RED RAG 24 -> 9 March Free Reading's Only Newspaper Red Rag, Reading's Only Newspaper, it is free, free as in it costs nowt and free as in it's an open forum for discussion. Money is always needed so send it, donate it etc etc. Articles are always appreciated, typed if possible (l2cm width). Next Issue Copy Date: 6th March. Send to Acorn, 17 Chatham St. Editorial: 8pm 7 Christchurch Gardens. Paste up: 11am 7 Christchurch Gardens. Coordinator: Mark 868488 Going Out: Mark 868488 Sunday (folding) Simon, Wargrave 2788 Events: Paul 481081 Distribution: Send to Acorn. Here is the news - - - WELCOME TO THEIR BRAVE NEW WORLD While we have all been distracted vith the Westland Trivia Quiz, those nasty Tories have been busy plotting in Parliament. For starters, there is the "Drug Trafficking Offences Bill" - see the accompanying piece from the latest "it" for some disquieting details. Then try the taste of the "Obscene Publications (Protection of Children etc) (Amendment) Bill". Backed by Mary Whitehouse and introduced by Winston Churchill. That alone should say enough! Ostensibly, the intention is to make all publicly accessible art, illustration, television and video "suitable for children". The primary concern is censorship, not children's welfare. For example, where are their laws requiring a similar obligation of public transport, schools, law courts, DHSS offices, abattoirs, battlefields, police stations... none of which I consider places at present suitable for children. Protection of children, a genuine worry for many of us, is being cynically used to further restrict the freedom of us all. So what is to be prohibited? At present prosecutions are often hindered by the difficulty of getting a jury to agree on the specific application of the subjective term "obscene". So throw that aside. In future, to be deemed obscene, an item need only "depict visually" anything on the Bill's list of prohibited actions. This list includes: "masturbation"; "sodomy"; "oral/genital connection"; "the lewd exhibition of genital organs"; "cannibalism"; and "mutilation or vicious cruelty towards persons or animals". So you can show film of all those jolly chaps in on horses halloo-ing after hounds, but not that nasty little incident that befalls the fox. As for those treasured urns of the Classical Greeks that grace some of our museums, no longer to be left on unrestricted public view. (The Bill aims to cover television, video, book and magazine illustrations, art galleries...) The Bill allows for unlimited fines and up to three years imprisonment. Last words from Geoffrey Robertson, writing in the Guardian: Mr Churchill reassured Parliament that his bill would not affect "most good Western and war films" while Nicholas Fairburn hoped it would prevent adults from seeing One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, which was "the worst form of manipulated and institutionalised sadism." This, perhaps, points to the future for British television after Churchill: cowboys may kill and good wars may be fought, but sadism in institutions must not be seen - lest, perhaps, it be believed. And if all that isn't enough, there is the new Public Order Bill to contemplate for dessert. More about that police state atrocity another time. - - - DRUGS BILL On 19th December last year the government published their proposal for dealing with 'drug traffickers'. Although the Bill (the Drug Trafficking Offences Bill, HMSO £3.70) is extremely complicated and confusing, the basic idea is quite simple. The way to deal with the evil drug traffickers is to take away their ill-gotten gains. Since it may be a bit difficult to prove just what are ill-gotten gains and what aren't, the solution is to take away everything. And that means everything - from cash money and shares in Megalopolitan Enterprises plc, to the clothes on your back and your toothbrush. The court will value everything and order payment of the total amount. That is, if you're lucky. If you're less lucky, they'll make an order for payment of everything you've had in the last five years (or even longer), whether you've still got it or not. If you can't pay, you go to prison (from 7 days for £80, to 3 years for over £100,000 or 10 years for over £1,000,000). There's no remission on these sentences; they're additional to the normal sentence for the offence. So who is a drug trafficker? Among others, anyone who grows their own dope ("production") and anybody who buys for other people or shares with them ("supply" and "possession with intent"). In practice, every regular user of every illegal drug. The Bill will compel judges to make confiscation orders in every case, whether they think it is appropriate or not. It is to be assumed, unless otherwise proved, that all property held by the defendant, at any time within five years of conviction was acquired in connection with drug traficking. A written statement from the prosecution stating the opinion of any person may be accepted as evidence of the value of the defendant's property. Among other things, the Bill also contains: power to restrain a defendant from dealing with his or her property before conviction; an unbelievably vague new offence of "assisting" drug trafficking with a penalty of fourteen years and a burden of proof on the defence; a power to enforce confiscation orders made by foreign courts; a power to issue general search warrants, in which neither the offence suspected nor the material to be seized need be specified; a power to obtain any information from any government department - so much for the secrecy of census records, or any other kind of records. The Bill is expected to pass through Parliament with all-party support (according to the Guardian). No similar legislation is proposed in relation to commercial fraud, or any other kind of crime. If it was, there would doubtless be an all-party outcry. Don Aitken Contact: Release, 347a Upper Street, London N1. 