Eleven men and one woman are on trial in Pretoria, South Africa
for allegedly assisting the underground organization

of the African National Congress.

Under the Terrorism Act they face a minimum sentence of five years—

the maximum penalty is death.

Rally demands Trudeau
pull out of Alcan talks

Cont'd from pg. 1

minister Trudeau had _ told
Parliament that the Alcan pipeline
would be undertaken only under
certain conditions, such as a $200
million Heritage Fund, and a
connecting link to Canadian gas
resources, Kashtan said:

“Press reports now state that
Canada’s’ representative in
negotiations with the U.S., has
retreated from these two con-
ditions. If this is true it adds ad-
ditional force to the demand for no
pipeline now, prime minister
Trudeau stated when selling the
idea of the Alcan pipeline to
Parliament and the Canadian
people, that ‘unless an agreement
is reached on the delta connection,
the idea of an Alaska pipeline
should be buried, leaving open the
should be xuried, leaving open the
possiblity of development of the
north at a time and pace which
serves Canada’s needs.”

The Communist Party leader
warned that. it is folly to believe
that the U.S. will finance and build
a pipeline in Canada for the benefit
of the Canadian people. “U.S.
imperialism is concerned first, last
and always with its basic interests
and these include, by whatever

means, aquiring control of
Canada’s natural resources and
energy.

“In light of this reality it is
difficult to understand the position
of the NDP. It has two voices and
two positions,” said Kashtan..He
pointed out that at its Winnipeg
convention the NDP adopted a
resolution opposing a pipeline or
pipelines in the north until the land
claims of the native poeple were
settled, but in Parliament the NDP
group voted for the pipeline
“which will not serve the interests
of Canada nor lead to resolution of
land claims of the native people.”

Pointing out that the pipeline will
create very few permanent jobs,
Kashtan said, “full employment
does not lie through the Alcan
pipeline. It lies through the
adoption of new economic and
social policies which utilize the
great resources of Canada as a
basis for the building of secondary

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—SEPTEMBER 2, 1977—Page 8

industries and through expansion
of trade with the socialist and
newly-liberated countries.”
Adding that full employment
also depends on curbing the
monopolies and multinational
corporations and adopting of an
all-Canadian energy policy which

utlizes Canada’s energy resource

for independent economic
development, Kashtan said there
was still time to compel the
government to retreat from its
present course and stop the sellout
of Canada interests.

The Communist leader called for
unity of all those concerned ‘with
the future of Canada. He urged
support in the trade union and
democatic movement for the
demand of “no pipeline now.”

A resolution introduced by rally
chairman Maurice Rush called on
prime minister Trudeau ‘“‘to for-
thwith withdraw from negotiations
with the U.S. and to cancel the
decision to proceed with the
building of the Alcan pipeline. The
resolution said “it is not in
Canada’s interests to proceed with
a northern pipeline now.”

World campaign underway _
for release of Pretoria 12

A massive campaign has been
initiated in this country and around
the world demanding the release of
the Pretoria 12, the eleven men and
one woman who are now facing the
courts of apartheid South Africa in
what has been seen as the most
important trial since 1964 when
African National Congress leader
Nelson Mandela and others were
sentenced to life imprisonment.

Around the world, protests
against the trial have inundated
the Voerster regime in response to
the call by the African National
Congress for a mighty ‘in-
ternational campaign.

In this country, the Toronto-
based Canadians Concerned about
South Africa distributed a letter
among hundreds of organizations
outlining the case and urging
support for the 12.

A number of organizations and
prominent figures have already
endorsed the campaign including
Toronto MP Andrew Brewin,
Ontario NDP leader Stephen
Lewis, Alberta NDP leader Grant
Notley, George Ignatieff, former
Canadian representative to the
UN, alderman Harry Rankin,
Communist Party of Canada
leader William Kashtan and
Canadian Peace Congress
president John Morgan.

The government of Quebec, in a
letter from intergovernmental
affairs minister Claude Morin, also
endorsed the campaign.

The Canadian Labor Congress as
well as the United Auto Workers
and the United Electrical Workers
sent telegrams to Vorster
protesting the trials.

In this province, the Southern
African Action Coalition and the
B.C. Peace Council issued wires of
protest to the South African
government and plans were un-
derway at Tribune press time to
initiate a committee as well as
further support on behalf of the 12.

The Pretoria 12, are facing trial
in Supreme Court for allegedly
assisting the underground ac-
tivities of the African National
Congress. They have been in court
since May 11 and the length of the
proceedings is an indication of the
strength of international solidarity
with them and their cause.

Despite that, much. more
pressure will have to be brought to
bear, the ANC has warned,
stressing that this trial is the most
important since the Rivonia Trial
of 1964 during which the in-
ternational pressure prevented the
passage. of the death« sentence
against Nelson Mandela and other

_ ANC leaders.

Instructor reinstated
in landmark decision

In a precedent-setting decision,
the Labor Relations Board ruled
this week that the North Island
Community College at Campbell
River, B.C.; must reinstate union
leader Carol Campbell to her
faculty position and pay Campbell
$3,200 in back wages.

