Free! Fortnightly! Fun!
This page lists the 1982 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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Tame vicars and sump oil take a stand against the Bomb and "Pagans
against Nukes" put in their first recorded appearance; there are
initiatives to set up a federation of tenants and community groups, a
silkscreen course for the unemployed, a socialist netball team, and an
El Salvador Solidarity Campaign but probably not all at the same time;
"French and Saunders of the Comic Strip" are performing in nearby
Bracknell; and the alternative directory of Reading grows to one
entry.
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The behaviour of Reading police as shown in a BBC documentary starts a
public outcry when officers bully and humiliate a rape victim; two
doctors are referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions for
approving abortions other than on strict medical grounds; the Rag's
reporter muses brilliantly on the workings of democracy at the
Berkshire Anti-Nuclear Campaign; your rights when the police arrive at
your door and ask to come in; and if the council didn't evict the
Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp, how could they justify driving out
the gypsies?
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In the face of scant support from local anti-nuke organisations, the
Women's Peace Camp at Greenham Common prepares for eviction
proceedings; a hundred women march to protest about how Reading police
treat rape victims, and make some pointed suggestions to the Chief
Superintendent; a Rape Crisis Centre is to be set up; Reading's new
Centre for the Unemployed opens; if word from the Palestinian
Solidarity Campaign is anything to go by, the PLO's demands were
positively mild and Israel really should have gone along with them;
and a reader responds to praise for a rocket attack on the
construction site of a French nuclear power plant. No greater a
gesture than a protest march... the very blunt aggressiveness of it is
symptomatic of the patriarchal society we are trying to change.
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Work on setting up the new Rape Crisis Centre starts and the police
respond positively; the Women's Peace Camp at Greenham organises a
"non-violent training weekend" while the Rag's own debate about
non-violence in the anti-nuclear movement rumbles on, and even
Solidarity has something to say about it; the Labour
party considers how we're going to get out of the recession; Ordnance
Survey publishes wholly fictitious maps so that international
terrorists won't spot where the RAF is hiding its nukes; we drop a
hint about not swimming in the Thames because it's radioactive; and
Tory MP Sir William Straubenzee defies both logic (siting cruise
missiles in Berkshire will not make us 'a more vulnerable target') and
good manners (when challenged to discuss the matter in
public).
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Meaningful action, for revolutionaries, is
whatever increases the confidence, the autonomy, the initiative, the
participation, the solidarity, the equalitarian tendencies and the
self-activity of the masses and whatever assists in their
demystification.
Sterile and harmful action is whatever reinforces
the passivity of the masses, their apathy, their cynicism, their
differentiation through hierarchy, their alienation, their reliance on
others to do things for them and degree to which they can therefore be
manipulated by others - even by those allegedly acting on their
behalf.
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- Minutes of collective meeting February 26th
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A reader sets the record straight about Torness; the County Council
pass a resolution to ban fox hunting; rates in Reading are set to rise
by over 33%; afternoon events on Mayday will centre around the theme
of "new technology" and there will be computers to play with; and the
typist can't read John's handwriting. Ever.
Having been lent a map of the site and a pair of
bolt cutters they set out only to become lost. Unfortunately they
panicked when a police car stopped to offer assistance and eventually
got themselves arrested for trespassing on railway property. They were
released without charge presumably on the principle that they
represented a threat to no one but themselves.
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Greenham Common hosts its first large Peace Festival; in the week that
Thatcher declares war on crime we review the BBC's early fly-on-the
wall "Police" series; more office blocks are to be built in the town
centre (this hardly qualifies as news); for some reason the anarchists
are compiling a list of empty properties; and the El Salvador
Solidarity Campaign sets out its stall: in November 1980 four
nuns in a rural part of the country were murdered by security forces
which prompted the Carter administration to announce with much
rhetoric about human rights - that it would suspend military aid to El
Salvador. Military aid was soon quietly resumed after a few weeks when
it was clear that the government could not survive against an ever
growing opposition.
