This page lists the 1985 back issues of Red Rag, posted here every two
weeks on or around the (27th) anniversary of their original
publication. They run from October 1981 (do you have anything earlier in
your loft?
) through the whole
of 1982, 1983,
1984; the last
issue of this year was dated December 22nd and
now we're into 1986.
Free! Fortnightly! Fun! And you can even have the Rag
to your mailbox.
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.
January 6th
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/ intro)
The Evening Post leads an unprincipled attack against local "bedsit
barons" for attracting the unemployed and homeless with advertisements
which they themselves are quite willing to print; food van deliveries
continue to take hot meals to the women camped at Greenham Common; the
Anarchist Group forges ahead with plans for a free festival to
celebrate its 20th anniversary; the Ant Hill Mob play at the Paradise
Club, all proceeds going to the Gwent food fund for the families of the
pits in South Wales, adopted by the Reading Miners Support Group
committee; and the Reading contingent at the action in London marking
the fifth anniversary of the NATO decision to site cruise missiles in
Europe is an affinity group of one person (about the ideal size for
quick consensus decision making).
Minutes of collective meeting January 13th
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January 20th
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The Freedom Association, their friends in Ratepayers Against Greenham
Encampments, and the Coalition for Peace through Security attempt to
get the Greenham women struck off the electoral roll on the grounds
that they are there for political reasons; Box Office takes on the
Reading Festival Fringe and some plywood hoarding; Citizen Cain get
rebranded; Red Rag takes on the politics of censorship; and the Free
Festival benefit gig makes a profit of £3:20 (thanks to the £1:20 they
found on the floor).
February 3rd
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The strike has by no means been lost, and even if the demand of No Pit
Closures cannot be won, the Miners will not accept defeat, but will go
on as will their supporters to fight this tide of destruction this
Government has launched upon us. Most of us are stuck between the
unslightly and the serene, floundering in a love like blood and can do
without "Lifelines" from Nietzschean superwomen, unless it's to bring
on the clowns in the twilight of idols; Veggie Dining becomes
co-ordinator free and the Vegan Ramble will now have to deny that they
check your sandwich box for salami sarnies; two rival teams appear to
be running courses at the Centre for the Jobfree; and Acorn becomes a
Workers' Co-operative, but Ian and Liz are leaving.
February 17th
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In between the Greenham evictions, Molesworth blockades, Citizen Cain
prize for the most interesting leak, new premises needed for the
Women's Centre, Reagan setting the CIA on the Sandinistas, Real Time
Video's newsletter, and Red Rag's computer problems: a sobering
account of current understanding of a new sexually transmitted
disease, and where you can go for help locally.
AIDS is caused by a virus, called LAV, which is thought to be passed
on in two ways: during sex, or if a person comes into contact with
infected blood. It is also possible that the AIDS virus is passed on
through saliva, but there is no reason to think that the virus can be
spread through the air or by touch.
It seems that not everyone who has the virus develops the symptoms of
AIDS, but that everyone who does develop the symptoms dies, sometimes
quickly, sometimes after two or more years. There is no immediate
prospect of a cure for AIDS itself, although doctors are becoming more
expert at treating the infections and illnesses which follow the
failure of the immune system.
Minutes of collective meeting February 24th
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March 3rd
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/ intro)
One year into miner's strike is marked with a brace of benefit gigs
and a march in London; we also note the anniversary of the Kronstadt
rebellion of 1921. (March 5th: Trotsky arrives in Petrograd. Aircraft
drop leaflets on Kronstadt ordering the population to surrender at
once or "be shot like partridges".) The Greenham Support Group
celebrates International Women's Day by organising Veggie Dining;
after the government's show of muscle at last month's overnight
invasion of Molesworth peace camp the Easter demo there may be even
bigger; and a small cavalcade proceeds onto a snowy Salisbury Plain in
search of the Cruise Missile Convoy hidden nearby (pretending to have
melted into the British countryside, as Heseltine would have us
believe).
We joined hands (no, not with the soldiers, who were too busy).
March 17th
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The old Unemployment Benefit Office in South Street is squatted for
ten days and hosts a series of workshops and projects: from music to
video, screenprinting to street theatre, Tai Chi to Red Rag
production. The media might think that the Greenham Womens' Peace Camp
has faded away, but Newbury Council have set aside £52,700 for
evictions during the current financial year; one of the student halls
of residence goes Nuclear Free and its president writes with great
enthusiasm to Red Rag in the apparent if unfounded belief that
Reading's Only Newspaper is the body that can bring this change about;
and Woozy Wombat is keen about something but we don't know what.
