Letters -- June 28, 1974

LETTERS

Fifth Estate Organizing Committee

Dear Folks;

It has come to our attention that you have referred to our group, The Organizing Committee for a Fifth Estate, as "Norman Mailer's Fifth Estate" in a recent article about the Symbionese Liberation Army.

We think that you have done our organization, your readers, and any people who might be inclined to work with us, a disservice by promoting an elitist myth of this sort. In fact, The Organizing Committee for a Fifth Estate is a collective based in the Washington DC area. Mr. Mailer lives in Massachusetts. The collective makes all decisions about policy and actions, and includes people who have been active in the underground press, student and community organizing, the Veterans movement. and the anti-war and anti-imperialist movements.

Norman Mailer is one of many well-known Americans who serve as sponsors to the Organizing Committee, and have lent their names, good will, and financial support to the Fifth Estate. While it is true that Mr. Mailer has gone on speaking tours advocating the concept of a Fifth Estate, it should be noted that he does not serve on our advisory board, which is composed of critics of the government's repressive and interventionist policies.

The Organizing Committee for a Fifth Estate has been formed in response to the continuing development of the Orwellian society in the United States and the world. We are attempting to organize action/research groups throughout the United States to resist every aspect of technofascism -- the correct term for the Orwellian Society. The experimental development of technofascism includes such things as: White House Horrors, Watergate. military spying on civilians, CIA clandestine activities, FBI and local police infiltration of political groups, media management, social science engineering, censorship, attacks on privacy, government and corporate secrecy, hegemonic control of advances in technology, and institutionalized racism and sexism.

In short, we are trying to set up an alternative intelligence community, based on the premise that the American people have a right to know what is going on.

Unity-Struggle-Victory,

Doug Porter, for The Organizing Committee for a Fifth Estate

(Note: The SUN apologizes for our oversight.)