May Day Issue free fortnightly RAD RAG Reading's only April 28 - May 12. Going out: Mark 782178 Distribution: Guy 669562 Co-ordinator: Sue 665806 Events: As above for now Next copy date: Thursday 9th May This issue of Red Rag will be available in cassette form for people with sight problems. Phone: 666681. - - - AMERCIAN WEREWOLVES IN BRITAIN The N.H.S. is currently suffering a general decline in services, facilities, equipment and reeling from crippling staff shortages and hospital closures; all due to government cutbacks. The Medical Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons has discovered that Britain is to get 15 brand new hospitals - that will stand empty and will remain empty unless (or until) nuclear war breaks out. Few health authorities know anything about these new hospitals which are apparently being funded from the United States defence budget and will be used by American and N.A.T.O. personnel, in the event of nuclear war. Hospitals are planned for bases at Feltwell in Norfolk, Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire, Colerne in Wiltshire, Bicester in Oxfordshire, Tidworth in Hampshire and numerous others throughout the country. Hospitals already exist at R.A.F Upwood, also in Cambridgeshire, and at R.A.F Little Missington in Gloucester. The hospitals are part of the ever-growing American Military facilities and over 200,000 American personnel. These hospitals are being built at a time of massive cutbacks and closures within the health service..... While people wait for months to go into hospital and people like you and I are dying due to lack of money for transplant operations. They are building hospitals to stand empty. Health Care For All!!! Paul C. - - - You can pick up your next Red Rag from any of the following outlets: Acorn Bookshop, under Chatham St car park Central Club, London St Centre for the Unemployed, East St Elephant Groceries and Off-licence, Derby St Eurofoods, Crown Colonnade, Cemetery Junction Fairview Community Centre, George St Fine Food Stores, 168 Oxford Rd Harrison's Newsagent, Caversham Rd Harvest Wholefoods, Harris Arcade, Friar St Jelly's Stores, Whitley St Kan's Kitchen, London Rd Ken's Shop, Students Union, Whiteknights Ling's Chinese Fish Bar, Wokingham Rd Listen Records, Butts centre Mo's Place, London St Music Market, Union St Number Sixty, Christchurch Green Pop Records, 172 King's Rd Rag Doll, London St Reading Wholefoods, London Rd Sugar Bowl, Wokingham Rd Sutherlands, Erleigh Rd Tech College, King's Rd UB Cycles, London St - - - RED RAG is Reading's only community newspaper. It has been in existence for 5 years and comes out fortnightly. What else? Oh yes... it's free and relies on donations of news and money from the local populace. Send yours to: Red Rag, Box 79, 17 Chatham St., Reading. Copy (news and happenings) should be typed, if poss., to 12 cm, column width and a contact no, in the event of editing (Perish the thought!) Cheques payable to: Red Rag, Box 79, 17 Chatham St., Reading. 0r put your spare loot in the collecting tins at Acorn Bookshop, Pop Records, Eurofoods on Cemetry Junction and Harvest Wholefoods. Standing order forms are available too. Phone: 374532. - - - WOMEN! Fancy joining a netball team? A women's team is being formed at Reading Centre for the Unemployed. If you're interested, contact Heather at the Centre. Telephone: 596639. - - - If any women are interested in helping to re-establish Wednesday as WOMEN'S DAY at Reading Centre for the Unemployed. There is a meeting on Thursday 2nd May at 2pm - all women welcome. We would be glad of your ideas, support and enthusiasm. If you can't make the meeting but are interested please contact Karen or Helen at RCU. - - - RAG BITS Help! Reading's only is currently about £90 pounds in debt, despite several individual donations and money raised from the last R.R. social. If anyone can do a benefit, jumbley; or has any ideas on raising some readies - please get in touch, or come to the next collective gathering (held every 6 weeks or so). Ta! Events Person ...required for Red Rag. Tasks involved are holding onto the events diary, jotting down info, received, phoning up people if there doesn't appear to be much happening and having your phone number in Red Rag! Further details etc. ring 595605. Co-ordinator for the next issue is Sue. If you'd like to help phone: 665806. - - - VEGGIE DINING Last weekend a faulty water heater set fire to the kitchen at Fairview Community Center and caused sufficient damage to close the place to most activities, including management committee and Veggie Dining, for what is expected to be about one month. With Fairview there are a few problems such as locking up by 10:00 pm, collection of keys and lack of communication. Could anyone who wishes to see more Veggie Dinings at Fairview please come to a meeting at the Oxford Rd primary school at 6:30 pm on Friday May 10th. Apart from myself none of the management of Fairview have ever helped with Veggie Dining and