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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 (usually) two weeks on or around the anniversary of their original publication. We're currently reissuing 1985; the latest issue is dated January 20th (scan / txt); the next one is due out on February 3rd. Red Rag, or Reading's only newspaper, had a noble tradition of misspelling, mixed metaphors, wrong facts, confused political judgements and a readership of 4000. It was produced by an incredibly fluid collective, some of whom had never met each other. It printed practically everything it got sent ("except poetry and party political broadcasts, provided it isn't racist, sexist, militarist or otherwise supportive of oppression"). It aimed to provide a decent alternative coverage of local news and issues from a radical non-aligned position; to promote subversive and creative initiatives; to provide a forum for unorthodox views; to allow some sort of co-existence between a huge variety of interests. And in over five years it had never sold a single copy. In this issue (scan / txt): 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). | |||