Fifth Estate 30, May 15-31, 1967 Add to the Bookbuilder

Photos by Richard Stoker, Norm Koren, C.T. Walker. Collage by Harvey Ovshinsky

Two thousand people had a love-in on Belle Isle.

Unfortunately 8,000 people were present. Whatever happened on the island that night, it shouldn’t be allowed to overshadow the 6 or 7 hours of dancing, singing and sharing that preceded it.

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“When you have $50 billion invested in defense what you need most isn’t allies but an enemy.”

— Nelson Algren said in Ramparts, May, 1967.

When you have policemen on horses and Tactical Mobile Units with little baseball bats and “riot-trained” commandos, what you need most is not a Love-In but a riot.

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A Human Be-In in the Flint area will happen on Sunday, May 21, from 10 a.m. until dusk at the Byram Lake park outside of Linden, Michigan. Organized by Trans-Love Energies of Flint, the Be-In will take place in a 60-acre park area 20 miles from Flint and will last all day, with music, fun, food, bells, and banners.

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Is a speeding automobile more beautiful than the Winged Victory? Is Dionne Warwick’s “Are You There?” greater than the Ninth Symphony? The Grate Society, a small group of Ann Arbor composers and performers think so. They will be in Detroit on Friday, May 19 presenting a program of musical works and “total theater events” for Wayne State’s Friday Night Coordinating Committee.

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A lot has happened since the last time I wrote this column, and I still don’t know what’ll come of it, but all we can do is ride it out and see what we can do with it. My own situation has changed a great deal even though I certainly don’t feel any different as a human being, but it sure is weird to walk or drive down the street and have strangers smile and wave because they saw me on TV and were given to believe that “John Sinclair is the high priest of the hippies in Detroit” or whatever.

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EDITORS

Harvey Ovshinsky

Peter Werbe

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Cathy West

NEWS EDITOR

Frank Joyce

ART

Gary Grimshaw

MUSIC & LITERARY EDITOR

John Sinclair

CALENDAR

Rhona Whipple

FILM EDITORS

Joe Fineman

Shirley Hamburg

ADVERTISING

Leon Brenner

CIRCULATION

Wilson Lindsey

TRAVEL EDITOR

Sheil Salasnek

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The long-denied files of Wayne University students’ political and personal activities were discovered last week amid a protest about the lack of student involvement in the decision-making processes of the University.

While 30 student leaders staged an all-night vigil Wednesday, outside the University president’s office, James McCormick, vice-president for Student Affairs, and a delegation of five students found the “non-existent” files in the University’s department of Safety and Security office.

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NEW YORK—Rev. James Bevel, national director of the Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam, assailed President Johnson for turning a deaf ear to the growing anti-war sentiment in the United States.

Rev. Bevel rebuked the President in connection with the latest U.S. bombing raids close to the center of Hanoi. He said that Johnson was “power mad” and “in a futile attempt to cover up his own mistakes, the President is driving this country closer and closer to a nightmarish confrontation with Red China and nuclear catastrophe.”

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The Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, the group that brought over 400,000 persons to New York City and San Francisco on April 15, has called for a national conference to evaluate the Mobilization and to exchange ideas on future programs and actions.

The conference, to be held in Washington, D.C., is scheduled for the weekend of May 20–21, following the confrontation with President Johnson by representatives of the peace movement. All groups and individuals who oppose the war are invited to attend.

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May Day was celebrated in Detroit with a Smoke-In in Grand Circus Park, to call for the re-legalization of marijuana.

Hippies stood around and smoked joints made of Bull Durham, legal herbs, and bananas.

The demonstration started out with lots of rain, and a big hassle with the local constables about a permit they were supposed to have. As a result, the demonstration was temporarily moved to the lobby of the City-County building. Later everyone slowly wandered back to the park and nothing else was said.

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Justice was stood on its head at Detroit’s Recorders’ Court as an anti war activist was convicted of Disturbing the Peace for trying to keep order at a teach-in last November (see Fifth Estate, Nov. 15–30, 1966) and a member of the right-wing organization Breakthrough, who assaulted the usher in full view of hundreds was found innocent.

