RED RAG READING'S ONLY NEWSPAPER MARCH 21 - 4 APRIL VOL 4 NO 7 FREE NEXT DEADLINE APRIL 1st! 31b MILMAN ROAD or c/o ACORN BOOKSHOP NEWS:- 861841 68972 or 662302 GOING OUT:- 362740 DISTRIBUTION:- 666681 EVENTS:- 83275 GREENHAM COMMON PEACE FESTIVAL SUNDAY MARCH 21st BUSES LEAVE READING SEE PAGE 2 FOR MAP + MORE STATION 11am. £1.50 - - - GREENHAM COMMON WOMENS PEACE CAMP FESTIVAL MARCH 21st On Sunday March 21st a festival to celebrate life and/or the equinox will take place at Greenham Common, at the gates of the U.S. airbase. At the time of writing it looks as though this Red Rag will not be a day early after all - though we did try. Some people will still get it in time... The gates of the camp have been designated: C - New Age ("the gateway to the infinite future") R - Religious Gate (for those of all traditions or of none) U - Artists' Gate (Attila the Stockbroker and anarchist poet Heathcote Williams will turn up) I - Music Gate (bring your bongos) S - Womens Gate (younger children will possibly find most to do here) E - Green Gate (plant a tree - bring your pets) See map for location of the gates. Here will be a free festival going on the whole weekend call "Red Ice". Bring good tents, trucks, caravans, music, free love vibrations and wellies... (NME advert). Bands playing on Sunday are two reggae bands: "Batuna" will appear with support of "People Unite", and "Abacushi". There are rumours that Tony Benn will appear disguised as an anti-sexist peace dove. Please do come to the festival. Buses will leave Reading Station at 11.00h. Tickets are £1.50 or 1.00 if unwaged. Direct Action ------------- The women would like those who are not taking part in or supporting the action to leave by five o'clock - and they don't want any action taken independently. Any woman (only women) who wished to take part in the action is asked to report - and apparently give their names! - at the tent at the GREEN GATE. Those of either sex who want to give support - e.g. if you had a car - should also report to the Green gate (see map). Finance ------- The Greenham Common Peace Camp funds are naturally somewhat depleted. Apparently if you want to help fundraising you should report to the Womens Gate (even if you are male) at 1.30h, to a car parked close to the main road, where you will be issued with a special armband and collection box for one and a half hours. So if you have any money to donate you must wait until 1.30 and then act fast. - - - NEWS DIGEST GREENHAM COMMON SIEGE ALERT SHOCK The Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp has attracted support from prominent Labourites Tony Benn and Jo Richardson, who tabled a Commons motion welcoming the "peaceful, non-violent and symbolic 24 blockade" (on Sun. 21st March). As the women at the camp have always said their aims were mainly to gain publicity, they can be said to have been largely successful. One result of the publicity has been the move to establish other camps outside nuclear installations around the country, e.g. at RAF Molesworth near Cambridge and at Burghfield. Newbury District Council is still planning to evict the camp despite a petition signed by 2,000 people asking for them to be allowed to stay. Reading's Evening Dross made its own unique contribution to the women's publicity campaign, with the banner headline, "Greenham on Siege Standby" and bravely standing by the beleaguered "British and American security forces (who) have been alerted to plans for a blockade". (Post, March 16) TRIDENT AT ALDERMASTON SHOCK The Government gave the go-ahead on Thursday March 11th for Trident missile warheads to be manufactured at AWRE Aldermaston. Conservative and Liberal councillors rejected calls by Labour councillors for investigations into the levels of radioactive waste emitted from the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment. Aldermaston manufactures warheads and creates plutonium dust. Instead it was agreed to "monitor" the findings of an American scientist who is studying the causes of death in areas around Aldermaston and fourteen other nuclear bases. So much cheaper than making your own study. SWP FEMINIST VANGUARD SHOCK People reading the front page of the "dross" on Saturday March 13th might have been a bit surprised to see a large photo of a lively debate on abortion going on between two men - with a group of female onlookers hanging fascinated on their every words. The caption under the photo said that it showed "Dr Gerry Vaughan making a point to one of the demonstrators". Rumour has it that certain non-male demonstrators at the picket would have liked to get a word in edgeways. WELCOME TO CONCRETE CITY I Reading's Civic Society is