RED RAG (cover illustration)

Back Issues

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Established 1979
Free! Fortnightly! Fun!

These are the back issues of Red Rag. They'll be posted here every two weeks on or around the anniversary of their original publication. We're currently reissuing 1982; the latest issue is dated November 14th (scan / txt); the next one is due out on the 28th.

Red Rag, or Reading's only newspaper, had a noble tradition of misspelling, mixed metaphors, wrong facts, confused political judgements and a print run by now of over 1000. It printed pretty well everything it got sent ("unless the Collective judged it racist, sexist, right wing, or supportive of oppressive religions"). It aimed to provide a decent alternative coverage of local news and issues from a radical non-aligned position; to promote subversive and creative initiatives; to provide a forum for unorthodox views; to allow some sort of co-existence between a huge variety of interests. And it was free.

In this issue (scan / txt): We examine the politics of women's self-defence and finally think to comment on the steady diet of X-rated films showing at the Odeon; an Observer's Guide to the Superior Bureaucracy of the Berkshire Anti-Nuclear Campaign; OAP bus passes are under threat as the Borough Council tries to meet government savings targets; a report on Halloween at Greenham Common; and "Red Pages" (scan / txt), our excellent 8 page guide to alternative Reading.