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In adapting a bulky, densely detailed novel of seven volumes, Mai Zetterling has extricated the following schema in her movie, “Loving Couples:” her three women have in common a place and a time of arrival, the hospital, set immediately at the beginning of the film; a starting time, childhood; a central time and place, the chateau and the longest night, Midsummer. This schema orders and disorders brilliantly the destiny of the three lives in which childhoods, love affairs, childbearings correspond to one another.

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Detroit Area Veterans Against the War will be joining veteran contingents from many other cities in a Memorial Day Demonstration in Washington, DC. The veterans plan to hold memorial services at Arlington Cemetery and also will demonstrate at the Pentagon.

“Veterans can play an important role in the antiwar movement,” said Ed Chalom, chairman of the new group. “It is becoming increasingly clear that the strategy of the Administration is to shift the blame for the continuation of the war onto the shoulders of the peace bloc and further, to discredit peace people as being “unpatriotic.”

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San Francisco (UPS) The Underground Press Syndicate, of which the Fifth Estate is a member, was founded more than a year ago in order to facilitate the communication of information which the Establishment press ignores, suppresses, or never dreamed of.

Today, the UPS has member papers growing in almost all the glorious subterranean gardens across the country and in Canada and England as well. Recently the first national UPS conference was held in San Francisco, with representatives from the East Village Other (N.Y.), the L.A. Free Press, and The Oracle, The Communication Company (San Francisco), The Rag (Austin, Texas), Seed (Chicago), the Washington Independent (Washington, D.C. ), and The Illustrated Paper (Mendecino, Calif.)

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In a recent issue of the Fifth Estate (April 1) it was reported that State Senator Roger Craig of Dearborn had introduced a bill into the Michigan Senate that would exempt marijuana from the application of the general “narcotics” act.

While this was an accurate report and reflective of a new climate regarding public opinion toward the use of “drugs” we hope people are still being careful. In a letter to this paper Sen. Craig stated, “Nothing significant will happen in this area (of legislation) until January.”

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A reply to Mr. Wilbert McClendon; not because he will listen (he won’t) but because someone has to maintain the balance:

Mr. McClendon: You said one right thing in your article and that was that some of the white people who protest the war in Vietnam are phony. Actually, you didn’t even say that right because you said they were ALL phony and that, Mr. McClendon, is ridiculous. There are a great many white protesters who are not phony. They have rallied in support of the Negro cause and that cause is much more honest and meaningful because of them. But even the phony white protesters are not harmful.

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The Spikedrivers were the first psychedelic rock group that existed in Detroit.

Their sound wasn’t super hard, yet it was able to take you off into the freedom of your sub-consciousness. That was a year ago and they weren’t hip to the new obvious fact that music doesn’t happen on 45 records. All they knew was, if you wanted to make music you needed the big money of a record company to pay for the studio time to put something out in order to reach a large enough audience.

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If we are truly hungry we will eat anything, anywhere. In Aushwitz, philosophers killed each other for the bones in the gravel-pits. They ate the soup made of their brothers’ bodies.

If we are only moderately hungry we are rich. More than half the world’s population knows no other feeling but hunger. They spend their time searching for food, as we in America spend our time searching for the Apocalypse.

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Senator Morse addressed over 1,000 people at a recent Anniversary dinner for the Michigan Civil Liberties Union. Sharing the platform with him were Detroit Congressman John Conyers, WSU President William R. Keast and Lt. Governor William G. Milliken.

Senator Morse’s speech countered Governor Milliken’s remarks about “the tiny minority” of bearded students who oppose the war. Milliken told the audience that he knew the ACLU shared his gratitude that the “draft card burners and vietniks” were not larger in numbers.

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a review of

Where Is Vietnam? a Collection of Poems—an Anthology of new work by 87 Poets, edited by Walter Lowenfels, NYC., Doubleday and Co., 160 pages, $1.25.

A friend of mine once said that the only good reasons for reviewing a book were (1) to sell the book, or (2) to publicly kick the author in the ass. In this case I hardly know where to begin.

