Most Recent Additions

A weekend of international protest activities has been called to coincide with the opening of the second murder trial of Irish anarchist Marie Murray on April 25 in Dublin, according to the London Black Flag office.

Murray and her husband Noel were convicted last year in a frame-up trial for the slaying of an Irish cop following an unsolved bank robbery in that nation’s capital city.

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“The development of capital is delinquency and madness. Now everything is permitted; there are no longer taboos, bans. But, in living out various ‘perversions, men and women can lose themselves, destroy themselves, and no longer be operational’ for capital; out of this there appears-the necessity of a community which can reinsert them into the community of capital (to be more exact, this takes on the dimension of a therapeutic community). An ensemble of specialists-therapists will serve as the mediators for this reinsertion.”

—Jacques Camatte, in Invariance Serie III, No. 1

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To the FE:

Let me make some observations regarding the recent debates in the FE on organization, worker’s councils, and so on. I hope you take what I say as friendly criticism rather than as the beginning of a polemic.

First of all, many of the statements in the paper, both by correspondents and by FE staff, display considerable pomposity, as well as a desire to dismiss as idiotic or reactionary the views of opponents. This kind of revolutionary one-upmanship not only fails to clarify the issues; it also risks discouraging the participation of people who doubt their own glibness or literary skill.

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A typed “communique” received by alternative publications in the southwest calling on underground groups and Vietnam vets to launch armed attacks and other actions against Mexican jails, according to Zodiac News Service.

The two-page letter—a copy of which was received in February by The Austin Sun accuses Mexican and American government officials of deliberately dragging their heels in adopting an exchange treaty that would send Americans imprisoned in Mexico back to U.S. jails.

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Millard Berry

Alan Franklin

Ralph Franklin

Pat Halley

Maynard G. Krebs

Angela DiSante

Pat O’Bryan

Kathy Horak

Tina Nachalo

Bob Nirkind

E.B. Maple

Bill McGraw

Stuart Perry

Pete Rachleff

Donna Saffiati

Marilyn Werbe

Peter Werbe

Judith Torres

John Zerzan

Mark Wenson

The Fifth Estate Newspaper, a non-profit Michigan corporation is published monthly at 4403 Second Ave., Detroit MI 48201; phone: (313) 831–6800. Office hours are: 1:00–5:00 P.M., Mondays through Fridays. Subscriptions are $4.00 for 12 issues. Call 842–8888 for retail sales outlets. Second Class postage paid at Detroit, Michigan. No copyright. No commercial advertising.

BOOKSTORE HOURS: Monday and Tuesday-1pm to 5pm—Wednesday 7pm to 10pm. LOCATION: 4403 Second (on the corner of Second & Canfield), Detroit, Michigan 48201

LIP AND THE SELF-MANAGED COUNTER REVOLUTION Negation

Using the illustration of the famous French watch factory, the authors show that the self-management of Capital is but another stage in the development of the capitalist economy.

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When the voice on the phone announced himself as Alexander Graham Bell calling from the Yipster Times newspaper in New York, we knew the Yippies had done it again—snatched the new long distance credit card codes almost as soon as Ma Bell put them out.

The publication of the secret codes has been an annual event in the Fifth Estate as a small way the captive customers of profit-swollen Bell can even the score a bit. Since last February when we published the 1976 codes, the Michigan Public Service Commission has caved into Bell requests for a multi-million dollar rate hike and the upping of pay-phone calls to 20 cents—both unnecessary other than to fatten the company’s profit margins.

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Realizing that he who jumps into the middle of a fight gets shot at from both sides, I must say that both sides in the debate over “On Organization” are wrong: Ed Clark with his impersonal formal organization, and Camatte/Collu, and their defender Maple, with their unorganized formal persons. [See “On Organization: Two Reviews of The Camatte/Collu Pamphlet,” FE# 279, December, 1976.] Here are two positions badly in need of dialectic. (I’m more sympathetic to Clark, mostly because I worked with him for a number of years, but also because he’s less pretentious and dogmatic than Camatte/Collu.)

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CASS CITY CINEMA-7:30 & 10:30 p.m. Unitarian Church, Cass & Forest, adm $1.50. Jan. 28 & 29—HOUR OF THE WOLF (’64) by Ingmar Bergman. Feb. 4 & 5 THE HORSE’S MOUTH, (’58) Ronald Neame with Alec Guiness. Feb. 11 (I) and Feb. 12 (II) THE NEW YORK EROTIC FILM FESTIVAL I & II by Ken Gaul. Feb. 18 & 19 BLACK ORPHEUS (Rio de Janiero’s Mardi Gras). Feb. 25 & 26 THE SHAMELESS OLD LADY (’66) Rene Allio.

