‘U.S. conspiracy in Cambodia charges U.S. professor After listening to the speech by U.S. professor Dr. E. W. Pfeiffer Sunday night, and seeing his color slides and movies, there was little doubt left in the minds of a near-capacity audience in the Teamsters Hall, that the answer to the question: ‘‘Is there an American’ Conspiracy Against Cambodia?’ was definitely ‘‘yes.” Dr. Pfeiffer who is a professor of Zoology at the University of Montana, recently returned from a visit to Cambodia and South Vietnam where he travelled extensively to study the effects of the war. In his opening remarks Dr. Pfeiffer referred to recent events in Cambodia and said the question is no longer whether there is a U.S. conspiracy: “There was a U.S. conspiracy in Cambodia,”’ he said. Pointing out that Cambodia was the last neutral country in South East Asia, the speaker charged that deliberate and premeditated attacks by U.S. forces on Cambodia were aimed at creating an atmosphere for the rightist coup which followed. He said U.S. officials were disturbed by Cambodia’s neutrality and would like to establish U.S. political control and military bases in the country. He charged that the U.S. has deliberately fostered the story that Cambodia was used as a sanctuary by National Lib- eration Front and North Vietnamese troops, -and that there were 40 to 50,000 of them along the border with South Vietnam. Dr. Pfeiffer described his extensive tour along. the Cambodian border with South Vietnam and said he found no evidence that Cambodia was being used as a sanctuary by NLF or North Vietnamese troops. Nor is there, he said, any shred of evidence to prove the U.S. charge. Many. dead Cambodians were found as a result of U.S. actions, but there has never been a dead or wounded NLF or North Viet- namese found. The speaker gave a_ vivid description and presented photo- graphic proof to show his audience that there had been large scale defoliation operations carried out along the Cambodian border by USS. forces, probably the CIA through its subsidiary Air America Lines, operating in South: East Asia. Color slides and .movies showed vast areas of Cambodia devastated by chemical defoliants. Particularly hard hit were the rubber plantations, 30 percent of which had been devastated, and trees and vegetation on which the people depend for their food. He also described and showed pictures of a Cambodian army post which had been destroyed by U.S. bomber attacks, and a village in which a school And hospital were destroyed some distance away in which 35 Cambodians were killed or wounded. U.S. forces used large bombs as well as napalm in this _attack. Dr. Pfeiffer said there was no _possibility that U.S. planes didn’t _ know where the border was and that their attacks were accidental. The Cambodian border is defined by a large river and the attacks on the Cambodian army post and village were obviously premeditated and deliberate. The U.S. professor said the evidence shows that the U.S. military attacks on Cambodia’s sovereignty in the guise of_ chasing ‘‘Vietcong,” and the wholesale defoliation of Cambodian countryside was a “pressure tactic’. which was aimed to provide the excuse for the rightist coup. He said the demonstrations in Phnom Penh, with marchers carrying signs in English, “Vietcong get out,’’ were staged . for photographers and the world press. Protestors against the war in Vietnam here don’t carry signs in Vietnamese, he said. Criticising the role of Canada in the Cambodian events, Dr. Pfeiffer reminded his audience that Canada has a repre- sentative on the International Control Commission which is supposed to supervise the cease fire in S.E. Asia. He said Canadians should demand of the Canadian representative that he answer the question: ‘Where and when did you see massive numbers of NLF in Cambodia?”’ An appeal by Mrs. Sheila Young for funds for artificial limbs for amputee children in Vietnam brought $150. Chairman of the rally was UBC professor of economics G. Rosenbluth. ANNUAL BOOK SALE (20% to 80% — Storewide) CO-OP BOOKSTORE 341 WEST PENDER ST. Vancouver 3, B.C. MARCH 28 to APRIL 11 Store Hours— Monday to Saturday 9 a.m. to5 p.m. Fridays— 9 a.m. to9 p.m. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—MARCH 27, 1970—Page 12 LABOR SCENE Woodworkers charge Clyne, Bonner call shots The IWA Regional Council charged last week that J.V. Clyne, former Supreme Court judge, and Robert Bonner, former Attorney-General, as chief officers of the M-B empire, call the shots in all sections of the forest industry in this province. The employer’s spokesman has blocked coast negotiations by refusing to discuss the union’s contract demands unless the’ representatives from the Int. Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Papermill workers, and B.C. Federation of Labor are removed from the bargaining sessions. The Regional Council maintains that co-operation between the IWA and all unions in the forest industry during neg- tiations would, for the first time, allow these unions to be informed of one another’s strategy. In the Lower Mainland, workers in two plants in Local 1- WILLIAM KASHTAN, national leader_of the Communist Party, will deliver a public lecture to mark the Lenin Centennial (1870-- 1970) on Sun. April 5 at 8 p.m. at AUUC Hall, 805 E. Pender St. Mon., April 6 he will speak at the “Union Centre” in Victoria at 8 p.m. He will also address a Lenin Centennial banquet in the Elks Hall, Vernon on Wed. April 8 before returning to Toronto. 