RED RAG

Back Issues

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Established 1979
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These are the back issues of Red Rag. They'll be posted here every (usually) two weeks on or around the anniversary of their original publication. We're currently reissuing 1986; the latest issue is dated April 20th (scan / txt); the next one is due out on May 4th.

Red Rag, or Reading's only newspaper, had a noble tradition of misspelling, mixed metaphors, wrong facts, confused political judgements and a readership of 4000. It printed practically everything it got sent ("except poetry and party political broadcasts, provided it isn't racist, sexist, militarist or otherwise supportive of oppression"). It aimed to provide a decent alternative coverage of local news and issues from a radical non-aligned position; to promote subversive and creative initiatives; to provide a forum for unorthodox views; to allow some sort of co-existence between a huge variety of interests. An indispensible source of local information? a forum for the self-indulgent and self-important? a continuous experiment in collective, de-centralised organisation? Who knew? But in six and a half years it had never sold a single copy.

In this issue (scan / txt): Mass publicity of events at Greenham has died considerably over the last year; with the dwindling of coverage, numbers of women at Greenham have dwindled; the women are tired and some need a break and to get away for a while, but they won't leave; Greenham cannot be left unattended; those that remain have the same determination as when the camp was first set up; there is a strong spirit between the women, a closeness that cannot be explained. Back in Reading the Conspiracy is on the move; in Westminster the Fowler review of the Social Security is set to drastically reduce the resources of people claiming all sorts of benefits - anything fron disabled peoples' benefits to single payments.

As I left I asked what wanted bringing next time I came. The reply wasn't food or clothing but "more women".