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Union leaders declare:

‘We won't stand for it”

. By WILLIAM ALLAN

WINDSOR — Ed Baillargeon, President of the Windsor Labor Council representing 32,000 trade unionists, said:

‘This is serious, what’s going On in Canada today. The sup- Pression of civil liberties, the atrests of hundreds including trade unionists, raids on homes, Press censorship, all under the 4 ar Measures Act, means Cana- lan union leaders must meet ed decide to act.

We have a meeting of the Council Tuesday night and I'll Propose we telegraph the leaders Of the Ontario Federation of La- a for a provincial meeting to ace up to our responsibilities, Which as I see it is to return de-

Mocracy to Canada. Also the On-

tario Federation of Labor has its Convention in Niagara Falls Oy. 2-3-4 and our delegation Will make this an issue there.” Pcatles Brooks, president of © UAW Local 444, Chrysler, With 9,400 members; said, ‘The anger to Canadian labor is Sreat here. Already they have arrested an unknown number of abor leaders in Quebec as well 4 radicals, peace forces, stu- Pee: and God knows what in €ir dragnet. It could happen in dsor, Hamilton, Toronto, ancouver too. You can be sure the anti- peor employers are smacking heir lips. They already will be- Sin to charge every union or- 8anizer with. carrying bombs, being a Bolshevik, and the old

NEW YORK — The move to €xtradite Angela Davis, black Communist and freedom fighter, to California on a murder and

dnapping warrant was de- Nounced at a’ press conference Y Gus Hall, general secretary of

a Eee munis Party of the

The charges are “a fraud and a pmeUp,” Hall declared, calling Or mass pressure, reaching up to Gov. Rockefeller to stop the €xtradition.

Miss Davis is being held by the New York police for a Nov.

extradition hearing.

The issues go deeper than the legal aspects, Hall told the Crowded press conference.

The California charges, Hall Said, rest on flimsy evidence.

_ Angela Davis, he pointed out, ™ her concern for prison reform and aiding the defense of jailed black Americans had helped the defense of George Jackson, one Of the three men known as the Soledad Brothers. The three had been accused of shooting a guard NM San Quentin prison earlier

“this year. Subsequently she was

accused of having bought guns Mvolved in a shooting incident 4 ‘Marin County in which €orge Jackson’s brother, Jona- than, was killed. Press hysteria Although there is no proof that

She had bought the guns, the Mass media and the FBI have al-

_Teady convicted Miss Davis, Hall

Said. “It is generally known that iss Davis was out of California When the incident took place,” he added. “Miss Davis had the right to Say at what moment she wished

red herring is going to be used.

In Canada, only one out of eight workers is in a union. It is worth while for labor to look into the Quebec scene—we could find employers’ agents operating there to create a situation where we are now under military rule. In 1919, we had the Winnipeg General Strike, and the ruling class used that struggle to im- pose national anti-labor legisla- tion on us, Section 98, the effects of which lasted for 15 years.

“The mask is dropping from Trudeau and his mentor in the U.S., President Nixon. The game is, use this act of kidnapping and death, which no one could condone, as a weapon to crush us all. That’s why I suspect em- ployers’ agents. work in this. Our local yesterday passed a re- solution condemning the killing of one of the men kidnapped and all terrorist acts, but warned the government not to use this non- working class act by terrorists to penalize the whole working class. We won't stand for it.”

Vic White, acting president of Ford Local 200, with 4,500 work- ers, said, “We are concerned about the implications when the national government imposes what I would term action that smacks of what Hitler imposed on the German working class, to bring about the reign of nazism, the front for big German mono- polies that smashed unions, wiped out people’s rights, out- lawed political parties of the workers.”

Angela Davis frame-up _rouses mass protests

to fight back. I am convinced of her innocence. Being from Ala- bama, Angela Davis knows the nature of American justice and the chance of a fair trial for black Americans in the U.S. to- day. She decided to wait for the proper time to face charges and clear herself of them: It was for her to say what that moment would be for her to fight back.

“She could have left the coun- try—that would not have been difficult; but she chose not to.

“The Angela Davis case can- not be separated from today’s mass hysteria inspired and: fed by government agencies like the FBI and the police. We are mov- ing rather speedily in the direc- tion of a police state.”

Hall declared the FBI deserves special condemnation for its role in the recent bombings. “They have had their man on the in- side in all these cases,” he de- clared. “They've worked along inspiring. and encouraging the bombings. They’ve let the bomb- ings take place.”

There will be Angela Davis de- fense committees in many cities of the country, Hall said, in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, etc. There will be a national organization to take charge of her defense. And the Communist Party will be a part of it.

In reply to questions, Hall said Angela Davis “has been and is a member of the Communist Party and has stated so on many oc- casions.”

The Che Lumumba Club, of which she is a member, is a new branch of the Communist Party in Los Angeles, he added.

Canada-wide demand to restore democratic rights to the people

Reaction by Canadians against the War Measures Act has been swift. The invoking of the Act by the Trudeau administration has created widespread unease and mistrust, and is sharpening the divisions within the country.

The full impact has not yet reached

all Canadians.

