INTERNATIONAL APPEAL

Free Bobby Seale!

Leaders of the Communist
Party last week branded the ar-
rest Aug. 19 of Bobby Seale,
chairman of the Black Panther
Party, “as a further denial of
the most elementary rights of
the black people.”

The views of the Communist
Party were contained in a state-
ment made public by Claude M.
Lightfoot and Charlene Mitchell,
chairman and secretary, respec-
tively, of the Party’s Commis-
sion on Black Liberation.

Besides the joint statement,
Mrs. Mitchell, 1968 Communist
candidate for President, made
public an international appeal
for protests to organizations
throughout the world.

Text of the joint statement
follows:

“The Communist. Party views
the continued and increased le-
gal terror used against the Black
Panther Party, particularly the
blantant frame-up arrest and re-
arrest of Bobby Seale, as a fur-
ther denial of the most elemen-.
tary rights, of black: people to
fight for total freedom. -The
black community will not be

‘intimidated or silenced by the

terrorist tactics of the local po-
lice, Justice Department, FBI or
any other governmental agency.

“Black Americans as well as
all other Americans who are
aware-of the significance of such
fascist-like policies will resist
even more vigorously all terror
against the Black Panther Party
and its leadership.”

Mrs. Mitchell’s letter, in part,
follows:

“The Nixon Administration
has declared war on my Afro-
American sisters and brothers
and most especially the young
militant forces. President Nixon
has brought the whole state ap-
paratus to bear against anyone

LABOR SCENE
By Bruce Magnuson

who dares to speak out against
the imperialist-racist character
of our government. Even those
who are not directly involved in
the actions against the aggres-
sive war on the Vietnamese peo-
ple, those who have not overtly
participated in any ‘militant’
activities are arrested, some-

times shot and killed bythe po-

BOBBY SEALE

lice because they are ‘suspect.’
This is especially true when the
victim is a young black man or
woman.

“The most recent victim of
this reactionary policy is Bobby
G. Seale, chairman of the Black
Panther Party. Mr. Seale was
summarily arrested by the FBI
in Berkely, California, on Aug.
19, 1969, for allegedly commit-
ting murder and unlawful flight
from the State of Connecticut.
In its absolute preoccupation to
destroy the Black Panther Party
and its leadership in the first
place, the Justice Department
will use any flimsy excuse to do
so. Bobby Seale. spoke at Yale

University in New Haven, Con-
necticut on the supposed date of
a murder and this is the sole
evidence used to place him under
arrest with what his attorney
correctly calls a ‘ridiculously
high bail’ of twenty-five thou-
sand dollars.

“In addition to the attempt
to intimidate and harass the or-
ganizations and individuals who
are the most active — such a
high bail is obviously meant to
deplete the funds of the organi-
zations and their contributors.
But even after friends posted
this extraordinary high bail, lo-
cal California authorities re-
arrested Mr. Seale on the same
essential charge, and to date he
is being held in prison without
bail.

“We in the United States, es-
pecially progressives, are ex-
tremely aware of our responsi-
bility to end the racist on-
slaught against the black people
in our country. But we also real-
ize that we need your help.

“Because I know that you un-
derstand our struggle’ for black
liberation in the United States
is integrally bound to the strug-
gle to end U.S. imperialism, I
urgently call upon you to im-
mediately contact as many or-
ganizations and individuals in
your country as you possibly
can, and ask them to protest in
all forms this grotesque pattern
of the U.S. Justice Department.
I ask you to-request your repre-
sentatives to the United Nations
to raise this issue. Write and

cable the..U.S. Department of’

Justice, Washington, D.C., pro-
testing the outrageous arrest of
Bobby Seale.

“Whatever form your protest
takes that will reflect your soli-
darity with the movement to
free Bobby Seale.

By WILLJAM ALLAN

Private James Humphrey Jr.,
a black soldier, who collected
the dead in Vietnam, died him-
self, he committed suicide in the
basement of his Detroit home
last week. His mother and seven
sister$ told newsmen that the
war drove him to suicide. He
was found hanging from a pipe
in the basement.

They told a tragic story of
how Humphrey spent_ the last
eight months of his life back
home in Detroit, but his mind
and heart remained locked in a
military prison Vietnam.

He volunteered for the Army
when ‘he was about to be draft-
ed, and thought by volunteering
he’d be able to have a choice,
namely he didn’t want to kill
anyone. He spent his first year
-in Vietnam as an assistant med-
ic in.the 128th Helicopter Co.
His job was to retrive and count
bodies. He thought that he would
be sent home after a year in
“combat. When he was not, he
refused further combat action
and spent the second year in a
military prison.

‘His mother said he refused
all action because he thought
the war was pointless, and the

are aoa for.

He was given a discharge
der conditions less than h
able,” on September 23,
and returned home last Octo

His mother said that her?
started to die slowly soon
he came home. “He slept
time, like he couldn’t sta
when he was awake,” she
bed. “He had no_ energy:
stayed in the house, Wi
eat.”

She said he spent the
eight months telling his [
and friends about the hau
faces of the dead soldiers
picked up and loaded inte a
copters. He told them he pi et
up the’arms and legs of frie
he went to boot camp al
How he found one of his af
friends, lying dead on the Bry
smiling up at him, and how MI
spoke to his friend and how
friend did not answer him.

