Fortnightly red rag Free Reading's Only Newspaper 3 - 17 October 1982 Copy for next time Thursday 14 - - - GREENHAM PEACE CAMPS EVICTED - But the women stay on... On Wed 29th Sept in a combined two-hour operation bailiffs attacked the two peace camps at Greenham Common US Air Base: the year-old Women's Peace Camp at the main gate (on and belonging to the Dept of Transport) and the more recent Rainbow Peace Settlement at the Green Gate (works entrance) on Newbury District Council land. Tents were bulldozed, caravans and other vehicles winched onto trucks and carted off. No resistance was offered and no-one was arrested - which made it a "peaceful" eviction to such papers as bothered to report it. (It made page 15 in the Post. ) The D.o.T. has sent lorries in to dump tons of rubble and quarry stone, and dug up the grass in front of the main gate to prevent tents being put up there again. Council workers have started digging a sewage pipeline into the base (for the extra personnel needed when the missiles are installed). There are a dozen women at the camp and they are going to stay. They have moved back from the gate towards the road,, and are sleeping rough, using plastic bags as waterproofs etc. What they need most is camping equipment and tarpaulins - also paint, to put messages onto the stones they're been lumbered with. Information from the Rainbow Peace Settlement is harder to come by; but they are apparently also staying put, now at Crookham Common at the eastern end of the Air Base. They will be in much the same plight - but with less of a support network behind them. Greenham Common is south of Newbury, the Peace Camps both off the A329. - - - WHO'S SABOTAGING YOUR PHONE? Acorn Bookshop's phone went dead last Tuesday. Still dead on Wednesday. Engineer came to inspect it. Oh, this was a bad one, this was an underground cable job, this would take - well, he wouldn't say how long, but "not weeks". Thursday morning. Phone no longer dead. Half an hour goes by, phone makes odd noise; when picked up there's another engineer saying he's just connecting It. When told it was working half an hour ago, says it couldn't have been... Both Greenham Common Peace Camps were evicted on Wednesday. Funny, innit? - - - INSIDE: The cuts to come... What makes Reading tick? Pirate radio? Going out & Events. Plus! 4-page pullout guide to Reading "as distributed at the University on Thursday" To get in touch with the Rag write to Red Rag, c/o Acorn Bookshop, 17 Chatham Street. By phone: - News 599804, 61257 or 666681 - Going Out Guide 663083 - Events Guide 666681 - Distribution 666681 or 61257 Coming soon... Did you know that consultants will get a $200 fee every time they use the "Ken Thomas Body Scanner" for private patients? See our article in the next issue on private medicine in the NHS locally. - - - BURN YOUR WINGS... PICKET! There was a lack of support from nurses recently in the N.H.S. pay campaign on the day of action on Sept 22nd. At the smaller hospitals at Hungerford and Prospect Park many nurses did take industrial action. But at the larger general hospitals like Battle and the Royal Berks, nurses taking industrial action were almost non-existent, certainly under ten. Most nurses at these larger, hospitals are members of the Royal College of Nursing, which does not allow its members to take any form of industrial action, (in other words it prefers the trades unions to do its dirty work instead.) But there are over 200 C.O.H.S.E. nurses at Battle and the Royal Berks, many of whom could have contributed towards the Day of Action and nearly all of whom didn't. The antiquated power structures in the hospitals often pressurise nurses who are thinking of striking or joining a picket line not to bother if they know what's good for them. But this system can be overcome or even changed if COHSE nurses and other staff made an effort not to fade into non-existence when their compatriots in the RCN start vomiting on about moral responsibilities and patient care. COHSE nurses do not believe in the patients suffering any more than other nurses do. Most however do realise that to fight for a realistic wage in the present situation measures of industrial action have got to be taken and encouraged not frowned upon. - - - FIGHT THE CUTS! Councillor Juliet Clifford, Labour spokesperson on the Social Services Committee, reports that the following cuts and charges for services in Reading will be among the choices put before the Committee at the special meeting called by the Conservatives for October 14th. Any representations on these proposals can be made to individual Councillors or via the Director of Social Services at Shire Hall, Shinfield Park, Reading. The options for 'savings' - and a number of them would have to be imposed to meet the financial targets proposed by the Conservatives at the July Council meeting - are: 1 To delay or abandon the opening of the Whitley Wood Hostel for the Mentally Handicapped 2 To close the Tamesis Sheltered Workshop for the Physically Handicapped 3 To discontinue all advisory services to Playgroups and Childminders 4 To identify categories of social work cases that would no longer be accepted (eg. stopping appointment of Guardians to assist in adoption) 5 To reduce staffing ratios in Children's Homes and Old Peoples' Homes or close some of these 6 To reduce staffing in Adult Training Centres, and restrict their programme or take trainees for less than five days a week 7 To reduce the level of home help provision 8 To freeze vacancies, which would imply continuing random cuts in the service as staff leave 9 To re-introduce, a minimum charge of 50p a week for the Home Help service (at present to all those receiving Supplementary Benefit, Family Income Supplement, or rent or rate rebate) 10 To introduce charges of 10p a day for transport to Day Care centres for the elderly and handicapped 11 To re-introduce charges of £2 per 'package' for aids for the handicapped 12 To increase the charge for the 'orange badge' (disabled parking disc) from £1 to £5 (the present DHSS maximum is £2) 13 To re-introduce a charge of 25% of the telephone rental for telephones installed in the homes of the elderly and handicapped 14 To increase charges for Meals on Wheels and for meals at Luncheon Clubs from 50p to 60p per meal Only a major protest will prevent these new burdens being imposed on the old, the sick and the handicapped. A petition to the Social Services Committee opposing cuts in the Home Help Service is being organised and completed petition forms should be returned to Councillor Peter Jones, 4 The Delph, Hawkenden Way, Lower Earley. Reading by October 13. - - - BURGHFIELD PEACE CAMP WIMPS RUN FROM SNARLING M.O.D DOG. After the meeting to resurrect Burghfield Peace Camp failed, disillusioned campers along with idealistic supporters wrangled with M.O.D worms (wormist??) during a short lived, badly timed, ill equipped but well intentioned blockade of their fiendish factory...... As from Sunday 26th. September Burghfield Peace Camp ceased to exist, because there were too few people who were prepared to live there. The meeting was attended by 30 people from the Reading district. A number of good ideas were thrown up, (sic) giving the campaign a new lease of life. For more details see the other article about BPC. This new enthusiasm prompted an instant blockade. Notorious peace campiagner Graham Harris produced a padlock to add to the existing padlocks owned by the M.O.D on the back gate. This enabled the campers and their friends to split into two groups to block the remaining entrances. The James Lane entrance was quiet but nevertheless the blockaders did prevent a M.O.D dog van from entering the site. The main entrance saw some excitement, all due to M.O.D over-reaction. Shortly after the concerned people had sat down in the road they were outnumbered by M.O.D Police. One bystander was told in no uncertain terms; "You'll have your fucking camera smashed if you take any photos", and later attempts at intimidation were made using a snarling alsatian dog. The blockade lasted for 25 minutes, and was ended voluntarily. With more people, planning and better timing it could have been effective. Anyone interested in occasional direct actions at the Royal Ordnance Factory, should leave their name and method of contact at: Box 17. Acorn Books. Or: find Graham Harris. Last word from those concerned:- "Although we did not stop any atomic bombs from being made, we had a jolly good time and will return!" Wimps Against Nuclear Killers. The camp is no more, but the campaign continues.. 