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LONDON e¢ PARIS * MOSCOW © RIO DE JANEIRO ©. PEKING ©

NEW DELHI ¢ DJAKART!.

—

Police brutality in West Berlin

By MAX REICH
Tribune Staff Correspondent
BERLIN
WEST Berlin student was
bludgeoned and then shot
to death by West Berlin
police; 50 others, among them
many young girls, were beaten
up so badly they had to be taken
to hospital, many with serious
injuries.

With a brutality reminiscent
of Nazi storm troopers, about
1,000 policemen attacked 900
students who had demonstrated
against the visit of the shah of
Iran. The demonstrations took
place outside the opera house,
on June 2.

The students never violated
police regulations or entered or
tried to enter the section that
had been closed off by police.
After the shah had gone into the
opera house, when the demon-
stration was perectically over and
the students would have dis-
persed, the police suddenly at-
tacked them in force. Students,
onlookers and passers-by were
driven into an enclosure and
there beaten up with sticks and
truncheons.

I spoke to many eye-wit-
nesses, students and non-stu-
dents, who described how police
would grab a young man or wo-
man, throw them down, and
then two of three policemen
would belabor their helpless vic-
tim with boots and truncheons.
A. 43-year-old army officer, who

A'congress to remember

By JOHN WILLIAMSON

LONDON

HE 26th Congress of the

British Young Communist

League vas certainly a
“congress with a difference.”
Held in the miner’s union holi-
day camp at Skegness on the
East Coast, over the spring holi-
day weekend, it was part of a
week-long International Youth
Festival ’67.

With 410 delegates to the con-
gress there were present also 515
young people as visitors, obser-
vers and participants in the
Trend ’67 Festival, of which the
Congress .was a part.

At the conclusion of the Con-
gress 400 still remained to join
in the debates, discussions and
social activity that constituted
the Festival program for the rest
of the werk.

The agenda of the Congress
included separate introductions
and discussions on_ resolutions
covering The Political Situation
in Britain and Left Unity; The
Labor Government; Foreign Pol-
icy, especially Vietnam; Youth
Rights; YCL Organization and
“Challenge” (monthly YCU pa-

had seen the whole melee from
close quarters, confirmed this
to me. He told me that some of
the policemen, mainly officers,
behaved like beasts.

’ Fhe murdered student, Benno
Ohnesorg, married a month ago.
His young widow expects her
first baby in November. The
police tried to hide the fact that
Ohnesorg had been shot. The
autopsy revealed that a piece of
bone had been removed from
his skull and the gun wound
sewn up. Only after the post
mortem report revealed that a
bullet had been removed from
Ohnesorge’s head, did the police
admit the shooting. The autopsy
is said to have indicated also
that after he had been shot, the
dying Ohnesorg was continued
to be beaten by police.

West Berlin Lord Mayor Al-
bertz said: “I state categorically
and with emphasis that I ap-
prove the action of the police.”
He has banned all demonstra-
tions in West Berlin, and order-
ed the police to enforce this
order by all means.

Alarm and shock is sweeping
West German universities. Some
4,000 students met in West Ber-
lin to protest police brutality
and denounce those guilty of
the murder. They demanded the
resignation of the mayor and
the West Berlin police presi-
dent, punishment for the man
who shot Ohnesorge and re-
moval of all fascists from the

police force. In the centre of
West Berlin I saw many cars
with black flags.

The police report called the
murdered Ohnesorge a “ring
leader”. Here Is the truth:

SFr

Benno Ohnesorg lies unconscious on the groun

Benno Ohnesorge was a non-
political student, who. did not
belong to any party or organiza-
tion. It was the first time he had
ever participated in a demon-
stration. He had been told about

Britain's young Communists hold

per) and a host of branch reso-
utions on various subjects.

Unity of the Left was the key-
note of the opening report by 25-
year-old national secretary Bar-
ney Davis. He pointed out that
‘this government is facing prob-
lems . . . the problems are those
of capitalism in a time when
capitalism is outdated.” He then
emphasized that no matter how
much Prime “finister Wilson
proclaims about the ‘new Brit-
ain,” or the “scientific revolu-
tion,” the theories and practice
of Labor Party’s right wing are
unable to and in fact not intend-
ed to break the power of monop-
oly capitalism.

There was lots of vigorous de-
bate and controversy. While
Congress voted overwhelmingly,
with only 20 votes in opposition,
for the main resolution and in
favor of continued Left unity in
the field of youth struggles, there
was.a closer vote on other is-
sues. There were 109 votes cast
for an amendment to replace
“welcome” with “welcomed” in
the resolution dealing with the
re-election of the Labor govern-
ment.

But 168 delegates defeated
this amendment and retained the

June 23, 1967—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 8

original wording, which said:

“Although we welcome the re-
election of a Labor government
with an increased majority the
young people who voted Labor
wanted to see real changes in
Britain. Most of them are shock-
ed and disappointed with the
government’s record.”

In moving the resolution on
Youth Rights, Ann Pocock, mem-
ber of the retiring national com-
mittee, emphasized it was a
right, not a privilege, to have
decent education, decent jobs
and training, good leisure facili-
ties and the right to vote at 18
years.

Among the other resolutions
adopted one demanded that the
“British government should re-
ject imperialist policies which
strive to hold back the libera-
tion struggles of the Arab peo-
ples.” Others were on: the dan-
gers of drug taking and the need
for regional hospitals for ad-
dicts; in favor of separate par-
liaments for Scotland and Wales;
for strengthening the Race Rela-
tions Act; for increased pensions
for old people.

The League reported a mem-
bership of 5,842 members com-
pared wit. 5,100. at the last Con-

gress. During the past year 61
new branches had been organiz-
ed. A new national committee of
40 members was elected of
whom only seven are girls—an
obvious shortcoming.

There were fraternal delegates
from Communist youth organiza-
tions in 12 countries. Yuri Tor-
suev, fraternal delegate from the
Soviet YCL, told the assembled
young people that they were not
members of a depraved genera-
tion as the capitalist press made
them out to be. “You are fight-
ers for the most advanced ideas
of today,” he said.

In organizing the congress as
part of a week's International
Youth Festival, the YCL empha-
sized that ‘Anyone who wants
to visit the Congress is at liber-
ty to do so” and many Young
Socialists and Young Liberals
accepted the invitation,

In the evenings of the Con-
gress there were organized pro-
grams that included pop groups,
folk singing and movies. The
program for the rest of the fes-
tival, aside from the standard
camp entertainment, games,
sports and swimming in the sea
or in the pool, included a forum
on “Liberalism, Radicalism and

d. A few hours later he died in a h?%

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In a closing Bee ie
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