opposing plans to make Reading Station into a £50 million "futuristic glass palace". The development plan comprises a nine-story 280 000 sq of office block (surprise surprise) and a station with such facilities as 40 000 sq ft of office space. The Civic Society wants the large block restricted to a mere seven stories. Of the Post Office sorting depot plan the Society says it "would be difficult to conceive of a less attractive office block". WELCOME TO CONCRETE CITY II Greyfriars Road in Reading is to be blessed with a 48 000 sq ft "classic 1930s style office block". (At last - someone with a sense of tradition). The opinions of the "experts" on the Development Council Sub-committee ranged from "nice having curves rather than rectangles" to "ghastly and foul" and "it's a glorified gas cooker". COMPETITION Can it really be that you lot are so uninformed about what goes on near you? In any case there were no correct entries. The reason not to go swimming in the Thames at Pangbourne is that the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston runs a pipeline carrying waste into the Thames. (Yes I know it's about fifteen miles but they've got to spend the defence budget on something.) Of course all discharges are carefully monitored by a gentleman who goes down and takes a monthly water sample using a pint milk bottle. He assured us that the discharges were so safe that the level of radiation measured in the water outlet was lower than in the river a couple of hundred yards downstream. Less generous souls might wonder why a patch of river just downstream of the waste outlet should be so much more radioactive than the rest of the Thames. The suggestion that this might be due to solid particles in the waste or that this might pose any sort of health hazard is exactly the sort of scurrilous suggestion that might weaken this country's nuclear defences. NUCLEAR TARGETS Just in case any of you were feeling safe with the thought that the nearest to Reading anyone might want to drop a nuclear bomb is Burghfield there is one target in Reading nobody seems to be talking about. The place in question is the European Medium Range Weather Centre at Shinfield. Any sensible combatant would certainly regard this and the Met Office as worth the odd megaton or two. An unfortunate casualty of such an attack would be the local government bunker under Shire Hall. A Labour member of the County Council said recently that he would not take up the place in the bunker to which he is entitled. Whilst this was obviously a decision based on strongly held principles (with perhaps half an eye on the votes?) we do feel that on purely humanitarian grounds he should try to convince his fellow councillors to find a safer bolt hole. Possibly the Butts Centre might offer an interesting possibility - or perhaps I've been listening to too many rumours. COMING SOON.... ....Another Red Rag information goldmine! Food, a political and cultural issue if ever there was one - that facts must be exposed. Reading abounds in culinary delights and these will be described and discussed. Check your seasoning now! Forthcoming articles: Haute cuisine on the dole The brown rice habit and how to kick it Coffee snobbery vs tea snobbery for beginners Cooking a Kennet duck in its own radiation Great restaurants of Reading - a short piece How to choose your dinner guests - the Red Rag collective exposed. - - - Reading's Unemployment Centre now deems it safe to advertise itself as its staff are now insured for giving advice... It's certainly the place to go for advice - not just the walls but most of the tables are covered with leaflets of all kinds. The Centre could be quite something if people used it. There's cheap coffee and lots of room. The number of visitors to the centre has doubled in two weeks (from 36!). I was asked: "I don't mean to be rude - but why have you come back?" Even the staff can't imagine anyone wanting to visit more than once. - - - COMMENT "POLICE REVIEW" Did the TV series "Police" improve your community relations with the Thames Valley Constabulary? Are they making the best of a difficult job - in spite of the occasional "rotten apple" in their ranks - and being shown in an unrepresentatively unfavourable light by a biased director? Or are they simply a tool of repression in the hands of callous power-seeking individuals? What came across most to me in this series was the diversity of the work the police do and the consequent difficulty in pronouncing on it in a single sentence. I have problems in condemning out of hand people who manage to separate large gangs of skins and blacks from a pitched battle in the town centre on a Saturday night. But I