the Masked Marvel
Wouldn’t it have been nice if...

6-o-fe-63-12-cartoons.jpg

It must have been like watching one of his own underground movies.

There was Ralph Pickett, manager of the Detroit Repertory Theatre and a friend, Bob, running around in the back woods of Ft. Wayne, Indiana harvesting acres of grass with Sheriff’s deputies lurking down the road waiting to make a bust.

...

Luis Chávez
(Re)Thinking Music & Revolution

Consider destroying (or purposefully forgetting) your headphones.

Whether you live in a city or rural area, the daily use of headphones physically and aurally blocks your connection to the surrounding sonic environment. Listening as a way of knowing is lost to listening as a way of consuming.

An SFGate news story, “Absorbed Device Users Oblivious to Danger,” recounts a 2013 incident on a San Francisco light rail train that illustrates one of the many dangerous consequences of alienation created by industrial, technological society.

...

Karen Knorp
Skin Flick at the Krim

“The Female,” current attraction at the Trans-Lux Krim in Highland Park, comes as close to being an obscene movie is anything I’ve seen.

The principal action is set in a Mexican whorehouse, and includes graphic scenes of two or more people in bed engaging in various acts of sadism, fellatio, foot fetishism, and plain old sexual intercourse. This is not, in my opinion, what makes “The Female” an obscene movie.

...

Thomas Haroldson
Belle de Jour Film review

If Luis Bunuel had not directed “Belle de Jour,” it probably would have turned out to be nothing more than a case history from the pages of Krafft-Ebbing. On the very surface it merely tells the story of how a wealthy married woman sets out to solve her “abnormal” sexual hang-ups.

Since she is a masochist, who secretly yearns to be dominated, debased and sexually abused, her life of complete comfort leaves her cold. For relief, she frequently resorts to erotic daydreams, but finally the moment comes when she is compelled to act out her sexual fantasies. After a couple of false starts, she becomes a Belle de Jour, an afternoon prostitute, in a small middle-class brothel.

...

Fifth Estate Collective
Black GIs Convicted

FORT HOOD, Tex.—A court-martial found five black soldiers, including two Detroiters, guilty of refusing to obey an order growing out of a demonstration against possible anti-riot duty at the Democratic National Convention.

The specific charge was failing to report for reveille.

A sixth soldier, Pvt. Ronald McCoy, 23, of Philadelphia was acquitted.

...

Eugene Schoenfeld M.D.
Dr. HIPpocrates

6-o-fe-81-6-eugene-schoenfeld-1969.jpg
Dr. Eugene Schoenfeld speaking at Community Arts Auditorium, May 28, 1969 at a benefit for Open City. Photo: Alan Gotkin.

arf! arf!

QUESTION: My wife and I think it might be interesting for her to have intercourse, perhaps regularly, with a German Shepherd dog. We have not experimented, however, because we are afraid of weird diseases that we might get. What’s the deal?

...

Fifth Estate Collective
Editors’ Notes

We think an important clarification is needed regarding the “editors’ note” that appeared on page seventeen of last issue that said, “All you need is dynamite.”

This, in fact, was not an editors’ note at all, but rather the whim of persons working on the layout of the paper. We can dig the way they felt at 4:00 in the morning reading Ralph Gleason’s bad review of the Beatles’ bad record, “Revolution,” but that statement does not reflect the thinking of this newspaper.

...

Fifth Estate Collective
Goodbye pig car, draft board.... In an age of sabotage the sky is the limit

Spitball of Buddha leaflet

“The destruction of a troop transport truck or the public execution of a police torturer is more effective propaganda for the local population than a hundred speeches. Such conduct convinces them of the essential: that the Revolution is on the march, that the enemy is no longer invulnerable.”

—Regis Debray, Revolution in the Revolution

...

Fifth Estate Collective
The San Francisco Mime Troupe

And now ladies and gentlemen...

