READING'S ONLY NEWSPAPER 13-27 JUNE 1982 FREE FORTNIGHTLY RED RAG Inside: * Radio 21...0 dear * Teaching ourselves * Offices, offices * Thought for food * The best going out guide in the world * A word of difference Getting in touch with Red Rag: News: Reading 666681 662302 861841 Events: Reading 473205 Going Out: Reading 663083 Distribution: Reading 61257 666681 - - - NEWS DIGEST THUNDERSTORM IN HYDE PARK: MANY GET WET Four hundred or so Red Rag readers joined last Sunday's stroll from Ladbroke Grove to Hyde Park, Some had been charmed over breakfast by the headline to Tory MP Winston Churchill's foaming diatribe in that morning's Express: THIS SICK CHARADE IS MASTERMINDED BY MOSCOW (Express subs alliterate OK). Well, yes, there might be something in that. Our homespun banners - BANC, East Reading Neighbourhood Group, Reading University CND, Reading Youth CND, Reading North Labour Party, Burghfield Peace Group (top marks for colour), and Reading Anarchists - happened to fall in behind the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) gang of five or six. Their po-face and wooden-headed banalaties brought memories of Grosvenor Square parades long ago, when 'hot chocolate drinking chocolate' (chanted to the beat of stamping feet) seemed a neat situationist riposte to the Stalinists. And, yes, there were some Marxist-Leninist punks in the park, day-dreaming Exocets at the police helicopter overhead. But no speakers from Moscow, sad to say. They came from Japan, Greece, Sweden, Iceland, the USA, from Young Liberals CND, the Labour Party (Judith Hart and Tony Benn), from Yorkshire (Arthur Scargill), and even live over the telephone from New York (Bruce Superpriest Kent). And, there were Babies against the Bombs, Schools against the Bomb, Families against the Bomb, Spiritualists against the Bomb, Woodcraft Folk against the Bomb, and just having a nice time in the sunshine against the Bomb. But no KGB against the Bomb yet. Some Red Rag readers complained that BANC's Reading-London bus arrangements didn't allow time for people to hear the final speakers, Edward Thompson and Tony Benn. Others said it didn't matter too much: they hadn't gone to gaze at personalities, or to be told moral tales: they already knew all that 'our future is in our hands ... make the world safe for our children' stuff. So big cheers went to speakers who (like big-mouth Scargill) tried to connect bombs and jobs, the health service workers' struggle and monetarist militarism, and who called for 'a mass campaign of civil disobedience'. Other readers said that the events in the park didn't add up to a rally, that it was all too rambling and vague, and found the entertainment in between the talking heads brave but embarrassing: thumb-in-the-ear folk singing, dire impersonations from CAST (now a faded shadow of 'the famed Cartoon Archetypal Slogan Theatre of the late sixties). Far more entertaining was watching the Reading Anarchists (Special Boat Squadron Faction) swim the Serpentine ('because it was there'). Also fun to see the police abandon their posts and run for cover when the thunder storm broke, mid-afternoon while the people stayed and got happily got wet. A peaceful family affair, like all CND outings: nice to be there to be counted (CND arithmetic made it 250,000, police estimates halved that). Apart from thunder, no bangs. A quiet time was had by all. - - - WOMEN'S RIGHT TO WORK The official figure of 344,000 London unemployed is set high upon the facade of County Hall which overlooks the Thames - a figure which is widely known to exclude large numbers of women who 'only' work at home or do not for a variety of reasons choose to register as unemployed. It was therefore fitting that behind this building the Women's Right to Work march was assembling. At 11.00am on Sat 5 June the familiar signs of a large demonstration were in evidence; the array of colours - clothes and banners - heightened by the brilliant sunshine and everyone's good humour. This was, however, a march with a difference - and not just because the sun continued to blaze all day! Organised by women, against stubborn opposition from the Labour Party - (or rather the men who control it, who said we only wanted/needed a festival!) - it was without doubt a successful demonstration. It showed that thousands of people were prepared to march (not just sing, dance and listen to speeches) in support of the belief that every individual has the right to paid employment. The Labour Party's fears (of what? women taking men's jobs? Some chance! - lack of support for a march?) were totally unfounded. All-women contingents abounded, drawn from all parts of the country and marching under banners as varied as SAD (Sisters Against Disablement), Spare Rib and With the Women in El Salvador; it was encouraging to see Trade Union Regional banners carried by women. (Interesting that I need to comment on the unusualness of that!) This march got no coverage whatsoever by the media nationally - Red Rag may be the only newspaper that carries a report of it: perhaps 'their' hope is that even we'll doubt whether it really happened if we see no evidence of it in our truth-loving press. The festival was a success too - over 90 stalls sought to extract money from us! Footloose - a group of four unaccompanied women singers and Banner Theatre Company provided excellent amusing and pertinent entertainment. Jam Today - though we waited two hours to hear them (not their fault) were well worth it. People tell me the speakers and workshops also offered a lot to make you think. At the end of the day I felt cheered by the numbers that had supported the event. With tired legs, but batteries recharged we returned to Reading to continue the fight against apathy and complacency. Jane Kightley - - - TEACHING OURSELVES The first branch of the Workers' Education Association to be formed in Britain met in Reading in 1904. It grew out of a radical working class whose activists were locked in struggle against the Huntleys, Palmers, Simmonds and Buttons, the first pair of whom they described as "the hydra-headed monster of capitalism". The Reading Co-operative Society has been a driving force alongside the Trades Unions in establishing the WEA branch, and as early as 1882 it had employed a teacher and in 1885 voted to devote 2.5% of its profits to education. Individual achievements were often amazing by today's standards, Lorenzo