we have some nuts to crack if we want to see "normal" Veggie Dinings. Some people aren't even tempted by Free Food. The Central Club has an amazing kitchen. Phone Mike on 588459. Eat well. PS Help is needed with a Veggie Dining at Reading Center for the Jobfree on the evening of May 4th. Contact Jane Carter or 'phone as above. - - - GREENHAM FOOD VAN: A NEW ROLE TO PLAY The regular food runs to Greenham have now stopped for the summer as the Greenham women want to return to their pattern of self-reliance and communal sharing. As a support group we will withdraw until we are needed. It should be pointed out that should the intention of the women not work out because of harassment, evictions etc, we must be ready to take on the support role immediately. The need for financial support continues as the account is to be used for any emergency related to supporting Greenham should it become necessary. I refer in particular to our having supplied thermal underwear, sanitary and toilet articles, clothes, candles, wood etc. The van as our resource has to be maintained as regards insurance, licensing and AA membership (a necessary support for emergency breakdown). Our support will continue in the autumn or whenever the women decide the time has come to support them. In the meantime the van will be the main resource in a new campaign. Our new project calls upon the people who supported and worked to make the last campaign such a success. We need to be seen at Greenham and Ascot will provide regular campers to guide through the early stages. Greenham women need 'women support'. Will you join us from 1st May 1985 to re-open Red Gate? We would welcome the women we have got to know in the past six months to join us for a few days/nights/or longer, as a visible presence. Some of us feel we need to do this on our own account, and at the same time give a much needed boost to numbers. The Greenham women we have spoken to about this project were more than enthusiastic as they are tired and need fresh commitment. The practicalities are: we will focus around the van as the main resource for shelter, supplies, and when necessary our means of avoiding eviction. The van will have some camping facilities, tarpaulins, ground-sheets, liloes, and other necessary items; plus cooking facilities. To make it work we need women to set up an ongoing commitment to come down to us and stay; and next time round bring someone new and show them how to do it! We will assure everyone who comes of plenty of laughs, love and sisterly support. We need to be seen at Greenham. We must not disappear in the minds of the public. Please respond the way you did for the food run; we could have a rota working in little or no time. Please contact and tell us what you think. Let's have a party on May 1st at Red Gate for our grand opening! Bring yourself, some goodies and someone who has not been to Greenham before. Finally, a note to anyone visiting Greenham. Donations of the following items would be very much appreciated: deck chairs, lamps, groundsheets, folding tables, large umbrellas, plastic sheeting, blankets, pressure cookers, large containers and plastic containers for dispensing food into... Merle Mindel, Pauline Cameron & Judith Berry Ascot Greenham Support Group. Tel: Ascot 22877 or Winkfield Row 886229 - - - CRUISE RUMOURS Both police and 'vigilantes' have felt much more free of late to make violent attacks upon Greenham Women Peace Campers and their supporters. The reason for this is that such incidents are likely to go unreported, or only get a passing mention in the British press. This lack of media coverage is the result of what Greenham's press officer, Capt. Jerry Yaple, calls 'the current policy relating to the Greenham base'. The 'current policy' has led to Greenham (and its opposition) almost disappearing from the pages of the national press and from our television screens. Because of this policy it was not felt necessary to invite the British press to a recent gargantuan banquet at the base. It is well known that newspaper reporters are persons of modest appetite, and almost teetotal to a fault, but the 'Evening Post' (which felt that it had a 'special relationship' with the base) felt snubbed. As a result, on the evening of the massive Greenham pissup, the 'Post', in a fit of pique, produced three separate articles on USAF Greenham in the same issue. A total of 232 acres of woods, heath and grassland around USAF Greenham is to be designated an area of 'special scientific interest' covered by the Wildlife and Countryside Act. The area reaches up to much of the south and south-west perimeter fence. Some cynical people have suggested that official support is less to do with concern for the purple emperor butterfly (which breeds there) than excitement over the creation of 28 new offences (carrying fines up to £500) which can be committed by persons entering the area. Zed Feecher - - - CRUISE - WIDENING THE STRUGGLE On Wed 17th April there was a "Cruisewatch" meeting