Item #39872 Firebomb. UP AGAINST THE WALL MOTHERFUCKER!
Firebomb.

67.

Firebomb.

NY: ESSO (1968). Tall foolscap flyer mimeographed from handwritten text (35.5x21.5cm.), produced by ESSO (The East Side Service Organization, sometimes known as the East Side Survival Organization), giving the Motherfuckers’ store front address of 341 East 10th Street and the date March 15th.

ESSO was the ‘business name’ established by UAW/MF to encourage donations of money to help with the influx of hippie runaways and street people into the Village in the mid-‘60s. The flyer is divided into two halves printing two texts faced in opposing directions and separated by the word ‘FIREBOMB’, a provocative reference to the local SDS paper.

The first part begins: “Summer begins on the Lower East Side. Last Nite Demonstrators met the 9th Precinct Protesting Illegal Busts and Police Harassment… ‘Henry’ Scaled the Wall… A Bomb Exploded on a 1st Floor Window Sill… The Street was Blocked. Black, Whites & Puertorriqueños Surged Up 2nd Ave Invaded the Electric Fascist and St. Marks Stores… Chanting, Garbaging, Singing and Screaming…”.

The second text, titled “Operation Skyhawk”, outlines new police procedures to ‘freeze’ areas of New York City and of 1,010 new police hired, “700 of whom will be sent into ‘high-density hazard areas’ to stop ‘crime in the streets’. What Is Crime In The Street”. The flyer ends with the slogan: “We’re Getting Together And We’re Getting Ready”.

Old central horizontal fold; long edge tear with some loss to margin (not affecting text); some handling wear and age-toning.

UAW/MF first appeared about a month before this flyer was produced, created from the Black Mask group by Ben Morea with other early members Tom Neumann (the stepson of Herbert Marcuse), John Sundstrom, Alan Hoffman and Alan Phillips.

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