RED RAG Full Moon Issue: Thurs 15th Jan 1987 Fortnightly 20 pence Next Issue: Jan 29 Coordinators, tel: Rdg 669694 Copy deadline: 6pm Saturday 24th Jan. - - - JOB DESTRUCTION AGENCY In amongst the occasional headlines of redundancies or new employment prospects here in "boom-town" Reading, you may not have noticed any reports before Christmas of job cuts in the "Community Programme". The "Community Programme" provides one-year long employment for the long-term unemployed. Local organisations such as Berks County Council, Reading Borough Council, World Education Berks and the Scouts organise the projects and funds are provided by the Govt's Manpower Services Commission. He who pays the piper calls the tune. At only a few days' notice in December, a freeze was imposed on all further recruitment and agencies were told of "revised" funding, which allowed them far fewer jobs. Berks County Council had 288 posts - this was to be cut to 220. Very little flexibility was allowed: even if a project was virtually crippled for lack of a key person, nobody could be brought in from outside to do the job. (To add insult to injury, many Jobcentres continued to advertise the now non-existent jobs on their boards.) Many of the projects have worthwhile sounding aims; a few may actually achieve a good deal. All are subject to the bureaucratic whim of the MSC, implemented by the variously efficient agencies. In theory, many Community Programme jobs may be of value. In practice, a lot are little more than cosmetic exercises to get people off the dole. And in Berkshire and Oxfordshire, where the economy is relatively active and Restart and "Availability Testing" threaten to drive people off the dole anyway, the "Community Programme" obviously is no longer so important for massaging the dole figures. So funding is cut. The "Community Programme" is partly a propaganda exercise, in funding the unemployed to do things of use to the community, like clustering around an old flyposter for a morning, or filing and re-filing heaps of useless forms. Sadly, those jobs which are useful, such as providing much needed advice or information, or carrying out properly managed practical work, are just as vulnerable to the unknown bureaucrats of the MSC. Hey Presto! They've gone too. It would be nice to know how many jobs have gone altogether. It would be nice if one of those "newspapers" in Reading that pay journalists had bothered to phone the MSC offices and produced some information. It would be nice if the Trade Unions had had a say (Perhaps they did ... and said OK?) It would have been even nicer if the people who know best what each project needs - its employees - had been allowed a role in the whole affair, other than simply that of victim. - - - EVENTS Friday 16th January, 1907 * The Great Western Society. Illustrated lecture on road vehicles of the GWR railway. Abbey Gateway, 7.30pm Saturday 17th Jan * Berks Anti-Nuclear Campaign street stall, from 11am. * Upper Heyford Peace Camp meeting to plan nvda in April. * Sylbert Burton exhibition of paintings 6 drawings until 7th Feb. Art Gallery, Blagrave St, Sunday 18th Jan * Berks Conservation Volunteers want helpers to work on coppicing at Beenham. 874034 for details. Monday 19th Jan * Lesbian & Gay Youth Croup meeting 8.30 Wine Bar, Univ Students Union. Not just for students, new faces welcome, * Veggie Dining meet to plot even tastier nosh ups for the future! 8pm at 19 George St. Tuesday 20th Jan * Kids Korner Klub with Roger Hayes. Free entertainment for under-fives. 12.30-1.30 the Hexagon. Wednesday 21st January * "No Pasaran" video documentary about the situation in Nicaragua. Worth it just for the bit where the Pope shouts "Silencio" and the crowd shouts "Revolucion!". Viewing Room, Bulmershe College, 12.45 Free * P'n'D Housing Coop meeting 8pm. 20 School Terrace. New members welcome. Saturday 24th Jan * Demo in support of independent trade unions at GCHQ, in Cheltenham. Sunday 25th Jan * Berks Conservation Volunteers doing heathland work near Crowthorne. 874034 for details. * Reading Campaign Against Benefit Cuts meeting at 4 Anstey Rd. 6.30pm Monday 26th Jan * Lesbian & Gay Youth Group as last Monday. Wednesday 28th Jan * "Are you occupied?" Video about 1984 squat at the old benefit office. Lecture Theatre, Bulmershe, Free. 12.45, lunchtime. Thursday 29th Jan * Chinese New Year - the Year of the Rabbit. Also the day to find your copy of the nest issue of Red Rag. And coming soon: "All new" Youth CND Group starting in Reading. Contact Yuri Prasad on Reading 661162 Feb 4th The Wobblies - the story of the Industrial Workers of the World; lunchtime video at Bulmershe. That's it! Eric* Send info to Events Guide, pronto... - - - VEGGIE DINING Well we have had some really nice food put in front of us over the years ending since the last mention of food in this esteemed piece of paper writes your food correspondent, however all good meals come to an end and unless something is done to help get food in front of reading's gastros on a regular basis then some people won't have a decent meal in a fortnight unless they go home or have access to a goodish cook who doesn't mind doing it all themselves. The joy of veggie dining is that you don't have to be a good cook or do it all yourself, collectively prepared food is something to behold and eat, what with