 |
|||
Back Issues |
|
Established 1979 |
 |
|
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 1987; the latest issue is dated February 24th (scan / txt); the next one is due out on March 10th. Red Rag, or Reading's only newspaper, had a noble tradition of misspelling, mixed metaphors, wrong facts, confused political judgements and a readership in its heyday 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? In its first seven years it never sold a single copy; but now after much soul-searching a price had been put on the Rag's head... In this issue (scan / txt): Reading Council's Health & Safety Executive agree that the old bus depot can be demolished by a crane swinging a ball and chain, so long as someone squirts a hose at the asbestos as it falls. Red Rag challenges borough councillors to stand on the site during the demolition and demonstrate their confidence in this method. The new Women's Information Centre opens; the all new risen-from the ashes like a phoenix veggie dining takes a nose dive; and the current state of advice about AIDS and the HTLV III virus that causes it. | |||