Most Recent Additions

Fourteen members of the National Committee to Combat Fascism, accused of murder and conspiracy to murder in the killing of a Detroit patrolman at 14^th and Myrtle last October, are set to go on trial May 10^th. The NCCF is the organizing arm of the Black Panther Party.

Police had originally charged 15 members of the group with the shooting, but have since dropped charges against one defendant under mysterious circumstances

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The following excerpts are taken from John Sinclair’s statement on the Court of Appeals decision, Feb. 17, 1971:

“Michigan Court of Appeals has denied my appeal in the marijuana case. The appeal, challenging the constitutionality of the marijuana laws, particularly that the 9-1/2 to 10-year sentence I received for possessing 2 marijuana cigarettes is cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

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(Taurus/Detroit)

“dearly beloved, we are gathered here today in...

...detroit, michigan/home of the “motown sound”/g.m./ford motor/chrysler/rats in the kitchen and roaches in the bathroom/ no heat in winter & nothing cool when the summer comes/pistons pounding out a DRUM beat...do you take...to love & cherish... woodward ave./junkies/whores/& little kids on the way up to take their places/a dime bag to get the day over with...and do you take to have and to hold...the day shift, afternoon shift, midnights—at least 8 hrs w/the devil in hell/rouge, chevy, fisherbody (makes dead bodies), budd, eldon gear & axle, dodge main, jefferson, iron foundries & specialty forge foundries/monsters that eat alive & spit out bloody hands/feet & pieces of skin & bone/ & w/ regularity—a DEAD BODY...friday nite...get that check/carry it on home to the crib (w/wife & kids)/then get out on the street/get fucked up/(reefer, jones, coke, ups & downs, johnnie walker black & red)/try to freeze yr head/can’t think about the shit starting all over again on mon./”...and now a message from our sponsor” ...watch t.v./listen to the radio/read papers/they all say: “buy this, do that & u can be a success.”/damn brothers/sisters/a success in this motorized/concrete/iron & steel jungle is just staying alive!!!

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While Cleaver and Newton punched it out for the white media—to the confusion of black and white alike, Mohammad Ali and Joe Frazier did it for the white bankers, and the entertainment of black and white alike.

Mohammad Ali wore red trunks. Joe Frazier wore green. For forty-five full minutes, the Red and Black and Green slugged it out in front of $20 million dollars worth of fans.

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VENEREAL DISEASE is a general name given to diseases caused by germs that are passed from one person to another by skin-to-skin contact—usually by intimate sexual contact. The two most common venereal diseases are SYPHILIS and GONORRHEA. These two serious and dangerous diseases strike people of all races, classes and ages, in all areas of the country. Teenagers and young adults are attacked at the rate of 1,500 a day! In Michigan alone, it costs the taxpayers about $1.5 million to maintain in state institutions persons afflicted with syphilitic psychosis.

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The Anti-war Learn-in Conference on March 27 held by the May Day Coalition will have a special caucus for youth. This caucus will be centered on getting ideas and resources together to educate and organize high school and junior high students. If there is a large number of community college students and young people in organizations for community service, then possibly the group may want to subdivide.

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Recorder’s Court Judge Robert DeMascio is a vicious man who wields a heavy hand against poor and black defendants that have the misfortune to enter “his” courtroom. He is almost as hard on youth dope offenders that come before him.

Recently though, two freaks had the last laugh when they ripped off the Judge’s gavel from his bench after he had just arraigned them on a charge of possession of marijuana.

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This news short comes from Grosse Pointe South High School—A former student by the name of Mick was hired by the administration to patrol the johns and report people who were smoking. After being employed for quite a while he got busted for dealing dope to the students, and was caught in possession of one pound of hash.

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With the weather warming up, people will be into all kinds of radical activity and crazy shit. If you are into it or see it happening, give us a call at 831–6800 or send it in to us at 4403 Second, Detroit, 48201.

As we go to press, the news just came in that black students at the Orchard Ridge campus of Oakland Community College held a sit-in, trash-in today at the school.

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Two days after the appearance of the Fifth Estate’s special women’s issue it was completely sold out, necessitating the printing of another 5,000 for a total press run of 19,000. The reprint is without the regular calendar, classifieds and is undated, so it is a permanent pamphlet. Bulk copies are still available from our office at 10 cents a piece (mail orders accepted) or a single copy for a quarter...

