Fifth Estate 18, November 15-30, 1966 Add to the Bookbuilder

Hardly louder than the wet snow that was falling over the assembled marchers, Al Harrison softly said “All right brothers, lock your elbows and let’s march for peace and freedom,” as he and members of the Afro-Americans For Peace led the Mass March held Saturday, November 5, as part of the November Mobilization for Peace, Jobs, and Freedom.

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The nation’s first Mod Wedding will be held at the Michigan State Fairgrounds on Sunday, November 20^th, 1966. Pop-artist Andy Warhol will take the traditional role of father, and give the bride away.

Warhol, The Velvet Underground along with Nico (girl of the year) and Gerard Malanga, “the superstar” will be making their first appearance in Detroit to attend and film the wedding as part of the three day Carnaby Street Fun Festival which opens at the Fairgrounds on Friday, November 18^th, 1966 at 12:00 p.m.

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The Gran-de Ballroom gets better and better every week, and it’s my own opinion that anyone who doesn’t go out there at least one night a week is just crazy. Frank Fox says so too. Likewise the MC5 keeps taking off for further spaces—this is the best thing that could have happened to them. Any band that is based on human principles rather than strictly musical ones, i.e. any group of musicians who are concerned with exploiting their own possibilities for expression as human beings with instruments and not just as guys playing “tunes,” have to have the opportunity to work together over an extended period of time, and in front of a sympathetic audience too.

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Reprinted by permission from England’s PEACE NEWS: Oct. 7, 1966

Discussed in this article: Rush to Judgment by Mark Lane; Inquest by E.J. Epstein

Somebody once said that “the man on the Clapham omnibus” was the sort of typical figure of average common sense whom judges, juries, lawyers and the like ought to have at the backs of their minds as a point of reference when considering complex and over-technical legal problems. If this anonymous traveller does not have the expert knowledge and confidential sources of information possessed by the police or the pathologists or the psychiatrists, at least, so runs the argument, he may have some degree of intelligent objectivity that can enable him to distinguish wood from trees and thus come a little nearer to a just understanding of the truth. He seems to have been referred to very infrequently during the inquiries concerning the death of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963.

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Monday, Nov. 7, the Wayne Committee to End the War in Vietnam staged a Teach-In as part of the November Mobilization for Peace, Jobs, and Freedom at Wayne University’s Community Arts Auditorium. Breakthrough, a militant right-wing group, provided a slight pause in the big action at the Teach-In.

Three members of Breakthrough attempted to elbow their way into the auditorium as Joe Mora, brother of Dennis Mora from the Fort Hood Three, was speaking. The Breakthrough group was met by a contingent from the WCEWV who attempted to remove the unruly group from the auditorium. As the two groups scuffled by the entrance, Donald Lob-singer, leader of Breakthrough, was struck solidly on the left cheek by an unidentified man.

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American heoroes, the Fort Hood Three: (l. to rt.) Mora, Samas, Johnson

The shocking prison treatment of the Fort Hood Three, the three GIs who refused to go to Vietnam, has improved slightly as a result of the publicity of their situation and a flood of letters to government and Army authorities.

The restrictions against the three men speaking have been removed, and at present David Samas and James Johnson are celled with four other prisoners and are permitted to eat meals in the mess hall. Dennis Mora is with three others; however, he is still unable to leave his cell for meals. They still have no library privileges. They must still remain standing from 5 a.m. til 6 p.m. each day. The often promised, and supposedly “regular” exercise periods, are still unavailable.

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The other night the ACLU presented the premiere of Paul Stookey’s film THE CULVERT, along with RELAX YOUR MIND by Tom Berman and Chris Frayne, and FIVE SHORT FILMS and L’HISTOIRE DU SOLDAT by George Manupelli. The program was very enjoyable, in fact it was an intriguing way to spend an hour plus.

