-_.

Mrs. Helen Hendrickson (left) and Mrs. Jessie Baltimore attend-

ing a news conference in New York City protesting treatment of Black Panthers held in city jails without bail as part of New York 21.

Each woman has a son in jail.

Protest persecution

of Black Panthers

In response to a world-wide appeal issued by the Communist Party of the U.S.A., the Com- munist Party of Canada has is- sued a public statement, expres- sing solidarity with the just struggles of black Americans, and urging Canadians to speak out and to act against the reign of terror in the U.S.A.

“The Communist Party of Canada, in company with all de- mocratic Canadians, is deeply shocked and angered by the bru- tal campaign of physical exter- mination against the leaders and members of the Black Panther Party unleashed by the Admini- stration of President Nixon,” says the statement.

“The murderous violence be- ing perpetrated against this black militant organization which fights for the rights of the black people in the United States is of the same genocidal pattern as the My Lai massacres cCar- ried through by U.S. armed forces in Vietnam.

“The Dec. 4, 1969 murders in Chicago of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark brought the total police killings of leaders and members of the Blac..‘ Panther organization since January 1968 to 28. Jt is reported that in the past six months alone 40 leaders and 125 members of the Black Panther Party have been arrest- ed. Many have been charged, simply on the word of police in» formers, with major crimes in- cluding murder. Bobby Seale, national chairman, has been sent- enced to four years in prison on the relatively minor charge of contempt of court.

“This outrageous wave of murders and arrests has been set in motion by the same reac- tionary, racist, exploiting mono- poly interests whose polices are responsible for the U.S. aggres- sion against the Vietnamese peo- ple, that lurk behind the politi- cal murders of President Ken- nedy, Martin Luther King, Mal- colm X, Medgar Evers, Robert Kennedy and United Mine Work- ers’ leader Joseph Yablonski, his wife and daughter.

“The Communist Party con- demns these illegal potice kill- ings, brutal persecution and wholesale arrests of Black Pan- ther leaders and members as a most outrageous expression of genocidal policies spawned by big monied interests in the Unit- ed States against the black peo- ple of that country.

-“We Canadian Communists wish to express our solidarity with the just struggles of the

PACIFHG FRIBUNE-JANUARY 16,-1970-—Page 4>:5.+

black people of the United States who, more than a century after the liberation from chattel slav- ery, are forced to struggle mili- tantly in that land of boasted af- fluence against inhuman condi- tions arising out of widespread uemployment, slum housing, poverty, hunger and sickness.

“We urge all democratic Can- adians, political parties, trade unions, farm organizations, all organizations of the people and all public spirited individuals to speak out now against these police crimes against black Ame- ricans by the U.S. Justice De- partment, FBI and the police of the big cities.

“We make this plea because the struggle against reaction and repression knows no state boun- daries. What happens in the United States could happen in Canada tomorrow.

“Write or wire your protests to President Nixon. He can stop- these police killings, persecution and arrests of Black Panther leaders and members. Let us de- mand that he do so. Demand that the United Nations Human Rights Commission investigate and call for world action against the criminal policy of genocide pursued in the United States. Demand that the Canadian gov- ernment express the anger and protest of the: Canadian people to the Nixon Administration.”

The Communist Party of Can- ada wired President Nixon ex- pressing the shock of Canadians at the brutal killings and whole- sale arrests of Black Panthers. The wire ended: “We = con- demn the criminal policy of genocide being pursued by your administration against the black people of the United States and urge you to put an end to the- police brutality and killings di- rected against the black people.”

The CP of Canada, also wired the United Nations Human Rights Commission demanding that it investigate the criminal policy of genocide being pursued in the United States against the black people of that country.

It also called upon the Tru-

deau administration in the fol-.

lowing words: “The brutal cam- paign of police repression, and killings unleashed against lead- ers and members of the Black Panther Party requires Canadian government protest to the Unit- ed States on behalf of democratic Canadians calling for an end to this criminal police brutality di- rected against these militant rep- resentatives of. black’. Ameri- cans.” ee

2 vo pean

Trudeau's ‘twist’

Fronts for Nixon on Viet, doubledealing on Nigeria

The Prime Minister is back with us. Wrapped cosily in a $1,500 otter coat, fresh from the rich man’s pleasure spots in British ‘Honduras and the French

Alps, he was waylaid by

demonstrators — Claire Culhane, Que- bec Voice of Women president, and Michael Rubbo, a producer for the

National Film Board. Both

beneath his office, and caught him on his way to lunch. While his Cadillac waited, he stopped, we are told, for an eight-minute debate. As clearly as at any pre- vious time, Mr. Trudeau reveal- ed his support for the Nixon administration’s Vietnam policy with his. snide, ‘In the United States I feel the democratic pressures on this President and on the previous one are prob- ably stronger in the direction of peace than they are, for in- stance, with the government in

Hanoi and the government in:

Peking.”

There you have it. Why not, the Prime Minister said in es- sence, go to Hanoi and Peking and tell them to stop. Prime Minister Trudeau is well aware that Hanoi is not a foreign power invading Vietnam, but is the victim of U.S. aggression. The Chinese People’s Republic

-~has no troops in Vietnam, but

the United States does.

To the suggestion from the demonstrators that a Canadian government stand against the war might persuade the U.S. to pull out, just as world opinion had persuaded France to pull out of its war in Indo-China and Al- geria, Mr. Trudeau answered in that studiously cultivated man- ner of a parent chiding a child, “France only got out of Indo- China and Algeria when she had to get out.”