cannot condone people who write off a rape victim as guilty of, at the very least, perjury until she succeeds in convincing them otherwise. Most of the programs focussed attention on aspects of life much more general than the specific hassles faced by those "co-operative citizens of Reading" who appeared on our screens. All of us have encountered at least some of these problems in our relations with the world at large: racism and sexism (both frighteningly deeprooted), poverty, boredom, intollerance... The list is so all-encompassing, it's almost as if the police are here to crush the problem of Society itself, or rather to hold back those symptom of Society which most distress the powers that be. The attitudes of the police to Society's diseases supposedly reflect what we (decent? ordinary? law abiding?) think - or maybe what we're told to think. Could it then be that the apparent contradictions in the service old Bill provides corresponds to the wide varieties of public opinion? (After all, this is a democracy and public servants are accountable for their actions...) Perhaps not. My feeling is that all the contradictions we see in the forces of law and order stem directly from the basic rationale behind policing, namely that work on the causes of the faults in the System (i.e. on the System itself) is impossible, undesireable or some other reason why no government would ever go near it. If MPs bring back the rope there will not be a drop in violent crime statistics. And when Thatcher declares war on crime with the weapon of discipline at home and school (which she did this week) she is doomed to fail. All she changes are the voting patterns of those of us who aren't too disgusted to abstain; the core of the problem and its attendant misery are left unscathed. So it is that these pigs won't fly away any more then the state will wither, and that can never happen while so many of us are so wuick to exploit each other's weaknesses. - This article represents my personal opinion. I wrote it to develop my own ideas as well as to pass them on, so feedback would be very welcome. I didn't mention civil liberties because the position of the law and police in this respect is much more obviously in the wrong. For instance at the Rock Festival the police were shown conducting several drugs searches, all but one of which were random and essentially "illegal" - whatever that means. If only they'd left all those dope smokers alone and someone had put half the effort into the number of flying bottles and cans in the arena, the festival might not have the bad name it so richly deserves. "Young Bill" - - - LETTER Dear Red Rag, I want to make it clear that I did not write the article "Big Strong Men" in the last issue. It carried my name only because I supplied the story behind it (verbally). I am disassociating myself form it because of its implication that December's picket of the Whiteknights stripshow was the work of a minority fringe, with no more analysis of patriarchy than the average parrot would have. In tempered solidarity, A "Chanting Extremist" (Nick Levine). - - - GOING OUT MONDAY 22 MARCH Theatre: 'The Hot One Baltimore'. Risque American drama. Till 27th. Progress Theatre, the Mount. 7.45. £1.50. Concert: Philharmonia Orch. Sibelius + Mozart. Hexagon. £3.50 up. 7.30. TUESDAY 23 MARCH Reading's only Gay disco at the Tudor Arms, Greyfriars Rd. 8-10.30. Free. WEDNESDAY 24 MARCH Music & Poetry: Little Heath School, Tilehurst. 7.30. 50p. Also tomorrow. Concert: Orch of St John's Smith Square. John Lill - piano. Schubert, Schumann. Hexagon. £2.50 up. 7.30. Concert: Sylvan Players, 'Spring Music' Reading Sch Junior Hall, Erleigh Rd. 8pm THURSDAY 25 MARCH Folk: Graham Edmonds. Cap and Gown, Kings Road, 8pm, 50p-ish. Film: Babylon. Central Club, London Rd. 7.30. £1. Trad jazz: Tudor Tavern, Friar St. 7.30-10.30. Free. Gig: Dexy's Midnight Runners - don't believe NME. Hexagon. 7.30. £2.50 up. FRIDAY 26 MARCH Gag disco: Tudor Arms as on 23rd above. Heavy metal night: Mindless Boogie for Head Bangers, O.T.T. Top Rank. 7.30. £2.50 Theatre: 'Brush with a Body', also tomorrow. Comedy thriller? Park Church Hall. 7.45pm. 80p. Caribbean Club: a gig of some sort(?) SATURDAY 27th MARCH Piano recital: Horatia Raphael. Christ Ch, Christ Ch Rd. 7.45. £1 or £2. Gig: After Dark - local headbangers. Target. 8-11. Free. Theatre: see 22nd. Last night. Lunchtime concert: Katesgrove Sch. Steel Band. Hexagon. 1.10-2.30. Free. TUESDAY 30 MARCH Musical: 'Calamity Jane' Also Wed & Thurs. Alfred Sutton Girls Sch. Green Rd. 7.30. Gay disco: Tudor Arms to 10.30. Viennese: London Concert Orch. Strauss. Hexagon. 