Most Recent Additions
Fifth Estate Collective
Unclassified
Send to the Fifth Estate, 1107 W. Warren, Detroit, Mich. 48201, phone 831–6800
All unclassified ads must be paid in advance by mail or personal delivery.
For Sale: IBM Executive electric typewriter, excellent condition, all we have left to sell. Trans-Love Energies, 4863 John Lodge, Detroit 48201. Call 831–6800 and make an offer. Will take electric Smith — Corona portable in trade, or will listen to what you might offer.
Feb 17, 2017 Read the whole text...
anon.
Veep Creep Greeted
H. Horatio Humphrey, United States vice-warlord, was welcomed to Detroit last week by a 200-man anti-war picket line in front of Cobo Hall.
Humphrey was in Detroit to speak about riots and other such domestic problems at the National Association of Counties Convention. Official U.S. policy on riots, according to Humphrey, is that the government is against them.
Feb 17, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Trans-Love Evolves
The Trans-Love Energies operation in the Warren-Forest community has undergone a number of changes lately, according to spokesmen for the hippie cooperative, of which the Fifth Estate is a member group.
The Artists’ WorkZshop, located on John Lodge, has been joined by the group for economic reasons. “We just couldn’t make the rent anymore,” said Trans-Love head John Sinclair, “and the building had pretty much outlived its usefulness to us. We’re hoping that some community group will take over the building and put it to better use.” The Artists’ Workshop Press, at 4863 John Lodge, will remain operative as headquarters for the Trans-Love publishing and printing operation, and will also continue to serve as office quarters for Trans-Love Energies, The Sun, and Detroit LEMAR.
Feb 15, 2017 Read the whole text...
Frank H. Joyce
Fred Baker
Benjamin Hababee
A New Detroit?
Curious.
The same people who built the old Detroit, which the people burned down because apparently they didn’t like it much, have been selected to build the new Detroit.
Mostly they have already built the new Detroit. It is called Southfield and Oak Park and Bloomfield Hills and Birmingham and Westland and Harper Woods and Grosse Pointe and Livonia and Madison Heights. That is the new Detroit. They built it in the ‘fifties while we weren’t looking.
Feb 14, 2017 Read the whole text...
David Baker
Kangaroo Justice for Detroit Victims
With the exception of one or two judges, the Recorder’s Court of the city of Detroit has never acted as anything more than an extension of the police department. The police can only hold a suspect for 72 hours. Recorder’s Court can do it for the rest of your natural born life.
Except for the volume of cases involved it will be impossible for the court to return to normal. It never departed from it. And while various sections of Detroit’s power structure were brought into sharp relief in recent weeks -Recorder’s Court surpassed itself.
Feb 14, 2017 Read the whole text...
anon.
New Politics Conference
NEW YORK—Dr. Benjamin Spock on August 1 called President Johnson “the worst betrayer of the American people” for recklessly escalating the Vietnam War.
“He (Johnson) was elected by an overwhelming majority who believed him when he promised to avoid escalation in Vietnam and avoid the sacrifice of American soldiers,” the famed pediatrician said.
Feb 14, 2017 Read the whole text...
John Sinclair
The Coat Puller
“Do you love it, do you hate it
There it is, just like you made it”
—The Mothers of Invention
You have to live in the middle of the city to know what is really happening there—otherwise all you have to go on is what the “newspapers” and people tell you, and they very definitely have a vested interest in keeping the real news from you. The official responses to the Detroit insurrection have very little to do with what was actually happening, and people will soon find that out, although it may prove to be too late to do them any good.
Feb 14, 2017 Read the whole text...
anon.
The Magic City
from L.A. Free Press (UPS)
“The words that describe what’s happening in the Haight this summer are ‘Free,’ ‘Now,’ and ‘Do It.’”
The most spectacular development of recent months is the acquisition of a 482-room hotel in the area south of Market Street by the San Francisco Diggers. The hotel, located at 256 Sixth Street, was condemned some time ago by the City.