Quelch (born Hungerford 1862) and his brother Harry both taught themselves French and German whilst still boys, Lorenzo having commenced work as a cattle drover at the age of eight. Whilst there are as many myths about miners crossing moors to attend classes after twelve hour shifts down the pit as there are "Hovis" advertisements, there is no doubt about working peoples faith in education being the means of effecting the kind of change that would lead them away from oppression and deprivation to a promised land. A Labour Movement Community developed which saw education, cultural activity, political and trade union actions as well as social life as a whole and it lasted from the l880's 'til the 1950's, with some islands left today, like one Co-op Education Council and the sad reactionaries of Reading Trades Union Club wishing that women were still willing to confine their activities to making the sandwiches and tea. The WEA still exists. The reason for the decline of the Labour movement Community from the 1950's stems from many different forces, however a key must have been the promise of material wealth backed by the achievements of the 1945-51 Labour Government in creating the Health, Education and Social Services, nationalising some approaches to the commanding heights of the economy. The satisfaction with which our predecessors of the 1950's were able to sit back has emerged as a fatal weakness now that several million people are without work and the traditional class enemy is well inft dismantling all those achievements, selling off the profitable bits end closing down others. Reading Trades Union Council takes the view that education is more important than ever before in building a coherent opposition to this attempt by Mrs. Thatcher and her allies to enforce a massive shift of wealth and power to those who already possess it! To this end we propose the formation of an Industrial Branch of the Workers' Education Association. Any interested person or organisation is invited to attend at 7.30 pm on Thursday 15 July at Reading Centre for the Unemployed, 4-6 East Street, where we shall discuss the formation of a democratic branch to formulate an educational programme hopefully to commence in September. Representatives of the Oxford Industrial Branch will be present to outline their considerable achievements. Keith Jerome - - - DRAFT CENTRAL READING DISTRICT PLAN - OFFICE POLICY We now know that central Reading may be encircled by a new traffic system by 1991. Will the hole in this road doughnut be a glass and steel office ghetto? Before assessing the policies in the draft plan, a few background facts about Office development in Reading are necessary. First, the Central Berkshire Structure Plan permitted a 50% increase in office development overall from 1976 to 1986. This figure, when applied to central Reading, becomes 1.5 million square feet of new offices. (That's 20 new office blocks the size of the new Kings House - the white building at Kings Road and Abbey Street.) This figure has already been overshot - approvals to date contain about 2 million square feet of offices for Central Reading. Before you ring up your local councillors to protest, please note that most of the recent large office approvals (like the Courages site) have been approved by the Department of the Environment after refusals by Reading Borough Council. The document used to hack up these approvals, the structure plan, is a County Council creation. Second, why all this interest in leading? According to a major article in The Estates Gazette in Hay, our prime attractive features are:- - the best rail communications network in the country (outside London), - easy access to Heathrow - the Thames Valley for nice suburban living in the countryside (no mention of the delights of Reading!) But then why not elsewhere in Berkshire? Because the Berkshire Structure Plans have allocated almost all future development to Central Berkshire, and have imposed restrictions on places like Windsor and Maidenhead. The result - top rents in new Reading. Offices are on a par with office rents in Covent Garden and Holborn (£12 per sq.ft.) and the rates in Reading are still substantially lower than London Rates. Third, despite all this apparent demand for office space, the inevitable is beginning to occur. Older office blocks like Kennet House, Kings House and Alpha House remain vacant. The Estates Gazette maintains that leases are inflexible and therefore unattractive (either the lease runs for too long or cannot be split into smaller units). However, it does suggest also that the vacancy rate (l4% of office stock) is worrying and that perhaps the lessors of older property should consider creating more flexible terms. What can the draft Central Reading District Plan do in the face of these economic and political truths? It has specified individual sites for major developments and a level of growth of 2 million sq.ft. of new office development between 1981 and 1991. (Thus it overlaps with and includes some of the permissions outstanding and foreseen in the Structure Plan target of 1.5 million sq.ft.) However, in order to try and preserve the town character, minimise traffic congestion, use space efficiently and avoid a "mismatch of skills between jobs and labour" the draft plan proposes the following: (a) a phased release of suitable sites "in order to safeguard other aspects of the plan". (b) priority awarded to schemes that: - accommodate mixed development (including housing and/or community facilities) - assist in improving the traffic situation - facilitate industrial relocation - involve the improvement of listed buildings - involve improvement to retail areas Some of the interesting sites listed for potential development are: Coroners Court at the Duke Street bridge, land at Kings Meadow Road, the Post Office Sorting Office at Blagrave Street and the bus depot at Mill Lane. For small office development (less than 500 sq.ft.), two policies are proposed - that offices will not normally be permitted on the ground floor in shopping areas, nor where a loss of residential floorspace would occur. (Given that there is a need for small and cheaper office space in Reading which is putting pressure on retail areas, it would be a good idea to expand these policies to be more specific and directive). If you are interested in this (or any other) aspect of the Central Reading