April 15-28th RED RAG Free Fortnightly News: 599995, 666681, 666324 Events: Debbie 868384 Going out: Leisa 61361 Distribution: Mick 665676 Write to: Acorn Bookshop 17, Chatham St Reading Help with next issue! 666324 Next copy date: Wed. 25th April - - - GREENHAM TRIAL The week old trial of 12 Greenham Women, accused of causing criminal damage for cutting the fence during a blockade in July last year, was suspended at Reading Grown Court last Monday and the jury dismissed because of a front-page and centre-fold 'exclusive' in the tabloid "Daily Express". The article, the first of a week long series of "exposees", was written by their "undercover girl", a certain Sarah Bond, about life at the Peace Gamp, and because it named one of the co-defendants it was judged to be prejudicial to the trial. Indeed, so keen was Ms Bond in obtaining her story during her two week stay at the camp, that she is seen trailing Mr. Tony Benn in a photograph on the front page of "The Times" on April 5th., masquerading as a Greenham Woman. In dismissing the jury, the judge, His Honour John Hurchie, said "We do not, in this country, have verdicts by a newspaper. We have in this country verdicts by jury". Furthermore, he decided to report the Express to the Attorney General. However, what was a major cause of concern for many of the women in the dock was not so much the contents of the article, degrading as they were, but the timing of them. For this paper, not known for its favourable press about the peace women in the past, decided to start their latest smear campaign on the very day the women were going to start their defence case. Coincidence? Some think not, although the Express categorically deny this. Before this trial, the women have had to accept that brand of justice meted out by Newbury Magistrates. This is the first time they have succeeded in getting a trial to Crown Court, and now, after spending weeks preparing their case, and gearing themselves up emotionally, they are now left with the trial hanging indefinitely over their heads, until it re-opens sometime not before June 11. Worse still, their bail, which before the trial had been unconditional, has now been changed to that of daily reporting to a police station, thus restricting their movements and placing them under virtual house arrest. So, whatever the intentions of the Express were, the result is, that the women themselves are having to pay the price for it all, emotionally and physically. Of the 12 women, aged between 19 and 60 plus, standing trial, 9 were arrested at the fence cutting incident during last July's blockade of USAF Greenham Common. Two of the remaining three, - a vicar's wife and a Quaker grandmother, wrote to the police later, providing newspaper photographs of themselves cutting the fence. The third, also a Quaker, presented herself at Newbury police station, dressed in the same clothes she was wearing in the photo. Asked whether it was unprecedented for a person to present herself for arrest, a policeman replied "unfortunately, yes". All three said that it seemed to them unfair that only a few of the many taking part were arrested, (more than 70 women were there at the time). Five of the women in the dock were conducting their own defence; three women barristers represented the rest. The first week of the trial was spent on tne case for the prosecution. All women pleaded "not guilty" to charges of criminal damage, (amounting to some £400). Most of them admitted to "cutting the fence which should not be there". Some pointed out that the weapons it protected are morally wrong, and that possessing them is in contravention of international law. Numerous witnesses, mainly police, were called to give evidence. It must be difficult to recall details of events that happened some nine months ago. Some witnesses admitted this; others stood by their stories. By the end of the week, the women must have felt that everything was stacked against them. They turned up in court day after day when they had been evicted from their homes; when they had been left only with the clothes they showed up in; when court papers had been taken by bailiffs and shredded in the masher; when their fires had been stamped out so tney were unable to keep warm or to cook their food; when they were arrested (but not charged) and forced to arrive late at court; when they were allowed bail for lunchtime on condition that they didn't use the canteen; when they were treated like criminals before being found guilty. After a week of this, Monday's Express article was to them something more than what prosecuting counsel Mr Colin Tyrer described as "most unfortunate". It was treachery. The shabby moles - - - Page two again?... CITIZEN CAIN The Voyages Of St. Paul Nothing so much concentrates the mind as the prospect of being a candidate in an historic by-election. For years now Newbury Liberal Councillor Paul Hannon has sat on Newbury Tory Councillor Steve Morris' left hand on the W. Berks. District Health Authority cutting the NHS with small show of reluctance. But now although Newbury M.P. Michael McNair-Wilson is not surprisingly one of the lucky kidney patients to be actually getting dialysis (3000 people died last year because they didn't) there's likely to be a by-election in Newbury before the end of 1984. Hannon is favourite for the Liberal nomination. So faced with a proposal from the DHA officers to close two out of the three Newbury hospitals it is not surprising that he flung himself into the defensive breach. And got Liberal spokesman Michael Meadowcroft to visit Newbury Hospital and talk to helpers and members of COHSS (local branch secretary fellow Liberal Councillor Roy Oliver). Though it's less than honest for him then to tell the 'Newbury Weekly News' that "We don't want to make opposition to hospital closures a political issue"! It's one he feels will do him nicely till the by-election is past... Georgian Values Hospital closures don't affect all politicians like that. Former Mayor and present Caversham Tory George Robinson (now boozing his way round battle Ward) is one of the Borough's representatives on the Community Health Council. When the Chairman asked the Council how they should establish public opinion on the closure of prospect Park Hospital (another part of the package) George suggested the CHC have a meeting in private itself to sort out its own view and then think about how to get the public to support it! How's he going to react in his new ward to surgery being moved out of Battle Hospital to Royal Berks.? Liberals Flap Reading Labour persons are slightly hurt by Liberal leader David Steel's declaration in the Old Town Hall that Labour was still unfit to govern and that there was no question of an alliance between Liberals and Labour against the Tories. Not that they in any want such an alliance but they keep on being sounded out about one by Liberal Councillors talking tactical voting and the delights of a hung Council. Delightful for some: in the budget debates in the spring the 'Post' calculated the Liberals supported precisely half Labour's proposals - admittedly a sight more than they supported when there actually was a hung Council last year. Labour doubts in Reading are fuelled by Labour experience in Slough where in two wards the Tories are giving the Liberals a clear run in a bid to break Labour's majority... and the Liberals don't seem to be complaining! Coup Stark - or Nigeria Here We Come? You may not have been wildly excited by the news of the appointment a few weeks ago of five new Deputy Lieutenants of Berkshire, but our Royal Lieutenancy is worth a brief look. It's headed by Col. the Hon. Gordon Palmer (not the same Palmer who is President of the Reading West Conservatives but a member of the same biscuit family who gave Palmer Park to Reading rather than see light engineering work there that would have put pressure on Huntley & Palmer wages). He's a mere Colonel. His Deputies now include one Major-General, one Lieutenant-General, one Brigadier, three Air Commodores, four other Colonels, three Lieutenant Colonels, one Commander, five Majors, two Captains and two Lieutenants. Plus a Read-Admiral. Four of these officers are also Tory Councillors and one is a Tory M.P. One non-officer member is a former Tory Councillor who is now Chairman of the Thames Valley Police Authority. Christian's Duty John Baron, the adviser to Michael Heseltine at the Dept. of the Environment