administrative cockups and poor ticket sales and general indecision as to where veggie dining is headed/ended up I thought it might be a good idea to call a veggie dining collective meeting so that any bod who wishes to help in any way can find out what is involved the delights the dangers ramble on Saturday morning AZ. Anyhow if you wish to help in any future veggie dining in any way shape form or recipe preparation then please leave a message in box495 in ye olde Acorn bookshop or come along to the first veggie dining collective meeting of 1987 which will be at 19 George St. at 7.30/8.00 on Monday 19th January. - - - ORIGINAL ROCKERS Back in tune to Original Rockers, livestock and deadstock of soul and reggae in the Thames Valley area... Forward into 1987 with eight dates only - Date 1. Friday 16th January. Reading bubblers Studio Magic play against Gemini (Luton-based youth sound, second string Unity) at High Wycombe MultiRacial. Date 2. Same night, ska/rock steady pioneer Desmond Dekker plays a concert with the People's Sound at the Paradise Club, 112 London St £3:50 £4 on the gate. Date 3. Best til last, mighty man like Jah Shark plays Peckham High St strictly roots an' culture. Date 4. Saturday 17th January. Reading sound Sir Graphics and soul sound Street Level do a show at the Paradise. Date 5. Friday 23rd January - go back to your roots, go back to Peckham and check out Shaka again - can you really wait til he come to Reading? Date 6. Friday 30th January. Gemini fire up the dance hall at High Wycombe Multi-Racial again, this time taking on Volcano Express... who have been a lot more popular in this area since they played with Unity and Saxon in Reading a while back Date 7. Jah Shaka again in Peckham, as every Friday. The King Champioss dub sound, so check it! Date 8. Best til Last again, Unity Hl-Power play a very special birth night dance for a very special person on Saturday 31st January. Nice up the mouth of Naptali in a fine style at High Wycombe Multi-Racial They may well play all night with soul sound Masterjammer and Confunkttion playing too, but Unity are worth the wait. Love & Unity to each & every one in the community!! PS Don't forget Miss P (Radio l, Sundays, 11 - midnight) and Tony Williams (Radio London, Sundays, l-3pm). - - - RED RAG - A CASE FOR EUTHANASIA? Has Red Rag outlived its useful life? Is it now a poor vestige of its former self, kept going by the "life-support machine" of a few committed producers for no better reason than old times' sake? Is the time and energy a few of us put into it wasted, just an act of sentimentality we would be better off without? There has certainly been a major decline: at its peak, 1600 copies of each issue were printed and distributed now there are 30-odd subscribers and another 130 - 170 copies being sold. Readership has declined by as much as 90%. At one time, two separate production groups involved a dozen people regularly helping to produce the Rag; recently each coordinator has been lucky not to end up typing and pasteing up virtually a complete issue single-handedly. And not many people are clamouring to coordinate the next few issues. There has often been dissatisfaction with the content - too little and from too narrow a group of people. Now very few unsolicited pieces of any size are submitted, and there are far fewer Collective members writing articles or encouraging others to write them. It used to provide a means for various groups to communicate to sympathetic people. Now BANC's own newsletter reaches more readers than Red Rag and the same is possibly true of the Womens' Centre newsletter, Conservation Groups' mailings, local political parties' networks and even maybe the Trades Council mailing. Gig guides are now provided by local papers far more reliably than they used to be, and distributed far wider. Red Rag's "Events" Guide is put to shame by RBC / County Libraries "What's On Around Reading". The residue of vaguely Left/Anarchist rabble who may be interested in all these but not actually in touch with them doesn't appear to be large enough or vibrant enough to support a healthy Rag. The basic idea may still seem attractive... (*) ... but isn't it naive and inappropriate to the late eighties, how things really are. There may have been a time when ideas could be thrown around and played with by a receptive audience. A new idea isn't enough to create social change. Most of us now realise we are settled either side of a class divide. We know which side our bread is buttered (or not, as the case may be). What politically and socially conscious / interested people need is not an "open-access" publication, providing a forum for debate by eccentrics and outcasts in a liberal "freedom of expression" tradition, but organisation: committed publications that have a clear identity and purpose, that have aims and intend to achieve them. Perhaps Red Rag could be replaced by a campaigning paper that informs and stimulates and supports. Not just become a regularly unreliable consumer guide to whatever tawdry "entertainment" down-market Reading has to offer. Last Autumn, a "new look" Rag was launched, after a Summer-long "rest". Is it now time to assess its value. And either make it worth something, or knock it on the head and get on with something else more useful? C. Hanger, 7.1.87 * Can anyone say what the basic