April 2, 1976
NEWARK--On Saturday, March 20, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter and John Artis walked out of prison.

They are free on bail after serving nine and one-half years for a crime they did not commit--a 1966 murder of three people in a Paterson, New Jersey, bar. Carter and Artis are reunited with their friends and families because the New Jersey Supreme Court has overturned their convictions and ordered a new trial, saying that the prosecution withheld "material evidence favorable to the defense."

This victory was the culmination of a massive defense effort involving thousands of people in demonstrations, petitioning drives, and benefit concerts actively supported by Muhammad Ali, Bob Dylan, and other prominent figures.

Support for Carter and Artis has been aroused by the particularly arbitrary and racist nature of the frame-up.

Their 1967 conviction and life sentences were meted out by a white judge and an all-white jury, and based on the testimony of two white men, who later admitted they had lied on the witness stand.

Carter was a prime target for police harassment in 1966. At the time, he was the top contender for the middleweight boxing championship. He had made use of his prominence in the ring to speak out against police brutality in the Black community.
 
April 2, 1951
Gen. MacArthur, whose dream is to conquer all of Asia, renewed last week his unceasing efforts to extend the war in Korea to the Chinese mainland and thereby plunge this country and the whole world into World War III. His public statement of Mar. 24 is the most ominous in this connection to date.

Like MacArthur, the capitalist press here has tried to palm off his statement as an "offer" to discuss "a truce" with Peiping's [Beijing] military commander in the field. Actually, this was no "truce offer" at all, but an arrogant demand for surrender, emphasizing the alleged military and economic weaknesses of the opposing armies in Korea.

Coupled with this is MacArthur's equally arrogant demand to unleash assaults on China's "coastal areas and interior bases" and thereby "doom Red China," allegedly bringing about its "imminent military collapse."

On top of this, MacArthur used the occasion to flatly reject any discussion with Peiping of either Formosa [Taiwan] or a seat in the U.N. These he announced were purely "extraneous matters." Here we have still another instance of how MacArthur openly flouts the declared policy of the UN, under whose jurisdiction he is presumably acting. Back in January this "world body" had pledged that both these issues would be discussed once a "cease-fire" had been arranged in Korea.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home