This is where you get a reputation for oddness, sneaking around town
with rucksacks of nettles or bags of rotten vegetation.
March 31st
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Several hundred people pass through the doors of the old dole offices
in South Street during a ten day Squat, with over a hundred and fifty
attending the various workshops. They produce the largest screenprint
in Reading, some 30 foot long by 12 high. The miners are still on
strike but you'd have to look hard to notice it; Wokingham Tory
M.P. William van Straubenzee gets quite uppity when he's told that
smoking can result in cancer and cancer can result in death; Ladybird
proposes a new method of timekeeping; and the Women's Press launch
their sci fi series.
April 14th
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Two of the Greenham peace-campers are attacked in the night - one of
them is hospitalised - and suspicion falls on U.S. servicemen; three
other women have been found guilty of criminal damage at the base and
one of them now faces a month in Holloway; two members of the Red
Brigade are sent down for two years each, for fucking in the dock
during their 1982 trial; Liz leaves Acorn; if you didn't understand
what that Nosferatu article was about neither did we; and there are
calls for patience as work gets under way on the two-mile road scheme
that's going to solve all our traffic problems this side of 1990. Road
works are expected to last for four and a half years, which means that
this concrete monstrosity will be able to handle projected traffic
flow for about three months.
April 28th
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Following the cycles of the moon, the next Cruise convoy is predicted
out on Salisbury Plain in May; a mass trespass onto the dispersal area
is planned; this would be easier to arrange at the weekend, but the
MOD refuses to co-operate over the timing. Fifteen new hospitals are
to be built and then stand empty, waiting to receive American and
N.A.T.O. personnel in the event of nuclear war; the Greenham Food Van
will spend the summer supporting a re-opened Red Gate camp; fifty ways
to kill the slugs in your back garden (some of them without flattening
Reading in the process); and something quite disparaging about the
situationists.
Minutes of collective meeting May 5th
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May 12th
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In the first half of April over 100 women were arrested inside the
airbase at USAF Greenham Common and charged with trespass. They had
cut many holes in the perimeter fence, disturbed some rabbits,
graffitied buildings with red paint, and made it onto the
runway. Picnics are now being arranged inside the fence, not
outside. Back in Reading, DHSS claimants under 26 living in Bed and
Breakfasts will have to keep moving on every 4 weeks; a new, more
severe Anarchist group hits the streets; someone around here's in
trouble; and we consider the parental behaviour of the Mongolian
Gerbil.
At the pub, just ask where the meeting is. I don't know if the
landlord will like Anarchists.
May 26th
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Bracknell anarchists run a 24 hour squat in the old cinema and 300
people turn up to watch a film, play with paints, and enjoy a 5-band
gig; the following weekend there's another gig at the same venue but
with different organisers and this time the event is unashamedly money
making. It'll take ten years to build a £75 million road system
through Reading that will only cope with five years' worth of rush
hours for the 40% of Berkshire who travel by car; we remember the fuss
about the possible links between the Pill and cervical cancer; Reading
Borough Council notices that advertising for playworkers in Reading's
Only might result in some very undesirable characters working with
Reading's children; a revolution which fails to make the reinvention
of everyday life its central aim will leave us standing in paradise
(or: why not to declaim at your houseplants); and Laura was unhappy
about her letter not being printed in the last issue and has written a
letter to complain, but we haven't printed that either.
June 9th
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Late on a Saturday afternoon in the centre of town three kids from
Tilehurst meet an empty panel of plywood and a shopping trolley full
of paint; there are plans for USAF Upper Heyford to store Binary Wave
gas, whatever that is; the Tudor Arms loses its credentials; tickets
for Glastonbury CND are on sale at Acorn; a loosely situationist
meeting will attempt to discuss the secret life of Reading and how to
influence councillors by remote control; how to get a sleeping bag
from the DHSS; and the Rabbit Squad is back in town. Do not let them
into your house.
I rushed over to begin snapping away with a
telephoto lens on my camera. I had shots of a pregnant woman being
dragged away while her husband was savaged by a dog and beaten. I had
pictures of a truck attempting to leave the field while two riot vans
hurtled over tents and benders to ram it to a halt. A pity I have them
no more. At the first opportunity my camera was taken by a sergeant
and two constables and, in my presence, the film very unceremoniously
removed.