The San Francisco Mime Troupe is preparing for its third annual cultural assault on Detroit. Presented by this newspaper, the guerrilla theatre group whose home ground is the public parks of San Francisco and Berkeley, will present a new commedia dell’arte play, “The Farce of Patelin,” at Upper DeRoy Auditorium on the WSU campus, October 25, 26, 27 at 8:00 p.m.

...

Judie Davis
Eat It

Now that Fall is here, I hope to be more regular with this column. I just haven’t been in the mood to write about food, what with the world coming down all around. But as my editor says, politics is a dime a lime, but everyone likes to Eat It.

Bradley Jones keeps asking me for some one dish casserole recipes so I’ll start with my own chili recipe. I like chili very thick and sort of spicy sweet.

...

Thorne Dreyer
HUAC on the Make The Circus is Coming to Town!

NEW YORK, Sept. 24 (Liberation News Service)—The HUAC circus is coming to town once more. And the fireworks should fly in Washington.

Thus far, six people have received subpoenas to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee on Oct. 1. Those now set to appear before Amerika’s anti-commie tribunal are Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Dave Dellinger and Robert Greenblatt.

...

anon.
Huey Sentenced Power to the people...or the sky’s the limit

OAKLAND, Calif., Sept. 27—Huey P. Newton, Black Panther leader, was sentenced today to a prison term of 2 to 15 years for the voluntary manslaughter of John Frey, an Oakland cop.

Newton’s lawyer, who was turned down on his plea for probation said he hoped to gain freedom for Newton on bail through an appeal to the California District Court of Appeals.

...

John Wilcock
Other Scenes

What a pathetic creature Horseshit Humphreak is; how could anybody with any intelligence take him seriously? Other Scenes wrote (in March 1966): “If vice-stooge HH had the guts to express his own opinions he could be the next president, which—with the polarization over Vietnam—will certainly never be his fate as a yesman.” The fact is undeniable that anybody who’s prepared to rationalize evil for any reason whatsoever is already irrevocably part of it. As of now HH Horseshit looks like a sure loser (his only helper being Asshole Agnew) which, from any revolutionary’s viewpoint, holds hope for the future. President pip-squeak humphreak could keep the wallsitters (including those deserted dreamers who worked for McCarthy) in line for a couple of years before all hell breaks loose; president vixen nixon might last a year; but with george shit-ass in power we might be lucky enough to cause the literal overthrow of the u.s. government within six months. Think on these things. Guerrillas should eschew ideologies (tho not ideals) and concentrate upon tactics.

...

Mateo Pimentel
Social Technologies & Politics Police Body Cams: How they hurt those who are supposed to be helped

As the importance of social technologies increases, many users fail to pay sufficient critical attention to the political incursions that such technologies invite.

Millions who cannot fathom life without social technologies are, in all likelihood, the same demographic that is most willing to excuse the political transgressions these technologies engender—particularly if the consequent harm affects people other than themselves.

...

Fifth Estate Collective
Huey’s Lawyer Here

Charles Garry, attorney for Huey Newton, Black Panther Minister of Defense, will speak in Detroit at 8 p.m., Friday, October 18, at McGregor Hall on Wayne’s campus.

The occasion is a conference sponsored by the National Lawyers Guild on political defense.

The Newton trial, in significant contrast to the Spock Trial, was an important example of the use of a trial as a political forum, means of exposure, and organizing focus for movement politics. While exploiting all opportunities for legal and factual defenses, Garry relentlessly exposed the racist practices of the Oakland Police in particular, and racist nature of the judicial system and American society in general.

...

Fifth Estate Collective
Masthead

THE FIFTH ESTATE

A NEWSPAPER OF DETROIT

EDITORS

Harvey Ovshinsky

Peter Werbe

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Cathy West

CIRCULATION

Tommye Wiese

NEWS EDITOR

Alan Gotkin

MUSIC EDITOR

John Sinclair

PHOTO EDITOR

Mike Tyre

ART DIRECTION

Blallen

ADVERTISING

Gunnar Lewis

CALENDAR

Resa Jannett

IDEOLOGUE

...

