Fifth Estate Collective
Just Motor City News
VOTE DRUM
The League of Revolutionary Black Workers has been participating in elections of UAW locals and found itself confronted with vote fraud when it was clear the union bureaucrats could win in no other way.
At the Chrysler Eldon Avenue gear and axel plant four white company hacks won a recent election although the plant employees are 85% black, as is the local president, who won last year with League support. League leaders attribute the loss to the fact that the ballot box was locked in a police station overnight for “safekeeping” while waiting to be counted the next morning. The group plans to contest the election.
At Dodge main, the Dodge Revolutionary Union Movement(DRUM) is involved in contesting all the local offices and balloting is taking place as we go to press. Next issue we will have full coverage of the election, its results and their implications.
LONG HOT SUMMER
The recent move by the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) to kill Detroit’s million dollar summer recreation program for Inner-City black youth, may have seriously damaged the city’s fragile peace.
For many, already frustrated with half-ass programs, this blundering decision has confirmed the radicals proposition that the Federal Government is interested in poor people only to the extent to which they can make them into productive commodities.
The new OEO guidelines that became policy this week defined what form expenditures should take across the country, and flatly cut-off cold any funds not directly related to employment. The edict stated that the recreation programs were “not relevant to the...needs of poor youth.”
All programs for activities such as basketball leagues, swimming sessions, and summer camps, have been closed by the Nixon Administration for being non-productive and therefore invalid. The OEO budget has been cut locally by the amount the program cost.
Depriving ghetto youth of summer recreation is Nixon’s method of combating inflation. Jim Hudson, the programs director, states that this move will be “disastrous for the city.”
He envisions 15 and 16 year-old black Inner-City youth wandering the streets this summer because of the cancellation. Last year alone, the summer recreation schedules and facilities involved over a quarter of a million Detroit youths.
Direct employment of nearly 1000 Inner-City adults, will also be killed by this move, in that they were employed to implement the program. Nixon is a pig and a fool. It will be a long hot summer.
PUBLIC CRIMINAL
Louis Rome, director of the State Crime Commission, resigned suddenly without explanation on March 12th, shortly before he was convicted for violating the state’s building code laws.
Rome is a student housing slumlord in the Ann Arbor area and pleaded guilty to such defects in his apartments as, inadequate plumbing, poor heating, structural faults, and shortages of hot water. It is ironic to say the least that Louis Rome, a crime investigator and super “protector of liberty,” was exposed as a criminal.
By refusing to supply basic housing needs for his tenants he has indirectly robbed the people. This type of larceny and fraud is typical of the thousands of indirect and hypocritical Middle and Upper class crimes that occur daily. Such actions however are socially acceptable and never gain the sensationalist publicity that is reserved for the crimes that are often only responses to need.
Replacing Louis Rome, is a former Detroit Police Inspector, Bernard G. Winchoski. With the Detroit Police Department’s reputation for corruption, and participation in much of the Inner City’s crime, one, unfortunately, can closely predict the future performance of Winchoski, and should not look for an increase in integrity.
FIRE TRUCK SNIPER
Police captured four persons—two of them 13 year old boys—with tear gas at the Jefferies Housing Project after snipers opened fire on firemen combating a blaze’ there March 8th.
At least 17 shots were fired at police and firefighters before the quartet surrendered. Two 12-gage shotguns, a rifle, and 100 rounds of ammunition were taken from the apartment. A 19-year-old and a 16-year-old have been charged with attempted murder by the prosecutor’s office.
Although police said they could not establish a motive for the shootings they have made a big deal about their claim that they confiscated Black Panther literature from the apartment.
Although several fire vehicles were damaged by gunfire, there were no casualties on either side.
GAS CO. BUSTED
Andy Gingold and the Royal Oak police are having it out again. Gingold is the proprietor of the G.A.S. Co. head shop on Ten Mile Road and suffered continual harassment at the hands of city officials since he first opened his store over a year and a half ago.
