RADICAL READING FREE OR ?p FORTNIGHTLY NEWS AND EVENTS DIARY FOR DISSIDENT READING PUBLISHED 29 FEBRUARY 1980 COVERING 30 FEB(!)TO 19 MARCH 1980 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY THE TRISTERO COMMANDO, 30 FEBRUARY MOVEMENT MONDAY 3 MARCH Reading Women's Group meets in the Old Town Hall at 8pm To discuss the Corrie Abortion Bill which is currently sinking (hopefully without trace) through Parliament. All women welcome. CONTACT Bridget, Reading 473644 * Reading Trades Council is now leading picketing at Chix the Slough confectionery sweat-shop, every Monday. Show your solidarity by being in Farnham Road, Slough at 6.30 in the morning. Some transport has been arranged, but offers of lifts are welcome. CONTACT Alan Hooper, Reading 864067 TUESDAY 4 MARCH 'Nicaragua - towards a police state?' seems to be the title of a University Socialist Society meeting, probably in the Palmer Building on the university campus, almost undoubtedly starting at 8pm WEDNESDAY 5 MARCH Reading Abortion Rights Campaign delegate meeting open to supporters, 8pm Old Town Hall CONTACT Sue Jessup, Bracknell(91) 57296 THURSDAY 6 MARCH 'Housing rights and benefits' 2.30pm, Room BG15 Blmershe College, Woodlands Avenue, Earley, or 7.30pm at Wycliffe Community Centre, Cemetary Junction. This is part of a series of 10 lectures on welfare rights organised by East Reading Rights Group and Community and youth work course at Bulmershe. For further details CONTACT East Reading Rights Group, 666184 OR Bulmershe, 663387 Ext 296 * 'Zimbabwe, which way forward?', a meeting held by Socialist Workers Party and open to you at the Red Lion, Southampton Street, starting at 8pm CONTACT Reading 669689 SATURDAY 8 MARCH INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY. 'To celebrate the one day out of 365 that we are allowed, we are having a party at the Buttery At the London Road site of the University. Start at about 8, come earlier to help sort things out. No bar, so bring what you want to drink.50p.Women only CONTACT Jeannette, 55 Morgan Road SUNDAY 9 MARCH There is a march in London organised by the TUC against the Employment Bill and the public spending cuts of the present and last government. This is an opportunity to show by our massive presence our determination to stop all this Tory nonsense forthwith. Coaches are being organised by the Trades Council. Please call Alan Hooper if you want to take advantage of this probably cheap offer so that the right number of coaches can be booked. CONTACT AlandHooper, 864067 MONDAY 10 MARCH Reading Women's Group open meeting (ie men are welcome too) on the Chix dispute.8pm, Old Town Hall, Blagrave Street. See entry below and MONDAY 3 MARCH Chix picket, 6.30 in Slough. See MONDAY 3 MARCH. WEDNESDAY 12 MARCH Not really our province, but Peggy Seeger & Ewan McColl are appearing at the Hexagon tonight, 8pm THURSDAY 13 MARCH 'Supplementary Benefits' lecture , East Reading Rights Group. See THURSDAY 6 MARCH for venues, times and contact. Symposium on Energy, 7.30pm, Friends Meeting House, off London Street, speaker Dr GF Reynolds, discussion. Organised by United Nations Association, Peace Association, World Development Group, Friends Peace committee (SMUDGED PRINT) GAZETTE PAGE TWO FRIDAY 14 MARCH Dead line for the next issue of this news bulletin (what will we call it? The world waits with bated breath). If we haven't phoned you by 7pm, call us on Reading 662285 with your events. MONDAY 17 MARCH Reading Women's Group open meeting, 'Women and Ireland', 8p, Old Town Hall, Blagrave Street. Men can come to this, please. WEDNESDAY 19 MARCH Friends of the Earth open meeting about nuclear power a year after Harrisburg. 8pm, Cap & Gown, Kings Road, in preparation for the Foe demo in London on March 29 CONTACT John 868260 ANY OTHER BUSINESS * There will be an Ideal Home Exhibition at Reading University on Tuesday 25 March & Saturday 29 March. Whose ideals? Whose homes? What is to be done? * Whose press? The Chronicle of 29 February gave at least twice the space to an article in support of the anti-abortion organisation LIFE that it gave to details of this year's Berkshire county council five million pound spending cuts. * There is a Gay Women's Group in Reading. They hold discussions and social meetings. CONTACT via Reading Gay Switchboard, Friday evenings 7-lo, 597269. * Save the seals by going to Trafalgar Square, 2pm March 8. * MAYDAY The biggest event of the labour calendar is Mayday. Mayday as a workers day has its roots in the Chicago McKormick Reaper (now International Harvester) strike of 1886, which was in turn part of the Eight-Hour Day movement throughout the USA. Mass secondary pickets outside the works were regularly broken up by the police who, on 3 May, fired into the crowd, killing several workers. The following day, at a protest meeting in Haymarket Square, the police started to fire into the crowd as the meeting was peacefully breaking up. A bomb was thrown at the police (it was never discovered who threw it, except that it wasn't any of the men later charged), shooting broke out, and the day ended with 7 police and about 3 times as many workers dead. Six anarchists who had been leading lights in the 8-hour movement were arrested and hustled through a travesty of a trial. Four were hung hanged. The 'Chicago Martyrs' became an international symbol of the bosses' workers' resistance and several years later, the international labour movement adopted Mayday as a workers' festival in their honour. This year in Reading there will be celebrations, marches, games and partying on a hopefully enormous scale. It is our only celebration. Help to make it a successful one. The events are being planned and co-ordinated by Reading Trades Council, who welcome participation by groups within the labour movement. If you have anything to offer, or anything to suggest to make this year's events better than ever, contact the organisers through Christine Borgars on Reading 477073. In the coming weeks we will give more details of planned events. * To get stuff in this, write to Mark at 31b Milman Road or Chris at 65 Cardigan Road. The typewriter should be serviced soon. We will deliver multiple copies to your TU branch or whatever if you tell us where and how many.