By ALD. HARRY RANKIN

Who is Leonard Peltier? He is a
young Indian man from Wounded
Knee, South Dakota, who was
arrested near Jasper, Alberta in
January by the RCMP at> the
request of the FBI, and is being
held here for extradition to the
United States. :

Leonard Peltier is a member of
the American Indian Movement
(AIM), the organization of the
American Indian people that
defends their rights.

Until 1973 Wounded Knee was
relatively unknown, except in
history books. Today it is known
around the world as the place
where genocide is being practiced
by the U.S. authorities against the
Indian people. Wounded Knee is a
small village in the Pine Ridge
Indian reservation tucked away in
a corner of South Dakota. It is
small, comprising only 4,343
square miles with a population of
about 2,200.

The trouble started in Pine Ridge
with the fraudulent election of Dick
Wilson as head of the Tribal
Council. The Indian residents
started an impeachment process,
signed by the majority, and the
election was declared fraudulent
by the United States Commission
on Human Rights. The opposition
movement was suppressed by the
tribal chief and a band of native
police hired by him (the Indian
people call them “goon squads’’).
His actions had the backing of the
Bureau of Indian Affairs, the

‘Let Peltier

government agency that runs the

Not patriated one

The issue before Canada is not
patriation but the adoption of a new
made-in-Canada constitution says
a statement released April 9 by
Communist Party leader William
Kashtan on behalf of the Central
executive of the party. The
statement follows:

“In answer to a query in
Parliament on the question of
patriating the BNA Act, prime
minister Pierre Trudeau declared
that, .‘‘Patriation will mean .that
the British parliament would
declare now, what it declared for
other Commonwealth countries at
the time of the Statute of West-
minster, to wit, that they would no
longer make laws for Canada. This
is the essence of what we are trying
to obtain.

“Prime minister Trudeau is

Need new constitution

right in. saying this is all the
government is trying to obtain. But
this is exactly what is wrong with
the government’s position.

“The issue before the country is
not patriation or repatriation of the
BNA Act. The real issue is one of
adopting an entirely new Canadian
Constitution based on the equal
voluntary partnership of the two
nations, guaranteeing the right to
self-determination and_ full
equality to both nations.

“This is the heart of the question,
not what prime minister Trudeau
suggests — that they, (the British
Parliament) would no longer make
laws for Canada.

“The British parliament does not
make laws for Canada. These laws,
for better or for worse, are made in
Canada.

reserves and the lives of the Indian
people.

When the protest movement
against the fraudulent election
became so strong that it could not
be suppressed even by the goon
squads, the authorities moved in,
headed by the FBI. Some 2,000
police of various kinds laid siege to
Wounded Knee, equipped with
military weapons. The 82nd Air-
borne Division was flown in for an
exercise nearby. It was a virtual
state of war, like that being
practiced at the time by the U.S. in
Vietnam. For 71 days the village
was besieged.

Indian people (and non-Indians
too) from all over the United States
found ways to express their sup-
port for the people of Wounded
Knee. Finally the authorities were
compelled to withdraw their siege.
But their withdrawal was more
apparent than real. They are still
there, housed in groups in the
towns around the reservation.

And the harassment and arrest
of the people of the Pine Ridge
reservation continues, this time
backed by SWAT (Special
Weapons Attack Troops), highly
trained mobile extermination
squads who shoot first and ask
questions afterward. Homes are
being raided, citizens arrested
without warrant. It is estimated
that some 185 Indians from the
reservations have met violent
‘death since 1973. Yet not one arrest
has been made. The residents have
laid over 6,000 complaints against

acts of violence against them, but

not one has been investigated and
again no arrests made.

It is not a crime at Wounded
Knee to harass, arrest or kill In-
dians. The old American colonial
slogan, ‘The only good Indian is a
dead Indian,” is still being applied
in life (and death) at Wounded
Knee. The whole operation is part
of the FBI’s program called
COINTELPRO, a program of
provocations and dirty tricks
which, according to an FBI
document, is aimed at “‘tying down
militant leaders with so many
charges and so much bail that they
will not be able to represent their
peoples,” and is being used against
many racial minorities in the
United States.

Last summer the _ police
surrounded a housein the village of
Ogalala on the reservation and
poured a withering fire into the
building. One man, Joe Stuntz, was
killed instantly when he opened his
door. The children in the house

stay in Canada’

were rescued by neighbors, a
rescue carried out under fire. The
FBI reported that two of their
agents were killed. The Indian
people believe that they were
‘mistakenly killed by the police
themselves. *

The FBI must get their man. And
so, some months later three Indian
boys were arrested and charged
with murder. They were not near
the scene of the crime, are not
members of the Pine Ridge
Reservation and are not known to
local Indians. And last January
Leonard Peltier was arrested in
Canada on the request of the FBI
and is being held for deporation.
He also was not at the scene when
the FBI men were killed.

The Indian people of Pine Ridge
Reservation and others associated

with Indian Rights movements are’

convinced that the arrest of these
people on charges of murder is a
frame-up from beginning to end.
: See PELTIER, pg. 12

Budget hit

The Vancouver East Club of the
Communist Party has written
Premier Bill Bennett protesting
the new budget as being ‘‘aimed at
carrying through a savage attack
on the living standards of working
people, those on welfare and
pensioners.”

The letter strongly protests the
40 per cent increase in sales tax,
the fuel tax boost, increases in
hospital care, and higher hydro

by CP club

rates, as well as the recent ICBC
boost. It also condemns the
government’s education cutback
which undermines the educational
system and _ threatens 5,000
teachers with layoffs.

