—,

CPC-ML attack

wins KKK praise

By FRED WILSON

“He (Alexander McQuirter, na-
tional director of the Ku Klux Klan)
also thanked the Communist Party
of Canada (Marxist Leninist) for
attempting to disrupt the anti racist
demonstration earlier Saturday, a
confrontation that McQuirter said
helped the Klan’s promotion of an
all white country.’’ — Vancouver
Sun, Monday, October 19, 1981.

If anyone has any doubt about
who is responsible for the violence
which has broken up two con-
secutive rallies called by the B.C.
Organization to Fight Racism
(BCFOR), or of who benefited
from the actions, refer them to
Alexander McQuirter.

Only hours after the attack on
the BCOFR demonstration last,
Saturday, 30 Ku Klux Klan mem-
bers held the first cross burning in
the city of Vancouver in half a cen-
tury. The cross was burned on the
bank of the Fraser River south of
Marine Dr. at the foot of Angus
Dr. to ‘‘celebrate”’ the death of An-
war Sadat, who for the twisted
minds of the KKK was ‘“‘a friend of
Jews.”

The cross burning should have:
provoked alarm and indignation

‘throughout Vancouver. Although

Police arrived at the cross burning
and seized some firearms and are

perpetrated by the KKK in making
a public declaration of their racism
and anti-semitism escaped

‘ demands for justice. Many people

were even unaware of the sick ritual
of the KKK, for public attention
had been focused on what was
perceived as two anti-racist groups
fighting each other.

In truth the violence was an un-
provoked attack by the Com-
munist Party of Canada (Marxist
Leninist) under the guise of the so
called ‘‘Peoples Front Against

Fascist and Rascist Violence’’
against the BCOFR demonstra-
tion.

Two weeks before the same
group had broken up a BCOFR
rally at South Memorial Park in
Vancouver, with at least one per-
son seriously injured by a head
wound. The BCOFR called a se-
cond rally and march for South
Memorial Park last Saturday to
demonstrate that it would not be
intimidated by the thug tactics of
the CPC-ML group.

About 400 demonstrators
responded to the call and after ga-
thering in the park formed a line to
march south to Moberly school for
an indoor rally. The CPC-ML
group of about 50 which had ga-
thered at a different location in the
park and had edged closer to the
demonstration ran around the

march and turned to walk north di-

rectly into the front of the BCOFR
procession. The BCOFR instructed
its marchers to turn and march
away from the attackers, but only
moments later the inevitable stick
swinging began. There were two
outbreaks of violence and several
injuries resulted, including broken
arms and bloodied heads. Only af-
ter two rounds of fighting and after

the marchers had travelled about.

five blocks did police arrive to sep-
arate the attackers away from the
rear of the BCOFR march.

BCOEFR spokesman Charan Gill
was later critical of the police for
failing to prevent the attack on the
demonstration, even though police
were present to film it.

Gill also drew the obvious con-
clusion that the ‘Peoples Front’’ is
not in the least concerned with the
struggle against racism. ‘‘We do
not want to associate with them,”’
he said,

Characterization of the CPC--

ML group as ‘‘communist’’ by the

GEOFF MEGGS— FISHERMAN PHOTO

VANCOUVER
P ¥

CPC-ML ATTACKERS .

BCOFR march turns to meet the assailants.

local media also drew response
from Communist Party provincial
leader Maurice Rush who this week
joined in condemning the attack on
the BCOFR demonstration and
protested the failure of television,
radio and print media to
distinguish between the CPC-ML
and the Communist Party.

Rush was particularly critical of
an article in the Vancouver Sun
Oct. 19 which stated that Charles
Boylan, leader of the CPC-ML in
B.C., ‘‘has run for the Communist
Party in federal election cam-

The CP leader demanded that
the Sun print a retraction, pointing
out that Boylan has never been a
candidate of the Communist Party
and in the last federal election the
chief federal returning officer in-
structed that Boylan’s group be
identified as the ““Marxist Leninist

“Boylan was expelled from: the
pubic ones Party of Canada in
1968 after he was charged with
stealing money and records from
the party’s youth magazine, Scan.
At the time Boylan was a supporter
of the Dubchek government in
Czechoslovakia and had views
which today would be generally
defined as ‘‘eurocommunist’’.
Two years later he re-surfaced at

to live there.

tA otions adopted both by North Vancouver city
and district councils promise some relief for
those who work on the North Shore but can t afford

North Vancouver city council’s decision to in-

People and lissues

the University of B.C. with radical-
ly different opinions and joined the
Maoist ‘‘Internationalists’’
organization headed by Hardial
Bains, who Boyan had known
since 1964. Bains is a wealthy East
Indian widely suspected of having
CIA connections who is presently
leader of the CPC-ML. =
The CPC-ML has the markings
of an incipient fascist movement,
stressing violence and intimidation
as its chief tactics and targeting
people’s organizations and
movements as its chief opponent.
An article in the Columbian
newpspaper Oct. 19 by Terry
Glavin, which did point out that
the CPC-ML has no connections
with the labor or democratic move-
ment, cited previous violent attacks
dating to 1975 when the CPC-ML
attacked the leadership of the Sikh
temple. In 1976 the CPC-ML at-
tacked a rally at the old courthouse
in Downtown Vancouver and in

. ~ et

. raise sticks just before second sould of fighting. At right, rear of retreating -

1979 it Wee up a rally of the East
Indian Workers Association at
Moberly School.