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Though we do not accept commercial advertising, this Unclassified ad space is free for our readers’ use. We do not accept ads over the telephone, so please send your ads in writing to our office at: 4403 Second Ave., Detroit 48201

DEAR DAD—Happy Birthday. Hope you and Mom enjoyed the sunshine while it lasted. Miss you both very much. Have a lovely birthday. P & M

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Two wild Detroit theatre groups combined to open a cozy little theatre on the Southwest side on January 8 and 9. Somebody Else presented their raving, anarchistic “Double Coupon Day Afternoon,” plus other electrifying shorties, and the Acme Theatrical Agency threw in a few firecrackers by way of black-outs, satiric sketches and character assassinations (everyone’s favorite pastime).

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All “modern” technology on the planet today is massive and centralized and demands, by its very nature, centralized political control—authoritarianism is built into those very instruments supposedly designed to free us from the drudgeries of life.

In a revolution that brought about a decentralized, voluntaristic community as the basic mode of human association, technology would become a central question since the operation of it would suddenly depend upon those involved instead of corporations and the state. Unless you want to try to survive in a sub-zero outhouse, technology will have to be re-organized along more human, rational and ecologically sound lines.

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Staff Note: Several weeks ago LNS received a letter from some activist friends in West Germany, telling us about a huge anti-nuclear demonstration/ occupation that took place in mid-November (1976). Apparently demonstrations of 30,000 and severe police repression is not “news” to the commercial press here in the U.S., because the event passed almost entirely unnoticed, warranting only one paragraph in a New York Times article. With a little bit of digging into European papers, contacts close to the German scene, and some U.S. anti-nuclear activists, we’ve pieced together the story.

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Charles Reeve has raised a number of important questions in his critique of John Zerzan’s “Unions Against Revolution.” [See The “Revolt Against Work” or Fight for the Right to be Lazy (FE 279, December, 1976).] These questions should not be tossed out of the window, nor should they be viewed as the only or most important questions which can be raised. For the moment, I would like to probe certain areas, in the hope that others will go even further in their considerations—or take issue with mine.

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<em>

Staff Note:</em> The following is a first-hand account of the demonstration and events leading up to it. See also in this issue: West German Protest.

BROCKDORF, Germany (LNS)—Up to now we have used only legal ways—filing lawsuits and so on—but have always made it clear that if legal means didn’t work, we would occupy the site, as was done in Whyl.

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We might venture to speculate that it was not with deep regret that the Ford Administration finally called an official halt to its embarrassingly disastrous swine flu mass immunization program recently. Most assuredly an unmitigated scam that simply didn’t cut it, -the project was put out of our misery with scarcely a raised eyebrow or a whimper in the waning days of 1976—a fitting Bicentennial finale.

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The Fifth Estate Benefit Party held Jan. 14 turned out to be one of the most enjoyable to date, with folks guzzling down six kegs of beer and dancing their asses off to the Shadowfax band. Special thanks are due to all the people who helped out including Mark Wenson for printing our leaflets; Carman Harlan of WWWW, Jack Broderick of WJZZ, Mike McCoy, Phil Marcus Esser and Judy Adams of WDET, and other stations and newspapers which helped publicize the event. A last minute bureaucratic hassle with the state liquor commission which threatened to stop the party was averted thanks to staff members of the Lansing Star (Box 24, Lansing, Mi. 48824) who made a special trip which saved the day—thanks folks. Still in all, this could possibly be the last benefit due to our staggering overhead—this time $455—for beer, band, rent and five smaller items—against door receipts of $608, which produced only a total income of $153. This is almost enough to print one issue but we were hoping for at least twice that. Any suggestions? And if we do have another benefit, will any readers give us a hand on setting it up?...

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On December 9^th the Irish Supreme Court set aside the death penalty for anarchists Noel and Marie Murray, charged with shooting an off-duty policeman during a bank robbery. That’s the good news, but there’s not much to feel victorious about, since Noel has been resentenced to life imprisonment at hard labor, while Marie is to have a new trial before a special criminal court.

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The following article from the December 1, 1976 Wall Street Journal gives a graphic picture of the integration of China into world capitalism and its money system.

HONG KONG—For an arm of one of the largest Communist powers on earth, the Bank of China is surprisingly adept at making a capitalist feel right at home.

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The anthill signals its submissiion to the leader by holding aloft his religiously imbued sayings.

Since the struggle for power within the Chinese bureaucracy sharpened following the death of Mao Tse-tung in September, events have begun swirling at an ever faster rate.