01-837-5602. For legal and drugs advice and information. (Please phone for appointment if you need to see someone) (24 hour emergency line 01-803-8864) - - - READING SINGERS CLUB Sunday 16th February saw the opening night for the newly formed Reading Singers Club at the "Shire Bar" of the George Hotel, Reading. And it was good! The main guests for the night "Cosmotheka" - music-hall revivalists - played two sets including material from their new album "Cosmotheka" and their new single "Wot a Mouth". Many thanks are due to local support band "the Navvies", who not only played a great set, but also provided the P.A. for the night! Local talent obviously abounds from the high standards set by the floor singers - some of whom have already been booked for guest appearances in their own right for future dates. The next "name" band up are the brilliant "Yetties" who will be playing on March 9th - but any local singers/performers of jazz/folk/blues music, please contact Adrian McEwan (Reading 394916) and fix yourselves a date - or just come along and suss it out.. Club meets every Sunday evening at 7.45 - come earlier if you want to book yourself a floor spot. Denis - - - (paid ad) 7/8/9 March WOMEN'S CONFERENCE Discussions Workshops Creche Displays Evening Entertainment A celebration at RCU and Women's Centre - - - GOING OUT Tuesday 25th Paradise: Ozric Tentacles, Webcore, The Biz. 9-late £1.50, Not to be missed!! Bulmershe: "Being There" Peter Sellars in his last film, Hexagon: "Pirates of Penzance". SHP: 8pm -> Excelsior, Big Band & Honeywell. Wagon & Horses, Twyford: Peter James Original Jubilee Jazzband, manic! OOTC: Someone's playing but I don't know who!! BJ Moons: Derek Hatton lookalike Keith James does his bit. Tudor: Gay disco (mostly men). Wed 26th RCU: video screening 1.30pm-3.00 (women) RFT "The Home and the World" (U) Hex: Pirates still do their bit. SHP: "How to make a foolof yourself and get away with it". One for you Martin Salter. Acting workshop 1.15pm-2.45pm Thurs 27th SHP: Namoza & support. Rose: Curate's Egg (Maidenhead) Angies: Boogie on down to the "Magic Mushroom Band" RFT: "Notre Histoire" a film. Hex: Pirates still doing their bit. Hex: 1.10pm "Musica Stravagarte". Paradise: Soul / reggae (late bar). Boars Head: Blues for boars. Victoria Arms: All that Jazz. Friday 28th RCU: Veggie Dining - Red Rag benefit. Very tasty food & entertainment, come along 8.00pm. Angies: "Juvessance". RFT: "Times of Harvey Milk." RUSU: Sigue Sigue Sputnik 8-1am. SHP: Crimes of Passion. Tudor: Gay disco (mostly men). Saturday 1st March Hello Hare!! SHP: "Strawhead" not Wurzel! Hex: Pirates still at it! Majestic: Soul / jazz funk 2pm-4pm bar!! Central: Saxon international Studio Jah Marcus Sound System 8-3 in the morning. Sunday 2nd March SHP: lunchtime "sacred harp workshop"!! George Hotel: 7.45 "Reading Singers Club" Studio Bistro (London Rd): folk. Victoria Arms: Graham Newitt. Monday 3rd Bull (Nettlebed): Dave Goulder. Hex: Opera 80 takes over from the pirates. Silks (Thatcham): rock night. Cap and Gown: Teenagers From Outer Space. RUSU: Jazz. Free!! Kennet Arms: folk (Irish?) Thatcher's: Jazz. Tues 4th Majestic: do the insect crawl cause it's "Dr & The Medics". See you there!! Fox & Hounds (Fleet): Portway Peddlars (folk). Bulmershe: "Escape from New York". Hex: Opera 80. Palmer Building, Whiteknights: "Baroque Musik". Tudor: Gay disco (mostly men). OOTC: music but who? B.J. Moons: good old Keith James. Wed 5th RCU: Women's video screening 1.30-3.00pm, RFT: "Carmen". Hex: Opera 80. Is this really all that's on? Everyone down the Dove? Thurs 6th SHP: Skells. Rose (Maidenhead): 13th Birthday Party. RFT: "Once Upon a Time in America". Hex: Gala concert 7.30pm. Paradise: soul / reggae. Victoria Arms: Mard the Jazz Sextet. Boars Head: Blues. Friday 7th Lamb (Eversly): Pig Foot. Central Club: "Sophia George" & Ranking Mis P roadshow - Soul Sound, Big Bird, etc. (also Mater Jammer Sound). 8 'til late. Hex: Foster & Allen. Majestic: Tom O'Connor. Saturday 8th SHP: Crows. Majestic: Jazz / funk 12-4pm (bar). Hex: 210 (radio) "10th anniversary celebrations". Sunday 9th George: "The Yetties" 7.45. Studio Bistro: Folk, Victoria Arms: ?? Mon 10th Bull (Nettlebed): "Scotch Measure". Kennet Arms: Irish folk. Thatcher's: Jazz funk. Key Paradise - 112 London St (576847) RCU - Reading Centre for Unwaged (596639) Hex - 591591 SHP - Bracknell 484123 RFT - Whiteknights (Palmer Building) Otherwise look it up yourselves!! Happy whatever Paul xxx PS Mark is back next issue. Send him info on 868488. - - - VIOLENCE...! There is an unfortunate tendency among some pacifists to portray all revolutionaries who do not accept their absolutist stand on non-violence as bloodthirsty sociopaths. The article 'Violence and Red Rag' in the last issue went one step further and adopted a patronizing tone towards what it saw as those poor benighted comrades who still haven't renounced violence. My first response is to react to the absurdity of the situation presented by the anonymous author of this article. I feel oppressed. If I try to break free of my oppression I come up against the forces of the state - initially the police, but behind them the armed forces (I'm ignoring for the moment the violence I have already suffered from my schooling, the church, the violence of wage slavery on the production line or life on the dole - in fact all the violence of a capitalist state which is founded on the principles of force and compulsion.) If I reject this system I face their truncheons, riot sticks, CS gas, pistols, machine guns, tanks, aircraft, missiles, bombs; their prisons, asylums, torture, humiliation and harassment - and here I stand with, if I'm lucky, my 'Red Rag' petrol bomb in my hand. And someone comes along and tells me not to be so violent! Don't Tell Me - Tell Them! It is those who make non-violent revolution impossible that make violent revolution inevitable. Is 'Anon' really saying that violent self-defence is no different from violent attack? No ruling class has ever given up its power without a violent struggle, or at least the serious threat of violence. If you baulk at using violence against those who oppress you, then it would be better if you never started on the revolutionary path at all. Because when push comes to shove the ruling class would rather kill us all than lose its power and privilege. Lie down in front of their tanks and they will be happy to drive over you. Revolutions are fuelled by both love and hate. Such a drama is being played out now in Haiti. The Tonton Macoute have oppressed the Haitians - amongst the poorest people in the world - for twenty six years. To preserve their dictator leader, and their own petty privileges, the Tonton Macoute have systematically and deliberately oppressed their compatriots by beatings, whippings, rape, torture