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- Minutes of collective meeting March 28th
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The Rag takes a number of sceptical looks at the Social Democratic
Party and a critical one at local women's organisations, explains the
Falklands crisis clearly and concisely, analyses everything from the
latest crime detection statistics to the government's criticism of the
Manpower Services Commission (did it really have liberal tendencies?),
directs you to the best emporia in Reading for purchasing meat and
fish, and carelessly appears to burned out both its Events and Going
Out co-ordinators in the same week.
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Red Rag's biggest ever issue carries six pages of replies to last
time's article about the Women's Centre, explains the Malvinas crisis
clearly and concisely, notes that brewing a cup of real coffee can be
quite an eye-opener and so gives clear instructions which may or may
not look familiar to current readers. The women arrested at Greenham
last month (uhm, did we report that?) go on trial, a new peace camp is
to open at nearby Burghfield, the Queen pays a visit, Raiders of the
Lost Ark plus support is on at the ABC, Gladys Knight and the Pips
play at the Hexagon (why oh why didn't I go to that one?) and Amazulu
are down to headline for Mayday.
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As Barbara Cartland so properly says, "You are what you eat darlings",
thus it befits the people of this country to equip themselves for the
crisis by eating for the crisis; and so to stimulate your fighting
instincts and your patriotic fervour we print recipes for "True Brit
Rice Salad" and "Queen of the Islands Pudding". Back home, the
National Front attack Reading's only gay pub; Thames Valley Police
plan another film of a rape interview, this time using actors to get
the correct message across; Burghfield Peace Camp is up and running;
and Diogenes explains the workings of the Borough Council: "most of
the talking is from the Labour side: they are the ones with beliefs
after all, and the cause of the exploited at heart - and more to the
point, they're in opposition."
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With casualties in the South Atlantic escalating, local firm Sperry
are less proud than before of their supply of arms to both sides. We
reveal that the current British governor of the Falklands was
ambassador to Egypt during the Suez Crisis. On the home front: the
first independent Trade Union action against nuclear weapons since the
early 60s comes to Greenham; there are rumours of a third Thames
bridge (if only they can figure out what to bulldoze to make way for
it); the International Crusade points a finger at our reporter; having
the police pull you along the pavement by your ears is now an
arrestable offence; and we explain a thing or two about the local
anti-nuclear movement and some of the people involved.
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As the body count piles up Maggie pays host to a friendly little visit
from ex B-movie actor Ronald Regan and we reprint some of his choicest
lines; the Greenham Common peace camp is evicted and sets up shop
again just a few yards down the road, this time on MoD land; the Rape
Crisis Line gets ready for its launch in July; Peter Watkins is to
remake "The War Game"; Burghfield peace camp reports its first
arrests; and the Pope's having trouble with his contacts.
We should declare war on North Vietnam. We could
pave the whole place over by noon and be home for
dinner.
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250,000 people join a CND outing in Hyde Park and the Reading
Anarchists (Special Boat Squadron Faction) swim the Serpentine;
against stubborn opposition from the Labour Party, women march for the
right to work, but the national media choose not to report this one;
Radio 210 gives the impression that vegans advocate the destruction of
all domestic pets; we list the steady diet of sex films showing at
local cinemas but fail to comment on it; an undesirable element has a
go at the Rape Crisis Line for holding their benefit gig at a venue
which employs bouncers; and the Reading Legalise Cannabis Campaign
rolls up for the last time.
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Why was the university Women's Group disbanded? how many homeless
people froze to death on the streets of Reading last winter? how much
does raising money for the Rape Crisis line justify compromising its
political credentials? what did the end of the Falklands War to do
the dollar rate and which royal event kept that off the front pages?
was the CIA really behind the Labour Party's rejection of nuclear
disarmament? why does Red Rag look so different? and how could Emma
Goldman even think of dancing if she lived so long ago?