Alan Gotkin
Mich. Welcomes Muskie

6-o-fe-63-2-welcome-muskie.jpg

It was “a secret service nightmare,” a disturbed aide of Maine Senator Edmund Muskie said referring to a walk-out demonstration that turned spontaneously into a sit-in which blocked the route of the Vice-Presidential motorcade.

The walkout and demonstration took place on Sept. 26 at Oakland University where Muskie was speaking to an estimated audience of 2000 students and faculty members. When Muskie entered the packed gymnasium he was greeted with shouts of “Dump the Hump,” and “Hell no, we won’t go.”

...

Bryan Tucker
Virtuality, Sociopathy & Hyperabsence The time is ripe for resistance

The work/sleep, shop/discard, lose/win, simulated existence that is thrust upon us is fundamentally forced participation in an electro-sociopathic process.

With computer mediation steadily consuming discourse life is increasingly lived behind, and for, a screen. As contemporary civilization continues this conversion into omnipresent, digitized drudgery, antisocial propensities mushroom, a listless insatiability abounds, while feelings and insight are left behind.

...

Bill Blank
Busking behind the Barricades Book review

a review of

A Busker’s Adventure by David Rovics. Various e-book formats at davidrovics.com/

David Rovics hails from a long lineage of gifted topical American folk guitar singers originally birthed by Joe Hill, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, and Pete Seeger, with blazing torches passed on through its most notable stepchildren, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Tom Paxton and, of course, Bob Dylan, at least before he “went electric” (as alarmingly noted in that 1965 first issue of the Fifth Estate).

...

Ron Sakolsky
Surrealism on the Barricades

3-s-fe-398-34-breakingloose.jpg

excerpt from

Breaking Loose: Mutual Acquiescence or Mutual Aid? LBC Books, 2015, lbcbooks.org

Back in 1995, as the banlieues burned, the Paris Surrealist group put out a tract entitled Warning Lights: A Surrealist Statement on the Recent Riots in France, delineating the unrealized potential of such multi-racial uprisings in the inner suburban immigrant quarters to spread across the country.

...

Human-like Robots

Äkta Människor (Real Humans)

SVT 1 Sweden, 2012. Syndicated in 50 countries including U.S.

After watching twenty episodes from two seasons of the Swedish TV series, “Real Humans,” I am left with several questions. It’s terrifying to know that there are scientists, particularly in Japan, who are working on creating robots to be both intelligent and human-like.

...

David Rovics
Robb Johnson A Singer/Songwriter You May Never Have Heard Of, But Should

a review of

“A Reasonable History of Impossible Demands: The Damage to Date 1986–2013.” Robb Johnson, 92 songs on 5 CDs with 64-page booklet. PM Press, 2015, pmpress.org

At a time when independent publishers and record labels are going out of business at a rapid rate, PM Press keeps on putting out books, pamphlets, videos, and various other things—including CDs.

...

Peter Werbe
James Baldwin 3 Friends & Race in America

3-s-fe-398-37-baldwin.jpg
James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, Jr.

a film review of

“I Am Not Your Negro” (2016). Director: Raoul Peck; Writer: James Baldwin; Narration: Samuel L. Jackson. 135 min.

The title of this documentary about novelist, playwright, poet, and essayist James Baldwin is not spoken as such in the film. Where the line is uttered in this excellent film by Haitian-born director, Raoul Peck, Baldwin tells a British audience, “I am not your...” and uses the “N” word to complete his sentence.

...

Bill Meyer
Sasha on an iPhone Abigail Child’s New Emma Goldman Film Merges Anarchist History with Present Struggles

a review of

“Acts and Intermissions: Emma Goldman in America.” 2017. USA. Directed by Abigail Child; 57 min. abigailchild.com

Abigail Child is a prolific and active visual artist whose works have appeared in prestigious international galleries; an author of five poetry books, including a book of critical writings on film; and a professor of video/film production and history.

...

