Leary Absent At Rally Supporting Panthers

NEW HAVEN, Conn-Less than a thousand people attended an election day rally here in support of Black Panthers Bobby Seale and Erika Huggins.

Michael Tabor, one of the 21 Panthers being tried in New York, told the audience that Seale and Huggins would never be freed if people just came to rallies.

He said, "I hope that after this is over some of you will go to a gun store and buy some M14s or visit your local pig department and get some equipment there. Then you will be ready to go and free Bobby and Erika."

Rumors circulated earlier this week that Timothy Leary would leave Algeria to attend the rally proved to be false. About sixty people came wearing paper Leary masks but Leary himself never appeared.

Big Man

Elbert "Big Man" Howard, Deputy Minister of Information for the party, accused the U.S. Senate of conspiracy to commit murder and of producing laws which disenfranchize Panthers and put them at the mercy of the "racist pigs."

Elaine Brown, a Panther minister recently returned from a tour of North Korea, North Viet Nam, and Communist China, said she brought greetings from a quarter of the world's population in Asia, all of whom wanted to see Bobby and Erika freed.

Dellinger

David Dellinger, a member of the Chicago Seven, denounced the trial of the Panthers in New York, saying, "A judge whose children have never been bitten by rats is incapable of conducting a fair trial for people who are trying to get out of the ghetto."

Organizers for the rally had hoped to have a crowd of at least five thousand. Dellinger attributed the poor turnout to a lack of publicity and he way last week's news stories concentrated on the possible Leary visit rather than the purpose of the upcoming rally.