A Newspaper For Woodstock Nation

A Newspaper For Woodstock Nation

SUN/DANCE PANTHERS YIPPIES GARY GRIMSHAW AND JOHN SINCLAIR

I

In The Beginning

It has been a long time since John Sinclair first started the Artist Workshop in Detroit. The growth and development of that man’s dreams is at last starting to show itself, and we can see his concepts becoming realities, and his theories starting to take their place in the real world of Amerikan politics. He is now challenging the constitutionality of Michigan’s marijuana laws from his cell in Marquette prison, and has already affected a change in the incredible harshness of the same laws that put him in jail for ten years. Part of his dreams has been the founding of a nationwide organization to act as a political force in changing the repressive institution we know as American government. To do this he formed the White Panther Party, and the group has since been joined by the Youth International Party. Their alliance 'came out of a conference in Ann Arbor where Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman and other Yippie and White Panther leaders decided on a political merger, but with neither of the groups being abolished. The conference set new precedents in the two groups relations, and there was a killer party at the end, where the Up, a high-energy White Panther band, kicked out some heavy music. Every Panther and Yippie there really got down and had a good time and it was a beautiful thing to witness and take part in.

In the course of their growth as an organization, the Panthers saw a need to reach large numbers of people with their opinions, and they knew that the best way to do that is through a newspaper. They decided to move on creating a forum for their views that would be local, national, and international in its scope, and diversified over cultural and political issues. They came up with Sun/Dance. Sun, signifying the intense energy of the people whose lives are on the line in their struggle for liberation; and Dance, that they are dancing the dance of life, being the representatives of the life-culture that they are, and standing overtly opposed to the death-culture of American society.

Articles by Genie. Plamondon, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, and John Sinclair appear in the first issue, as well as poetry and an anti-speed and heroin rap put together collectively by the Panthers. The 32-page paper will reach 40,000 people the first issue, and that figure will probably increase over the weeks.

One of the specifications they set for themselves was to be diversified over cultural and political issues, and diversity is a problem when you’re working with a limited amount of time and energy like the Panthers are, but Ken Kelley, Minister of Information for the Panthers and former editor of the Ann Arbor Argus is shrugging it off. “This paper is going to have everything from Ed Sanders to Kwame Nkrumah” says big Ken, and people who have had a chance to peak at the first issue ahead of time agree.

Genie Plamondon David Sinclair, Skip Taube, plus the excellent outside help that Hayden and others have afforded them amounts to a pretty heavy line-up for the new paper but the heaviest component is behind bars. It might be good to look into his case, briefly, for people who don’t know. One week before John Sinclair was given 9 and one half to 10 years for possession of marijuana, Judge Robert Colombo, who sentenced him on July 28, 1969, gave another man 7 to 10 years for second degree murder. It took two disguised undercover agents, two months to entrap John into giving them two joints. No charge. He gave them the marijuana, and the judge himself ruled that the transaction was a case of “IllegalEntrapment” i.e., that the police had created the crime! The evidence which had been obtained illegally, by the judge’s 'own ruling, was then used to convict Sinclair on the possession charge. 1 find it hard to believe that this man could still have any faith at all in a system that has such a blatant disregard for its own laws. He is presently being held, without bond, on the cynically stated grounds that he has presented “No Meritorious Basis for Appeal”. That, in the language of the Michigan Supreme Court, means that John Sinclair is a political prisoner.

So, although John can write articles from Marquette, the Panthers are finding out that putting out a paper without him there is a pretty difficult thing, and they realize that their difficulty stems directly from the fact that they are living in a repressive society.

