Detroit Seen

The Fifth Estate’s benefit party on February 20^th was a rousing success which saw the paper raise $400 over expenses and provided a party-down good time for about 450 revelers. Although the 5 kegs of beer went out faster than we expected, brilliant performances by the Shadowfax Band, creative theater by The Acme Theatrical Agency and Primitive Lust, and mystifying magic by Art DeAwful combined with the resources of the people in attendance made for a fun night for all.

Special thanks to the crew at Formerly Alvin’s Deli for all their help; to Mark for printing assistance; to Judy Adams of WDET and Joe Killian of WABX for publicity and everyone else who helped make the benefit a success. Plans are to have similar events at least every two months to keep the ole FE afloat, so watch for further announcements...

Do you speak Spanish, French, Portugese, Italian or Danish? If so, anarchist and libertarian newspapers in those languages are available for reading at the Fifth Estate office, which by the way, is now open Monday-Friday, 1:00–5:00 P.M....

Racist Murder Case No. 1:

Just as we went to press last issue, word came that Livernois Avenue bar-owner Andrew Chinarian, whose fatal shooting of an 18-year-old black man last summer set off several days of rioting, was convicted of reckless use of a firearm--a high misdemeanor. Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Patrick Foley played right into the hands of Chinarian’s defense by submitting to the jury that Chinarian was “upset and emotionally involved” when he shot the youth in the back of the head. With a prosecution like that, a defense was hardly needed and Chinarian, who enjoyed the support of crowds of Detroit cops attending the trial, walked out of court knowing that whites can still legally lynch blacks in Detroit...

Racist Murder Case No. 2:

Stuck in the back pages of the Detroit Free Press on February 21^st was a notice that the mother of one of the three young black men executed by police at the Algiers Motel, Woodward and Phil adelphia, during the Detroit uprising of July 1967, had settled out of court with the city for $62,000 as a settlement in a pending lawsuit. The three young men who made the “mistake” of being found with two white women at the motel during the height of the riot were systematically executed by Detroit cops Ronald August, Robert Paille, and David “Snake” Senak. All three of the unarmed, murdered men received close-range, multiple buckshot wounds, yet white juries (pre-arranged by the same prosecutor’s office as in the Chinarian case, and the pigs’ defense counsel) brought in verdicts of “not guilty” against the cops. For a chilling and enraging account of the event, read John Hersey’s The Algiers Motel Incident. A lot more debt is owed by these killers...

The New World Collective has announced a Mid-West Communication and Organizing Conference to be held May 29–31 in Des Moines, Iowa with an invitation being extended to all “anarchists, anarcha-feminists, council communists, wobblies,” etc., to participate. Most of the material for the conference looked bureaucratic and overly structured, but if you want to check out more information about it, write: New World Collective, 1821 8^th Street, Des Moines, IA 50314...

The Lower Peninsula People Against Sanguine/Seafarer (the U.S. Navy project that would turn the U.P. into a massive military communications antennae and target) are holding a conference in East Lansing on Saturday, March 13, to provide information on the subject and coordinate opposition to it. In East Lansing, contact the Peace Education Center at 1118 South Harrison or locally, Vic Schumacher at 833–3197...

Those of you who were lucky enough to see the presentation of “Ms. Virgin Mother” in December will be happy to hear that the theater group, Somebody Else, will be presenting another of their original plays on Saturday, March 13 at 2:00 p.m. and at 7:00 p.m. The play, “Welfare Blues” will be performed at Trinity United Methodist Church, 13100 Woodward (at Buena Vista) in Highland Park. The plays and players are always far-out so be sure to catch their newest presentation...

According to the NCLC, a semi-literate Marxist-Leninist group that makes a nuisance out of itself at unemployment offices, February was supposed to have been the month when the world was destroyed by nuclear holocaust in an attempted world take-over by Nelson Rockefeller. If you happen to be alive in the month of March, the mystical NCLC group will probably consider you a CIA operative. We look forward to kites in April...

Anderson’s Garden, that old Third Street bar generally best known for the prostitution service it offers for suburban businessmen, may finally be shut down, although we somehow doubt it. The bar has appealed a closing order. The situation makes things a bit awkward for the Metropolitan Detroit Visitors and Convention Bureau, which recently published a brochure listing its recommended nightspots, which it said were picked for their good food and excellent service. Anderson’s was right up there with the best of them and the brochure even said the place was noted for its pastrami sandwiches...

The Society of Automotive Engineers convention, held in Cobo Hall last month, showed that the auto moguls really don’t have much up their sleeves. Two of the crowd-gatherers on the exhibition floor were for a turbine-driven tank and an electric taxi from England. The taxi is about as long as a Volkswagen, seats five people with as much space as a Cadillac but currently costs a small fortune. One of the car’s designers says that with more research, the cost could be cut and other problems (such as short battery life) could be eliminated to make a non-polluting and relatively maintenance-free car. So why isn’t the research being done? “There’s too much vested interest in petrol vehicles,” he shrugged...

Be sure to pick up a copy of FLI-BACK Magazine--a journal of cheap shots--fresh from the printer; available for $1.00 through Ammunition Books.