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Free! Fortnightly! Fun!
This page lists the 1984 back issues of Red Rag. Each issue is
available in two forms:
- scan - choose this to see exactly what each issue looked like, but
be prepared for 20MB downloads
- txt - just the text - choose this for a much faster download or if
you want to copy the text into any other form
You can also link from here to the introduction page for each issue.
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Thirty thousand women converge on Greenham, demolish the fence and
invade the base; there are many arrests. The blockade of USAF High
Wycombe ends with the tree-planters allowed inside the fence to do their
bit; here too earlier in the day there have been many arrests.
Participants reflect on the successes and failures of the two protests.
Whenever they grabbed us we did things like stroke their hands
lovingly which so confused them that they let us go.
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Bracknell cuts funding to an adventure playground and play centre; the
children and their parents turn up at a council meeting to protest but
are dragged out by swarms of police; as we go to press the children
and play staff have occupied both premises and organised a rooftop
demonstration. Back in Reading, one of the founding squatters at the
Borough Arms is the son of Tory Housing Chairman Ron Jewitt, who also
hits the news for imagining that not only is it no big deal to get
rented accommodation if you're single and living in Reading, in fact
it's easier than ever with the new Unified Housing Benefit paid by the
Council. Women at Greenham are continuing their night-time watches on
all the gates on the common to ensure that nothing is taken in or out
of the base without their knowledge; racist attacks on Asian occupied
houses are on the increase; and a date has been set for Acorn
Bookshop's court appearance.
So what care in the community is going to mean mainly is more sick and
elderly people living at home, being looked after mainly by women who
will be chained to the home caring for their parents, in-laws,
spouses, or children with a bare minimum of supporting services from
the NHS and local authorities. It is an effectively sexist policy and
make no mistake about it has top-level support - having been presented
to and praised by the Minister of Health, Kenneth Clarke, himself, it
is a part of the solution to the problem of unemployment, a solution
that involves forcing very many women off the labour market.
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Reading Health Watch produces a leaflet to counter propaganda about
"more money for the NHS", "exciting new strategies" and "care in the
community": the facts are that there are more people and less money,
the new strategies put a burden on local authorities that the
Government won't let them meet, and care in the community means more
women having to stay at home to look after their parents and
in-laws. Ten months after Acorn was raided under the Obscene
Publications Act, test prosecutions against Knockabout and Airlift
bookshops are set for later this year. Only 21 women turned up for the
recent Reclaim the Night march; after the success of September's "Stop
the City" in London, a second demonstration is planned for next month;
and the Ecology Party puts forward a ten-point programme for "Real
Democracy", featuring Proportional Representation, a Freedom of
Information Act, and the right to inspect or correct information held
about you on computers.
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Cruise missiles will be moved in massive convoys to launch sites
covertly surveyed in peacetime; they'll use good A roads and
motorways, kept closed to the rest of us in a "state of emergency" by
armed soldiers. The Greenham Women and CND plan a day of actions to
publicise this and for half a glorious Wednesday morning one of the
gasworks at Kennetmouth bears on high a slogan which agrees with
them. Two independent studies say that Readibus is the most efficient
disabled peoples dial-a-ride in Europe; the Council's Transportation
Committee brands the service as inefficient and so cuts its budget by
10%. The Knockabout Comics trial is set for May 8th when they'll face
15 charges of Obscene Publications and two of conspiring to contravene
the Misuse of Drugs Act; Reading Squatter's Collective has a solution
to the poverty cycle caused by extortionate rents; and the Centre For
Liberated Sexuality proposes abstention as an answer to oppressive
relationships and plans a squat of its own.
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The first day of the women's conference has been a great success:
getting together with other women, exchanging ideas about issues of
mutual choosing and concern, making contact with so many others and
generally having fun have already made it more than worthwhile. On the
Borough Council it's no surprise that the Tories belong to a
Pre-Victorian unenlightened tradition of self-satisfied, self-seeking,
contemptuous arrogance; but after Liberals bow to the grammar school
lobby, what price their manifesto? Acorn are due in court later this
month, to prevent the forfeiture under the Obscene Publications Act of
47 drug-related titles, seized from the shop nearly a year ago,
ranging from "Freak" comics to Penguin, Corgi and Granada paperbacks;
in backing the demand for an 8 hour working day for the toiling
masses, the International Worker's Congress (2nd International)
accepted May 1st as a day for great international demonstration; and
do you feel let down by demonstrations? Pagans Against Nukes invite
you to dance and sing.