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American Civil Liberties Union 961–4662

Ad Hoc Action Group 923–0610

(Police Brutality Complaints)

Center House Switchboard 399–9090

Community Reporter 833–5085

Detroit Anti-war Coalition 874–4410

Draft Counseling 961–0983

Fifth Estate Office 831–6800

Distribution Centers (KOTC)831–1574

Gay Liberation 923–7749

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Motor City Labor News is a regular feature of the Fifth Estate. In this column we want to provide a space for people from different parts of the Detroit labor scene to exchange their experiences—experiences of the struggle to gain control over the rate and conditions of work as well as experiences of the fight to regain control over their unions, where these have gotten bogged down in bureaucracy.

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March 24—Black Moratorium Committee will hold all-day teach-in at Highland Park Community College, theme “Black America and the War in Southeast Asia” 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Emphasis on the War and its effects on black community and planning for April 3 March.

March 27—People’s Anti-War conference Learn In, all day, University of Detroit. Workshops on Imperialism, Peace Treaty, repression, racism, youth, women, GIs and veterans, and planning for April 30 Warren Tank Plant March. Sponsored by May Day Coalition and People’s Peace Treaty. (See Back Page for full details.)

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“Junk yields a basic formula of ‘evil’ virus: The Algebra of Need. The face of ‘evil’ is always the face of total need. A dope fiend is a man in total need of dope. Beyond a certain frequency need knows absolutely no limit or control. In the words of total need: ‘Wouldn’t you?’ Yes you would. You would lie, cheat, inform on your friends, steal, do anything to satisfy total need. Because you would be in a state of total sickness, total possession, and not in a position to act in any other way. Dope fiends are sick people who cannot act other than they do. A rabid dog cannot choose but bite. Assuming a self-righteous position is nothing to the purpose unless your purpose be to keep the junk virus in operation. And junk is a big industry... I lived in one room in the Native Quarter of Tangier. I had not taken a bath in a year nor changed my clothes or removed them except to stick a needle every hour in the fibrous grey wooden flesh of terminal addiction. I never cleaned or dusted the room. Empty ampule boxes and garbage piled to the ceiling. Light and water long since turned off for non-payment. I did absolutely nothing. I could look at the end of my shoe for eight hours. I was only roused to action when the hourglass of junk ran out. If a friend came to visit—and they rarely did since who or what was left to visit—I sat there not caring that he had entered my field of vision—a grey screen always blanker and fainter—and not caring when he walked out of it. If he had died on the spot I would have sat there looking at my shoe waiting to go through his pockets. Wouldn’t you? Because I never had enough junk—no one does.”

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A massive split formed in the Black Panther Party in recent weeks, as the party’s Algiers International Section—including Eldridge Cleaver—and the New York City branch announced their opposition to the California-based leadership of Huey P. Newton, Minister of Defense.

Newton’s faction has expelled Cleaver and the entire Algiers faction from the party. In addition, his faction has expelled the 13 New York “bombing conspiracy” defendants, two because they skipped bail and the rest because they criticized his leadership in a public letter to the Weatherman underground.

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“One and a half, two and a half, three and a half, four. You can’t control our bodies anymore!”

“Free our bodies—Free ourselves!” “Hey, Male Chauvinists, you better start shakin’. Today’s Pig is tomorrow’s Bacon!” “Sisterhood is powerful! Sisters Unite!”

Over 2,000 people, mostly women, marched and chanted from Durant Park to the state capitol in Lansing on Saturday, March 13, to demand a change in the state’s abortion laws. Spirits were high and it was clear that for most women there the march was as much a demonstration for women’s liberation as it was for a specific change in the law.

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Monday, March 8 was International Women’s Day. Women around the city organized and participated in activities to celebrate that event.

On the previous Saturday women from Youth Against War and Fascism had a literature table at the Lincoln Park Sears industries...

Available from Wayne State Women’s Liberation: the first issue of their magazine Moving Out. Also, a chapbook—a collection of stories, poems, graphics called Free Women: call 577–3409 for info....

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The Detroit Board of Education recently found itself in the midst of one of its perennial battles for money and power. At stake this time around are the board’s power and the people’s education. The students and their parents are being used as pawns in a game with the state.