1) Speakers are still available for meetings and guided tours about ROF Burghfield. 2) All the information we have accumulated will be slowly sorted and filed and made accessible to any one interacted. 3) While doing that we shall extract some interesting pieces and put them together in a pamphlet. 4) A series of occasional events has already been started with the mini-blockade last Sunday. A major event now being planned is a Christmas Fast. Either just for a couple of days or possibly on a rota basis right through the twelve days of Xmas. By fasting outside a weapons factory during the festive period and raising money for the hungry in the rest of the world, we might generate a lot of attention to the issues and the connections. If it is to be a big success, it will need preparing in the next month or so; if you would like to help. Betty, Loppy, and Fenella are the people to get in touch with. --We can all still be contacted via Box 17, Acorn Bookshop, 17 Chatham Street, Reading. Cliff - - - Red Rag ALWAYS needs money... all donations gratefully received. Cheques to: 'Red Rag' c/o Sue Clarke, 31B Milman Rd, Rg. - - - ENDGAME A few weeks ago there was a Military Fair at the Top Rank which attracted quite a lot of attention, not all of the kind intended. As no-one else more involved has written it up, here goes. The Fair, also called 'Armageddon 82' (they have them every year) was an exhibition of wargaming and was advertised widely with posters in shop windows all over town. A few days before the event, someone stuck 'cancelled' stickers over most of them causing them to be removed by shopkeepers in many cases. This caused confusion in the ranks (sic) of the Wargame Society, who phoned up the secretary asking why the Fair was cancelled. Peacemongers were also misled into thinking that they didn't need to turn up for a peace picket, quickly organised during that week. Real spoilsport, whoever did it. The secretary told the Evening Post that he couldn't imagine who it was, maybe some 'anti-militarist type of person'. Anyway, the Fair happened and so did the picket. A lot of leaflets were given out and a lot refused, it was felt out of guilt and much discussion took place. Visitors to the Fair mainly felt let down by the standard of the Fair, but another I spoke to was severely shaken by the wargamers attitude to killing and said that if it wasn't for his child he would give up his job in electronics as it had military implications. I also talked to a wargamer who knew a good deal about the history of CND and the Peace Pledge Union, asked me if I'd ever seen a wargame - which I hadn't - and generally confused the image I had of wargamers. Useful for me! (Others reinforced my predjudices though, with their precious boxes of toy soldiers.) This particular man said they would use our leaflets in their discussions on the morality of wargaming, which threw me a bit. BANC have received a letter from another wargamer in a similar vein (see latest issue of BANCnotes available from them). I know I found the picketing interesting and worth doing. It also got good write-up in the Evening Past, who subsequently got a letter from one Graham Harris explaining some of the motives for 'cancelling' the Fair. The 'anti poster campaign' even got in the Daily Mirror! Just shows you don't need a big organisation to generate activity or publicity. Liz If anyone wants to do anything else anti-militaristic they can contact like-minded people by writing to Campaign against Militarism, Box 10, Acorn Bookshop, 17 Chatham Street, Reading. (Not a formal group as such). - - - FALKLANDS WAR ARRESTS Remember the Falklands War? Well some of the people who tried to protest about it are now coming up against the legal consequences of their actions. Of the two people charged with paint bombing the Holborn army recruiting office, one was acquitted but the other was fined £100 with £594 damages and £10 costs. Seven people were arrested on a support picket for the above case. They were found guilty but a sympathetic magistrate sentenced them to a day in prison which the day in court counted as. Meanwhile in Doncaster the person arrested for wearing a jacket saying "Fuck Thatcher, don't die for me Argentina" was fined £20 and bound over for a year at £50. The magistrate said "We disapprove of your type in the Arndale (shopping centre) and you stopping other people living freely." There is a fund set up to help pay these fines (and ones likely to be imposed in future cases) which so far has collected £170 so send your cheques immediately to the Anti-Falklands War Support Network, Box F, London Greenpeace, 6, Endsleigh St., London W.C.1. And if you still want to do something about this war don't forget the "victory" parade in London on the 12th Oct. is your next chance to try. Sorry this wasn't in the last issue. - - - LABOUR BACKS GREENHAM! Following demands from many delegates, including Councillor Eric Stanford from Reading North, the Labour Party NEC put to Annual Conference at Blackpool, and received unanimous endorsement for, a statement protesting at the bulldozing of the Women's Peace Camp at Greenham and offering full support and solidarity. And Conference carried by a thumping 70pc vote the most comprehensive motion on unilateral disarmament and nuclear free zones ever..... - - - NHS Dispute At the Council meeting on July 13th Labour leader Mike Orton moved a motion supporting the NHS workers' claim, but Liberal leader Jim Day got the motion deferred to the Environment C'ttee. When it came up there the Liberals moved deletion of the bit supporting the claim for a fair and decent wage, for which of course they had Tory support. Now the mutilated motion is coming back to full council on Oct 5th, and Labour will move that the council states its support in the lead-up to the local day of action. Will Jim Day now try to do a Cyril Smith and clamber onto the NHS bandwaggon? Or isn't he a big enough man to support Liberal Party policy even when it agrees with Labour's? Watch this space. - - - SOCIALIST EDUCATION ASSOCIATION The SEA invites all those in (or eligible to be in) the Labour Party who are concerned with education - teachers, students, Governors, Councillors, parents and simply people. It contributes towards national policy and provides a focus for local research, policy and campaigns. A Reading and District Branch of SEA has now been formed, chaired by Councillor Joe Williams, a member of the Berkshire Education Committee, and it is planning its future activities. It is hoped to have Caroline Benn, who is national President of SEA, to a meeting in Reading later this year, and the Branch will also be involved in the fight against education cuts. Membership details from Geoff Mander, St Agnes, Grove Hill, Caversham. - - - ACORN'S BIT September's bestsellers - a bit more politics! 1. Life, the Universe & Everything / Douglas Adams. 2. Little Red Schoolbook. 3. About Anarchism / Nicholas Walter - the basic pamphlet. 4. ABS of Anarchism, & Anarchy in Action by Colin Ward. New edition for only £1.50 - a goody! 5. Restaurant at the End of the Universe / Adams. 