Claims of Chilean junta refuted at Mexico probe Facts brought out at the recent International Commission of Enquiry into the crimes of the military junta in Chile, held in Mexico City, refute the junta’s claim that there has been a liberalization of its rule. This point was brought out in a talk reviewing the work of the Mexico City enquiry by Jack Phillips, a member of the Canadians for Democracy in Chile committee, at a social evening sponsored by the Vancouver committee at the Fishermen’s Hall, Saturday, April 5, attended by 100 people. In his talk Phillips said that the war councils in every military area in Chile still retain the power of life or death over the people. “‘The rule of law has ended. The Supreme Court and the Appeals Court refused to grant writs or habeus corpus in cases of arbitrary arrest. Trials continue without live testimony. Confessions obtained under torture are admitted in evidence, and decrees of the junta are applied against individuals retrospectively,” Phillips said. Pointing out that facts brought out at the Mexico City enquiry show that a decree can be issued by the junta tomorrow, making Chileans subject to prosecution for actions prior to the coup in 1973, even though the actions were, lawful at the time they took place. | Phillips said: “People disappear every month and no trace of them can be found. Religious organizations were able to gather information on about 60 or 70 a month during the last six months of 1974. It is widely believed that most of those who thus disappear are murdered. While some political prisoners have been released under pressure of world public opinion, it is estimated that there are 8,000 political prisoners today.” The Mexico City probe brought out facts to show that during December, 1974 and January, 1975, about 1,500 persons were arrested for political reasons. Judge Olavi Heinon of the Supreme Court of Finland, who recently visited Chile, told the commission that in- his opinion charges. of ‘‘em- bezzlement’”’ and “tax irregularities’ brought against some members of the Allende government are designed to discredit the defendents and ex- tend their already excessive confinement.” Phillips pointed out that the vast majority of the detainees are being held for ‘‘preventive” reasons, without charges. The social ad- vance begun under Allende has been halted. There is galloping inflation, mass unemployment’ and terrible poverty. Marxist political parties have been outlawed, all other parties suspended and the ‘united trade union movement outlawed. The commission noted that it has been officially admitted in the U.S.A. that the CIA spent $8 million to undermine the Allende govern- ment. The Commission appealed to governments, organizations and individuals to: condemn U.S. in- tervention in Chile; stop all forms of support to the junta; suspend all political and diplomatic relations; end all trade and commercial relations; actively support the Chilean people to restore human rights and rule of law; demand the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners and closure of the concentration camps. and termination of the “state of siege.” VI Communists hold parley Resolutions calling on the provincial government to bring B.C. Tel under public ownership, and to advance $20 million from the government’s budget surplus of $73 million to counteract a threatened sharp rise in municipal taxes, highlighted decisions of the annual conference of the Vancouver Island Region of the Communist Party last weekend. Speakers at the conference held in the Malaspina Hotel, Nanaimo, expressed opposition to the 20% increase appiied for by the telephone monopoly. Other resolutions instructed the newly-elected nine-member Regional Committee, to publish a statement outlining the Party’s position on forest harvesting and fishery’ protection, and the projected establishment of a steel mill and nuclear _ electric generating plant on Vancouver Island. ‘Strong opposition to the . Trident nuclear sub base at Bangor, Washington was also voiced. ee Nigel Morgan, B.C. leader of the Communist Party, who greeted the conference on behalf of the B.C. executive, appealed to delegates to |Beaver Transfer take steps in each of the seven island ridings to press the Barrett government for action on a number of people’s needs. delegates ‘‘that the statement of a delegation of lumber operators who recently met the provincial cabinet indicated that the government appeared to be giving in to monopoly pressure against radically overhauling the terms of forest license tenures. A program for extending the membership and influence of the Communist Party on Vancouver Island with a concentration on the lumber and pulp industry, and for wider participation in municipal affairs on a year-round basis, was also drawn up. *- Moving * Packing * Storage 790 Powell St. Phone 254-3711. SPRING SOCIAL SATURDAY, APRIL 12 at 8 p.m. 4504 River Rd. West, Ladner DANCING and GOOD FOOD Adm. $2.00 — Students & Pensioners $1.00 For information phone 274-420 Spons. Richmond Club CPC & YCL PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 1975—Page 10 the powerful He warned ~ Lecture fails to illuminate show of Depression art By BARRY KOOTCHIN Charles Hill, assistant curator of post-Confederation Art at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, lectured last Friday at the Vancouver Art Gallery. The lec- ture was based on the exhibition, “Canadian Painting in the Thir- ties” which continues to April 27. When talking to Hill before his lecture, he spoke of the misleading attachment of meaning by Barry Lord to Emily Carr’s painting, “Blunden Harbour.’’ In The -History of Painting in Canada, Toward A People’s Art, writes: Lord “These austere figures, full of dignity, show us the strength of the native peoples, their ability to fight back. They stand as guardians on the dock, an identification of this village and a warning to unfriendly visitors. The rage of the native people at the destruction of their proud civilization can be sensed in the raised fist closest to us, and in the determined expression on the three carved faces. Especially in head in the foreground, dark against the sky with the lines of the clouds crackling away from it as if to manifest its strength, Emily Carr - has used the dramatic sculptural shapes of the Kwakiutl to show the might of the native people.”’ To this Hill replied that Carr’s painting was spiritual and not political, and for support he cited Carr’s writing. The viewers base their per- ceptions on their ability to read meaning into a work of art, but painters who are now dead will not be aware of the later significance of their work. Nevertheless, the evidence has its own perceptions which are contemporary and through a painting cannot be dictated or controlled by a piece of writing. These perceptions are historically and __ socially significant, with a special note of reference to the present political activities of the native peoples today, which was not the case in Carr’s time. As for Hill’s remark of _Carr’s supposed intention being religious, this should be carried further to say that she is speaking openly of the spirit of the people, and that includes the defiant fighting spirit that we see today. OBITUARY BOB MASON Funeral was held April 8 for Bob Mason, a staunch trade unionist, and for many years devoted member of the Communist Party and Worker’s Benevolent Association of Vancouver. Mason, 54, was born in Rimley, Alberta. Coming to B.C. in 1930 with his parents, Bob and Jean Mason -he_ served his _ ap- -prenticeship as a carpenter and joined Logal 452 of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners. He was a firm believer in the need for an independent, sovereign and united trade union movement, with militant policies. He never missed an opportunity to express his views on this as well as his dream of a world without wars in which the exploitation of man by man would be abolished. Nigel Morgan, provincial leader of the Communist Party, delivered a tribute to Mason at the Roselawn Funeral Home, extending sym- pathy to his wife Antonette, son Joe and daughter-in-law Lynda, grandchildren Grant and Brenda Lee, as well as his brother Bill and sisters Ellen and Rose. a RC Brittain: Longshoremen (1940) BRITTAIN WROTE: “I have no patience with those individuals wh? | think of pictures merely as embellishments to a decorative scheme - -« A picture ought to emerge from the midst of life and be in no sense divorced from it... .” Hill spoke, with the assistance of slides, on the form of the paintings from | an 5 intellectual’s “heightened” understanding, and in doing so only skimmed a thin area from the surface of this vast material. During the Depression Frederick H. Varley had been living in Vancouver, because of a 60 per cent cut in wages he was forced to resign from his position at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts (now the Van- couver School of Art). J. W. G. (Jock) MacDonald and Varley then made an unsuccessful at- tempt at establishing a second art school in Vancouver, but it went into bankruptcy in its second year and closed down in 1935. A large number of paintings in the Vancouver Art Gallery show have a tinge of greyness to them that relates directly to those 10 lost depression years. It would be expected that Hill might have pointed this out, rather than stick by an academic’s line of scholastic rhetoric. An exceptionally vibrant and inspiring painting is the one en- titled, ‘‘Longshoremen.’’ Miller Brittain, who created this work during the years of 1938-1940, als0 drew some sketches for a mural i? the St. John Tuberculosis Hospital, New Brunswick. These “‘cartoons as charcoal, crayon and chalk sketches on brown paper are called when intended for use as murals, measure 110 inches X 100 inches: They represent, because of theif depiction of the plight and pel severance of the people, some of the finest work in Canadial- history, even though the murals themselves were never painted. | Hill mentioned briefly thé participation of many artists in the work of the Committee to Ai Spanish Democracy, as well as The Canadian League Against War and | Fascism, in which many people organized to form a united front against world aggression. But (0 without an in-depth look into thesé progressive movements Hill left the audience dangling, while being flooded by a confusing barrage of information. To fill this gap, Hill should have taken a more responsible stand, fa one which would have been able t0 & relate all listeners to the spectrum of paintings that were discussed. 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