RED RAG

Back Issues

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Established 1979
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These are the back issues of Red Rag. They'll be posted here every (usually) two weeks on or around the anniversary of their original publication. We're currently reissuing 1984; the latest issue is dated October 28th (scan / txt); the next one is due out on November 11th.

Red Rag, or Reading's only newspaper, had a noble tradition of misspelling, mixed metaphors, wrong facts, confused political judgements and a readership of 4000. It was produced by an incredibly fluid collective, some of whom had never met each other. It printed practically everything it got sent ("except poetry and party political broadcasts, provided it isn't racist, sexist, militarist or otherwise supportive of oppression"). 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 in five years it had never sold a single copy.

In this issue (scan / txt): 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.