Minutes of collective meeting June 16
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/ txt)
June 23rd
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Does physically attacking rich people at the Henley Regatta count as
legitimate protest against idle privilege or a stupid left-wing
imitation which diverts attention way from the Government actually
responsible for disadvantage? Five Greenham women on trial for
criminal damage to the Aldermaston fence; what constitutes an
authentically gay pub; an alternative to all those new roads and
bridges; Red Rag for the hard of hearing; Emma Goldman's birthday; and
Sir Keith Joseph is invited to a closed meeting at University and
although the time and place are a closely guarded secret, the
Vice-chancellor has threatened the Labour Club (but nobody else?) with
action if there's any trouble. In other news: anyone looking for
the flour bomb party should be at the Palmer Building by around
11.30am.
July 7th
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/ intro)
The Henley Regatta draws to a close and with it maybe also a debate
lifted straight from the Ladybird Book of Cliche Politics; £700 has
been raised for the Free Festival to celebrate 20 years of the Reading
Anarchist Group; Japan intends to ignore the moratorium on whaling
that seemed so certain in back in 1982; we struggle with a politically
correct spelling for "boycott"; and someone's got it in for Ragwort.
July 21st
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Post punk progressive rock might not be everyone's cup of
chlorpromazine but residents at Borocourt Hospital react to local
bands with seemingly limitless energy; it's Cultural Week at the
Apollo Youth Club; "Wednesday is Women's Day" at RCU has proved so
popular that it's continuing over the summer; there are blue clouds
over Henley; a Gay / Lesbian self defence class is starting up (is
self defence the same as resistance? the Rag tries not to draw a
line); and Ian's leaving Acorn.
One of the older residents, named Lenny, was
asked what he thought of the band, and replied "Eh?!" I repeated the
question loudly and he replied - very loudly - "They're Too
Noisy!"
August 4th
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If you leave your door unlocked when you go on holiday you'll come
back to a house full of squatters, but don't you mind all those
boarded-up houses in Whitley; two Greenham women go on trial,
scapegoated for causing 60 pounds (and 76p) worth of damage a USAF
perimeter fence; the Queen Mum is 85; we're averse to live drama; Mark
hesitates; and we find out what was in Box 2001.
August 18th
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When the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, human beings were
instantly vaporized, leaving behind only their shadows. Early in the
morning of August 6th 1985, people were hard at work whitewashing
shadows onto Broad Street, as a memorial and as part of a project
which spanned 100 towns in 17 countries. After an hour and a half (and
three hundred shadows) the police showed up; they couldn't find any
ringleaders; the cells had an incredible acoustic and the eleven
arrested settled down to an extended vocal workshop. The two women
charged with £60.76 damage to a fence at USAF Greenham Common plead
guilty and are given a two years conditional discharge plus costs of
£30, to be paid back at £2 a week; women in Reading now have a maximum
of 6 weeks left at the Women's Centre in Old Shire Hall; and Doris is
almost 20.
September 1st
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It might indeed be four years since the first women started camping at
Greenham Common; and rumours that Red Rag has been Reading's Only for
six whole years are quite reliable; but it's twenty years of Anarchist
organisation in Reading that catch the headlines. Happy Birthday
Doris! On Nagasaki Day a group of women break into A.W.R.E. Aldermaston
(not the first time this has happened) and phone the Press Association
to draw attention to the connection between the two places; the
Women's Centre gets a three month reprieve; Social Security is under
review; and evangelicals converge on Reading Abbey in an attempt to
drive out covens, sects, and occult practices.
Despite malicious and dishonest statements by the
Evening Drivel, no police presence will be required. If someone does
think it becomes necessary, I am sure that they will be able to use a
telephone kiosk like anyone else... The Drivel may hanker after a
"Smash Stonehenge" operation; that took 18 months to plan, and it will
take years to repair the damage to their "good name". To attempt
anything similar in a large conurbation like Reading, with only a few
weeks preparation would be the height of foolhardiness. Besides, "The
Authorities" are of course checking all mail going to Box 19, and they
can see as clearly as anyone that the Party is not a front for some
insurrectionary outbreak, but just what we have said all along, a
weekend of pleasure and creativity.
(scan
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/ intro)
It's been suggested that the police deliberately left Lozells Road to
the Handsworth rioters for several hours: quite acceptable if damage
was only done to the "problem" area's own facilities and fabric; and
anyway most businesses in the area were small, asian-owned, and
politically expendable. The new Thames Residents and Business
Association pledges to fight the proposed Third Thames Bridge; Doris's
party passes off with three minor injuries dealt with by first aid and
no arrests; the Ecology Party renames itself as the Green Party; a
creche network is not just an easy option for the ideological
credibility of those lacking plausible oppression; and for the first
time ever Red Rag is out of debt.
