November 20, 1970
NEW YORK - Judge John M. Murtagh unexpectedly allowed
the film "Battle of Algiers" to be entered as prosecution's
evidence against 13 members of the Black Panther Party on
trial here.
This was done by allowing the 12 jurors - among whom are seven Blacks and one Puerto Rican - to see the film in the afternoon session of the trial on November 9.
The 13 on trial are among 21 Panthers under a 30-count grand jury indictment, which charges that they conspired to blow up police stations, department stores, and - of all places - the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. The indicted Panthers were seized in predawn raids April 2, 1969.
Assistant district attorney Joseph Phillips sought to enter the film as evidence on the basis of a statement by a Black police agent that the film was "mandatory" for all Panther Party members.
The agent, detective Ralph White, testified that Lumumba Abdul Shakur, one of the defendants, told a political education class that they were required to see "Battle of Algiers." After White saw it he went to Shakur's apartment. He testified hearing Shakur state that the tactics used by the Algerians would be used by the Panthers against the pigs (police).
November 17, 1945
British warships and planes on November 10 began
blasting the city of Soerabaja, after fighters for the
freedom of Indonesia turned down an Allied ultimatum to
give up their arms and deliver their leaders to the tender
mercies of the imperialist butchers. More than 500,000
civilians in Soerabaja were under the fire of the Allied
apostles of "democracy" and "freedom from fear."
The American imperialists are backing the British. Truman maintained a contemptuous silence to the protests of the Republic of Indonesia against British and Dutch use of American-made uniforms, arms and ammunition.
Meanwhile the role of Soekarno, head of the newly-formed Republic of Indonesia, became more equivocal. Instead of rallying the people of Java to a life and death struggle against the savage foreign invaders, he continued to follow a policy of appeasement. He even made a bid to the Dutch, offering them "preferential rights."
A youth rally at Jogakarta, which Soekarno was addressing, is said to have broken up when news of the British bombardment of Soerabaja was received. Reinforcements hurried toward Soerabaja. Nationalist leaders whose names were not reported, called for a nationwide uprising, declaring: "It is better to perish than to come again under foreign domination."