District Plan, the Civic Society is having a public meeting, June 16, 8.00pm, Small Town Hall, to discuss the plan. Representatives from each of the local political parties will be there to put forward their opinions on these issues. - - - YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! How about a bit of publicity for your pet cause or particular pressure group on Radio 210? They recently solicited local participation by door-to-door leafleting. Reading and District Vegan Group took up their offer and we were given an interview slot on the Mike Matthews lunch-time show on June 1st. We sent along two local members chosen for their commitment to the vegan way of life and their ability to explain the reasons for veganism concisely and articulately. There was no warm up time or warning of questions, this was to be a live interview; but the interviewer did indicate that he did not agree with the cause and was not going to give them an easy time. As the interview proceeded this became increasingly clear. Because of the nature and manner of his questioning the general impression came across that vegans advocated the extinction of all animals; and the destruction of all domestic pets. Attempts to explain the ethical basis of the diet, the abhorrent cruelty of modern faming, the need to feed the whole world more economically, were interrupted and dismissed, there was no mention of the local group, its meetings and activities, the number of people turning to veganism as a healthier diet or being put on it by their doctors, or the increasing weight of scientific research confirming the benefits of the diet. If anyone is interested in hearing a tape of the interview or discussing it further, please phone Lis Howlett on Reading 5818O5. - - - DID YOU KNOW ??????????????? That the local library was not allowed to display a petition to obtain a pedestrian crossing on Wokingham Rd because it might offend the District Council and/or their employees? And that the Butts Centre would not display a poster for International Womens Day of Action for Peace because it was too "controversial"? Yet the Central Library took the same poster and put it up in the entrance hall! Wonder who is going to permit posters advertising the Rape Crisis and Red Rag Benefits at the Univ? - - - GET INVOLVED: THE ACTIVIST'S DIARY FROM 14 JUNE Mon 14 National Trust lecture & slides, Moorish Spain by E Gordon. Palmer Blg, Whiteknights. 7.30. Free? Tue 15 Anarchists weekly meeting 8pm, Ring James on 473205 for venue. To compile and discuss a multifacetted all-purpose 'what is all this anarchy anyway' leaflet. BANC Woodley Group 'Come to discuss getting rid of the Bomb - also a letter-writing session.' 8pm 36 Fitzroy Crescent, Woodley Wed 16 Pagans Against Nukes 'meditative workings'. Get in touch if you want to go: 69 Cranbury Road Civic Society meeting on Central Rdg District Plan, Old Town Hall 8pm BANC committee meeting 8pm Old Shire Hall all members welcome Women's Centre meeting with interested Borough Councillors on the work and future of the women's centre. University CND Bike race! to RoF Burghfield. 1.30 from student union. 20p. Thu 17 FoE Cycling Group meeting on Central Reading District Plan. 8pm, Crown, Crown Street. BANC TU/Lab sub-ctte planning mtg for 26th. 8pm 56 Hamilton Road Art History Lecture Famous pix in British Collections by D Merryweather St Marys Centre, Butts, 7.30, free Fri 18 l8-20 Glastonbury CND Festival at Shepton Mallet. Music stalls theatre etc. 18-20 Anarchist conference/event 'Beyond the bullshit', Centro Iberico, 421 Harrow Rd London W10 Sat 19 19/20 Women's centre assertiveness training, with feminist therapist from Pellin Centre London. £10! for a long weekend. Penny (83469) to register. Berks Humanists have a stall at the Crowthorne Spectacular. Afternoon. Sun 20 Red Rag collective meeting. Your chance to run your paper. Maybe discussion on new technology. 4.30 AUEW Hall, 121 Oxford Road Mon 21 Gay Pride week begins. Day of action at RUSU - films, videos, bookstall, gay self-defence group etc 21-23 Aldershot British Army Equipment Exhibition. To which Argentina is not invited - this year. Nor are you - ever. Tues 22 War Game Peter Watkins meeting to recruit extras for a film (July/Aug). 7.30 Old Town Hall Wed 23 Rape Crisis support group meeting 7.30 Women's centre (basement Old Shire Hall, Abbey Street) Science Fiction & Fantasy: Angela Carter & Ian Watson & discussion. 7.30 room 109 Palmer bldg Whiteknights £1 Thu 24 Art History Lecture 'The Impressionists' by D Merryweather, 7.30 St Mary's Centre, Butts, Free 24-27 Aldershot Army Display Rushmoor Arena. From 9.30 (2pm on 25th). Free. bring your banner (if you want to be lynched). Details Aldershot 24431. International Evening 7.30 Alfred Sutton Girls School £2 Tickets from RCRE 46 Caversham Road (Women's) Picnic from 5pm in Kings Meadow (Kennet Canal end) kids welcome Fri 25 Bracknell CND 8pm Coopers Hill Community Centre (by the BR station) Sat 26 Southern Region CND Labour Movement Conference on Disarmament: Portmanteau title for exciting-looking event. Alfred Sutton Boys School, Crescent Rd. All welcome £1 entry, see leaflet reproduced elsewhere. Social in evening at Griffin, Caversham. £1.50 inc meat(?) 'Kids Carnival' Robson's Field 1-4pm organised by (University) Community Action Sun 27 Coley Nurseries (RBC) open 2.30-6 Entrance off Wersley Rd? Free FOOTNOTES TO EVENTS 1. Reading Friends of the Earth (apart from the cycle group) and the Berks Humanists have gone to ground for the summer. YCND have no meetings at present as they all have school exams (S Region YCND conference is in Reading, 17-18 July). The Rdg Legalise Cannabis Campaign has officially disbanded itself. 2. If you get in touch with us rather than the other way round your events are much more likely to get in! (ring James on 473205). By the way, all snide comments reflect on the bigotry and ignorance of the compiler alone. Do complain if you're pissed off - it won't do any good but might make you feel better. Anyone else (anyone) is welcome to take the column over for an issue. 