Amanda Schemkes
Free the Cleveland 4 Entrapped Activists Need Movement Support

3-s-fe-398-23-cleveland-4.jpg

The Cleveland 4 need continued movement support as they deal with harsh sentences resulting from the interest that the government has in orchestrating terrorism convictions.

The Cleveland 4 are Brandon Baxter, Connor Stevens, Doug Wright, and Joshua Stafford, a group of young Occupy activists who were entrapped into a government-created terrorism plot to blow up a bridge in 2012.

...

Fifth Estate Collective
Calendar

THEATRE

PLAY — Court Theatre presents George Buchner’s “Leonce and Lena” opening May 10–20. 8:30 p.m. at Court Theatre 2555 Burns Ave. Phone 822–6655 Adm.

PLAY Sheridan’s “The Rivals” WSU Hillberry Classic Theatre, Cass & Hancock 2:30 p.m. Adm. May 27.

PLAY, Children’s Holiday Theatre. Talking Drums, Percival Borde Dance Co. Det. Inst. Arts Aud., John R St. entrance. 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Adm. May 20.

...

Harvey Ovshinsky
Love-in collage

3-m-fe-30-12-collage.jpg
Collage by Harvey Ovshinsky, photos by Richard Stocker, Norm Koren, C.T. Walker

Fifth Estate Collective
Vietnam Summer Set for Detroit

“There is too much concern about free love and not enough concern about free hate in this society,” stated William Sloan Coffin in an anti-war address at central Methodist Church on May 9, 1967.

Coffin, the Chaplain at Yale University, was speaking on behalf of Clergy and laymen concerned about Vietnam, a new addition to peace and anti-war groups in the city. Coffin is an officer of the national Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam which is co-chaired by Rev. Martin Luther King.

...

Frank H. Joyce
“We Will Wield Power” WCO Leadership Takes Militant Turn

Struggle, Chairman Mao teaches us, moves in stages.

The West Central Organization (WCO) after a long series of internal problems previously reported in the Fifth Estate has moved to a new stage.

It represents an advance for the group.

A new staff headed by, former WCO organizer, 33 year old Lorenzo Freeman, has been created to bring new talent, energy and direction to the organization.

...

Hank Malone
Books

a review of

Where Is Vietnam? a Collection of Poems—an Anthology of new work by 87 Poets, edited by Walter Lowenfels, NYC., Doubleday and Co., 160 pages, $1.25.

A friend of mine once said that the only good reasons for reviewing a book were (1) to sell the book, or (2) to publicly kick the author in the ass. In this case I hardly know where to begin.

...

Marlene Tyre
Divine Toad Sweat Reports on Neo-Am Church

The Fifth Estate recently received a copy of “Divine Toad Sweat,” Church bulletin of the NeoAmerican Church, headquartered in Mt. Eden, California.

The Neo-American Church, although it does not employ set rituals, subscribes to three basic Principles. As stated in “Divine Toad Sweat” they are

“1) Everyone has the right to expand his consciousness and stimulate visionary experience by whatever means he considers desirable and proper without interference from anyone;

...

Fifth Estate Collective
GI Sues to Stop Viet Transfer

(Washington) — Robert Luftig, 22, a soldier from New York City, Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to block the Defense Department from sending him to Vietnam.

Luftig, a draftee now stationed at Ft. Benning, Ga., has claimed in his suit that the war in Vietnam violates the U. S. Constitution and international agreements. He said the war is undeclared by Congress and abridges due process guarantees of the Fifth Amendment. Drafted September, 1965, and trained as a cook, Luftig is seeking a permanent injunction against Secretary of State Robert McNamara, contending that no person can be ordered to violate the law of the land.

...

Marshall Rubinoff
Inside Sounds

The Spikedrivers were the first psychedelic rock group that existed in Detroit.

Their sound wasn’t super hard, yet it was able to take you off into the freedom of your sub-consciousness. That was a year ago and they weren’t hip to the new obvious fact that music doesn’t happen on 45 records. All they knew was, if you wanted to make music you needed the big money of a record company to pay for the studio time to put something out in order to reach a large enough audience.