whom Berkshire planners blame for the imposition of 8000 'Heseltown' houses on the county without any help to fund the roads and other services those people will need, is Chairman and Managing Director of Christian Salveson (Holdings) who between 1977 and 1932 (the last year for which records are available) gave £38,500 to Tory front organisation British United Industrialists. They are of course builders and active in the National Housebuilders Federation. John Baron represents them on the Board of the Consortium Group who last year put up a plan to build five new towns around London, possibly using green belt land, of which 'Heseltown' is I suppose the first to be forced into local plans by the builders' friends in Whitehall. Civil Defence It's not only the builders who are after a rake-off. From the Shire Hall bunker has emerged a copy of the latest Bulletin of the National Council for Civil Defence, which surprise, surprise includes a plug for a portable radiation Dose Rate Meter made by Plesser (who last year alone gave BUI £22,000 besides giving the Tories £2,000 direct plus another £1,000 to their Centre for Policy Studies). The device is "relatively cheap" and 79,000 are to be made. The NCCD hopes that local authorities will be "allowed" to hold stocks of these valuable instruments, and is pressing for 100% grant aid to local authorities from central government - for civil defence which would I suppose ensure all 79,000 got sold (which could mean having 200 of the damn things in Reading alone). Meanwhile, it's not only nuclear free zone authorities that are being slow to implement the new civil defence regulations and "plan" for nuclear catastrophe: it's a bit difficult to produce plans when the Government won't (albeit for obvious reasons) publish any assumptions about warning periods, number and type of bombs expected or whatever. DHA: A Small Defeat There were you remember two nominees for the trade union place on the district Health Authority : Pete Ruhemann and Danny Buckley. When the Oxford Regional Health Authority met to consider the appointment (four months after getting the nominations) it was told the DHA "preferred the appointment of Mr Buckley". It's not clear whether the DHA here was the officers choosing their supposed masters, the Chairman choosing his members, or the DHA as a whole in secret session perpetuating itself. However, the RHA overturned the DHA's preference and appointed Pete Ruhemann instead. Promotion from sniper to minefield? Connexions - A Quiz Ql) What is the connection between the Butts Centre and one of the 37 registered dealers in U.S. Government stocks? Al) They both now belong to London merchant bankers Kleinwort Benson. Q2) What is the connection between Hospital Corporation of America (which has spent or committed £25M to private hospitals in this country including the Clare Park Clinic In Farnham) and Kentucky Fried Chicken? A2) They both belong to American multi-millionaire Jack Massey. Q3) The Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Transport? A3) They did conspire together to get rid of the Greenham peace camp. The authenticity of the secret minutes that Labour Councillors quoted at the County Council meeting has now been confirmed and shows the two Ministries in cahoots with the police in the "road widening" scheme. - - - TORTURE Torture isn't a thing of the past, some jolly distraction between the London Dungeon and a video nasty. A recent report from Amnesty International lists over 100 countries where people are tortured, often as a routine method of interrogation. The atrocities range from beatings, rape, simulated executions, to the use of drugs and electric shocks, and this goes on under a whole range of political regimes, from the dictators of Central America to the psychiatric 'hospitals' in the USSR. Amnesty is an impartial, independent organisation which works for the release of prisoners of conscience and the prevention of inhumane treatment from all prisoners. The Reading branch meets monthly to write letters, plan campaigns and raise money. If you feel outraged by the use of torture, and would like to help, then contact Lis Cooper (664063), or come along to our sale on 28th April, St Luke's Hall, Erleigh Rd (11am-3.30pm) to find out more and help us in the fight to make torture a thing of the past. - - - CRUISE RUMOURS We hear complaints from a reader that our constant harping on the American colonization of Reading's suburb of Woodley is distracting attention from the equally serious infiltration of Greenham Common personnel into the areas of Southcote and Calcot. More information please. In the meantime we invite all our readers in Hazel Drive, Woodley to roll out the welcome wagon for the folks from Arkansas. Attention Local Election Canvassers/Leafleters If your part in this coming farce involves going door to door canvassing or leafleting then you can be of greater assistance to the local community than you ever imagined. Your close observation of a residential area will enable you to make a note of any American service personnel as well as any empty but habitable property. The first piece of information will provide an excellent local early warning system in case of a nuclear accident (or nuclear on-purpose) at Greenham Common. (During the Essex scare a few years ago, when fire approached the nuclear warheads store, local American personnel were seen to be frantically packing family, dog, Marlboro and After-Eight Mints into their cars and heading off into the sunset at high speed. Nobody warned the local population). A list of empty properties would, no doubt, be of interest to those who feel that homelessness requires more urgent attention than is often given to it by governments. Zed Feecher - - - A "Right To Read" Benefit CABARET with Tony Allen, Sharon Landau, Roy Hutchin At the Upper Deck, Duke Street, Reading Thursday April 26th, about 8pm ish Tickets £3 (£2 students, UB40s, OAPs) each from the Acorn Bookshop Acorn Bookshop, 17 Chatham Street. Reading 584425 Posters available at Acorn - please take some to put up and help us publicise! Ta. - - - A NICE RESPECTABLE ADDICTION (contd from last issue) Last spring, busking in Oxford, I met a young heroin addict. Over a period of two days I spent a lot of time with Belinda, just listening and sharing. Her drug and mine were different, but I came away knowing there was no way I'd ever again be able to say I'd never been an addict. My gear was legal, and slower, but when she talked about the fears, the desperate sense of being trapped on a roundabout run amok, the forlorn hopes that somehow somewhere there might be a golden magic spanner that would make everything all right again, I understood. I knew every single one of those feelings: I'd been there . I couldn't have admitted it two years earlier, in the early spring of 1981. All I knew then was that I just couldn't take it any more. I didn't care how I did it. I knew all about the hell of withdrawal - the shakes, the sweating, the nausea and the dehydrated mouth, the irrational terror in the mind and the desperate craving. They were part of everyday life, no matter how quickly I managed to get a drink into me. But I didn't care: whatever terrors stopping might hold, there was no way they could be worse than what was happening to me while I kept on. At 49 I'd spent half my life addicted to booze, and I had to get off before the merry-go-round broke down. This time I didn't need pushing into a detox unit: I virtually ordered my doctor to send me. I didn't need to be urged to go on a course of treatment: I begged for a place. I didn't do it to save my marriage this time, or my job, or my good name with the bank and the building society: I was to lose all those anyway - "post-dated cheques" is what my social worker called them. I did it for one reason and one only: I couldn't stand the agony any longer. I did it for me, and that's why it's worked so far. And this time I believed what they said. I1 believed them when they told me that, having once been physiologically addicted to alcohol, I hadn't a hope in hell of ever again being able to drink non-addictively. Someone somewhere might have managed it, but it hadn't been one of the 10,000 or so alcoholics that had come their way in a dozen years. Even I could figure those odds, and I was finally prepared to believe them - if I was number 10,001 what was I doing there? I believed them when they told me it