and arbitrary murder. Now things have changed. If the people of Haiti chose to take violent revenge upon the Tonton Macoute I could not find it in my heart to condemn them. It would be wonderful if it never came to that. I'd like to speak to those workers who've been conned into seeing their best future in the police, the army or anywhere else in the state's elaborate system of control and oppression. I'd like to show them how the revolution is for them too. But at the same time I'm not going to shut down my life, repress all my hopes and desires until every bloody member of the working class is convinced! We will talk to them, persuade, love and support them but, if after all we do, if after all we say, they still choose to put their strength and intelligence in the service of power - then too bad. BGP - - - CHRONIC MOVES The Reading Chronic, local voice of the British Electric Traction multinational, has moved to new premises on the Battle Industrial Estate. The staff at the Chronic will no doubt welcome the move and the introduction of the 'new technology'. An examination of the contents of the skip left behind after the Chronic moved out of Blagrave Street revealed that the staff had been reduced to the wretched (and illegal) practice of making up artwork by photocopying pages of the Letraset catalogue and cutting out the required letters. Zed - - - Red Rag Benefit Friday 28th February VEGGIE DINING at RCU East St. Bring your own drink. 8 till late Tickets: £3-Waged; £2-50 Unwaged (inc. 50p donation to Red Rag) Veggie Dining is a loose open collective of people who aim to provide a Vegan "Extravaganza" every fortnight at the Reading Centre for the Unemployed. The idea is that anyone can get involved so that it is not just one group of people cooking every time. Some groups do it as a fund raising benefit and add 50p to the ticket price (as above) but usually it is just done for the sake of it! Entry is by ticket only which are available from Acorn Bookshop in the preceding two weeks. Anyone wanting more info or to help cook or perform should either contact Jonathan on 599969 or leave a note in Box 495 at Acorn Bookshop, 17 Chatham Street. - - - READING GREEN PARTY Events Public meeting "Healthy food, healthy farming" Monday 24 February St Mary's Centre The Butts Green Party benefit, featuring local musicians Thursday 6 March Horse & Barge, Duke St admission £1:50 Public meeting "A new look at the jobs crisis" Speaker: Paul Ekins, on the economic policies of the Green Party. Wednesday 26 March St Mary's Centre The Butts All events start 8 pm For details phone Andrew 660373 Maria 55415 - - - LETTERS Hail Eris While I'm aware that you are an open forum for discussion, I think you should be a little wary of Paul Petard's line of argument. In his letter he denied that absurdity is the enemy of authority, on the grounds that the state uses absurdity and disorganisation "against those who try and build an organised revolutionary alternative". In fact, absurdity and disorganisation threaten any organisation, be that organisation the revolutionary alternative, or the state itself. Discordians have little time for either. After all, what will the masses get from the organised revolutionary alternative? Assuming it gets off the ground, they'll first see a few people telling them what to do (organising them). This will probably (although not necessarily) be followed by an exciting time of violent struggle. Then they'll be presented with another state! If they're lucky, a few laws will be changed, and some new people will be in charge; this will ensure a few surprises, as new people try to do new (old?) jobs, and old (new?) people try to follow new laws. Probably, though, the organised revolutionary alternative will just change a few figureheads, and leave everything else the same. They're in charge now, so why rock the boat? (ship of state) This, of course, is not anarchy. Social revolution and anarchy are built on disorganisation and chaos. Anarchy comes from social revolution. Social revolution is the awareness of individuals that their lives belong to them, and that no-one, especially no organisation, has any right to control them. Anarchy appears from this chaos when enough people understand that, and stop trying to control others. Anarchy is a disorganisation; its authority lies in the fact that its rules are unwritten and constantly changing, and everyone has the same 'control' over everyone else. So be there, Red Rag, or beware. If you're not careful you'll find yourselves organised. Lots of love, All hail discordia, Nick PS Paul Petard is obviously a member of the Discordian Society. I am not. Dear Red Rag, About two months ago, a blackbird shat on my head. Typical of these filthy creatures. Dirty, smelly, unhygienic animals. If you ask me, the council should employ somebody to shoot or poison them all. (With all this youth unemployment and MSC grants and all that it should not cost the ratepayers very much at all.) Anyone caught feeding wild birds should be heavily fined. Any piece of ground not properly managed and regularly sprayed with pesticides should be covered in tarmac or concrete. We must deprive these unwashed creatures of the dirt and grubs and flies they thrive on. Don't get me wrong. I am as much an animal-lover as the next person. I sent my nephew, Genghis, a birthday card with a hedgehog on it last year, and I always watch the nature programmes on TV. But I really do believe that all these disorderly wild birds and animals should be kept where they belong - in properly run and licensed zoos - not left to roam wherever they choose. After all, whose world is it? What do we pay our mortgages and our rates and our taxes for? I'm sure some immature proto-Luddite would argue with this, but if we listened to them, we would still, have wolves and bears and tigers marauding our streets. Yours, Disgusted of Lower Earley Dear Red Rag, A local woman, Anne Materhouse, is due to appear at Reading Magistrates Court on 4th March, at 10am, in connection with non-payment of fines. As part of the "Snowball" campaign, she cut the fence at Molesworth, and has since refused to pay the fine - £60. She still intends to refuse payment, and would appreciate the support of Red Rag readers in this stand. The State would like to deal with each of us separately; we can display that this is a