She said, he shuddered
shook, when he told the Pe
in the house on Lumpkin. viet
Detroit, how he picked UP”
namese children who were ©,
ed beyond recognition bY, ie |
palm. He said the faces of
dead men and the chi
wouldn’t leave him alone.

Mass action— pic

unity, answer to

ket line

attacks

On August 12, about 80 mem-
bers of the Ontario Provincial
Police riot squad, plus local
police, waded into and smashed a
small UAW picket line at the
SKD Manufacturing Co. plant
at Amherstburg, 17 miles south-
east of Windsor, Ontario. The

week before this, fed up with -

five months of stalling by the
company on a first agreement
after recognition of Local 89 of
the United Auto Workers, the
330° members involved struck
the plant.

Three days before, on Sat.
Aug. 9, a fleet of trucks came
to remove tools and dies be-
longing to the Ford Motor Co.
in Detroit. If Ford intended to
use this equipment at another
plant it would mean permanent-
depriving the |. Amherstburg
workers of their jobs. On that
occasion the _ pickets _ stood
firm and blocked entry into the
plant.

During the weekend, the Ford
Motor Co. of the United States
obtained a court order to en-
able it to remove the equipment.

On Monday, Aug. 11, the
UAW pickets dug a 15 foot long
trench, two feet wide and two
feet deep across the entrance to

the plant yard.

The following day, Tuesday,
Aug. 12, UAW representatives
met with provincial police, com-
pany executives, the Amherst-
burg chief of police and officials
of the Essex County Sheriff’s
office. Here is how the press re-
ported subsequent events —

“An hour later, a convoy of
five trucks headed by a dump
truck full of sand, moved up the
streets toward the gate.

“Twenty-five persons ga-
there at the gate sat down in
the middle of the road.”

UAW International Represen-
tative Mike White, was subse-
quently reported as saying that
the police did not give the strik-
ers a chance to get out of the
way, but waded right in, strik-
ing out right and left with their
three feet long riot sticks and
wearing helmets.

Several strikers were injured
and about one-third were ar-
rested on the flimsy charge of,
obstructing the police.

At this point one must ask if
the UAW representatives who
met with police and company
Officials prior to the assault on
the pickets sanctioned such a

ees ho Toda SE 3 1969 PAGE 4

move behind the backs of the

“strikers?

If so, what excuse could there
be for such a move, injunction
or no injunction?

Two years ago the UAW
failed to gain a first agreement
at Wolverine Tube Ltd. in Lon-
don, Ontario.

Then the North American
Plastics Co. plant at Wallace-
burg was organized. For over a
year its owner, Michael Ludney

Jr., has sought to decertify the

UAW. in this plant. He has even
gone as far as to write a pam-
phlet and deliver lectures on
“How to break a UAW strike.”

Now the experience at the
SKD Manufacturing Co. Ltd. in
Amherstburg.

Is this to be followed at an-
other North American Plastic’s
plant, the Paragon Tools Ltd.,
which has recently been organ-
ized by the UAW and perhaps
certified by the time this ap-
pears in print?

These smaller plants — job-
bers for the big corporations—
defy a big union in one place
after another. Where is the line
to be drawn?

. °

The collusion between the big

corporate interests and our

government at both federal and
provincial levels is all too ob-
vious.

Under present labdr laws it is
possible for unions to obtain
legal certification only to be de-
nied bargaining rights, to have
unions broken by employers’
court injunctions, followed by
police action to break strikes.

Our labor laws are loaded
against the unions. In Ontario
the Labor Relations Act prov-
ides that a union cannot legally
strike until 16 days after all
conciliation services have been
exhausted and a final report has
been rendered by the Minister
of Labor.

The legal red tape can take
months and even years. Often
the workers stand to lose wag-
es and other benefits unless re-
troactivity is provided for in a
new contract.

The dismissal of 37 workers
by the Algoma Steel Corpora-
tion is another example of the
unsatisfactory situation exist-
ing. These workers left their
jobs illegally after their agree-
ment expired, and after other
workers in the same industry
and belonging to the same
union, and whose agreements
expired at the same time, were

4

e

already on a legal strike: fs
gardless of the form in ers
the frustration of these Wo |
found expression, the OF 4
not on them, but on the /?
ism and red tape by which
ployers and governments iy
advantage of compliant ¥ ca
leaders to a point that d defies
logic and common sensé- a
It is high time that lead?
unions, large and small, © iy
to recognize the face % giv
class enemy that seeks ' 5
ide and rule—that the on
struggle is not a fiction if
people’s imagination,
harsh reality of life. ion?
The only proper conclus: is
be drawn from this reall i
that working class $0!" jth
and mass action togethet tie’
its allies in our comm ae
throughout the country #
ternationally is the ans

Big unions or small, § Oe :
cannot be won without “ig
action to win community, iat
port. Not smart negou’ of
alone, but membershiP§ (gt
unions acting in solidarl’ + ine
win victories on the pick® "4c
and everywhere. Milita?
tion, not pussyfooting
answer. a