Panther Group Plans Defense Rally Friday

The Boston branch of the Committee to Defend the Panthers will sponsor a rally in support of Bobby Seale, Erika Huggins and Angela Davis Friday on the Boston Common.

The rally, which will be followed by a demonstration in New Haven March 13, has been planned by its organizers to coincide with the final jury selections in the New Haven trial of Seale and Huggins.

"We have to show that we're strong enough to prevent Bobby and Erika from being railroaded," Ruth Lettvin, spokesman for the Cambridge office of the Panther Defense Committee, said yesterday.

Active Interest

"The March 5 rally will hopefully encourage more people to take an active interest in the March 13 rally to be held in New Haven," she added.

The rally will begin at 4 p. m. with speeches by Paul Coumin, an antiwar activist and draft resister, and representatives of the Black Panther Party and the Federation for the Liberation of Quebec.

The Stomach Ache guerrilla theatre group will present several political skits after the speeches and a communal dinner featuring "Stagger Lee," a filmed interview with Seale, will follow the rally.

Lettvin also said that an Intercommunal Tribunal will be convened in Stockholm, Sweden in late. March to discuss Seale's trial.