The first film shown was FIVE SHORT FILMS, which was a collection of experiments with abstract flashes with a soundtrack comprised of various sounds synchronized to the images. The five films were titled: FILM FOR HOODED PROJECTOR: I LOVE YOU, DO NOT BE AFRAID; SAY NOTHING ABOUT THIS TO ANYONE; I MUST SEE YOU CONCERNING A MATTER OF THE UTMOST URGENCY: and IF YOU LEAVE ME I WILL KILL MYSELF. The audience as usually happens with films of this type, tended to become uneasy, but I found that if you just kind of sit there and let the thing overpower you, it can be kind of a strange trip. Although, I’ll have to admit that I too got tired of it after a while. But then maybe I missed the point.

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In 1964, when almost everyone in Greenwich Village was playing an acoustic guitar and singing “folk, there was a red-haired ex-Marine named Tim Hardin who was using an electric guitar and sang a sort of jazz flavored blues. Before Hardin had left New York for Los Angeles he had already made a great impression on people who were later to become The Mommas and the Poppas and the Lovin’ Spoonful. Since then Hardin has developed a unique sound which is something like motown rock, jazz, folk, and blues and is different from all those things at the same time. Tim has sung at the Newport Folk Festival; and one of his songs, “If I were a Carpenter,” has been made a hit by Bobby Darin.

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A few weeks ago the New Yorker’s man in jazz, Whitney Balliett, went out to the Coast to catch the Monterey Festival. While he was there he spoke with some of the “workers’ aristocracy” of jazz, the white musicians who make their living primarily from studio gigs.

Like all aristocracies, this one has worked out a complete ideology which “justifies”—in its own collective mind, at least its privileged class position. Thus Balliett:

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The Artists’ Workshop was formed over two years ago by a group of WORKING artists—mainly poets & musicians—who found that by banding together they could accomplish a great deal in terms of getting themselves together and getting their work to their public. Many of the original members of the Workshop have left town, as is natural, but it seems that no younger people have come up to replace them. If there are people in this city who are interested in keeping the Artists’ Workshop a healthy and growing group—that is; people who are ready to WORK at what needs to be done—they need to step forward now and make themselves known.

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Nineteenth century capitalism generated the “true believer” in laissez-faire, and gave rise to a large body of oppressed workers; the condition of which was a contradiction of the justifying principles of capitalism—the “natural rights” of Man.

In Western industrial societies (as is well known) workers and capitalists coalesced and perpetrated a conspiratorial revolution, giving rise to synthesis unexpected by social critics—the modern corporational society of profit sharing, fringe benefits, and governmental protectionism.

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Scenes from the November Mobilization for Peace, Jobs, and Freedom march held in downtown Detroit, Nov. 5^th. Demonstrations and rallies were also held in over 50 other cities across the nation the same day.

Photos by Emil Bacilla and Wilson Lindsey.

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A drug which is readily available on prescription has been shown to have the same psychic effects as LSD. The current issues of Diseases of the Nervous System and the Archives of General Psychiatry carry articles on the efficacy of Sansert in producing the same effects as LSD.

Sansert is a drug which has been used for the prophylactic treatment of migraine headaches. It’s method of action is the inhibition of serotonin production, a long known effect of L SD.

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The article in your last issue—“Playboy’s Tinseled Seductress”—I liked [FE #17, November 1–15, 1966]. The pointing out Playboy’s magnificent superficiality was, I thought, sound and much needed. But the conclusion!—ugh!—that the marriage institution suffers thereby—that “somehow the glow has gone out of marriage.” How sad!

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Dear Great-grandfather [sic],

I am writing to you because I feel that you have an honest desire to understand. You lived in a time of much confusion and you felt the need to seek new solutions to many problems. You sought your own solutions to your own problems so you must realize that you could only find your own answers.

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The calendar will be a regular FIFTH ESTATE feature. We know that there is more happening in the Detroit and Ann Arbor areas than what we have listed, so we need your help. Send us information about what your group is doing or just anything you hear about. We think the items listed below disprove the contention that “nothing ever happens in Detroit.” The deadlines for the calendar are the 8^th and 23^rd of each month.

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