Most Recent Additions

SAN FRANCISCO (LNS)—The U.S. Army has decided that the easiest way to win a court martial conviction is to off the defense lawyer.

Terrence “Kayo” Hallinan, defense attorney for 16 of the 27 men charged with mutiny at the San Francisco Presidio last Oct. 14, has been a headache to the Army for more than a year now.

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April 5^th Action Committee

Nine thousand GIs have died since the Paris peace talks began. Last week casualties reached a new high with over 450 deaths in just seven days.

North Vietnam is no longer being bombed but more bombs than ever before are being dropped on the South. President Nixon dismisses the idea of a cease fire as “meaningless.”

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The work that’s being done by the new Italian cinema continues to amaze me, and the latest entry proves no exception.

“Grazie, Zia” (Thank you, Aunt) was written and directed by Salvatore Samperi at the preposterous age of twenty-four. Yet it is a film of uncommon depth and shapeliness, so clearly the work of a mature, sophisticated artist.

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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: An old lover of mine was fond of a certain trick taught to her by an old lover of hers—which involved the placement of an ice cube in her vagina and then copulation.

Certainly an exciting experience, but I have two questions: 1) Could this harm her? 2) Could this be used as an effective means of contraception as well as groovy orgasms?

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In an issue of Esquire magazine of a year or so ago, a brace of famous writers suggested that the ‘60s have been too long with us, and that we hereby declare them at an end and devote the next few years to resting up.

In the course of that event, an occasional look at “Joanna” and “The Chelsea Girls” will tell us much of what we were.

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Fr. James Markunas of St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church has been convicted of illegally marching last April during the so-called “emergency” following Martin Luther King’s assassination. (See Fifth Estate, April 16–30, 1968.)

Markunas was arrested April 7, 1968 with 107 others while attempting to march to the Royal Oak City Hall in memory of Dr. King. A ban had been put on all gatherings of over three people by then Gov. Romney.

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a review of

The Me Nobody Knows: Children’s Voices from the Ghetto edited by Stephen M. Joseph. Avon Books, 1969, paperback, 95 cents.

“On a nice cold September morning, I got up and was afraid to go to school.”

—Linda O., age 13

Our public schools aren’t educating most people whether in the inner cities or the suburbs. There is little learning going on—if learning means growth, understanding and increasing awareness of self and others.

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NEW YORK—Marijuana smokers are “significantly more likely” to report attending happenings, reading underground newspapers and participating in mass protests.

That is one of the unsurprising findings of a study of young people made by a Michigan legislative committee. Chairman Dale Warner, a young hip legislator who hung around with John Sinclair and the MC5 commune people, produced a report that’s basically sympathetic to the benevolent herb. One quote, for example: “It is our impression that adults often know less about the subject than the adolescents do.”

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a review of

Pimp, by Iceberg Slim, Holloway House Publishing Company, 1967, paperback, 95 cents.

This is the strangest bona fide bestseller ever published, appearing on no best-seller list; a kind of God-awful literary masterpiece and fluke, containing some of the lousiest writing ever conceived, and yet a kind of genuine-article taking the reader along on one of the most disgusting American journeys to the end of Night.

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Paul Lodico is the Socialist Workers Party candidate for Common Council. But he is not that interested in getting votes. In fact, he is not running to win the election.

Instead, Lodico is interested in “posing programs for struggle.” That is, he wants to organize committees of research teams to study such areas as housing, welfare, medical care, unions and other factors of life in the city. These committees will involve those already interested in each area. In the study of welfare, for example, Lodico hopes to use the aid of welfare workers and ADC mothers.

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The Stooges, a Trans-Love band from Ann Arbor, will be in New York City for an end-of-the-month recording session at the Elektra studios.

Produced by John Cale of Velvet Underground fame, the group expects Elektra to release their first single and album in early May.

The band, signed simultaneously with the MC5 will also be doing a number of gigs at Steve Paul’s Scene and some college campuses in the area.

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(Liberation News Service) The New York Daily News says these are our real enemies—the good wholesome American kids who hate beatniks and commies and unpatriotic draft dodgers.

They are the healthy kids, the good solid backbone of America who will hold the country together, who will not succumb to the creeping decadence which seems to have a frightening, unexplainable hold on so many of our young.

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(Other Scenes/UPS) Tom Cushing added the last line of his play about nudism 40 years ago, then wrote above its original title: “The Unplayable Play.” The play jocularly concerned a nudist girl who invited her swain home, on the condition that he observed all the customs her family observed. The suitor soon learned that this meant taking off all his clothes before sitting down to tea, as the family did.

