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“In areas where our people are the constant victims of brutality, and the government seems unable or unwilling to protect them, we should form rifle clubs that can be used to defend our lives and our property in times of emergency...When our people are bitten by dogs, they are within their rights to kill those dogs.”

—Malcolm X

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I have dug the newspaper for almost 8 months and I’m really for the People having the power, because the Establishment has fucked this country completely up. I feel that your paper really gets down to the natural nitty thang in every printed page!

I especially dug your hip reply to the brainwashed men of the 3^rd Plt., B Co., 1/6 Inf., 5^th Div.

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BERKELEY, Calif. (LNS)—The National Guard pulled out of Berkeley the morning of June 3 at 6 o’clock.

People’s Park, which they had occupied for over two weeks has been left to a handful of Burns Agency rent-a-cops, who wander forlornly about the perimeter of the fenced-in lot.

What was it like to have the National Guard come to town?

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As reported in our last issue, the MC5 started work on their first Atlantic album June 9 at the GM Recording Studios in Detroit. Producing the album will be Jon Landau, who has moved to the MC5’s home for the duration of the recording sessions.

Material tentatively scheduled for the album includes Little Richard’s classic “Tutti Frutti,” and James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s World.” Also included is “Shakin’ All Over,” “Back in the USA,” plus four original songs by the Five and a Pharoah Sanders song, “Upper Egypt,” with lyrics by White Panther Minister of Information John Sinclair.

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A gala fund raising party for Open City’s summer campaign will be held on Friday, July 11 at Alvin’s Finer Deli on Cass at Palmer.

Admission will be $1 and the celebration will begin at 8 pm. Proceeds will go to the Open City Free Clinic and the new Open City General Store soon to open in the Warren Forest area.

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John Sinclair has had his hair cut twice in the last three years. Both times by pigs.

The first time when he left the Detroit House of Correction in July of 1966 after serving a six month sentence for possession of grass.

This time the White Panther Minister of Information had his shoulder-length black hair cut by a guard in the Oakland County jail.

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photo / The Real Doctor Squat

Detroit Police Commissioner Johannes (The Lover) Spreen has called for another “love in” to improve police relations with the community.

His last love in was pretty much of a flop with the New Bethel shooting coming right in the middle of it, so Jo is trying again.

Spreen is a wonderful public relations man and seems sincere in wanting to ease community tensions. The only problem is that he is not in effective control of his force (the reactionary Detroit Police Officers Association is the real boss) and most Detroit cops are going about their 24 hour a day, seven day a week hate in.

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A recent addition has been made to the folk scene in the name of John Stewart. He is currently touring key cities to promote his new Capitol album, “California Bloodlines.” The Fifth Estate spoke to him at Baker’s Lounge.

His producer is Nick Venet who has given us such sounds in the past as The Association and The Lovin’ Spoonful.

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MONTEZUMA, Iowa (LNS)—Eight Grinnell College students have been convicted on charges of “open and indecent exposure.”

The eight, five women and three men, took off their clothes during a talk given by a representative of Playbody magazine at Grinnell College, on Feb. 5. (See Fifth Estate, Feb. 20, 1969).

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LEARY RUNS FOR GOV. Tim Leary says that he’ll conduct a “grass roots campaign for governor of California, beginning with a train tour of the state in September. He already has the support of more than 100 rock bands and “the four leading newspapers” and explains that though he won’t be participating in machine politics “there may be some smoke-filled rooms.”

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The spirit of liberation has swept across this freedom stoned land from Berkeley to our sister city, Ann Arbor, and now into Detroit.

Inner city people in the Warren-Forest area are demanding their right to the people’s land to use for the benefit of the people. The nation’s second People’s Park will be made this summer; a call is out for support from the community to everyone who believes in freedom.

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A green pickup truck with living space for ten or twelve if you squeeze together. Rain-soaked, faded picket signs barely readable: RECOGNIZE OUR UNION, WSU USES STUDENTS FOR CHEAP LABOR, WSU IS ANTI-LABOR.