Troubles began when the board suddenly discovered that it was broke and had to make some budget cuts. It first planned to lay off 258 non-contract teachers but finally laid off only 192. The cutbacks infuriated students, parents and teachers. The Detroit Board of Education found itself in the middle of a school crisis larger than a mere budget deficit.

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STAFF COLLECTIVE: Millard Berry, Barbara Carson, Cindy Felong, Bob Hippler, David Riddle, Bill Rowe, Len Schafer, Marilyn Werbe, Peter Werbe, Cathy West,

FRIENDS & COMRADES: Keep On Truckin’ Co-op (KOTC), Resa Jannett, Julie Medvecky, Nick Medvecky, Sanjuro Streetfighter, Tramp, Bruce Montrose, Frank Joyce

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The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), prompted by a 58-year-old commissioner who is a former FBI agent, issued a policy statement on March 6 warning radio stations against broadcasting song lyrics “tending to promote or glorify the use of illegal drugs.”

The dictum—based on an unspecified number of complaints the FCC said it has received about several songs—has angered and bewildered Detroit area FM and AM rock stations.

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Aaron Mitchell was an American black man who killed a cop. In retribution the state of California asphyxiated Mitchell with cyanide poison gas fumes in San Quentin prison on April 12.

California’s first execution in four years took just 30 seconds after Mitchell’s limp body was dragged by guards into the green death chamber and strapped to the same chair in which Caryl Chessman died seven years before. The execution was witnessed by 58 persons, while over 350 members of Californians Against State Execution picketed outside.

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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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a review of

Johnny Got His Gun: A novel by Dalton Trumbo. York: Bantam Books, Inc., 150 pp.

Let’s make America nauseous!!!

In 1939 Dalton Trumbo published a novel calculated at times to send the reader scurrying to the commode to brace his arms against the bowl and retch.

The book is Johnny Got His Gun. It was released in paperback last month by Bantam Books.

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Web Archive note: John Wilcock’s usual column heading is “Other Scenes”.

Every time somebody steals a masterpiece from a museum or fakes a Renoir or mutilates a Rubens the cause of art is served. Because we are reminded that art, like us, is mortal.

But the screams that arise from the culture vultures remind us of something else, too; that art today has less of an aesthetic value than an economic one.

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Nancy Sinatra is Wall Street’s answer to the hippie. She’s a facially beautiful broad that plays the almost fetish sex role to shake up her record sales and overall public appeal; and yet she never seems to really overdo it.

She borders on the absurd in her prolific poses, yet she doesn’t really try as hard as she could to ‘sell’ herself. You know, that Mansfield coax that is so exaggerated it’s comical. But that’s because Papa’s got coin. It’s because of this that she can skyrocket to the top of almost any music survey any time she’s in a mood to bellow out.

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When “The Best of Second City” comes to Detroit, May 8, feature sketches will include those originally written and performed by Second City alumni: Alan Arkin, Barbara Harris, and Joel Grey.

The troupe, which specialized in satirical and topical humor, is being brought to Detroit by the Grosse Pointe Unitarian Church. The performance will be held at the Detroit Institute of Arts Auditorium, 5200 Woodward on May 8, and will begin at 8:30 p.m.

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During the last few months an increasing number of FIFTH ESTATE subscribers have complained to us that they receive their mailed issues either very late or not at all. Others complain that they receive their copy in a mutilated condition.

This is particularly disturbing since our office staff makes every effort to get the paper out to subscribers as soon as we get it back from our printer. We publish a paper for people to read not to lay in a back room of the post office.

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A possible pleasant alternative to the traditional “tweedle-dum—tweedle-dee” characters bound to run from the two major political parties in 1968 is a combo of Rev. Martin Luther King for President and Dr. Benjamin Spock for Veep on a 3^rd party “peace” ticket.

It would be interesting to know how some of our “radical” Young Democrats would react to this slate.

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Doc Greene is confused. So are 170 million other white Americans, including Hubert Humphrey and Roy Wilkins.

It all started when they were born white in a society which told them all their lives that they were better because they were whiter. And which then organized itself to make it come true.

In a column he writes regularly for a newspaper which calls itself The Detroit News, Doc Greene spoke for most Americans when he condemned Dr. Martin Luther King for finally coming out against the war in Vietnam.