7.30. £2.50 up. WEDNESDAY 31 MARCH Gig: Nine Below Zero. Top Rank. 8. £3. Open Garden: Old Rectory, Burghfield 11-4. 40p. Concert: Leipzig Orch. Schumann, Bruckner. Hexagon. 7.30, £3.50 up. THURSDAY 1 APRIL Folk: Bernie Parry. Cap & Gown, King's Rd. 50p-ish. Trad jazz: Tudor Tavern, 8-10.30. Free. Lunchtime concert: Allegri Quartet. Hexagon. 1.10-2pm. Free. Film: Rockers. Central Club. London St. 7.30pm. £1. Jazz: Dutch Swing College Band. Dixie. Hexagon. 7.30. £2.50 up. Comedy: Non-violent petrol bomb demonstration by Queen Mother, Butts centre. 10.30-1pm. Free. FRIDAY 2 APRIL Gig: Chinatown. Target. Usual heavy metal thrash. 8-11 Free. Reading's only Gay disco: the Tudor Arms 8-11 String Quartet: Hexagon. 7.30. £2-3. SATURDAY 3 APRIL Exhibition: Silver Studios Centenary. Museum, Blagrave St. 10-5. Till 1st May. Gig: Truffle. Target. 8-11. Free. Exhibition: Model railways. Also Sunday. Hexagon. 10-6. £1. SUNDAY 4 APRIL Film: Equus. Shinfield Theatre, next to Shire Hall. 7.45. MONDAY 5 APRIL Children's activities: also Tues, at the Early Learning Centre, King's Road. 10am to 12. Free. Russian Folk Music, Dance and Song: Moscow Balalaika Orch, Bolshoi and Kiev dancers. Hexagon. 7.30. £2 up. TUESDAY 6 APRIL Reading's only Gay disco (rumours of one starting at Rebecca's soon): Tudor Arms, Greyfriars Road. 8-10.30. Free. English Folk Dance Song etc: Hexagon. 7.30. £2.50 up. WEDNESDAY 7 APRIL Lunchtime Organ Recital: Christopher Hood. Town Hall. Blagrave St. 1.10. Free. Bargain! Three extra day's events and going out in this issue! (Production Group 2 please note: to allow for distribution hiccups such as theoretically might occur.) - - - ANNOUNCEMENTS PEACE WEEK APRIL 4th - 11th "A week of activities nationally to focus on peace and disarmament." (Another one?) Reading plans so far include: Monday 5 Film show (unconfirmed) Wednesday 7 BANC jazz night at he Griffen, Church End, Caversham. £1 (60p) Thursday 8 Disco (unconfirmed) Saturday 10 Easter peace march and rally at High Wycombe. High Wycombe is not only the RAF and USAF European HQ but also the computer base which will aim Berkshire's own Cruise Missiles. Buses to leave Reading Station at 11am, Cemetrary Junction 11.15. Return at 5.30pm. Tickets £1.75 return (£1.25 unwaged), from Acorn. Sunday 11 Youth CND march from Southampton will arrive at Greenham. Anyone interested in helping to organise more events or with mass leafletting should contact (BANC?) c/o/ Acorn Bookshop, 17 Chatham St. FRIENDS OF THE EARTH have started a campaign to make Reading a better place for cyclists. They have a meeting on Wed 24th March on the subject (see events). If you are interested in other aspects of FoE's work, like opposing heavy lorries or the M40, recycling, waste disposal, fundraising for the Sizewell reactor inquiry, they are quite keen to have more people involved. Contact: John & Anne Booth 868260 Steve Tame 868314 "I AM WANTING to contact other people who are interested in improving conditions and facilities in Reading. "So far I've though about getting a map together of alternative cycle routes. "Are there any other like-minded people wanting to put some energy into working on this? "Contact Lynda 669562" - - - PLATFORM EL SALVADOR On Sunday March 28 'elections' are to be held in El Salvador, 'elections' from which the majority of the people and their representative political organisations will be excluded. The Ruling Junta that is organising these elections includes in its top posts officers who played leading roles in the electoral frauds of the 1970s - Gen. Garcia, Minister of Defence; Gen. Vides Casanov, Head of the national Guards; Gen. Gutierrez, the Vice-President. The country is under Martial Law with absolute censorship of the media (press, radio, etc). Death-lists of opposition members have been published by the army and all trade union activity is banned. Under these conditions of state terrorism only extreme right parties are contesting the elections - such as Major D'Aubuisson, who is accused by former U.S. Ambassador Robert White of organising the murder of Archbishop Romero in March 1980 and is currently the leader of the 'death squads'. Another candidate is Colonel Medrano, founder of the ORDEN paramilitary organisation. A DEMONSTRATION ORGANISED BY THE EL SALVADOR SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN WILL TAKE PLACE ON SUNDAY MARCH 28th.12.30 SPEAKERS CORNER TO A RALLY IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE AT 2.30p.m. BACKGROUND Since before W.W.II, El Salvador has been under military rule. Governments which have attempted to implement even minor reforms have been ousted by military coups backed be the small elite of major landowning families (popularly known