The CPC-ML group is exposed,

. but no less effective for it. Its latest

actions have succeeded, for exam-
ple, in having New Westminster ci-
ty council refuse refuse the BCOFR
a permit to hold a conference in
New Westminster.

Boylan and his associates
deserve to be condemned, and they
have been condemned by the trade
union movement and other pro-
gressive organizations. The anti- ”
racist movement should not be in-
timidated, and it demonstrated last
Saturday that it will not be in-
timidated.

However it is clear that any fur-
ther contact with the CPC-ML
group can only serve Boylan’s
aims, and those of the KKK who
took such pleasure in Saturday’s

fracas.

vestigate non-profit housing was a response to the
campaign conducted by North Vancouver Tenants
Association through Richard Blackbum and Greg
Richmond. After hearing from Fred Minty of the
Greater Vancouver Housing Corporation,
aldermen instructed their staff to investigate the
possibility of leasing 1.5 acres of land in the
Hamilton-Fell area for a proposed non-profit hous-
ing development and to report back in 30 days.

North Vancouver district council’s approval of a
non-profit housing development in the Seymour
area was made on the moti f Ald. Ernie Crist.
One third of the units to be built through the GVHC
On a 40-year lease would have subsidized rents and
the rest would have rents of about $700 a month —
“*the lower end of the market,”’ according to Mayor
Don Bell.

Crist’s original motion called for 100 units, but
council trimmed it to 75 before approving it
unanimously.

* * &*

n its October issue, The Transmitter, organ of

the Telecommunications Workers Union, notes
that two years ago the union adopted a policy of sup-
port and action to change the face of municipal poli-
tics. Commenting that ‘former TWU president
Bob Donnelly apparently believes in practising what
he preaches,”’ it writes:

“For too long, various municipal councils have
been dominated by real estate and business interests.
Ordinary working people are beset by astronomical
housing costs and spiralling property taxes. Only by
electing people-oriented municipal officials will this

change. To this end, Bob Donnelly, together with
Gloria Levi, spouse of NDP MLA Norman Levi,
and Eunice Parker, a member of OTEU Local 15,
will be attempting to displace the incumbents in Co-
quitlam. They need and deserve all the support
TWU members can give them.”
* * &

ast May Jim Kinnaird stepped down as president

of the B.C. Federation of Labor when the In!
ternational Brotherhood of Electrical Workers was
one of the 12 international building trades unions
suspended by the Canadian Labor Congress. Since
then he has been serving as the federation’s ap-
pointed executive director. Now he’s back as presi-
dent by virture of his having become a member of
the Association of Commercial and Technical
Employees’ Local 1715, a CLC affiliate, although
he is retaining his IBEW membership.

Frustration over the continuing dispute between
the CLC and the building trades unions was voiced

by federation secretary-treasurer Dave MacIntyre

in resigning his post this week, although he stated
that he was leaving purely for personal reasons.

Nonetheless, he said, he and Kinnaird had com-
mitted themselves to unifying the labor movement
when they were elected in 1978 and the continuing
inability of the CLC leadership to resolve its dif-
ferences with the building trades had a divisive effect
on the federation. ‘‘I know Jim Kinnaird feels the
same frustration I do, only to a greater extent,’’ he
declared. ‘However, I am certain he will keep trying
to bring the unity we both have fought for back to
the labor movement.”

Allthe indications are that the
provincial government is deep in
financial hot water. It’s running
out of money. In a desperate but
futile effort to keep out of the
red, it’s cutting essential social
services to people. But this
won’t solve its problems. Much

| more drastic steps are needed —

in another direction:

Harry

Rankin

I have some advice for the
government, even if it is un-
solicited:

Number 1 — Junk Transpo
‘86, which will save the tax-
payers several hundreds of
millions of dollars.

Number 2 — No further sub-
sidies to the Trade and Conven-
tion Centre.

At present high interest rates
of 20 per cent to 24 per cent it
would be worse than foolish for
the government to borrow
money to finance these projects,
it would be plain stupid. We’d
be paying for them for the rest
of dur lives. :

Transpo 86 is not in any way
essential to Vancouver or to
B.C. It’s a tourist and show-biz
gimmick that we can’t afford.
In place of Transpo 86, the
government should be under-
taking a program of affordable

Dump Transpo ‘86

_vention Centre, the business in-

as welfare; health ‘and educa-

housing that could pay for itself.
It already has the land which to-
day is the major cost in housing.
Built on government-owned
land, affordable housing
becomes a realistic possibility.
As for the Trade and Con-

terests who will profit from it
should be told very clearly that if

they want it, they must pay for it
and put up the money
themselves. They are the only
ones who will benefit from it.

The only part of the Trade
and Convention Centre that is a
must is the cruise ship facility.
That should go ahead. The
Federal Government is putting
up most of the money for it.

In addition to junking
Transpo ‘86 and starting an af-
fordable housing program in its
place, and in addition to ending
any further subsidies to’ the
Trade and Convention Centre,
the government should end its
cruel cuts in public services such

tion. There is no justification
for them. Its present policy of
socialism for the rich and free
enterprise for the poor needs to
be turned around. ;

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—OCT. 23, 1981—Page 2