in Andover, at which Reading was represented. Basically it was called to discuss the response to the next Cruise convoy expected out in May, or sooner, as it appears to be more or less a monthly event. (Does it follow the cycles of the moon, I hear you ask?) In the likely event of Cruise heading for Salisbury Plain, the following actions have been suggested: a) A mass trespass onto the dispersal area, usually surrounded by temporary fencing. Thus an 'instant peace camp' to accompany the 'instant Cruise missile base'. b) A motorcade of supporters' cars/coaches along the convoy's route, including perhaps a 'go-slow'. c) To coincide with b), placards to be erected by the roadside all along the route, saying 'Cruise Route' etc. Personalised pennants (a la Molesworth) to be placed around the dispersal zone. The possibilities are many but the one vital element is the rapid appearance of lots of people! Obviously this will be easier to arrange at the weekend, but the MOD may refuse to co-operate over the timing. So groups should be prepared for an evening or night action as an alternative. Telephone trees will be used to alert people on the next outing. But first interested parties are advised to contact one of the following for info, or transport arrangements: Paul 485183 / Duncan 476196 / Chris 375275. - - - GOING OUT The Notorious Going Out Guied staggers its mis-spelt way across teh (the!) page once again... please note I give typing lessons at unreasonable rates. Sunday 28 April Readifolk - Caversham Bridge Hotel, 8pm free: singers night Butler, Chatham St. - jazz, 8pm, free Caversham Park Village Social Club, Northorpe Rd. The Eldonaires: jazz/Punk, 8pm 50p. Hexagon, Queens Walk - La Vie Parisienne 7.30 £3/4 Palmer Park - ISWE/RCU: Football, netball, games bodypopping with Apollo SAS breakers. Plus guest sound systems. 2.30 start? Southill Park - "A Private Function"(15) 7.45 Monday 29 April Paradise Club, London St. - Foreign Legion, Screaming Dead, The Gathering, 9.30 - 2am, £2 - proceeds to Ethiopian famine relief Hex - as 28th University Students Union - jazz in Lounge Bar 8pm free Thatchers, Fairwater Drive Woodley - jazz, funk soul 8pm Silks, Thatcham - Rock Night; usually £3/4 Folk at the Bull, Nettlebed, 8pm , free SHP - " A Private Function" (15) 7.45 Tilehurst Eisteddfod - Village Hall Tilehurst - drama 7.30pm tel. 411309. Continues til May 4th (excl. 2nd) Tuesday 30 April Paradise Club - Emotional Jacuzzi & A Nation Mourns - Free Festival Benefit Gay Disco - Tudor Arms 8pm free Hex - as 28th SHP - "A Private Function" (15) 7.45 Wednesday 1 May Reading Film Theatre - Palmer Building, Univ. Campus "The Man Who Knew Too Much"(15) - Hitchcock rarity 8pm Jive Dive - The New Yorker Queens Walk Out Of Town Club, Padworth - West One & support Kennet Morris - Bottle & Glass, Binfield Heath, 7.30 SHP - "A Private Function"(15) 7.45 SHP Wilde Theatre - Classical Music, 8pm £3.50 Thursday 2 May RFT - "Les Nuits de la pleine lune"(15) - Rohmer 8pm Paradise Club - Unity Hi Power, Metromedia & the hottest talent in Reading; 8 - 2am Sportsman, Shinfield - country & western 8pm Butler, Chatham St. - GT Moore & Terry Clarke 9:30 onwards, (free). Raffles etc. for Ethiopia Stag & Hounds, Pinkeys Green nr. Maidenhead - folk - singers night, 8.15pm Angies, Wokingham - Larry Miller Hex - La Vie Parisienne... encore une fois... SHP - " A Private Function"(15) 7.45 SHP - Womens Films S Video *s, 7.45, free SHP jazz - ICQ, 8pm, £3.80 Friday 3 May Tudor Arms - Gay Disco, 8pm free Paradise - Restless, The Tennessee Three, Emph Fisg. £2.50. 9:30-2am. SHP Friday Live, Cellar Bar 8 - 12; Giant Algae Magnet & pop support; £2/1. Folk @ The Lamb Eversley 8pm free Hex - bordel - encore une fois - j'en ai ras-le- bol... SHP - Bouncing Czechs, 8pm £3 - theatre? Saturday 4 May Anarchist Book Fair, Tonbridge Club - nr Kings Cross 10.30 - 6 May Day bunfight - speakers of various dodgy persuasions from 1pm; stalls at Reading Centre for the Jobfree East St. 2pm Consume, o Proletarian! Red Rag will be in the vanguard... May Day Social - Folk + Naptali's One Love Sounds + Veggie Dining - £2/l - 8pm Reading Centre, East St. SHP - folk with Pete Coe - 8pm £1.80 SHP - "Dune"(PG), 7.45 & 11pm Hex - more Parisian reverie...... Caversham Bridge Hotel - Blakes 7 convention, 10am Sunday 5 May Readifolk - Caversham Bridge Hotel; Joe Locker, 8pm Butler, Chatham St. - jazz free 8pm Caversham Park Village Social Club, Norththorpe Rd: jazz & things - The Eldonians. 50p 8pm Anarchist Picnic @ petty bourgeois Hampstead heath Bandstand. 1pm. Bring food & friends Ramada - Moreka Sounds - Expensive disco nite-out Hex - Vic Damone, 6pm & 8.45, £6 - 9 SHP - "Dune"(PG), 7.45pm SHP - Emma Johnson, clarinet, 7.30 Wilde Theatre Monday 6 May... When the Banks have a Holiday... Kennet Morris - Alnuts Hospital, Goring Heath;(10.30) then - Goring Lock @11.30 am; "The Highwayman" Exlade St. @12.30; Henley May Fair 3.45. Paradise - International Youth Year Special by Aisha Promotions - Reggae/Soul night Thatchers, Fairwater Drive Woodley - funk & soul 8pm free Orts Rd May Fair - St. Johns School, 2pm Silks, Thatcham - Rock Night The Bull, Nettlebed - folk club, 8pm free Univ. Students Union - jazz. @ (say) 9pm? Martines, Station Rd. - Earl Sixteen + posse & Lion Roots resident sound. 