6. Eagle's Gift / Castaneda Also:- Child's Garden of Grass; Buffo! (fun for revolutionaries); Down among the Women / Fay Weldon (most popular feminist novel right now); Use of wholefoods - 20p pamphlet; Recreational Drugs; Doors of Perception/ Huxley; Massage Book/ Downing (hope to see a lot more relaxed people in Reading now!) - - - WHAT MAKES READING TICK? You don't see ads in the colour supplements boasting of the attractions of Beading; its green fields and low-cost factories and 'co-operative' workforce. The town believes it doesn't need them. It thinks that Reading's problem is of too much growth, too fast. It is wrong. The famous 'central Reading District Plan' makes bizarre reading in the sections which deal with the local economy. It says there could be too much growth in offices and high technology industry unmatched by improvements in roads and shops. Can we handle the number of people? Will the roads be wide enough so they can all drive to work? where will they go shopping? While it notes the problems of fewer and fewer jobs for young unskilled people, it offers only the prospects of more supermarkets, which will hire them all to stack shelves. It doesn't discuss the fragility of Reading's boom, nor the control which we can exercise over our own future. The second is left out because it raises questions that the Borough (councillors as well as the professionals who really run the town) doesn't want to think about. The first is left out because Borough officials have been too stupid or too lazy to look any further than their lists of planning permissions, which show that new office developments worth a thousand permanent jobs will be opened every year from now until the end of the decade. Their lack of thought was underlined by the facts and analyses which came out of a workshop on the local economy recently. In one evening the new WEA Industrial Branch revealed more about the way Reading ticks than has been revealed in any of the massive plans and reports compiled in recent years by local councils or the Department of Employment. The WEA participants have their own blind spots - questions that they didn't want to raise or discuss. But sessions on planning, defence, employment policies, and multinationals were a useful start, and one which could be continued with working groups to find out more about Reading's economy. IGNORANCE AND BLISS Until recently Reading has had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation. The recession which hit manufacturing industry elsewhere passed us by: partly because Reading has a diversified manufacturing base; partly because the town is increasingly reliant on office employment, which was not hit hard at first. But that is changing. Reading unemployment rates are rising, with 28 per cent of the 15-19 age group now without work, and signs that unemployment among clerical workers on the increase. In the past two years office employment in Reading has grown fast, and plans in hand suggest that the growth will continue. But there are also signs that the recession which has hit traditional manufacturing is about to affect the office and service sector. Reading is no longer based on beer, bulbs, and biscuits, "but on insurance, defence, and administration. Defence industries will be hit when defence spending in general and nuclear weapons in particular are cut ('over our dead bodies' - shadow cabinet). Many of the headquarters which have come to Reading have meant job losses elsewhere. The multinationals now based in Reading have brought their executives from elsewhere - people trained in Houston or Nigeria or Dusseldorf, and people with no commitment to the town. If it ceases to suit the Corporation to stay here, they will happily move to the Rhondda or the Rhine. The workers who live in Reading - the 'other ranks' who run typewriters and telexes - won't go with them. And in the insurance sector, the 'office of the future' is coming fast. It means that organisations which shuffle paper as their key activity won't need centralised head offices, and will need far fewer people to shuffle what paper remains. This is not a vague prediction of some future event: already the number of vacancies for clerical staff in the town is falling, and there are likely to be large numbers of redundancies in the next two years. Against this, of course, are that long queue of planning applications for new offices, and the industrial estates springing up around the town. The industrial factor first. Most of the new 'industry' coming to Reading replaces other jobs elsewhere - thus the big new Courage brewery replaced not just the Reading brewery, with a loss of 120 jobs locally, but also 690 Courage jobs elsewhere. There is no reason to suppose that the total number of jobs for a given amount of production will increase or even stay level, and if production is concentrated in Reading then the job losses will be in Reading. In the new technology sector, jobs created tend to be both skilled and few. In both new technology manufacturing and warehouse/distribution operations, the 'job density' is low, at about 35 jobs per acre of industrial site. Since there is very little industrial land left in Reading, new industry will employ few people. And industry which comes to replace the engineering firms which are now going bust will hire fewer people. For instance, when the Burberry clothing firm closed, 300 jobs were lost in the town centre. It is unlikely that any manufacturing operation replacing Burberry on its cramped site would replace more than a quarter of those jobs. In the office sector, we have already reported the new technology and multinational factors. There is another trend worth mentioning. This is that a good deal of planned office accommodation is speculative, so it could be built and just stay empty. Already the vacancy rate in Reading offices (ie empty offices) has doubled in the last 18 months, to 15 per cent. Apart from the fact that this makes a lot of Reading potential employment vulnerable to service sector recession Many of the empty offices are 'second hand' - a type of property difficult to let to large prestige-conscious companies and hard to split up into small units for little companies. Within the decade, it is likely that some of the existing large prestige sites (Foster Wheeler? Prudential?) will either lose their prestige or become unsuitable for the companies which now occupy them. Even if the* firms relocate within Reading, the blocks which they leave behind will be hard to re-let. It is interesting to note that both Foster Wheeler and Metal Box lease their offices rather than owning them, thus minimising their commitment to the town. If Reading Borough Council knows about these problems, it is not talking about them. Even if it did, there is little that the council could do. One of the workshop leaders at the WEA session, a 'planning' expert, seemed to believe that there are a mixture of measures which the council could take to help matters. This would involve encouraging mixed development, rather than relying so much on offices. But how this could be effectively done was left unanswered. Two other workshops gave attention to the other possibility for putting pressure on companies - for instance to encourage them to retain existing employment in the town. This is through trade union action. One problem, though, is that the majority of offices are poorly organised, with minority trade union membership, One estimate (my guess) is that only ten per cent of the workforce in this area is unionised. Thus a major task is to promote membership in the offices and small industrial developments here. There is some hope - ICL, now a major employer in the area, was poorly organised a few years ago but has been now largely penetrated by the unions. Even where there is local organisation, it can have little effect on a multinational company unless, it was suggested, the union is organised multinationally. What wasn't noted was that multinational labour organisation will be concerned with global, rather than local, employment, unless , it is also a labour organisation with revolutionary aims. At a strategic level, Labour Party people seemed to be placing a lot of reliance on the Alternative Economic Strategy. Perhaps someone would like to explain this beast in the Rag, since I have no idea as to what it is or how it is supposed to work. Its local implications, according to the person who summarised one workshop, are that construction would be boosted, giving jobs to the 800 construction workers now on the dole in the area. It was also said that in some specific industries - electrical engineering, printing, and vehicle components were mentioned - existing companies could be encouraged to soak up some of the skilled labour force fired by firms which have gone bust. I suppose I shouldn't criticise without knowing the plan in detail, but it sounds like the sort of confused scheme typical of the Labour Party which, for success, relies on turning the industrial clock back 20 years and relying on the continuance of British imperialism. Perhaps now that The Labour Party has decided to burn at the stake anyone caught breathing the words 'Clause Four', there is some hope that it will work out a coherent plan to save capitalism from itself. This is the feature of the WEA session that I would most criticise, on looking back at it. The object of those present seemed to be to find ways of creating jobs without changing the world drastically. The planner at the meeting criticised the council for not putting its eggs into a variety of capitalist baskets. The Labour Party criticised the government for not isolating the UK economy and enforcing imperialist relations