The Sun Shines On: 30 Issues And One Year Old!

THE SUN SHINES ON:  30 issues and one year old!

ORGANIZE AND CONSOLIDATE-UNIFY AND COMMUNICATE!!!!!!!!!

This coming Monday, May 1, is the first anniversary of the Ann Arbor Sun as a tabloid, information service published by the Rainbow People's Party, and it is also the first anniversary of the Party itself. A coalition of student and community organizations were planning on holding a STOP THE WAR STOMP at the Union Ballroom, and celebration of the Party and Sun anniversary all money which was going to the Sun. The University nixed all plans to go forward with the benefit saying that they wouldn't allow the stomp to go on because it was associated with the Rainbow People's Party and now we have to have it on the People's Plaza. Of course they have no interest in stopping the war or helping further the people's move to fill their own needs. One of the main organizations that were sponsoring the event is the Ann Arbor People's Food Co-op, which is one of the widest based community/student organizations there is in A2-the Rainbow People's Party belongs and so does Bob Harris, but because of its "affiliation" with the Rainbow People's Party this chomp Hilton of the University saw it as his duty to stop this people's gig. They tried to stop the Election Boogies at Hill Auditorium, as they tried to stop us from electing our own representatives to the city council, and we now have a suit against the University that demands an injunction against the University's continual interference with the benefits, voter's registration rocks, election boogies, and anti-war stomps put on by the community because of political ideologies or affiliation and also demanding monetary responsibility on the part of the University for their actions. Check out future issues of the Sun for more details.

The Sun has a long history of work in the community starting back in '66 and '67 as the Warren/Forest Sun in Detroit when the second issue of the Sun announced the first massive be-in on Belle Isle in the spring of 1967 and since that time on has served as an information source and outlet in which to present and exchange ideas. With all seven issues put out from the office at 499 Forest came blasts from the culture-the first Dope-o-scope was written back then- along with other familiar columns that are run in the present Sun when there is room, written by the community.

The Sun made the move to Ann Arbor the same time as Trans-Love Energies, its main energy force kicking out the People's news sporadically in the form of a mimeographed street information packet seething with cultural tids and tads. In 1969, the summer of the South University police riots, the community saw the need to put energy into the paper, which was our only source to expose the lies that the city and the newspapers were telling about the situation going down in our lives, and the Sun began being published by street people in conjunction with the White Panther Party. Moving toward a community controlled newspaper and beginning to understand that in order to have our needs filled we would have to move on that also, we began demanding that the White Panther Report to the City of Ann Arbor be implemented-all the while exposing the fascist tactics of sheriff Douglas Harvey and the unwillingness and inability of the city to take care of our needs. We have to remember that we were all street freeks, right, running around getting high and spreading the spirit to everyone we met, and by no means did we put the paper out regularly, but we did see that the use of the paper in bringing about the changes necessary to set up the organizations that could deal with our needs as people was just the thing, along with our music, that was needed. The White Panther Party Report to the city called for the setting up of alternative institutions through which we could best channel our energy- free concerts in the parks, a people's ballroom, a community center, etc- and the Tribal Council was begun as a direct result of this report and ideas.

The paper continued to be put out with no regularity or concrete direction, but always speaking to the people's questions, until May 1, 1971, when the first issue to come out in Ann Arbor in tabloid form announced the beginning of the Rainbow People's Party and began publishing every week- 15 cents for 16 pages, with a circulation of 3000. The weekly grind of a few people gathering the information, writing and typing it up, laying it out, and then driving it to Chicago to be printed (no one around here capable enough would do it then) made it impossible for the Sun Staff to help with the other work necessary to implement the changes we are talking about- and particularly it didn't leave us time to carry on our fight to change the unconstitutional anti-marijuana laws and Free John Now the way we knew we would have to take care of right away- brothers and sisters being locked in jail for 10 years for 2 joints is an atrocity, and it was beginning to happen more and more. The dedication to the Free John Now campaign had to be strengthened as more people began turning on and getting busted, with most of the busts just being blatant harassment tactics, not being accompanied by jail terms, but with the breaking down of minds and pockets through probation and fines.

The paper had to get out to a lot more people than it was if we were going to build a massive enough campaign to change the laws and get our people being busted for reefer out of the slam, and the distribution system and the charging of 15 cents kept the Sun from reaching lots of people. We had to raise the press run to 10,000 and give the paper away free because the main thing at that time was to get the information out into the community; we can only act on the information available to us, and all the anti-drug culture shit the established media was forcing on us was only serving to continue the present policy of the state. We had to freeze out other activities, the Tribal Council, the committees, everything except Free John Now and the free marijuana campaign, this wasn't something we wanted to do, you dig, but it was something that was necessary- that is proven by the fact that it all worked. The people freed John, the people turned the direction of the anti-marijuana legislation, and began mass freeing of the cultural prisoners locked up for dope. We did that and it worked and now we can get back to what we really need to do, the building of the Tribal Council and the People's Committees and a whole alternative social and economic structure.

We feel the best way now to make the Sun into a newspaper put out by the community working to bring about social change is to work through the Tribal Council and specifically the People's Communications Committee, a committee to bring together the Sun, the People's Radio Workshop, the Ann Arbor Network, Matrix, and all progressive media and informational resources under one organization to consolidate and best direct the use of our combined energies. To do this is not an easy task; more people power is needed, financial stability is required, and the organizational structure has to be set up that will both insure that everyone can participate with practical work and theoretical ideas and that the information that we put out comes out organized and unified to be most effective.

We have raised the advertising rates 33 1/3% to be able to just meet the production cost of the paper and to make the paper economically self-reliant- it's hard to pay for it out of your own pockets and it costs a heap of bread each issue to get the paper on the streets. Another new policy we are going to implement next issue is the charging of a dime for the paper, not to get revenue for the paper, but to help give financial support to the people who pass the Sun out on the streets. The whole dime will go to whoever takes on this task and, when looked at in the light of one dime ain't much to give from one pocket but collected together with 50 or 100 other dimes in one pocket that can give that person enough money to buy food for themselves, we can see that it is a worthwhile policy to carry out.

This was something we didn't want to stop in the first place, and now that the primary aspect of raising the circulation of the paper is over, we immediately have to re-institute this program. Stores, who do not need the money as much as the people or their products, will have to send back 5 cents for each copy sold. Again, this is to help people help themselves, and can only happen if the community, as a whole, supports the policy.

We have space available in the community center for office and production space and we also have a lot of ideas as to what to do with it that we would like to share. There is going to be a People's Communications Committee meeting at the Sun 1520 Hill St. to discuss the Sun, the move to the Community Center, the setting up of the Ann Arbor Network, and what ever else we can think of to talk about at the time. Gathering time is 2:00 pm on Saturday, May 6. Come and share ideas and energy!

-John Collins, for the Ann Arbor Sun