as the '14 families'), which own the major coffee, cotton and sugar plantations and more recently have branched out into industry and banking. These military governments have always had support from successive U.S. administrations against popular opposition within the country, support generally justified as an anti-communist crusade determined to uphold "Freedom", "Democracy" and (not least) private property. This was most clearly articulated by Henry Kissinger in reference to Chile: "I don't see why we need to stand by and permit a country to go communist due to the irresponsibility of its own people." (Henry Kissinger, Committee of 40, 1970). This means that the regime in El Salvador has always been assured of military aid from the U.S. no matter how barbaric or repressive they were. However in November 1980 four nuns in a rural part of the country were murdered by security forces which prompted the Carter administration to announce with much rhetoric about human rights - that it would suspend military aid to El Salvador. Military aid was soon quietly resumed after a few weeks when it was clear that the government could not survive against an ever growing opposition. The situation is now one of stalemate. The guerrillas do not have the resources to overthrow a highly trained and well equipped army; and the army does not have the man power or grass roots support to put down a broad-based revolutionary movement. However in the process of this stalemate, thousands are dying mostly at the hands of the security forces / right wing death squads trying to intimidate the peasants away from supporting the guerrillas. In doing so, what can only be described as mass slaughter. Every morning in San Salvador the bodies of those tortured to death are found often dumped in public areas or by the side of roads, while gang rape and sexual mutilation is carried out in army barracks (no doubt in the interests of the free world). The opposition have now come together under the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) and the Revolutionary Democratic Front (FDR). Elsewhere the El Salvador Solidarity Campaign exists to support the people of EL Salvador in their struggle to achieve social justice and freedom. For this they urgently need the support of people in Britain (Maggie being one of the few world leaders to support Reagan's policies in central America). If you are interested in helping the campaign or getting more info, please come along to a meeting of Reading ELSSOC TUESDAY 23rd 8.00 h 106 London Road (corner of De Beauvoir Rd - entrance by side of garage). If you can't make it, but are interested, RING 666681 - - - RED RAG EVENTS Mon. 22 March Anarchists: Regular discussion group: This week 'Sexual Politics' Ring James 473205 for details Tues.23 March Reading El Salvador Solidarity Campaign: 8pm 106 London Rd (side entrance next to garage). Ring Clive 666681 for details. B.A.N.C. committee meeting: 8pm Jury room, Old Shire Hall, members welcome. Women in education: Discussing Science and Technology: 8pm 33 Oxford St, Caversham. Any woman welcome. Wed. 24 March F.O.E. 'Cycle routes for Reading': New campaign to make Reading a better place for cyclists, lead by John Rigby and Simon Watkins. Find out what other cities have done, and make you suggestions for safe routes into town. 8pm the Crown; Crown st. S.W.P. Public meeting on 'Abortion: a woman's right to choose.' 8pm AUEW Hall, Oxford rd. Thur.25 March Labour party young socialists: AUEW 8pm. Members welcome Non-sexist, non-elitist netball, at Alfred Sutton Girls School, Green rd. 7.30pm. Anyone welcome, contact Lucy 477797, Leslie 68972. Fri. 26 March B.A.N.C. Early neighbourhood group are showing 'The War Game'. 8pm at Our Lady of Peace community centre Wokingham rd. Berkshire Humanists: seminar on contemporary religion 8pm Friends meeting house, Church st. Sat. 27 March B.A.N.C. Jumble sale, St Bartholomews Church hall, London rd. Reading. Bring jumble between 10 and 12 or ring Bob Allen 863803 to arrange collection. Sun. 28 March El Salvador demonstration against U.S. intervention. (See article in this Rag) Mon. 29 March Anarchy: Irregular discussion group: This week 'Should discussion meetings have titles' or 'art'. B.A.N.C. Woodley neighbourhood group 2nd meeting 38 Fitzroy Crescent Woodley. 8pm contact Liz 690793 Labour Relations Legislation. Public meeting organised by the Trades Council in response to Norman Tebbit's attacks on Trade Union rights. 