was both a physical and a mental illness: blow the WHO and BMA definitions - nobody had to tell me I was a physical wreck, and the fact that I wasn't wearing a straitjacket didn't disguise the fact that I was being treated in a mental hospital. And thank God it was an illness: at least it was respectable to be sick, whatever the rest of the world might think. Most of all, I believed them when they said I couldn't fight booze on its own terms and win. That should have been obvious to anyone but a juice-junkie's mind: every time I tried, over twenty five years or so, it won hands down. It still took me a while to think it out clearly, but eventually I made the connection, right back to the schoolyard: as a kid, every time I got in a fight I got soundly trounced, and it was only when I got up the courage to decline a fight that the bloody noses stopped. Prudence rather than pacifism, perhaps, but it worked. They told me, too, trying to go it alone in a world of non-alkies who couldn't understand and drinking ones who didn't want to understand wasn't going to be easy and that even with all the help they could give me - which wasn't much and faded to sweet F.A. with the dismembering of the Regional Health Authorities which left West Berkshire with no specialized service for alcoholism at all - they didn't rate my chances very highly if I tried. That I wasn't ready to accept, not yet. Eventually I did accept it, having made the staggering discovery that my fellow dry alcoholics, coming together for support and self-help, were every bit as diverse as my old drinking companions and a damn sight more caring. Sure, a lot of them talked about God - I seem to remember God being mentioned frequently in the Public Bar, especially on Darts Night - but an amazing number seemed to have taken Voltaire seriously and invented one to suit the occasion, and there were plenty who wouldn't touch the word with a bargepole. They only agreed about one thing: if I could keep off one day at a time I wouldn't ever have to drink again, and if I didn't drink I wouldn't get drunk. Stupid-simple - so stupid-simple it made sense even to me. Once I started listening, I learned a lot of other things that made sense. I learned that I wasn't alone - that nothing I'd done was unique, and that what I'd felt, the fears and the guilt and the pain, were part of the shared experience. I learned that if I doubted my own strength they'd lend me theirs, at any time or any place. I learned that my experience meant as much to them as theirs to me. I learned that by sharing I didn't have to give anything away, or take anything away from anyone else. Above all, I learned what it is to be part of a collective experience. No dues, no membership lists, no joining: I was a member so long as I chose to be. There was no mechanism, no procedure, no precedent for blackballing me - "The only qualification for membership is a desire to stop drinking" - and it didn't say anything about it being a sincere desire. Nor any way of throwing me out, even if I came to meetings pissed as a newt from one-year to the next. No structure beyond what the group itself found necessary in order to function - but plenty of safeguards against megalomania: no way will Alcoholics Anonymous ever produce a Jonestown. No rules, only "suggested steps" and "traditions" and "guidelines". Just a bunch of alkies helping each other get well and stay well. So far as I'm concerned, that's collective anarchism in action, and it works: it's been the most liberating, radicalising experience of my life. But that's another story, what matters is that I've had twenty five years of altered states of consciousness and that's enough. Or put it another way: compared with what used to be, reality is the greatest high I've ever known, and it doesn't have to end. Yes, Virginia, there is life after booze. And if I'm ever tempted to forget what the alternative is for me and the millions like me, it was acted out for me one September evening outside Tesco's. The script could have been by Bunuel. I was busking to catch the Friday late shoppers and the bottle gang was making the most of the last daylight on the wall by the toilets, the big skinhead already flaked out on the grass. Somebody produced a box of cheap wax candles and suddenly it was a party, a cocktail lounge, a wine bar with candles flickering in the cider bottles. Then it changed, as suddenly as it started: the candles were lined up flanking the body on the grass and someone was holding a book and preaching a funeral sermon. I couldn't take it: I put the fiddle away and went to do my shopping. When I came out with my carrier bag a few minutes later they were all gone, all but the big skinhead, now stretched out on an empty market stall with his hands folded across his chest, the last candles guttering out in the bottles on either side of him, and his mate giving a stallholder's spiel. "Thirty pence, only thirty pee for this body, thirty pence for this fine specimen. You, missus, twenty pee to you, madam, only twenty pee...." - Dave Anyone worried about their own drinking can get understanding and completely confidential advice, and help if asked for, from Alcoholics Anonymous, whether or not they believe they are alcoholic. Ring Reading 597494, day or night. Anyone living with or close to a problem drinker can get advice and help from AlAnon, the complementary organization: ring 01 403 0888 for a local contact. - - - VEGGIE DINING Veggy dining has happened every two weeks at Fairview Community Centre for longer than anyone can remember (more than four months). Usually five or six people share the task of preparing a three course meal for forty (including themselves, musicians and helpers). Thirty guests pay a nominal fee to dine by candle-light with live music. The food is entirely vegan but no-one is sure about the musicians. The money raised is used to buy food and equipment for future meals and to pay for the hall. We aim to serve a full, balanced meal without the use of animals and not to use the profits for our own indirect personal gains. All helpers, musicians and cooks get free food and the only thing that resembles a rule is that most people seem to enjoy themselves and contribute what they want to. Games include washing-up, cleaning the cooker, cleaning the floor and playing with tables, chairs, cutlery, candles and plastic plates and bowls. The food is organised in two stages. The first is at a cooks meeting in the week before the event. Here the menu is decided upon and personal responsibilities are taken for part or parts of the meal. For the last meal I helped with Dave made strudels at home on Thursday and they were cooked on the night. Jane, Judi and Debbie made rice salad and green salad, prepared at home and finished off at Fairview just before the event. Jo and Lisa made oatmeal soup at the centre just before the event and I ended up making Caribbean vegetable stew at home (a surprise for me at the last minute). There is always enough to go round and there is no need to worry about numbers when thinking about food which is the second stage; buying any food and equipment needed. Money is available from the small but serviceable co-op kitty (mmmeaaow.) Everyone knows where to buy food and how to prepare it, everyone does it their own way. Food can be prepared either at home or at the centre which has a small kitchen where small miracles appear! Veggie Dining has or has access to: big pots, T.pots, pans, trays, a four storey steamer, Olive Oil and Your imagination. Anything is possible. Fairview is usually opened around 6 pm. One-and-a-half hours later the guests start arriving and most of the cooking is done, the furniture is set and the musicians are set up. Around eight there is candlelight, soup and sounds. Veggie Dining is an open co-op, just a space which can be shared by anyone who can enjoy their contribution. ....Use it. Mike. - - - House Survey Reading Shelter Group, in conjunction with Stanshawe Road Hostel, the Voluntary Services Council and national Shelter, are planning a survey of empty properties in the Reading area. The aim is to negotiate with the local authority, developers or owners in general, to open up empty places to house the homeless, or those in need of better housing (e.g. families in bed and breakfast etc.). However, a fair way of allocating places hasn't yet been decided, and other uses may be possible. A scheme in Brent, involving