Fifth Estate 173, December 16, 1972-January 5, 1973 Add to the Bookbuilder

The election of Justin Ravitz to a seat on Recorder’s Court came as no surprise to most Detroiters who had watched the campaign, and had seen Ravitz’s clear-cut lead in the spring primary.

Ravitz, 32, came into the election campaign with a long list of credentials as a proponent of radical change:

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American Civil Liberties Union 961–4662

Big Rapids Trucking Co. (Fifth Estate Distributors) 842–8888

Clergy for Problem Pregnancy 964–0838

Cobo Hall Concert Info 224–1000 —

Creem Magazine 624–6167

Fifth Estate Office 831–6800

FLF Food Co-op 547–0052

Free Legal Aid Clinic 832–2777

Gay Switchboard 875–0413

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Barbara Andrews

Mark Beltaire IV

Debbie Brentz

Nan Cain

Ken Fireman

Teresa Garland

Bob Hippler

Resa Jannett

Cathy Kauflin

Mike Neiswonger

Bob Nirkind

Karen Redmond

Bill Rowe

Len Schafer

Peter Werbe

Copyright 1973, The Fifth Estate

the Fifth Estate (a Michigan non-profit corporation) is published every other Saturday at 4403 Second, Detroit, Mich. 38201; phone: (313) 831–6800.

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Anti-Tyranny Dept.: A subcommittee of the Wayne University Student -Faculty Council is presently investigating the abuses of the school’s toy police force, the Public Safety Department. The University cops have left such a trail of harassment and illegal practices through both the campus and the surrounding community that several days of testimony is expected. If you have an experience to report, call the S-FC at 577–3416...

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A Circuit Court judge ruled against the request of the recently fired Sociology Dept. Chairman at the University of Detroit for a restraining order preventing the ouster this month.

But the judge indicated support for a motion which would permit an early trial on the main suit, which demands reinstatement of the fired teacher.

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In what seemed like “Shootout at the OK Corral,” an old Jimmy Cagney movie and “Superfly” wrapped into one, four white STRESS officers were shot and wounded in the early morning hours of Dec. 4 by three black gunmen.

This was a dramatic turnabout from the toll of 15 lives STRESS has taken in the black community during 18 months of its existence. Opinion in the streets and auto plants ranged from undisguised glee to a feeling that the STRESS squad had “just messed with the wrong people.”

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Editors’ note: The writer has worked as a full-time teacher in an inner-city elementary school in Detroit for the past three years.

For some years, the Detroit public school system has attempted to rationalize its failures to the community with the excuse of inadequate funding.

Today, with Detroit schools threatened by a complete shutdown due to financial shortages, this explanation is once again being offered by school officials to meet public protests over conditions in the city’s schools.

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In the latest development in Detroit’s cliffhanger school crisis, the Detroit Board of Education on December 5 reversed its decision of a month earlier to close the schools for eight weeks over Christmas.

On the basis of vague promises from the state legislature, the schools will now stay open until at least March 15 on a regular schedule. The Board hopes that by that time, the state will have come up with a way to finance the rest of the school year.

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Last May 3^rd, workers went on strike at the San Antonio plant of Farah Pants to protest the company’s history of unfair labor practices, which included the firing of several workers who had engaged in legal union activities. Farah is a leading manufacturer of modish slacks for young people.

The strike quickly spread to the seven other plants owned by Farah, and today close to 3,000 of the 8,500 employees have joined the struggle.

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NORFOLK, Va.—(LNS)—When a $12 million fire rips through one of the U.S. Navy’s finest ships—in this case, the aircraft carrier Forrestal—they have to find a culprit. And when the fire takes place in the midst of widespread rebellion and crisis, they need one fast.

The Naval command structure has pinned the blame for both the fire and the rebellion on board the Forrestal on a 19-year-old seaman apprentice named Jeffrey Allison.

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PARIS—As the secret Vietnam peace negotiations between Henry Kissinger and North Vietnam’s Le Duc Tho remain deadlocked here after two weeks of talks, it is becoming clearer each day that the responsibility for the current impasse rests largely with the U.S. government.

Weeks ago, the North Vietnamese announced the existence of a nine-point plan to end the military conflict in Vietnam. The plan included an immediate cease-fire, complete withdrawal of all U.S. forces in return for release of all American prisoners of war, and eventually national elections, among other points.

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LOS ANGELES—The co-director of the Feminist Women’s Health Center was acquitted on December 5 of charges of “practicing medicine without a license.” The jury of four women and eight men deliberated nine hours before reaching their decision. The verdict was received joyously by Feminist supporters in the courtroom, as well as across the country.

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(Underground Press Syndicate) Phone phreaking is a rapidly-growing sport among the radical left, and even among a few with more conservative viewpoints. There are few rules to the me, and your opponent can be either the phone company and what it represents, or just the computers. The chance of arrest provides the kick.

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The inhuman conditions of the assembly line claimed two more victims at Chrysler’s Jefferson Assembly Plant in Detroit on December 7. On that day a worker, bitter over his recent lay-off, shot and killed a general foreman in the plant’s paint shop.

The worker, 33-year-old Tilden Engle, had been laid off from his production job at Jefferson on December 4. Tilden had been in ill health, and had been certified by the plant medical staff as capable of performing “light work” only.

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Tens of thousands of miners across the country are voting this month, under the scrutiny of Federal government officials, to elect a new president in the scandal-ridden United Mine Workers union.

Miners will choose between incumbent president Tony Boyle, and reform candidate Arnold Miller, the leader of the Miners for Democracy group.

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< Supplement main page

In recent weeks, Detroit has seen the disruption of several union meetings and of demonstrations by a group called the National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC). The NCLC began as a faction of SDS and surfaced nationally around the time of the SDS 1969 Convention.

For the last two years NCLC has participated in strike support coalitions around the country. Some local union members remember them for their tendency to subject unionists to long, theoretical speeches in return for NCLC strike support.

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< Supplement to Issue 173

In the past few weeks huge sections of the organized left in this country have been thrown into a state of chaos by a confrontation that initially erupted between the National Caucus of Labor Committees (NCLC) and the Communist Party (CP). Physical clashes have ensued; debates have raged; editorials have been written. There has been much posturing and affectations of indignation.

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Fifth Estate Extra

This is a supplement to THE FIFTH ESTATE, an independent socialist newspaper of Detroit now in its eighth year of publication. It deals with the current uproar in Detroit’s Left caused by a violent conflict between the Communist Party and the National Caucus of Labor Committees. The conflict has spread to include virtually every Left group, several welfare rights organizations and some unions. A few lessons can be learned from it. One article presents the criticism and analysis of The Fifth Estate production staff. A second article presents the criticism and analysis of The Fifth Estate distribution staff, Big Rapids Distribution Company.

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