fiction, that our defiance of their madness is done in unity and mutual solidarity. Child Woodward. Dear Not-The-Macho-beer-swilling-bed-pushing-week-long-rag I was very pleased to see the 'mens Lib' article in the last issue. For the most part I would whole-heartedly agree with it, tho' I have reservations about using the word "oppressed" in relation to men, I agree we are conditioned to be inhuman and to play the role of oppressor. Naturally any enforced role will prevent us from freely expressing our personality and sexuality. You play down the importance of Pornography in all this, to call it a sex-substitute is only half the story. It is also anti-women propaganda showing women as prey to be conquered, sex objects, incapable of existence as independent and complete people but as the other half of a (necessarily) incomplete male and essentially his property to be used for reproduction and anything else He chooses, even tortured, raped and mutilated. Society makes man the participant in worldly affairs and woman an artificial 'other' without which man cannot survive but also cannot understand because of the difference in conditioning processes. I don't think it's very helpful to say that you don't accept that all men are potential rapists. I know it's not very nice to think of yourself like that, but the woman you are walking behind at midnight down Reading high street (actually I hope you would have the decency to cross the road) would find it very intimidating; to her you pose a very real threat, you still have the potential to rape even though you may choose not to. Lizzy Tim p.s. On this subject "Pornography: Men Possessing Women" by Andrea Dworkin is well worth reading. If you can stomach it! - - - SMALL ADS Can you spare a few hours ??? Men & Women urgently needed to help run creche for the womens conference on the 8th and 9th of March. Please contact Julie at the RCU Tel 399639 or Karen 669694. Food will be provided. Beautiful, affectionate ginger Tom cat (neutered, 4 yrs old) needs secure loving home without small children. Phone 588459 Female companion wanted to wok go to work on a Kibbutz (Israel) in April. Interested? Phone Debbie 341638 (after 7pm). Wanted: driving practice. Do you have a car, a bit of spare time and a calm disposition? I need some regular driving practice after Easter so's to pass my test and would like to find one compatible person to do it with; in exchange I can offer for instance petrol money, meals, weeding your garden, babysitting. Contact Liz on 867955. For Sale White R reg Peugeot 204. Taxed, MOT, 66,000 miles, very reliable. Quick sale hence £295, Tel BK 595834 (evenings). - - - THE SUN NEVER SETS ON BRITISH "JUSTICE"... Part Two Irma and Patrick were arrested in September 1984 for causing the death of their child - although no-one could find any baby. Whilst in custody, neither of them spoke a word - until, on September 28th, they said they wanted to go home and would show the police where the body was... which they did. The police could not sex or age the remains because of the amount of decomposition which had occurred. They said that they could not press a charge of murder without an identifyable body, when they were questioning "witnesses". They tried very hard to get the age and sex of the baby out of people, seemingly desperate to get enough "evidence" to make a murder charge stick. Following an examination of the body, the couple were recharged - with neglect. They were kept in custody - Irma in prison, and Patrick in Fairmile Hospital. For refusing to eat non vegan food , he was locked up and put on drugs which transformed him from a fit and healthy young man into a lethargic hulk. On 5th and 6th October 1984 they were re-interrogated and at this point it seems that a major breach of procedure was committed by the police - of which the jury seemed to take very little notice. Because the police did not formally say that they were interrogating them on the new neglect charge, instead there was the usual "anything you say may be taken down and used in evidence" bit. And that's because the police were still trying to make a charge of murder stick. But they didn't say that to Irma and Patrick. No charge was specified as the basis for the interrogation. On 5th / 6th October, the couple made their only statements of the whole case - and only Irma signed hers. Between 6th October 1984 and 5th November 1985 they were kept in custody... Irma in prison and Patrick in Fairmile, from which he repeatedly escaped. The trial itself was attended by several members of Reading's Rastafarian community: their impressions of the jury have already been given. The prosecution case was based on them not getting a doctor to the child. The defence tended to present them as members, of an extreme group, say those present at the Court. One person remembers: "I heard one policeman, talking to Rastafarian friends of Patrick's, say that as he had taken the name Abraham, and Irma the name Sarah, he had obviously sacrificed the children to God, as Abraham and Sarah did. He said this, and a number of other offensive things, in a very aggressive way either in anger, because he actually believed this to be the case, or as a frightening tactic. They remained far calmer than I could have done in that situation." Both sides called a specialist witness to explain the principles of Rastafari to the Court. At 3.30 pm on 9th November the jury had heard both "sides": yet the judge did not sum up whilst all the evidence was fresh in the jurors' minds. Instead he discharged them. They went home to TV and newspapers. The fact that he only took one and a half hours the following morning to sum up makes you question whether it was appropriate to sum up then instead of on the Thursday afternoon. Although it did not reach a unanimous verdict first time around, the jury found them guilty of neglect. Whether individuals would agree with this depends on attitudes to the media, British "justice" white criteria being applied to black culture, the police, and so on. But do you agree with it??? some friends of Patrick & Irma. - - - UNITY COMMUNITY CENTRE London St. Reading Friday 7 March £5 People's Choice Sophia George The Ranking Miss P daimonds masterjammers Aqua Levi Bionic Reuben Sideon Big Biro Steven The Easy Rider One Love - - - READING CAMPAIGN AGAINST BENEFIT CUTS / READING LABOUR PARTY