RED RAG (cover illustration)

Back Issues

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Established 1979
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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 1982; the latest issue is dated March 7 (scan / txt); the next one is due out on March 21st.

Red Rag, or Reading's only newspaper, had a noble tradition of misspelling, mixed metaphors, wrong facts, confused political judgements and a dedicated readership of over 700. It aimed to publicise and encourage a wide spectrum of subversion and culture in Reading; it kept 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. And it was free.

In this issue (scan / txt): a reader sets the record straight about Torness; the County Council pass a resolution to ban fox hunting; rates in Reading are set to rise by over 33%; afternoon events on Mayday will centre around the theme of "new technology" and there will be computers to play with; and the typist can't read John's handwriting. Ever.

Having been lent a map of the site and a pair of bolt cutters they set out only to become lost. Unfortunately they panicked when a police car stopped to offer assistance and eventually got themselves arrested for trespassing on railway property. They were released without charge presumably on the principle that they represented a threat to no one but themselves.