A leaky makeshift tent made out of clear plastic and freight skids. Finally replaced with a luxurious water-proof boy scout tent.

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As we go to press word has reached us that Recorder’s Court Judge Robert Colombo has dismissed charges of sales of marijuana against John Sinclair. His trial on the charge of possession began on June 24 and may be in progress at this writing. Call our office or White Panther headquarters for more information.

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It’s over. Nobody really came out ahead. Washtenaw Sheriff Douglas Harvey became Pig of the Year and liberal Ann Arbor Mayor Robert Harris and U-M President Robben Fleming both lost many points with their respective constituencies. Sixty-nine people were busted in three days of street fighting and more than 100 were hurt.

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Fifth Estate

EDITORIAL GROUP

Peter Werbe

Cathy West

Tommye Wiese

DISTRIBUTION

Bruce Montrose

Fred Frank

BUSINESS & ADVERTISING

Bill Rowe

CITY EDITOR

Chris Singer

MUSIC EDITOR

John Sinclair

STAFF

Dena Clamage

Claudia Montrose

Franie Nelson

Dave Watson

Marilyn Werbe

The FIFTH ESTATE is published every other Thursday of each month by the Fifth Estate Newspaper, Inc., 1107 W. Warren, Detroit, Michigan 48201. Application to mail at second-class postage rates is pending at Detroit Michigan. Subscription rate is $3 for one year; $5 for two years. Canadian is $3.50; all other foreign are $5 per year. Phone: 831–6800.

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a review of

Taking the Rap: Women Doing Time For Society’s Crimes by Ann Hansen. Between the Lines, 2018

When offered the chance to review Ann Hansen’s memoir about her time in the Canadian prison system, I was enthusiastic but doubtful that I would be permitted to receive such a book.

With my Communications Management status and participation in the Rehabilitation Drug Abuse Program (RDAP) while imprisoned at Carswell Federal Medical Center in Texas, it seemed unlikely that this courageous and intensely honest account of real life in all manner of jails, holding facilities, and prisons would be allowed in.

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Summer came to Ann Arbor last week and brought with it teargas, a tank, about 400 cops and four nights of street confrontation.

Monday night the people gathered in the streets to drink and dance. People fucked in the streets. No cops showed up. Tuesday, the shit came down hard. The people barricaded off South University between E. Forest and E. University. Cops from Washtenaw, Monroe and Oakland Counties showed up along with State Police from the Ypsilanti post. The people were gassed and beaten and finally driven off the streets in the small hours of the morning.

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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.

THURS. JUNE 12

CONCERT WITH DETROIT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA. Valter Poole conducting at the Mich. State Fair Grounds. 8:30 pm.

LUIGI PIRANDELLO’S “Six Characters in Search of an Author” at Bonstelle Theatre, 3424 Woodward. 8:30 pm.

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When you see “Goodbye, Columbus,” you think how amazing-that this crew of film makers could take such familiar material and make it so fresh.

Throughout the whole movie, right from the opening shots of a swimming pool, I was plagued by the notion that director Larry Peerce was somehow capitalizing on “The Graduate,” but by the end -I had relaxed and decided “So what?” if Peerce could make a better movie than Nichols’, or even one of equal quality, the more power to him.

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The 2019 Fight Toxic Prisons Convergence is June 14–17 in Gainesville, Florida and will include speakers, panels, workshops, protests and cultural activities exploring the intersections of anti-prison and environmental struggles. fighttoxicprisons.wordpress.com Above: Protest march following the 2018 FTP convergence in Pittsburgh. / photo: Jordan Mazurek

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FLASH—As we go to press we have learned that 12 of the Presidio GI’s have been found guilty of mutiny and two of disobedience. The verdict came after the five-member board deliberated six hours at the end of the 35 day trial. Sentences have not yet been passed.