Parliamentary Petition "Join the dole queue, for a little while" Signatures will he collected on the petition from the dole queues and from outside DHSS, from Monday to Friday, 24-28 February and 3-7 March, from about 9.30am to 3.30pm. The rota for this is being compiled by Richard Tyndall, Reading 667731 (evenings). Please ring him if you or any of your members can help at those times. "Book early to avoid disappointment???" (The petition and related papers were mailed to most recipients of this by RCABC at the end of January. The above is, hopefully, in addition to all the petitioning already being done.) - - - CONSERVE READING ON WEDNESDAYS (CROW) Reading now has a second conservation group. Following the success of the Berkshire conservation volunteers (BeC)- a new midweek group is being formed. We have transport, equipment and lots of important sites to conserve and protect. Our first task will be at Moor Copse near Tidmarsh on Wednesday March 12. Please phone Malcolm Chandler on Reading 427107 for details of where to meet (probably in town centre) and for more information about future tasks. See you there. Chris B. - - - MANSION HOUSE PROTEST Things are really beginning to stir about the Mansion House scheme! Saturday, March 1st - Parade along Broad St. with placards and banners. Meeting at West Street/Broad Street corner from 11:00 a.m. Sunday, March 2nd, 'Fun and Frolics' in Prospect Park - games, music, painting, food and the Model Railway plus much more from 1:30 p.m. onwards. On Friday, March 7th the planning committee of Reading Borough Council is virtually certain to give planning permission for the scheme to change the Mansion House into an office complex. It will also grant permission for other developments, including a car park with a high security fence, to the rear of the house. The slope away from the front will be 'landscaped' to 'deter' park users from going near the 'offices'. This large-scale scheme will alter the character of the most attractive and prominent part of Prospect Park - for the worst! Mansion House 'offices' would have an overpowering affect on the park, in contrast to the way even the derelict building blends with the natural features of the park. While the scheme is almost certainly going to be voted through on March 7th this does not mean the campaign will stop. In fact this will be the signal for the campaign to get going in earnest. Join the lobby outside the Civic Offices on Friday, March 7th at 2:00 p.m. to show that we want open space left alone and offices kept out of public parks. Prospectus Mansionus - - - PEACE MATTERS A few snippets from some of Readings Pacifists gathering on Feb 12 which may be of interest to Rag readers... There was a discussion concerning links with other groups with similar aims. It was felt exchanging meetings may be a good way of swapping ideas and giving more strength to Peace Activities. Hence the next Peace Pledge Union & Friends meet will be at St. Marys Centre, Reading on the 5th of march. Woodley peace group and others will turn up to sort out something for the Year of Peace. All interested come along about 7.30 pm. This year is designated International Peace Year and has been divided into... Peace and Development, Peace and Justice, Peace and Community, Peace and Disarmament. There are no funds available from the government... so groups and individuals are left to highlight these areas in their own ways. All agree every year is or should be International Peace Year! Molesworth Blockade Comments on the blockade mainly centered around the fact that it worked, and the low profile of the press (probably cos there was no mass arrests and damage!). Reports from the Press mentioned the weather (wasn't it cold)! rather than why the blockade took place. Anti Apartheid Support for recent graffiti on Barclays banks, "Banking on Apartheid". Good news too is that Reading university and Oxfam have stopped banking at Barclays bank cos they are heavily into apartheid in South Africa. Tools For Eritrea Publicity and tools needed to help this action. (See ad elsewhere) Mayday Peace Pledge Union, Red Rag & others doing a stall. This years Mayday official event is on May 3rd at RCU. Further Info about Reading Pacifists from: Val & Dereck 488416 or Paul 667085 - - - THE SPECTACLE IS WATCHING YOU... Advertisements are one of the most important spectacular-cultural forces moulding and reflecting the alienations of our life today. They are everywhere, an inevitable part of everyone's daily survival: even if you do not read a newspaper, not even the red rag or watch television, the images posted over our urban surroundings are inescapable. Pervading all the media, but limited to none advertising forms a vast superstructure - an Auschwitz of consumption - with an apparently autonomous existence and an immense influence. The very existence of adverts' gives them a sort of independent reality that links them to our own lives; since we both share a mutually reflected continuity - we live out some of those images - they constitute a world constantly experienced as real. The 'ad world' becomes seemingly separate from the material medium-whether screen, page and head etc., which carries it like a host body. Adverts move towards a false materiality, because they have no true material form and the material political economy of capital becomes confused, distorted, changed around the interzone of the screen, the page, the head-a spectacular terrain, a Vidaodrome in the making. It is this universal quality: and its vivacity as a recognisable 'form' despite the fact that it functions within different technical media and despite different 'content' (that is, different messages about different products / commodities): that indicates the significance of advertising. Obviously ads have a initial function, which is to sell things to us, to get us to consume; but they have a deeper function, in which they displace art and religion - they create structures of meaning... advertisements sell us more than just consumption; they are a structure in which objects and people are interchangeable, they sell us ourselves. Advertisements (simple spectacular ideologies) can incorporate anything, even reabsorb criticism of themselves, because they refer to it devoid of content. The whole system of advertising is part of a great recuperator: it will work on any