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A Prison Workshop is planned for those risking imprisonment as a
result of taking part in recent Non-Violent Direct Actions and not
wishing to be bound over or pay fines; two senior staff at a Social
Services Assessment centre in Reading are suspended pending the
investigation of financial irregularities (such as the
misappropriation of residents' court fines); NHS management use the
threat of privatisation to force hospital workers to accept higher
work-rates and worse working conditions; a huge new road network will
turn Reading into a transport disaster area; Stop The City Mark 2 will
focus on "People not Profit: a day of creative protest"; and Acorn's
court case is postponed.
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Spectacular Times publishes "Cities of Illusion", a clear and
practical description of the Spectacle within which we live. The guide
to brewing dope beer ("the second step in this concoction is mixing up
a fine batch of beer or wine to cover up the godawful taste of step
one") is one thing; the bleak account of life as an alcoholic is quite
another. At Greenham Common benders have been torched, car tyres
slashed, the water supply fouled, and the women's camp is being
evicted under court injunction; in legal news elsewhere: mounted
police demonstrate their skills in kettling at the second "Stop the
City" carnival, soldiers in civies are boosting police numbers on the
miners' picket lines, and a birthday cake is presented to one of the
defendants up in front of the High Wycombe bench for obstructing the
highway during last December's blockade of the USAF Cruise Command
Centre. The magistrate becomes hysterical, orders the cake and candles
out of the court and has the cake-bearer jailed until lunchtime.
My old ideology is worn out and I desperately need a new one. In fact
none of the ones I have tried has lasted more than a week under
ordinary household conditions and several have come completely to
pieces the first time I tried to use them.
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The trial of 12 Greenham Women, accused of criminal damage for cutting
the fence during last July's blockade, is suspended and the jury
dismissed after a front-page and centre-fold "exclusive" in the "Daily
Express" names one of the women; the judge celebrates by removing all
the defendants' unconditional bail. The Ministries of Defence and
Transport really did conspire together with the police in a "road
widening" scheme designed to displace the Peace Camp; election
canvassers are urged to make close observations as they go from door
to door (empty properties are of interest to those who feel that
homelessness requires urgent attention, and suddenly vacated homes of
American service personnel might function as early warnings of nuclear
incidents at Greenham); it's difficult for local authorities to
implement the new civil defence regulations because the Government
won't publish any assumptions about warning periods, number and type
of bombs expected, or whatever; the food at Veggie Dining is entirely
vegan but no-one is sure about the musicians; and 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 members of the
public concerned with freedom of information.
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Red Rag interviews members of the newly opened UB Cycles bike repair
co-operative; after a long absence we celebrate the return of
Diogenes; women in the Tory Party are to be seen but not heard (not
one of the Tory women on Reading Council has spoken at a Council
meeting this year); and anyone in the Reading area who finds
themselves unable to cope without a fix will have trouble getting
treatment from a local doctor: the Drug Squad has circulated a list of
'junkies' to surgeries and told them to phone immediately any of these
people appear in their waiting rooms.
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Rumours of soldiers in police uniform at the miners' picket lines just
won't lie down; Acorn raise money for their Right to Read defence with
an Alternative Cabaret benefit; Reading Festival might be able to run
at the Richfield Avenue site one last time; the Famous Going Out Guide
is promoted from poorly typed with a faded ribbon to handwritten (does
nobody care for the OCR correctors of future years?); and - buried in
what for the Rag is an unusual plea for restraint in animal liberation
- we find our first mention of a new disease: AIDS.
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Both Ronald Regan and South African Prime Minister Botha are visiting
London next month; many demonstrations are planned. The Greenham peace
camps are still here (evicted? we never went away); the Obscene
Publications trial of Knockabout Comics enters its third week; Beating
Time is over but the beat moves on; International Feminist Book Week
comes to Reading; and Ron Jewitt is narrowly elected Mayor. If Liberal
councillor John Freeman had gone to the council meeting instead of on
holiday might the outcome have been different?
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Four miners from Rose Heyworth colliery in South Wales are in Reading
to help organise local support for the miners' strike; nobody dares
oppose something so obviously wholesome as "Care in the Community",
and every time someone says, "Of course I support it but..." they have
wrong-footed themselves and it's the government that looks as though
it has its heart in the right place; Knockabout Comics have been
acquitted on all charges at the Old Bailey - will this mean that Acorn
is due an easier ride through the courts? - and please ignore the
"cancelled" stickers which some mindless vandal's been pasting over
the fly posts around town.
The Government is attempting to starve the miners into submission to
give up this fight. Should we stand by and let this happen? For if the
Government can destroy the strength of the miners the success of
future struggles for jobs, peace, democratic rights, civil liberties
and economic recovery will be weakened.