217 have been fighting new , battles against the bosses. This. week~- union members at Weldwood-Kent are fighting a court injunction which the company obtained to stop them from instructing workers not to work overtime. At press time no decision had been handed down. A work stoppage at Eburne Sawmills was needed to resolve a problem created by manage- ment subcontracting main- tenance work. With a reduction in maintenance men employed in most departments — no replacements for those quitting or retired — more and more outside contracting was taking place. On Friday morning, there was a work stoppage when a welder appeared on the job without a’ union card. Work resumed after he left. Saturday morning regular tradesmen at the mill gathered at the gate for a meeting and decided they would stop the con- tractors from taking over their jobs. -Four ‘contract’ crewmen were turned back before work resumed. 2 * eK The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers Union has protested a ruling of the Labor Relations Board which denied them certification, and opens the door to the most vicious kind of anti-labor collusion and mani- pulation in certification votes. It all started when UE applied for certification of 24 workers at B.C. Fluorescent Sales and Service Ltd., last January 26. Nothing happened until February 18, (almost a month later) when the Company laid off four of the workers involved. One week later the Board ordered a representative vote. That same day the Company laid off two more union members. The voting list, (made up by the Company and approved by Labor Board returning officer Jack Lauffling) which should in all fiarness have included those on the payroll at the time of the certification application, Prominent trade unionist to speak here on May Day Tony Tormey, one of the leaders in the massive, pre- cedent-shattering General Electric strike in the United States, has accepted the invi- tation of the Vancouver May Day Committee to address a rally in John Oliver High School Sunday, May 3., chairman Bill Turner announced this week. Tormey, a District Repre- sentative of the U.E. from Boston, Massachusets, was one of the leaders of the nationwide G.E. strike which united 14 unions (including the IEU- CIO, U.E. (ind.) and IBEW- AFL) to which the AFL-CIO contributed $2 million. Unity brought the first major strike victory over- the mammoth world monopoly, and broke the Nixon austerity line. Jack Nichol, new Secretary- Treasurer of the United Fisher- men’s Union, has agreed to chair the May Day Rally, and a prominent black spokesman from the Pacific Northwest is expected to round out the program with local trade unionists. : 1870 — 1970 LENIN CENTENARY var WILLIAM KASHTAN VANCOUVER AUUC HALL 805 East Pender SUN. APRIL 5, 8 p.m. excluded even those laid off the day the list was compiled! The company _ included, however, three ‘‘confidential company staff members’’ the Plant Superintendent, the Office | Manager and the Company Security Guard. SHIPS BUILT — CANUCKS FIRED Dateline, Yokihama, Japal: “A 57,000 ton dry bulk carriel named after Sir William Cornelius Van Horne, key builder of the CP Railway has been launched here . ; . It is the eighth of 10 ships being built 1 Japan for CPR at a cost of $80 million.” oe The week after the above story. appeared in the March 14 issue 0 the Vancouver Express, Burrare Dry Dock Company laid of almost half its crew, which included some 60 welders, aS well as ships platers, ship wrights, etc. The company advises that there is no wor ahead in the foreseeable future for the Vancouver yard. At the same time, a story i! the U.S. press reveals that CPR has petitioned the Canadial government to cancel out its national passenger service. The article states that the CP ‘doesn’t really expect” it will get such permission, but it is the first step of a legal process bY which the CPR hopes to ge government subsidies of 80 pe cent of its passenger service operating losses! This CPR is the compaly which was granted a franchise build a railroad across Canada and for doing so was given 4? outright gift of thousands of square miles of land as well 4 outright gifts of millions ? dollars in cash with the under standing that adequalé passenger service would — made available to the Canadia? people. The exposure of the newes! outrage perpetrated by CPR wa made by Wm. Stewart of Marine Workers and Boilef makers Union at last week. meeting of the VLC, and ; carried in this week’s issue ° the union paper, ‘Ship 4” Shore”’ in more detail. At the VLC meet, stewal! called for nationalization of CPR, which as he said ‘‘calls f subsidies from the Canadia? government, (read taxpayel Ed.) while at the same time 40% nothing to alleviate or evel recognize the precarious state of shipbuilding and sul our repairing industries insofar employment is concerned.”