Feb 14, 2017 Read the whole text...
Frank H. Joyce
Who Killed John Leroy?
Ronald Powell crouched inside the car. So did the other four men.
Already wounded in firing that had lasted for five minutes, later Mr. Powell said, “I was just waiting for the bullet that would be fatal. It was horrible.”
Charles Dunson, the driver, reached up and shut off the engine, hoping the police and national guard would think they were all dead. Mr. Dunson was also wounded.
Feb 14, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Calendar
The calendar is prepared by Fifth Estate calendar girls Karen Kovac and Naomi Epel with cooperation from Detroit Adventure. Copy deadline is the 6th and 22nd of each month and should be sent to the Fifth Estate, Calendar 1107 W. Warren, Detroit, Michigan 48201.
SUN the 16th
HEAL along with Oral Roverts at Cobo Hall. Sponsored by North American Baptist Convention. Call Cobo for ticket info. 8/16
Feb 12, 2017 Read the whole text...
anon.
Crime Man
Somewhere in Washington D.C. there resides a President’s Crime Commission, and on this Commission there is a man called Dr. Richard H. Blum. Dr. Blum is one of six doctors reporting on narcotics and drug abuse in the United States.
In his report, Blum stated that he thought alcohol the most dangerous drug Americans use, that smoking “Marijuana may be less harmful than drinking,” and “there is no strong evidence that marijuana (or any other drug) is a cause of crime.”
Feb 12, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Editorial
Thank God for Louis Lomax.
Powerlessness and the lack of control which black people are allowed over their own community was not a major cause of the Detroit rebellion, Mr. Lomax tells us.
Nor was the cause the culture of violence which the United States has perfected; a culture which would make it UnAmerican for black people not to use violence as a means to effect social change.
Feb 12, 2017 Read the whole text...
Various Authors
Letters To The Editors
The first meaning in The American College Dictionary defines “reform” as “...the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, etc.; social reform.”
But how does Governor Romney define the term? One can only assume from the public position he has taken that reform is the furthest thing from his mind. Ever since Con-Con, Romney’s gubernatorial launching pad, his opposition to a state graduated income tax has been patently clear. But now when the state supposedly needs money, he doesn’t fight the addition of this new tax to the polyglot of provincial personal state taxes already in existence.
Feb 12, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Mime Troupe on Tour: Due Here
The San Francisco Mime Troupe is now in the process of planning to tour the United States and Great Britain during the Fall and Winter of 1967–68 with its anti-war commedia dell’arte, “l’Amant militaire.”
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Feb 12, 2017 Read the whole text...
Sol Plafkin
Off Center
If there’s anything more disgusting than a person who has no guts, its a person who has half-guts.
For example, Rep. John Conyers, Jr. For the past several weeks I’ve been writing about the wonderful job he was doing in fighting passage of that horrible “flag-burning” bill.
I suggested to producers of the Lou Gordon TV show on Channel 50 that this would be an excellent topic for a debate. They agreed. Rep. Conyers agreed to appear at first, but when his opposition was going to be Richard Durant, the highly articulate ex-Birchite and present chairman of the 14th District GOP, Conyers welched.
Feb 12, 2017 Read the whole text...
Richard Dey
The Great Comic Convention
Attendance at the 2nd Detroit Triple Fan Fair the weekend of June 17 and 18 peaked at approximately 150 and audience enthusiasm burned with a hard, gem-like flame, despite program changes and setbacks.
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The purpose of the Fair was succinctly set forth: “To preserve rare material and to further the appreciation of Comic Strips, Films, and Fantasy Literature as genuine Art Forms.” Many fans at the Park Shelton Convention were therefore rather testy about the illustration from former EC artist Wally Wood’s Witzend, which accompanied my earlier pre-Fair article in a recent Fifth Estate. The panel depicted Wood’s Animan defrocking a stacked lovely. When I mentioned that he had drawn the pornographic centerfold (Orgy at Disneyland) in the current Realist, Wood’s stock sank even lower at the dealer tables.