the building firm Wimpey, has been successful, and Shelter have devised ways in which properties can be released with safeguards for owners and occupiers. The intention is to provide short-term relief of the desperate housing shortage in Reading, while in no way relieving the council of its duty to provide adequate housing in the long term. Properties can lie empty for a variety of reasons. Some await redevelopment for years. Waste of space benefits no-one, as properties fall into disrepair, are vandalised, or simply left to rot. Some are even suitably disabled to deter anyone moving in, e.g. smashed toilets ripped out plumbing, or even a demolished roof! Property which is uninhabitable attracts a lower rates charge, but can still be sold at a profit eventually. Squatting has so far proven to be an ineffective way to secure continued use of empty property - and a very insecure one too, with the attention of the police, authorities and media making "normal" life difficult to sustain in most cases. The stigma attached to squatting (which, although it is not illegal, offends most people's ideas about property) often makes squatters unpopular, regardless of their motives or behaviour. Also, legislation is under way to outlaw trespass, making squatting effectively illegal. The Empty Property Survey is the first step towards negotiating the legal use of places, with national Shelter keen to help, advise and participate in negotiate ing the stages to follow. If you're interested, contact us at 15 Stanshawe Road, telephone Reading 588681, and, if you like, come along to the next Shelter Group meeting at the Reading Campaign for Racial Equality offices on the corner of Stanshawe Road and Caversham Road, at 7.30pm on April 26th. If you can't spare much time, with this article is printed an Empty House Survey Form - if you know of any property you think should be included, fill in the details as far as you can, and let us have them at the Hostel. More forms will be available from Stanshawe Road or Acorn bookshop, or just jot the details down on some paper! A full survey is being organised at present as well. In filling out the survey form you may well find that neighbours are a useful source of information if approached in the right way! - - - EMPTY HOUSE SURVEY 1. Address of property: ............................................... 2. Type of property: House: Detached .... Semi .... Terrace .... No. of storeys .... Bungalow: Detached .... Semi .... Flat: In block .... Over commercial premises .... 3. Condition of property: Visual assessment. Boarded up? .... Garden .......................................... Doors .......... Windows ......................................... Roof ........... Brickwork ....................................... 4. How long empty: Years .... Months .... Weeks .... 5. Name of owner: ..................................................... Address: ........................................................... - - - NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES At our last meeting (Monday 9/4/84) we discussed the current Prevention of Terrorism Bill and its implications for civil liberties. Other topics were: the "Neighbourhood Watch" scheme; the evictions at Greenham Common; the assistance given by NCCL in London to the National Front and the problems associated with that (we publish our opinion of that action possible). The Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) was brought in, a week after the Birmingham pub bombings on 21/11/74 when 21 people died. Although the alleged bombers were detained the same day and later convicted, a week of public outcry followed, including demands for a ban on the IRA, and violent attacks on some Irish people. The Act dealt with the banning of organisations, the exclusion of suspected terrorists from Great Britain and the extending of Police powers to arrest for questioning anyone suspected of any connection with terrorism. Since the 1974 Act came into force, 234 people have been removed from Britain to Northern Ireland of whom only 52 have ever been subsequently charged with any offence. Therefore a large number of people have been deemed too dangerous to walk the streets of London but are free to do so in Belfast under what is a system of internal exile! This power to exclude cannot be challenged in the courts. The Act was renewed every 6 months until the 1976 Act which became renewable every year and is the one still in force. "NCCL was one of the very few organisations to oppose the introduction of the first Prevention of Terrorism Bill in 1974 and its successor in 1976. Although we were, and remain, utterly opposed to the use of violence for political ends, we argued that the extraordinary powers were not justified because the ordinary criminal law was adequate to deal with terrorist-type offences, that they were unacceptable in principle and would be abused in practice. We have consistently monitored the Acts since their introduction and experience of their use has justified our fears." In Britain, a total of 5,555 people have been arrested under the Acts, between 24/11/74 and 31/12/82. 70% of these people were detained at ports and 30% elsewhere. 88% of these people were released without charge or exclusion; 7.1% were charged with an offence and 4.7% were excluded; of the 7.1%, 2.1% were charged with offences under the PTA and 5% with offences under other legislation. The high percentage released without charge or exclusion (88%) and the nature of the questioning indicates that the Police are using the PTA powers to detain people against whom they have no suspicion of involvement in any crime; frequently they are not questioned about any specific crime even when they have been picked up in response to a particular incident. Rather, they are questioned about their family, friends, life style and political beliefs. Having been detained for anything up to 7 days they are released without charge. This lack of suspicion of involvement in a specific criminal offence as the basis of arrest represents a shift from the concept of crime as the basis of police action, to that of political views. In short, the Northern Ireland situation with a military style of policing, plastic bullets and extended powers of arrest is proving a pattern for the sort of regime which is imminent in this country with the new Prevention of Terrorism Bill and the Police and Criminal Evidence Bill. You have got to make this connection and fight against it. This method of policing society has manifestly not worked in Northern Ireland and it will not work in Britain either. The NCCL Reading group meets on the second Monday of each month at St Mary's Centre, Chain St, near the Butts centre, in Reading. Meetings last from 8 to 10 p.m. and the next meeting will be on Monday 14th of May: the standby topic will be "Civil liberties and the Nuclear State". These meetings are open to the public who are invited to join the local group at the following fees: low-waged (£1 pound); waged individual (£3 pounds); affiliated organisation (£5 pounds). These costs are for 12 months membership. For further details contact Paul on 861582 or leave a message at Acorn Bookshop Box 34. - - - PEACE PLEDGE UNION At our last meeting on April 10th, lots of people came, which was good, and we had an evening of lively discussion. For reasons of space, the following is a brief resume of what was discussed and decided. Belatedly, we gave Chris his birthday cake (sorry about that, Chris and thanks for the baking, Tracy!) and lots more ended up being discussed, too. People from Reading PPU will be taking part in the demo at the Army ammunition store at Bramley, part of CND's national weekend of actions to publicise the existence of US bases across the country. Actions are also planned at Oldham USAF base, the top secret US communication centre at Golden Pot, Oakhanger satellite control and Borden Wartime Military Hospital (which awaits use!). We heard news of a Peace Festival planned for 16th. and 17th June at Boscombe Down airbase, with the intention of setting up a permanent peace camp there, which will be mixed. More information will be available soon. Soma of us are hoping to take part in actions at key military and political sites to coincide with President Reagan's planned visit here in the Summer, though nobody knows exactly when that will be yet. As part of PPU's 50th anniversary Constructive Programme to promote New