| Categories | Anti-authoritarianism, anarchism |
|---|---|
| Frequency | Three issues per year |
| First issue | 1965 |
| Country | United States of America |
| Website | fifthestate.org |
Fifth Estate (FE) is a US periodical, originally based in Detroit, Michigan but now produced in a variety of locations. Its editorial collective shares divergent views on the topics the magazine addresses but generally shares an anti-authoritarian outlook and a non-dogmatic, action-oriented approach to change. The title presumably suggests that the periodical is an alternative to the fourth estate (traditional print journalism).
Fifth Estate is frequently cited as the longest running English language anarchist publication in North America.
Contents |
History
Origin
Fifth Estate was started by Harvey Ovshinsky, a seventeen year old youth from Detroit. He was inspired by a summer trip to California where he worked on The Los Angeles Free Press, the first underground paper in the US. The name came from a coffee house he liked to visit on the Sunset Strip.
The first issue was published on November 19, 1965 - "That's what we really are - the voice of the liberal element in Detroit," it said. It was produced on a typewriter and then reproduced by offset lithograph. It featured a critical review of a Bob Dylan concert, a borrowed Jules Feiffer cartoon, alternative events listing and an announcement of a forthcoming anti-Vietnam War march. None of these things would have been included in contemporary newspapers.
In 1966 Ovshinsky moved the office from his parents' basement to a mid-town storefront near Wayne State University. Here the paper was saved from extinction by the Detroit Committee to End the War in Vietnam, John Sinclair's Artist Workshop, and other radicals. Later in 1966 the paper moved to Plum Street where they also established a bookshop. Fifth Estate thrived in the late sixties, a period when over 500 underground papers emerged in the US. Thousands of copies were distributed locally with hundreds more being sent to GIs in Vietnam. Fifth Estate openly called on soldiers to mutiny. In 1967 the Fifth Estate offices were tear-gassed by the National Guard during the 12th Street riot. In this period the print run reached 15,000 - 20,000 copies.
1970s
By 1972 the optimism of the sixties had worn off and the tone of the paper became more concerned with struggle than fun. Ovshinsky left, leaving a group of young people (teenagers or in their early twenties) to run the paper. Some of their naïveté wore off as they sent delegations to Vietnam, Cambodia and Cuba. With the massive defeat of George McGovern and the election of Richard Nixon for a second term with an increased vote damaged the movement - many underground papers stopped coming out and the alternative news services such as the Liberation News Service, and the Underground Press Syndicate had collapsed. The Fifth Estate was mentioned in the national press when one of its reporters, Pat Haley, threw a shaving cream pie at Guru Maharaj Ji in 1973. Though the guru forgave him publicly, two of his followers attacked Haley a week later and fractured his skull.[1]
By 1975, Fifth Estate was lingering on - many staff had burnt out through too much activism and they had their share of internal disputes. The debts were mounting up.In August, 1975 Vol. 11, No.1 declared "The issue you are now holding is the last issue of the Fifth Estate - the last issue of a failing capitalist enterprise…This is also the first issue of a new Fifth Estate." This was the first explicitly anti-authoritarian issue of Fifth Estate. The paper had been taken over by the Eat the Rich Gang., a group that had successfully published several pamphlets and were particularly influenced by Fredy Perlman, Jacques Camatte, Jean Baudrillard, Council communism, and Left Communism, as well as the Situationists. They did not originally identify themselves as explicitly anarchist and had no contacts with the anarchist currents of the 1930s. However, they were contacted by veterans of that period who they saw as powerful role models. Those included Marcus Graham (publisher of the 1930s anarchist periodical Man!) and Spanish and Italian anarchist veterans. They also developed a close relationship with Black and Red, a radical Marxist printers/publishers group with which Lorraine and Fredy Perlman were involved.
1980s and 1990s
By 1980, the paper had become more anti-technological and anti-civilisation, something for which it was well known throughout the '80's. It was the focal point for the development of the political trend of anarcho-primitivism. Long-time contributor John Zerzan published his seminal essays on time, language, art, number and agriculture in the magazine. His articles were frequently accompanied by long critiques by George Bradford (nee David Watson) or Bob Brubaker, who developed different versions of primitivism. After Zerzan's 1988 article on agriculture, he started publishing his new essays in Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed. Dismayed by what he saw as the excesses of Zerzan and others, Watson eventually repudiated primitivism in his 1997 essay "Swamp Fever". [2]
2001 to present
In 2001, the center of the magazine shifted from Detroit, Michigan to Liberty, Tennessee when long-time contributor Sunfrog Bonobo took over the main editorial duties of the magazine, although long-time Detroit staffers like Peter Werbe remained involved. In 2006, Fifth Estate decentralized their editorial group, and since then issues have been published that were primarily produced in Michigan, Tennessee, New York and Wisconsin. The current editorial collective has moved away from primitivism, does not endorse a specific political line and welcomes voices from disparate strains of anti-authoritarian thought. The group also continues to distance themselves from anarchism as a specific ideology, embracing a more inclusive, yet still radical, anti-capitalist perspective. Continuing to cover environmental and anti-capitalist resistance, articles have also appeared which address immigration, race, feminism, queer sexuality and transgender issues.
In 2008, long-time contributor Marie Mason was arrested as part of what some call the Green Scare. In February 2009, she was sentenced to almost 22 years for two acts of environmentally-motivated property destruction. The Fifth Estate has run articles protesting both the labeling of her actions as "terrorism" as well as the long sentence she received.
Contributors
- Richard Mock, designer of many of the linocuts used on Fifth Estate's covers.
- David Watson, longtime Fifth Estate writer and editorial collective member
- Fredy Perlman, Fifth Estate writer
- Peter Werbe, longtime Fifth Estate writer and editorial collective member
- John Zerzan, Fifth Estate contributor from 1974 to 1988
References
External links
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