idea of Red Rag is? - - - STONEHENGE '86 - WINTER SOLSTICE Sunday 21st - Monday 22nd After many delays in Reading, and a detoured journey, we reached Stonehenge by 9 o'clock. On arrival we encountered a torch wielding English Heritage hired security guard (£15 per hour), we had a pleasant chat and where told to return at 4am, when we would be allowed onto the stones. He also warned us that the police would arrest us for loitering if we didn't move a couple of miles away. We then decided to park in the nearest village and pass some time in a local pub, on returning to the car a corrugated hay barn was spotted over yonder. Once again at the winter solstice a warm squat was found, hay bales replaced the concrete, ladders and oily holes. At 3.30am we left the warm barn and headed back to the car, with a feeling of excited anticipation we were off to the stones once more!! We arrived to see police transits parked at the entrance to the car park. We parked in a side road nearby where a few other vehicles had gathered. At the fence keeping us out there where 10 guards scattered about and 5 dogs. It was quite clear we were not going to be allowed on, we attempted to talk to the security guards, communication was difficult, resulting in arguments. The security guards adopted the stance of "Boys in Uniform" resorting to passing petty insults to avoid any real direct questions. By 7pm the rising orange glow was around us, we knew sunrise was not far away. We looked to the circle, people where making a break across the fields, we strided eagerly past static security guards putting their dogs away. There was much energy and joy in the air, a tremendous feeling of satisfaction at finally entering the sun temple. Much singing, chanting, clapping and accompanying instruments, The Vibes Golden! We settled down to watch sunrise, at first sight of the sun a huge cheer went up, a beautiful sunrise marked the birth of a new year. As sunrise was complete we realised that our time together was short, as a sign of unity we joined hands to form a ring around the circle, and danced a merry jig, after which we said goodbye with a huge group hug - content, complete and at one. With cries of see you in June we departed. Luv the Frozen foot posse - - - LIVE & DIRECT Thursday 15th January 1987 * SHP -live music in the cellar bar 8-11pm, £1:50/75p UB40s * Cap & Gown - Beyond the River Friday 16th Paradise - Desmond Dekker & Peoples Sound. £3:50adv / £4 on door. Ska!! Saturday 17th Cap & Gown - Push to Enter Paradise - Sir Graphics / Street Level Sunday 18th George Hotel - Pressgang (folk-rock) & The Oyster Band Monday 19th Cap & Gown - Cracking the Pane Tuesday 20th Cap & Gown - Onan Bros Turks Head - Jazz SHP - Jazz, vibes 5 sax with Lennie Best and Kathy Stobart. 8pm Majestic - Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians, and Namoza. A package first presented in Reading by the Conspiracy. Worth checking for eccentric genius (Robyn) & manic energy (Namoza). Wednesday 21st Cap & Gown - The Jeremiahs Thursday 22nd Cap & Gown - Pressgang Club SHP - cellar bar 8 - 11pm, £l:50 / 75p Hexagon - Nicholas Cox (clarinet) 5 Vanessa Latarche (piano). 1.10pm Free lunchtime recital. Friday 23rd Paradise - Two bands for £2:50, or £1:50 if you get there befoer 10pm. Look out for posters. Hexagon - Who Dares Wins. Student mentality alternative comedy with occasional outbursts of brilliance. Cap & Gown - Vagabond. Saturday 24th Paradise - Jeremiahs & Rubber Rubber Vortex. Hexagon - Hale and Pace. The two Rons Cap & Gown - La Tarriffe Caribbean Assoc, Priestley Rd, Basingstoke - Home & Abroad and local support, a PLOT presentation Sunday 25th Cap & Gown Running Wild Radio 210 - The Fence - someone from Martin Rushent's Genetic Studio, and their new signing Armchair Warriors probably. Tuesday 27th Turks Head - jazz Cap & Gown - Turks Bottom folk club Hexagon - Julian Bream picks his lone some gee-tar. 8pm SHP - Paz:8 piece jazz fusion band with strong latin flavour. 8pm, £3:50 £2:50 concessions. Wednesday 28th New Red Rag printed Majestic - F.M. - - - CAMPAIGN AGAINST POLICE REPRESSION MARCH JANUARY 3RD Three of us from Reading took the X1 to London, meeting up with about a dozen others during the day. From the beginning the mood was friendly and good-natured. The sun was shining. There was a good turn-out. What could go wrong? Someone announced over a megaphone that the police were to treat the march as a legal demonstration. Even before we started we had achieved our aim. To defy the Public Order Bill and to make the new laws unworkable. I'm not sure whether there would have been room in the cells for the thousand or so people that turned up, had they chosen to use their new powers. We left Cock Tower place at about 1pm, heading for the Law Courts in the Strand. The three of us had taken along some cans, as alcohol had seemed to be a missing ingredient in the freezing cold of the November march. A band was playing as we danced and walked along. On the march were old people, young people, dogs, bikes, flags, banners and whistles. We chanted and chatted our way to the Law Courts. When we got there, nobody seemed in a hurry to go home. We were hustled on to the pavement to let a single stream of traffic through. A couple of people started making speeches through megaphones (yawn, yawn) but they were only, intermittently