affected by any reduction in education funding and that all must work together to fight any proposed cuts. As illustration of her claim, see BCSF pg. 12 h the lower gallery reserved for speakers only, it was a packed Tuesday night as various organizations and | — made representations to city council urging lier decision to cut off funds to the before council to speak on DERA’s behalf. Tuesday’s vote was a repeat of council’s February 3 meeting in which Mayor Art Phillips, and aldermen Jack Volrich, Hugh Bird, Warnett “Kennedy; Ed Sweeney, and Fritz Bowers combined to defeat DERA’s original grant application for " $22,176 which would pay the salaries of two community workers. Supporting DERA’s appeal for reconsideration were COPE alderman Harry Rankin and aldermen Darlene Marzari, Mike Harcourt, Helen Boyce and Art Cowie. The latter five also voted in favour of DERA’s original request. DERA has been instrumental in forcing city council to clean up the downtown eastside of Vancouver over the last three years, by see VENDETTA pg. 2 where workers and students were holding a sit-in. Police had fired on the demon- strators as they emerged from the church. They later claimed that they had fired “in self-defence” after being stoned by people fleeing the tear-gassed church. Following the incident, Spanish premier Carlos Aria Navarro announced that thousands more police reinforcements were being rushed into the area. Any group of more than five people was being attacked by police. Despite the massive display of force, however, strike actions and demonstrations spread and were expected to gather in intensity following the shooting of another young metal worker, Vincente Ferrero, in Bilbao Monday. Behind the brutal police repression is Spain’s economic and political crisis as even police -~ bullets have failed-to stop the demand for democratic freedoms and wage increases to meet the huge rise in the cost of living. Wage freeze legislation was earlier introduced in an attempt to maintain high profit levels in Spain’s foreign-dominated economy but the move has sparked in intensifed demand for its abolition. A similar appeal for workers to . accept continued exploitation was voiced earlier this month by Spanish finance minister Juan Miguel Villar Mir who, in a national radio and television broadcast told workers to “‘work calmly and orderly to repeat the Spanish economic miracle of the 1960’s’’. -The example of bordering Portugal whose former fascist government was overturned in 1974 see SPAIN pg. 12 Downtown Eastside Residents Association. But their appeals, like that voiced by Jim Cork (above) of the Hastings Sunrise Action Council, failed to sway the same six aldermen who had voted against funding in the previous meeting. —Sean Griffin photo