Coming on the heels of the political turmoil in the capital city, the startling news that several sections of the country are at the point of armed insurrection certainly lays waste to the myth of China as a peaceful, unified nation -struggling to build socialism.”

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Dear Fifth Estate,

In response to E.B. Maple (“On Organization: Two Reviews of The Camatte/Collu Pamphlet,” FE #279, December 1976), I can only say that calling me a “Leninist” does not make it so.

I have not suggested that we should “organize the workers”; I have only argued-that we should organize ourselves to begin the struggle for what we want. On the other hand, I am convinced that only a libertarian organization composed of tens of millions of working people can possibly overthrow class society. Scribbling slogans on walls won’t do it (another lesson from SDS).

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Millard Berry

Alan Franklin

Ralph Franklin

Pat Halley

Pat O’Bryan

Kathy Horak

Tina Nachalo

Bob Nirkind

E.B. Maple

Stuart Perry

Pete Rachleff

Donna Saffioti

Marilyn Werbe

Peter Werbe

The Fifth Estate Newspaper, a non-profit Michigan corporation is published monthly at 4403 Second Ave., Detroit MI 48201; phone: (313) 831–6800. Office hours are: 1:00–5:00 P.M., Mondays through Fridays. Subscriptions are $4.00 for 12 issues. Call 842–8888 for retail sales outlets. Second Class postage paid at Detroit, Michigan. No copyright. No commercial advertising.

Werner Von Braun, 1912-soon

Although Wernher Von Braun is still alive, though bed-ridden with a terminal case of cancer, we feel that this is the appropriate time to wish him a speedy death.

The inventor of the V-2 rocket for Hitler during World War II and author of the book I Shoot for the Stars (and hit London?), Von Braun is directly responsible for the death of thousands of Britons during the final days of the War.

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JUST PUBLISHED!

Letters of Insurgents by Sophia Nachalo & Yarostan Vochek

Black & Red 831 pp., $4.50 (add 35 cents postage

After 20 years, two participants in an Eastern European insurrection recreate through a series of letters their often contradictory perceptions of the revolutionary experience and its aftermath on all those people involved in an attempt to change their lives.

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Though we do not accept commercial advertising, this Unclassified ad space is free for our readers’ use. We do not accept ads over the telephone, so please send your ads in writing to our office at: 4403 Second Ave., Detroit 48201.

Cooperative living situation. Walk to campus. Room for one more. Rent in the $90’s. Call 872–4340.

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During the last year the Fifth Estate has published numerous essays by John Zerzan (and others co-authored with Paula Zerzan) on the decomposition of daily life, the revolt against work, and the police role of unions. The following essay challenges many of the author(s)’ contentions about the importance of sabotage, absenteeism, and other daily acts committed by a frustrated and distraught working class. The article originally appeared as “‘Refus du Travail’ ou lutte pour le Droit à la Paresse” in Spartacus, juillet-août 1976 (5, rue Ste-Croix de-la-Bretonnerie, Paris IV).

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Un-Dewar’s Profiles

Leon F. Czolgosz

HOME: Everywhere. Moves freely in the world, recognizing no state boundaries.

PROFESSION: Czolgosz has no “profession,” refuses to sell his skills and resists definition by any of the categories of capitalist achievement. “If you must call me something,” he says, “call me an Urban Modality Redesigner--Explosives Division.”

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CASS CITY CINEMA—First Unitarian Church, Cass & Forest (red door on Forest), 7:30 p.m. & 10:00 p.m. Adm. $1.50. The cinema has not been doing as well as it should be, so please give them your support.

Jan. 7 & 8: THIEVES LIKE US, Robert Altman; Jan 14 & 15: HAPPY NEW YEAR, Claude le Louch; WOMAN IN THE DUNES, Hircishi Teshigahara on Jan. 21 & 22; Jan. 28 & 29: HOUR OF THE WOLF, Ingmar Bergman.

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Within the small circles that constitute the libertarian movement in the United States, the question of whether to combine in organizations, associations, federations, etc., has become a subject of some debate and much interest Many feel that the only obstacle to organization is the relative weakness of the small numbers of persons who identify with a libertarian perspective, while still others (probably a smaller number) feel organizations in and of themselves are bureaucratic and are incapable of producing the desired goal.

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7:00

channel 2 Bozo the Clown

Bozo and Mr. Houdini are joined by Lyndon La Rouche (aka Lyn Marcus) of the U.S. Labor Party for kiddie games and a masquerade.

channel 4 Sesame Street

The Fonz (Henry Winkler) shows up on Sesame Street and teaches the children how to smoke cigarettes and sniff glue.

