‘Political iny Poster at th ¢ st Ping on a coffin marked “F. Quilt, Indian.”’ } eee Young Communist League convention which met in Van- Ver's Fishermen’s Hall on Sunday, May 7. It depicts an RCMP officer — Carey Robson photos, Lively YCL parley ae year we set ourselves ~ se of doubling our member- 8 efore the next conference. ane achieved that; we can ice be confident and re, a hast in doubling our member- again through greater olvement,’’ said or 3 ae Gorden, newly-elected eo Secretary of the B.C. § Communist League at th, Conference held May 7th in ‘shermen’s Hall. tena 2” 40 young people Mapped © the conference ties fg Out policies and activi- T the League and elected a ee executive which Presents two more new {nthe Lower Mainland. Besos ‘and discussions Challen €s and__ observers Mente" the federal govern- unemp Planned policy of itseie Syment which manifests Peope ticularly among young “ble where the rate of Yo Ce Commu Teads Unist m © mai ° i in “bership hae Gy at the parley which marked a sharp rise Shows rapid growth unemployment among those aged 14 to 25 is double the national average. Several young trade unionists at the conference pointed out the attempts of employers and governments alike to turn young unemployed people against striking workers. A resolution singled out unemployment as the. central issue affecting young Cana- dians and called for the immediate establishment of an unemployed youth organization. The resolution was passed unanl- mously. A further resolution attacked the ineffectiveness of Trudeau's Opportunities for Youth program and its inability to provide any form of permanent employment for young people. A host of other resolutions dealt with such subjects as the provin- cial government’s anti-labor See YCL PARLEY, pg. 12 nists at work. Photo shows delegates at recent Young agve convention in Vancouver. “For Life With a Future City peace rally demands end to blockade, bombing Stop the bombing, end the blockade, get out of Vietnam — these were the main demands of about 400 people who demon- strated in downtown Vancouver Friday night. Gathering at the Courthouse, the peace demonstrators formed a long line with placards and marched through downtown streets, returning to the Court- house for a rally. Many leaflets were handed out to the public along the route of the march. A significant feature of the de- monstration was that almost 1000 names were collected by the marchers on a wire to President Nixon which said: ‘‘Stop gambling with our lives. End the. blockade. Get back to the peace talks.” Banners carried by the marchers read: “‘Nixon: Stop the killing,’ “‘Stop gambling with our lives,” “Stop the mad bomber,”’ ‘‘Break Canada from the U.S. war machine.”’ The demonstration was spon- sored by the Committee to Stop Nixon’s War. In a statement handed out by the committee, ° headed, ‘‘Nixon Strikes at World Peace,” the committee said: “Rxternal Affairs Minister Mitchell Sharp says that Canada will continue to take a ‘neutral’ position! He also told the press in Vancouver Thursday that Canada will not stop selling war supplies to the U.S. because this would have no effect whatever. Strange neutrality! Does he mean that he will blame both the invader and the invaded — the burglar and his victim? “The fact is that there are no other foreign troops in Vietnam. The Americans are the invaders. “Our government must speak out clearly and forcefully. It must stop sending arms to the Man, we're gonna make this god- dam Indochina a land fit for robots to live in... United States and join the growing world pressure on Presi-_ dent Nixon to stop the bombing, end the blockade and return to the peace talks.” Speaking from the Courthouse steps, Ald. Harry Rankin hit out at Canada’s involvement in the Indochina war through its sale of weapons and facilities for U.S. air and military forces. He said the problem in Indochina - would be quickly resolved if the _ Americans left. He urged stronger united action by anti- war forces. Rev. James Manley told the rally that the U.S. aggression in Indochina was ‘‘an immoral war.”’ He said the Pentagon and President Nixon were the unAmericans, and that their latest escalation will prolong the war and endanger world peace. George Hewison, organizer for the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union said there was only one way to end the war — that was to end the blockade, stop the bombing and withdraw from Indochina. : Hewison said that the trade unions are deeply involved in their problems, but the fight to end the war must take first place. Chairman of the rally was John Beeching of the B.C. Peace Council. ‘Vietnamese will never accept a puppet govt’ There is only one Vietnam; there is only one people of Vietnam. The fiction of a north and south Vietnam was invented by John Foster Dulles, Pacific Tribune editor Maurice Rush told some 200 people at a rally protesting the latest American escalation of the war against Vietnam Monday night. 5 The 17th parallel was desig- nated as a military demarcation line by the Geneva Accord. It was specifically stated it was not to be considered a political or geographic division of the nation. The Vietnamese will never accept a divided nation, Rush said, and it is US. insistence on maintaining their puppet regime in Saigon that is holding up a peace settlement. The rally went on record at the end of the meeting demanding that Nixon stop gambling with the lives of the world’s people; that the U.S. get back to the peace talks and once and for all, get out of Vietnam! Rush said the Vietnamese were impossible to defeat, for they are not only an inventive and ingenious people, but are determined they shall gain their national independence after decades of suppression at the hands of invaders. The Soviet Union and other socialist nations have given the Vietnamese people every assistance in the way of mili- tary and economic aid, Rush said, but it is regrettable the anti-Soviet position of China’s leaders had made a united front against Nixon’s latest aggres- sion impossible. He predicted the people of China will have something to Say about this before long, and said the Soviet Union and other Communist nations have long urged unity to defeat U.S. imperialist plans. _ Provincial leader Nigel Morgan gave some startling figures on the depth and horror of the bombing attacks against the Vietnamese. He said 1200 lbs. of explosive per inhabitant of the nation had been dropped, and indeed, one ton of bombs for every minute Nixon has held office of president of the U.S. has been launched against the people! = There is no way of getting across the horror of the situa- tion in these dry statistics, Morgan said, and no way of describing the cripples, the orphans, the childless couples, the widows, the dead. Nor could one describe the horror of the defoliants which have ruined President Richard Nixon, White House, Washington, D.C. thousands of acres of forests, the damage done to the land through chemicals and bombs. It is time the American labor movement, one of whose spokes- men is Nixon’s friend George - Meany, began to recognize their responsibilities. It is time all labor recognized where the sup- pressive anti-labor laws, the pressures for wage controls, ete. has its origins. The war in Vietnam has brought in its wake all these eveils, plus a genocidal policy which is beginning to pale the atrocities of Adolf Hitler, Morgan said. He urged all-out opposition to the latest escala- tion. Chairman of the meeting which was held in the Swedish Hall was Tom McEwen. A film from Vietnam preceded the talks by the Communist spokesmen. END THE BLOCKADE. GET BACK | I | I | STOP GAMBLING WITH OURLIVES. _| | TO THE PEACE TALKS. | I The above wire is being circulated by the Vancouver Committee to Stop Nixon's War. The public is urged to sign it and have their friends neighbors and workmates sign it. For further inforfnation phone 733. 1761. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FRIDAY, MAY-19, 1972—PAGE 3 hoa ye