intelligible, We were called upon to go to Wapping by one speaker, and another from the 'Revolutionary Communist Group' was spouting about going to the South African Embassy in Trafalgar Square. Not being able to understand a word of what he was saying, we left him waffling incomprehensibly into his megaphone and headed for the non-stop picket at South Africa House. Apparently someone was nearly run over on the way there. When I saw him he was flat on the ground being dragged along by the police. Within seconds the police were surrounded by protesters with cameras. Just as the same tactic had worked on the Stop the City demonstrations, the police were forced to think twice about what they were doing. At the South African Embassy there was mass of people chanting for sanctions and hurling general abuse. The police, who prior to that had escorted us on both sides every few feet along the march were nowhere in sight. We had lost them for the present. After a few minutes of standing around, some anarchist chappies suggested that we go to Whitehall. So we did. A couple of hundred of us headed off. Instead of the orderly line which we had kept in for the first part of the march, we simply took over the street. There were people everywhere but no police or traffic whatsoever. The band started up again and from one side to the other, Whitehall was full of smiling, shouting dancing people. It felt good to stroll in the middle of a normally traffic-clogged street with so many like-minded people. Suddenly people started running. There was a surge forward and shouting and commotion ahead. A piece of wood arced through the air. Confusion followed and people were running first one way and then the other. We ran towards the Houses of Parliament, only a tantalising 400 yards away before the police cut us off. We were surrounded and outnumbered by police. We were back from three directions until we were mostly on the pavement. The police were telling passers-by to stand back in case things got rough, but we didn't let it get that far. There were a few people screaming. I couldn't see what was happening, but a few people were being pulled out of the crowd and hauled into vans. We still didn't know whether we would get the shit kicked out of us or be nicked or what. Some people started chanting about police brutality, but it didn't seem like an exceptionally good idea under the circumstances. The band were still with us and started up again, relieving the tension a little. People started dancing and at the end of each number there was exuberant applause. The passengers in the passing buses sat with their faces glued to the windows. Here were hundreds of police with vans and horse, surrounding a group of people dancing and playing music. They were mystified. Was it a riot or a street party? It was almost funny. Eventually people were let out one or two at a time to try and disperse us. A large crowd gathered and regrouped. By the time we had all found our friends again the crowd had moved on. Either to the South African Embassy or where else we didn't know. From what we felt then, and looking back on it now, we believed the march was a success. Very few people were arrested. We were only a very small minority expressing our dissent, but the police were forced to abandon their new legislation and treat the march as a legal one. However, there are still very few people aware of the implications of the new Police Bill. Media coverage of the march was virtually nonexistent, limited to small pieces in The Guardian and on Radio 4. There was no television coverage. News of the World described us as khaki-clad and masked. Did we expect anything else? It was a march to affirm the right to protest in our streets. We did not march along a police approved route from one place to another without anyone batting an eyelid. There were no 'organisers', no stewards (save the CAPR, who deserve a mention for getting the whole thing together). The keystone of the march was spontaneity but we must start to ask ourselves what happens next. We defied the Public Order Bill, but we must begin to learn new ways of dealing with police tactics. Information on the Public Order Bill: Box CAPR, 83, Blackstock Road, London N4 Love, Linda, Simon and Chris xx - - - READING REDEVELOPMENT ONE: BYE BYE BUS GARAGE Council Backs Shopping Redevelopment for Festival Site The Borough Council's Planning Sub-committee has given permission for the Chatham Street / Weldale Street bus garage to be demolished and redeveloped for a shopping scheme and some housing. At its meeting on Friday 9th Jan, the sub-committee looked again at the application by Reading's whizz-kid capitalist developers, Rockfort Land: on 28th November the Borough Planning Officer had recommended approval for the scheme - basically two huge shops of 46,000 sq feet and 20,000 sq feet - even though it looked like one would be occupied by a DIY retailer. Indeed, the Officer was quite into a DIY retail warehouse on the site: there weren't any other edge-of-town-centre sites for them in the town, which lacked such an institution, he enthused... Ignoring, therefore, 1) the existence of Homebase (Forbury) and Payless DIY (0xford Rd), and 2) whether people in Reading might not actually not want another one. As a sop to the Council to get a better chance of being able