Back Issues

(Get the Rag to your inbox)

Established 1979
Free! Illegible! Fun!

These are the back issues of Red Rag. They'll be posted here every two weeks on or around the anniversary of their original publication. We've got to the end of reissuing 1981; the latest issue is dated December 6 (scan / txt); the collective then took a long break and the next issue is due out on January 10th.

Red Rag, or Reading's only newspaper, was a fortnightly illegible free newspaper aiming to publicise and encourage a wide spectrum of subversion and culture in Reading. It aimed to keep people in touch, with an events diary which spanned the activities of groups as diverse as organic gardeners and anarchists; anti-nuclear activists and civic planners; wild-eyed liberals and woolly communists. It contained news and views and details of things to do in and around Reading which the local press couldn't or wouldn't touch. In its first 2½ years of existence it had managed to offend a surprisingly large number of people - well beyond its circulation of under 600.

In this issue (scan / txt): students book a stripper, the event is picketed and the police attempt an arrest but are sent away empty-handed; the borough council might be putting its rents up by 33% but thanks to spending cuts the county council's nuclear bunkers can't withstand a nuclear attack; we check over the the law on "stop and search" and history of Santa; and the Red Rag Collective decides that this will be the last Rag of the Year. The first of next year will appear on Saturday 9 January. Thank you for supporting us this year. We hope to make it better, faster, more reliable and legible next year. Don't hold your breath.