3. Directory: I've made some tentative moves towards getting this going. It looks like a lot of work. If it's to happen I need collaborators! (ring James as above). People are meanwhile encouraged to send details of their groups (what they are, what they do, who to contact etc) to Acorn marked Directory - - - SOUTHERN REGION CND LABOUR MOVEMENT CONFERENCE ON DISARMAMENT on 26 JUNE "I must do something about it... I know! ~ I'll go to the CND Labour Movement Conference on Disarmament" Alfred Sutton Boys Comprehensive School, Reading * National speakers * Films * Workshops * Bookstall * Food * Creche * Social * Registration 9.30am * Why a Labour Movement Conference? CND believes that nuclear weapons such as Cruise and Trident are not effective deterrents. They are being introduced, not to stop war, but for a possible nuclear war against the Soviet Union in Europe. We also feel that working people suffer most from government policies which are more concerned with building a war machine than with producing jobs and services. If the holocaust comes, it won't be working people who are tucked up in protective bunkers! The Conference aims to discuss what working people and their organizations can do to get rid of these weapons, and how the jobs and money involved in the nuclear arms industry can be put to better use. What will happen at the Conference? * National speakers from CND and the Labour Movement, with questions and discussion * Workshops on 'Workers and the international arms race', 'The role of the Labour Movement in disarmament', 'Alternative uses of weapons technology and jobs' (you take your choice) * Discussion and voting on Conference resolutions * plus creche, bookstalls, films, food, social, etc. Who can come? Individuals (entrance fee £1 waged, 25p unwaged). Delegates from Trades Unions, Labour Parties, Peace Groups, Unemployment Centres, etc. (£2.50). So come along yourself - better still, get delegated if you can. How to get there The Conference is at Alfred Sutton Boys' Comprehensive School, Crescent Road, Reading. By car? See map. By public transport? Number 17 bus from outside W.H.Smith in Broad Street (5 minutes walk from Reading Station) - ask for The College Arms! Registration/coffee from 9.30 to 10 am. For further information contact Labour Movement Conference, Reading CND, PO Box 158, Reading. Published by Trade Union 4 Labour Sub-Committee, Reading CND, PO Box 158, Reading - - - THE RED RAG COLOUR SUPPLEMENT, MID JUNE 1982, THIRD GLORIOUS YEAR THE RED RAG HIGHER EDUCATION SUPPLEMENT A WORD OF DIFFERENCE by ROY MARSH As John Dalahunty made clear in the last Red Rag, language is an important issue. Are we being subconsciously corrupted because we share the sane language as our social/political opponents (who we would generally call "the established order")? Unfortunately, J.D.'s article failed to face up adequately to this question. It was rambling, incoherent and self-indulgent, lacking any real structure or sense of argument despite its rhetoric. I would like to sift some meaning from his verbal muesli, then respond with more ideas on the subject - I hope you find them digestible. J.D's view of language Language (for J.D.) consists of words with a "neutral definition" - "there is a simple connecting process between a word and its referent", i.e. "table" means a real table, "fascist" a real fascist, etc. Unfortunately, nowadays (says J.D.) we do not use this neutral definition, we use one that is charged with emotive associations. These associations make many people react with blind hostility to, say, "communists". We are all somehow conditioned by these subconscious associations, "programmed" into us by the representatives of the established order (teachers, church etc.) J.D. sees language as a semantic monster, inexorably destroying our ability to use words "properly". This obliteration has been going on for "the last few thousand years". His solution is "deprogramming... leaving us with a neutral, unbiased language". We should "dismantle" language, as "we need to start language from scratch again". This is difficult as words get "recorrupted". A critique The above is J.D.'s position in a nutshell. Some of it is true and helpful, most of it is not. Take his distinction between a word's "neutral definition" and its "programmed associations". J.D. claims that the associations have replaced the definitions. This is nonsense; even if we can make the distinction between "definition" and "association", they refer to different things, and every word has both. We know the meaning of "hypocrite" and know that it is an insult. All words (except boring ones like "table") come with their quota of emotiveness, and are useless without it. In fact, it is often impossible to make a "neutral" definition that is actually neutral, since our choice of definition is coloured by own beliefs. What is "feminism"? Can a man be a "feminist"? (If not, what?). When we argue with opponents over definitions, we become vicious and defensive, for our beliefs are on the line. Neutrality is a myth; all definitions embody a particular world-view and argument is not intended to establish common ground, but to make our own view predominate. Sometimes, with allies and friends, the argument is softer. Definitions are often fuzzy and we try to clarify them ("love"?). Are we trying to find words to match our thoughts, or instead to clarify our thoughts by being more precise with words? Both. Listen to two people talking seriously; their conversation buzzes with effort, hesitations and rephrasings. It is grossly simplistic to my either that they are "straightjacketted" by words or that they "corrupt" the words they use. Something far more subtle is going on, and a by-product is evolution in language. If words shed their skins more frequently than before, then that's the price we pay for living in the 20th century. The alternative is a nostalgic wild-goose chase. Who cares about the original (French) meanings of "ignore", "pretend", "survey", anyway, what were they? J.D. says that a word's associations are influenced by the "status quo". This is true ("career", "ambitious") but misleading. I am influenced by everybody, friend and foe. The influences are not in themselves undesirable. When I talk to friends about politics, the words we use are coloured by our common attitudes, and these attitudes ore themselves reinforced by the words ("warmonger") we use. This is good, as long as I know what associations a word has and where the influences come from. I must know whether a speaker is operating with the same definitions and associations as me, and whether he/she is taking communication seriously. So I automatically reject the words of some politicians - I don't accept