Most Recent Additions

Forty years after his untimely death in 1985, Fredy Perlman’s last work has been published, a second volume of his novel, The Strait, which he left in handwritten form.

In 1986, the anarchist activist/historian (and FE contributor) David Porter commented in the journal Kairos on Perlman’s contribution to anarchist ideas, identifying a central, unifying concern in the work as “the obstacles, inhibitions, and illusions that prevent genuine social liberation.” Although Fredy had begun with a critique of capital as the “overall framework for domination and self-repression in the modern era,” he continued, “Fredy’s special talent was to demonstrate the variety of its political forms,” a dialectic he described in his essays and books, in which “accumulation of unequal power leads to the privilege of a few and the degradation of the others.” Moreover, resisting tended to produce its own feedback “Every major step toward apparent liberation produces further domination...”

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mayflies dead on the streets of Selma

mayflies dead on the Edmund Pettus

Bridge

David and I are there to remember

to pay our respects, to see

but everywhere we look

the streets and sidewalks are covered

with drifts of mayfly carcasses

heaps of translucent white wings

uncountable numbers of corpses

...

The Berkeley, Calif. Slingshot collective has published its 31^st annual Organizer, a radical day planner that comes in three formats. The press run has been increased to 24,000 copies and the all-volunteer staff expects it to run out as it did last year. The proceeds go to publish Slingshot newspaper, the following year’s Organizer, and grant generous mutual aid to anarchist projects around the world, including the Fifth Estate.

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if it dies I will not shed a tear.

I don’t really know her or what she

wants from me,

the men who made her, or how I’m

supposed to live here-

sweltering in a chaos

that ain’t for my

sake.

Unwilling as I am to bear the responsibility

of accumulated force.

.

Collective destiny can only be spread

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Does your book club or reading group need challenging titles?

Books with big ideas at 50% off when ordered in bulk.

Black and Red — Detroit has published books and pamphlets with an anti-authoritarian perspective since 1968. Through the Fifth Estate, they are offering discounts on their titles to reduce their stock and get books into the hands of readers.

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Justice is vengeance in a world mad for blood.

Justice is debt when the slavers need their quota.

One-million innocents in one-million shackles:

one-million head of oxen

and the cops lick their lips like cannibals

when the masses scream ‘They deserve to suffer!’

.

Animal experiments extend to the wretches,

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Free speech

Free speec

Free spee

Free spe

Free sp

Free s

Free

Fre

Fr

F

G. Kim Blank is a writer and professor in Victoria, British Columbia

It’s an hour before sunset and I am sitting between two spindly coffee trees with a larger tree stump in front for a blind to partially hide behind. The brim of my grass hat is pulled low to block a pin hole of sunlight that beams through the canopy of a tall mango tree. Leaves rustle in the breeze blowing up the hill from the ocean a thousand feet below.

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a review of

“All Will Be Equalized”: Georgia’s Freedom Seekers of the Swamps, Backwoods, and Sea Islands 1526–1890 by Andrew Zonneveld. On Our Own Authority Publishing, 2024

Plans for a major celebration of the Columbian Quincentenary in 1992 led to an upswelling of radical resistance. Indigenous groups, Black radicals, the Chicano movement, anarchists and others fought hard to disrupt the glorification of the five-hundredth anniversary of genocide and settler colonialism.

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Early in the first part of his recent book, The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates, writing to his former students at Howard University, reflects on what made this particular cohort and their relationship with him special, honing in on Howard’s importance as a university “founded to combat the long shadow of slavery—a shadow that we understood had not yet retreated.”

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Even before taking office, the incoming Trump Administration began discussing the possibility of American military intervention in Mexico to suppress that country’s drug cartels.

While shockingly brazen, it is not without precedent. The U.S. has a history of imperial intrusion in Mexico in the 19^th and 20^th centuries. There have also been instances where recent immigrants and U.S. citizens fought alongside Mexicans who opposed not only American intervention, but also sought to bring about a revolution.

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a review of

Shadows in the Struggle for Equality: The History of the Anarchist Red Cross by Boris Yelensky, Edited with a new Foreword and Introduction by Matthew Hart. Illustrated by N.O. Bonzo. PM Press, 2025

From Cop City to the Dakota pipelines and Jane’s Revenge to numerous struggles worldwide, anarchist organizers are relentlessly targeted by the state today as they have been for over a century.

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“June 11 was a hot day,” a 17-year-old girl from Birmingham said. “Everyone was hot.”

A girl with long blonde hair in a white bathing suit walked up to one of the TMU riot cops who was clearing the beach at Cass Lake. She petted his German Shepherd. The dog whimpered and wagged his tail. “Goddamit get out of here,” the cop said. And he kicked the dog.