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Tempers flare when the "Cosmic Counter Cruise Freedom Festival"
descends on Greenham Common; under the banner of "Homes not Offices"
Reading Anarchists call a meeting to plan direct action on
"homelessness" (i.e. squatting); the European Court of Justice rules
that Britain is failing to enforce laws on equal pay for men and
women; Showaddywaddy headline at the Hexagon; and a challenge to the
Rag's new appearance: If the invention of the printing press
inaugurated the bourgeois era, the time is at hand for its repeal by
the mimeograph, the only fitting, the unobtrusive means of
dissemination.
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Part one of a chilling first hand account of life in a nearby
psychiatric hospital; a guide to the new rules for claiming sickness
benefit; an interview with Marion Sim, new chair of the Berkshire
Anti-Nuclear Campaign; latest reports on people arrested for
opposition to the war over the Falklands Islands/Malvinas; 25
excellent reasons for voting SDP; America's "Moral Majority" bans
"Alice in Wonderland" and Reading's central library follows through by
banning Red Rag; and on the back cover Bill & Ben's glorious
"communiqué no. 1"...
What's all this crap in the Chronicle then? Who
is this weed Absolom anyway? If all the money wasted on this
patronising pantomime, this disgusting cover-up job in the bare
concrete spaces of Reading can't be spent on housing why isn't
he doing something about it? He's on the fucking council isn't he?
He's got a nerve. What's he mean, the flowers "bring colour to what
could otherwise be a very drab town"? These "flowers" only appear for
a few weeks a year, and they hardly "brighten up the streets" 'cos
they're all sickly greens and insipid whites. The one we picked had
shrivelled to nothing within an hour - call that a flower? We love
flowers - but we hate these cynical council bastards who pretend to
make Reading "bloom" just for a competition. If someone wants to
brighten up the island in the middle of the Junction, why don't they
dig the fucking thing up? Reading sure as hell bloomed for the down
and outs who froze to death on our streets last winter. Our slogan was
not as printed "Houses before flowers" but...
Homes Not Flowerpots!
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In Amsterdam last week Alan Reeve, an ex Broadmoor patient, was
recaptured after a year of 'freedom'. On Friday his friend Pat Ford
walked into an Amsterdam police station with a lawyer. The nonsense on
the right was some of what the Daily Star wrote on the subject. Red
Rag's account is on page 2. Meanwhile, for most patients in Britain's
mental hospitals, life goes on as normal. Normal for them, though, is
humiliating and dehumanising treatment. The second part of our report
on life in a nearby hospital, page 3.
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Health workers plan a national day of action over pay; the Tebbit Act
plans to end the closed shop and makes it illegal for unions to take
seconday industrial action; Courage deny that there's any danger to
the public from the asbestos dust drifting out of the old Brewery
site; Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp is one year old; eviction of
the Rainbow Peace Settlement outside the Green Gate is imminent;
rumour has it that the first 70 cruise missiles have already arrived;
Burghfield Peace Camp is low on support and will probably close later
this month; Reading Police take a softly, softly approach at the
Reading Festival (and so arrest 100 people, mainly for cannabis
offenses); they have failed to get all their vehicles painted
regulation colours and we print the registrations of some Ford
Cortinas.
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The TUC day of action over health workers' pay is this week: pickets,
secondary walk-outs and a demonstration in London are planned; the
County Council claims that cuts in its Social Services budget won't
lead to redundancies; winter is on its way and the peace camps put out
an appeal for supplies; planning starts for May Day '83; the damage
done to Albion Fayres by the notorious Peace Convoy; the difficulties
faced by a man trying to obtain contraceptives on the NHS; and a
totally pointless article subtitled "Combating Racism In The Women's
Movement" which is utter tripe and I do hope it gets jumped on next
time.
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Welcome to Concrete City! Now for the first time the truth about
Reading revealed by members of the totally unrepresentative Red Rag
Collective. This guide is produced at short notice in, particular for
the influx of students new to the town in Sept '82....