material at all, it will bounce back uninjured from advertising restriction laws to prevent excess spectacle; the subversions of women and criticisms / critiques of its basic function like this one; precisely because of the way it hollows out historical meaning from structures, suspending them in a timeless self-reflexive inertia... I can see the videodrome grafted on to Thatcher's face and looking out of Kinnock's eyes... here comes the reign/rain of the big damage, the visual fallout...... Jayne with the 2001 collective: the shape of rage. - - - NEW MUSICAL COLUMN Last Monday evening saw a triple bill benefit at the Paradise Club... for a meagre £l:50! All proceeds went to <>. The Barcelona Bus Company kicked off, doing a tight competent set of post-punk rock. Stirring stuff, lads. Next came the fabulous furry Escapists, who have come on tremendously since last years debut at Doris. They now have a synthesizer player & on Monday had a 'guest' appearance on sax. Ace. A solid fun set, highlights being 3 of the bands own numbers and a humorous rapport with the audience. So, feet tapping and on to Open Door who I missed, having to get one early night this week. Reports say they did their stuff! Thanx to all concerned. It was a relaxing and entertaining evening. More please soon, 0X0, PHP. - - - A VALENTINES DAY EXCURSION TO THE 'PRIVATE SHOP' A group of women arrived at the private shop (Southampton St) on Friday evening... it soon became clear to the rampantly misogynistic owner that we weren't customers and he became immediately aggressive. He claimed that he and men like him were keeping maniacs from jumping on women like us and seemed to want thanks for channeling 'uncontrollable' male sexual urges. He refused to see any link between rape, pornography and sexism, and that each are a desire to avoid interaction with a woman as another human being. To have complete control over sex at best, at worst to feel and maintain power by making women powerless. Communication broke down very quickly after he screamed that he was surprised that there were any children to be affected by pornography with 'fucking dykes' like us around! Soon afterwards the police arrived to do their job and remove us from the premises. They were largely unresponsive to questions like 'how do you feel about having to support a man who is exploiting women and encouraging a climate in which violence to women is acceptable'. We were relegated to the pavement, sang songs and talked with interested passers-by and succeeded in closing the shop early. We must stand up together in this way and say what we feel about our own sexuality, and force men to reexamine their own attitudes to women add sex-implicit in their consumption of porn. We must talk to our local newsagents who stock porn and picket porn shops regularly and make it clear that pornography is a symptom of our sexist society, a reflection of its assumptions; that it is violent and misogynistic and nothing to do with the free expression of 'healthy' sex, but rather the truly 'perverted' desire to violate and oppress another human being. - - - SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL GLAZIER Ha Ha! Barclays Bank takes a subtle bricking and calls it petty vandalism. On the night of February 10th, over 100 windows and at least 6 double glass doors all belonging to the afore-mentioned racists, had 'Banking On Apartheid' indelibly etched upon their outside surfaces. True, the markings are not large, but are readable and permanent. Chris How, the local area manager, reckons Barclays are the wrong target because they only own 40% of their Bank in South Africa and claims that they have eradicated apartheid from the work place. Really? Then why do they have separate banks for Blacks? Mr. How has also conveniently forgotten the financial and political power that his employers have with the South African government. You are wrong Chris, Barclays are a legitimate target for this type of action because your directors perpetuate apartheid. Back to the gloating - if Barclays can handle the embarrassment of leaving the windows & doors as they are that's fine by us - the message is there for all of their customers & passers-by to see! If they can't then we doubt if a sum of £l0,000 will be enough to replace all of the glass and doors. I wonder if they will send the bill to South Africa? Oh, I nearly forgot, this is petty vandalism so they will probably pay for it out of petty cash! Free South Africa - Stop Banking On Apartheid. A. Payne. - - - SMALL AD Person wanted to share flat. Non smoker. Near town. £103:50 pcm + rates. Phone James 595605. - - - WOMENS CONFERENCE 7-9 MARCH Reading women are organising a womens conference to bring together women from the South-East. The conference aims to enable women to meet each other, share experiences, skills, ideas and information, learn together, develop further activities for women and have fun! During the weekend there will be a wide range of workshops. These are just a few of those on offer; creative art, Black and Irish women, rhythm workshop, acupuncture, womens health, spirituality, Ki, childbirth, & women and organisational change. There will also be time and space allocated to spontaneous activities and to give women the opportunity to pool their ideas and enthusiasm to generate further 'events' and activities for women. There will also be exhibitions and displays provided by a variety of womens organisations. * Registration --- at R.C.U. from 6.30 Friday 7th. Come and find out what's happening and when. * Cost --- £l / 50p a day for workshops. * Workshops --- will run between 10.00 and 6.00ish at R.C.U. and Womens Centre. * A signer will be available for deaf women. Ring contact number if needed. See below. * Limited access for disabled women. * Creche available. * Food available. * Crash Accommodation - Bring sleeping bag And don't miss the evening entertainment: Fri. 7th March: "Bodies" by Reading Womens Performance group and voice workshop. R.C.U. 8.00 pm donations welcome. Sat. 8th March: OVA, a womens band are playing at R.C.U. 8.00 pm £2 / £l Sun. 9th March: A performance based loosely on Brecht's 'The Mother' collectively devised by a group of women. 