9 - 2. £5/3 SHP - "Dune" (PG) 7.45 Tuesday 7 May Tudor Arms - Gay Disco, 8pm free Univ. Students Union - Working Week + The Ant Hill Mob; 8 - 2a.m. bar; £2.50 Paradise Club - ? SHP - "Dune" (PG) 7.45 Wednesday 8 May SHP - "Dune" (PG) 7.45 RFT - "Another Country" (15) 8pm Jive Dive - @ the New Yorker. Thursday 9 May... if Olny my typnig wold immprove... Sportsman, Shinfield - Country & Western 8pm free RFT - as 8th; NB discount with UB40 The Crown, Crown St. - Pandemonium Club 9 - 11pm; Pete Hall (flamenco gtr.) & Chapatti 4 (ethnic Forgery & surreal sax). £1 entry Stag & Hounds, Pinkeys Green M'haed - folk Paradise Club - Soul Night Til Late - watch for posters Reading Centre for the Jobfree & Carefree - Miners Benefit - "Taking Liberties" video & talk 7.30 SHP - "Volver A Empesar" (PG) - 7.45pm SHP - Undercover Club...R&B?? Friday 10 May High Wycombe Old Town Hall - Sandra Reid + Trevor Hartley + Gerge Clark + David Ruddigan & lots more £3 Macrobiotic Talks Meal - 100 N'humberland Ave. 7pm Gay Disco - Tudor Arms, 8pm free Paradise club - Brigandage + the Fabulous Falling Angels. The Lamb, Eversley - folk @ 8pm, free SHP Friday Live, Cellar Bar - Shoot The Moon + pop support £2/1, 8 - 12 SHP - "The Terminator" (18), 7.45pm SHP - Phoenix Dance Co, 7.30 pm Wilde Theatre Saturday 11 May SHP folk - Dougie Macieaft - 8pm Cellar Bar £l.80 Paradise - Hex - Keith James, 12.15pm free SHP - "The Terminator"(18), 7.45 & 11pm Tilehurst Eisteddfod - music - tel.411309 Brass Band - Park Instit. Wokingham Rd 7pm 696616 Reading Bacchus group May Dance - 785005 Sunday 12 May Readifolk blues night @Caversham bridge Hotel 8pm Butler, Chatham St. - jazz, 8pm Free Cav. Park Village Social Club - The Eldonaires again SHP - "the Terminator" (18), 7.45pm Hex - Gerry & The Pacemakers 8pm £3 - 5 Exclusive Theatre Guide... Wokingham Theatre, Norreys Ave., Tel 785363 26 April - 4 May: "Ten Times Table" - Alan Ayckbourne; 7.45pm, £1.25 - £1.75 Bulmershe College, Woodlands Ave; tel 663387 x281 "The Summer Break" - for 5th & 6th Years; £1.50/£1.25 April 30 only Progress, The Mount, Christchurch Rd. 477594 May 2-ll "Not Quite Jerusalem", comedy, 7.45, £2.20 Bulmershe College, Theatre <> - Polish mime & Dance 3 - 5 May Shinfield Players Theatre, Whitley Wood Lane, nr Shire Hall; "Iolanthe" - Gilbert & Sullivan; May 8 - 11 £2/£1.50 Tel 873057. Hexagon - tel 591591 - 29 April - 4 May: La Vie Parisienne. Sainsbury (clean? fresh??) Singers 7.30 £7-4 Hexagon - May 6-11, "Joseph & The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat" - Rice/Lloyd Webber; 7.30 (8.15). £3.50-£4.50... South Hill Park - May 9-ll; "Look Back In Anger" - John Osborne; 7.45pm Studio Theatre, £3 Blurb... Pressed for time as the Rag is, Going Out goes on (especially if I keep my fingers off the shift key). Please keep the information coming in - local/club socials in particular.. Please phone me (Mark) on 782178 before 10.30pm, or leave a message in the Rag box at Acorn. Bye!!! - - - MAY DAY FESTIVAL 1985 One is Workers Unity and Ever More Shall Be So! Reading May 4 at Reading Centre Unemployed Remember Our Rights! Peace Work Future Meet 12 - Old Shire Hall, March to R.C.U. 1-4 at R.C.U. - speakers, stalls, music, films, creche, food. 8-late - Social - live music, disco veggie supprt, bring a bottle Sponsored by R.T.U.C. - - - A GREEN COLUMN Slugs and Snails and... If you live with a garden fall of cats and undergrowth, bereft of trees and birds, you'll probably be besieged by slugs and snails. If you use slug pellets, you'll solve the problem by killing the cats so the birds come back and eat the slugs. But if chemicals aren't on your agenda, and also if they are, here are a few ideas to minimise the damage to the plants you're trying to grow. First, don't fight it; don't grow slug delicacies e.g. pansies, delphiniums and anything else they've eaten before. There are plenty of other plants! Then try not to transplant anything soft and succulent e.g. lettuce seedlings. The beasts tend to go for them when they've just been moved. You can try surrounding plants with anything you think the S.&S. won't be able to slither over (egg shells, thistle leaves, sawdust, broken glass, landmines...) Some of these could damage your health and probably won't deter the enemy anyway. You can pour salt around the plants but that's not good for the soil in quantity. Reduce their habitats by removing stones and bricks that they lurk under and by tidying up generally. If all else fails, there are various satisfying ways of murdering them. The squeamish stop here and start growing roses. A pleasant pastime, gentle reader, is to go out at night with a torch, or leave the loo light on to shine over your plot. The old cabbage leaves, grapefruit halves and whatnot which you've cunningly left lying about will be covered underneath with S.