BERKELEY, Cal. (LNS)—Dick Gregory was a special visitor to the California Peace And Freedom Party headquarters in Berkeley recently: Gregory visited Huey Newton of the Black Panther Party twice while he was here. Gregory’s visit culminated in the opening of a state office for Gregory for President, and the announcement of a boycott against Olympia Beer of Washington State, in support of the Indians’ attempt to control the water that was stolen from them many years ago in Washington.
Olympia Beer is the target of the boycott because it advertises that it is the water “that makes Olympia great.” But this same water is denied to the Indians for fishing. Gregory joined with the Indians in a fish-in, and was arrested. He faces a 90-day jail term in Washington for the fish-in.
Gregory is a write-in candidate for President in every state, and he has received the formal endorsement of the Peace and Freedom Parties in Pennsylvania and Kentucky.
According to Gregory and the Declaration of Independence, “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing in variably the same object, evinces a design to reduce the people under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such a government…In this context, according to Gregory, H. Rap Brown is a contemporary Patrick Henry and the Black Panthers are emulating Paul Revere.
—Based on a dispatch from Student Communications Network
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NEW YORK (LNS)—”The Communist Party will enter its own candidates for President and Vice President of our country in the November elections,” Henry Winston, party national chairman, announced recently. He said that the candidates would be- named at a special convention of the party on the July 4 weekend.
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CHICAGO (LNS)—Students for a Democratic Society (SDS is proceeding with its collective suit against the draft. This is a delaying tactic to aid draft resisters by involving them in court action and thus holding up Selective Service action. SDS is seeking 10,000 draft-age men to become plaintiffs. For further information and a retainer form write to SDS, 1608 W. Madison, Chicago, Ill. 60612.
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UNION, N.J., —Dr. Timothy Leary, in a recent talk at Newark State College denounced the war in Vietnam and urged a crowd of students to forget LSD and concentrate on “bringing the boys home.” It’s “silly” he said, to talk about drugs when war, violence and chaos are rampant.
Leary, facing imprisonment on narcotics charges, was convicted in Texas of possessing marijuana and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. He has lost a court appeal, but his new “appeal” is “love, not LSD.”
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Proceeds from the forthcoming concert tour by the Beach Boys and the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi will be donated to the Maharishi’s Spiritual Regeneration Movement Foundation, for the creation of meditation centers.
“One hundred percent of the concert profits will-be devoted to this end,” says Nicholas Grillo, manager and financial supervisor of the Beach Boys. “Neither the Beach Boys nor the Maharishi will accept any remuneration as a result of the tour.”
The Beach Boys became followers of the Maharishi over a year ago and are now attempting to aid his work throughout the world by participating in such people to people concerts.
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The U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has upheld the conviction of Muhammad Ali who refused draft induction for religious reasons.
Muhammad Ali has sought every possible administrative process in, as Judge J. P. Coleman wrote, an unsuccessful attempt to evade and escape from military service of his country.” Judge Coleman also said “Being entirely satisfied that he has been fairly accorded due process of law and without discrimination, we affirm his conviction.”
Muhammad Ali’s Black Muslim religion makes him unable to serve in the military. On April 27, 1967, he was sentenced to five years in prison and given a $10,000 fine.
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Barry Goldwater currently has a $2 million libel suit against Fact Magazine for an article it printed in late 1964 entitled “1,189 Psychiatrists say Goldwater is Psychologically Unfit to be President.” Also named as defendants in the suit are Ralph Ginzburg, Fact editor and Warren Boroson, managing editor.
The 1964 Republican presidential candidate feels that the magazine attacked him with “actual malice.” Fact had sent 12,356 questionnaires to psychiatrists across the nation and had based the article on their replies.
According to the magazine, of the 2,417 who replied, 1,189 said Goldwater was unfit, 657 said he was fit, and 571 said that they did not know.
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A recent Associated Press survey has indicated that 20% or one out of every five senators are millionaires. One senator privately estimated that the ratio was even higher, that about one-third of his 100 colleagues are worth $1 million.
The Senate and to House has refused repeated demands that they be required to disclose financial worth and dealings. Most politicians avoid discussion of their wealth and its sources. The Senate has the reputation of being the nation’s “most exclusive club.”
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The State of Maryland has released SNCC chairman H. Rap Brown on $10,000 bond pending trial on the charge that he incited the Cambridge riot last July. Bail restrictions included the stipulation that he must appear before the Maryland judge anytime the judge deems it necessary. The trial is several months away.
After his release Brown flew to New York and was greeted by hundreds of brothers and sisters and cheers of “Black power” and “Let Rap rap.”
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MOUNT VERNON, N.Y.—Harold Krents, 23, says he is blind. His draft board won’t take his word for it.
Krents, a Harvard law student, last week was reclassified 1A. The draft board here said it has no intention of changing the classification until Krents proves he cannot see. “We have received no information to verify the registrant’s claim that he is blind,” a spokesman said Monday.
Krents, who says he has been blind since he was 9, shrugged off his reclassification. “All I can say is we must be losing the war,” he said. “I’ll go if somebody aids me. I want to be a bombardier.”
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Ft. Ord, Calif., April 15 (LNS) Court-martial charges have been brought against Pvt. Ken Stolte and Dan Amick for distributing antiwar literature calling for a GI’s union at Fort Ord.
Stolte and Amick are being charged under Articles 134 and 81 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Article 134 deals with general offenses “to the prejudice of good order and discipline” and Article 81 with attempting to conspire to commit an offense. The maximum sentence the two GI’s face is six years in prison.
The one page mimeographed statement, written and signed by Stolte and Amick, protests the war and says, in part, “If you really want to work for peace and freedom, then join us in our opposition. We are organizing a union in order to express our dissension and grievances.” The announcement was posted all over the base—in chapels, mess halls, phone booths, bus stops—on Feb. 20.
Contributions may be sent to the Stolte-Amick Defense Fund, c/o THE ALLY, Box 9276, Berkeley, California. (Friends: THE ALLY is a newspaper distributed free to servicemen. Addresses of servicemen are needed. Send to THE ALLY, Box 9276, Berkeley, Calif.)
Stop the Police State
Governor Romney’s right to turn Michigan into a police state at his whim is being challenged in suburban Royal Oak.
Handling the case for the defendants that were arrested in that city on April 7 for violating the governor’s proclamation against assembling in groups of more than three is attorney James Lafferty.
Three days after Martin Luther King’s death a group of 130 marchers led by People Against Racism and Youth for Peace, Freedom, and Justice were taken into custody by the Royal Oak police for attempting a memorial march in King’s honor. (See Fifth Estate, April 16-30).
Marches had been held in Dearborn and Grosse Pointe without police interference.
Both the City of Royal Oak and the defendants have agreed on the facts of the case; that the proclamation existed and that the marchers violated the terms of it. What is at issue is the constitutionality of that order.
“What we are challenging is the Governor’s right to abridge the 1st Amendment rights of freedom of assembly on the basis of the meager evidence that he had that an emergency existed.
“Certainly no one would contend that there was an emergency in Royal Oak,” Lafferty said.
The prosecution has agreed to allow one defendant to act as a test case and let the other cases be decided on the basis of that verdict. Fr. James Markunas of St. Joseph’ s Episcopal Church is the case that will be heard.
Attorney Lafferty, supported by a Friend of the Court brief from the American Civil Liberties Union, has filed a motion to dismiss the charges. The judges decision should be in by the end of May.
Persons arrested in a similar demonstration the next day in Detroit have had their cases postponed by Recorders Court Judge Elvin Davenport until the Royal Oak decision is in and all appeals are heard.