Campbell is treasurer and
spokesman for the struggling
North Island College Employees
Association’ (NICEA) which has
been engaged in a battle for
recognition with the College for
two years.

The College has_ resisted
unionization by hiring faculty on
short term contracts and refusing
to re-hire faculty who joined or
supported NICEA. Campbell lost

her position about one year ago
when the College failed to re-hire
her to teach the employment op-
portunities for women course
which she had designed and taught
the year before. NICEA And the
College Faculties Federation of
B.C. filed an unfair labor practices
charge with the LRB, alleging that
Campbell was not rehired solely
because of her union activity.

The virtual ‘“‘blacklist’’ against
faculty and the unorthodox,
tyrannical administration of
College principle Dennis Wing has
brought storms of protest from
Campbell River community
groups and college faculty
associations elsewhere in the
province.

Several of those now on trial are
themselves veterans of the South
African liberation struggle and
have already served long. prison
sentences on Robbin Island, the
same prison to which Mandela and
others were sentenced. On trial
with them are youth from Soweto.

They are being tried under the
notorious Terrorism Act, a
sweeping piece of legislation which
virtually assures that all opponents
of the regime will be found guilty of
conspiring to overthrow the
government by violent means. It
carries a maximum sentence of
five years — and a maximum of
death.

And yet the charges against
them “are totally unjustified,” the
ANC has declared. ‘‘The regime is
using this trial to instill fear into
our people. . .”’

All of the accused appear in the
courtroom in chains and have been
tortured according to press reports
of the testimony by the state’s chief
witness who described how he was
tortured and forced by police to lie
to the court under threat of death.

The dramatic trial of the
Pretoria 12 is part of a wave of
repression launched by the
minority government of South
Africa in an attempt to stem the
tide of liberation.

Only last month, nine of the
members of another group of
prisoners, the Pietermaritzburg
Ten were issued brutal sentences.
Five were given life imprisonment
while four received sentences
ranging from seven to 18 years.

Earlier this month, in an in-

terview in the South Africa
publication, To The Point, South
African police minister Jam&
Kruger arrogantly declared that
hundreds more would be_ tried
under the Terrorism Act.

He announced that there would
be a total of 52 ‘‘terrorist”’ trials,
some of which had already begut
in various centres throughout
South Africa. The largest trial was
expected to take place in Pott
Elizabeth where Kruger said 137
people would go to court in threé
trials.

- “The intensification of the reign
of terror unleashed against the
ANC and its allies is a desperate
bid by the Vorster regime
destroy the ANC Which challenge
the regime’s very existence,” the
ANC said in a statement issu
following the Pietermaritzburé
trial. “‘But the oppressed people ?
South Africa led by the ANC will
never surrender.”

Declaring “It is the apartheid
regime that should stand trial and
not those who are fighting for a
free South Africa,” the ANC urg'
for international support for thosé
now facing trial.

Actions that Canadians can take
immediately include:

o Wires and letters of protest

to prime minister Vorster, Unio?
Buildings, Pretoria, South Africa:

o Requests to local MP’s and
MLA’s for support for the cally
paign.

o Letters to prime ministet
Trudeau urging government a@
tion.

o Letters of protest to the South

African Embassy, Ottawa.

Rent act ‘steamrolled’

over tenant opposition

The Socred Residential Tenancy
Act (Bill 86) that will scuttle rent
controls and weaken tenant rights
in B.C. was steamrolled through
second reading in the legislature
this week after only five and a half

hours debate while the B.C.»

Tenant’s Organization protested
that the government has adopted a
“tenant’s be damned”’ policy.

“B.C.’s half million tenants ‘will
very shortly be faced with higher
and higher rents — considerably
above the already unjustified
levels,” the BCTO charged in a
statement issued by president
Bruce Yorke and _ secretary
Margaret DeWees, “‘B.C.’s handful
of corporate landlords will pocket
additional millions.”

The tenants pressed for a
meeting with Socred minister Rafe
Mair when the bill was first in-
troduced toask the minister to hold
up its passage. until after
discussion with the tenants
movement. Mair finally consented
to a meeting Monday but flatly
refused to delay passage of the bill
or to meet with tenants in a public
meeting. The tenant represen-
tatives walked out on the minister

in frustration, only to discover that
the Act was already being give?
second reading.

Mair told the BCTO lobby thal
there would be no point in meetiné
tenants ina public meeting, as thé
legislation is ‘‘fait accompli,” ant
cast aside the tenant charges thal
the government was refusing
tenant input as ‘‘bullshit.”’

“How contemptuous can #
government get?” the BCTO
statement countered.

The government’s actions have
forced the tenant movement
draw obvious conclusions, sal
Yorke and DeWees, ‘‘namely th hal
the Social Credit government is
heavily weighted in favor of thé

landlords, leaving tenants only on®
course of action — to step up

organization of tenants int?
associations and councils to briné
maximum pressure to bear on thé
two bureaucratic governme?
offices, the Rentalsman and the
Rent Review Commission.”

A public meeting to discuss thé
implications of the new Act has
beenset for 2 p.m. on September !
at a location to be announced laté

101 - 1416 COMMERCIAL DR.,

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