8.00 pm For Further Information... Contact Karen - 669694 Lynette - 584457 Karen - 596639 (daytime) or - 473296 (evening) We hope that you will come and join us. *** All Women Welcome *** - - - OUTLETS Acorn Bookshop. Under Chatham St. Car Park. Central Club. London St. Centre for the Unemployed. East St. Continental Stores. Cemetery Junction. Elephant Groceries & Off Licence. Derby St. Eurofoods. Crown Colonnade, Cemetery Junction. Fairview Community Centre. George Street. Fine Food Stores. 168 Oxford Rd. Harrisons Newsagent. Caversham Road. Harvest Wholefoods. Harris Arcade, Friar St. I.C.L Social Club. Blagrave St. Indian Community Centre. 2 Norris Rd. Jelly's Stores. Whitley St. Kans Kitchen. London Rd. Library. St. Bartholomews Rd. Lings Chinese Fish Bar. Wokingham Rd. Listen Records. Butts Centre. Kens Shop. S.U Whiteknights. * Mo's Place. London St. Music Market. Union St. Number Sixty. Christchurch Green. Pop Records. 172 Kings Rd. Paradise Club. London St. Pan Bookshop, Butts Centre. Sanco Newsagents. Caversham Rd. Sugar Bowl. Wokingham Rd. Sutherlands. Erleigh Rd. Tech College. Kings Rd. U.B Cycles. London St. Williams Stores, 184 Oxford Rd. * Gratuitous plug: don't forget to read Dragitator the supplement for students. Note to the Chronic... with regard to our graphics - well, what do you think? - - - EVENTS Monday 24th Veggie Dining Cooks meeting at 39 Coventry Rd for Red Rag Benefit. Starts at 8.00. Womens vocal workshop 8pm Womens Centre Abbey St RCABC (Reading Campaign Against Benefit Cuts) public meeting 7.30pm Coley Park Community Centre. Reading Green Party: "Healthy Food, Healthy Farming" a talk. 8pm St Marys Centre, Butts *RCU Prepare for Self Employment 12.30 pm Sign Language 1.00 - 3.00 Tuesday 25th East Street Arts Exchange at the RCU. Key English l-3pm. Storytime for the under 5s. Palmer Park Library. Womens Conference meeting 7pm Womens Centre Abbey St. Wednesday 26th RCU Womens Day... Self Expression 10-12.30 Fabric and Yarn Craft 10-3 Thursday 27th RCU Black and White Photography, l-3pm. Wildlife Garden Group l-3pm. Creative Writing Workshop: l-3pm. Stop Press: 10.30 meeting at RCU for a "Spectacular Extravaganza" Acting, Dancing, Juggling etc etc come along! Friday 28th Veggie Dining at the RCU Red Rag Benefit so come along!!! RCU, Color Photography 2-4pm Satuday 1st March Mansion House Protest (see article elsewhere) Sunday 2nd March Mansion House Protest. RCABC at the RCU meeting 6.30pm. Cycle ride start Caversham Bridge 10am phone Richard 0344 50849 for details. Monday 3rd March RCU same as last week! And likewise the whole week. Tuesday 4th March Wokingham Womens Study Group Womens Centre 1a Milton Rd Wokingham. "Notable C20th Women" Wednesday 5th March nothing except RCU same as last week. Thursday 6th March Reading Green Party benefit with local bands at the Horse and Barge. £1:50 Friday Saturday and Sunday Womens Conference at the RCU see elsewhere for details. On Sunday there's another cycle ride phone Jane Shutt for details 665587. Sorry Events are a bit rushed. T'other Paul will be back next week so send him info or phone him 481081. Happy whatever! Paul xxx - - - The Psychedelic Conspiracy presents OZRIC TENTACLES Webcore The Biz at the Paradise Club 112 London St Tues 25 Feb £1:50 on the door - - - REQUIEM - THE OTHER SHUTTLE On 28th January 1986, beneath a blue sky and the scattering of snowflakes, seven people died in the most tragic of circumstances. Seven people - who lived and worked in this town, and who may or may not have been known to you; whom you perhaps saw pass as hurrying shadows on an impatient street. They died in the darkened, lonely wards of our hospitals, whilst their families could only watch and helplessly weep. Unlike their American counterparts however they did not die voluntarily - but as the result of incurable, malignant diseases which descended upon them without reason, without consideration. They received no exorbitant salaries, no special training or privileges, and were heaped with no fame. Their only foolishness was to toil day after day, year after year, over the very machines that were to be the objects of their eventual, agonising destruction. Had they lived there would have been no presidential banquet for them, no ticker-tape parades or millionaire status, only the endless toil of yet another tomorrow, the sweat and tears of their unrelenting oppression. They struggled their entire lives to earn an honest day's pay, while their masters exploited them, deprived them, and chained them in slavery until they were crushed into submission, and their battered bodies, tired of unending abuse and hardship, began the inexorable process of self destruction. They did not willingly sanction a frivolous technology of national self interest and egotism while their less fortunate fellows starved to death on hungry, unforgiving streets. They did not participate joyously in the construction of a technological straight jacket about the Earth capable of annihilating at the throw of a switch our entire species, and whatever future might be left to us. As they lay dying in resigned agony in their beds they had not the strength to ask if the £860 million worth of flame, smoke, and scrap metal cascading out of the Florida sky might somehow have financed the medical technology that could have saved their lives, and that of a million other silent martyrs to the cause of Capitalism. And when their disease ridden bodies were taken to some overgrown comer of a forgotten municipal graveyard, no one aaked why the flags were not lowered, or why there was no guard of honour, no civil dignitaries, no commemorative monument with its eternal hypocritical flame. For those who loved them there were no million dollar insurance policies to protect them from the poverty that is the inevitable fate imposed by society upon the unrecognised, uncompensated bereaved - the generosity of the system that crushed them providing a paltry £30 Death Grant that would see us all consigned to the earth in nothing more affordable than refuse sacks. No one knows the names of those seven men and women who died so tragically on 28th January 1986. Names that will never be recited by mournful, worshipping schoolchildren and dull faced antiseptic newsreaders. Their black-edged photographs will adorn no morning papers, nor lie between the covers of eternal unrelenting schoolbooks. If they are particularly fortunate the sum total of their remembrance may be a medical journal statistic - a number among numbers upon some thesis paper. But