...

Fifth Estate Collective
Medical Fund Appeals for Aid

The Emergency Medical Fund for Bernard, Garrett & Graham is making a widespread appeal for funds on the first anniversary of the — shooting at Debs Hall, headquarters of the Socialist Workers Party, where Leo Bernard was killed and Jan Garrett and Water Graham were seriously wounded by an anti-communist fanatic, May 16, 1966.

...

Fifth Estate Collective
Morse Blasts LBJ In a rare Detroit appearance, Oregon Senator Wayne Morse blasted critics of Vietnam war protesters and called for a national televised debate on the war.

Senator Morse addressed over 1,000 people at a recent Anniversary dinner for the Michigan Civil Liberties Union. Sharing the platform with him were Detroit Congressman John Conyers, WSU President William R. Keast and Lt. Governor William G. Milliken.

Senator Morse’s speech countered Governor Milliken’s remarks about “the tiny minority” of bearded students who oppose the war. Milliken told the audience that he knew the ACLU shared his gratitude that the “draft card burners and vietniks” were not larger in numbers.

...

Fifth Estate Collective
Music Highlights WSU Dinner

An international cast of scholar performers will entertain guests at Wayne State University’s 99th Alumni Reunion Dinner-Dance beginning at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 20, in the Community Arts Exhibit Gallery on the WSU campus.

Included among performers during the evening program are Algerian classical guitarist Khalid Benabdallah, and Miss Rajalakshmi Iyer, a WSU student from India. Miss Iyer, who is representing the international aspect of the University’s student body, will play the Veena a stringed musical instrument of India.

Fifth Estate Collective
New WSU Editor

A student prominent in the recent student power demonstration at Wayne State University and a contributor to the Fifth Estate has been named Editor of the Daily Collegian, the WSU school newspaper.

Art Johnston, who will assume duties as Editor next September, was selected by the WSU Publications Committee and the Student-Faculty Council over the Collegian staff’s choice, Associate Managing Editor, John Gagnan.

...

Sol Plafkin
Off Center

One nice thing about public feuds between politicians is that it gives everybody a rare chance to see part of what’s going on inside governmental circles. We learn, that at least to some extent, many decisions are made on the basis of personal vanity, pride, and ego conflict—and not solely as the result of some impersonal “power structure” beyond the reach of our full comprehension or influence.

...

Hank Malone
The Disarmament of the Bored

I.

If we are truly hungry we will eat anything, anywhere. In Aushwitz, philosophers killed each other for the bones in the gravel-pits. They ate the soup made of their brothers’ bodies.

If we are only moderately hungry we are rich. More than half the world’s population knows no other feeling but hunger. They spend their time searching for food, as we in America spend our time searching for the Apocalypse.

...

Fifth Estate Collective
Unclassified

UNCLASSIFIED costs 50 cents per line per week. Figure 5 words per line. (A word is a word, including 1 and 2 letter words. A phone number is a word. Street numbers are words.

Abbreviations should be sensible.) (NO LIMIT ON NUMBER OF LINES)

THE FIFTH ESTATE, 923 PLUM STREET, DETROIT, MICH. 48201

Liquidating entire collection of reptiles from all corners of the world. Interested persons call 935–2013 after 10 p.m.

...

Fifth Estate Collective
Anti-War Conference Set

The Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, the group that brought over 400,000 persons to New York City and San Francisco on April 15, has called for a national conference to evaluate the Mobilization and to exchange ideas on future programs and actions.

The conference, to be held in Washington, D.C., is scheduled for the weekend of May 20–21, following the confrontation with President Johnson by representatives of the peace movement. All groups and individuals who oppose the war are invited to attend.

...

Fifth Estate Collective
Be Clean, Be Cool

In a recent issue of the Fifth Estate (April 1) it was reported that State Senator Roger Craig of Dearborn had introduced a bill into the Michigan Senate that would exempt marijuana from the application of the general “narcotics” act.