Games, a non-competitive games workshop will be held on May 5th at Gregory House, Brunswick Square, London WC1. Contact the PPU at 6, Endsleigh St, London WC1 for details. This year's PPU summer camp is being held in Reading at Leighton Park School (next to the University on Shinfield Road; on July 13th to 15th. Unfortunately you have to be a member of national PPU and numbers are limited, but if you're interested, contact the PPU in London for more information. We decided that maybe fortnightly meetings on a regular basis weren't such a good idea, and that from now on we'll meet monthly. The next one is on 10th May at 42 Gosbrook Rd Caversham (phone Paul on Reading 483183 if you want to know more) but we'll probably arrange meetings to cover specific actions etc as needed as well as these monthly get-togethers. Finally, we'd like to extend an open invitation to any local groups who feel their aims are compatible with ours (e.g., we thought, Ecology, Wokingham Peace group, Pagans Against Nukes, - the list could go on and on so don't feel snubbed if yours hasn't been mentioned, or for that matter, if you don't see yourself as part of any particular group!) to get in touch with a view to getting together in the near future on areas of mutual concern and plan actions etc; a "Green" Gathering for Reading, perhaps! You can contact us via Box 10, Acorn Bookshop, Chatham St, Reading! - - - TOMORROW NEVER COMES From the outside it is awe-inspiring. If you step through the door you find yourself in the lobby of a maze, with corridors heading off this way and that. Select one at random - there are no signs to say where they lead - and you seem to walk through endless tunnels with doors on either side. Busy people hustle past carrying bundles of paper. You stop one to ask for information and are directed to another, and another - or an empty room. It's The System. For those on the inside it is orderly and reasonable. To those on the outside, it is a mysterious, even frightening world which makes the Mad Hatter seem sane and the White Rabbit wise. Sooner or later every parent of a person who is mentally handicapped comes up against The System. The face may be that of a social worker or health authority employee. Beyond the face it makes little difference what corridor they walk in, what door they hide behind. They talk about the CMHT and the CPT; the AHA and the SSD; 'the County' and 'the Division' and 'the District'. They do want to help, but there are procedures, forms, registers - all so reasonable, but remote from the real world of an incontinent teenager, a hyperactive child, and an exhausted mother. I have dared to penetrate The System. I have walked the corridor and opened doors. I have talked with the bustling paper carriers. I have looked through their spectacles at the 'world' of mental handicap in West Berkshire. I have represented people like you, parents, on one of their prestigious committees - the Combined Planning Team (Mental Handicap) West Berkshire. What is the outcome? At first, confusion! They seem to talk in code about consumers, professionals, therapeutics, and people being 'in post'. References were made to other CPT's, JCPT's, AHA's; to places I hadn't heard of; to people - important! - I did not know. Slowly the mists have cleared. I memorised the phrase book + asked discreet questions about Who is Who. Two things became clearer. The first was that the spectacles give a distorted picture if you wear them outside the committee meeting. What seems acceptable there seems strangely out of focus when talking with a mother anxious about her child in Borocourt or at home. Consequently the results of deliberations don't fit the real world as they might. Some of the fundamental design gaffes at the Whitley Wood Hostel witness to that - you should have seen the bath taps when it was built! The second thing that became clear was that the CPT meetings are remote from the real world. Albeit they may be in the Committee room of a subnormality hospital but they lack the realism which hits you in the face as you enter a club for retarded young people. There they are growing up with inadequate speech therapy, little help from psychologists, rare opportunity for holidays together - while the CPT leaves a recommendation for improved services 'on the table', or arranges and rearranges its priorities, or spends a year revising its ten year plan. There is no pressure there. And when the purse holders say 'There's no money' they merely turn to the next item on the agenda. If they did otherwise, they might explode! But now this system within The System lies dormant, least for a few weeks or months. It has no secretary! The door will be locked, but the paper carriers will still scurry here and there, or somewhere. * Rev. David Potter P.S. A secretary has, at last, been appointed, and the personnel on the Community planning team have changed in total. So now the system can start moving again - once it has learnt how to! - - - WHOOPEE FOR PEACE! Three of us progressing with uncertain footsteps along a muddy river bank - my drum becoming steadily heavier and more cumbersome. Seems to be moving of its own accord. Maybe it's turning back into an antelope? Frivolous thought.... (though I'd support it all the way). "Can't see anyone, can you?" Moments of uncertainty. Is it the right night? Is it the right river? Then - shadowy shapes appear against the darkening sky. Lanterns on the ground and in branches pick out a natural circle of trees. Our tentative waves are answered. We've found the Whoopee for Peace! Verbal introductions are followed by a simple dance of introduction, performed in days of yore by the Knights Templar: not, one presumes, with a saxophonist and quite so many bruised toes. The dance, however, does the trick: we're soon warmed through, and there's a warmth, too, in the atmosphere, which will pervade the evening. For an hour or two we dance, sing, make music, play games - simultaneously mystifying any passers-by on the river and releasing in a good way those energies which we so often keep inside or else let out causing hurt and harm. Sat, in a moment of rest, surrounded by the roots of a towering old tree, drinking cider and hot, sweet, spiced tea, there steals over me a sense of well-being that I haven't felt while. After a closing dance of trust, the drift homeward is decidedly reluctant. This is a one-woman view of the evening: a non-pagan view at that. Others would have extracted different benefits and impressions, at other levels, from it. I know that it gave me a sense of warmth and harmony, and that I look forward to the next Whoopee - hopefully this time the moon will come out to play and not hide behind the clouds..... Terpsichore. X. - - - BUSTER BROWNTHUMB'S FLOWER-POWER TIPS Ordinary glass marbles - the clear sort with the coloured twizzle in the middle - are a great way of holding daffs, iris and other straight-stemmed cut flowers upright in wide-necked jars or clear vases. Hold the flowers in position and fill the jar with marbles evenly around the stems, then fill with water. Works just as well with dried grasses, etc. (no water) and even looks good with nothing in the jar. If you lose your marbles, they're cheap (toy shops, some newsagents and Mum-and-Dad shops). Or use smooth nice-coloured pebbles. - - - GOOD GRUB Check out Granny's Pantry, Silver Street just up from Crown Street, for good inexpensive nosh mornings and lunchtimes. Coffee is plastic but cheap; an amazing variety of homemade English Trad baked goodies at diet-busting prices. Dave - - - DISTRIBUTION Someone wanted to deliver to a few outlets in town centre (bottom of London St, Duke St, Harris Arcade, Old Town Hall, maybe Civic Offices too). Please contact James on 666681 if you might be able to do this - - - EVENTS Monday 16th There's just gotta be something happening that isn't in 'Going out' or the regular stuff, but nobody's told us. For something novel and - well, different - you could try the Tories. Or somebody. Tuesday 17th Reading Health Watch, monthly meeting. Report from this morning's Health Authority meeting, discussion about the NHS campaign, election of officers to carry on the good work. Reading Centre for the Unemployed, 5.30. New men's group, first meeting: "Split personality: Who we are vs. What they want." Open meeting, all men welcome. 