that they can possibly use them in the same way as I do. The point is we have to identify a speaker before we know how to take his/her words. For example - * "X writes urging support for a dangerous, influential faction" What is it about? Who is in danger? Do you sympathise with the writer? The extract is from a letter to the "Chronicle", 4/6/82, entitled "Preserve Britain and the British", concerning the Falklands. Have your answers now been changed/clarified? Find the letter. Would you agree with his definitions? What is preserved? The remaining quotations are taken from "PM" (June 1st), the "Guardian" and the "Sunday Times"". * "The casualties in retaking Goose Green were incredibly light" (whose casualties? When does "light" become "heavy"? Are both "acceptable"?) * "Unless our future policies are based on morality, not expediency, we will always fall foul of countries like Argentina, that bite the hand that arms them" * "We are all pilgrims. Can we not make our pilgrimage together, hand in hand?" - John Paul II, (where to?) * "Circumstances change, and we must get our language straight to make it clear that Argentina is part of the American world and, with the strength to play its role, it wants to take part in the world on a completely equal footing" (Brig. Lani Dozo, one of the three man Junta) ... Does this make your understanding of Argentina's foreign policy any clearer? What is an equal footing? Does it matter? * "Reagan is low on international experience, high on charm" - D. Mirror 4/6/82 Does charm make up for inexperience, as this implies? * "A husband who has been denied career promotion might find his failure reinforced by a wife who undervalues his abilities" - Guardian Women's page, 27/5/82. Notice that, in the last quotation, "undervalues" has negative associations, the implication is that a wife should not undervalue her husband's abilities. Since the rest of the article does not point out how a husband should value his wife's abilities, it seems that even the good old grauniad is being unfair to women. * "Unlike the rest of the military, who talk about 'rapping', 'blowing away' or 'taking out", the SAS prefer the direct term - 'killing'." - PM. i.e. they no longer need to bolster their egos with the colourful, macho associations of the other terms. This article has turned entirely on the issue of individual word meanings. In fact there is a lot more to communication than that; we rely greatly on sentence length and structure. Look at the Guardian quote again, with its two relative classes in one sentence. How tortuous! This is quite well written by Guardian standards. I am collecting examples of English with a view to a follow-up article with a "case- study" approach. It would be interesting to draw up a "league table" of newspapers. To this end, I would be grateful for examples of outstandingly good or bad use of English in the media, sent c/o Red Rag contact addresses. Just open your eyes and ears and it comes flooding in. If not steamrolling! - Roy Marsh - - - THE RED RAG LITERARY SUPPLEMENT Read any good books lately? Tell us about them. "Nuclear fragments: pictures, poetry, prose" ed. Monica Frisch, Earthwright Publications, 1982, £1.95 Thank you, Cobalt Sextus, for sending a copy of "Nuclear fragments" to the Bag. Nuclear fragments is a collection of poetry, prose, songs, cartoons and drawings on the theme of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy, though the emphasis is on weapons. At the back of the book are lists of further reading, magazines and useful addresses. Many of the poems are introspective, personal views which I find boring - yes, I'm scared, feel helpless and sickened too, bUt very few of the poems express these sentiments in a way I can relate to. For me one of the most effective pieces is Gary Scott's three- line poem 'If you envisage nuclear war': Pour paraffin over yourself Set fire to yourself The result is the same. The most irritating piece, I felt is 'Progress' by Kieran Kirby - a poem with a definite 'Friends of the earthy' feel about it, making a curious analogy between the Campaign for Real Ale and that for nuclear energy. A five-page cartoon 'I am an atom' by Ann Pettit is one of the liveliest and best contributions, and the photos of 'Nuclear power, no thanks' in the sandwell, a bit of a cliche, but irresistible imagery. A very mixed bag in my opinion, but there may be something in it to appeal to you. - May Flower - - - WANTED: Unicyclists, Stiltwalkers or other performers who'd be suitable for 8 - 15 yr old kids carnival. 26 June. Jan Beatty 860222 ext 43 daytimes - - - RED RAG'S FAMOUS GOING OUT GUIDE FROM 14 JUNE Sun 13 Reading Festival starts here Hex-Gala Variety Performance 7.15 £10-20 dress informal -an acquired taste Hex-Exhib. Focus on Sheep to 20th Fives-Famous 'Vereuka Bros.' lunchtime free St Layrence Hall Abbey Square-Record Fair 11-4 £1 Forbury Gardens-Pangbourne and District Silver Band 3pm The Eagle Baker Street-Jazz 8pm free Angie's Milton Road Wokingham-Bobalouis 9.30ish £1+£1.50 membership SHP-'The Big Fish'(U) + 'Rangi's Catch'(U) Episode 7 12.15 Watermill Theatre Newbury-Stage Struck 7.30 £2.50-£6 to July 3rd Redgrave Theatre Farnham-Rebecca Tue-Sat 8pm Matinees Thurs 2.30,Sat 4pm Mon 14 Hex-Nick Lowe's Noise to Go 7.30 £3.25-£4 St.Mary's Church,The Butts-Organ recital 8pm £1.50 Forbury Gardens-Scottish music and dancing 7pm to dusk free The Plough Winnersh-Kennet Jazz Band 8pm free University-Lounge Bar-Flexamuscle free 8.30ish " London Road site-Desire Caught by the Tail + other play 5pm free " Department of Music,Upper Redlands Road-Harpsichord Recital 4.30pm free SHP-'Cutter's Way'(X) 7.30 £1.90 + concessions Playhouse Oxford-She Stoops to Conquer 8pm £3.90 Sat £4.90 + conc.To 19th Tue 15 Hex-Operetta Excerpts 7.30 £2.50-£3.50 + minor conc. St.Mary's Church The Butts-Trio Zafaran (recital) 1.05pm £1 The Pheasant Winnersh-Jazz 8pm free Tudor Arms Greyfriars Road-Gay disco free University-Summer Ball-Brothers of Beat,Beat Beat Flip,The Park,Y.Y.Y 8pm-2 £1.50 Wed 16 Hex-1.10-2pm George Malcolm (Harpsichord) free " Fairfield String quartet free Reading Film Theatre(RFT)-Bertolucci season begins 7.30 Prima del Rivoluzione £1 in advance,10pm II Conformista £1 St.Davids Hall London Road-Summer Ball The Dance Band,Beat Beat Flip + steel band 8pm-2 £1.50? University Lounge Bar-Whitaker's Patent Remedy(folk) 8.30ish free Tudor Tavern-Jazz 