In contradiction to himself, and in an unconscious acknowl- edgment of mass peace actions, he went on to say that President Johnson had been destroyed by the war, and that Nixon might face a similar fate, if he didn’t come to some solution.

Mr. Trudeau’s_ eight-minute talk with the peace demonstra- tors was long enough to confirm the commitment of his adminis- tration to full support of Nixon’s war against Vietnam. He denied aiding the United States, but did not explain or discuss the profi- steering of Canadian arms manu- facturers, and chemical people, out of the war.

The interview came at a time when the fall of Biafra and a debate in the House of Com- mons took over the front pages of the capitalist press.

The New Democratic and the Tory parties and, outside of Parliament, the Joint Church Aid and Canairelief, have been campaigning for supplies to the Biafrans, and supplies have been flown there with Canadian gov- ernment assistance. The. ques- tion of Biafran relief became a -major topic of public attention in Canada during the 214 years of the war there.

There is no doubt that war brings countless horrors. Viet- nam testifies to this even more than Nigeria. There is no doubt that starvation is dreadful. The

existence of both: starvation ‘and-

ee a FO eb tb be

v7

By W. C. BEECHING

two peace

have camp-

hunger as a mass phenomenon in the world testifies to this, and makes our wheat surplus an indictment of Canada. The prac- tical expressions of compassion made by Canadian people are commendable.

But there are even bigger questions to be asked. Why, for instance, do the NDP, the Tories, the churches, and other organizations, single out Biafra in particular for aid? Why were Canadians inundated with pic- tures only of starving Biafran children? Why’ were campaigns mounted in our schools for them, when little or nothing has been done about similar situa- tions elsewhere in the world, and when nothing on that scale has been done about the horror visited on the Vietnamese by the U.S. imperialists?

Asking the questions is to an- swer them. A newly founded Nigerian state was set up, and the present government was and is its legitimate government. Obviously, at the outset there are serious problems in estab- lishing new states, as there were in Nigeria.

But the problems would be overcome fairly easily if it weren’t for the colonial powers that exploit contradictions and difficulties to try to regain their lost positions. The efforts of im- perialists for their own profit, to foment the secession of the Ibo tribesmen in oil-rich Biafra province caused the resultant tragedy. The cost in lives and suffering doesn’t appear on the balance sheets of the big mono- polies.

The collapse of the Biafra se- cession is a big blow to world imperialism.

The Canadian government has played a double game from the outset. On the one hand it has officially acted through the pro- per Nigerian sources. The Ot- tawa government discussed with General Gowon in Lagos the de- tails of relief flights. It avoided, at all times, taking actions that could be construed as giving of- ficial recognition to Biafra as an independent state.

With rare humility, the Prime Minister, speaking to the House of Commons on Novy. 27th last, said: “Canadians possess no se- cret formula for concluding wars; they are not gifted with any divine guidance into the rights and wrongs of the argu- ments of strangers .. . To inter- vene when not asked, however, would not be an act of courage; it would be an act of stupidity. There are some 30 countries in Africa south of the Sahara that have achieved independence since 1957. Every one of these emerged into nationhood follow- ing a lengthy and anguished colonial history. No single act would be regarded with more

hostility. by any. of them than.

ae VP aS 24 LU RS CS Lass

ed for 19 days beside a downtown Ot-" tawa church in a protest against the Canadian government’s failure to take a stand opposing- U.S: imperialism’s war against Vietnam. ;

They had written Mr. Trudeau for an interview, but were told that he had no time for them. So they staked out the exit from the Parliament buildings

-and

’ creases and

the unilateral intervention of @ non-African state into their af- fairs.” 4

The Trudeau administration then actually adopted a wait- and-see attitude, described in the words of the Prime Minister ~ himself on that oCcasion, “it” would be wrong for the Cana- ~ dian government to assist the - Nigerian government militarily, - but it would be equally wrong for the Canadian government to assist the rebel regime political Hees eae

On that occasion the Prime ~ Minister chose to cast doubt on © the allegations of genocide and starvation, at least in terms of © degree. :

Nigeria provides the oppor- tunity for Canada to establish relationships of full equality and— mutual benefit, which would meet the needs of all the people © in Nigeria—particularly for food” technology—and at the” same time would bring jobs and — expanded opportunities to young” Canadians. 4

CBC workers

union blasts “austerity”

Negotiations which opened last week in Ottawa for 2,000 Canadian Broadcasting Corpora” tion production employees will be a “fight against the austerity policies of the Trudeau govern” ment” said a spokesman for thé Canadian Union of Public Em” ployees. 7

“We do not believe that em” ployees of a federal crown cor poration should be made thé scapegoats for the federal gov” ernment’s inability to cope wit!) the inflation problem. 4

“The Trudeau austerity meas” ures will not stand in the way of CBC production employees) winning for themselves wage 1” improvements if fringe benefits that will kee? them in line with workers if private industry,” said CUPE chief negotiator Gilles Pelland: “We will fight against the aus]. terity policies of the Trudea¥) government,” he added. am

Mr. Pelland said the union wil) fight for contract provisions thak will prevent cutbacks in. the staff of the CBC. “The CBC, hae played a social role which is vel) important for the cultural ane economic life of the country! Harsh economic cuts will hut all Canadians, not just CBC em ployees.” j

The TV production employee include tradesmen (painter carpenters, etc.) stage-hand® script-assistants, designers (gt@) phic set, costume. etc.) fill cameramen and all those that al directly, involyed in, the produg tion of television programn

= sores