FORT ORD, Calif. (LNS)—The defense has rested in the climactic phase of the Presidio Mutiny case.

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National Jericho Movement: PO Box 2164, Chesterfield VA 23832. thejerichomovement.com

New York City Anarchist Black Cross (NYC ABC): PO Box 110034, Brooklyn, New York 11211. nycabc.wordpress.com

Bloomington Anarchist Black Cross: Focuses on solidarity with prison rebels, anarchist prisoners, and prisoners of other liberatory social movements. A books to prisoner project and huge number of links to other prison projects. bloomingtonabc.noblogs.org

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a review of

China On Strike: Narratives of Workers’ Resistance edited by Hao Ren; English edition edited by Zhongjin Li and Eli Friedman. Haymarket Books, 2016

Striking to Survive: Workers Resistance to Factory Relocations in China by Fan Shigang, translated by Henry Moss. Haymarket Books, 2018

The modern state of China, by capitalist standards, is generally thriving. The nation’s economic growth rate, considered to be a prime indicator of prosperity, is significantly higher than that of the western industrialized countries, even with its recent slowdowns.

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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 are 35 cents per line.

Check one

I’m sending ... lines at 50 cents per line for a one issue run.

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We live in a technological life-world, more so by the hour. Our ecology is now all too largely technology, which has been irreversible, directional, and cumulative. The process that now characterizes civilization is a generalized technicization. Its success is measurable by how totally it has insinuated itself into society and into our consciousness––with grave consequences.

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We, the undersigned organizations and individuals, hereby state that until the demands of the Black United Front are met, we will maintain a complete boycott of the Detroit News. Specifically, we will not assist the News in its so-called news gathering functions; we will not buy copies of the News, nor advertise in it, and will encourage others to join us.

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To high school students who are going to be free and happy this Summer, remember the future; the Man will come in the Fall and lead you back to the zoo where he can watch you and work on you for another year.

With this in mind, high school students should leave school this year with a Fall perspective, so we can get our shit together and let it all hit the fan at the same time.

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In March of this year, citizens of the Republic of New Africa suffered physical attacks by the Detroit Police Dept., were deprived of their legal rights by the police and the Wayne County Prosecutor, and were the victims of racist hysteria whipped up by the mass media, notably the Detroit News.

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Exclusive to the Fifth Estate

An eye-witness to the New Bethel Incident has given the Fifth Estate an account of the shootings that contradicts both official police versions, and testimony of prosecution witnesses in two court cases.

Max Hardeman, a legal researcher on the staff of Neighborhood Legal Services (NLS), told this newspaper that he and his wife, Cynthia, saw the fatal shooting of Patrolman Michael J. Czapski on the night of March 29, outside the New Bethel Baptist Church.

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The police conspiracy out to put White Panther leader John Sinclair behind bars has suffered several important setbacks in the last few weeks.

First, sentencing of Sinclair was postponed until June 10 on his Oakland County conviction of assaulting a police officer after attorney William Segesta brought in new evidence and asked for a new trial.

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Once in the Jurassic, about 150 million years ago, the Great Sun Buddha in this corner of the Infinite Void gave a great Discourse to all the assembled elements and energies: to the standing beings, the walking beings, the flying beings, and the sitting beings—even grasses, to the number of thirteen billion, each one born from a seed, were assembled there: a Discourse concerning Enlightenment on the planet Earth.

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The pop world is crashing under the plastic bravado of its self-praise, musical solipsism and commercial orientation which leads toward a strict class separation and a degenerate, bullshit path of “mature sophistication,” alcohol, drugs, elitism, stardom, show business, artiness, campfire music, jiveness, an asinine sense of historical importance, and a superficial future consigned to trends, megalomaniac celebrities, and industry-induced myths. A Neo-Roman decadence has internationally seized the music of Youth—fun, freedom, and change.

