We think an important clarification is needed regarding the “editors’ note” that appeared on page seventeen of last issue that said, “All you need is dynamite.”
This, in fact, was not an editors’ note at all, but rather the whim of persons working on the layout of the paper. We can dig the way they felt at 4:00 in the morning reading Ralph Gleason’s bad review of the Beatles’ bad record, “Revolution,” but that statement does not reflect the thinking of this newspaper.
We couldn’t care less how many pig cars, draft boards, or army recruiting vehicles get wasted, but if anyone thinks this will bring about a revolution or even begin one they better shake themselves because it won’t.
As long as the State has a monopoly of the instruments of violence, individual acts of terrorism or sabotage will do nothing but set the stage for repression. Witness the way the Nazis used the burning of the Reichstag as an excuse to suppress the left in Germany or the Haymarket Square incident where the State of Illinois used a bombing to destroy a union movement there and execute several of its leaders in the 19th Century.
Terrorism and sabotage have a proper place in a revolutionary movement as one can note by looking at the history of any such period, including the American experience, but the key word in the foregoing clause is “movement.”
Heroic acts can be admired on one level, but they are no substitute for the building of a mass revolutionary movement. This is what you need and if the people who have the kind of dedication it takes to sneak into the lot of a police station and plant a bomb would use that same dedication to do sustained organizing work all of our desires would more quickly be advanced.
The Fifth Estate is expanding its printing schedule. Instead of coming out on the first and third Thursday of each month we will be on the stands every other Thursday, giving us two more issues a year. This will not affect subscriptions which are figured on a 26 issue basis. Deadlines will be a week in advance so writers, advertisers, and calendar freaks be advised.
Sorry about the poor quality of some of the photos in the last issue. Some thought that the shot on page two was the cops making arrests at night, but the printer just blew it. We are running Weird Dude number one’s picture again so people will have an easier time in the identification.
What with the beginning of school in area colleges and high schools the opportunity for increased Fifth Estate sales opens up greatly. If you want to spread the word and make some money besides, come to the paper office or to the Military Outpost on Plum St. and pick up papers.