8pm free Thu 17 RFT-7.30pm La Strategis del Ragno (A) £1.10pm La Luna (X) £1 University London Road-Art Department Party-The Sinatras + Brothers of Beat 8pm till late £2-£2.50 on door Alfred Sutton Girls School Green Road-Berks Brass Consort 7.30 free Four Horseshoes Basingstoke Road-Jazz 8pm free Horse and Barge Upper Deck-The Matthews Bros (folk) 8pm free Prince Of Wales C'sham-High Society Jazz Band 8pm free Newbury Arts Workshop Northcroft Lane-Vanity Fair 8pm £1.50 + conc.to 19th Apollo Oxford-Barbara Dixon 8pm £4.50-£5.50 Angie's Wokingham-Juke Jump 9.30 £1 +£1.50 membership Fri 18 RFT-8pm Talk and discussion on Bertolucci's work Town Hall-Reading University Chamber Orchestra 7.30 £2 + conc. Purley Memorial Hall Glebe Road Purley-The Pirates of Penzance 7.30 1 + conc. Wells Hall Upper Redlands Road-Summer Ball-The Dance Band + Mr.Morris 8-1 £2,£2.50 on door University-Rape Crisis Benefit-Amazulu (good reggae band) + Abacush + Beat Beat Flip £1.75 unwaged,£2 8 till 1 Tudor Arms-Gay disco Hex-All night jazz festival 8.30-6am £13.50 including meal SHP-Brog Puppets 7.30 free " -11pm'Coming Home'(U) £1.90 + conc.Also tomorrow Angie's Wokingham-Travelling Shoes 9.30 £1 + £1.50 membership Glastonbury-CND festival begins. Sat 19 Hex-12.15 Kennet Morris Men free " 7.30 English Chamber Orchestra £3-£6 " 10.30 The Ramifications of Bertie Ramsbottom (poetry slides etc) About sheep £1 Town Centre-10.30-12 noon Kennet Morris Men " 3pm-4pm Street display by medieval players " 4pm Gammer Gorton's Needle,Cross Street Central-The Duncans + Michael Romeo,sounds by Ladymakers (Papa B. and the Allstars) + Stereo Roots 9pm till late £2.50 All Saints Church Downshire Square-Reading Bach Choir 8pm £2 + minor conc. Town Hall-Barn dance 8pm-11.30 £2.50 Jack of Both Sides London Road-The Volcanoes (steel band ) 9ish free Wagon and Horses Twyford-Barbecue with Motley Crew 9ish £2? SHP-7.30 Captain J.J.Waller (strong man) free. Brilliantly funny and sweet with it SHP-Packer Byrne + Bonnie Shaljean (folk) £1-£1.20 " -Exhibition Picasso and the Theatre to July 25th Angie' s Wokingham-The Alligators 9.30 £1 + £1.50 membership Sun 20 Hex-Ballet gala 7.30 £2.50-£4 + minor conc. Basically excerpts Abbey Ruins-Medieval players 3.30pm £2.50 Kids and conc. £1.75 (if wet Old Shire Hall) Tickets in advance only from Festival outlets (Hex,Butts) Leyton Park School-Nonsuch Singers and Orchestra 7.30 £1.50 + conc. Forbury Gardens-Reading Spring Gardens Band 3pm The Eagle Baker Street-Jazz 8pm free SHP-'Fern the Red Deer'(U) + 'Rangi's Catch'(U) Episode 8 12.15 " Royal Green Jackets Display Band 2pm free Dig those uniforms Angie's Wokingham-Ruthless Blues 9.30 £1 + £1.50 membership Mon 21 Hex-Beyond the Cambridge Footlights 8pm £2-£3 Hex-Exhibs-Six of the Past (to 26th) + The Woman at the Window and other paintings 1972-82 (to July 3rd) RFT-7.50pm Gloria(AA) £1 in advance 10ym The Long Good Friday(X) 1 in advance University-Gay day of action all day Films videos stalls etc. Abbey Ruins-Medieval players 6.30 £2.50 Kids + conc.£1.75 details as Sunday University London Road Site,Great Hall-Andre Tchaikowsky (piano recital) 8pm £3 + conc. Forbury Gardens-Scottish Music and dancing 1 till dusk free The Plough Winnersh-Kennet Jazz Band 8pm free University-Talisman. No details known yet. " Lounge Bar-Berks Youth Jazz Orchestra 8.30 free Silks Bath Road Thatcham-Bernie Torme Tue 22 Hex-as above RFT-7.30pm The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter (A) + Thriller (A). 10pm The Conductor (A) Both £1 in advance St.Mary's Church The Butts-Handel's Messiah 8pm £1.50 + conc. Leyton Park School-18th century music tour 8pm-£1.50 + conc. University Union Building-Disco + Spredthick (folk) 8-1 75p Tudor Arms-Gay disco The Pheasant Winnersh-Jazz 8pm free Bulmershe College Woodley-Kleinzeit 7.30 £1? SHF-The Rocky Horror Picture Show + Young Frankenstein 7.30pm £1.90 + conc. To 26th Wed 23 Hex-Second Stride (contemporary dance) 8pm £2.5 -£3.50 + minor conc. University-London Road Great Hall - Wind Ensemble 8pm £2 + conc. " The Passions.No details yet " Lounge Bar-Jazz Party Quintet 8.30 free RFT-7.30pm The Time Bandits (A) 10pm Two Stage Sisters(Chinese) Both £1 in advance Tudor Tavern-Jazz 8pm free Little Heath School-Theseus and the Minotaur (musical) 7.30 50p Thu 24 Hex-1.10pm-2 Lunchtime concert free " 8pm as above RFT-7.30pm Ugetsu Oriogatori (X) 10pm Melvin and Howard (AA) Both 1 in advance Progress Theatre-Outside Edge 7.45 £1.50 + conc. To July 3rd Alfred Sutton Girls School-International Evening 7.30 £2 Reading RFC Sonning Lane-Save Morgan Jazz Band 8pm £2.50 Four Horseshoes Basingstoke Road-Jazz Party Swing Band 8pm free Prince of Wales Csham-High Society Jazz Band 8pm free Horse and Barge Upper Deck Duke Street-Paul Metsers (folk) 8.30 free Angie's Wokingham-Inner City Unit 9.30 £1- + £1.50 membership Fri 25 Hex-8pm Platforms Theatre Company present 'Will You Walk into my Parlour?' £2-£3 10.30pm Second Stride See Wed 23 RFT-7.30pm The Adventures of Robin Hood (E.Flynn) 10pm Eraserhead (X) Both £1 in advance + really good Caribbean Club-'Unity inna Community' featuring Al Vegetables (the music grocer) + Reading's No.l entertainer-'The Duncans' £1.50 from Pop Records £2 on door 10.30 prompt.Resident Sounds System. Boogaloo Club St.Davids Hall London Road-Brothers of Beat 70pish Tudor Arms-gay disco University Dept of music-Recital 1.10 free Rose Hill Emmer Green-Folk festival. For performers see publicity as there's lots, 8pm £2.50 kids £1.25 Weekend tickets £10.75 Kids £4.75 SHP-Taxi Driver 11pm £1.90 + conc. Angie's Wokingham-The Dave Ellis Band 9.30 £1 + £1.50 membership Sat 26 Hex-8pm as Fri 25 11pm Kleinzeit (University Drama Soc Performance) £2 Folk Festival Emmer Green All day £6.50 kids £3.25 also part day tickets. Details as Fri 25 University Great Hall London Road-Schubert Evening + dinner later in Wells Hall 7pm (dinner 8.30) £10 inclusive. St.Peter's Church C'sham-Reading Phoenix Choir 7.30 £1.50 £2.50 Caversham Court,Church Road-Medieval Mystery Plays 2.30 £1 kids 50p To 29th SHP-Grand New Orleans Jamboree (trad jazz) All day? £2.50,£2.75 in advance, £3 on day Angie'a Wokingham-KKKhan 9.30 £1 + £1.50 membership Sun 27 Hex-End of festival ceilidh 8pm £2.50 including fireworks Folk Festival-All day £4.50 kids £2.25 + part day tickets Forbury Gardens-Yarnton Band 3pm The Eagle Baker Street-Jazz 8pm free Angie's Wokingham-Juvessence 9.30 £1 + £1.50 