FREE EDITORS
WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 20) LNS — Possession charges against LNS editor Ray Mungo and WIN [magazine] editor Marty Jezer were dropped June 20 in Washington. The defendants suspect the police smoked the evidence,
After the case was placed on the court calendar, the arresting Narc approached Mungo’s and Jezer’s lawyer, John Karr, and asked if he was going to contest: the evidence. Karr advised the Narc to have the evidence as well as a lab technician in court to give testimony. The Narc disappeared and when the case was called for trial, charges were dismissed, Mungo and Jezer were not surprised at the outcome. “After. all,” they chorused, “it was good shit.”
YIPPIES SUPPORT RUBIN
NEW YORK (July 2) LNS — The Yippies have really outdone themselves. About 100 of them appeared July 2 in front of the Criminal Court Building on Center Street and handed out free beer, cigarettes and napalm wrapped in Dow glad bags to the public. Cancer weeds, alcohol, and incendiaries—all those products that keep America going. None of that natural aromatic vegetable that just might be subversive to the American commodity culture,
Jerry Rubin was inside the courthouse for a preliminary hearing to determine if there was enough evidence on his recent drug bust (and beating) to hold him over for a Grand Jury. The Yippies joined their friend inside with feelings running so high that the judge threatened to clear the court.
Rubin is charged with possession of three ounces of grass which, according to the cops, was “concealed” in a jar. Conviction on this charge is a felony, holding a sentence from 1 to 15 years.
The judge saw fit to hold the case before a Grand Jury.
BOMB THE DRAFT
Berkeley, Calif., July 9 (LNS) — An explosion rocked the North Hollywood draft board in the predawn hours of June 24th, causing severe damage to the two-story building. The draft board one of the largest in the country—had to be relocated after the explosion.
The explosive matter, plastic material covered with shrapnel and wrapped in cloth, did about $15,000 damage, but officials said the files were not seriously damaged. The person or persons involved remain unknown and the FBI has sought to limit publicity on the matter, according to Bill Leonis, a staff member of the Los Angeles region of Students for a Democratic Society.
Leonis said the FBI came to see him five times in connection with this matter, presumably because of his part in anti-war, anti-draft programs at Los Angeles Valley City College. Leonis, who is an SDS organizer at the two year college, said, “I told them to go away.”
The people who attacked the board made no political statement other than the explosion itself, and the FBI seems to have no real leads.
DESEGREGATE JAILS
NEW ORLEANS (LNS) — Rap Brown of SNCC has filed suit in federal court in New Orleans demanding all jails and prisons in Louisiana be desegregated. He claims that state law requires segregation in the living quarters of every state prison.
JAPANESE STRIKE
TOKYO (July 5) LNS —The Japanese anti-war movement staged a blockade of tracks used by American troop trains at the end of June. Some 2,000 workers and 500 students participated in a sit-down on a set of key tracks in Tokyo, while a massive demonstration also took place at the Osaka airport, used by the U.S. military effort against Vietnam.
GREEK UNDERGROUND
LNS (July 5) — Reliable sources in Paris and London report that Andreas Papandreou, son of the former Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, will announce his decision to personally lead underground resistance in Greece against the military dictatorship that has ruled there since the coup d’état of 21 April 1967.
Andreas Papandreou was released from an Athens jail this last January. He has since traveled to western Europe and the United States to try to get support for his anti-junta group, PAK. He is now in Bonn.
The same sources report that considerable amounts of explosives, arms and anti-junta literature are being smuggled into Greece in preparation for what is said to be a planned “first offensive” against the Greek regime.
The first phase, it is reported, will be “first” and “second” degree sabotage of public buildings and facilities. It is believed that hired explosive experts have been training underground group members both in and out of Greece. Harassment of foreign tourists in an attempt to discourage travel to Greece is also planned.
ACLU K.O.s SACB
NEW YORK — The American Civil Liberties Union has criticized Attorney General Ramsey Clark for petitioning the Subversive Activities Control Board to name seven persons as members of the Communist Party.
The civil liberties organization announced that it would supply lawyers to any of the seven persons named by the Attorney General who wished to be represented by the ACLU in proceedings before the S.A.C.B.
Describing the Subversive Activities Control Act as the emasculated remnants of McCarthyite legislation adopted in the 1950s which violated free speech and free association guarantees, the ACLU declared that the Attorney General would have performed a public service by not filing the petitions and allowing the Act to lapse.
Under a recent amendment to the statute, the Subversive Activities Control Board would have ceased to exist on June 30, 1969, if no petitions were filed by December 31, 1968.