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There is no money. If you miss Citizen Cain, in-depth comment, the
pleading of righteous causes, the lighthearted bits and the cutesy
dingbats, there's an answer: they'll be back when we can afford to
print them.
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Reading Miners' Support Group breaks a de facto union movement boycott
when they hold a benefit at the Trades Union Club, known across town
for its policy of refusing membership to women; predicting that the
Lancaster House economic summit will solve the world's problems by
making the richest countries even richer, the "Other Economic Summit"
meets to develop an economic strategy suitable for an international
civilisation aware of its dependence on a fragile planet; Cruise
leaves Greenham for the second time: armoured trucks escorted by a
posse of jogging MOD policemen; 20th Century Arts holds its first
public meeting, aiming to "take back some control over our
environment, our communities, our lives, through producing and living
our own culture"; and Acorn is hiring.
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- Minutes of collective meeting July 15th
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Reading is no exception to a worsening of problems faced by racial
minorities: employment and housing are of particular local concern;
it's Cultural Week at the Apollo Club and the theme this year is "Our
History before Slavery"; the sixty people who turn up to the launch
meeting of 20th Century Arts are unable to agree on much; the paper
reclamation warehouse on Cumberland Road goes up in flames (community
arts? it was certainly spectacular and brought "the community"
out on the streets); there's a great acoustic on the top floor
of the Chatham Street carpark; Red Rag is looking for news reporters;
and a number of Tory Councillors are having trouble filling in the
form for declaring their outside interests.
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Fifteen women go on trial, charged with causing criminal damage to the
perimeter fence at Greenham Common Air Base in July 1983; most of them
end up in jail either for refusing to pay their fine, or because the
Peace Camp is deemed not to be a fixed address for purposes of
enforcing fines; questions about police brutality and surreptitious
photos and video recordings made by MoD and Thames Valley Police
remain unanswered. Citizen Cain names the twelve Tory Borough
Councillors who have yet to enter their financial interests in the
public register kept for that purpose; they are: Cllrs. Jewitt (yes,
the Mayor), Palmer, Pugh, Mills, Browne, Dicker, Bale, Pearson, Irwin,
Markham, Kirk and Irwin. The Miners Support Group's food collection
trolley outside Tesco's solicits tins of baked beans without a permit
and this constitutes Begging for Alms upon the Queen's Highway; a
delightful little booklet chronicling the reaction in Newbury to
Cruise Missiles, and the Greenham peace camp is withdrawn from sale in
the town under threats of libel; the peace campers at Boscombe Down
are looking for wirecutters (to prune the roses?); and the Hexagon
reopens after its summer break: "RR concessions available" it says -
could it be?...
But perhaps as the rest of Newbury's honest folk fester amongst the
radioactive piles of rubble that mark their little town, they might
reflect on the value of their obsession with house prices and
rates.
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DHSS Specialist Claims Control teams descend on Reading: you are not
obliged to let them into your home. Food collections for the Gwent
miners continue; Stop The City III will (police willing) be a peaceful
celebration to stop the finance of death; Acorn gets a date for its
court appearance; and the the Reading Anarchist Group celebrates a
very special birthday.
Being around for twenty years makes you part of the furniture. Much of
the infrastructure of dissent is run by anarchists (or was started by
them) and to that extent, in the microcosm of the radical left,
Reading (like Nottingham) is an 'anarchist' town. Assorted Lefties
will keep up their consoling belief that 'anarchists can't organise
anything' which must give them some comfort as they order their
posters from the anarchist silk-screen collective, have their videos
done by an anarchist video collective or have their leaflets printed
by an anarchist printer. And don't forget, gentle reader, that 'Red
Rag' itself started five years ago as a news bulletin for Reading
Anarchists.
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- Minutes of collective meeting September 9th
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Can ten million women converge on Greenham in ten days? Will the City
be Stopped? Why aren't the Mosque or the Pentecostal churches
represented in the Evening Post's list of places of worship? If Veggie
Dining is having to eat its way out of money troubles, why can't the
miners go veggy? Whatever happened to Twentieth Century Arts, and does
anyone around here speak Latin? Or (for the Anarchists amongst us)
Greek? Why is a jumble sale having to raise money for the landlord of
92a London Road? How many centimetres wide should you type your copy
for the Rag? What will the readers of the next issue of Reading's
Only Newspaper do between the lines? What was that plant growing in
the window of Acorn Bookshop? And is Keith Joseph really collecting
brown paper bags?