Feb 12, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Unclassified Ads
Send to: The Fifth Estate, 1107 W. Warren, Detroit, Mich. 48201, phone 831–6800
Unclassified costs 50 cents per line per week. Figure 5 words per line. A word is a word, including I and 2 letter words. A phone number is a word. Street numbers are words. Abbreviations should be sensible. (No limit on number of lines)
Feb 12, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
We Won’t Go!
We the undersigned men of draft age wish to announce that we refuse to be drafted into the United States Armed Forces.
By withholding our participation, we are saying ‘No’ to the continuing barbarism of the Vietnam War. We are responsible for our actions. We openly say ‘No’ to conscripted military service.
Our refusal to participate in the madness of the Vietnam War in no way implies a renunciation of our country.
Feb 12, 2017 Read the whole text...
anon.
LBJ Signs New Slave Law
from L.A. Free Press (UPS)
Last week President Johnson signed into law the 1967 draft law extension thereby allowing the government to impress young men into involuntary servitude ‘til at least 1971.
In every respect the revision intensifies the coercive and regimentive features of the old law. Here are the gruesome details of the extension, which will be in effect.
Feb 11, 2017 Read the whole text...
Nat Freeland
Old Angels Never Die
They Turn Digger
LA Free Press — First of all, please forget everything you’ve heard about the Diggers, because it’s mostly a bunch of crap.
To begin with, the Diggers are what happened when the Hell’s Angels met LSD and got turned off violence to psychedelic love.
The central cadre running the hippie hostels day by day is made up of guys with names like Motorcycle Richie, Tobacco, Little Wolf, Apache and Tiny.
Feb 11, 2017 Read the whole text...
Richard Centing
The Diary of Anais Nin
Review
a review of
The Diary of Anais Nin: Vol. 1 (1931–1934) and Vol. 2 (1934–1939). Edited by Gunther Stuhlmann. Swallow Press/Harcourt, Brace & World. $6.95 each.
“Creation,” says Anais Nin, “is a source of action, a directive which alters the course of human life.”
And anyone who reads these diaries will find them revolutionary, destined to take their place with the great transcendental works.
Feb 11, 2017 Read the whole text...
anon.
The MC-5
Avant Rock in Detroit
The dangerous MC-5, Detroit’s heroic “avant-rock” band considered by many the musical electronic equivalent of STP, has been run through the mill lately and may yet come out of it smelling like roses.
Their current trouble started when Uncle Russ Gibb booked the San Francisco rock band the Jefferson Airplane for a Ford Auditorium concert the end of June. The MC-5, who had been promised an appearance with the Airplane when they arrived in Detroit, were informed that they couldn’t play the concert without joining the American Federation of Musicians local in Detroit.
Feb 11, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Fort Hood Three Has Prison Terms Lowered
As the result of an appeal brought on June 23 of the court-martial of the Fort Hood Three, Pvt. First Class Jimmy Johnson, Pvt. David Samas and Pvt. Dennis Mora, the sentences of Jimmy Johnson and Pvt. David Samas were reduced from five years to three. Dennis’ original sentence was three years.
They were the first GIs to publicly refuse orders to go to Vietnam, and challenged the right of the government to send them to an “illegal, immoral and unjust war.” They were court-martialed and are serving their sentences at Ft. Leavenworth.
Feb 5, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fug Ed Sanders Not Obscene
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In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel dismissed obscenity charges against Ed Sanders, editor and publisher of “Fuck You/a magazine of the Arts” and owner of the Peace Eye Bookstore in Manhattan. New York City judges Ringel, Sherwin and Hoffman ruled that “Fuck You” is not obscene and does not violate the New York State Obscenity code (section 1141) and is protected by constitutional guarantees of freedom.
Feb 5, 2017 Read the whole text...
