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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 1987; the latest issue is dated May 19th (scan / txt); the next one is due out on June 2nd. Red Rag, or Reading's only newspaper, had a noble tradition of misspelling, mixed metaphors, wrong facts, confused political judgements and a readership in its heyday of 4000. 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. An indispensible source of local information? a forum for the self-indulgent and self-important? a continuous experiment in collective, de-centralised organisation? Who knew? In its first seven years it never sold a single copy; but now after much soul-searching a price had been put on the Rag's head... In this issue (scan / txt): not much news this time, but a vacancy for a Red Rag co-ordinator. How long can they keep this up? Bosses in Bracknell for example are refusing to touch the MSC's new "Job Training Scheme" with a bargepole, partly because they're no doubt afraid of catching something nasty off the town's 3000-strong mob of claimants; the Anti-Apartheid organises a National Sponsored Cycle Ride for Nelson Mandela's 69th birthday; the Conspiracy Tape hits the streets; and what are the chances of Mrs Thatcher not winning next month's general election? | |||