membership SHP-Grand Family festival afternoon-early evening Adults 75p kids 25p Under 5's free Mon 28 Hex-It Ain't Half Hot,Mum 7.30pm £3-£5 Matinee Fri + Sat 6pm 3.50,£2.50 2 unwaged Fri + Sat evening performance 8.30pm.To July 3rd St.Peter's Church.St.Peter's Hill C'sham-Arion Orchestra 8pm £1.50 + £2.50 University Council Room-Gay Soc party 8pm Bring food and drink The Plough Winnersh-Kennet Jazz Band 8pm free Tues 29 Tudor Arms-Gay disco The Pheasant Winnersh-Jazz 8pm free University Great Hall London Road-End of session concert 7.30pm free SHP-Atlantic City (AA) 7.30pm £1.90 + conc. To July 1st Late addition for Tuesday 15th:performance of Desire Caught by the Tail (Picasso) at the University London Road site 5-7pm free. Cinema details for one week beginning June 13th: ABC Friar Street Reading (53931) l)Torn between Two Lovers(A) + The Last Snows of Spring (A) 2) Life of Brian (AA) + Airplane (A) 3) Butterfly(X) + Can I Come Too(X) ABC London Road Reading (61465) Kentucky Fried Movie(x) + The Other Cinderella(X) Odeon Cheapside Reading (578871) l) Star Wars (U) + The Empire Strikes Back (U) 2) Making Love (X) + Red Sea Mermaid (X) ABC Bracknell (20072) l) Airplane (A) + Foul Play (A) 2) Private Lessons (X) + The History of the Dangerous Sports Club (U) - - - LETTER Some of you may be going to the Rape Crisis Line Benefit at Reading University Students Union. Before you head for the bar have a look around you and think, after all as a Red Rag reader you must have some political pretensions. Its all very cozy isn't it, all these people who know each other, nice surroundings, drinks 'til late and best of all, no riff-raff, no-one under 18 either, so its a pity about your young looking friend who forgot her birth certificate. Other things you might like to notice are the skin colours of the people there, for black skin try on stage, for white I recommend the audience. The other group of black faces you may spot are by the entrance, they are paid to keep out undesirable elements and we'll get round to that later. This phenomenon has a name it's called racism, it's traditional. Still enjoying your evening? Have a drink, perhaps a nice whisky from the nice people who brought you Thalidomide? Now to get back to the guys by the entrance. They're called bouncers and their job is to bounce people, on their heads, on concrete, on sharp objects?? It might seem odd to yon that there should be people who are paid to use or threaten violence against people to prevent them going to enjoy themselves, but fear not, their wrath is (mainly) reserved for those who have neglected to purchase a ticket beforehand or to pass their A levels. Two C.S.E.'s and a late Giro, and your attempts to see your fave rave feminist band are likely to end in disappointment or a rearranged face for the more persistent. Now we get to the difficult bit, do you just get on with the gig, cocooned from the nasty outside world in feminist euphoria protected by a screen of sale violence, or do you object? Remember, you don't feel the chains until you start to move, so this may be difficult. You could try asking the organisers why a group which is presumably opposed to sale violence feels violence is acceptable at an event organised by them. Their reply will be that it's a condition of using the building, imposed by the union executives, and that they would rather not pay for bouncers but there's nothing they can do. You might then like to ask how long an argument they had with the union bureaucrats and why they didn't go elsewhere. (As long as so-called radical gigs continue to use the university it will be difficult finding less elitist venues) Warming to the subject you might search out a member of the union executive. He (or even She if you are lucky) will tell you all about licenses and club restrictions and all sorts of other technical sounding stuff. When he's finished, ask how much time he's spent trying to change all this, ask why none of these rules about who goes into his precious building apply at lunchtime, ask why it wasn't like that five years ago. Ask people who can remember when the university union was a facility for everyone. I'd love to hear answers. Of course yon can choose to ignore all this and enjoy the gig, in which case if you find yourself being attacked on your way home, whether by campus vigilantes or the boys in blue or even someone who hasn't got A levels, you might like to reflect on whether or not you asked for it, 'cos you can't have bouncers all your life. If all this questioning seems a bit too much, may I suggest an alternative: stay home, invite a few friends round, get in some drink or whatever, have a party. Don't forget the most important bit though, have a whip round for the Rape Crisis Line, 'cos despite their elitist taste in benefits and all the nice things the police have been saying about them, they do need money to provide a worthwhile service. - an undesirable element. - - - HELPING THE ANTIWAR EFFORT Those of you who were on the CND demo in London could be forgiven for thinking that the police now take a 'civilised' attitude to demonstrations and allow people to protest in peace. Unfortunately as a number of people hare found out to their cost, this isn't the case if you choose to object to the current war, not the next one. * Five people have been charged with criminal damage following a vigil at the Ministry of Defence where theatrical blood was spilt. * Thirteen people were arrested on a march in London. Two for trying to prevent police stealing a coffin they were carrying, four for tearing up British and Argentine flags and shouting "people not sovereignty" (All have been charged with Insulting Behaviour.) One arrest was for selling badges, one for gesturing at a nationalist counter demo, one for shouting "fuck" and another for asking why that person was being arrested. * Ten people have been arrested for distributing the paper 'Practical Anarchy' carrying the headline 'Fuck the Falklands', Charges range from Obscenity to a possible breach of the Race Relations Act (! ?) All of the above, and a number of others charged with such heinous crimes as making graffiti and paint-bombing, are likely to receive heavy fines and a number are unemployed or on low wages. Donations, however large can be sent to Anti Falklands War Support Fund, c/o London Greenpeace, 6 Endsleigh Street, London WCl. The same address might prove handy if you find yourself in similar need. - Mike. - - - CAAT MEETING WEDNESDAY 9th JUNE Ten people managed to get to this - well done Reading. It was part of an 'Anti-militarism week' at the University - I was the only non-student. The meeting featured a speaker from the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, with slide show. (CAAT is an information service, with two full-time workers. It keeps files (open to researchers) and produces a regular newsletter. Address: 5 Caledonian Road, London N1) I hadn't realised how recent the current scale of the arms trade was - it stems largely from the search for arms in the Middle East in the 1970s. The USSR has just overtaken the USA as the biggest exporter. The volume of the trade continues to rocket - if that's the word despite world poverty. 