to do a nice little earner, Rockfort offered to build some sheltered housing on the site. Well, would you live next to a Supermarket and Chatham Street? Noise, fumes, congestion and deadly motorists would make it especially unsuited to older people living in a sheltered scheme. The sub-committee of councillors refused to follow the planning officer's recommendation to pass the scheme, even if it would turn out to be a retail warehouse. Instead they asked if the carpark could be used as a play area when not in use, and whether the housing and traffic could be separated properly. Neither was possible said Rockfort, so on Friday the sub-committee were looking at the same scheme, more or less - and they passed it, with the "important" restriction that there can't be a retail warehouse user on the site. However: * The housing will still be next to the carpark and the main road. * The scheme is totally at odds with the Central Reading District Plan,- which zones Site 16 for "housing, industry, community uses, with possible leisure facilities." * If the restriction were a real bind on Rockfort, they will appeal. It's likely though that they'll be happy to build the 2 shops and find "ordinary occupiers" who are quite acceptable to the councillors. * But who needs more shops anyway? Rockfort and the resailers will make lots of money from it but why do Reading people need more Anytown Consumer Temples? We're already suffocated with Buy! Buy! Buy! hysteria! * At the November meeting, Cllr Page remarked that the scheme was a considerable improvement on previous applications; ie less crappy than the rest, but is that any reason for accepting it? The property industry sees Reading as a prime area for profit, but retail / shops schemes are especially attractive. The Council is basically in favour of this - it's currently considering the Bridge St Oracle complex, having already given permission for shopping development at the station and Post Office redevelopments. And as the councillors reject a possible DIY tenant in the Rockfort scheme, the officers try to change policies to allow more retail warehouses in town. The 1986 Review of the Central Reading District Plan included additions to the list of potential retail sites, and a pro-warehouse policy. This in spite of the fact that although 60% of the shopping space all owed under the 1981-91 Plan has been given planning permission, none has been built as yet. So will the Labour Council be at all different from the Tories in how it responds to the pressures of private developers eying up the town? On the evidence of cases, like this, it is unlikely. Oh well, an over supply of property will produce a slump in the market, aided by investors and bosses getting pissed off with Reading's ludicrous road congestion, and (hopefully) Rockfort's two stores will lie empty. Then, perhaps, somebody will do what they did to the existing buildings on the site... squat them for a festival. Serves 'em right. - - - NEWS FROM RED RAG Collective meeting: 8th Jan With about £100 in the bank, the Rag is doing OK but needs to push sales up. Outlets are being offered 25% sale or return with the hope we'll get more, especially one on the Junction. Going to do a promotional push with posters etc. Need more people to help produce, also plans afoot to run some workshop on printing, paste-up etc. There was also some talk about new technology. Is Red Rag leaving its Luddite enclave? Next Collective Meeting: Thursday 12th February. 8pm, 56 Hamilton Road - - - AND AROUND THE COUNTRY - THE "WOMBOURNE TWELVE" Dear Rag, Nine gay men, one from Reading, and three lesbians from the lesbian and gay youth movement were arrested and imprisoned over Christmas following a demonstration in Wombourne, near Birmingham. They had staged a protest in the front garden of the house of William "Brownshirt" Brownhill, a conservative councillor notorious for hysterical "gas the gays" type outbursts, by sitting in the garden chanting "Brownshirt Brownhill don't be reckless, we're going to get you with a necklace!" After arresting them, the police claimed that their home addresses were difficult to verify and used that as an excuse to have them remanded in various prisons over the Christmas period. They have now been bailed and will be appearing at Selsdon Magistrates Court on 23 / 24 February (near Wolverhampton) on a breach of the piss charge and one of them also faces assault charges on the police. The Wombourne Twelve are asking for support and publicity. Locally they have already received much press attention, not all of it hostile. Please send letters of support, requests for more information to Lesbian & Gay Youth Movement, BM GYM, LONDON, WCIN 3XX Thanks , P@ul. - - - T0RPED0 TOWN DEFENCE GROUP have sent news of Havant Council's legal moves against the Brambles Farm Peace Festival (held for last three Augusts), and their resistance to it. More details from Torpedo Town Defence Group, c/o 167 Fawcett Rd, Southsea, Hants. Some people in Havant and in Chesterfield (Derbyshire) have responded to the developing police state by advocating Human Rights candidates, in the belief that a few Human Rights MPs could have a vastly disproportionate effect on the Police's and the Govt's disregard for citizens' liberties. If you are interested, contact EGHR, 16 Homewell, Havant, Hants P09 1EE - - - * UPPER HEYFORD PEACE CAMP is planning a large NVDA at USAF Upper Heyford, a little North of Oxford, on April 15th, the anniversary of the bombing of Libya by airborne terrorists. They want to develop a network of people prepared to participate and organise and publicise. Get in touch if you can help, or attend a meeting at the camp on Saturday,17th Jan. Upper Heyford Peace Camp, Portway, Camp Road, Upper Heyford, Oxon. This will be preceded by a march from the base to Oxford, on Sat 11th April. For details contact: "April Event", c/o 34 Cowley Rd, Oxford. - - - * FASLANE PEACE CAMP send us their newsletter: November's issue contains material on the rapes at Molesworth and their responses to the realisation that everyone has a responsibility to face the issue of rape. There is also news of Court Cases, Life Camp, huntsabbing, rubber bullets plans for 1987 and much more... They plan a series of walks for their next Rainbow Action later this year. Faslane Peace Camp, Shandon, Helensburgh Dunbartonshire, Scotland. - - - READING REDEVELOPMENT TWO: BYE BYE CINEMA Crown Colonnade Community Centre? Cemetery Junction could get more community space following a recent planning decision by the Borough Council - but at a price. Brian Rawlings Ltd of Tilehurst have got planning permission to redevelop land between Hattons and the Granby Cinema on Cemetery Junction - the Crown Colonnade and the Alder Valley depot behind it. They hope to make a fat profit from a re-building / modernisation scheme which will create three new shops. To do this they are willing to offer the council a "planning gain" - in this case, housing behind the shops & their service yards and first floor community space above the shops. Rawlings are not public do-gooders though - they will make big profits from the 26 sheltered housing units they are allowed to squeeze into the rear of the site. As well as from the shops. And the community space would otherwise be flats or storage space. Nonetheless, space for community groups is in very short supply all over Reading, and Cemetery Junction is no exception: the Sun St Youth & Community building is still not open, for one thing. So nine community groups who'd wrote to the Council to express support for the scheme will be satisfied - especially if the community space is managed by the community! But what about the cinema? All this would be fine in itself, were it not for the fact that redevelopment of the Crown Colonnade / bus depot requires access from de Beauvoir Rd and the cinema is in the way. The Granby has been the subject of lots of planning applications over the last three years or so - as a snooker hall amongst other things. Some people may remember a music festival there when it was squatted several years ago! Since then the cinema hasn't been in the headlines much; developers have been busy in the background though, trying to find a profitable scheme they can get past the council. In August last year, Kinstan Estates of Midhurst in Sussex, made four applications for planning permission. Two were for office development on a fairly small scale (two blocks of 5,000 sq ft ish, like a smaller one on Kings Rd). Two were for 4 shops with 12 flats over them and 6 more in a block behind the London Rd frontage. Because the site was outside recognised office areas and because the Central Reading District Plan zoned the Granby (& the Colonnade too, by the way) for "retention of leisure use, shops & housing", the office schemes were rejected by the Borough. The Housing / Shop applications have not been decided on yet. So the cinema could go for shops & housing. The Colonnade now has a planning consent for shops & housing, and redevelopment of the depot behind the Colonnade depends on "redevelopment" of the cinema for access. It's therefore very interesting that the cinema exterior has recently sprouted additions: * an "Acquired for redevelopment by B J Rawlings" sign; * a "Goodbye Granby" message over the doors; * lots of hoarding around the front & forecourt, which also belongs to Kinstan. Or rather, belonged. Past tense. It seems as though Rawlings are trying to assemble a major redevelopment site on the Junction - to allow them to use their Colonnade planning permission and to do the cinema at the same time perhaps. A once-and-for-all redevelopment which doesn't involve offices - made possible by Rawlings owning all the land - would be very attractive to a Council still pondering an application to "redevelop" the Granby made last August. Back in March 1984 the Council looked forwards to lots of developers falling over each other to get the Granby. Almost three years later, it is still there. Perhaps they'll give Rawlings planning permission and another bit of Reading which wasn't Anyplace Architecture will go. Maak R. - - - WILLIAM LEVER founded the Lever Brothers empire on 'Sunlight' soap in the 1880s. The search for raw materials took him to Africa where he found the indigenous system of production "miserably inefficient". He felt that "natives should be treated as willing children, housed, schooled, doctored and moved from place to place as might be required. Above all, they should be taught the value of regular habits and of working to time." Feed The Rich, Starve The World This year over 40 million people will die of hunger or hunger-related diseases, equivalent