24 Norwood Road, 8 pm. Enquiries Box 28, Acorn Bookshop. Birth Centre 16 Lorne Street, 1 pm. Bring a contribution to lunch. Wednesday 18th Veggie Dining Cooks' meeting. If you want to help create the menu come along to the meeting. Even if you can just help on Friday 20th get in touch. 15 Stanley Grove (off George Street), 7.30. Telephone: Mike, 588459. Thursday 19th Ditto Monday 16th. Think of something, dammit. Of just sit around and vegetate - it's your life. Friday 20th Veggie Dining: A grand extravaganza of home cooking with home (or half) baked music, probably, and not an animal product in sight, or at least on the table. Fairview Community Centre, Reading's most exclusive venue, bottom of George Street where you can hear the trains roll by. £2 (waged) or £1.50 (unwaged), tickets from Acorn and they usually sell out early so don't hang about. Saturday 2lst Seal Rally, Trafalgar square, London, 2 pm. Sunday 22nd Religious festival for some, sweeties-feast for many. Monday 23rd Christian CND: end of march from Mildenhall to Lakenheath, US bases in Suffolk. Contact Pam or Peter Hudson for fuller details. Red Rag Collective Meeting. All welcome; come along and give your point of view (or lack of one). 24 Norwood Road, 7 pm. Telephone: 666681. Tuesday 24th Mens' Group Open meeting, all men welcome. Box 28, Acorn Bookshop for details. Wednesday 25th Red Rag Editorial meeting for May Day issue. Ring 666324 for venue. Please note, please note, please note, this is a day earlier than usual so Rag is ready by Saturday. Thursday 26th 'Right to Read' benefit cabaret - details in 'Going Out' Support the Miners public meeting. 7.45pm. at the Old Town Hall, Reading. Miner's speakers putting the case for building a local Support Committee. Sponsored by ASTMS 750 Branch. Friday 27th Red Rag Production day. A day early 'cos of Saturday being May Day (only it isn't really 'cos it's still April but don't quibble over details). Ring 666324 for details. Saturday 28th Amnesty International Sale, St. Luke's Hall, Erleigh Road. 11 am to 3.30. May Day Festival (ideologically if not chronologically). Rally, march, music, stalls, &c &c. Details from Christine Borgars, 27 Carlton Road, Caversham Heights. Animal Liberation march: Chamberlain Square near Birmingham Town Hall, 12.30. Sunday 29th Sponsored Bike Ride from Salisbury to Portsmouth in aid of CND. Farnham Folk Day: Eleven hours of Not yer Ordinary Finger in the Ear music. The Meltings, Farnham, Surrey, from mid-day. Tickets £7 on the door (under-11s free with paying adult). Anyone interested in arranging hired or pooled transport from Reading contact Dave, 43 Russell Street. (Somehow this issue's 'Events' looks a bit anaemic. Is that really all that's happening, or have you just forgotten to tell us? We can't print it if we ain't got it.) - - - ASSOCIATION OF SCIENTIFIC, TECHNICAL AND MANAGERIAL STAFFS - A.S.T.M.S. Reading 750 Branch Guest Speaker:- Clive Jenkins, General Secretary of A.S.T.M.S. Wednesday 9th May 1984 at 7:30 p.m. at Reading Centre for the Unemployed. East Street, Reading. All ASTMS members welcome. - - - REGULAR EVENTS Photography: sessions every Tuesday (10-12, 1-3) at Centre for the Jobfree, East St. Housing & Welfare Rights; Thursday evenings, Community House, 117, Cumberland Rd. Reading Gay Switchboard: Tues & Fri 8-10pm. 597269 Mini-market: Thurs 9-1 St. Mary's House, Chain St. Women's Centre: open Tues 10-2; Weds 10-2; Sat 11-3. All women and kids welcome. Pregnancy testing: Tues 7-9 - bring urine sample from first pee of the day. Incest Survivors Group: meets regularly. Write c/o Rape Crisis Line, 17, Chatham St. for details. Anarchists: meet every Mon. Details via Box 19, Acorn Bookshop. Autonomists: contact via the anarchists. Peace Pledge Union: meets monthly, always active. Contact 588459, 868384 or Box 10, Acorn. Ecology Party: meets 1st & 3rd Mon of month at 25, de Beauvoir Rd. & 38, Long Barn Lane respectively. Contact Maria 663195. Socialist Workers Party: meet every Weds 8pm. Red Lion, Southampton St. Labour History Group: meets monthly at Red Lion. Contact Breda 584558 or Mike 665478 for details. Vegans: 1st Sun of month 2pm. 1, Orrin Close, Tilehurst. Contact Liz 4 Steve Shiner 21651. Women's Peace Group: first Mon of month at the Women's Centre. Contact Rheinhild 662873. Amnesty: 2nd Tues of month St. Mary's Centre, Chain St. Contact Jean 472598. History of Reading Soc.: 3rd Tues of month, Abbey Gateway. Berks Humanists: meet 2nd Fri of month Oct-May at 8-10, Friend's Meeting House, Church St. For details Crowthorne 774871. Cyclists' Touring Club: outings Sun 9.15 from Cavershsm Bridge or Henley. Richard Dumelow 50949. Wednesday is Women's Day at the Centre for the Unemployed, East St. From 10.30 - coffee, advice, courses etc. Silkscreen Workshops: Sats at Newtown Community House, 117, Cumberland Rd. 12.30 14-18yr. olds. 1-2.30 others Practical Paradise Club: Women's Centre, Abbey St. Suns , 2-6 for workshops, self-defence, keep fit ... and fun. Reading Recreation Art Centres: Painting for Pleasure at Town Hall. Mons 7-9, Tues 10-12. Details from 55911 or 861289 Cruelty-Free Toiletries: market stall every Sat behind Tesco, Butts Centre. National Council for Civil Liberties: 2nd Mon of month. St. Mary's Centre. Chain St. nr. Butts. Reading Cycle Campaign: meets monthly at the Rising Sun 1st Mon of month. For details ring 483183 or 64667. Reading Birth Centre meets on the 3rd Tuesday of every month for food and chat. Ring 61330 for venue. - - - READING BETWEEN THE LINES We still have around 250 copies of this unique and quite indispensable guide to Reading. You can buy this at Acorn, Bookends in Duke St, or even the Fan bookshop in the Butts. W.H.Smith's (!) took twenty copies, but these have not been seen on the bookshelves... Anyway, we want ideas for how to shift the rest! Anybody got any? Anybody want some copies to try selling in their pub?? Ring James on 666681. - - - LETTERS Dear Red Rag, I've made a few observations on the Citizen Cain column which seems to be, more recently, (Pre-local election?) a tory, with token liberal smear campaign, (notably Councillor Jewitt's personal affairs - and I'm not a fan of his). If Citizen Cain is to be taken as non-biased in line with the Rag's non-political stance, why aren't there more comments on Labour councillors, and why not try to give more constructive, albeit less cynical, alternatives? I'm not into party politics (tho' I tend to turn on the 'front left' knob instead of the 'front right' knob on the cooker), but I would appreciate some straight reporting instead of the sensationalist stuff that one expects to find in the gutter press tabloids. Red Rag should, I feel, encourage people to take control of their own lives, not merely lead them from one pile of excrement to another. So how about it Citizen Cain - some open-ended honesty for a change? 0X0 Paul Dear Red Rag, Tuesday 10th. April was my first PPU meeting attendance after hearing the name so oft. As I was in no fit state to talk very well (ask Mary Wuana why!) I didn't contribute any original ideas, but felt that new ideas could be used. I mean I feel that so-called Direct Action is possibly playing too central a role in many peace groups. Also, one is sometimes made to feel pressured to make immediate Direct Action commitment with coming events. Perhaps attendance of meetings should go hand in hand with a readiness to take part in such actions, but I think it would be wiser perhaps not to make people feel they must commit themselves. I think there are other areas which contribute to peace just as much as Direct Action. For example, discussing peace issues with influential pro-war types, or simply pointing out to somebody that they can't work for British Aerospace if they think they believe in peace. The promotion of yoga and meditation practices I believe is also a direct way to spread peace, as they have a therapeutic effect on the collective consciousness. After having said all this, I want you to know that I'm not just a lazy bum who never goes on Direct Actions and who only talks to Mary Wuana! Jeb - - - MS. BEETROOT'S HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY The half-gallon pelthene jars that burger joints (some at least) get relishes in make ideal unbreakable storage containers for flour, rice, pulses, etc. Use self-adhesive freezer labels (Boots sells a packet of five sheets in different colours for easy identification when bleary-eyed). Glass jars (Bick's relishes, also pickled onions) minimize the need for labelling and look prettier but can be unnecessarily spectacular if dropped. Ask for them the night before dustbin day: Champs (Oxford Road near Russell Street) are friendly and will put them by. - - - GOING OUT Monday April 16th. * Hexagon: Wrestling Spectacular... Two quids' worth of heaving bodies, if that's your cup of liniment. Starts 7.30. * Oxford Playhouse: Danny Grossman Dance Co. On till 18th. £4, £2.50. * Oxford Apollo: "Two and Two Makes Sex" ... £4.40, £3.80, £3.30. Heaving bodies again? I'd go for the wrestling, it's cheaper. * SHP: Wilde Theatre: "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde 7.30. £3.50, £4.30. Till 21st inc & film: "October" (PG) 7.45 p.m. Tuesday 17th. * Hexagon: Howard Keel. See a real live "Dallas" star for a mere £6.50-£7.50. They'll be queueing up early, so bring sandwiches, deckchair, thermos &c. * Tudor Arms: Gay Disco: Free. * Upper Deck, Hermit Club. Horse and Barge, Duke St. (*) * Angies Wokingham: New Orleans Jazz. * The Mill, Sonning: "California Suite", a comedy by Neil Simon. Ring box office for details: Reading 698000 SHP, film: "Finally Sunday" (PG) dir. Francois Truffaut, 7.45p.m. Till 19th inc. & lecture on 20th C. Literature: "The Professor's House" - Nillo Lather (Virago) with Peter Pegnall. 