Free! Fortnightly! Fun!
This page lists the 1983 back issues of Red Rag. Each issue is
available in two forms:
- scan - choose this to see exactly what each issue looked like, but
be prepared for 20MB downloads
- txt - just the text - choose this for a much faster download or if
you want to copy the text into any other form
You can also link from here to the introduction page for each issue.
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
44 Greenham Common peace campaigners are arrested for unlawfully
trespassing on the airbase by scaling the main security fence with
ladders bought from Reading Woolworths, occupying a high security area
and disrupting and inconveniencing people working there. Several
hundred people blockade USAF Upper Heyford the other side of Oxford,
no arrests are reported. The Home Office has removed the right of
local resident Shenaz Sheikh to indefinite stay in Britain and is
insisting that she be sent back to Pakistan; the squatters at 5 Dover
St have been evicted and have since taken up residence in number 8
over the road; and the Rag considers whether it should fund its
printing bills by accepting paid advertisements.
|
|
- Minutes of collective meeting January 16th
(scan
/ txt)
| |
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
Shehnaz Sheikh faces immediate deportation. Even local Tory MP Tony
Durant is opposed; we interview Shehnaz and explain the background to
the campaign to keep her here. The "Special Claim Group" of the DHSS
descends on Reading looking for scroungers and fiddlers; the Brock
Barracks night shelter is looking for volunteers; Diogenes visits the
Borough Council - there's a certain fascination to it but he's not
sure he'll bother in future; John Punter's "Walking Tour of Central
Reading" stimulates comment and discussion about development in
central Reading.
We can't afford our printing bills. This issue was partly free because
we had some paper, ink and stencils left from the days when the Rag
was always this hard to read. When we go back to litho printing we'll
keep it down to 4 or 8 pages. Recent content has been dire and from
now on the Collective will edit without compunction.
If the Home Office make it easy for me, they'll have to make it easy
for everyone else - that's why they don't want to let me stay.
|
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
The grim reality of a Nation at War with Terrorism finally strikes
when the army sends a brave little robot into the Unemployment Benefit
Office to investigate two bottles of milk inside a brown paper bag;
Labour Party candidates for the forthcoming fiasco next election day
are reluctant to answer questions about policy (but if you wanted to
know the answers to specific problems you could buy the book on your
way out); a claimant tells the police "if you arrest me at least I
will get a meal which is more than the DHSS are allowing me"; and
readers aren't taking the Red Rag questionnaire seriously enough.
|
|
- Minutes of collective meeting February 13th
(scan
/ txt)
| |
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
Women from Greenham appear in court charged with breach of the peace;
the SWP turn up to sell their newspaper and are met with derision as
they support neither Non-violent Direct Action nor the women-only
camp. CND plans a 40,000 strong human chain at Easter, linking USAF
Greenham, AWRE Aldermaston, and ROF Burghfield; a Peace Camp opens at
Upper Heyford in nearby Oxfordshire; the pregnancy testing service at
the Women's Centre needs more volunteers; we analyse the six parties
which contested last year's elections in El Salvador; and the
Anarchists consider the benefits of a nuclear holocaust.
|
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
The quality of "temporary" council housing, conditions in local Bed
and Breakfast accommodation, and the strong-arm tactics of local
scumbag landlord Vernon Paxford. Ten people arrested for threatening
behaviour at the Falklands War Victory Parade are acquitted but the
five accused of criminal damage to a piece of fencing at Greenham
Common are not so lucky; Vegetarian Dining is up and running: £2 for a
3-course meal and the cooks eat for free; part two of the article on
El Salvador deals with the military situation, US intervention and
Vietnamisation; a review of "On Terrorism and the State" by
situationist Gianfranco Sanginetti; and of the 42 people who replied to
the Legalise Cannabis Campaign's survey last November, 32 were stoned
at the time, ten of these notably so given the state of their replies.
