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47.
H.L.F. (Hinterland Fund). Typed manuscript by Michael Abdul Malik in which he sets out his ideas for “an economically and socially viable counter-system within the system of a real non-racial community.”
Two quarto size sheets, originally stapled at top right corner (top sheet since detached from staple), with ink inscription by Jim Haynes, “Michael Malik’s plan”, and pencilled note from Bill Levy, “For Publication”. No date c. May 1967).
Levy published the document in full in International Times shortly after Malik was sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, featuring it as part of his editorial: “Last May, Michael Abdul Malik developed a plan called HINTERLAND PROJECT. The target or experimental area was to have been Reading. Let’s look at this plan and compare its contents with what Michael X is alleged to have believed. More, let’s entertain these proposals as a realistic and enlightened programme for action.”
In his scheme (and Michael was nothing if not a schemer), Malik draws on the alliance he sees as existing between “the Black man” and “the underground”, both outsiders of “the social system” (Norman Mailer’s essay “The White Negro”, probably introduced to him by Nancy Bacal, made a big impression on him). He suggests, without naming Reading specifically, that “it would be a gas for the underground to turn on the coloured community in a small town as an experiment” (later, in IT #53, Desmond Quammie wrote that “Reading became the first outpost of Black Power outside London”; Reading had also been the location for Michael’s abortive plan to raid a post office several years before).
The scheme was to involve “A fun centre with a U.F.O. type scene” (a reference to UFO club), newspapers and “DEFENCE-type organizations” (Defence was a free legal service for Black people set up by Malik, Courtney Tulloch, Frank Crichlow, Colin MacInnes and others), and lastly, “an economically and socially viable counter-system within the system of a real non-racial community.” The document ends with a request for help, time and, typically, money, with “all cheques payable to HinterLands Fund.”
Paper age-toned and fragile, with tears to edges.
Together with: International Times #21 (London: November 17, 1967). Ed. Bill Levy. As well as the editorial and its publication of the Hinterland Plan, and the provocative and controversial front cover design by Levy and Jack Henry Moore, the issue includes Tod Lloyd’s report on Michael X’s trial in Reading on November 8 (“The Many Trials of Michael X…”). Also: Buckminster Fuller centrespread; ads. for Granny Takes a Trip, Middle Earth, the Arts Lab, Piero Heliczer’s book, “The Soap Opera”; more. Slight age-toning to extremities, o/w Near Fine (unfolded).