Crowds now gather in front of the

munist Party of Canada, Wil- liam Kashtan, a Communist Party picket injected a new note on Parliament Hill. Mr. Kashtan was accompanied by Sam Walsh, president of the Parti Commu- niste du Québec, almost all of the Central Executive of the Communist Party, and other prominent communists.

Chuck McFadden, leader of the Young Communist League, took a prominent part in the de- monstration along with a num- ber of YCLers.

Three victims of the War Measures Act during the Second World War were on the line.

Outside of Quebec, the first casualties to the police were in Toronto where two YCLers were arrested by the police while put- ting up some 150 posters that night. However, they were not booked and no charges were laid.

Similarly, in Winnipeg, it is reported that the police ordered the bookstore» owned by NDP MLA Cy Gonnick, well-known Waffler, to take down a sign in its window.

Five hundred people met in Toronto in an orderly meeting, called by a group of lawyers, who set up an ad hoc commit- tee. Among the speakers were Nancy Pocock, a leading mem- ber of the Voice of Women and the Society of Friends, who spoke of the need for courage in defense of civil liberties. ~ George Addison, secretary of the Vietnam Mobilization Com- mittee, warned of the danger of movements for peace being sup- pressed, and charged that the government of Canada has never condemned the violence used by the United States against the Vietnamese people.

Alf . Dewhurst, chairman of the Metro Toronto Committee of the Communist Party, told the rally that while we differ on many questions, on this ques- tion we can have no differences —that the War Measures Act must be repealed. :

There must be organized unity in every city in Canada through committees dedicated to strug- gle against the Act, he declared:

“J am confident that this Act will be repealed and that the government will not be success- ful in carrying through its aims in respect to it,” he said.

-George Harris of the United Electrical Workers Union said, “If justice prevailed in Canada, then political leaders of suc- cessive government in Canada and Quebec, including Trudeau and Bourassa, would be indicted for their complete disregard of social, economic and political inequality imposed on the peo- ple of French Canada.

“Acts of terrorism as a means of social and political struggle are to be. deplored and . con- demned, ‘but the soil from which

Communist Party demonstration last Saturday on Parliament Hill .

such happenings arose in Que- bec is the long and continued neglect of the problems of French Canada.

“The War Measures Act will not reduce unemployment in Quebec, which has 41% of the all-Canada total. It will not con- tribute one decent home to re- place the vast rotten slums in which hundreds of thousands of French Canadian workers live their lives, and it will not add a penny to the average income which in Quebec is one-third be- low that in Ontario.

“Canadians of French and English Canada must unite to end these intolerable conditions. English Canada can have no re- servations in supporting the legitimate national aspirations of French Canada. Both must demand the lifting of the dicta- torial War Measures Act.

“It is to be hoped that the Canadian Congress of Labor will respond, as has labor in Quebec, and will mobilize labor across the country to reject Tru- deau’s false position that the civil rights and freedom of the Canadian people are being pro- tected through a law which takes away all civil rights and freedom.” aes

Charlotte MacEwen, president of the Ottawa Voice of Women, thrilled democratic Canadians by her lone demonstration in the face of a number of Trudeau supporters on Parliament Hill on Sunday.

A protest rally against the War Measures Act drew 400 in Winnipeg. It was sponsored by the students of the University of Manitoba. Placards carried . the following slogans: “Stop Government Terrorism,” “End Political Repression,” “War Act no — Freedom yes.”

Manitoba Provincial Leader of the Communist Party W. C. Ross read the party statement (carried elsewhere in this issue). A member of the NDP publicly _

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23,

House of Commons to watch the spec- tacle—soldiers with tommyguns accom- panying cabinet ministers and govern- ment officials, bulletproof cars, plain- clothesmen all over the place .

~< in

fact, everything that an “advanced capitalist democracy” is not supposed to be, according to storytellers.

Led by general secretary of the Com-

burned his membership card in protest against the position tak-

en by NDP Premier Ed. Schrey- ©

er and Transport. Minister Bo- rowsky in supporting the War Measures Act.

William Kashtan in speaking to the press, and in a final ad- dress to the picketers and the crowd in Ottawa, said that there was an effort to pit French against English in Canada which,

if successful, would be a trage-:

dy. We do not advocate separat- ism, he said, but this Act may stimulate it. The War Measures Act won’t overcome inequalities, but may well stimulate trends and tendencies which could veer in the direction of separatism.

“This is a historic occasion,” said Mr. Kashtan. “We can say that we are the first political

-party in Canada which reacted

so quickly and correctly. . We warn the Canadan people that there is a dagger aimed at the

heart of Canadian democracy. If

Parliament does not vote down the War Measures Act, the strug- gle will continue and Trudeau will be defeated.

“There has been some talk that the War Measures Act may be used against the Communist Party. Let me tell you, this Act is equally directed at any voice which calls for social change in Canada, at any voice raised against unemployment and for equality.”

Sam Walsh, President of the Communist Party of Quebec, said this is an effort to intimi- date and to stop all mass pro- test being taken by the people of Quebec.

“It was deliberately intro- duced at this time,” he said, “It is tyrannical. Courageous young Quebec Communists are here, representative of all the demo- cratic forces in Quebec who will more and more demonstrate

complete opposition to Trudeau _

e

1970—PAGE 5