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The Peace Camps at Greenham are evicted and Acorn Bookshop's telephone
goes dead for 48 hours: solidarity or sabotage? The Labour Party
Conference is stirred into responding (to the former) and
overwhelmingly passes a comprehensive motion on unilateral disarmament
and nuclear free zones. Local participation in the NHS day of action
was unimpressive; candidates for the Conservatives' cuts in Social
Services are spelled out in detail; temperance, poetry, urban planning
and pirate radio. And Red Rag's 4-page pullout guide to Reading "as
distributed at the University on Thursday".
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Police harass the Rainbow Camp at Greenham; how "Spies for Peace"
infiltrated the 1963 Aldermaston march; we follow a nuclear convoy
down the M4; a 25-foot peace symbol made up of daffodils is planted on
the motorway embankment (not at the same time); the Militant faction
of the Labour Party is short-sighted (can a legislated minimum wage
help remove poverty?); the Militant faction is short-sighted (it won't
admit that Labour can never be the Party of the Working Class); and
Diogenes visits the Borough Council.
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The Rainbow Peace Camp may have been evicted but it won't go away
until everyone's collected their giros; the University Women's Group
(branded as "unconstitutional" for excluding men from its weekly
meetings) puts its case to the Union; Liberals on the borough council
block moves for a night shelter; the government declares its intent to
eradicate drug abuse by 1990; the growth of private medical care in
Berkshire; the politics of the emerging video technology; Thames
Valley Anarchists hold a bonfire to commiserate with the only person
ever to enter Parliament with honest intentions; Ken Livingstone of the
GLC is speaking at Henley; and one of the best conspiracy rants I've
read for ages.
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The power of these corporations is so great as to
transcend all frontiers... We are witnessing a pitched battle between
the great transnational corporations and sovereign states. For the
fundamental political, economic and military decisions of these states
are being interfered with by worldwide organisations that are not
dependent on any state, and which, as regards the sum total of their
activities, are not accountable to, nor regulated by, any parliament
or institution representing the collective interest. In a word, the
entire political structure of the world is being
undermined.
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Red Rag's Provisional Alternative Directory to the Reading Area: the
complete low-down on everything that's going on, from the Unemployed
Women's Group to Pagans Against Nukes to Educational Associations to
Gay Soc to Amnesty International to Red Rag itself.
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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", our excellent 8 page
guide to alternative Reading.
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There's a call for 10,000 women to link hands around the Greenham
Common air base at the international women's day of protest; in case you
can't make it but would like to do something else useful, we print a
list of local suppliers with contracts at the base. A day of action is
planned to protest about pornography in the emerging video industry.
We consider the link between feminism and animal liberation, why
getting involved in CND meetings can be so uninviting, and the history
of Dutch and Belgian offshore pirate radio in the early 1960s. The
Council debates the Rock Festival and finally approves a night shelter
for the down and outs, there's a plan to set up a vegetarian dining
project, and the Legalise Cannabis Campaign surveys patterns of
use.
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The Rag talks to local reggae band Urban Warrior about music, race,
unemployment, Rastafarianism, culture and politics; the article is
bannered on the front page as "Black news". It is estimated that 2
million council tenants will be worse off with the introduction of the
new Unified Housing Benefit; 400 local people sign a petition
protesting the Home Office's planned deportation of local resident
Shehnaz Sheikh; Raymond Briggs' "When the Wind Blows" is on the
shelves at Acorn; and Thursday is a not a good day for pirate radio as
that's when the Home Office get their overtime in.
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This issue of Red Rag was brought to you by those few members of the
Red Rag collective whose revolutionary commitment extended to not
observing bourgeois christian festivals. It was distributed more by
luck than judgement and has undoubtedly become a rare collectors item.
It was printed at a secret location and came to you by the magic of
mimeo. It is being paid for by any means possible which means
you lot have got to send cheques, giros used fivers etc. to the rag
c/o Acorn, 17 Chatham street. The last cheque we wrote bounced, and
our bank manager wants to see us to discuss the conduct of our
account. This time we really do need money, or all rags will look
like this.
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