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A lot of people who went to the Cincinnati Rock Festival on Saturday, June 13^th, got a lot more than they thought they would for their $6.50.

At least four people got broken arms, three got broken legs; at least ten got head or body wounds requiring stitches. One girl was in the hospital with a brain concussion; another guy has a broken back. All at the hands of the Queen City police.

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In cooperation with Detroit Adventure

Thurs. June 25

KINETIC ART FILM PROGRAM. Prize winning flics shown at 7:30 & 9:30 p.m. Detroit Institute of Arts.

OPEN CITY FREE MEDICAL CLINIC. Sign up at 5:30 p.m. Clinic hours are from 6:30–8:30 p.m. 4225 Second at Canfield.

MUSIC UNDER THE STARS with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at Meadow Brook. Solo pianist is Gary Graffman. 8:30 p.m. It’s at Oakland University (take I-75 to Oakland U. Drive).

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Dr. Eugene Schoenfeld speaking at Community Arts Auditorium, May 28, 1969 at a benefit for Open City. Photo: Alan Gotkin.

QUESTION: Can any harm come from making love in the bathtub? Hopefully not. Cleanie.

ANSWER: My research team plunged into action, after reflecting on the habits of whales and dolphins. Brace yourself for the answer: contusions and abrasions if the tub is empty, seasickness, drowning, or scalding if it’s not and your inhibitions go down the drain.

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Dear Fifth Estate:

We’ve stumbled upon your paper at the right time. Our heads have been infiltrated with “lifer” propaganda. We’re becoming radical and have developed a leftist attitude. It’s hard to accomplish in the Army but we continue to get our point across.

We’re more open minded in discussing the conflicts in our society today. We’re gaining power in our unit, we’re gaining freedom.

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Specially designed “Kill Cong” badges were awarded by a U.S. Army battalion to soldiers who could prove they killed a soldier of the National Liberation Front (NLF) last year, according to statements by returned servicemen.

“One way to prove your claim to a badge was to bring back an enemy ear,” former Sgt. Frank Shepard, 23, of Plymouth told the Detroit Free Press. “They kept a string of ears at headquarters, which I saw. The ears were rotting and they smelled pretty bad. It turned my stomach. It was like we were on a hunting trip or something.

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From the Ann Arbor Argus:

“Rock promoter Russ Gibb made one of his rare public appearances two weeks ago when he stopped at South U for a while to pass out circulars advertising his and Mike Quatro’s pop festival in Cincinnati. The circulars were full of bullshit hypes like: “14 BIG ACTS IN 12 HOURS” and claimed that the Cincinnati Pop would be “as groovy as Woodstock but without the hassles.”

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Following the lead of the literary success of Jerry’s and Abbie’s books, Random House will bring out a collection of writings by imprisoned John Sinclair this fall. Tentative title: Street Writings; Prison Writings. Also, Marquette Prison officials are trying to cut down on John’s incoming mail because they say it has “strained” the Mail office there. They have completely cut off his right to receive records....

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As prematurely, but accurately reported in our last issue the Michigan House approved a bill June 19 lessening the penalties for possession of two ounces or less of marijuana. There were only three dissenting votes on the bill that would make possession a misdemeanor rather than a felony.

Possession of over two ounces or sales would continue to be a felony crime, but with lessened penalties. The maximum penalty under the new law would be ten years rather than the current 20 year minimum for sales. Legislators expect an increase in sales conviction as a result.

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a review of

Finally Got The News, A Film by Stuart Bird, Peter Gessner, Rene Lichtman and John Lewis, Jr. Produced by Black Star Productions

“Finally Got The News” is a one-hour film about the activities of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers and its politics. It is an important film for all people concerned with changing the Detroit area to see and think about. In addition it is a film that raises the art of political propaganda to a new and significant level.

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ATLANTA, Ga. (LNS)—Anti-war GIs from around the country got together here over Memorial Day weekend to discuss ways of increasing nationwide cooperation in their struggle against the military machine.

Out of the conference came the GI Alliance, a national clearinghouse which is being set up in Washington, D.C., to provide GI organizations with support services—information, financial and legal assistance, material for political education—and to help coordinate activities and communications among various GI groups.

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Summer is coming on strong in Detroit. We’ve had good weather, lots of free concerts, and young people hanging out together all over the Motor City. But already it’s become real obvious that the mood is tense. Things are not completely together and there are a lot of contradictions.

Too many of our brothers and sisters are being busted on bullshit charges and, in general, the harassment seems to have greatly increased.

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Look closely at the faces of the men on this page. Some of them look like average citizens; some have the look of black revolutionaries. They are all cops. These police officers work out of the First Precinct Larceny Squad and generally patrol the downtown department stores looking for shoplifters and pickpockets. That, however, is not the main problem.