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Many thanks to those who continue to send donations both through our Sustainer’s fund (which is growing) and one-time donations. It’s been financially difficult trying to make it through three months without holding a benefit, and it’s the individual responses of so many subscribers that keeps us in the game. We’re going to have another rip-roarer in January (see details later on in the paper) so you can get ready to boogie...

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Buried in a back section of an October issue of the Detroit Free Press:

“Manaus, Brazil (AP) Mayurunas Indians on the remote western edge of the Brazilian Amazon jungle have begun killing newborn females in an attempt to wipe out their tribe rather than confront civilization, according to a Brazilian anthropologist. Paulo Lucena said the Indians, whose numbers have been severely diminished in the last four years since coming into contact with white oil explorers, intend to exterminate themselves rather than continue suffering the impact of civilization.

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There’s not much news on the fate of Marie and Noel Murray at this point. Although the two Irish anarchists have attempted to withdraw the appeals of their death sentences (see FE, October and November, 1976), they are still being considered by the Irish supreme court because of a point of law which allows capital punishment for killing a police officer, but not for killing citizens in general. Reynolds, the Dublin cop allegedly murdered by the Murrays, was not in uniform or on duty at the time of the killing.

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NEW YORK—The 200 garment industry executives listened attentively as the seminar speaker, with evangelical fervor, told them how their industry can be brought “kicking and screaming into the 20^th Century.”

The Saturday seminar for New York-area producers, at $30 a head, was designed to show them how to use new assembly line techniques to cut costs. Workers assigned to a single task, such as sewing buttonholes, would work faster as the repetition increases their efficiency, the executives were told.

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Gordon Barry

Millard Berry

Ed Clark

Alan Franklin

Ralph Franklin

Pat Halley

Terry Hawkins

Kathy Horak

Tina Nachalo

Bob Nirkind

E.B. Maple

Pat O’Bryan

Stuart Perry

Pete Rachleff

Donna Saffioti

Marilyn Werbe

Peter Werbe

The Fifth Estate Newspaper, a non-profit Michigan corporation is published monthly at 4403 Second Ave., Detroit MI 48201; phone: (313) 831–6800. Office hours are: 1:00–5:00 P.M., Mondays through Fridays. Subscriptions are $4.00 for 12 issues. Call 842–8888 for retail sales outlets. Second Class postage paid at Detroit, Michigan. No copyright. No commercial advertising.

Dear Dr. Hypocrisy,

My boyfriend just got over a “dose” of Trotskyism. He says he is “safe” to begin relations again, but I’m worried. What do you think?

Livonia Libertarian

I get lots of letters like this and it never ceases to amaze me how ignorant many people are of the dangers of social diseases.

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Greetings Comrades:

I thought I’d forward some news about authority inside prison....

I did 30 days in solitary for wearing a “Fuck Authority” tee shirt! They went nutty behind it. I’ve found out that one can fuck ANYTHING of theirs, but if one fucks with their authority they put you in the BOX! What ever happened to the First Amendment???????

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Ammunition Books, 4403 Second Avenue, Detroit, MI 48201

Bookstore Hours: Mon. thru Fri. 1 pm-5 p.m.

LUCY PARSONS, AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY written by Carolyn Ashbaugh

Lucy Parsons is a central figure in the Haymarket Affair—“Dark Lucy” was a woman so feared by the Chicago Police that they broke up her meetings for 30 years. Historian Carolyn Ashbaugh interprets the radical response to industrialization, the robber barons, and monopoly in the post civil war era through Lucy Parsons’ career—adding a new dimension to the historiography of the period by showing us an important role played by this woman.

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Cass City Cinema—First Unitarian Church (Cass and Forest), $1.50 admission, 7:30 & 10:00 p.m. Nov. 19 & 20: “The Twelve Chairs,” (Mel Brooks). Nov. 26 & 27: “Emitai” (1971 from Senegal). Dec. 3 & 4: “This Man Must Die” (Chabrol, France).

Detroit Film Theatre—Detroit Art Institute Auditorium, $2.00 admission ($1.50 students), 7:00 & 9:30 p.m. Nov. 19: “Emitai” (Senegal). Nov. 20: “Breathless”, (1959 Goddard). Nov. 21: “Uncle Vanya” (USSR 1972). Nov. 26: “The Round Up” (1965, Miklos Jansco). Nov. 27: “L’Avventura “ (Antonioni). Nov. 28: “Jamilya” (USSR). Dec. 3: “Funnyman” (1967 John Korty). Dec. 4: “Millhouse—A White Comedy” (1971, Nixon). Dec. 5: “The Twelve Chairs” .