On March 15 Mark Cohen, an employee, opened the store and found that the front door glass had been broken and replaced with a piece of plywood that was leaned against it. Inside was an instruction note saying to call the Royal Oak police for further information.
The police came out and showed Gingold and Cohen their Written report, but refused to give them anymore information. Gingold became angered because of the history of police abuse his store has suffered and began yelling at the police and telling them to leave his store.
The police responded in typical fashion. They arrested Andy for using obscene language in a public place (his store) took him to the station, strip searched him and released him on $100 bond.
His court date is March 30.
RIGHT-WING PORK
Care to view some gusty pictures, free from any pig harassment? Well, Wayne State University, with a $10,000 contract, is now sponsoring showings of dirty pictures. In order to view them however, you have got to be right, far right.
Simply go to either Dr. Gerald Wehmer or Donald Wallace, faculty members at WSU, and tell them that you are a right-wing conservative John Bircher and wish to uplift our society’s collapsing social values.
It seems that this WSU science team is trying to define pornography for the Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography. Only having an abundance of New Lefters on campus, the team has to move elsewhere to solicit reactionary views.
The premier off campus showing will soon take place in an Eastside Catholic school’s gymnasium. The slides will feature material as strange as full-color brassiere ads, and as provocative as your imagination.
Wallace has declined to brand any of his slides as pornography. He stated that, “The courts have described pornography as anything objectionable with no redeeming social value. Our purpose is to discover what community standards are... no one has ever developed a consensus...”
Right-wingers, allegedly suspicious of pedantic college professors, have been slow to respond. The kinds of outbursts that will ooze from those tight-ass right-wing mentalities, insulated with sublimation, should be more interesting than the pictures. Call 577–2859 for your reservation.
OPEN CITY BREAD
In the last edition of the Fifth Estate, we printed an article that mentioned Open City’s financial problems. Since that time they have managed to get themselves comfortably out of the hole.
John Martin, spokesman for Open City, stated that they now have enough money to move on their plans for expanded services. The free Medical Clinic is now open on Tuesday nights between 6:30 and 8:30 p.m., along with the usual Monday and Thursday sessions.
They also now have enough bread to enlarge the food program and open a community food store. Now individuals will be able to directly pay the three bucks and take home a weeks supply of fresh vegetables and fruits, assorted dairy products, rice and other staples.
The Open City Coffee House, that opened recently and operates in conjunction with the First Unitarian Church on Cass and Forest, has been responsible for a large part of the financial relief. The bizarre Parking-Meter Yippies, a group at Wayne State born out of a South End journalism ruse, have also helped by nailing the WSU Cinema Guild for a $1,000.00 donation to Open City.
The Cinema Guild, further, committed themselves to help set-up a film benefit for People Concerned About Urban Renewal (PCAUR). PCAUR is a militant community organization, active against university expansion with ties to Open City. The Guild is reported to have an excess balance of over $6,000.00 which is a considerable amount for a non-profit organization
In response to the immediate needs of the Warren-Forest Community, a regular newsletter, and periodic handbills describing the services offered, are now being published by Open City to distribute in the area. Also, further advertising will be done through co-operation with the Community Reporter, The Fifth Estate, PCUAR, the Inner City Voice, and other community papers and organizations, all in an attempt to acquaint the largest mass of people with Open City.
In conjunction with the families around the Commonwealth and Trumbull area, another event is being planned. Open City is sponsoring a Public Trash-IN on April 12th the purpose of which is to remove the mounting garbage and trash accumulating in that area.
The Detroit Housing Commission is heavily responsible for the massive mess, in that they had city services, including trash pick-ups, cut off from the area. This was done because the homes involved are part of an urban renewal project and are scheduled for demolition.
Open City and the community people have further told the city that on the day of the Trash-In, they want all the surrounding streets closed for the day. This would enable the blues, rock, and soul groups that have promised to appear from Motown and from the surrounding neighborhood to perform while 1200 local residents haul away trash. They are welcoming anyone who wants to get down and clean up.