their loved ones will remember them, and we too will ever remember them - for their indescribable and infinite sacrifice at the very frontiers of human dignity. To the seven unknown victims who died we offer the epitaph of our eternal, unrelenting discontent: Requiescat In Pace Joe Reading 28th January 1986 - - - RED RAG BENEFIT Rupert Murdoch will nor be appearing. "Red Rag is not the sort of thing News International could sell," he explained... Watch out for details of who is playing (and save up your pocket money). Tuesday 11th March 1986 Paradise Club, London St, Reading - - - AN ACORN BIT Hello Acorn collective here, hope you are all as well as you would wish. This 'ere piece is mainly to inform you all that the Acorn Bookshop will be holding a sale of books, badges, cards, and all other sorts of bitz 'n pieces that you wouldn't believe unless you come on down. The Grand Salette commences on Sat 1st March at opening time, for those who don't know thats 10 o'clock. This grand salette will carry on from 4/3/86 untill we run out of things or the collective decides its had enough. Meanwhile on the retail front here's a brief list of whats new on the shop and whats in the streets; Mags ** Direct Action fresh back on the streets after quite a gap, lots on Wapping Black Flag the Anarchist fortnightly, Harpy anarcho feminism from Bristol, Womens World new international mag. Books My Beautiful Launderette, new film with rave reviews, Zen without Zen masters, Women in focus-guidelines for eliminating media sexism, Floral Street from a contributor to Mae West is dead, The Button an expose of the non workings of american strategic defence systems, also What a way to run a Railroad, an analysis of radical failure, interesting reading for those in or considering getting into the "radical" trade, not forgetting the new Knockabout. ta a collective - - - POPE PAUL ALLITERATIVELY DAMNS DISCORDIANS There has been some confusion, there could be more, and Those Wishing To Apportion Blame are sharpening their shotguns. See below for free trial offer of caps. "And behold, thusly was the Law formaulated: Imposition of Order = escalation of Disorder!" (NBT, The Gospel According to Fred, 1:6) The Five Orders of Discordia ("Them") Gen. Pandaemonium, Commanding The seeds of the Orders of Discordia were planted by Greyface into his early disciples. They form the skeleton of the Aneristic Movement, which over-emphasizes the Principle of Order and is antagonistic to the necessary compliment, the Principle of Disorder. The Orders are composed of persons all hung up on authority, security and control; i.e., they are blinded by the Aneristic Illusion. They do not know that they belong to Orders of Discordia. But we know. 1. The Military Order of The Knights of the Five Sided Temple. This is for all of the soldiers and bureaucrats of the world. 2. The Political Order of The Party for War on Evil. This is reserved for lawmakers, censors, and like ilk. 3. The Academic Order of The Hemlock Fellowship. They commonly inhabit schools and universities, and dominate many of them. 4. The Social Order of The Citizens Committee For Concerned Citizens. This is mostly a grass-roots version of the more professional military, political, academic and sacred Orders. 5. The Sacred Order of The Defamation League. Not much is known about the D.L., but they are very ancient and quite possibly were founded by Greyface himself. It is known that they now have absolute domination over all organized churches in the world. It is also believed that they have been costuming cabbages and passing them off as human beings. Don't let Them immanentize the Eschaton. A person belonging to one or more Orders is just as likely to carry a flag of the counter-establishment as the flag of the establishment - just as long as it is a flag. Note that Discordians are distributing these caps on the 'if it fits wear it' basis. Reactionary Discordian Reacts "It was nothing to do with me" moaned Cyrano de Holborn K.U.H.,K.L.K. "All I know is that some don't get on with others. Nobody round here invented Quantum Mechanics, I just have to live with it!" When asked to explain himself he said that K.U.H.,K.L.K. were quote... Honorary titles; Keeper of Unholy Hours and Knight of the Long Knives, unqoute, and that the difference between disorganisation and datorganisation is open to m/disinterpretation. Sir Ano has refused all offers of 'treatment' as he doesn't know who needs treating. - - - MOLESWORTH TOOLS FOR ERITREA Your Tools Can Save Lives! A year ago a large area of fertile land around Molesworth, Cambs. was taken over by the military for use as a nuclear missile base. The "Molesworth Ploughshares Campaign" works constructively towards returning this land to the people for peaceful use in the cultivation of crops. The campaign also lends help to people in other lands who are struggling for survival, such as those in Eritrea where tools for cultivation are desperately needed. So we're making a collection of tools to send to them. We need your tools! - Have you any to spare? 'Phone Reading 483416 today! Financial help also much appreciated! Molesworth Ploughshares c/o Old School House, Clopton, Kettering NN12 3DZ. Thanks. - - - STONEHENGE CAMPAIGN The campaign is now well under way and needs all support it can get at the moment they need money!!! Regular meetings have been held with all the people involved it would appear that the main stumbling block is the Wiltshire C.C. who don't want anything as do a group of farmers who want to organise injunctions again, it is unlikely the courts will grant blanket injunctions again after their abuse last year. There is a lot of discussion about an alternative site which could he some way from the stones, would involve paying compensation in advance and need a coordinating group, apparently there is a promise of "another 85" if the old site is used. ITS UP TO YOU For further info details merchandise newsletters contact Stonehenge 86 Campaign, 99 Torriano Ave. London NW5. Dates Spring equinox celebration 20th March noon to midnight at the stones Equinox is at 8pm. The free festival code can be expressed as clearly as this "Care for the Earth its inhabitants creatures and each other". Look Out for stickers and posters. Go for it. Wally - - - $Id: //info.ravenbrook.com/user/ndl/readings-only-newspaper/issue/1986/1986-02-23.txt#3 $