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Draft boards are bracing themselves for a deluge of requests for conscientious objector to war status as a result of a recent Supreme Court decision which said you don’t have to be religious to qualify.

Col. Arthur Holmes, Michigan selective service director, said 632 men are presently awaiting processing on conscientious objector claims. He admitted they represent only part “of the large number who get turned down” under procedures the court questioned.

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A couple of weeks ago, sixty-three graduating seniors at Oak Park High School responded to Representative William S. Broomfield’s plea to “love their country and respect their flag” by holding a burn-in under the flag pole outside their school.

Copies of the “American Creed” and color pictures of himself, both of which are sent to all graduating seniors of Oak Park High by Republican Broomfield at the taxpayer’s expense, were set to flame by the students.

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Out of control riot pigs attacked a crowd of East Detroit youths who were attending a graduation party in early June. Neighboring residents characterized the police action as “unprovoked and unwarranted brutality.”

Many of the residents of East Detroit’s Lincoln Street, where the incident occurred, say they intend to file complaints with their City Council about the repressive anti-youth conduct of the pigs.

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The Phantom of comic strip fame is more symbolic of America than Uncle Sam. In fact, the Purple Pig, as he’s known in some circles, should be depicted on the Great Seal of the United States. No one has served the honko cause better.

As a youth, he gave up the comforts of the Skull Cave in order to be educated in an American university. He was, of course, brilliant in every subject, but athletics were his forte. It didn’t take long for word to spread. People came from all over to watch the super jock work out.

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(Women’s News Co-op) Ladies—are you ready for the Midi? The designers say women are bored and need a change to a more feminine look. The fashion world has announced that this Fall women will be wearing their skirts at mid-calf length, ready or not.

The exploitive and repressive world of women’s fashions has long been with us—or more correctly, against us. While women have little control over the clothing industry, economics and politics exert major pressure in the fashion world. The exploitive economics of capitalism, based on the continuing need for rising profits, seeks constantly to create a demand for new products.

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NEW YORK (LNS)—An explosive device estimated by police to have the force of 10 to 15 sticks of TNT went off in a men’s toilet on the second floor of the New York City Police Headquarters at 6:57 p.m. June 10.

The explosion tore a hole in the wall between the men’s room and an adjacent office belonging to high-ranking police officials. Seven persons were injured, none of them seriously.

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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (The Daily World and LNS)—After the California Appellate Court had overturned the decision in the Huey Newton case, clearing the way for a new trial or freedom for the Black Panther Party Minister of Defense, all the press were clamoring for interviews.

Under this pressure, the authorities at California Men’s Colony—East temporarily let down the wall they had built to isolate Huey and his ideas from the public, and a stream of reporters filed through the bright, sunny visitor’s lounge on June 4.

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Fifth Estate #108, June 25-July 8, 1970, Vol. 5, No. 4, page 2

The Fifth Estate

Debby Brentz

David Gaynes

Carol George

Mike John

Keep on Truckin’ Co-op

Resa Jannett

Jim Kennedy

Lee Ann Kennedy

David Levison

Julie Medvecky

Nick Medvecky

Harvey Ovshinsky

Dave Riddle

Bill Rowe

Len Schafer

...

CLEVELAND—The moderate sector of the anti-war movement met here over the weekend of June 19–21 to make plans for the next few months amidst raging factional battles. The over 1,400 delegates from across the country who attended the three day conference produced nothing that was not expected.

The major plans approved came from a joint proposal by Jim Lafferty of the Detroit Coalition to End the War and Jerry Gordon, Lafferty’s Cleveland counterpart. Demonstrations are to be called for Hiroshima Day demanding that nuclear weapons not be used in Indochina; support is urged for the Chicano Moratoriums against the war on the West Coast and continuing to bring in labor support for the anti-war movement.

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Alfred Hibbitt: acquitted.

Raphael Viera: acquitted.

Clarence “Chaka” Fuller: acquitted.

Kenneth Vern Cockrell: charges dismissed.

The New Bethel case is not over. But the recent acquittals of Raphael Viera and Clarence Fuller have put it at a new stage. Every one of those charged with a crime arising from the incident has been vindicated.

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Caught in a gross miscarriage of justice, Assistant Prosecutor Avery Weiswaser agreed on June 9 to reverse Pigpen’s conviction and 90-day sentence on contempt of flag charges.

Pigpen, also called Alan Barber, was convicted on May 21 without benefit of a jury or a lawyer. He had been picked up on May 19 because a cop found a piece of red, white and blue bunting which had been folded up in his pocket for six months.

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July 1^st is called “International Freedom Day” on the Detroit River.