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The heavy hand of “justice” has fallen on Dave Valler, who was sentenced to 7 to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to two counts of possession of marijuana.

Valler is still awaiting trial, along with six other persons, on conspiracy charges in connection with a series of dynamite bombings of a school, a draft board, and a policeman’s car.

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By working in secretarial jobs, at Ys, day care centers, and in other experimental ways, SDS hopes to do practical work in organizing women.

Besides these organizing collectives, the project will engage in intensive political study and research into Detroit. By the end of the summer the project will have trained a large number of people who can become sophisticated political cadre for -the organizing of a youth movement throughout Michigan as well as Detroit.

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BERKELEY—About 2,000 persons attended—off and on—a six hour teach-in on “Ecology and Politics in America” May 28 at the U-C Berkeley campus.

The idea was to relate the People’s Park issue to broader questions of planetary survival.

A lot of language under a hot sun—but hopefully the thing will get made into a book to help people past the old politics and into a root politics of ecology.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (LNS)—Hearings on SDS will be held this month by the House Internal Securities Committee, the College Press Service reported.

Committee Chairman Richard Ichord said that the investigation has been going on for nearly three months. The Committee is looking over its large library of SDS literature and other leftist material.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (LNS)—Timothy Leary is free! The Supreme Court has overturned his grass possession conviction.

Rumors are spreading fast and furious. What does it all mean for the rest of us?

Let’s start with what the court ruling doesn’t do.

It doesn’t effect prosecution on the basis of state anti-grass laws (all 50 states have them). It doesn’t imply that congress can’t pass federal laws against pot possession; and it doesn’t effect existing federal laws against the sale of grass.

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ANN ARBOR—Bombs are exploding in Michigan again.

On June 1 unknown persons destroyed an Army officer’s car, blew a hole in the University of Michigan ROTC building and shattered 40 windows in the structure. No one was injured.

This was the third bombing in Ann Arbor since last fall. The local CIA headquarters was bombed in September and a research institute that helped develop the tracking device that pinpointed Che Guevara in Bolivia was hit in October.

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Detroit’s 1^st Rock and Roll Revival held Memorial Day weekend at the Fairgrounds significantly began the summer’s slew of pop festivals across the country.

The actual attendance is unknown but it must have drawn at least 25,000 to 30,000 together for the two days of rock and roll.

The set up of the festival was not ideal since there was no place to slip away and get laid but you could lie on a blanket on the sand between the grandstand and the stage and hope that the wind didn’t blow up a sand storm.

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Suspended Detroit Patrolman Ronald August took the witness stand and told the jury at his trial that he killed 19-year old Auburey Pollard in self-defense.

August, who is white, admitted killing the black youth with a single blast from a shotgun on July 26, 1967 in the Algiers Motel.

Under examination by his Detroit Police Officers Association (DPOA) supplied defense attorney, Norman Lippitt, August carefully told his version of the killing that occurred during the height of the rebellion that began on July 23.

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Demonstration in Rome’s Plaza San Silvestro November 23 against a law aimed at immigrants and squatters. Sign held by Kurdish refugees says, “From the mountains of Kurdistan to the heart of Rome, Ararat will not be evicted.” —photo: Bill Weinberg

It was a multicultural crowd that gathered in Rome’s Plaza San Silvestro to oppose the draconian Security Decree then pending in the Italian parliament. Popularly called the Salvini Law after Italy’s far-right Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, the Decree was aimed at two broadly overlapping groups: immigrants and squatters.

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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: While watching the action attendant the occupation of People’s Park, I received several mild doses of tear gas. The result seems to be a considerable lessening of congestion in my sinuses, though I suffer from chronic sinusitis. Do you recommend this treatment?

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The following interview with American Servicemen’s Union (ASU) chairman Pvt. Andrew Stapp (Ret.) was conducted by Fifth Estate staffer Dena Clamage.

Fifth Estate: What is the American Serviceman’s Union? When was it formed and for what purpose?

