Smygo http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo reports:
Underground Paper Leaves City, Not Roots
September 5, 2002
BY BILL McGRAW
The Fifth Estate always was a made-in-Detroit product.
Published in funky old buildings around Wayne State
University, the paper blended ultra-radical politics, a
sense of humor and an in-your-face attitude. It explored
issues that lurked outside its door, such as the effects of
factories and ghettos on humans.
It was a winning formula. Of the hundreds of underground
papers that arose across the United States in the 1960s, the
Fifth Estate is the oldest survivor. It grew increasingly
radical over the years, and developed a few thousand loyal
readers around the world.
But now, after 37 years, one of the last remnants of
Detroit's rich counterculture era has left the city.
In the current issue, Andy Smith, 35, a member of the new
team, pledged to carry on the Fifth Estate's "implacable
opposition to authoritarian institutions."
In an interview this week, Smith, a college writing
instructor who fell in love with the paper while growing up
in Southfield before moving to Tennessee, said: "The Fifth
Estate is sort of like my dream project."
Peter Werbe, 62, of Oak Park, a Fifth Estate staffer for
much of its existence, praised the new crew as vibrant and
engaged.
"Had it not been for them, the issue before the summer issue
would have been the last," said Werbe, host of the Sunday
"Nightcall" show on WRIF-FM (101.1).
While not a household word, the Fifth Estate is legendary
and/or notorious among those who pay attention to the
world's noncorporate media.
Julie Herrada, of the University of Michigan's Labadie
Collection of social protest literature, called the Fifth
Estate "a very significant example of a radical newspaper"
because of its longevity and content.
"The Fifth Estate is the longest-running English-language
anarchist paper in North America."
Founded in 1965 by then 17-year-old Harvey Ovshinsky, who
went on to become an award-winning TV and film producer, the
Fifth Estate initially covered music, sex, youth rebellion,
drugs and Vietnam War protests like underground papers in
other cities such as the Berkeley Barb and Ann Arbor Argus.
Then, in 1975, just as its staff was making it more
mainstream, the Fifth Estate got really radical.
Werbe, who had worked on the paper from its earliest days
before leaving in the early 1970s, returned with several
others and seized control. They transformed it into a
journal of anarchist ideas.
The Fifth Estate began publishing sweeping critiques of
modern industrial society in articles that were thousands of
words long. It ran the work of far-left European
intellectuals. It questioned the need to acquire things,
slammed leftist political groups and printed a poster that
proclaimed: "Workers of the World, Relax!"
Said Werbe: "We essentially demanded 'Utopia now!'"
Through it all, it retained its belligerent attitude and
irreverent style. It never stopped carrying news of Detroit.
In the mid-1970s, a Fifth Estate staffer, saying he
represented the Workers Revenge Party, presented the severed
head of a pig on a platter to the startled members of the
Wayne State Board of Governors. Accompanied by a photo, the
main headline in the next issue blared: "PIG'S HEAD MEETS
HEAD PIGS."
One radical critic called it "the Mad magazine of the left."
The Fifth Estate has moved to Pumpkin Hollow, a rural
commune outside of Nashville, Tenn., whose members have ties
to the paper and Detroit.
The Detroit-based volunteer staff, some of whom have worked
on the paper for more than 25 years, said they no longer had
time to put out the paper four times a year. They will
continue to contribute.
They've handed over the Fifth Estate to a new editorial team
that is young and eager.
"We want to continue printing cutting-edge articles," Smith
said. "And we want to reach out to more people. We might be
small, but we're not going away."
Subscriptions have not moved yet: 4632 Second Ave., Detroit
48201.
Contact BILL McGRAW at 313-223-4781 or
mailto:mcgraw@freepress.com