&S. You can grind handfuls under your heel on the path, slice them with a trowel or drop them into salty water (or boiling oil). If you'd rather it were all less bloody, a saucer of beer in the ground will supposedly polish them off. You could always try training the cat to eat them.... Yours in struggle, Ladybird. - - - NEXT COLLECTIVE (anyone concerned with Red Rag matters) is: May 5th at 4p.m., Flat6, 107 Castle St., Reading. Help typing, pasting up, folding, and delivering is always welcome. Phone next issue's co-ordinator (Sue: 665806) if you can help or put your name on the S.O.S. list at Acorn. - - - WEST BERKSHIRE CO-OPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION Inaugural Meeting Your chance to help workers co-operatives. Tuesday April 30th 7.30 pm Guest Speakers Progress Reports CDA Constitution to be proposed Election of Association's officers Reading Centre for the Unemployed, 4-6 East Street, Reading tel. 596639 - - - FREE! SMALL ADS Available: 2 rooms in shared house, in East Reading. Sorry, no pets. Contact Adam and Anne: 507163 or Andrew: 580649 (day). Unemployed man urgently seeks accommodation in shared house (or anywhere else). Phone Giles on Rdg. 665140. Professional guitar tuition, lessons in jazz, rock and classical guitar. Structured to meet your tastes. Phone Trevor on Rdg 597388. Also guitar repairs and setting up. Lessons in drums, sax and keyboards. Terraced house for sale: four separately approached bedrooms, living room, large kitchen (tiled floor), spare room, boarded loft, bathroom etc., ample garden, fully rewired, damp-proofed. Has great potential. £34,000 or haggle. Phone 666681 (from Wed. 1st). Accommodation needed for couple with child and cat moving to area in May. Anything considered from Wycombe to Tilehurst. Please contact: Kati and Brian, Box 1, Acorn, 17 Chatham St., Reading. - - - Reading Centre for the Unemployed COURSES Learn to Grow your Own Food, and Run an Allotment Wednesdays, 10.00-12.00noon, for ten weeks. Come and join a group which will run the Centre's town allotment. Learn how to grow good food, and then eat it! Free transport provided from the Centre (R.C.U), leaving at 9.45 a.m. Unemployment: Whose Problem? Thursdays, 12.00-3.00, for ten weeks. Find out about unemployment in our town - who's affected, who can help. Investigate the impact of unemployment on health, on the family and other important topics, and explore possible solutions. This group aims to be practical and informal; if you feel angry and puzzled about unemployment, come and join us. In the next few weeks: Voluntary work, Health, Family Life, Reading - Boom Town: or is it? Alternative Medicine Wednesdays, 1.00-3.00p.m., for ten weeks. Worried about the side-effects of modern drugs, or just interested in positive health care. If you'd like to know more about Acupuncture, Herbal Medicine, Homeopathy, and Natural Birth Control, then this course is for you. 24th. April, 1st. May: Homeopathy. Beginners Photography Starting soon, Mondays, 11.00-1.00p.m. for ten weeks. Vegetarian Cookery 3rd. June, Mondays, for five weeks. Cartooning Mondays, 1.00-3.00p.m., for five weeks. No drawing ability required - just interest and willingness to learn. Just think how good cartoons could brighten your tenants/community/church newssheet! Colour Photography Thursdays, 12.00-3.00, for ten weeks. Learn more about the art of taking colour photographs through discussion and project work. Materials provided; camera useful, but not essential. Free trips to the country to watch birds, for walks, to observe flowers or fungus If you'd like to leave your chair in polluted Reading, but haven't a car or friends to go with - then join us; free transport provided. 30th. April, California Country Park. Courses already running include: Silkscreen Printing. Tuesdays, 1.0O-3.00p.m. Carpentry. Mondays, 1.00-3.00p.m., Reading Adult College. You may join the courses at any time. Free creche available for all the above activities. Many more courses and activities are planned. For further details, contact Reading Adult College Wilson Centre, Wilson Road, Reading. Tel: 55575, or Reading Centre for the Unemployed, 4-6, East St Reading, Tel: 596639. - - - LETTERS Dear Red Rag, I find the debate between some of our local situationists in Red Rag a bit amusing. As one who doesn't agree with the situationist movement I think both X and Larry Law are going on a magical mystery tour that doesn't actually tell us anything. Situationist theory is supposed to be a critique of the spectacle, the spectacle as Debord put it is "the diplomatic representation of hierarchical society to itself". In other words the spectacle is just a lie, an illusion, a spook and it doesn't exist in the real world. So situationist theory is a theory about nothing. The situationists are like a bull charging at the matador's cloak instead of at the matador. The