October 13th
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Half way through going to press, Red Rag receives a phone call from
Acorn to say that their offset litho has broken down; the show must go
on but the outcome is even less legible than usual. Minister for
Social Security Tony Scumbag Newton, obsessed with the hounding of Bed
and Breakfast claimants, his Benefit Regulations declared illegal by
Justice Mann, is now using a Specialist Claims Unit to investigate B&B
claimants in Reading. They're acting on instructions to find examples
of fraud by claimants - information desperately wanted by Newton so
that evidence on benefit abuse can be presented in the press, paving
the way to dissolving public support for those who live in the
appalling conditions which many crook landlords subject people to. The
latest scapegoat in the Greenham witchhunt, Katrina Howse, is given a
six month prison sentence by Reading Crown Court on framed charges;
it's been six lean months since the last Veggie Dining; and Reading
Between The Wavy Lines, the 1985-66 edition of the most unpronouncable
and indispensable guide to Reading town, has appeared amongst rain,
chaos, a Will Hay film of dubious merit and free lettuces.
October 27th
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Under the cover of producing a local guide book, members of the Red
Rag collective describe the Reading Chronicle as "a preposterous
compendium of estate agents' adverts and sponsored hopping
events". There were 300 arrests on the NHS anti apartheid demo on 19th
October; a test for antibodies to the AIDS virus is now freely
available to anyone who wants it; a new women's health group is to
start shortly; Reading Gay and Lesbian Helpline publishes a report to
mark six years of continuous operation; Paradise could do with a
cleanup; and Red Rag takes on a style correspondent.
One can hardly expect the local labour
councillors to throw themselves in front of the bulldozers, because
this isn't Prague 1968 and such well-respected people cannot afford to
be seen to be identifying with the lumpenproletariat of the Caversham
Road.
November 10th
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The black people of South Africa have repeatedly called for a boycott
of South African goods; anti-apartheid campaigners in Reading draw
attention to this by filling their supermarket trolleys with Outspan
oranges and then leaving the store empty-handed. The National Front
have now established a branch in Reading and NF stickers have been
appearing around town - some with razor blades behind them; the van is
ready for another winter of regular food runs to the women of
Greenham; Veggie Dining is happening again; and whatever Box Office is
doing for its anniversary party is so subversive that we can't read
it, let alone write it down.
November 24th
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The Government's proposals on Public Order include a possible power
for a police authority to claim the costs of policing a demonstration
from organisers who have breached conditions imposed by the police;
the last Rag carried a paid ad which included the Co-op and CRS logos
and the slogan "people who care", but unfortunately the Co-op doesn't
care enough to topple itself from the position of the U.K.'s largest
importer of South African fruit; and seventy women march twice through
Reading to Reclaim the Night: first along with the "necessary" police
escort, and then after the police have gone home on a second
demonstration which stops more traffic, makes more noise, and draws
more attention to the marchers and their demands.
December 8th
(scan
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/ intro) Under
the heading "Living in Communes" (which shows how thoroughly anyone
from the Rag read this article before printing it), there's a
hand-written rant about - uhm - children's liberation. Our
commune is a refuge for young people who escape from homes,
psychiatric torture chambers and nazi parents... Children are not
playthings for bored and lonely mothers to pamper. One of their
demands: Our right to enjoy our own bodies and to choose who we
mix with. No laws that punish loving sexual relationships among and
with children.
The address given is Indianerkommune, Nurenberg,
Germany; a cursory search nowadays links this organisation directly to
a long-established "Paedophile Movement":
The Indianer Commune existed from 1976, firstly headquartered in
Heidelberg, then in Nurenburg, calling itself a "children's rights
initiative" and working in favour of paedophilic sex.
(http://de.wikipedia.org)
Red Rag never (to my knowledge) fact-checked its
stories. Doing so for this article, over the distances involved, would
have been very difficult. But, whatever our individual involvements in
this issue, we must acknowledge responsibility for the printing of a
piece - neither challenged nor rebutted in later issues - which
encouraged young, vulnerable people to put themselves in
danger.
December 22nd
(scan
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/ intro) Nothing
that grabs my attention whatsoever. Occasionally this happened.