with the rest of the world. Having said that, the session was useful and probably the most informative meeting/working session I have, ever attended. If the rest of the WEA workshops planned for the next few months are half as good, they deserve to attract very large numbers of participants. Mark - - - LETTER Would anyone care to explain what a piece as racist, sexist and deliberately obscure as the article billed as combatting racism in the women's movement was doing in the last Rag. Usually you manage to keep your lapses in taste to less than a whole page. Someone too ignorant to understand what it really meant. - - - LETTER Dear Rag, The author of the article referring to Bakunin in the last Rag may know what he meant. (I understand he's a he). As it was called "Combatting Racism in the Women's Movement!" I thought it might be about that issue. If it was, I didn't notice. It's a serious issue to which women in Reading have given considerable attention. I wasn't the only one to be misled by that title. How about an article about racism in the women's movement, or in Red Rag, and less of this "Shape it" "lip-tinting" stuff? Liz Hodgson. - - - NUCLEAR POWER WHY NOT/BERKSHIRE ANTI-NUCLEAR CAMPAIGN 20p. It's always difficult to know what to leave out when writing a short pamphlet and it's obvious that this one is no exception. The members of B.A.N.C. Nuclear Power Group have crammed an awful lot into the fourteen pages of this pamphlet. If you've never read anything else on nuclear power you might find it heavy going as it proceeds at breakneck speed through almost all of the arguments against nuclear power. If you know a bit about the subject then this is a useful chance to refresh your memory and pick up more information. In either case I would recommend it. My only real complaint is that it doesn't deal enough with the local aspects of the issue. Thus there is no mention of Didcot as a potential P.W.R. site or of Harwell. Similarly the possibility that nuclear waste transport will be banned through London resulting in it coming through Reading is omitted. A bit more local interest would have made it a more useful campaigning tool. Nevertheless I recommend you to read it. M.G.C. - - - HEALTH CARE - TOWARD AN ALTERNATIVE STRATEGY The WEA Industrial Branch is organising a teach-in on this on Wednesday 27th October, at 7.30pm in the Centre for the Unemployed. It'll be chaired by Ian Keys (District Officer, GMWU) and introduced by Steve Hiffe (Socialist Health Association, Medical Practitioners Union, 'Medicine in Society'). Workshops will be: * Health and Social Class - Keith Jerome, Secretary, SE Region TUC Health Services Committee, on the Black Report * Care in the Community? - Juliet Clifford, Labour spokesperson on Social Services in Berkshire County Council, on the relationship between health and social services * Democracy and Health Care - John Power, TU member of the Oxford Regional Health Authority and Labour member of Oxford City and County Councils, on involving the public * Preventive Medicine - speaker being arranged The NHS pay dispute, the cuts expected in the county's social services, and the Government's Think Tank 'thinking' about privatising the NHS make this a very timely event. See you there. - - - Overheard at the University Freshers' Fair: Gerard Vaughan M.P. on entering the Union Wine Bar: "It's a bit upmarket, isn't it?" Nice to know our Minister for Consumer Affairs is aware of such things. - - - Reading Borough Council P.O. Box 17, Civic Offices, Civic Centre, Reading RG1 7TD Telephone 55911 (STD 0734) Telex 847641 30th September, 1982 BLUEPRINT FOR READING - Phase II The public consultation that has been necessary for the above plan has been costly in terms of time and money but the results have been worthless. Any future consultation, under prevailing conditions, will be similarly worthless. Social and economic pressures have forced many people into a mould more suited to machine components which fit neatly into their designated slots than to human beings who can think for themselves. This is the irony of the question "What do the people want?" Consequently the planning department of Reading Council has decided that it can best serve the interests of the public by creating an architecture which can teach its inhabitants to think for themselves and then constantly evolve as the population feels more and more confident about modelling its own geographical and architectural surroundings: Where is Reading's architecture of today? On the one hand the elaborate brickwork of riverside terraced houses, the old hospice and town hall - on the other the Butts Centre, the new 'international' hotel.... everything wavers between the emotionally still-alive past and the already dead future. As Borough Architect I will no longer work to prolonge the mechanical civilization and frigid architecture that ultimately lead to boring leisure. As a department we propose to invent new, changing decors. The latest technological developments make possible the individual's unbroken contact with reality while eliminating its disagreeable aspects. Stars and rain can be seen through clear ceilings... the mobile house turns with the sun... sliding walls enable vegetation to invade indoor life. Everyone can now live in his or her own cathedral; with rooms more conducive to dreams than any drug, and houses where one cannot help but love. Others will be irresistibly alluring to travellers. This project can be compared with the Chinese and Japanese gardens of illusory perspectives - with the difference that our gardens are meant to be lived in. The mental disease which afflicts most planning officers is the same mental disease which has swept the planet - banalization. Everyone is hypnotized by production and convenience - sewage system, lift, bathroom, washing machine. This state of affairs, arising out of a struggle against poverty, has overshot its goal - the liberation of people from material cares - and become an obsessive image hanging over the present. Presented with the alternative of love or a garbage disposal unit, young and old everywhere have chosen the garbage disposal unit. The districts of needing are therefore to be constructed to correspond to the whole spectrum of diverse feelings that one encounters by chance in everyday life. The Bizarre Quarter - The Happy Quarter (specially reserved for habitation) - The Noble and Tragic Quarter (for good children)-- The Historic Quarter (museums, schools) - Useful Quarter (hospitals, workshops, recycling) - Sinister Quarter - The Death Quarter (not for dying but so we have somewhere to live in peace). The details have still to be discussed but we already have a basic framework for each quarter. The Sinister Quarter, for example, would be a good replacement for those hellholes that once existed in all towns, that symbolized all the evil forces of life. The Sinister Quarter would have no need to harbour real dangers, such as traps, dungeons or mines. It will be difficult to get into, with a hideous decor (piercing whistles, alarm bells, sirens wailing intermittently, grotesque sculptures, power driven mobiles) and as poorly lit at night as it is blindingly lit by day. At the centre of this Quarter will be the "Square of the Appalling Mobile" - Based on the theory that the saturation of the market with any product causes that product's value to fall, as the Sinister Quarter is explored the child and the adult will learn not to fear the anguishing occasions of life, but be amused by them. The economic obstacles to developing Reading along these lines are only apparent. We know that the more a place is set apart for free play, the more it influences people's behaviour and the greater its force of attraction. In the beginning Reading's development will be financed by tolerated and controlled tourism. Future avant-garde activities and productions will naturally tend to gravitate here. We are building a new Athens, a new Florence. In a few years Reading will become the intellectual capital of the world and will be universally recognized as such. Our job as architects is to set this adventure in motion. We hope to start to build an experiment in which our humble skills and contributions will both lose and find themselves. In tomorrow's Reading there will be no spectators - everybody participates. But we need your support. Write to Reading Council today and tell them you want to be part of the new Reading. I. Chtcheglov