matador (the rich, the bosses, the establishment) realises he is vulnerable when he is visible in the open so he tries to obscure and divert attention from himself by use of a cloak (the spectacle) which acts as a screen, a blind, and a decoy. The situationists fall for the trick and concentrate their efforts on the false trail of the cloak and spectacle rather than attacking the real live ruling class which lies behind the spectacle and has an interest in maintaining it. By concentrating mainly on the irrelevant false trail of the spectacle situationist theory itself becomes an irrelevant false trail. Instead of wasting time with the superficial external appearances of the system, spectacles, commodities, false images, we should be thinking about attacking the powerful, bashing the rich and trashing police. Most situationists attack the lie but fail directly to attack the liar. The best theory is that which comes out of struggle. Apart from the enrages I can't think of any situationists who produced their theories from the barricades rather from their armchairs. Larry has sometimes suggested he became interested in situationist ideas because there had been no new theory in the anarchist movement since the days of Bakunin. Many anarchist activist groups (Friends of Duruti, 1st May Group, Angry Brigades, Autonomist Groups,...) have since the Spanish Revolution to the present, though sometimes borrowing situationist words, produced their own ideas and clear modern class struggle anarchist theory. Anarchy Chaos Destruction Paul Petard Dear Red Rag, From the way in which my recent articles on workers' co-ops appear to have been (mis) interpreted, I feel I must clarify my attitude to the proposed Co-operative Development Agency. 1- To form a co-op may only be to slightly remove yourself from a money-dominated economy, but at least you aren't being directly exploited by a "Boss". 2- working together in a co-operative way is potentially good "revolutionary gymnastics". 3- As such I am committed to helping people form co-ops. 4- To do this they need caring support and advice. 5- The resources, time, and employment terms of those currently trying to help co-ops are totally inadequate, given tbe recent interest in co-ops. 6- A separate body is therefore urgently needed - a C.D.A., AT no time have I ever argued otherwise. 7- My reservations have related to the form, operation,and potential political exploitation of the C.D.A. and never to the desperate need for real support for Co-ops. 8- All my remarks have assumed this basic commitment to be understood; perhaps it hasn't been. 9- If I wasn't committed to co-ops I wouldn't have burned the midnight oil to tell Rag readers about the C.D.A. 10- Having said all this, I stand by all I have written - I consider all my criticisms & personal opinions to be justifiable. Yours, Mark Robinson. Dear Red Rag, An 'X'-rated low-level situationist counter-measure in the war of the flea... The precedent for the use of the word 'Nosferatu' in situationist written and visual literature comes from Jean Luc Goddard's "Alphaville", a film developeed from discussions in 1963 with Guy Debord, Raoul Vaneigem and on the nature of surrealist-situationist subversion in post-technological "systems" society. Mark Downham and Arthur MacDonald. To Red Rag 15/4/85 May I say that, with the best of goodwill and (hopefully) some sense of humour, I find the illustration set in the Reading May Day piece, extremely objectionable - 1) it sticks out like a sore thumb (sorry...) being completely out of context 2) it trivialises the content of the day's events:- speakers covering local, national and international issues and Peace, the Right to Work, and a Future for Britain. 3) I cannot imagine that the writer of the article would have suggested it. And if not, I thought you had agreed not to tamper with articles at some stage in your editorial discussions. Could you please a) rectify in the next issue the impression created and b) stop doing these silly things. Yours, M. Allum. Dear Red Rag Readers, Well, here I am. I'm 24 years old but look at the sum total of my life. I'm unemployed (aren't we all!) My life has no meaning, no direction, I'm living in a world where millions of pounds are spent on bombs to kill people rather than food to feed the starving, homes to house the homeless, clothes to clothe the naked. Don't you find it depressing? I do, sometimes. That's why I'm living here, at Fairmile Hospital. I say I live here because I'm not just staying here as a patient, I live here. If I wasn't here I'd be homeless. In the last nine months I've been homeless, squatted, lived in B+B and finally got a bedsit with broken windows and fungus on the walls. That's when I broke. I suffered a breakdown and now I'm here, being pumped full of drugs, living with some of the most oppressed people in Britain. Please can someone help me? I need somewhere to live. With people who care. I'm an anarchist, vegetarian, health food freak. I'm