8.p.m. 50p. * Talk organised by Baha'i Faith: "Prejudice: a Destructive Weapon" Baha'i house,
Wednesday 18th. * Hexagon: John Mann "Britain's No 1 Entertainment Organist" 8p.m. £2-£3.50p conc. or students & UB40. Thursday 19th. * Hexagon: "That's Cricket!" . Rare archive film promised. Brian Johnston, Tim Rice, Peter May. 7.45p.m., all seats £4. * Angies W ham: After Dark. * Reading Folk Club: Horse and Barge, Caversham, 8.15 Singers' Night. * Sportsman: Shinfield Rd. free music. * Wyvern Theatre, Swindon: "Enslaved by Dreams": a feminist drama. £2. Town Hall Studio. Friday 20th. * Tudor Arms Gay Disco: free. * Angies: The Balham Alligators Recommended. * SHP filmz: "Betrayal", adaptation of the Pinter play with Ben Kingsiey, Jeremy Irons, Patricia Hodge. 7.45p.m. & "Young Frankenstein" 11p.m. * Central & Paradise clubs both closed for Good Friday. Saturday 21st. * Hexagon, a must: "Brian Cant's Fun Book". Who he? "The fun show for chiluren of all ages". With stars of "Playaway" & "Playschool". Yip, yip, yip. 10.30a.m., 2.30p.m. £1.50. * SHP, Folk: "Cockersdail" - "a distinctive and refreshing style". A trio. 8.p.m., £1.20, £1.50. & Films as last night. * Central Club: Dance, adm. no more than £3. * Caribbean a.k.a. Paradise Club: Star Rhapsody & Sound System. Tickets £2.50., £3 on door. * Angies: The Dirty Strangers. * Oxford Playhouse: Children's Music Theatre. £4, £2.50. * Oops, nearly missed it: at Hexagon: Don McLean, he of the honeyed tones & "Vincent", "American Pie" fame, 8p.m. £5-£6. Sunday 22nd. * SHP: Wilde Theatre: Easter Sunday Jazz Special Assorted delights inc. Slim Gailiard, Will Gaines a jazz/tap king, it sez; Lenny Best Quartet, featuring Kathy Stobart & BYJO. 8.p.m. £4. Eddie Lockjaw Davis too! & Film: Betrayal again. * Angies: Zenith. * Jive Dive, Treats, Kings Rd. * Free Jazz, Butler, Chatham St. * Readifolk, Caversham Bridge Hotel, 8.15. Monday 23rd. * SHP, film: "Strike" 7.45p.m. * Oxford Playhouse till 25th.; Horseshoe Theatre Co. presents "Charley's Aunt" £2.50, £5. Tuesday 24th. * Angies: Jazz New Orleans style. * Oxford Playhouse: tonight and tomorrow The Great Kovari Magic Show £1,50. * Tudor Arms: Gay Disco, free. * Hermit Club Upper Deck Duke St.: "Sanctuary." (*) * SHP: Film: "Krull" dir. Peter Yates. 2p.m. & 7.45p.m. & Wilde Theatre: The New Swingle Singers. Doo be doo be doo. 8p.m. £3-£4. Wednesday 25th. * Oxford Apollo. Roger Whittaker, wharbling whistler. £4.95 & £6.60. * SHP: Wilde Theatre: The Albion Band in concert & support Scotch Measure. 8p.m. £3. & film "Krull" again, on till 29th. Thursday 26th. * SHP, recital: Park Opera Group presents "Albert Herring" by Benjamin Britten. 8p.m. £3.25. Till 28th. * Sportsman Shinfield Rd. Free music. * Queens Rd. Methodist Church Hall: Silver Jubilee Concert by the New Elizabethan Singers. 7.30p.m. £1. * Angies: The Memory Men. * Reading Folk Club: Horse & Barge Caversham 8.15. Frankie Armstrong. * Upper Deck, Duke St: Alternative Cabaret (Acorn Benefit see elsewhere) 8.00 £2/£3. Friday 27th. * Paradise Club: Dance (Rock & Punk) New Model Army & The Stills. £2. Bar till 2. * Tudor Aims: Gay Disco, free. * Angies "Rave to the Grave" with Mutter Slater (ex Stack Ridge). * Hill's Meadow: May Fair, presented by the Snowmen's Guild of Great Britain. It carries on from today but I don't know for how long. * SHP, film: Ten Years in an Open Neck Shirt, John Cooper Clarke. 11p.m. On tomorrow too. Saturday 28th. * SHP, folk: Helen Watson, singer and musician. 8p.m. £1.20/£1.50. * Angies: Motley Crew. * Paradise Club - Champagne Posse * Central: Closed for private function. Sunday 29th. * Angies: Juvescence. * Readifolk Caversham Bridge Hotel. 8.15. * Jive Dive: Treats: Kings Rd. * Free Jazz: Butler Chatham St. Exhibitions. * 28th April - 19th May: Reading Museum & Art Gallery, Blagrave St.: Reading Guild of Artists. Mon. - Fri. 10a.m.-5.30p.m. Closes 5p.m. Sat. Free. * 16th-28th April - Henley Exhibition Centre, Market Place, Henley: Paintings by Harold Hussey. * 2lst April - Hexagon: Saxon Stamp Fair. 10a.m.- 5p.m. Free. Upper Foyer. * 25th-28th April: Hex, Reading: Ideal Home & Leisure Exhib. £1 on door. 'Nuff said. Key: Hexagon: Queens Walk. 591591 Paradise Club: London St. 51312 Central Club: London St. 54421 SHP: South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell 427272 Oxford Playhouse: ring 0865 247133 * The oracle faileth. Please transpose Hermit Club details from Tuesday to Wednesday. On Wednesday 18th they have "Counting the Days", "Track 4" and "The Trees". Wednesday 25th "Sanctuary" as stated. 9pm each night. * Additional goings-on Thurs. 19th at Caversham Bridge Hotel: Mike Cooper, blues to free improvised music plus rhythm and dub. 8p.m. £1.50. - - - COMMUNITY CARE FOR THE MENTALLY HANDICAPPED More "care in the community" is the keynote of West Berkshire District Health Authority's new ten-year strategic plan issued recently in draft form. The plan examines in detail the services provided by the Authority and what it hopes to do in each area of health care up to 1994. Several hospitals will close if the plan is put into action, specifically Fair Mile, Smith, Hungerford, Wayland, one of the two Newbury hospitals, Style Acre and Prospect Park. These are mainly hospitals for the mentally ill and the mentally handicapped, whose patients often stay for very long periods. Some present patients will return home; others will be transferred when their hospitals close. For instance the elderly patients in Prospect Park Hospital will move to Battle; and the mentally handicapped patients in Hungerford Hospital are expected to move first to Fair Mile and then on from there when that closes. New patients who would have gone into hospital will have to stay at home, and this is where the "community care " aspect of the plan comes into operation. The Health Authority plans to increase the number of community nurses and medical teams, and to provide more places in day hospitals like the one in Eldon Road, Reading. But they are also relying heavily on the social services run by Berkshire County Council, and on voluntary organisations, to meet the increased demand. With far fewer hospital beds and an increasing number of elderly people (about 10% more people over 75 by 1994) the strain is bound to be great. There will also be a greater demand on District Councils to provide specialised sheltered housing for old people and for the mentally handicapped. But expansion in these fields is very unlikely with strict central government control of local authority spending, the same control which is forcing the Health Authority to look to local government to provide an increasing share of health service expenditure. The Authority puts it like this: "Close co-operation between health and local authorities... will be vital. Only when all the resources of community care and rehabilitation have been exhausted should long-term admission be considered and then recourse should wherever possible be to accommodation provided by local authorities or voluntary organisations rather than to a hospital bed." Guy - - - CORRECTION In the last issue of Red Rag it was erroneously suggested that the Yellow Paper on Freedom of Information was available from