'Bombs for Breakfast' is one CAAT publication. Here in Britain the MoD has a Defence Sales Organization employing 400 Civil Servants to push our products. Our annual international Army Equipment Exhibition starts at Aldershot on June 21st... Share prices show defence companies and especially electronics are doing well out of the Falklands. ("Combat tested" is a nice piece of sales jargon.) The price of an Exocet missile has quintupled - everybody's heard of it now! It's all pretty depressing. At least the enthusiasm the Lucas Aerospace workers showed in the range of alternative 'socially useful' projects they designed for their machinery might inspire others. James - - - BURGHFEILD PEACE CAMP NEWS Our first photo-picnic went very quietly. About 30 off us were watched by the MOD police as we ate our sandwiches on their land; then one of us was told to tell our leaders that anyone taking photographs would be arrested. When he explained that there is no leader, he was given the job himself. People carried on taking photographs anyway, nothing happened. The following Sunday we all went mp to Hyde Park, so the weekly walk was cancelled. This week we will be taking our sketch pads: we had another arrest this week, she had to insist a lot, before she was eventually arrested for sketching the factory. It gave her a good opportunity to placard the workforce from the police office by the main gate, to their amusement and edification, whether you can draw or not, bring paper and pencil to THE MEARINGS by 2.30pm on Sunday. In the last two weeks we have also decided to picket the gates of the factory at irregular intervals rather than all day every day; this has given us time to get on with other things as well, like street theatre. We tried our hands at it on Sat 5th. Hopefully it will grow and improve: if you're interested in joining in, come and see us. We have also changed our camp site, and had to return within two days to our present one. But a change is as good as a rest so we are all refreshed to carry on the work of attending meetings, having serious workshops on the ideology and practise of peace camps (chatting around the fire), and maintaining logistic support for irregular perimeter harassment (cooking dinner and fixing the bikes). Visitors always welcome, if campsite empty try the Cunning Man around the corner. Letters, food, money and how to get here, via Acorn Bookshop. - - - BANC GENERAL MEETING TUESDAY 8th JUNE ...featured a talk with slides by Sue Downing of the Medical Campaign against Nuclear Weapons. She detailed the effects of a single smallish nuclear strike (as predicted in govt sources), and the plans outlined in the DHSS leaflet 'Preparation and Organisation of the Health Service for War' (HDC (77) 1). Apparently a nuclear war will be predictable 2-3 weeks, in advance: when all hospitals will be evacuated and medics removed for safe keeping. (Will they go? What if there isn't a nuclear war after all? Etc) When it's safe they'll be brought back and told who it's worth treating. She pointed out the probability of epidemics and famine (contaminated crops right?), demoralisation of the survivors (esp in the absence off a supportive outside world), and that movement will not be easy - even at Flixborough this was a big problem even though the plant was designed to allow ambulances through. Someone afterwards suggested that the Medical Campaign reproduced the elitist structure of the Health Service. (Anyone can join but it is mainly doctors) Ms Downing replied that there was a nurses' group and that ASTMS, C0HSE etc were 'involved'... One likely result of the meeting is the formation of a local Medical Campaign group. James - - - REVIEW BITTER HERBS, MAINLY CORIANDER Bitterness is the unrated taste, saltiness, sweetness and sourness all have mass appeal ,especially sweetness, but bitterness is neglected. Campari launched Lorraine Chase but the drink itself is still not a big seller maybe because it's so bitter without lots of sugar to compensate. In the summer however there is something very refreshing about bitterness in food, especially in a salad. My favourite, coriander is well supplied in Reading mainly due to the Indian population ,and a grower near Wargrave who raises the stuff in a greenhouse. Coriander is a soft herb resembling flat leaved parsley in shape & size. It has a taste said by some to be like rancid armpits(...when did you last lick a....yuck ..anyway..). Those who do like it are usually hooked. Indian cookery uses the fresh leaves a lot, Asian shops are where you buy it. Fresh bunches keep well in a jar of water changed daily. The Indian name is dhania. In the Mediterranean it's used in salads mixed with other strong herbs like rocket, parsley, sorrel and capers. Cypriot spring salads are a botanists dream with all manner of tasty wild plants thrown in. The more wild and unusual the salad the more it is appreciated, recipe next issue. A recipe for using coriander to good effect is shown below. I think you will find all the ingredients in the shops now. Coriander Spiced Vegetables 1 lb potatoes diced + 2 courgettes roughly chopped 1 onion chopped fine 1/2 a heart Webbs Lettuce chopped fine 2 oz of butter 6tbsps of oil 6 pods cardamon crushed 1 tsp whole cumin crushed 1 fresh chili pepper whole 1 dsp. whole mustard seed top from a bottle of milk (no, not the foil bit) 2 eggs chopped parsley and coriander -- use a good sprig of each 2 cloves of garlic 2 slices fresh ginger crushed and chopped fine - Grublust - - - $Id: //info.ravenbrook.com/user/ndl/readings-only-newspaper/issue/1982/1982-06-13.txt#4 $