GREEKS RESIST
LNS (July 5)—Greek resistance sources in London and Paris which keep close watch on developments in Greece, report that a British Government agency has helped organize and is now materially supporting a pro-royalist and anti-junta underground resistance group in Greece; it is known as TOURCH and has been in existence since King Constantine’s attempted coup last December against the Greek military Dictatorship. The King is in self-imposed exile in Rome.
The same sources say that the British took this step to help counterbalance the influence of other underground organizations that have been in operation since last summer. The most important of these are the Patriatiko Metrapo, led by leftist groups including the outlawed Greek Communist Party; Democratiki Amyna, a centerist group, and the Rhigas Pharaeos, a left-center student group.
“REPRESSIVE BILL”
Passing a resolution which many feel to be both repressive and unconstitutional, the Michigan House of Representatives last week voted to penalize state universities for “unauthorized student protests.”
The resolution, called a “ridiculous piece of legislation” by Rep. Jackie Vaughn (D-Detroit), proposes a $1,300 per student reduction from a university’s appropriations for failing to expel rebellious students.
Having passed in the House, the resolution now lies dormant in the Senate Business Committee. If will probably be considered by the Senate when they convene July 23-24.
“Rebellious conduct, unauthorized demonstrations, the seizure of administration and classroom buildings, cannot in good conscience be condoned,” the resolution stated in part.
WOMAN’S LIBERATION
Baltimore — The first issue of Women: A Quarterly of Women’s Liberation will be published this Fall. Poems, short stories, political literary and scientific which deal with the condition of women are being solicited.
The magazine has decided to exclude men from writing for the magazine. A spokeswoman for the publication explained that this was decided upon because “for centuries women have been defined and discussed by men. The time has come for women to create a special publication in which they analyze and express themselves and their relationship to the social order.”
Manuscripts may be submitted to Women at 3011 Guilford Ave., Baltimore, Md. 21218.
GROUND EDITOR
ST. ROUET, Arkansas, July 3 (Liberation News Service) — The editor of a small, mimeographed underground newspaper at St. Rouet State College was beaten bloody by the town’s teenage volunteer group, which works with City Hall to repaint walls in ghetto neighborhoods.
Kevin Simptum, 19, editor of The Fuckoff, was the only person in town who complained of the activities of the Teen Community Improvement Program (CIP), or CIPPIES, in a letter to the weekly St. Rouet Citizen-Item. The Citizen-Item called the CIPPIES the “personal ambassadors of the mayor,” Harry Lefebre, in erasing such slogans as “burn, baby, burn” from the walls of vacant lots.
Simptum was later charged with felonious assault on a police officer.
GERMAN SHEPHERDS
LONDON (July 5) LNS — Thirty students swelled to 300 and swamped German shepherds and private security guards when the police attempted takeover of London’s Hornsey School of Art.
The school was seized by students May ‘9. While posters declared “We will fight on!”, the students embarrassed police by offering food to the dogs and picnicking on the lawn. Police finally gave up attempts to evict the students from the building. The students are calling for more participation in the schools administration and greater freedom of expression in the teaching of art.
MARCUSE HIDES
BOSTON, MASS., July 9 (LNS) — Philosopher Herbert Marcuse is in hiding in Southern California following a threat on his life, believed to be from the Minutemen, according to a physics professor here.
Professor Robert Cohen, chairman of the Physics Department at Boston University, told the Boston University News that Marcuse has left his La Jolla, California home since the telephoned threat, about a week ago.
FREE ELECTIONS
NEW YORK (July 5) LNS — The following excerpt is from a letter from a Vietnam veteran to New York radio station WBAI. The soldier wishes to remain anonymous.
“The Vietnamese collected the ballot boxes. We (the soldier and a small detachment of Vietnamese troops) took out all the Dzu votes and replaced them with Thieu-Ky ballots. We then put the boxes back on the trucks and they were taken to Saigon and counted. Our responsibility were the towns of Dau’tieng, Tay Ninh, Ba’ca and Bao Trien.
“The overwhelming amount of the votes were for peace candidate Dzu.”
NO GRAPES
NEW YORK, N. Y. (July 1) LNS — The city of New York will not purchase any California table grapes for the duration of the grape workers’ strike, Deputy Mayor Timothy Costello announced. The city government’s action is part of a nationwide boycott in support of the strike which began last August.
Purchase Commissioner Marvin Gersten said that the city buys about 15 tons of grapes a year, primarily for consumption in city hospitals and prisons.