H. Lawrence Lack
Police Riot
L.A. Police Storm Anti-LBJ Demonstration
The honor of launching the 1968 Presidential election campaign fell to the Los Angeles Police Department as Lyndon B. Johnson, fresh from meetings with his Communist counterpart, dropped in on June 23 at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles to grab a quick meal.
L.A. Police Chief Reddin summed up the day’s events succinctly as he debriefed his heroes in the evening: “A perfect police exercise; I am very satisfied. You can’t imagine how good you looked,” he told them, obviously deeply moved. “We’ve got many movies of this, because it’s some thing that’s never happened in this country before... We proved to them that WE own this city, not the rabble.”
Feb 5, 2017 Read the whole text...
John Sinclair
The Coat Puller
a column
It looks like straight people will do just about anything in their power to keep the love organism from growing and spreading, just because they can’t “understand’ it and don’t know what’s happening in the world around them. If you haven’t noticed, straight people are always putting love people down, sending their kids to psychiatrists to get “straightened out, calling the police on their kids, beating hippies who try to start honest and loving business operations, stealing from hippies and terrorizing their homes and gathering places, hitting and kicking people who have no eyes to fight back, and things like that. I’m tired of it, for one, and I just wish these people would wake up and start seeing what their stupid lives are all about and how vile they are being in their relationships with each other and with us.
Feb 5, 2017 Read the whole text...
anon.
Eye Witness Report
L.A. Police Riot
The monitors were doing a hell of a job maintaining order; the cops, on the other hand, were looking more and more uptight, and more and more of them were showing up from somewhere.
A man who identified himself as a physician kept saying they can’t stop us from exercising our rights of free speech.
Feb 4, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Trans-Love Closes “See”
The SEE, the new concerthouse opened last month by Trans-Love Energies Unlimited of Detroit, closed its doors after only two weekends in operation.
The hippy-run coffeehouse, which featured music by the MC-5, the Spikedrivers, the Passing Clouds, Billy C. and the Sunshine, and the Charles Moore Ensemble during its brief history, along with lights by the Magic Veil Light Company, ran into business snags that made operation of the cooperative concerthouse impossible, according to former manager and Fifth Estate staff member John Sinclair.
Feb 4, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Contents of print edition
Cover photo: Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army in Edinburgh, Scotland.
4 Insurgent Rebel Clown Army
L.M. Bogad
7 Cultural Appropriation & Shaming
Rod Dubey
9 The Myth of Che Guevara
MLB
11 Ukrainian & Russian Repression
FE Staff
12 The Legacy of Omar Aziz
Leila Al Shami
14 Left Abets Genocide in Syria
Feb 2, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Fuck Authority
The Poster That Keeps on Going!
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When someone on the Fifth Estate staff over 40 years ago came up with the slogan, Fuck Authority, it was printed as a 29” X 22” poster and tucked inside a 1975 issue of the publication, then a monthly tabloid.
On the reverse side was a catalog of titles offered through the paper’s bookstore which was housed in the same space as its public office.
Feb 2, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Grimshaw Convicted for Obscene Kite
The infamous Grimshaw kite case has reached its first conclusion, with an astounding miscarriage of justice.
The case, as you may recall, concerned a kite, made out of an American flag, with the inscription: “Fuck America—Go Fly a Kite” and an Egyptian peace eye symbol. The kite was hanging from a light fixture in The Sun office, 4863 John Lodge.
Feb 2, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Issue intro
Time to Begin!
As we send this issue to the printer, the ghastly Shit Show known as the 2016 American presidential election has not yet concluded, although it will be over when you read this.
While one of the candidates expressed definitively more openly bigoted and authoritarian ideas, neither challenged the basic equation of life within the state and capitalism. The horrors of war, racism, environmental collapse, and oppression will continue regardless of the electoral outcome.
Feb 2, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Jefferson Airplane Lands in City
Nearly 4,000 young people jammed Into the Ford Auditorium on Friday June 30 to hear the Jefferson Airplane.
Three thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine people enjoyed themselves.
The Detroit News didn’t.
