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As part of a national Intercommunal Solidarity Day, a rally and march took place yesterday afternoon in Boston as support for the Black Panther defense in the trial of Bobby Seale.
The Boston branch of the Black Panther Defense Committee and Youth Against War and Facism sponsored the rally. Close to 200 people attended, about 90 per cent of whom were white.
The rally, which was held on the Boston Common, started at 4:15 p. m. Speeches were given by Paul Coumings, a draft resister and anti-war activist; Ruth Lettvin of the Cambridge office of the Panther Defense Committee; and Kim Holland of the New Bedford Panthers.
Wind and Cold
The demonstrators marched down Tremont St. to the Charles and then back past the Common to the Arlington St. Church. Due to the windy 37-degree weather, many people left the march. When it ended two miles later, only 50 people remained.
A police van passed the marchers about every fiveminutes. As the demonstrators marched down Cambridge St., one van, apparently trying to clear a lane of traffic, accelerated suddenly into a group of marchers, almost hitting them. This elicited cries of "Fucking pigs!"
Later, as the march passed a construction site a worker blew a diesel whistle and several men in hardhats flashed peace signs in an apparent show of solidarity.
The marchers carried banners urging the freeing of Seale, Ericka Huggins, co-defendant of Seale in New Haven, and Angela Davis, who is now in jail in California and awaiting trial.
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