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Tay-lor-ism n. 1. The scientific management of industrial operations. 2. The systematic reduction of work within a given industrial operation to separate, distinct, routinized tasks devoid of policy decisions. Each aspect is measured and timed for its highest efficiency. 3. The system of such developed by Frederick Taylor in the late 1880s.

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This article is the third in an originally-planned two-part series on the perils of radioactive waste materials and highly toxic chemicals.

Part One of the series (Capitalism’s Industrial Plagues, # 276, September 1976) dealt with the devastating results of nuclear and chemical dumps, leakages and accidents in the United States and around the world. Part Two (Is Michigan Slated For Nuclear Landfill? #277, October 1976) then followed with a look at the Federal Government’s intention to test land in Michigan as a possible construction site for a nuclear waste disposal system.

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Zerowork No. 1; Available from P.O. Box 515, Station C, Toronto, Ontario, Canada or through Ammunition Books (see further in this issue).

The last few years have seen the appearance of few new journals, even fewer of which are worth taking seriously. Zerowork, however, is one of the exceptions. Despite a density of text and an absence of graphics and photographs, this journal is well worth reading.

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“We understand you tore the little tag off your mattress.” (Louisiana Worker/cpf)

To paraphrase an ex-president; we won’t have The Detroit Sun to kick around anymore—the city’s “hottest paper” collapsed financially after its Oct. 22 issue, ending several months of weekly publication. In a desperate attempt to raise needed cash (the staff hadn’t been paid in several weeks), Editor John Sinclair began a campaign of favorable publicity for the mayor and the police that even outdid The Sun’s previous performances. But even though grinning cops and politicians dominated the front pages of the last two issues, no one in the city administration was willing to secure the financial commitment the paper needed to continue publishing. The Sun was never like the other “alternative” liberal weeklies which appear in other major U.S. cities such as the Boston Real Paper or the Los Angeles Free Press with their combination of left-liberal politics and “hip” culture which meant that city hall is always fair game for investigative reporting.

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As of this writing the fate of Marie and Noel Murray, the two Irish anarchists who have been sentenced to hang for their alleged murder of a Dublin cop, remains uncertain.

The Sept. 24 edition of Freedom magazine published in London (which reached us two weeks ago) reported that Noel Murray had asked that his appeal of his conviction and sentence be withdrawn. This would have opened the way for an October execution.

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The presidential election farce is over and Nobody won!

Although we were hoping for an absolute majority, those unwilling to humiliate themselves by participating in their own enslavement by voting for who will rule us still chalked up an impressive 46.8% of the adult population.

By contrast slimy James Earl (Jimmy) Carter was able to pull down only a measly 27% of those eligible to vote, while Ford followed up with about 25.5%.

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In the last August 1976 Fifth Estate [#275, Polish Food Riots] we gave a sketchy report (all that was then available) of repression against striking workers centering in the Polish cities of Ursus and Radom. This major strike wave which swept Poland in June was the second in six years that resulted from arbitrary government raises in food prices.

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When 1976 is all over and done with not long from now and we look back on it as history, it may well be remembered as the “Year of the Swine.” No, not the Jimmy Carter variety, but the four-legged, corkscrew-tailed, snouted species currently being much maligned as the source of virus strain A/New Jersey/’76, more commonly referred to as swine flu.

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Three persons prosecuted for their participation in the raid last March 13 on the Piedras Negras jail in Mexico were acquitted October 1 of most of the charges against them although two still face jail terms.

Mike Hill, Billy Blackwell and Sterling Davis held Mexican prison guards at gunpoint while eleven Americans and five Mexicans fled the jail and crossed the Rio Grande border to Eagle Pass, Texas.

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To the Fifth Estate:

The FE is usually a delight to read. Only a couple of small things have detracted from that: Using “man” to mean “people”(in the article on a Michigan landfill) is sexist and a turnoff to me.

In the cover article of your gang issue [#276, September 1976] I was never certain what you felt about the gang attacks. Seems when you sound more situationist—like you become less clear and less subjective. The other articles on gangs were fine—the open letter to the columnists, a delight.

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On the frontiers of what has been termed “moral autonomy,” a long-range anti-ship missile is being developed for the U.S. military by Lockheed Martin Corp. which can pick its own target and destroy it independent of human minders. A team at George Mason University is also developing large groups of small robots that can work together to carry out tasks (which could include killing individuals or groups of people) without the need for humans to undergo the stress of making decisions or intervening in any way. The Pentagon realists, along with their counterparts in other nation-states, welcome the ghastly robotic potential as delivering the much sought after shelter from all responsibility for crimes committed in the service of the preservation of the system they defend.