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Stop The City III is as violent and dangerous as predicted but all the
violence and danger come from the police who arrest everyone in sight,
passing tourists not exempted. The Environmental Health Department has
been serving notice on owners of shared houses requiring them to meet
fire safety provisions applicable to houses in multiple occupation;
Acorn Bookshop has been summonsed to appear before Reading Magistrates
on October 5th to answer charges under the Obscene Publications Act;
the Gay Switchboard celebrates its fifth anniversary; the second
edition of Reading Between the Lines goes on sale; and the Centre for
the Jobfree is planning a new year revue "Jack and Jill Sign On - or -
Waiting for Giro" a modern fairy tale for the 80's.
It was illegal to leaflet, apart from the Support
the City group, who were also handing out stickers that said
"Aggravate an Anarchist - Support the City".
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At the "Stop the City" demonstration in Birmingham police arrive
punctually to welcome protestors near the City Cathedral but nobody
else turns up. "You can't expect anarchists to turn up on time,"
complains one exasperated senior officer. Acorn Bookshop gets its day
in court but the magistrates need another month to read Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas and the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers; one
reader wonders whether the Rag really is Reading's Only Newspaper and
another explains why; the Wobblies are strapped for cash; and that was
no typographic error.
Many of the police seemed to have been stationed
in Notts, before coming down to Greenham - some said they couldn't
wait to go back! it seems they're allowed more of a freehand when
they're dealing with the miners. There were a lot of women who were at
Greenham for the first time. Some had come from abroad - mainly
Germany and the USA - but a considerable number were from mining
areas. Many had come with Miners Support Groups and there was a lot of
discussion about the links between the two issues.
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- Minutes of collective meeting October 21st
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The marked increase of stillbirths among women in Reading shows a
significant connection with the release of radioactive waste from
Burghfield; there are calls at the Labour Party Conference for the
soon-to-be privatised British Telecom to be taken back into the public
sector; part-time consultants on hospital cleaning services might be
on £100,000 a year but hospital cleaners are lucky to get
£1.72 an hour; IBM takes a European handout; Halloween comes a
day early; we find out what a futon is; and Reading's Only Newspaper
celebrates its fifth birthday in style.
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Embarking on a policy of closing geriatric wards and hospitals because
it says the institutional care they provide is unnecessary, the
government pays out huge sums to the owners of private rest
homes. Locally the supply of places fails miserably to meet the
demand. The Reading Labour Party believes that the town needs 5 sex
shops in spite of a Council subcommittee report recommending the
refusal of licences to all five; Cosmo Girl explains how to hold down
more than one relationship at a time; shop-keepers in Newbury oppose
cruise missiles at USAF Greenham Common because the USAF Seargeants
Association is pressing for USAF personnel at the base to be given a
10% discount in their shops; and the Rag goes dangerously mainstream
with its first astrology column.
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Food collections in Woodley for the Gwent Miners are obstructed by
police threatening to charge the collectors with vagrancy;
public-minded citizens motivated enough to address planning
contradictions to council officers are told point blank, "leave it to
us" and are handed one of the old Labour party internal memorandums:
"do right, respect those in authority over you, go to the council
meetings and always work"; whenever any Labour or Liberal Councillor
mentions a piece of land at a Reading Borough Council meeting the
so-called Chairman of the Housing Committee leaps to his feet with a
silly grin all over his face and says "Sell it"; customs officers in
London raid Gay's the Word Bookshop; and a new pinball machine is
installed in The Dove.
Occupy the empty office blocks and turn them into
stamping grounds. In every empty space, drums should be beaten, full
speed and pagan, to bodies daubed with secret insignia in rhythm with
ancestors of their neurons, as part of the liberation of this green
and pleasant land.
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- Minutes of collective meeting December 2nd
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The families of Miners striking to defend 70,000 jobs against the
closure of 70 pits are faced with a cut in Social Security;
magistrates in Acorn Bookshop's court case deem that books and comics
which presuppose familiarity with drugs are obscene, liable to
corrupt, and so to be pulped later this month; the personal remains
political; Reading's Only Cassette Album is launched; and what to do
if you wake up on Christmas mornng and don't fancy talking to anybody
until - say - Friday.
Those present at the editorial meeting found the
following letter sexist, racist and very offensive. However we thought
it was necessary to print it, in full. This is because we felt it was
a criticism of the Rag and everything the Rag stands for. We cannot
simply ignore this kind of attitude as it is only a blatant expression
of the attitudes that we are surrounded by every day. We feel it is
more dangerous to ignore this than to print it and let the readership
see for themselves.
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