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Thronging pulsing Central Park thousands strong—some in trees viewing the love-in—march. Begin in Sheep Meadow near the vendor of fat crunchy pretzels. Twenty cents and that’s a pretzel. It fills you up after 3 salami sandwiches, an orange and lots of turnpike coffee.

Not a baby crying here. Babies and kids love marches and turn on to parades. They help the love thing along. The daffodils helped and so too, the painted faces. A huge yellow submarine in paper mache. A suit, a tie and flowers in the hair. An army jacket, a robe and flower-wreathed halo. Flower power, flower power, Psychedelic bells and Viet Cong flags ring and wave. Sing and beat. Drum beating militants and prayerful Quakers are one. A baby on his mother’s back; a child hiding under a skirt and only the sneakers and dungarees to show on the warm ground.

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Joseph Strick’s film adaptation of Ulysses is rather like a high-minded comic-strip version of Stephen Hero or Dubliners.

On the few occasions when a bit of genuine Joycean complexity is allowed to survive in the midst of all that jolly, naturalistic Irishry, it strikes one as self-conscious and out of place. To make the film less expensive to produce, it has been updated, so that all the Celtic Twilight and Irish revolutionism had to be dropped, and much that is left (like the references to England being taken over by a Jew) is out of keeping.

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A benefit for the Be-In was one of the most beautiful events I’ve ever participated in in my life. The Grande was just full of loving people all dancing together in circles, under the strobe, individually, or in all kinds of freaky numbers, showing that in the end when someone asked how many people came it was obvious that everyone was one. The Family Medicine Chest, Billy C and the Sunshine and the Back and Back Boo Funny Music Band supplied sounds that I couldn’t believe. Energy just pulsating all over, people hanging on to each other, falling together, laughing, screaming, what can I say. It was just beautiful.

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A national meeting of anti-war student groups will take place May 13–14 in Chicago to evaluate the results of the Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam that brought 500,000 demonstrators to New York and San Francisco.

The meeting was called by the Student Mobilization Committee, which is a broad coalition of student groups that participated in the April 15 action. Interested students or organizations can get further information on the conference by writing the Committee at 1101 W. Warren, Chicago 60612. Housing for the conference will be provided.

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An incident involving a Wayne State student and the University’s Security Police touched off a controversy when the student, MacArthur Binion, described his treatment as “outrageous.”

On April 6 Binion was approached, in the Wayne library, by a uniformed Security officer who demanded identification from him. Binion said he refused to do so since the officer gave no reason for his request. The officer attempted to forcibly remove Binion from the building, but the student pulled away and went to a reading area and began studying.

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Ed. Note: Wilbert McClendon is one of the most talented and important “grassroots” leaders in Detroit’s Negro community. He is a past Chairman of the Adult Community Movement for Equality (ACME).

We print, with pleasure, his comments on the student peace movement and invite readers to comment.

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Up to one hundred young people from South Oakland County have spent three nights of the week of April 17 at the Elias Brothers’ drive-in, at Woodward and Normandy in Royal Oak, informing their elders that they are tired of being pushed around.

The drive-in has recently blockaded their parking lot to make it impossible for cars to cruise through, and soon plans to add a fifty cent cover or minimum charge. As one picket put it, “They have forgotten that we are the attraction here, not the lousy food or the lousy service or their SS guards. If the kids aren’t here, they have nothing to sell.”

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Paul Krassner, editor of the Realist and Society Editor of Ramparts magazine, will speak on Friday, May 12 at Wayne State University.

Krassner describes himself as the “court jester of the new left.” His talks usually range from soft core humor to hard core reality. His latest Realist features excerpts from the Manchester book on Kennedy, relating how, during the flight from Dallas, Johnson humped the wound in Kennedy’s neck.

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THE FIFTH ESTATE and Translove Energies will sponsor a day-long Mid-West Underground Press Conference in Detroit on Saturday, May 20.

The purpose of the conference is to bring together the already established underground papers and discuss each paper’s techniques and experiences. Hopefully the conference will be the impetus for underground papers to begin in other cities, primarily Cleveland, Windsor, Ann Arbor, and Toledo.

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April 28 marked the opening of a new theatre in Detroit. The Tropic Theatre in the Wolverine Hotel began its first season with Harold Pinter’s “The Lover,” directed by John Kinney, and on the same bill, “The Man Upstairs” directed by Edith Carrol Canter.