Their reporter came on like a middle aged Brenda Starr equipped only with platinum hair and a super-hostile attitude towards rock and roll, folk-rock and Grace Slick:
Feb 2, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Lawyers for LEMAR?
A number of Detroit lawyers have indicated to Detroit LEMAR (Legalize Marijuana) that they would be interested in setting up a legal aid service for busted marijuana users if a general fund could be set up which would insure a nominal fee for those attorneys involved.
Their suggestion was that interested heads and sympathetic persons pledge a dollar or two per month to such a fund so that a backlog of available money would be made available in cases of arrests on marijuana charges.
Feb 2, 2017 Read the whole text...
S. Laplage
Literature not Flyers
Review
a review of
Small Beauty by Jia Qing Wilson-Yangas. Metonymy Press, 2016, $16.95 CAD
During a discussion hosted by Montreal’s L’Insoumise anarchist bookstore and DIRA anarchist library, the novelist Lola Lafon was asked how she includes her politics in her novels.
(A review of her 2014 We Are the Birds of the Coming Storm appears in the Summer 2015Fifth Estate.)
Feb 2, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Rev. Gracie to be Honored
Letters were mailed July 12 inviting hundreds ‘of Detroit area activists in the peace, civil rights, civil liberties and religious reform movements to a testimonial dinner honoring the Rev. David M. Gracie.
The Dinner will be held on July 21, 1967, at U.A.W. Local 174 Hall at 6495 W. Warren (at Livernois) at 7:00 p.m.
Feb 2, 2017 Read the whole text...
Ben Habeebe
The Press of Peace
Draft Resistance in Vietnam Summer
A good peace never did come easy.
One of the real tough things about involvement in a resistance movement is your total lack of power. When LBJ (of “Hey, Hey” fame) addressed a thousand-dollar-a-couple Democratic Party fund raising dinner in L.A. a few thousand people gathered outside to tell Lyndon they didn’t like his policy in Vietnam.
Feb 2, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Calendar
The calendar is prepared by Fifth Estate calendar girls Karen Kovac and Naiomi Epil with cooperation from Detroit Adventure. Copy deadline is the 6th and 22nd of each month and should be sent to the Fifth Estate, Calendar, 1107 W. Warren, Detroit, Michigan 48201.
Sat the 1st
CONCERT—Meadow Brook Music Festival. Detroit Symphony with Sixten Ehrling. Oakland Univ. 8:30 Adm. 338–7211, ext. 2301. 7/1
Jan 31, 2017 Read the whole text...
Various Authors
Letters
Our readers respond
Send letters to fe@fifthestate.org or Fifth Estate, POB 201016, Ferndale MI 48220
All formats accepted including typescript & handwritten; letters may be edited for length.
I appreciate Chellis Glendinning’s criticisms of modern, Western civilization, including modern agriculture, which has been highly detrimental to ecological and social balance in the world. (See “Linear Perspective, Fences & Nature’s Glory,” FE #396, Summer 2016.)
Jan 31, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Unclassified Ads
Send to: The Fifth Estate, 1107 W. Warren, Detroit, Mich. 48201, phone 831–6800
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)
Jan 31, 2017 Read the whole text...
Sue Lack
Beach Boy Carl Wilson Indicted
...for Refusing Army Induction
UPS — Shouts of “draft-dodger” and rumors of a FBI arrest have threatened the clean-cut All-American image of the Beach Boys since Carl Wilson, 20, lead guitar, and “cuddliest,” youngest of the three Wilson brothers, refused to submit for induction into the Armed Forces on January 3, 1967.
Claiming Conscientious Objection on the basis of a conflict of values (“My duty to God is far greater than any mortal demand”), Carl’s request was rejected ostensibly on the grounds of late filing. He was indicted by a federal grand jury on April 5 and entered a plea of “not guilty.”
Jan 30, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Birmingham Student Paper Assails Fifth Estate
Editors note: The Fifth Estate continued to win readers and supporters throughout the Detroit Metropolitan area.