to 300 jumbo jet crashes every day with no survivors. More than 900 million people, or 20% of the world's population, suffer chronic malnutrition. Many of the natural resources used by Unilever, such as groundnut and soya, are rich in protein that could feed the starving. So do Unilever and other agribusiness MNCs try to feed those people who are literally dying for food? No. To do so would reduce profits - the poor cannot afford to pay for their survival. When food is a commodity to be bought and sold it will go to where there is 'demand': a small group in the underdeveloped world's urban centres such as Mexico City, Nairobi and Delhi, and a much larger group in New York, Tokyo and London. There it is sold as processed convenience foods or as meat and other animal products, a very unnatural and wasteful way to feed people. The British Food Industry In every major food product, one, two, or sometimes three companies dominate the market. Two - Walls (Unilever) and Lyons - almost monopolise ice-cream. Likewise Findus (Nestle) and BirdsEye (Unilever) control frozen foods. However, the large combines like Unilever never retail under their own names, preferring brand names to create the illusion of diversity. Consumers in the UK might think they have seven different brands of margarine to choose from: 'Blue Band', 'Shirk', 'Summer County', Tlora'. 'Krona', 'Echo', and 'Tomor'. How many know that they are all made by Unilever, whose sales account for 70% of the retail market? - - - UNEMPLOYED? Play the game or starve A new threat to your benefits Warning The new availability for work test starts on January 5 1987 * Wrong answers may mean no money * Seek advice before you sign on * Contact Reading Unemployed Group, 4-6 East St, Reading, tel 596639, ext 4 On Monday January 5th 1987, the Wessex House Unenmployment Benefit Office started applying the new availability for work test to claimants, amidst continuing condemnation. Members of the unemployed group based at the Reading Centre for Unemployed leafletted the dole last week, to warn claimants about this latest imposition. The 10 question test is the latest weapon in the Government's armoury of "initiatives" to reduce the registered unemployment figures for this year's election. The questions on the form (reprinted below with the correct answers) are trick questions, in that they ask what type of work you are looking for where & for how much... making many unemployed people afraid of being offered ludicrous jobs by the Jobcentre and being forced to take them, if they answer in the "straightforward" way. Any delay in filling the form in or "unstaightforward" answers, result results in immediate suspension of benefit. It is important to remember that by answering as below, to preserve your benefit, does not commit you to taking any job offered. Because, apart from other things, the Jobcentre / State just don't offer you jobs. It's up to individuals to seek work, and this is what is being tested. l. What Are You Doing To Find Work? Evidence of applications, speculative letters to employers, registering with the Jobcentre and private agencies. 2. Can You Start Work Today? Yes. 3. If not, why not? (Trick Question) 4. What Work Do You Normally Do? (Trick question - they ignore answers to this) 5. Are You Able & Willing To Take Any Full Time Job? Yes (Two exceptions are being able to do only certain types of work for clear health reasons, and having a specialised occupation / being trained for one) NB Don't put limits on work hours. Say you're available six days a week. 6. Are You Willing To Work Beyond Your Home Town? Yes 7. Are You Willing To Work Beyond Daily Travelling Distance? Yes 8. Do You Have Any Adults Or Children To Care For During Work Hours? (If Yes, claimants must say so and also say they cam make immediate arrangement for their care.) 9. What Was Your Weekly Wage In Your Last Job (before deductions)? 10. What Is The Minimum Weekly Wage (Before Deductions) You Are Willing To Take? Amount in Q10 must not be more than answer to Q9. So, write these answers and it'll be OK. Forms can be taken away to be filled in, but if they are not returned within a certain time, benefit is automatically suspended. It seems that returning them to the UBO the same working day is OK - so either use this guide in private (not at the UBO) or nip round the corner to the East St Unemployment Centre. The Welfare Rights team there are helping a steady stream of people to get through the test. At the moment it's new claimants who get the test when they first sign on, but it could be applied to anyone who signs on - even if it's only to get National Insurance credits. So be careful! Especially about what you say to staff of the UBO DHSS or Job Centre about "how you're getting along and looking for work". Go safe, Billy Whizz. - - - FILM AND VIDEO Screenings Fri 16th * Trouble in Mind(18) SHP US 1985 dir Alan Rudolph, 112mins. An enjoyable comedy thriller. 7.45pm. (On till Tues 20th; also 10.30 on Saturday) Wed 21st * After Hours (15) RFT 8pm. US 1985 dir Martin Scorsese, 97min. A comedy of urban paranoia as a young word processor operator encounters happenings in Soho * lunchtime video screening, Bulmershe "No Pasaran" Nicaragua. 12.45, Viewing Room. Thurs 22nd * SHP Video screening 7.45pm looks at documentary video. * The Chain (PG) GB 1984 dir Jack Gold l00 minutes. Light hearted comedy about moving house. Some might think it boring. 