7.30pm Small Town Hall Ecology party: Meeting to discuss local elections Alstonby, Shinfield rd, Reading. Tue. 30 March El Salvador solidarity campaign: 8pm (see last week) Wed. 31 March Reading Animal Welfare/Rights: against all animal abuse; contact Sheila McClery 866259 (see article this Rag) S.W.P. meeting 'Organising in your work place' 8pm Red Lion, supporters welcome. Thur. 1 April Women's Centre: 7.30pm 1st of the month meeting, when women from various womens groups and women as individuals come together for a general meeting. Sat. 3 April F.O.E. Visit to Dunton Pastures Country Pk. Guided tour with emphasis on the management of the area for people and wildlife. Transport by arrangement (SEE this Rag for F.O.E. contacts). Mon. 5 April Anarchronisms: Discussion meeting ring James 473205 Trade Unions and Labour Working Group: meeting 56 Hamilton rd 8pm Tues. 6 April El Salvador Solidarity Campaign: 8pm, 106 London Rd. (see previous weeks). Wed. 7 April Friends of the Earth: Talk 'The Future of Agriculture' 8pm, The Crown, Crown Street. S.W.P. meeting 'Introduction to Marxist Theory' 8pm Red Lion. Supporters welcome. - - - ANARCHIST GROUP If anyone is interested in: 1. anarchist street theatre, in general and for Mayday in particular 2. compiling a register of empty properties please contact the group: Box 19, Acorn Bookshop or ring James 473205 - - - UNEMPLOYED CENTRE WEEKLY HAPPENINGS Tuesdays 10-1 Silkscreen printing workshop Mondays & Thursdays 10-1 Help with problems about letter-writing, forms etc Wednesdays 10-1 Help with problems about figures. - - - LCC "Dope Smokers of Berkshire Unite!" You have nothing to lose but your skins! The Legalise Cannabis Campaign is organising a national lobby of MPs on Wednesday March 31st. Democracy in action? Does anyone give a damn about a law that's branded the activities of some 6 million inhabitants of this fair isle as illegal? Details from LCC (01-289-3883) of from Reading LCC, Box 23, Acorn Bookshop. - - - RAG Business News: Spent about £30 this week on paper, stencils, ink and so have about £30 left. Donations please to Sue Clarke, 181 Shinfield Rd. Collective Meeting: See Events - Sunday 28 March, 40, AUEW Committee Room, 121 Oxford Rd Distribution: Apologies to those in Outer Caversham who didn't get their Rag last time - we now have a new temporary distributor for you. The Rag could do with new distributors in most areas: ring 666681 if you'd like to help. NOTE TO DISTRIBUTORS Each copy has enclosed 2 books of MayDay Draw tickets. If you have time please ask your readers if they're prepared to sell them, and that they can get more from Chris Borgars (477073). If not, just deliver them anyway and our apologies to anyone who gets them and doesn't want them. ALSO... we'd be really pleased if any of this issue that can be could be delivered on Saturday. Many thanks once again to Acorn Bookshop. - - - 'ON YOUR BIKE, NORMAN!' PUBLIC MEETING on the 1982 EMPLOYMENT BILL Monday 29th March 1982 Small Town Hall, Reading 7.30 pm Lead speakers include Ian Fairlie Trades Union Congress Eric Stanford Berkshire County Council Personnel Committee and.. OPEN FORUM Published by Reading Trades Union Council, Tel 582081 - - - THIS IS ... R E D R A G ... READING'S ONLY NEWSPAPER. It is produced fortnightly by and for people in Reading and is delivered, free, to the homes of people who ask for it. It aims to keep people in touch, with an events diary which spans the activities of groups as diverse as organic gardeners and anarchists; anti-nuclear activists and civic planners; wild-eyed liberals and woooly communists. It also has details of things to do in and around reading and Bracknell, including the fringe events which are ignored by the media. We also report the news that matters locally - something we think the local press can't do. The Rag is run collectively, most decisions being taken as it is produced by the people on the spot. There are two groups which alternate the task of assembling and printing each issue, a number of individuals who regularly contribute articles or specific columns (eg the Events Guide) and finally over a dozen distributors who will battle almost any weather to deliver the 750 odd copies that we print. Altogether there are about 30 people in the collective. If you would like to receive Red Rag, please phone Reading 666681 or drop a note to either Acorn Bookshop or 24 Norwood Road, Reading. If you would like to make a donation, either to cover postage if you live outside Reading or Bracknell, or to go towards the £20+ that we spend on each issue, contributions can be left at Acorn Bookshop or sent to Sue Clarke, 181 Shinfield Road Reading (tel 861841). If you were so impressed that you would like to help produce or distribute the Rag, contact any of the above. - - - $Id: //info.ravenbrook.com/user/ndl/readings-only-newspaper/issue/1982/1982-03-21.txt#3 $