|
|
- Minutes of collective meeting March 13th
(scan
/ txt)
| |
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
Final preparations for the blockades of ROF Burghfield and USAF
Greenham Common, and the 14 mile human chain between them; Tory run
Berks County Council axes its provision of free nursery places for the
under-fives; Spectacular Times publishes "More of the Shame": a funny,
niggling little tool for breaking down those atrociously solid
barriers that surround us; how to plant those marijuana seeds; and just
what did the Anarchists mean by "the benefits of a nuclear holocaust"?
|
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
Scumbag landlord Vernon Paxford threatens to sue the Rag and we
interview one of his tenants; the punks squatting the old cinema on
Cemetery Junction weren't on the lookout for better table tennis
facilities; the Evening Post lends a hand; and someone's been
flyposting "cancelled" notices on circus posters.
|
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
On 6th April 1983, four plain clothes Drugs Squad officers entered
Acorn Bookshop, bearing a warrant to search the premises and seize
books under the Obscene Publications Act. They went off with an
idiosyncratic choice of books, including: "Junky" by Burroughs, "Doors
of Perception" by Huxley, "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" by Wolfe, "The
Dictionary of Drugs", "Hell's Angels" (a Penguin) and "Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas", both by Hunter S. Thompson. All of these can
be found in most paperback bookshops. "Opium, Diary of a Cure" by
Cocteau was taken, as were "Growing Natural Tobacco", "Tomorrow"s
Epidemic" (a War on Want publication on tobacco and the Third World)
and "The Coffee Lover's Handbook". The Director of Public Prosecutions
will now examine them to see what is "deemed obscene".
And in other news: Thursday May 5th is Democracy Day -
don't walk off with the pencil.
|
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
Non-violent direct action isn't always that easy: lessons are learned
from the blockade of Burghfield earlier this year. May l4th-21st will
be a week for women all over the country to show how they feel about
porn: local events will include a picket of sex shops, workshops and a
Reclaim the Night march. Reading Health Watch blows the whistle on
cuts in local services; New Games are played; the Anarcho-Christians
have a point; why jokes about shoplifting may have to be funded by the
Kremlin; and the Legalise Cannabis Campaign gives a lesson in
repotting and general plant care.
Should you run off with the pencil? Does every vote
cast for the Ecology Party rather than Labour diminish the chances of
Reading joining the 192 local authorities which already have declared
themselves nuclear free? Tune in next time to see who won.
|
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
The Management of the Centre for the Unemployed underestimates the
intelligence of the Centre's users and takes a red pencil to the first
issue of "The Scrounger". In a period of only ten weeks, 120
homeless people stayed at Reading's Emergency Accommodation Project;
Anti-Porn week has become a fortnight due to the Cup Final; the
Conservation Society considers alternative energy sources; details of
the neo-Kropotkinist kabouters are available from Box 10, Acorn in
exchange for an s.a.e.; and, in confidence, would research group @
please contact Red Rag.
Free food - of course, what the Centre for the
Unemployed should be doing is running courses on shoplifting. We need
to learn about the law, how to deal with the police, how to spot the
store detectives, lessons in sprinting and how to eat the
evidence. Perhaps we could get an MSC grant for building a mock-up of
a supermarket?
|
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
The WEA issues a pamphlet on Reading's local economy (So what's
all this about unemployment? Why is there no discussion of money? Or
of wages at all, or of the quality, as opposed to the quantity, of
jobs in the area? Or of whether most jobs are worth doing at all - we
are told there are "moral implications" in the fact that 10% of the
working population is employed by defence companies - so why should it
just be assumed that anyone without a job ought to have
one?). A four day blockade is planned at USAF Upper Heyford;
someone wants to build a road across the "Coal" and a plant survey is
proposed; the Family Planning Clinic hesitates before issuing cervical
caps to the unemployed; Workers Power gets uppity, twice; and David
Owen is rendered speechless by a custard pie.