Borough Architect - - - PIRATE RADIO I hope to write something every so often for Red Rag on this subject. Today I'm going to deal a little bit with a rather obnoxious character who works for the Home Office Radio Regulatory department in Reading (in other words, he nicks pirates). This person is called Don Franklin, and along with his motley crew of side-kicks, he has been making the pirates lot rather an unhappy one of late. He is under the impression that he must keep Reading and its surrounding areas clear of pirates at all costs, even if it means bending the law to enforce it. I had the misfortune to bump into him one Sunday afternoon when Radio Floss from London were broadcasting from the University campus. Franklin and his merry men turned up in their usual cavalier fashion with a few uniformed police - supposedly in case we turned nasty - tearing down towards where the transmitter was shouting 'Radio Floss bites the dust!' So there ended Radio Floss after about 2 1/2 hours on the air. (Fortunately no one was prosecuted; they only lost their equipment, and of course they can still be heard in the London area every Sunday on 1350 kHz, 222 metres medium wave.) Apparently Franklin bent the rules in this case, as the Principal was not informed, and Franklin had no right to raid, as the University is private property. In fact the Principal was annoyed with Franklin because of this. More recently, he has been guilty of more blatant rulebending in the case of an FM pirate in Maidenhead. Admittedly the person concerned had not been too discreet in where he was broadcasting from etc, but apparently Franklin in his typically cowboy fashion, along with his posse, burst into the house with the police. The operator (only 17 years old) was threatened with 'if you don't admit to it now, we'll take you down the police station until you do'. He also had no right to enter the property without a search warrant; indeed he often seems to flaunt the law in this way, quite apart from his obvious harassment of the person concerned. Hopefully things may look up, if operators take the right precautions when they broadcast, eg. remote control, booby traps, etc. Next time I hope to deal with another such person, who doesn't actually work with Franklin, but in the past has made it his business to track down illegal CB operators, as well as more on the Franklin saga, but for now I leave you with a list of stations you may hear in the Reading area on Sundays, if you have a good receiver, and also listen on short wave if you have access to a communications receiver. On MW - Radio Jackie 1323 kHz, 227 metres, from London Radio Floss 1350 kHz, 222 metres, NW London There are other stations, but they are likely to be too weak to be heard in Reading. Also try VHF; you never know what you may hear. Anon - - - PLANET WAVES and Riff Raff Anarchist Poets pat van twest dennis gould jeff cloves GREEN C.N.D. BENEFIT Horse & Barge / Duke St. / Reading Sun 19th Oct 8pm Tickets: £2.00 / Unemployed £1.00 Populist Manifesto And Anarchy, the Skeleton, Bowed and grinned to every one. As if his education Had cost ten millions to the nation. For he knew the palaces Of our Kings were rightly his; His the sceptre crown and globe, And the gold-inwoven robe. So he sent his slaves before To seize the Bank and Tower And was proceeding with intent To meet his pensioned Parliament. When one fled past, a maniac maid, And her name was Hope, she said. Bur she looked more like Despair. And she cried out in the air: ... - - - LETTER Dear Red Rag To the man with the cardboard box, I must say I sympathised with your complaints re the Family Planning Clinic on Craven Road. Most women are used to this sort of treatment because they get it from puberty onwards from most clinics and doctors dealing with 'womens problems', in this society contraception is usually the womans responsibility. You don't mention the name of the Dr you saw but I can make a shrewd guess I went to the clinic myself in some distress hoping for some help, I was certain that I was pregnant for several reasons, the main one being that I'd had a positive result, from a D.I.Y pregnancy test. Anyway I sat down and explained to the Dr that I was really worried and asked her to confirm my tests with an official test "what are your dates dear?" she demanded and I had to say that the dates varied wildly "No point in doing a test yet is there then?" she said briskly. "Well, as I said I've had two positive tests... they were slow to react, tell me does the reaction happen anyway eventually or is time not that important?" "Well dear there is no need to have a test until you are definitely 2 weeks overdue" "But I'm 3 weeks overdue" "How can yon tell, you just said your periods could vary" "They can but I feel pregnant and I want to know as soon as possible so that.." "Oh so thats it, you want to kill it off do you?" "Well its a possibility, I mean I'm unemployed and my boyfriend doesn't earn much, I've the chance of a good job soon but not if I'm pregnant, it involves a lot of lifting, it could cause a miscarriage" "Well at least that would be natural. How old are you?" "25" "It seems such a shame after all these years to murder it before its begun" "All these years?" "Well you are getting on a bit aren't you?" "!" "Why don't you have it adopted?" "I don't think thats a good idea" "Why not? there is a terrible shortage of adoptable babies, it seems a shame to waste it" "Just give me a test will you" "I've already said it's too soon" "But that would only give me a month to arrange an abortion" "Mmmmm" Exit On my way out I asked the nurse if DrP was a Catholic, "NO why?" I explained "W/ell its just that we've had a lot of silly irresponsible girls recently who haven't taken any precautions at all and they all want abortions. Doctor says to give you these pills as it quite likely that you're not pregnant" Ah but I was, caught out for the first time, I learnt the you don't go to the Reading Family Planning when you really want help. Try the Womens Centre for a test and anybody but DrP for advice. If your Dr's no good then take a day return to London and see the Pregnancy Advice Service or the Marie Stopes Clinic, they treat you well. If anyone reading this is seeing DrP tell her from me that if she is so worried about the adoptable baby shortage she should have some herself and donate them. NB I could have been the only young irresponsible senile prima gravida on their books if I'd carried on NNB If you never marry you will be classed as a young person for ever and ever by the FPD, that may not seem like a big deal now but in 50yrs time? Imagine being 70 years of age, still referred to as a young person and asking for 50 rubbers to last out the month! - - - TV REVIEW Compared to similar "drama" programmes of its kind, Granada TV's "Crown Court" really has it its ear to the ground. This week's case in "Crown Court" was an anarchist accused of incitement to disaffection. Her boyfriend, a soldier, had deserted, and it was claimed that she was the main instrument in his desertion. Much attention was drawn to her political activity, such as membership of CND and Friends of the Earth. Vile, seditious literature found in her bag were also displayed , these being the Anarchist Cookbook (how Granada got hold of a copy, I don't know, it's difficult enough for anarchists to get it), and "Towards A Citizen's Militia". A priest who was in love with her testified to her good and honest character as a pacifist and the jury duly agreed to let her off. So it wasn't as realistic as it might have been. To all you lucky people fortunate enough to be able to watch TV during the day, I suggest you don't watch "Crown Court", it's dreadful. But at least, occasionally, it's hilarious. Clive not James. - - - have fun with... the famous... GOING OUT GUIDE Sun 3 Hexagon-Endellion String Quartet(Mozart recital) £2.50-3.50 (special offer on all recitals-see Hex for details) Top Rank-The Dammed £3.50 7.30 Fives-Spot the Dog lunchtime free Allied Arms St Mary Butts-Readifolk 8pm free Angies Milton Road Wokingham-Nashville Teens £1 + £1 membership 9ish The Mill Sonning-Trad Jazz South Hill Park Bracknell (SHP)-The Glitterball(U) + Ambush at Devil's Gap Episode. 