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NEW YORK (LNS)—The Army is beginning to worry that too many “heads” are fighting the war in Vietnam.

The Pentagon released figures recently on the suspected use of “drugs” in the armed forces. Drug use in the military is on the rise, especially in Vietnam. There were 14,041 worldwide investigations in 1968 compared with 7,641 in 1967.

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(Guardian/UPS) One of the teeth-gritting things about living in Scum City is the opportunity to be insulted by the New York Times. That is why so many more “ordinary” people read the New York Daily News. It insults you on your own terms and in your own language.

What brings this to mind is a recent article about paperback books in the Times Sunday Book Review. This is the part of the paper in which all the college professors and second-division novelists review the books written by all the other college professors and second-division novelists. It smells like the inside of a literary cocktail party.

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“What we need is a Revolution!” (wild applause).

A rather flustered Joan Baez held up a hand for quiet...“I wish there was a way you could take back all the clapping you all just did,” she said embarrassedly.

“Now let me tell you what I mean by “revolution.”’

By “revolution” she means change, and the basis of her approach to life and to her revolution (everyone’s got one) is that “the ethical is the practical.”

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For once it appears that it pays to be black.

At least the sons of prominent black ministers and politicians.

The Detroit Police Department actually disciplined several of it’s men for their drunken and cowardly beatings of several black youths after a church dance Nov. 2 of last year.

Commissioner Johannes Spreen called the attack “unprofessional, uncalled for and unexcusable.”

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John Watson, editor of the WSU student newspaper, was acquitted March 7 of charges that he assaulted Joe Weaver, of WJBK-TV.

Watson had been charged with striking the TV-2 “commentator” on Feb. 10 when Weaver attempted to interview Watson at the South End office. (See “TV-2 Interview—POW!,” FE #73, February 20-March 5, 1969.)

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The scene is a church located in the heart of Detroit’s Inner City.

A small army of some 40 agents of the State roar up to the church, force their way in, and demand a man named Tom Sincavitch.

About 43 young men, all wearing nametags reading: “I am Tom Sincavitch,” identify themselves as the wanted man.

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“A top notch job” was the way Detroit Police Commissioner Johannes Spreen characterized the attack by 289 of his pigs on a peacefully assembled crowd at Cobo Hall last October.

Spreen said the blame for the clash following an appearance of Gov. George Wallace should be put on “those who provoke, those who instigate, those hurlers of missiles and invectives...”

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Several full-time movement activists in the Michigan area have been arrested in recent weeks on trumped-up felony charges.

At East Lansing, Bill Ayers of the SDS Regional Staff and Mike Price of East Lansing SDS were both arrested for allegedly assaulting a TV-2 camera crew with a dangerous weapon—supposedly a two-by-four.

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This newspaper, WSU’s South End, and the Inner City Voice are going to sponsor a revolutionary newspaper conference on April 11, 12, and 13. It will be held on the Wayne University campus.

The need for such a conference rises out of a growing movement in the Detroit area; in high schools, plants, colleges, and communities.

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Fifth Estate

A Newspaper of Detroit

FIFTH ESTATE #75, March 20-April 2, 1969, Vol. 3 No. 23, page 2

EDITORIAL GROUP

Alan Gotkin

Harvey Ovshinsky

Tommye Wiese

Peter Werbe

Cathy West

PHOTO EDITOR

Mike Tyre

DISTRIBUTION

Bruce Montrose

MUSIC EDITOR

John Sinclair

STAFF

Claudia Efimchik

Ann Mikolowski

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UNCLASSIFIEDS cost 50 cents per line per issue. Figure four words per line. (A word is a word including one and two letter words. A phone number is a word. Street numbers are words. Abbreviations should be sensible. DISCOUNT RATES: Five runs cost 35 cents per line.

ALL UNCLASSIFIEDS MUST BE PAID FOR IN ADVANCE.

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I seem to be coming to a better understanding of what kind of cook I am. What this clarity can be attributed to is uncertain, but I’m digging it. Guess these past few columns are towards a philosophy of cooking.

I’m more of an eclectic, I suppose, borrowing what I can from whoever I can. I am not a gourmet: I rarely measure ingredients, unless it’s a complicated recipe which I’m trying for the first time. I am also not one for expensive cuts of meat or fancy, out-of-season vegetables.

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Those events marked with an asterisk (*) need Fifth Estate salesmen. If you want to earn some extra money, come down to our office and pick up some papers.