|
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
Following two years of uncertainty, a long public campaign, and a
Lords ruling shifting burden of proof in immigration cases onto the
Home Office, local resident Shehnaz Sheikh finally wins the right to
stay in the United Kingdom. Two days before a general election, only
cynics could think of linking the HO's decision to the large Asian
community in conservative MP Tony Durant's constituency. Also: a
personal account of getting arrested at the Non Violent Direct Action
at USAF Upper Heyford; Acorn Bookshop is hiring; and planning has
started for "Reading Between the Lines", a combined guide & directory
to Reading hopefully to appear this autumn (but which won't be
appearing on this website unless someone else wants to take on the
work).
|
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
The Scrounger, published by users of the Centre for the Jobfree, can
no longer be published at the Centre for the Jobfree; we print its
second (and final) issue, featuring a look at the Specialist Claims
Control Unit and its unsavoury reputation for intimidating innocent
claimants, particularly women. Reading Health Watch calls on Health
Service workers to "blow the whistle" and force the Health Authority's
spending cuts and their effects into public debate. The only
Gay-Man-in-Drag at Glastonbury (14 pounds for 3 days) and Stonehenge
reports back on hyper-commercialism and spectacular recuperation. At
the Council Committee meetings (they didn't have railings along
the Kennet when I was a kid, you just fell in) we come to the
help of the Liberal councillor who's having problems with the
defective recipe in the last Rag; they're still sewing bags in
Reading Gaol, but not for the Royal Mail; and the students are
revolting.
|
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
CONTAINING on page 3 DIVERS
EVENTS
and a Guide to ſundry forthcoming
OCCASIONS
of PUBLIC ENJOYMENT on PAGE 4
and also a
NARRATION
upon Events lately transpiring upon the
Common at Greenham, BERKS, AND A
DISCOURSE
concerning Horrid Engines of WAR on page 6
|
|
- Minutes of collective meeting July 18th
(scan
/ txt)
| |
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
The Tories claim that National Health services are not being "cut" so
much as "rationalized"; the Arms Race pays a visit; the "Walk for
Life" from Faslane nuclear submarine base to Greenham Common reaches
Reading; and during the Parliamentary debate which legalized CB radio
a Home Office spokesman said, "The government must realise the dangers
involved in allowing large numbers of people to communicate with each
other". Indeed.
Talking of danger, the 1983 edition of Red Rag's unpronounceable guide
"Reading Between the Lines" is due out with the next Rag. But it won't
be on this website unless somebody other than me wants to do the work
of putting it there. Get in touch.
|
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
Red Rag interviews a recent prisoner who describes the drab and
pointless life that goes on in Reading's most infamous institution.
Once you're in, you meet a lot of people there, and every one of
them's done something wrong. If you go around and talk to people,
you just learn so much about crime! Not the YPs, there's nothing to
learn from that lot, all they do is go out, steal a car, ride it
about and then dump it. But people that are in for smuggling drugs,
say. You can learn how to do it, why they got caught. Or burglaries,
you can learn so much about burgling a house. There's loads of ways
of doing it! To the people that are putting you in there, it's not
worth putting you in there. If they're trying to make you better. It
just goes to prove that they don't give a fuck about anybody apart
from themselves. "We don't want him on the street, so we'll put him
away." That's the way it works, I suppose. They're just a bunch of
arseholes.
|
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
One of the Greenham women goes home - rather than into hospital - to
have her baby and the authorities respond with a court order removing
him to "a place of safety". Margaret Small and her children, only
black family on the street, are hounded out of their house and then
declared intentionally homeless. The managers of multinationals make
daily business decisions which have more impact on where people live;
what work, if any, they will do; what they will eat, drink, and wear;
what sort of knowledge schools and universities will encourage: and
what kind of world their children will inherit; than those of the
governments of the countries in which they live. But at least we know
whether or not Arthur Scargill walks on water.
|
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
Late September can only mean two things: it's illegal eviction time
again - so East Reading landlords can bump the rent - and the Soviet
cannabis harvest was as magnificent as ever. And the reason why this
issue of the Rag is so small is that nobody seems to have felt like
writing anything much. So send in your news, reviews and comments for
next time.