Acorn. As this document is subject to the Official Secrets Act it is not available to the public or others concerned with freedom of information. However, Acorn does have a large stock of the Pinky-Grey (Off-White) Paper on Immigration and Community Relations, also at 22p per copy. - - - ABOUT STANSHAWE ROAD Stanshawe Road Hostel will soon be operating under the Stanshawe Trust as a registered charity. The hostel exists to provide temporary accommodation for 16 to 20 year old people who are homeless, for a period of up to a month, and to support them, where necessary, in finding places to live. With more help, we could extend the work of the hostel into other related areas of concern. The hostel is at present operating on MSC funding, and is sponsored by the Voluntary Services Council. There are 5 workers who, between them, try to make sure someone is always there. At present there is a vacancy for another part-time hostel worker to bring us up to the full quota of 5, as one of our staff recently had to leave. If you want to apply, contact the jobcentre (upstairs in the Butts Centre) or Stanshawe Road for details. We also need voluntary help in many forms. While we're aware that many people have reservations about voluntary work, there's lots that needs to be done, including help to provide cover for staff sick leave, compassionate leave, holidays and generally to relieve the strain. If it can be established that there is a real need for more work in this and related areas of concern then maybe we can start trying to establish a decent wage for more workers, and speed the coming of a time when there won't be a need for emergency hostels, and when the bed-and-breakfast poverty trap and inadequate housing will be no more. If you think that sounds a bit Utopian, surely it's just responding to just about the most basic human need - we've all got to be somewhere! - - - RED RAG OUTLETS You may have picked this copy up from any of: Acorn Bookshop, under Chatham St car park Listen Records, Butts shopping centre Harvest wholefoods, Harris Arcade (off Friar St) Centre for the Unemployed, East St Central Club, bottom of London St Rag Doll, Duke St Elephant Off-licence, Derby St Fine Food Stores, 168 Oxford Rd Fairview Community Centre, bottom of George St Harrison's Newsagent, Caversham Road Ken's Kitchen, London Road Jelly's Stores, Whitley Street Number Sixty, Christchurch Green Ken's Shop, Students' Union, Whiteknights Tech College lib & students' common room, King's Road Pop Records, 172 King's Road Rib 'n' Roast, Cemetery Junction Mace shop, Crown Colonnade, Cemetery Junction Continental Stores, Cemetery Junction The Sugar Bowl, 26 Wokingham Road Ling's Chinese Fish Bar, Wokingham Road Sutherlands, 55 Erleigh Road - - - Amazing "BEATING TIME" Benefit At the Paradise Club on Thursday 3 May featuring Movia The Myopic Muldoni Boys The Clime Starts at 8pm £2 or £1 with a UB40. See you there. - - - EDITORIAL Reading's only newspaper is free and fortnightly. It can be picked up from any of the outlets listed below, or delivered to your door by a dedicated and loyal Red Rag distributor. You too could be a distributor. Currently needed is someone to cover a few places in the town centre: Duke St., town end of London St., Trader's arcade, Old Town Hall... Please ring 665676 if you can spare a short time delivering every fortnight. To get a copy of this highly sought after publication, simply write your name, address and how many copies you need and get it to Acorn Bookshop, 17, Chatham St., Reading or ring Mick on 665676. Red Rag relies solely on reader's donations for funding (apart from the odd badge and poster which you can pick up at Acorn for a nominal fee), so please be generous if you can. There are collecting tins at Acorn, Pop Records in King's Rd., and Mace on the junction, or you can fill in a standing order form to make a monthly or 3 monthly payment the hassle-free way. Alternatively write a cheque to 'Red Rag' and send it to Box 79 Acorn Bookshop. Readers are also relied upon to send in articles and other copy for publication. Your piece should be printed if it is not sexist, racist or supportive of an oppressive religion. Submitted copy will not be altered or edited (unless in Events or Going Out Guide) without the writer's permission, so please leave name and contact number/address in case. If you would like to help with the next issue (it comes out on Saturday 28th. May - a day early to make it to the Mayday Festival) ring 666324 for details of venues and help needed. Dates for your diary are Weds. 25th. Editorial meeting (to discuss what is going in the Rag) Thurs. 26th. Typing and other artwork, Fri. 27th. Pasting Up (sticking bits of paper onto other bits of paper), Sat. 28th. folding and distribution. Copy deadline for the Mayday issue is Weds. 25th. April. You can get free publicity for your event or function in the Going Out Guide or Events (see no's on front page) separate ads. are £5 for 1/4 page (small ads free!). Red Rag doesn't have enough money to print this issue, but we did it anyway! A 12 page issue costs about £75, so although it's good to receive so much copy, we can't afford to do many more as big as this. Please send money to Box 79, Acorn Bookshop 17, Chatham St., Reading - cheques to Red Rag. - - - POLICE NOT CALLED OUT: NO HOOLIGANS ARRESTED No violence was reported on Saturday 7 April when Downtown Saturday, Ancient Reading, Purley Occasional and Cemetery Junction sporadic met at Chain Street for the regular weekly fixture. Extra police were not brought in from other Thames Valley Constabulary divisions and dog handlers were not out in force. Fans thronged the pitch in threes and fours all afternoon but play was not stopped after 58 minutes. Out-of-town supporters were not escorted to the railway station. Merchants have not complained about police handling of 'animals'. Afficionados say all five contending sides played exceptionally well. (Goring Friday played on Friday.) Quavers and crotchets were kept in motion almost continually. Fiddle, harmonica, guitar and sax were in top condition for the event. Score at the end of the day: Love All. Meanwhile, at Elm Park... Scherzando Manontroppo - - - SMALL ADS - FREE New Games - Sat.21st April. 2p.m. Outside Palmer Park Adventure Playground... To start off this wonderous Spring. Bring your frisbees! From a games conspirator xxx Temporary Accommodation for minimum of 3 months, maybe longer. Female to share large house in Woodley, £23.00 per week, breakfast provided. Ask for Sandy - daytime 860658; evening 690668 Three Chairs free to anyone who can pick them up - or for a donation to Red Rag. Phone 666681 Ellams Duplicator free, needs some attention (don't we all). Collect anytime 10-6, Tues-Sat from Acorn Bookshop Accommodation Wanted part or unfurnished. Contact Maureen 373180 Accommodation To Let - 2 single rooms in shared mixed house. Non-smokers and preferably Vegetarians. Rent £21 and £24 per week, plus bills. Phone Sandy, 872396 Kittens - black and tabby, born recently, eyes not all open but will be looking for good homes. Please ring Chrissie on 666038 if interested. Save energy in the home. Booklet printed for Thurrock Friends of the Earth free from Acorn Bookshop. Lots of big expensive conversions but some useful new ideas to help you save energy around your home. It's printed on recycled paper, so even if you find the contents worthless to you, it can always be hung up on the back of the bathroom door! Will the Viennese music lover who put a 10 Groschen piece in my case last week please come back for his chance? - D. "Au revoir Veronique" - come back soon - - - READING MAYDAY 1984 Saturday 28 April Peace and Democracy March: Assemble 12.00 noon with banners outside the Old Shire Hall, to march around town to the Old Town Hall - move off at 12.15. Rally: In the Old Town Hall following the march at 12.45. Speakers include: Tom Durkin, Brent Trades Council and Lydia Simmons - Labour Councillor from Slough. Fair: Stalls open at 1.30 Creche: In the Old Town Hall - available from 12.00 noon for those going on the march. Continues til 4.30. Refreshments: tea, coffees, food from Richmond Fellowship, West Indian Womens Circle Entertainment: Indian dancers, Katesgrove Steel Band, Folk singers and Chilean Folk Band "Bahareque". Sponsored by Reading Trades Union Council - - - $Id: //info.ravenbrook.com/user/ndl/readings-only-newspaper/issue/1984/1984-04-15.txt#2 $