4 (U) 12.15 75p SHP-Satan's Brew(X) + Chinese Roulette(AA) 7.30 £1.90 Mon 4 Hex-Wrestling 7.30 £2-2.50 " Exhibition of Batik art of Sri Lanka To 16th The Plough Tilehurst-Kennet Jazz Band 8pm free? The Horn St Mary Butts-Jazz 8pm free Silks Thatcham-Lone Wolf £2 8.30-1am Playhouse Oxford-The Cherry Orchard 7.45Mon-Fri £3.90,Sat 2.45 8pm 4.90 some concessions To 16th SHP-Independent films 7.30 free " Welfare State (theatre/music events) begins Princes Hall Aldershot-Sooty's Circus (kids) 4.30 (Sat 11,2,4.30) 1.50 + £1.25 Concessions. for kids Tue 5 Hex-Strasbourg Philharmonic 7.30 £4-7 9.30ish winetasting evening 3 + light supper limited number of tickets University-Mari Wilson 8pm £2.50 Apollo Oxford-Ballet.Rambert (Programme 1 Pribaoutki,Airs + The Rites of Spring) 7.3O £2.50-5.50 + concessions SHP-Steve Lane's Southern Stompers (New Orleans Jazz) 8pm £1.90 + 2.20 Wed 6 Hex-Mary Rose illustrated lecture 7.30 £2-3 Grosvenor House Kidmore Road C'sham- Denny Illet Jazz Band 8pm free Reading Film Theatre (RFT) Palmer Building. University-Apocalypse Now(X) 8pm £1.50 £1 members Apollo Oxford-as above SHP-Welfare State informal party 8pm £? Thu 7 Hex-Helen Reddy 7.30 £4.50-7.50. " 1.10 recital free Horse + Barge Duke Street-Jean Cannor (folk). 8pm £? 4 Horseshoes B'stoke Road-Jazz 8pm free RFT-as above Angies Wokingham-Howard Jones £1 + £1 membership 9ish Apollo Oxford-as above. 2pm 'What's in a dance' £1.50 SHP-Welfare State Workshop sessions begin (To Nov 2nd) 2-5pm 7-9,30 free University Great Hall London Road-The Bochmann String Quartet 8pm 2 + conc. Fri 8 Caribbean Club London Street-The Nozes + a band from Belgium £1.50 10.30 Angies Wokingham-The Illusions £1 + £1 membership 9ish Apollo Oxford-Ballet Rambert (Programme 2-Requiem + Ghost Dances) 7-30 2.50- £5.50 + concessions SHP-Recital by Park Singers + Early Music Group 8pm silver collection " -John Bunyan-Prisoner of Conscience (theatre) 7-45 £1.90 + 2.20 " -Heathcote Williams + Adrian Mitchell 8.15 £2/2.25,£2.25/2.50 on day " -O Lucky Man (X) 11pm £1.90 + 9th Sat 9 Hex-Segovia 7.30 £2.50-4.50 Central Club-Ital Survivors + The Duncans + Ali Boo sounds £2 8 till late Angies Wokingham-Short Stories £1 + £1 membership 9ish. Apollo Oxford-as above SHP-Art Naphro(performance art) 10.30am 90p + £1 " -Dick + Sue Miles (folk) 8pm £1.10 + £1.20 " -Rudyard Kipling-In the Eye of the Sun (theatre) 7-45 £1.90/2.20 " -Fay Weldon (literature) £l.50/l.75, £1.75/2 on day Sun 10 Hex-Arion Orchestra 7.30 £2-3.25 Apollo Oxford -John Martyn Angies' Wokingham-Motley Crew £1 + £1 membership 9ish SHP-Talk on William Cobbett 2pm 75p 80p on day " -Seventy Deadly Pills(U) + Ambush at Devil's Gap -Episode 5 (U) 12.15 " -In the Year of 13 moons(X) 7-30 £1.90 Mon 11 The Horn St Mary Butts-Jazz 8pm free The Plough Tilehurst-Kennet Jazz Band 8pm free? SHP-Blood Wedding(U) 7.30 £1.90 Princes Hall Aldershot-Tom Paxton 8pm £3.25-4.25 Tue 12 Hex-Dick Terrapin-Detective (kids show) 10.30am 2pm adults £2,kids + concessions £1.50 University Palmer Building G10-concert (classical) 1.10pm admission by programme 15p SHP-Brittania Hospital(AA) 7.30 £1.90 To 16th " -Lennie Best Trio (jazz) 7-30 £1.70/£1.90 With Terry Smith Princes Hall Aldershot-Wrestling 7.45 £2-2.25 Wed 13 Hex-as above 2pm + 6.30 Reading Town Hall-Organ Recital by Sandra McCarthy 7.45 £2 RFT-Camera Buff(A) subtitled 8pm £1.50 / £1 members Grosvenor House C'sham-Denny Illett Jazz Band Thu 14 Hex-as above 10.30am " -7.30 Best of British Music Hall £2.50 /£3.50 To 16th 4 Horseshoes B'stoke Road-Jazz 8 pm free RFT-Quartet(X) 8pm £1.50 £1 members Angies Wokingham-Sam Mitchell Band £1 + £1 membership 9ish SHP-Park Theatre Workshop Night 8.30 Bracknell College Church Road-SHP Recorder Consort 12.45-1.30 free Fri 15 Hex-as above 10.30am Caribbean Club London Street-Seychelles £1.50 10.30 Angies Wokingham-G.T.Moore + The Outsider £1 + £1 membership 9ish SHP-The Killing Of Toad (theatre) 7.45 £1.90/2.20 + 16th " -Trio Zafaran (a Victorian Evening) 8Pm £2.50/2.75 " - Z(AA) llpm £1.90 + 16th Sat 16 Hex-as above 10.30 + 2pm " -12.15 Dixieland Saints " -5(?) + 8pm Best of British Music Hall (details as 14th) Christ Church Christchurch Road-An evening of vocal + instrumental music 7.30 £1.50 + concessions Central Club London Street-Horace Andy + Matumbi + Max Romeo,Marcus sounds + another sounds from Bath Tickets £3.50 £4 on door 8 till late Angies Wokingham-The Bottles £1 + £1 membership 9ish SHP - Martin Simpson (folk) 8pm £l/l.20 Sun 17 Hex-Endellion String quartet (Mozart) 7.30 £2.50/3.50 Angies Wokingham-Laverne Brown Band £1 & £1 membership 9ish SHP-Kadoyng(U) + Ambush at Devil's Gap Episode 6(U) 12.15 75p SHP-Despair(AA) 7.30 £1.90 Mon 18 Art Gallery-Exhibition by 4 Reading Artists free to 13th Nov. Hex-Neil Sedaka 6pm £5.50-7.50, 8.45 £6.50-£8.50 " -Exhibition-Shapes by J.H.Hewitt To 30th The Plough Tilehurst-Kennet Jazz Band 8pm free The Horn St Mary Butts-Jazz 8pm free SHP-Independent films 7.30 free CINEMA for one week beginning Sun 3rd: ABC Friar Street(53931) 1) Poltergeist (X) 2) Blade Runner (AA) 3) The Thing(X) ABC Bracknell(20072) 1) Poltergeist(X) 2) Hanky Panky(AA) ABC London Poad(6l465) Poltergeist(X) Odeon Cheapside(67887) l) Who Dares Wins(AA) 2) Hanky Panky (AA) Late Addition: Sat Oct 9th. Benefit for the unemployment centre at the old Town Hall, starring Urban Warrior, The Ballistics + the A1 Vegetables, tickets 2 UB40s only £l!/ Don't miss it! - - - READING CENTRE FOR THE UNEMPLOYED PRESENTS... URBAN WARRIOR A1 VEGETABLES BALLISTICS An "Unemployment Benefit" Sat Oct 9th 8-12 Old Town Hall Tickets £2 / UB40s £1 from Pop Records, Acorn, Our Price or on the door Late Bar / Food / Fun A night of delight & ecstasy! Don't miss it! - - - FOR SOBRIETY AND GOOD LIVING This year Reading celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Reading Temperance Society. Perhaps you have never heard of it. But if you sit on the left of a 17 bus (Wokingham Road) you will be able to see a small shop at Cemetery Junction called Amethyst House. It sells non-alcoholic drinks. Since the 1960s, the Reading Temperance Society has quietly buried its old name and become Amethyst of Reading. Passing Cemetery Junction, most people would think it was just another specialist shop. But they would be mistaken. To start the story from the beginning though, a look back at the old days is needed. The Society was formed in 1832. In its first four years, its members agreed 'to abstain from distilled spirits except for medicinal purposes, and to discountenance the causes and practice of intemperance'. But in 1836 the founder of the British Teetotal Movement, Joseph Livesey, lectured to the Society and helped to precipitate the decision, in March 1837, to adopt total abstinence as a condition of membership. Temperance was a very popular cause between that time and the First World War. From the 1860s the Reading Temperance Society was complemented and rivalled by the Church of England Temperance Society, which had several church-based branches in Reading. In this period the town was growing in size; plenty of work was available at low rates of pay. In most households there was very little surplus income after rent, food and clothing had been paid for. If the wage-earner spent any significant amount on drink week by week, the standard of living of the rest of the family became very poor. And the problem was not only economic: drunkenness often caused violence too. Fights and disorder in the street were not the worst part of this: violence against women, and against children, in the home, was more serious and less obvious. The Temperance Societies had several lines of attack. Speaker-meetings were popular (no television to compete, remember) and for children the Band of Hope operated as a sort of anti-drink Sunday school. Both the R.T.S. and the C.E.T.S. ran coffee stalls as a counter-attraction to thirsty people who might otherwise have gone into a pub (no licensing hours until the First World War, remember). Both societies organised activities to give people - in particular men - something else to do besides drink: football, cricket, choirs, the Reading Temperance Band (instruments donated by W.I. Palmer, of Huntley and Palmer fame). Palmer Hall (R.T.s.) and St John's Institute (C.B.T.S.) were buildings used by the Societies as alternative centres for social life - to replace the pubs. It is only since a great decline in these many activities that the R.T.S. (Amethyst) has carried on its work by selling soft drinks. It is difficult to imagine now what a strong drinks-trade the Societies were working against. In the older end of Newtown, the end which now looks newer because it has just been rebuilt, there was an enormous number of pubs from the mid-nineteenth century onwards. As late as 1938 there were eight licences in Leopold Road. Now nearly all have gone. But the other end, roughly from Cemetery Junction to the railway, was built with no pubs by the Palmer family in the last decades of the last century, for their tenants and employees. Even now, there are only one or two pubs in the area. In general, increasing prosperity in the twentieth century has tended to bring about a decrease in the number of licensed premises, because many 'pubs' a hundred or even fifty years ago were only houses with a barrel or two in the front room to supplement the household income. The Temperance Societies became the focus for community action against drunkenness. The largest C.E.T.S. branch - St John's - had over a thousand members at the turn of the century. What was, what is, the ethos of the movement? Look at the title of this piece. It is taken from the front of the booklet produced by the R.T.S. (Amethyst) for its anniversary. 