The new theatre, located at 55 East Elizabeth was organized by three Detroit theatre veterans, John Kinney, Robert Heiple and Robert Jones. Kinney and Heiple have performed at the Un-Stabled and other Detroit theatres. Both are in the art supply business in Royal Oak and Jones is an assistant professor of Philosophy at Wayne State and has appeared with the Irish Hills Playhouse and Greenfield Village players.

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On Saturday, April 15 between 400,000 and 500,000 people marched in New York City and in a single voice demanded the end to mass murder in Vietnam.

The Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam described the demonstration as “the largest of any kind ever held in the history of the U.S. for any reason.” In San Francisco another 40,000 marched the same day.

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Detroit High School students are being sought for a special summer seminar on Racism in America being sponsored by People Against Racism (PAR).

Dubbed “Freedom Schools in White America,” the seminars will attempt to supplement and in some cases counteract the effect of regular school teaching about Negro and white history.

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Green peppers, bananas, peanuts and now STP.

This latest addition to the armamentarium of the underground messiah has become a legend almost before it was made available. Reputed to have been named STP by the Grateful Dead “because it lasts so long” this new drug is capturing the imagination of hippies everywhere.

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People seem not to believe me when I say the Artists’ Workshop needs money to operate, or Trans-Love needs money, or the Sun needs money—but it’s true. I know it shouldn’t be that way, people, but this is America and you don’t even get a place to stay without paying some property-owner for it. Month after month we scuffle and hassle to get enough money to pay the rent ($200), the gas and electric (although not the gas any more, since it’s been shut off), the telephone bill ($75 or so), and hundreds of little bills which mount up every time we move to expand the operation in another direction.

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My brother Greg the prosecuting attorney advises me to chill

He says the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice

I ask did it bend toward justice for the guy who said that

but he hasn’t a clue who I mean

my clue he harvested those words from a bumper sticker

his rosy perspective hogtied into irrelevance by cobwebs

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Where’s my issue?

We’ve heard that question a considerable number of times recently from subscribers, bookstores, and distributors.

No, you haven’t missed an issue. The last one we published was our Summer 2024 edition. The one you are holding is Spring 2025.

This issue marks the beginning of our 60^th year of continuous publication. We used to joke that the Fifth Estate was once a weekly in the early 1970s, but now our goal is a yearly. We met that criterion for 2024. If you are a subscriber, how often can you expect an issue? Subscriptions, which provide the basic finances for continuing publication, are for four issues regardless of when or how often we appear.

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is the might of restraint closing in on me simply

a problem of synaesthesia? of this Autistic mind making life

hellish for its inhabitant—or is this unshakable weight

about statism? apparently the control industry &

gatekeepers well versed in verbal bandages

in therapy speak, conditioning into agony

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a review of

Portraits of Struggle: Photos from 1972–2023 by Orin Langelle. Global Justice Ecology Project 2024

The old newspaper adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words” has mostly been vitiated by Photoshop and AI. Photos have joined words in the realm of suspicion as now any image can be manipulated or even fabricated out of thin air with a few keystrokes.

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a review of

King Mob: The Negation and Transcendence of Art by David and Stuart Wise. Wise Books, 2024

New York City, 1967. Roaming the streets in debate on the merits of the then-peak vogue art movement, Abstract Expressionism, are Ben Morea, part of a local affinity group, Up Against the Wall Motherfucker, and David Wise and Anne Ryder of the English group of cultural subversives known as King Mob.

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FAMOUS FILMS OF FAMOUS DIRECTORS SERIES. VIRIDIANA (1961) (Luis Bunuel) April 15 in Community Arts Aud., WSU at 8:15 Adm. AMORE IN CITTA (Love in the City—1953) (Michelangelo Antonioni) April 22 in Community Arts Aud., WSU at 8:15 Adm. ORDET (The Word-1954) (Carl-Theodor Dreyer) April 29 in Rackham Aud. WSU at 8:15 Adm.

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a review of

Hakim Bey: Real and Unreal by Th. Metzger. Motgus-sanlux, 2023

Hakim Bey: Real and Unreal is the newest entry in a growing genre of literature, books about having met anarchist author and poet Peter Lamborn Wilson/Hakim Bey (1945–2022) and how it changed the author’s life.

There was Michael Muhammad Knight and Jacob Rabinowitz before him. This is halfway to the reading list for a college course on the subject.

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