FRI. MARCH 7

*THE BONSTELLE THEATRE will present Tennessee Williams’ play, “A Street Car Named Desire.” 8:30 p.m.

CHRISTOPH ESCHENBACH, world famous pianist performs at the Detroit Institute of Arts Aud., 8:30 p.m. Tickets $2.50 and $5.

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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: Would you please explain what tachycardia is? I am undergoing treatment by an analyst for anxiety which is causing tachycardia in my heart. However, neither he nor my M.D. will explain tachycardia to me.

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The Canned Heat came to Detroit to do a gig at the Masonic Temple and got busted by the real heat.

Canned Heat’s drummer Adolph De Laparra was charged with being a disorderly person and the group’s equipment manager Ron Stender was charged with possession of grass. They and 25 other persons were arrested Feb. 20 in a Southfield home. The charges range from disorderly persons to sale of LSD and possession of marijuana.

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The Monteith Student Board will present a concert featuring David & Roselyn Wednesday and Thursday evenings, March 12 and 13 in WSU’s Upper DeRoy Auditorium at 8 p.m.

David and Roselyn bring an unusual blend of voices to the folk and blues medium. They are a self-contained unit using guitars and Kalimba, an African Thumb piano.

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A preliminary statewide planning meeting of a group formed to combat the special state Senate Investigating Committee looking into campus problems will be held March 15.

The Michigan Coalition for Political Freedom will meet at St. Joseph’s Church that Saturday at 10:30 am. The coalition represents student, faculty and citizen groups from across the state.

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There’s so much to say, man, that I don’t know where to start...maybe with the Five...the MC5 are a really classic example of environment and music coming together. There’s a Simple declaratory sentence for you...

The music affects the environment and...the environment affects the music. Dig? The machine, man. Detroit is a machine, The Machine even, and in the music of the Five...the frenzy, the anger...is the music of the Machine. Did you ever work in a factory? Jesus, I hope not. There’s music in the factory, but it’s the music of...metal crunching metal...a melody of violence...the Five are Man against Machine, baby, that’s all.

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NEW YORK (LNS)—Thirty thousand joints in the mail? Could be...It’s like you never know what you’re going to find in the mailbox—but free dope?

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” the letter said, “you are one of 30,000 lucky persons being sent free this freshly-rolled marijuana cigarette. We are doing this in order to clear the garbage from the air.”

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Editors’ Note: Rock and Roll Dope takes the form of a facsimile of the MC5’s Elektra album liner notes for two reasons. First, because Brother Sinclair was stranded in Buffalo after attending a national Lemar (Legalize Marijuana) conference in that city and was unable to get a column to us.

Second, and more important, that this revolutionary rap by John has caused a significant furor in the retail record business. Fully 70% of Detroit area record shops refuse to stock the album because of its use of “fuck” in the liner notes and on one song. One Northland record shop went through each album and crossed out the offending words. Both J.L. Hudson’s and E.J. Korvette stores refuse to handle it as well as many smaller shops.

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“The streets of our country are in turmoil. The universities are full of students rebelling and rioting. Communists are seeking to destroy our country. Russia is threatening us with her might and the republic is in danger.

“Yes, danger from within and from without. We need law and order. Without law and order our nation cannot survive.

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About two months ago Schoolcraft College student, Larry Halbert, produced a 1-1/2 by 2 foot combination poster-petition similar to the one above copied from Avant-Garde magazine.

[Web archive note: above this text in the print edition are “Fuck War” and 16 blank lines for signatures.]

Several students and five faculty members signed the petition at the Livonia college and wound up with a full-blown controversy on their hands.

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I don’t know if people still buy comedy monologue records. We all know that after a couple of listenings we don’t play them until we have company and there is nothing else to do. But a Reprise-Bizarre (Frank Sinatra and Zappa together!) double album Lenny Bruce The Berkeley Concert is a service for the many of us who never heard him live.

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There are three basic ways to play the blues and the show at the Grande Ballroom the other night was a good lesson in all three. Mother Earth, Fleetwood Mac, and the Savoy Brown Blues Band have each copped a distinct and different aspect of the blues, or life, for that matter, because that’s what blues is all about.

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If you liked Buffalo Springfield, you will probably like the first ‘solo album of one of its departed members, Neil Young (on Reprise).

A Buffalo Springfield revival is taking place as people realize that of all the American groups that came out of the “Beatle revolution,” the Springfield rank with the very best. Not enough people seemed to realize that when the group was struggling to make it.