'A CENTURY AND A HALF OF CARE AND CONCERN' is the title, then (in letters not much smaller) 'FOR SOBRIETY AND GOOD LIVING'. This booklet is available from Amethyst at 207 London Road: the text is only a brief sketch, but some of the nine pages of photographs are absolutely excellent. The ethos the booklet portrays is the crusading ethos of a one-issue pressure-group. It speaks of 'the essential work for Total Abstinence' and 'absolute freedom from alcohol' in connection with the work of Amethyst in the last 25 years or so: there is just the same 'feel' about this as there is about earlier Temperance movement material, for example, the title of a talk given at a C.E.T.S. meeting in 1898: 'Workshop and Workhouse; or Thrift and Drift'. That is what the Temperance Societies were, and are, like. Implicitly at least, they have a Christian outlook: like CND, implicitly at least, has a radical outlook. Some will be content with that. Others not. But violence against women, and children, caused by male drunkenness, is a problem right now. 'Drunkenness', a moralizing monument in the Amethyst booklet reads, 'makes (a person) have the throat of a fish, the belly of a swine and the head of an ass'. An answer is needed. Is Total Abstinence the answer? The R.T.S., of course, would say yes. But wait: the human race cannot un-invent even the things it wishes it could. Still less can it un-invent alcohol. So while of course people must be free to choose not to drink alcohol, the larger problem (and it is unsolved) is to find a way for society as a whole to live with alcohol. As it lives with other dangerous and useful things - cars, agricultural chemicals, electricity. And that, probably, is where sobriety and good living come in. Julius Wildpig - - - APPLES As it's the time of year when most people can get their hands on some apples either free or cheap here are some recipes for dealing pleasantly with apples. RED CABBAGE AND APPLES 3 large apples (dessert for preference) 1 large onion 1 small red cabbage a knob of butter a teaspoon of vinegar a little water salt & pepper Coarsely chop the apples, onion and cabbage. Melt the butter in a thick-bottomed saucepan. Throw in the apple and onion, fry lightly until both are lightly cooked, put in the cabbage and stir thoroughly until the cabbage is coated with butter. Then add 1/2 cup hot water, the vinegar, salt and pepper, stir well, cover tightly and simmer for 20 minutes. Serve with buttered taglievalle or mashed potatoes, it goes nicely with bacon and sausages or for the veggies with mushrooms fried with bread crumbs and coriander seeds in olive oil to make a sauce for the noodles. This dish reheats very well. BURNT FOMMES TART Stir 2oz of sugar into l/8 pt water in a sauce pan, bring to the boil stirring to dissolve the sugar, let the syrup boil until it turns nut-brown and begins to smell of caramel, pour at once into an ovenproof dish (metal or ceramic). Tilt dish to spread the toffee. Peel three large dessert apples, quarter and core, slice quarters neatly and place in concentric rings on dish - or in neat lines if the dish is square or oblong and if the dish is triangular make up your own bloody pattern. Make a sweet pastry with 4oz plain flour, a pinch of salt, 2oz margerine or for those of you with standing orders for Red Rag 2oz butter, a dessert spoon full of sugar and enough raw egg to mix it to a firm paste. If you can't make pastry fill in the slip below and RR will teach you - at a price. OK? And if you try and make it with rancid wholemeal flour it won't taste nice either so, back to basics, mould the lump of pastry into the shape of your ovenproof dish, tin or tray and slap it on top of your apples. Put the whole lot in a medium to hot oven and let it bake until the pastry and apples are done. Turn it out onto an attractive plate, silver salver, wooden dish etc., etc. and serve with cream and custard, it's nice cold too. If the toffee's all stuck to the dish you got it wrong, tough, try again. If it's tasteless you didn't boil the caramel long enough, if you can't make pastry don't bother eating it but see our special RR offer below. Grublust Learn to make pastry with a real expert. Red Rag's amazing money-making offer is open to all our viewers who can fork out £2.50. Extra lessons £1 each. Surcharge for people with hot, sweaty palms 50p a lesson. Name __________________________________________________ How much you're prepared to fork out __________________ No. of lessons required________________________________ Hot sweaty palms_______________________________________ - - - SUMMARY OF RED RAG A.G.M. (26/9/82) Finances A statement of accounts was read out; over the last year we've made an "operating loss" of £13. The Social made a profit of £32 and increased our standing orders to £45 per month. A 12-page Rag costs about £55 to produce, 16-pagers cost 60-65. More socials coming up. Proof-reading A complaint about typing errors in the last issue resulted in a plea for legible handwriting or artwork. Student Supplement An extra 1100 copies of the centre pages of this issue have been printed to give away to new students. "Combatting Racism..., " Agreed that this piece in the last issue shouldn't have plugged like that on the cover, maybe it shouldn't have been printed at all. Policy on long boring poems Play it by ear. Directory Planned to go ahead at the end of the month. We need the forms back a.s.a.p. Next Meeting SUNDAY NOVEMBER 7 ACORN BOOKSHOP (Anyone interested welcome) - - - SEND YOUR SMALL ADS TO RED RAG THEY'RE FREE - - - Those of you who thought that the Unemployment Centre was a left wing front may be interested to know that in the near future the Centre is organising trips to the Imperial War Museum and to see "No sex please, we're British". On the other hand, perhaps under the veneer of left rhetoric lurk the same reactionary views. - - - EVENTS Oct 3-18 Mon 4 Anarchists: weekly meeting 8pm. Ring Paul on 52604 for venue. Independent Films: late 6os: 'La Jetee' (Marker) and 'Far from Vietnam' (Godard, Marker et al). 7.30 South Hill Park; Bracknell. Caversham Neighbourhood Group of Berks Anti-Nuclear Campaign: inaugural meeting 8pm 17 St Peter's Ave, Cav'm. Contact Ruth Winchester on Reading 482881. GavSoc: Ourselves: to get to know each other. All gay people (not just students) welcome. 8pm Council Room, Students' Union, the University, Whiteknights. Tue 5 Borough Council: full council meeting 6.30 in the Civic Offices. Tilehurst CHD meeting 8pm St Michael's Cottage Routh Lane (off the Meadway), T'hurst. Contact Jan 414800 or Pauline 27351. Wed 6 Friends of the Earth Bikes Campaign: meeting with Phil Schnepp of Berk's County Council to discuss their plans for improved cycling facilities in the area. 8pm at the Crown, Crown St. Contact Simon Watkins, 5 Manchester Rd. S.W.P. Weekly meeting 8pm in the Red Lion, Southampton St. This week Mary Philips on 'The Paris Commune'. Phone 599597 for a babysitter. Thu 7 Amnesty: business meeting. 8pm St Mary's Centre by St Mary's Ch in the Butts. RAMS (Reading Assoc for Multiracial Education). "An evening of performance and discussion of working class writers, with Olive Rogers and Carlene Montoute", of Liverpool Community Writers. Part of a book week at: E.P.Collier School, York Rd (off Caversham Rd). 7.30pm. BANC: Planning meeting for action in Rdg on Dec 12 (anniversary of NATO decision to put Cruise in Europe). Also fund raising. 