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The Fifth Estate recently received a copy of “Divine Toad Sweat,” Church bulletin of the NeoAmerican Church, headquartered in Mt. Eden, California.

The Neo-American Church, although it does not employ set rituals, subscribes to three basic Principles. As stated in “Divine Toad Sweat” they are

“1) Everyone has the right to expand his consciousness and stimulate visionary experience by whatever means he considers desirable and proper without interference from anyone;

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A student prominent in the recent student power demonstration at Wayne State University and a contributor to the Fifth Estate has been named Editor of the Daily Collegian, the WSU school newspaper.

Art Johnston, who will assume duties as Editor next September, was selected by the WSU Publications Committee and the Student-Faculty Council over the Collegian staff’s choice, Associate Managing Editor, John Gagnan.

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(Washington) — Robert Luftig, 22, a soldier from New York City, Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to block the Defense Department from sending him to Vietnam.

Luftig, a draftee now stationed at Ft. Benning, Ga., has claimed in his suit that the war in Vietnam violates the U. S. Constitution and international agreements. He said the war is undeclared by Congress and abridges due process guarantees of the Fifth Amendment. Drafted September, 1965, and trained as a cook, Luftig is seeking a permanent injunction against Secretary of State Robert McNamara, contending that no person can be ordered to violate the law of the land.

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The Emergency Medical Fund for Bernard, Garrett & Graham is making a widespread appeal for funds on the first anniversary of the — shooting at Debs Hall, headquarters of the Socialist Workers Party, where Leo Bernard was killed and Jan Garrett and Water Graham were seriously wounded by an anti-communist fanatic, May 16, 1966.

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UNCLASSIFIED costs 50 cents per line per week. Figure 5 words per line. (A word is a word, including 1 and 2 letter words. A phone number is a word. Street numbers are words.

Abbreviations should be sensible.) (NO LIMIT ON NUMBER OF LINES)

THE FIFTH ESTATE, 923 PLUM STREET, DETROIT, MICH. 48201

Liquidating entire collection of reptiles from all corners of the world. Interested persons call 935–2013 after 10 p.m.

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An international cast of scholar performers will entertain guests at Wayne State University’s 99^th Alumni Reunion Dinner-Dance beginning at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 20, in the Community Arts Exhibit Gallery on the WSU campus.

Included among performers during the evening program are Algerian classical guitarist Khalid Benabdallah, and Miss Rajalakshmi Iyer, a WSU student from India. Miss Iyer, who is representing the international aspect of the University’s student body, will play the Veena a stringed musical instrument of India.

One nice thing about public feuds between politicians is that it gives everybody a rare chance to see part of what’s going on inside governmental circles. We learn, that at least to some extent, many decisions are made on the basis of personal vanity, pride, and ego conflict—and not solely as the result of some impersonal “power structure” beyond the reach of our full comprehension or influence.

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Struggle, Chairman Mao teaches us, moves in stages.

The West Central Organization (WCO) after a long series of internal problems previously reported in the Fifth Estate has moved to a new stage.

It represents an advance for the group.

A new staff headed by, former WCO organizer, 33 year old Lorenzo Freeman, has been created to bring new talent, energy and direction to the organization.

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“There is too much concern about free love and not enough concern about free hate in this society,” stated William Sloan Coffin in an anti-war address at central Methodist Church on May 9, 1967.

Coffin, the Chaplain at Yale University, was speaking on behalf of Clergy and laymen concerned about Vietnam, a new addition to peace and anti-war groups in the city. Coffin is an officer of the national Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam which is co-chaired by Rev. Martin Luther King.

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PLAY — Court Theatre presents George Buchner’s “Leonce and Lena” opening May 10–20. 8:30 p.m. at Court Theatre 2555 Burns Ave. Phone 822–6655 Adm.

PLAY Sheridan’s “The Rivals” WSU Hillberry Classic Theatre, Cass & Hancock 2:30 p.m. Adm. May 27.

PLAY, Children’s Holiday Theatre. Talking Drums, Percival Borde Dance Co. Det. Inst. Arts Aud., John R St. entrance. 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Adm. May 20.

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