The following review of the paper recently appeared in the school newspaper of Covington Jr. High School in Birmingham.
Covington student Claudia Marcun II forwarded the story to us.
Dennis Nelson
Jan 30, 2017 Read the whole text...
Fifth Estate Collective
Detroiters Migrating to California; Don’t
The S.F. Oracle recently sent a missive to the Fifth Estate office asking us to warn those who are traveling west to bring: (besides their flowers and bananas) money for food and rent, sleeping bags and rucksacks, extra food (brown rice and soysauce—100 lbs. bags at rice mills for $12), camping equipment, warm clothing for the cold times, and proper I.D.
Jan 30, 2017 Read the whole text...
City of Detroit
Detroit Police Describe Entrapment Campaign
Editor’s note: The following is printed exactly as it was released by the City of Detroit, Department Report and Information Committee.
Movie goers who once marveled at the disguises of Lon Chaney would be amazed at the many “faces” of Detroit police department detectives.
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Jan 30, 2017 Read the whole text...
Various Authors
Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor:
Since you are one of the few progressive newspapers around, we have a special request for you. A group of citizens of Mill Valley, California are handling a National Stamp Drive to help equip our garage.
Over the past couple of years, we have been able to exchange stamps for a great deal of the equipment which keeps our cars operational for our field workers. Among the things which we have acquired are: electrical tire-changing apparatus, several battery chargers, analyzing machine, an air meter, voltage regulator machine, a wheel balancer, and three ’65 Falcon Econoline buses. This has been of invaluable service to us and our work.
Jan 30, 2017 Read the whole text...
Muhammad Ali
John Lottier
Muhammad Ali
The Loser and Still Champion
Editor’s Note: The following interview with Muhammad Ali appeared originally in two parts in the Michigan Daily. It was conducted by John Lottier of the Daily immediately prior to Muhammad’s departure to Houston, where he was convicted of violation of the Selective Service Act and sentenced to the maximum of five years in jail and a $10,000 fine.
Jan 30, 2017 Read the whole text...
Sol Plafkin
Off Center
The ridiculous bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to penalize flag-burners passed by a whopping majority (385 to 16) last week—but in their haste, the patriotic legislators forgot to include the specific term “burning” in their prohibition. They did ban mutilating, defacing, defiling or trampling the flag.
Jan 30, 2017 Read the whole text...
Simon Galubara
Studies Show LSD Might Damage Human Chromosomes
UPS — If you’re tripping, don’t read this now. Save it for later, and enjoy your trip Otherwise—Evidence, admittedly somewhat inconclusive, has been brought forth seemingly indicating that LSD can do damage to human chromosomes. Studies are being made in Buffalo, Bellevue University Hospital here, and at the University of Oregon. The first work reported on, that of Buffalo scientists, is the least significant.
Jan 30, 2017 Read the whole text...
Phil Ochs
The War is Over
Editors’ note: The following opinion was written by folksinger Phil Ochs and originally appeared in the LA Free Press. The article was written before President Johnson was in Los Angeles on June 23, when thousands greeted his holiness.
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The war is over and what a relief. It sure was depressing—but now, thank God, we can celebrate. It has been called off from the bottom up, and now the only ones participating in it are those that still believe it exists.
Jan 30, 2017 Read the whole text...
Joe Fineman
“You Only Live Twice” at Palms
Review
When Saturday matinees were only two bits and weekly serials dragged on endlessly, James Bond was barely a flicker on a distant horizon. Broccoli and Saltzman with Panavision, Technicolor, United Artists, Sean Connery and a bottomless shipload of gimmickry have thrown us back to our childhood.
Until now, the most un-cinematic bait drew the fish out of the woodwork; Lesbians, homosexuals, a sadistic grandmother, a unique air corps and a frequently bedridden James Bond. The utter shock of the latest Bond thriller is that it really clears the deck and settles down to telling an exciting story.
Jan 30, 2017 Read the whole text...