not mad. Please help me before the system gets me, and I lose my individuality. Please write to me. Love and peace Steve V-Jones, George Schuster Ward, Fairmile Hospital, Cholsey, Nr.Wallingford. Dear Red Rag, I would be very grateful if someone could enlighten me as to why there were appproximately twenty men in business suits standing on the corner of Liverpool Road, after midnight on Tuesday, 16th. April, 1985. They were rather noisy, and their presence disturbed the residents of School Terrace greatly. It has been suggested that they were there to disapprove of something; and if so, may I protest at their disapproving of it at that time of night, . and express a hope that they may not be there after midnight next Tuesday. Thank you, Yours sincerely, Hot Cross Bun. - - - EVENTS DIARY from Monday April 29th Mon 29 Rending and Dist. Vegans: planning meeting. 1, Orrin Close, Tilehurst, 8pm. Tue 30 Co-operative Development Agency: open inaugural meeting for 'election of officers' etc. Centre for Unemployed, East St, 7.30 Thu 2 County Council elections: 'vote early, vote often' Unemployment: whose problem? Informal course continues at Reading Centre for the Unemployed (RCU), East St, 1-3pm. This week: voluntary work. Centre for Unemployed: meeting on restoring a women's day. All women welcome. 2pm. Sat 4 Reading May Day Festival: March first, from Old Shire Hall, Abbey St, 12.00 noon. Then at RCU, East St: speakers 1pm and festival 2-4pm, with lots of stalls from lots of people. And at 8pm a social with folk and veggie food. Anarchist Book Fair: 10.30-6.30, Tonbridge Club, Cromer St, London WC1, followed by social until 10pm. Sun 5 Anarchist Picnic: 1pm Hampstead Heath bandstand. Tour of country churches: Civic Society: 2pm Thames Promenade car park. £2.50 in advance from their secretary, 696034. 'Veleda Toiletries': talk and slides. Details: Steve 418505. (Vegans) Red Rag collective meeting: this meeting happens every six weeks and is 'the sovereign decision-making body of Red Rag'. But anyone interested in the Rag is very welcome. 4pm, Flat 6, 107 Castle Hill. Mon 6 Shinfield Village Fete Newtown May Fair: from 2pm in St John's playing field. Stalls etc. Wed 8 Newtown Community House: 'luncheon club', 12-2, 117 Cumberland Rd. To happen Weds from now. A good meal promised for c60p. 'Educational provision for deaf people in California': talk for hearing impaired people, 7.30, Wilson Centre, Wilson Rd. 50p. Alternative Education: introductory talk on a Steiner (Waldorf) approach to education. 8.30pm, RCU, East St. Details: Sandy 872396. Thu 9 Unemployment: see 2nd for details. This week: can unemployment damage your health? Amnesty: monthly meeting: room 4, St Mary's Centre, Chain St, 7.30. Acupuncture: talk and open evening: 7.30, St Mary's Centre, Chain St. Red Rag: planning meeting for next issue. For details, offers of help, ring Sue on 665806. (All copy should be in in time to be discussed at this meeting.) 8pm. Fri 10 Christian Socialists: talk on development by Ronnie Moodley of the African Refugee Action Group. 8pm, St Giles' Hall, Southampton St. Sat 11 National Bike Week starts today. Today Dr Bike: a surgery 11-4 by Queen Victoria (at the back of Marks and Spencers). Red Rag is laid out and pasted up today, and printed this evening. Help welcome. Details from Sue 665806. Sun 12 National Bike Week: Cycle Campaign Treasure Hunt (!) 10am from Q. Victoria. 15m. Bring bike and OS map. Details: Stan Essex 691314. Red RAG: collating, folding and labelling, and distribution. From 11am. Help is always particularly needed today. Lack of hands to fold always a problem: lack of transport to take bundles to distributors another. Offers of help to Sue as above (in advance, as it will prob. be happening elsewhere). Coley Nurseries: open day. Off Wensley Rd. Free. 2.30 - 6pm. Moor Copse: open day at BSONT nature reserve at Tidmarsh. 2-6. Entry on Tidmarsh-Sulham Rd. - - - ORGANISATIONS Anarchists: Mondays. Box 19, Acorn Bookshop, 17 Chatham St. Amnesty: 2nd Thurs of month, St Mary's Centre, Chain St. Jean 472598. Berks Anti-Nuclear Campaign / CND; General meeting 2nd Tues. PO Box 158. West: Ed Wilson 594855. East: Steve Gavin 663177. South: Stanley Plimsoll 861183. Cav'm: Ruth Winchester 482881. Berks Conservation Volunteers: Sundays: practical conservation Keith, Bracknell 56796. PO Box 165, Reading. Berks Humanists: 2nd Fri, 774871. Communists: 2nd Tues, AUEW, 121 Oxford Rd. Eileen 477913. Cycle Campaign: 2nd Mon, 8pm at UB Cycles, London St. John 483183 or John 64667. Cyclists' Touring Club: Richard, Bracknell 50849. Ecology Party; 1st & 3rd Mon, 8 College Rd & 38 Long Barn Rd respectively. Maria 55415. Friends of the Earth: John or Anne Booth 868260. Greenham Support (women): Fortnightly mtgs. Night watch every Thurs, contact via Women's Centre. History of Reading : 1st Tues, Abbey Gateway, the Forbury. Labour History; Monthly. Mike 867789 or Kathy 590139. Labour Militant: Ian 666734. LPYS: Weds, Fairview Centre, George St, 8pm. Men's Group: Weekly. Box 28, Acorn Bookshop. Miner's Support: Thurs, TGWU, 36 King's Rd. 590311. Nat. Council for Civil Libs: 2nd Mon, St Mary's Centre, Chain St. Paul 861582. Newtown Community Ass.: Alternate Weds, 7.30, 117 Cumberland Rd. Peace Pledge Union; Monthly. 