Andy Stapp: The ASU is a union organization of rank and file GIs. The ASU has eight demands, which mostly center around the war and racism within the Army. It is essentially a resistance movement which was formed to encourage GIs to fight against the war, which we believe to be an imperialist war.

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“The MC5 always lose the first time,” according to Wayne Kramer, lead guitar with the group.

Wayne was speaking about the band’s bad scene with Elektra records.

The 5, now based on a ten-acre hideout near Hamburg, Michigan goes through more externally imposed changes than any band in history.

The cancellation of their contract by Elektra was unprecedented in recording business history. The record company released a super hot band with a record in the top 30 albums nationally because Elektra President Jac Holzman couldn’t relate to the band’s high-energy assault tactics.

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A commune calling itself the Kingdom of Endor tried to plan The Great Aspen Freak Festival in the little Colorado town for this July but carelessly announced that 100,000 hippies-could be expected—and that blew the whole thing.

Suddenly the available land wasn’t available any more and threats of “vigilante” action scared off what few record company commitments that had been made. What finally brought matters to a head was a claim—untrue—that the Beatles would be coming.

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Friend and comrade, Joel Silvers, died unexpectedly at age 72 in Detroit on December 8, 2018.

Joel was present when the Fifth Estate was launched in 1965 and at the 2015 festivities that celebrated the 50^th anniversary of this publication.

As an award-winning filmmaker, he produced a documentary of interviews with some of the early staff, a trailer of which is available on our web site, FifthEstate.org, “Enduring Voices: 50 years of the Fifth Estate.”

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Part of the Memorial Day march of 50,000 to demand the return of the People’s Park. The Berkeley City Council has agreed to give half of it back. Photo / Annie Kransdorf

The thunder of the drums is building. By now, under the full Sagitarius moon, they are wailing with sticks, rocks, beer cans, shovels, and bloody fists at trash cans, wash tubs, concrete and steel grates, their bodies writhing—Strip Naked and Faint!—hugging the flesh of every dirty wet pores open brother and hard-nipples sister in the explosive joy that we have finally overcome their separation, kossack-kicking and whooping around the campfires of Insurrection City.

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A rose, is a rose, is a rose, is a rose.

And a racist judge is, in fact, a racist judge.

This is how attorneys for Kenneth Cockrel developed their case that the young black attorney should not be cited for contempt of Detroit Recorder’s Court.

Cockrel was ordered to show cause why he should not be cited for contempt after he accused Recorder’s Court Judge Joseph E. Maher of being “a criminal judge violating the law.” The remarks came following the April 19 pre-trial examination for Alfred Hibbitt, accused of assault with intent to murder in the shooting of Patrolman Richard E. Worobec outside the New Bethel Baptist Church March 29.

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LANSING—Justice moves slowly.

Two years ago Gary Grimshaw, who at that time was art director for the Fifth Estate, was arrested in the Artists’ Workshop office on John Lodge for displaying an obscene kite.

The kite had on it an Egyptian peace eye symbol and the words “Fuck America Go Fly a Kite.”

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Fifth Estate

EDITORIAL GROUP

Alan Gotkin

Peter Werbe

Cathy West

Tommye Wiese

DISTRIBUTION

Bruce Montrose

Fred Frank

BUSINESS & ADVERTISING

Bill Rowe

CITY EDITOR

Chris Singer

MUSIC EDITOR

John Sinclair

STAFF

Dena Clamage

Claudia Montrose

Franie Nelson

Dave Watson

Marilyn Werbe

The FIFTH ESTATE is published every other Thursday of each month by the Fifth Estate Newspaper, Inc., 1107 W. Warren, Detroit, Michigan 48201. Application to mail at second-class postage rates is pending at Detroit Michigan. Subscription rate is $3 for one year; $5 for two years. Canadian is $3.50; all other foreign are $5 per year. Phone: 831–6800.

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