OVER THERE If WAS NAPALM SUNDAY D>, XN N SN The patriots of Laos By JOHN PITTMAN The blows that turned the 44- day U.S.-Saigon invasion of Laos into a first-rate military de- bacle were inflicted not by North Vietnamese but by the men and women of the Lao People’s Liberation armed forces. Women, yes, because about 40% of the “‘semi-armed” forces are women. They are called “semi-armed” since their wea- pons are small arms and their duties are limited to guarding installations, villages, roads and such protective tasks. However, “some anti-aircraft units are composed of women. Although both the U.S. and Saigon commands attribute all activity against the invasion to the North Vietnamese, dis- patches from both Hanoi and the South Vietnamese liberated areas, monitored in Tokyo, indi- cate resistance to the invaders came from the Lao defenders. It is significant that Prince Souphanouvong, president of Lao Patriotic Front (Neo Lak Hak Sat), congratulated the vic- torious Lao units on their bra- very and exemplary discipline under fire. Discipline under fire is noth- ing new. for the Lao armed forces. They are battle-tested troops, veterans of numerous encounters with puppet -and mercenary forces thrown against them continuously since 1954 by U.S. Central Intelligence Agency “advisers” and puppet comman- ders. The Lao Liberation Army sol- dier believes unreservedly in what he is fighting for. He loves his country and is convinced ~ that after its liberation he and his people will have a bright fu- ture. Unlike the invading Saigon puppet forces, the Lao Libera- tion armed forces have no com- manders who served the French and Japanese colonialists, and no commanders who traffic in opium and heroin, prostitution and the black marketing of . goods stolen or pilfered from supplies intended for refugees and the destitute. Check through the _back- grounds: of the Saigon puppet commanders! It is difficult to find one without a record blem- ished by previous service in the pay of the colonialists and up to his .eyebrows in -thievery, corruption and brutality against the South Vietnamese people. On the other hand, there is not a commander of the Lao Liberation armed forces without a record of struggle against the colonialists and their successors and puppets. (John Pittman, co-editor of the Daily World, visited Laos last year as a member of the World Peace Council delegation.) Editor —MAURICE RUSH Published weekly at Ford Bldg., Mezzanine No. 3, 193 E. Hastings St, Vancouver 4, B.C. Phone 685-5288. Circulation Manager, ERNIE CRIST Subscription Rate: Conado, $5.00 one year; $2.75 for six months. North and South A ‘a and C Ith countries, $6.00 one year. All other countries, $7.00 one year Second class mail registration number 1560. eeeetetatatelet * Angela Davis He who has virtually declared ino- cent the man who was convicted of murdering 22 old men, women and chil- dren, after the longest military trial in history, denounced Angela Davis as guilty not only before trial but even before indictment. He who has granted Calley unrestricted freedom of move- ment, is responsible for having Angela Davis confined in solitary in Marin County jail. He who permits Calley to receive letters supporting his murders, bars Angela Davis from receiving let- ters of solidarity from around the world. Calley will be permitted to visit near- by Columbus, Georgia, close to Fort Ben- ning, for relaxation and dining; Angela Davis must eat alone, must take her recreation alone. Calley will be accom- panied by a light guard; Angela Davis lives under the thumb of hardened prison warders. By granting special privileges to Calley, President Nixon cannot erase what millions already feel: that the President cannot establish Calley’s in- nocence by fiat; that the President can- not prove his own innocence by declar- ing Calley innocent. ’ Millions believe that the leaders of the Pentagon and the White House dur- ing the war decade should be indicted and tried for war crimes conducted under their command, and for the war conducted at their order. © —Daily World guest editorial Restore democracy! — The developing struggles for the restoration and extension of democra- tie rights in Canada see the forces of organized labor now moving to the forefront. _ This is essential and inevitable. For it is against the working people that the use of the power of oppression of the capitalist state is first of all direct- ed on behalf of monopoly capital. That oppressive power persists in multiple forms today in our country. Through repressive legislation on both federal and provincial levels—the Public Order Act, special police laws in Quebec, and vicious anti-labor legis- lation, for example in British Colum- bia and Saskatchewan—monopoly and its governments are out to strangle all movements of the people for demo- cratic reforms and for fundamental social change. The reactionary forces are moving fast to extend their assault on demo- eratic and civil rights. The Trudeau government, committed to policies of mass unemployment and of repression of the mounting protests of workers against this disaster, intends to bring permanent anti-democratic legislation before Parliament at this session. Que- bec’s St. James Street premier, Bour- assa, is calling for additional police state laws. British Columbia’s gocial Credit government is out to that province’s great trade unionl ment through enforced comp™ legislation. In Saskatchewan, the reactionary premier Thatche nounces his Liberal governme! tention to outlaw all strikes, to, labor courts for compulsory arbl of all labor disputes. The Communist Party, whel October the War Measures enforced in peacetime for the fils in our history, declared that, T striction of democratic rights} lence against the people. So 1s © ation of unemployment, povel the breaking of strikes.” In today’s atmosphere of me monopoly violence against the} the recent action of the B.C. tion of Labor and the stand Saskatchewan Federation set spiring example to all the de forces. In B.C. the trade unionists” ing the struggle for their right direct challenge to the Socred | ment through independent lab tical action along with affilial the New Democratic Part Saskatchewan Federation of La issued a resounding denunclé Thatcher’s plot. It has dissocl! self from the grievous ei Saskatchewan NDP made J”, for compulsory arbitration dispute. i: No less important a contribu! democratic struggle was the exemplified by the successfut © in Toronto last Friday of meeting called in the name of | for political prisoners. : There can be no doubt wh the threat of fascistie violen Edmund Burke Society, the ;. sity of Toronto administration, | cancel that meeting. It was PY because Charlene Mitchell, 0% | three speakers, is a leading M& the Communist Party of the ~ a militant leader in the ca free Angela Davis, who 18 prisoned in the U.S. “beca™ black, and a Communist.” | The decisive democratic inté by the Student Administrativ® and members of the facully obliged the university adm to withdraw its cancellatiom great blow for freedom of * Canada. the In another exhibition of y lishment’s attack on democracy, its hatred of Communists, ; School Board has refused the tion of the Metro-Toronto ™. of the Communist Party f or of its schools for a provin@), meeting. The school board, refusal states its reason: | the regulations .do not allow y school accommodations by a ) group or body which is pat is sociated with the Commun ment ... Therefore, we at® ym grant your request for 4 Pe “ Dark and menacing- shac™ Carthyism! in This latest outrage aga rights must evoke the sale democratic response th@ uni freedom of speech to the ~ of Toronto.