588459, 374532 or Box 110, Acorn Bookshop. Reading Birth Centre: 3rd Tues. 61330. Rg. Org, for Animal Rights: 1st Tues., the Crown, Crown St. Dave 54098 or Geoff 476529. Shelter: 1st Thurs, Centre for Unemployed, East St, 8pm. Mark Goldup 863153. Socialist Workers: Weds, 8pm, Red Lion, Southampton St. Vegans: 1st Sun, 1 Orrin Clo, Tilehurst. Liz or Steve 21651 Workers' Power: 584558. Women's Centre: Open Sat 11-3. Basement, Old Shire Hall, Abbey St. No tel. All women & kids welcome. Meetings on 'first of the month', 7.30. Reading Centre for the Unemployed (RCU): Open 9-30-4.30 M-F not Fri mornings. 4-6 East St 596639. Reading Between the Lines. Red Rag's guide to Reading, has details of many more groups and organisations than are listed here. It costs 50p from bookshops and other outlets. - - - HELP? Alcoholics Anon: 597494 24hrs Age Concern: 598097 Family planning clinic: 24 Craven Rd. 864621 10-1. Gingerbread: (1-parent family support) contact via CAB Citizen's Advice Bureau: St Mary's Butts. 598059. Incest Survivors' Group: Write c/o Rape Crisis Line Housing & Welfare Rights: Centre for Unemployed 596639. Housing Aid Centre: 55911, Civic Offices. Nightline: 872268 6pm - 8am in Univ. term time. No.5: 585858. Help for young people. 24 Sackville st. Pregnancy testing: Tues 7-9, Women's Centre, Abbey St. Free Bring urine sample from first pee of the day. Parents Anon: 587154. Rape Crisis Line; 55577. Staffed Sun 7.30-10.30; 24 hr answerphone. Readibus (transport for old & disabled): 591121 Reading Gay & Lesbian Helpline 597269, Tues and Fri 8-10pm. Info and support. Samaritans: 58454, 24 hrs. 154 Southampton St, 9am - 10pm. Special clinic (VD etc): 863355 before 12 noon. - - - READING MAY DAY FESTIVAL Peace Future Right to Work Programme for the Festival 12.00 March Meet by the Old Shire Hall, Forbury Gardens. March through town, to the Reading Centre for the Unemployed. Bring your Banners. 1.00 - 4.00 Rally To be held at Reading Centre for the Unemployed, East St. off Queens Rd. Speakers 1.00pm Leslie Christie - Society Civil Public Servants. Gen Sec Designate Soviet Speaker - from the Soviet Embassy, London. Bill Goode - South Wales N.U.M. Speaker from the South African Congress of Trade Unions. Local Speakers on the Bus Campaign and Health Campaign. Festival 2.00pm Stalls from local Trade Unions and Community Organisations. Also: Video Films, Indian and English Folk Music, Break Dance, Childrens Activities, Debate, Refreshments and Creche. Plus Real Time Action Video 8.00 - Late. Evening Social Venue Reading Centre For The Unemployed Local Folk Music, Live Band, Disco NAP Sound. Vegetarian Supper... with the assistance of Vege Dining. Tickets from Acorn Bookshop, £2 and £1 unwaged. Grand May Day Draw. Bring a Bottle. sponsored by Reading Trades Union Council - - - NOT QUITE JERUSALEM Paul Kember 2-11 May 7:45pm Tickets £2.20 Concessions £1.80 Box Office: Reading 477594 Progress Theatre The Mount off Christchurch Road Reading This play contains scenes that some patrons may find disturbing. Pete, Dave, Carrie and Mike volunteer their labour on a kibbutz, hoping for sun, sand and sex. Their Israeli hosts, however, have very different priorities. The confrontation comes to a head when the volunteers are persuaded to put on a show about England for Volunteers Day. "Every year for twenty years the Australians give us Waltzing Matilda; the Swiss a drinking song. So no great surprises. We don't expect miracles." In fact, their show is a surprise, and the insult that Dave and Pete are directing at England becomes a breaking point for the kibbutzniks. 'Not Quite Jerusalem' won for Paul Kember the New Standard Drama Award for 'Most Promising Playwright of 1980'. Its account of culture shock and the search for national identity is both hilarious and frank, and this is reflected in the graphic nature of the language used. It is now a major film directed by Lewis Gilbert. Booking Form Ticket price £2.20 (all tickets) £1.80 (children and party bookings) Cheques should be made payable to 'Progress Theatre' Concessions are available to students, registered unemployed and senior citizens, on proof of status, by personal booking and for the first six performances only. Please send me ________ tickets @ £2.20; ________ tickets @ £1.80 Performance date ________ I enclose £ ________ and a stamped addressed envelope Name ________________________________________________________________ Address _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________ Tel: __________ Post to: Sheila Keene, Progress Theatre Box Office, 20 Ridge Hall Close, Upper Warren Avenue, Caversham. Tel: Reading 477594 - - - $Id: //info.ravenbrook.com/user/ndl/readings-only-newspaper/issue/1985/1985-04-28.txt#3 $