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BERKELEY (LNS)—The University of California campus here became a battlefield Thursday, Feb. 20, as students fought back against repeated tear gas attacks by club-swinging pigs.

Some 3,000 strikers abandoned the usual tactics of picketing and running, to remobilize when the cops attacked. When the students counterattacked hurling rocks, bricks, bottles and cherry bombs—the police often retreated in terror.

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Editors’ Note: Art Johnston is the former editor of the South End newspaper and disappeared into the West after his term of office ended last June.

SAN FRANCISCO—Journalism as novel. History as novelty. History as fiction. Our lives as fiction. Everybody else’s life as a movie. The Last Great Days of The State of California as tomorrow’s news today. The Decline and Fall of Western Civilization as a two-part Book of the Month Club Introductory Offer. An anecdote:

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Just wanted to let you know how much I, and many of my friends who read the paper, dig the poems you’ve been printing lately, especially Diane DiPrima’s.

I always say that a good anarchistic poem is worth a thousand MC-5 jams since very few of the 5’s songs have any revolutionary message to them while the poems have a lot. I can now see William Leach’s point that music isn’t revolution.

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1969 will undoubtedly be a year which brings increased attacks upon the Movement: the HUAC hearings, the Chicago Grand Jury, and Oakland 7 trial, and repressive actions against GI coffeehouses, are only some of the better publicized incidents of repression and attack on the movement.

The Michigan State Legislature has set up its own little committee (as have several other states) to investigate “breaches of the peace and disorders on university campuses.” Indications are that this committee’s intentions are a broad and general attack upon Movement activity in the state; it is likely that the committee will follow the familiar pattern of using closed hearings, manipulation of the press, subpoenaing of Movement people, threats of legal action, etc., to intimidate and harass Movement activities in the state.

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let’s talk about splitting, splitting is an art

frequently called upon in revolution

retreat, says the I Ching, must not be confused

with flight, and furthermore, frequently, it furthers

ONE TO HAVE SOMEWHERE TO GO

.

i.e., know in advance

the person/place you can go to,

means to get there

keep money (cash) in house for travelling

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Most students will have left for Summer vacation when a special state Senate investigating committee begins its witch-hunt of campus radicals and their morals.

“It probably will be the end of July before we are able to conduct public hearings intelligently,” said Chairman Robert J. Huber, an apparition from the 1950s.

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Images that appear in our pages are separate statements on the subject addressed in an article.

P. 29 Lars van Dooren is a Brooklyn-based artist. He is a 2020 Frederieke Sanders-Taylor Studio Projects Fund grant recipient. arsvandooren.com.

P. 20 Carla Repice’s work investigates systems of oppression and memory, and probes the effects of racism and dehumanization on the human psyche. She has an MFA in performance art, and studied painting and feminist theory at The Lorenzo de Medici School of Art in Florence, Italy. She lives in New York City.

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Current rash of skyjacking is nothing new, merely a new outbreak of the age-‘old custom of piracy in the newest uncontrolled medium: the air. Diverting planes to Cuba is kid stuff. Wait until international pirates see the potential for just taking planes (as long as they can land on territory they control). Then, sooner or later somebody will think of sitting up there in a long-range bomber with a nuclear missile aboard.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (LNS)—The Supreme Court has upheld (7 to 2) the right of three Des Moines high school students to wear black armbands to school in protest of the Vietnam War.

The majority opinion stated that students and teachers don’t shed “their Constitutional right to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

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On April 5^th in Chicago, GIs and civilians will be marching together against the war in Vietnam. The demonstration will be protesting the suppression of GI rights in the army and demanding that the troops be brought home now.

Six other major demonstrations will be held that week in cities near army bases across the country.

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Several hundred people attended Open City’s first benefit held February 28 at Alvin’s Delicatessen.

The three hundred dollars collected at the door was used to purchase the community switchboard now in operation at the Open City office.

For the last few weeks Open City members have met in committees, rapped on telephones and have generally been putting their projects together. The most obvious result of all this has been the opening of the Open City office now located at 4726 Third, near Forest, 2^nd Floor, office number 5.

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SAN FRANCISCO (LNS)—Military justice, it says in the manuals. But to observers of the trial, the two words form a mutual contradiction, one that emerged more starkly than ever when Pvts. Lawrence Reidel and Louis Osczepinski were sentenced on Feb. 15, to 14 and 16 years of imprisonment for their part in the non-violent Presidio protest last October. (See Fifth Estate, last issue.)

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