On the Mekong River, which runs through Cambodia, Laos and south Vietnam, it is international freedom day. While the United States and Canada celebrate the pollution of the Detroit River and the brotherhood of imperialist policy, we will celebrate and explore the real potential for international freedom.

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a review of

Down By Law: Criminalization, Solidarity and Survival in Europe Edited by the CrimScapes Research Group. PM Press/Kairos, 2025

Graphic novels (GNs) and anthologies very often effect personal experiences, and for that matter, the non-fiction shelf is comparatively thin. The GN treatment of homeless and semi-homeless people, even amidst the world-wide explosion of that hard-hit slice of humanity, remains almost invisible.

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Read any good books lately? If not here’s your chance to pick up some of the best revolutionary words in print. By simply following the instructions below you can order any of these books from the relative privacy of your own home. The books offered in the last issue of the Fifth Estate are still available.

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Dear Dr. Schoenfeld:

We find it difficult to relate to a “straight” doctor. What is the best way for us to find a gay doctor? Should we ask the A.M.A.? Or the county medical society?

Dr. Eugene Schoenfeld speaking at Community Arts Auditorium, May 28, 1969 at a benefit for Open City. Photo: Alan Gotkin.

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Following hard on the heels of such pictures as “Willard,” “Ben,” and the near-interminable “Planet of the Apes” series, Universal Pictures is now producing “Ssssssss,” a movie about a man turned into a giant king cobra. Undoubtedly, it will be a movie about a man who cannot tell the truth—“speaks with forked tongue.”

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Thursday, December 14

POETRY READING—poets Len Gasparini and William Shelley read their own works at the McGregor Public Library, 12244 Woodward in Highland Park. Coffee and admission are free.

Friday, December 15

OPERA ON FILM, showing “Fidelio.” Det. Instit. of Arts, 7:30 p.m. $2 students, $3 for general admission.

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I work an eight hour shift, five days a week—sometimes more.

My wife and kids are on welfare.

Just like all of you, I want to be able to support my family. I’d like to make enough to pay taxes, maybe even save a little. Hell, I’d even pay rent on the four by eight room where I live, but thirty-five cents a day doesn’t stretch much.

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Judy Collins’ Masonic Auditorium concert on December 10^th, provided one of the most refreshing musical experiences of the year. No massive ego-trips, no carefully choreographed onstage “chaos”; just lots of talent, thoughtful material, and an evening of good music.

A Judy Collins concert is a virtuoso performance. Collins displays her talents on piano, guitar and autoharp, and brings all of them off well. But what dominates the evening is her voice; she is perhaps the clearest, most compelling singer around today.

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Lenny Bruce was one of the greatest comedians of his time. On stage, he tried to make his audiences realize that sex is just one of many everyday functions in life and should be brought out into the open and spoken of as freely as one would speak of eating.

His own first experiences with sex may have been what began his outrage with our society’s sexual attitudes on sexual behavior:

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A few months ago we read a blurb in your “letters” column from a couple of prisoners in an Ohio penitentiary who wanted to hear from any of your readers. We wrote, expecting to join the hundreds who would respond.

They got three replies—one from a girl of 13, one from an old crank and one from us.

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A problem of continual concern at the Fifth Estate is where to draw the line on exploitative advertising—because we believe that all advertising for Capitalistic ventures is exploitative. Advertising G.M. or Ford helps to perpetuate the capitalist economy, the exploitation of the factory workers, etc. Beer and wine are tranquilizers that help people to forget the problems of our society. Movies often condone the sexist attitudes of our times. Head shops exploit the youth culture by offering various trinkets, gadgets and other odd items at outrageous prices.

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By all that’s just and good, Polydor’s release of ONTINUOUS PERFORMANCE by Stone the Crows should have been cause for rejoicing. After all, wasn’t this the album figured to vault the band right up there on top with its fellow British hitmakers? That’s the way things were supposed to be at any rate, before lead guitarist and Crows cofounder Leslie Harvey died tragically, electrocuted onstage, last Spring. With that in mind, the record assumes a more bittersweet nature.

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a review of

Snow Day by Willow Page Delp. The Amazine, 2023 theamazine.com

You stare at oblivion or maybe just at your social life—a sky darkening from blue to black, a group of college students fighting over foraged meals, a building decaying—and wonder what to believe. This is a snow day, but something more, too, a bonding experience that can only shatter and release you. When you belong somewhere, or maybe more often when you don’t, “things [have] to erupt.”

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When we talk about settler colonialism, we’re not just recounting the past, we’re describing a system that is alive and expanding today. It’s important to break down the terms: colonialism today often means invading a place to extract resources—a mine, a plantation, an oil field—before retreating. Canadian companies, for instance, loot minerals from Latin America and Africa, but when the mine runs dry, no “New Canada” pops up in Ghana or Guatemala. The colonizers take and leave.

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