7.30 at 27 Salisbury Rd. SCOPE of Southampton: Liz Poulton how "Local groups of 'parents meet regularly to look at how they bring up their children and to discover resources... They aim to encourage the role of parents as educators." 7.30 Community Health Council l8 Gun St. "Free and open to all". Fri 8 Berks humanists: meeting largely to plan radio programme on 11th. 8pm Friends Meeting House, Church St (off London St). Sat 9 BANC stall in Broad St (opposite Butts Centre) c12-2pm. This time run by Woodley Peace Group. Contact Pauline on 697866 if you'd like to help. Unemployment Centre benefit gig, Old Town Hall. Details elsewhere. Vegans: talk by Eva Blatt, vice-president of the Vegan Society. 2.30 at 72 Curzon St, Contact Lis Howlett on 581805. Green CND: benefit, Horse and Barge, Duke St. Details elsewhere Mon 11 Berks Humanists: on 'Conversations' programme on Radio 210, 8-9pm. "The Atheist Point of View" - two members discuss humanism and atheism. Wokingham Peace Group: meeting . New members welcome. 8pm Wok'm Town Hall. Contact new chair Bill Stewart Wok. 791032. Gay Soc: video: 'Watch out,, there's a Queer about' - police training film on (male) homosexuality (!). All gay people welcome. Evening; phone 669562 for venue. Mon 11 to Sun 17 'Prisoner of Conscience Week' (Amnesty) on theme 'Rural Prisoners'. Find out what's happening from Steve Mills 588433 Tue 12 BANC meeting on Sizewell B, with Ralph Prike of East Anglian Alliance Against Nuclear Power. Also Wolfgang Brandt from Dusseldorf on the peace movmt in Germany 8pm Friends' Meeting House, Church St. Anti-Apartheid group meeting 8pm 24 Norwood. Road. Contact Jez on 666681 Falklands Victory Parade in London. For details of counter demonstration ring Peace Pledge Union on 01-387-5501. Wed 13 S.W.P. "Why the Working. Class" by Kevin Skinner. 8pm Red Lion So'ton St. "The Bulgarian Way of Life" discussion led led by Dr Bryan Skipp of British Bulgarian Friendship Soc. Organised by National Guild of Co-operators. 8pm at Co-op Education Centre, entrance by passage between Oxford Rd School and Jet petrol station. Thu 14 FoE: planning meeting. 8pm 27 Instow Rd, Farley, (no 20 bus from station). La Leche League: "The Art of Breastfeeding: overcoming difficulties". 10.30am. Ring 477899 for details.' Berks. Organic Gardeners: "Pulses" - talk by Dr Holt. 7.30 at St Mary's Centre, by St Mary's Church in the Butts. Sat 16 ... is World Food Day. The Vegans may be doing something. Contact Lis 581805. Mon 18 Wokingham Peace Group: Jane Oberman on UN Disarmament Session. 8pm Town Hall. Gay Soc: family discussion group. All gay people welcome. 8pm Council room, Students' Union Whiteknights. Independent Films: 70s: "Space Between Words" (Graef) and "Behind the Rent Strike" (Broomfield). 7.30 South Hill Park, Bracknell. Tue 18 BANC Nuclear Power working group meeting: 8pm 14 Western Elms Avenue. Follow up to general meeting on 12th - how publicise the Sizewell campaign in Reading. - - - RED RAG DIRECTORY We plan to bring out a provisional version of this at the end of October. We are getting a slow trickle of forms returned. Does your organisation or group want to be included? Collect a form from Acorn Bookshop or submit your own entry for the directory to Red Rag Red Pages, c/o Acorn Bookshop, 17 Chatham Street, Reading - - - See him hands thrust into baggy trousers lover of exhibitions showing trams and trains plastered with militant slogans and flags marching past Heelas ablaze with slogans UNITE DES PROLETAIRES COMBATIFS CIRCLES WITH A IN THE MIDDLE NO MORE WORDS, ACTION 8% SUR LA TABLE REVOLUTION WITHOUT BUTTER ALL FACTORIES ARE STAFFED BY OPTIMISTS NO PURGE START THE PURGE NOW WHERE IS THE ENEMY? LET US AT HIM GIVE US GUNS PROBLEMS OF PEACE AND SOCIALISM BOURGEOIS! STEER CLEAR OF THE WORKERS' PARTY WE STRUGGLED, WE didn't sit around, Comrades its up to you TO REINFORCE THE EXHIBITION - - - THE POETRY OP PEACE - VERSE OR WORSE? Phil Lee of Anglesey (formerly of Burghfield Peace Camp, and Greenham, and Fairford, and Walford, and Lakenheath) has sent us a couple of extracts from his unpublished work "An Ode to Peace". Phil's concern is, he writes, to politicise art, and to put a little more feeling and creativity into politics - especially Peace and Nuclear Disarmament. The first extract is Phil's response to the speech by Sir John Figgess reprinted by Red Rag a couple of months ago: AN ODE TO SIR JOHN FIGGESS Refute the argument for deterrents! Co on, use your oratory talents! Deafen them with a thousand parliaments! Stage a picnic with light entertainments Harold Mac announcing the precedents: - Ghandi with his tack of undergarments; Poor old Neville with his suave appeasements; Even Eisenhower's peaceful portents Impress the Church of England's dissidents But don't let those hippies put up their tents: Sunday people will take to incidents And their style dis-Figgess the battlements Offer these youngsters better employments If you seek to be rid of the Tridents. The campaigns being waged here in Berkshire Are unwaged, like long ago in Burma And are to remind us of that blunder But we don't want to call-up the trooper War is no job for the modern youngster And so you get this sort of researcher Grandfather might well have been a boxer Grandmother - well she was quite a mother But now we're losing touch with each other Burning the bones on a dead-elm watchfire Returning to the seed of the Empire 's last ditch stand to be a super-pyre This is no task for the tongue-tied soldier You must be a Famous-Five Peace Camper! And now we're not talking revolution Not suggesting that you rig an auction For this land problem's final solution No, for our part we'd stick to pollution - if it remained a goal of our mission - Assessing levels of penetration, Living in the local vegetation As foretastes to the coming mutation Surgeon cancers of the population Unafraid to face the yellow demon These isolated units carry on With frank exchanges of information And from the villages we get welcome Dead letterboxes for our thoughts of home. The second extract is the argument for the whole work: AN ODE TO PEACE Peace is a force more dynamic than war It's discharge of reason and natural law - surely not a cause to be fighting for Like the currency of the very poor That pool resources round a common core Peace is the growth of spiritual store A collective tree whose branches explore East and West alike, neither having more Except where wind and tides adjust the score Then peace is a promontory off the shore An elemental rock where grasses claw With essence of life in their fingers - or - The Brave New World of the mutant spore Dynamic survivor of nuclear war. Peace is the life force of the universe, The cosmic breath, the purpose of this verse, The growth and fruit of all that we imburse It is divine and will survive the curse With winged horses and an angel nurse Dropping manna from a star-orested purse But peace will be present if war occurs Forever willing to turn back the hearse If people reach out and armies disperse This marriage of death, from better to worse Must be broken by a people's reverse Down in the Ganges we have to immerse Submission to the life force it incurs Tuning to the hum of the universe. Peace: collective responsibility We can't delegate our will to be free Everyone must sit on the committee War: the silence of the majority; Fear of tar and feathers; apathy; Or the strains of heroic poetry If only peace could prey on our frailty Incite us to deeds of great chivalry And save us from our own insanity But war has cornered the economy And for the concept of democracy Will waste the products of our industry If we all die to save society None can disclaim responsibility. Phil Lee - - - sarge, man, this kennet red is real lightning - - - II y avait un jeune homme de Dijon Qui n'aimait du tout la religion. Dit-il, "quant-a-moi Je deteste tous les trois: Le Pere, le fils et le pigeon." There was a young man from Dijon Who hated this groove thang religion. He said, "As for me, I detest all three, The Father, the Son and the Pigeon." - - - FINANCES We have a grand total of £74.40 before printing this issue. The social in the Crown raised £32.55 and generated standing orders worth £10.33 per month bringing the total guaranteed per month up to £45.23 - which is just under half of what we spend. Donations and/or standing forms gratefully received. - - - EAT ME (Happy hunting) Printed at Acorn Bookshop - - - $Id: //info.ravenbrook.com/user/ndl/readings-only-newspaper/issue/1982/1982-10-03.txt#3 $