|
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
Secretary of State for the Environment Patrick Jenkin is dismantling
the planning system (Heseltine merely toyed with the idea); looking
around Reading it's hard to believe that anyone ever has said no to
anything. The police drag "Stop the City" protestors out of the
sanctuary of St. Paul's Cathedral; two days before the demo they
raided the squat at the mill in Burghfield searching for "subversive
literature"; there's talk of setting up a permanent Community Arts
Centre, and also a Plantaholics Anonymous Group; and Nick has been
doing the Events column for most of a year and would like to stop.
|
|
- Minutes of collective meeting October 9th
(scan
/ txt)
| |
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
The Council's Housing Committee decides to sell all 105 Council houses
which are now being built; its waiting list is getting shorter but
only because they've redefined who can be on it. In West Germany a
teacher tells his pupils that during the War, no Jews had been killed
and Americans had faked photographs of atrocities; another teacher
complains about this in a letter to the press; guess which one loses
his job. The squat at Burghfield Mill declares independence from the
UK while wrestling with the problem of how to haul Brian's coach out
of the river; the County Council give themselves planning permission
for a 375,000 sq ft office development in the town centre and then
sell the site for £12 million; and we print the rules for
Non-eliminatory-musical-chairs.
I stood on the outside of the fence looking in (or was I looking
out?) It was a green fence, topped with a frill of barbed wire and
decorated in places with child's clothing, torn scarves and faded,
sodden photographs of smiling strangers.
|
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
Holocaust denier David Irving is invited to speak at the University
and demonstrators try to disrupt the lecture: justifiable outrage or
playing into the wrong hands with the publicity they generate? We
argue it both ways. To the cry of "Paki bastards" a passing rugby team
demolishes one of the food shops on Cemetery Junction and the police
keep a low profile. The council makes certain it won't build any more
houses by selling off all its undeveloped land; the Events listing
accidentally calls the Centre for the Jobfree by another name; and our
guide to alternative Reading, "Reading Between the Lines", really will
appear with the next issue.
|
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
The Bad Days will end. But there's little evidence of that in this
issue. The Police and Criminal Evidence Bill, including powers to
detain without charge for as long as 36 hours, receives its second
reading in the Commons; America invades Grenada; the Borough Council
is losing thousands of pounds on each house sale; Red Rag is in debt;
the surprise soup at Veggie Dining is no longer a surprise; and the
heating's off at Acorn.
What we must aim at is to fail clearly each time,
over and over.
|
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
The Cruise missiles are about to arrive: Berkshire is knee-deep in
candlelit vigils and the Christchurch Road sewers have been
strengthened so that Cruise transporters can use the University campus
as a launch site. A member of the English Collective of Prostitutes
speaks at the Jobfree Centre's "Does Unemployment Make You Sick?"
conference, pointing out the connection between unemployment and
prostitution, and the WEA threaten to withdraw their funding; two
thirds of the Tories on the Borough Council decline to make an entry
in the Register of Interests; Thames Valley Police are still cruising
about in unmarked vehicles such as AWL2l6Y; Vaneigem's "Revolution of
Everyday Life" is reprinted; and the Rag apologises to the owners of
the phone number mistakenly associated with the Women's Liberation
Group. Apparently they've been deluged with calls.
People who talk about revolution and class
struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life, without
understanding what is subversive about love and what is positive in
the refusal of constraints, such people have a corpse in their
mouth.
|
|
(scan
/ txt
/ intro)
Peace campers at Greenham break into the base and stay there for over
three hours: they paint the runway red, wander around, sit on the
silos, and when finally they get cold and tired they ask the RAF to
left them out again. Minister of War Heseltine pays us a visit; it's
the first time in a decade that students at Reading have been arrested
for this sort of thing. Sand dancing comes to Reading; feet have
politics; and Red Rag should get more personal. But if you're worried
about 1984 the new Red Rag calendar will brighten up your year.
Remarkable! Magnificent! Amazing! And with George Orwell on the cover
it's a bargain at 80p.
|
|