Back Issues

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Established 1979
Free! Fortnightly! Fun!

These are the back issues of Red Rag. They'll be posted here every two weeks on or around the anniversary of their original publication. We're currently reissuing 1981; the latest issue is dated November 22 (scan / txt); the next one is due out on December 6th.

Red Rag, or Reading's only newspaper, was a fortnightly illegible free newspaper aiming to publicise and encourage a wide spectrum of subversion and culture in Reading. It aimed to keep people in touch, with an events diary which spanned the activities of groups as diverse as organic gardeners and anarchists; anti-nuclear activists and civic planners; wild-eyed liberals and woolly communists. It contained news and views and details of things to do in and around Reading which the local press couldn't or wouldn't touch. In its first 2½ years of existence it had managed to offend a surprisingly large number of people - well beyond its circulation of under 600.

In this issue (scan / txt): a tantalising mention of the nuclear bunker under Shire Hall on the front cover but nothing further about it within. Tory minister Michael Heseltine comes in for a cross-party drubbing of sorts, doubtless well deserved, for his implementation of the government's "rate capping" policy designed to keep council spending and thus their power in check. Meanwhile, Rory Gallagher may have seen better times; the film certificates are still "A" and "X"; and Tory minister Michael Heseltine comes in for another drubbing, this time for "locating" 8000 new homes in central Berkshire. Other than that, it looks like a quiet fortnight. Maybe the Anarchists were right all along - you might as well stop in and watch Blakes Seven.