Demanding the B.C. government
reverse its policy of placing the
major burden on those less able to
pay, the Club urges heavier taxes
on those better able to pay, such as
the multinational corporations.

“held by the Special Joint Com

financiers of the murderous regime in Chile, has to get b)

“To bring the BNA Act back
Canada as it is, means to bring)
back an Act which spells out
elements of national oppressiol!
and inequality which have ané
continue to undermine the unity
Canada. Real unity cannot
achieved on the basis of oppressi
or inequality. q

“The BNA Act was imposed
Canada in the horse and bug
days of the past, but has no ear
relationship to the requirements uy
modern-day Canada. The crisis ®
federal-provincial — relations
the crisis of the cities, the problem
of ownership of natural resourc®)
including energy, and independemy
economic development, the contro) —
of the multi-national corporatiom ¢
over strategic sectors of thé
Canadian economy, the
democratic rights of all Canadians
all these must find reflection in®
new Canadian constitution.

“By and large, this view was als=

mittee of the Senate and of
House of Commons in its Finél
Report in 1972. a
“Prime minister Trudeau allé
his government apparently ha’
ignored these views. But the Pp
50 years of effort to patriate tht
BNA Act should make clear by nol
that the heart of the problem is @ t
voluntary equal partnership of UM ¥
e
S

two nations. To go én the old roa
will bring the same negativ!
results. a

“The Communist Party of
Canada at its 22nd Convention ) S
1974 declared then that the BN®
Act be scrapped and that a total)
new made-in-Canada Constitutid!
be adopted, based on an eque

See BNA ACT, pg. 12

May Day issue)

Our special May Day edition °
the Tribune will be off the pre
April 29 and on the street UW
following day, and so, into th®
hands of our readers for May Day
It will be an enlarged Tribune wil
a number -of special feature)
written by both the Tribune st@®
and special guest writers. 3

We are accepting May Da
greetings, both personal and fro!
organizations for the cost of $20
per column inch. As well the Ma
Day edition will be an excelle!
issue for distribution to unil!
meetings, plant gates, and co?
munity meetings. The deadline ™)
placing greetings is April 23, :
bundle orders, the deadline is AP™
28. :

ou will have noticed in recent days that our Socred _

minister of finance (the Hon.?) Evan Wolfe, who

tabled what was purported to be a budget, has been.

caught up in aneatlittle bit of forgery.

The original budget given to the House contained
innumerable slurs, innuendo and vindictive charges
against the former NDP government and its ‘‘socialism,’”
which left the province ‘in a terrible mess.’ Free-
enterpriser Wolfe also had some caustic comments on

~ how “‘socialism” in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and

elsewhere had failed miserably.
In the doctored version sent out to most of the financial

markets of North America, all mention of the NDP was.

deleted. The explanation given by the minister for these
omissions have been many and varied but none are
convincing. Thus we have two budgets; one directed
against the NDP and its supporters, intended for B.C.
consumption-and carrying a warning to the people “never
to do it again.” The other version is directed to the money
markets with another intention — an invitation to the
monied sharks of big business to come and get it just as in
the good old W. A. C. Bennett days.

- PACIFIC TRIBUNE—APRIL 16, 1976—Page 2

B.C., has there been socialism or anything even ap-
proximating it.

True, there have been moments when governments
dabbled with public ownership but always the self-styled
right-wing socialists who enacted such legislation
hastened to assure big business that the really important
sectors of industry would not be touched.

But that fact is well above the heads of the free en-
terprisers in Victoria to whom an opportunity to make
cheap propaganda was an opportunity not to be missed.
Thus we have a two-budget system, one a political tirade
the other a petty forgery.

Speaking of budgets and things, did you notice the wide -

differential between what big executives pocket for their
‘Jabors” as compared to wages of the average working
man — provided, ofcourse, that he has a job?

Take, for instance, the top poohbahs of Mac-Blo. Our old
friend J. V. Clyne who has written more anti-labor briefs
than almost any man alive, pockets a cool $90,000 a year
plus a $25,000 bonus. Whatever other fringe benefits he
might get is anybody’s guess. Socred Robert Bonner,
when he was with the company, stashed away an annuity
of $120,000. Among all of them, they pulled down some
two million dollars. No wonder the company is said to be
in financial trouble — all the money’s at the top.

Others in free enterprise fields of endeavor are
‘pocketing similar amounts — and up. One Harold Geneen,

president of International Telephone and Telegraph, chief

’ the Tribune needs us!

on a paltry $776,000 per annum. Leading bankers,
manufacturers, steel and lumber magnates are a
similar brackets. a
These are the inflationists who profit most from ™) §
inflation that they create. But just to show that they aly
real “pay-triots,” some of them take a voluntary pay cu
of 10 per cent or so, just to encourage the working man ; 4
do likewise. Should he not oblige, there’s always "|
government to force him.
Coming to more pressing affairs, we note that C0! I
tributions to this column have only reached a total of #)
on a $40,000 target and we are already into the seco”
week of the campaign. We’ll have to do better than that!
get over the top. a
Don’t let ‘“‘two-budget” Wolfe or ‘“‘top-bracket’’ Cly?
get you down. We need the Pacific Tribune, but right nO

y if,

RiBUN

Editor - MAURICE RUSH
_ Assistant Editor SEAN GRIFFIN :
Business and Circulation Manager — MIKE GIDORA.
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