While this was an accurate report and reflective of a new climate regarding public opinion toward the use of “drugs” we hope people are still being careful. In a letter to this paper Sen. Craig stated, “Nothing significant will happen in this area (of legislation) until January.”

...

Pat O’Dea
Detroit Smoke-In

May Day was celebrated in Detroit with a Smoke-In in Grand Circus Park, to call for the re-legalization of marijuana.

Hippies stood around and smoked joints made of Bull Durham, legal herbs, and bananas.

The demonstration started out with lots of rain, and a big hassle with the local constables about a permit they were supposed to have. As a result, the demonstration was temporarily moved to the lobby of the City-County building. Later everyone slowly wandered back to the park and nothing else was said.

...

Fifth Estate Collective
Equal Justice—A Joke in Detroit

Justice was stood on its head at Detroit’s Recorders’ Court as an anti war activist was convicted of Disturbing the Peace for trying to keep order at a teach-in last November (see Fifth Estate, Nov. 15–30, 1966) and a member of the right-wing organization Breakthrough, who assaulted the usher in full view of hundreds was found innocent.

...

Fifth Estate Collective
Fifth Estate Staff

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

...

Various Authors
Letters to the Editor

To the Editor:

A reply to Mr. Wilbert McClendon; not because he will listen (he won’t) but because someone has to maintain the balance:

Mr. McClendon: You said one right thing in your article and that was that some of the white people who protest the war in Vietnam are phony. Actually, you didn’t even say that right because you said they were ALL phony and that, Mr. McClendon, is ridiculous. There are a great many white protesters who are not phony. They have rallied in support of the Negro cause and that cause is much more honest and meaningful because of them. But even the phony white protesters are not harmful.

...

Fifth Estate Collective
Peace Leader Says Clash with China Near

NEW YORK—Rev. James Bevel, national director of the Spring Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam, assailed President Johnson for turning a deaf ear to the growing anti-war sentiment in the United States.

Rev. Bevel rebuked the President in connection with the latest U.S. bombing raids close to the center of Hanoi. He said that Johnson was “power mad” and “in a futile attempt to cover up his own mistakes, the President is driving this country closer and closer to a nightmarish confrontation with Red China and nuclear catastrophe.”

...

Shirley Hamburg
The Cinephile

In adapting a bulky, densely detailed novel of seven volumes, Mai Zetterling has extricated the following schema in her movie, “Loving Couples:” her three women have in common a place and a time of arrival, the hospital, set immediately at the beginning of the film; a starting time, childhood; a central time and place, the chateau and the longest night, Midsummer. This schema orders and disorders brilliantly the destiny of the three lives in which childhoods, love affairs, childbearings correspond to one another.

...

Fifth Estate Collective
Underground Press Has Tribal Meeting

San Francisco (UPS) The Underground Press Syndicate, of which the Fifth Estate is a member, was founded more than a year ago in order to facilitate the communication of information which the Establishment press ignores, suppresses, or never dreamed of.

Today, the UPS has member papers growing in almost all the glorious subterranean gardens across the country and in Canada and England as well. Recently the first national UPS conference was held in San Francisco, with representatives from the East Village Other (N.Y.), the L.A. Free Press, and The Oracle, The Communication Company (San Francisco), The Rag (Austin, Texas), Seed (Chicago), the Washington Independent (Washington, D.C. ), and The Illustrated Paper (Mendecino, Calif.)

...

Fifth Estate Collective
Vets Set to Jet to DC

Detroit Area Veterans Against the War will be joining veteran contingents from many other cities in a Memorial Day Demonstration in Washington, DC. The veterans plan to hold memorial services at Arlington Cemetery and also will demonstrate at the Pentagon.

“Veterans can play an important role in the antiwar movement,” said Ed Chalom, chairman of the new group. “It is becoming increasingly clear that the strategy of the Administration is to shift the blame for the continuation of the war onto the shoulders of the peace bloc and further, to discredit peace people as being “unpatriotic.”

...