II

Serve The People

Of all the underground newspapers in the country, I think even the people who work on Sun/Dance would agree that the Seed, printed in Chicago, is one of the finest. It has beautiful graphics, is very, well written and its color and layout are the best there is in underground papers. So when the idea first came up for a national underground newspaper, the first thing everyone thought of was the Seed. What the Panthers want to do is copy the Seed’s idea of a colorful well done paper, not with the idea in mind of competing with the Seed, but to serve the people who read their paper better. And that is the main thrust of all their work, they want to serve the people, because they feel that with 83% of the nations budget going for “defense”, the people aren’t getting served the way they should be and the way they were guaranteed in the constitution. In a country that is supposed to have a government of the people, by the people, for the people, it is incredible how many “people” are starving in the shadow of affluence. It boggles the mind to think that education is as low-grade as ours in a country that could afford to put all it’s students through college for free, and still provide a higher quality education than it does now. The Panthers are saying that there is a vast number of very definite needs that the people have, that this country isn’t meeting.

Starting a nation-wide newspaper could involve an increase in repression for the Panthers and their associates and they have only to look at the incredible repression being brought against the Black Panther Party (28 dead, 300 in prison) to understand the seriousness of every political move that they make. Although the states’ wrath has only been felt by prominent members of the White Panthers (John Sinclair, Pun Plamondon Jack Forrest, Gary Grimshaw), they understand that at anytime it could become heavy for people not even involved in what they are doing, much less the people who are now in leadership positions.

Ill

Grimshaw is Back

When I heard the news I flashed back to that day that we found out that Pun Plamondon had been arrested and that they were looking for Gary, too. It is hard to describe the feeling you get in the pit of your stomach w'hen your life is being acted upon by some outside hostile force, but that must have been the way they felt that day and I know I felt it, too. Have you ever been forced away from your home for over a year and had you best friend held in prison with $20,000 bond on his head because you went to a party? It was summer and a lot of parties happen in the summer, but at ' this one in particular there was an undercover pig, and some people left some roaches in an ashtray, and the pig took the roaches and split. Out of that Pun was charged with “dispensing” two roaches. At his pre-trial bearing they opened up one of the roaches and it was empty. How do you deal with madness like that except by being a madman yourself?

Gary left for the coast then, and for the most part kept himself ocpupied with laying out the Berkeley Tribe and did comix and posters. After over a year, arrangements were made and Gary turned himself in to the local pigs in Traverse City with his lawyer and bondsman present. He was charged with possession and released on $3,000 bond. It doesn’t seem to matter that he has turned himself in though, seeing as how the FBI were still hunting for him at this writing.

So Grim is home now, and while fighting this kind of repression, will still surely prove to be a driving force in relation to Sun/Dance, besides doing artwork in the Detroit/Ann Arbor/Chicago area and functioning as Minister of Culture (Art) for the White Panthers in their relations with their chapters all over the country. A lot of people are anxious to see his work on Sun/Dance. His stuff has been blowing minds around the Detroit area since 1966. Back then he was doing work for the Fifth Estate and he also co-edited the old Warren-Forest Sun with John.

The next stroke of mad genius to look for from Grim will be a killer poster he is doing for a benefit that is happening for Jack Forrest at the Palladium on July 21st. Jack also'has run into his share of harrassment as he and Pun and John have all been charged with the bombing of the CIA office in Ann Arbor. He was home in bed when he found out about the bombing, and now he is in Detroit where he is awaiting a trial on State and Federal charges with maximum penalties amounting to 30 years in prison. Pun, of course, has fled underground and is on the FBI’s “11” most wanted list. Jack Forrest is just one more name on a list of victims of the states’ repression, a list that is already too long, and unfortunately will probably continue to grow.

IV

Love and Revolution

So what the Panthers finally seek to do is to operate a political party and put out a national newspaper, stating that party’s beliefs, under the conditions that have been forced upon them by the powers that be. It would be difficult to venture a guess at the seriousness of the problems they will encounter in their attempts to reach the goals. One thing is sure though, it would be impossible for any force, any state, no matter how powerful, to destory the love that they all have for their people, or to stop the flow of energy from the people who have dedicated their lives to the attainment of peace, justice and liberation. All Power To The People!!! Sun Power to Sun/Dance!!! Art Power to Grimshaw!!! And Panther Power to the Youth International Party/White Panthers!!!!!

Joe Booker