8pm, RFT. Fri 23rd * The Colour Purple (15) SHP 7.45pm US 1986 dir S. Spielberg, 154 min. An authority I know says its bloody awful: a total disservice to the book, glamourised crap. Whoopi Goldberg was pretty good, though. (til 27th, also 10.30 on Saturday) Wed 28th * A Room With A View(PG) RFT 8pm, GB 1985, dir James Ivory 117 min. Mocking & affectionate comedy of manners with the very excellent Denholm Elliot; worth a look, (also Thursday 29th) Thurs 29th * SHP 7.45pm: look at independent video and drama. Fri 30th * Fool for Love (15) SUP 7.45pm & 10.30 US 1985 dir Robert Altman 107 min. Adaptation of Sam Shepard play. Angst misery intensity and downbeat country and western music (til Sunday 1st Feb) Film & Video Courses Basic video Tues 7.30-9.30 (10 weeks). Introducing video 10-5.30, Sat 31st & Sun 1st. Basic Darkroom techniques 7.30-9.30, Tuesdays or Fridays. Creative photography 7.30-9.30 Mondays or Thursdays. Beginners Photography. Mondays Darkroom Workshop, Sat / Sun 24 / 25 All at South Hill Park, phone Bracknell 427272 for details. - - - RESTART Five Day Break Licence to on Claiming If you are over 18 and have been signing on for 6 months or more you will sooner or later be called in for a Restart Interview, which you have to attend or, as they put it, "your benefit may be affected". At this interview you'll probably be asked what efforts you are making to find a job, and they'll tell you about the exciting options open to you, such as the "Community Programme", the Enterprise Allowance Scheme & Jobclub. You are supposed to take one of the options offered to you. I chose to go on the Restart Course as it seemed the easiest option, only lasting five days. Some people don't get given a choice: they are told to attend Restart or else. The course was pretty boring at times & the tutors were horribly sexist. We were given lots of leaflets and got to fill in numerous forms. Occasionally there was the odd snippet of useful information. We held mock interviews and phone conversations and made lists of our interests, 'good' points and 'bad' points, everything being related to job prospects and job search skills. This is the course for you if you lack motivation to doodle. One day in the week someone came in to talk about benefits which some people found helpful. We filled in a Personal Information Chart which was typed up and given back to us to impress prospective employers with. We filled in a questionnaire designed to find out what jobs we would most like to do, regardless of qualifications, and on the last day we had a play on their computers - both more fun than they sound. It is not essential to attend all five days, as long as it looks like you are making an effort. You can keep going back on Fridays for 13 weeks, either to play with the computers, or to attend JobClub which involves writing and ringing up for real jobs). The whole thing is very job-orientated and they encourage you to lie if it will help you get a job. If you don't want to work, Restart is probably the best option, but watch out for DHSS spies! If you do want to work, you might or might not find it helpful but at least it will keep the DHSS off your back for a while. Dilly. - - - RED RAG SUBSCRIPTIONS Send £4 for six months' supply of Red Rag delivered through your front door, (cheques payable to "Red Rag") name: address: Red Rag, Box 79, Acorn Bookshop, 17 Chatham St, READING. - - - SMALL ADS ARE FREE! To let - two adjoining rooms in vegetarian household off Oxford Road. £30 per week plus share bills and food. Phone 504211. Bookshelves wanted, preferably cheap or free. Phone Ana, 665332. - - - MUSIC FOR FOLK I can't vouch personally for everyone coming up locally this month - that is, even less than usual - but what I know, I'll tell ya. OK? And do remember that there are now three active folk clubs in Reading itself: Readifolk at the George, ever more wide-ranging, the Prsssgang Club at the Cap & Gown, which can get pretty loud and raucous, and the Turk's Bottom which is no longer at the Studio Bistro but has moved to - guess - the good ole Cap and Gown. It's still got university connections and promises to overflow with eager young talent. (No, not like that!) (Mind you...) Right. Let's go. Thurs 15: Pressgang club (Cap & Gown, Kings Rd). Local excellences Lost Weekend (guitar, double bass & ace vocals) and Terry Clarke (one of the 2 best singers I've heard in town). Preceded by 4 floor spots (now that would be telling, wouldn't it?) £1 pre 9.30, £1:50 after. Presgang-the-band won't be there; they're doing support for Texan phenomenon Michelle Shocked at the Cricketers, the Oval, London Town. Coo. Maidenhead Folk Club (The Rose, King St., M'hd) Jones & co. Fri 16: Aldershot at the well-sign-posted West End Centre but only if you can't get to Readifolk on Sunday or they'll skin me for telling you, it's the Oyster Band (the goods in electric folk, now with drums) with the dynamic Rory McLeod on harmonica, voice, guitar and feet, who is surely due to come to Reading soon??? Sat 17: Bracknell at South Hill Park's inaccessible-to-nonambulant Cellar Bar, Les Barker & Mrs Ackroyd one of whom is or is supposed to be a dog, doing monologues. Tricky with 2 of them... Sun 18: Readifolk at the George, corner of Broad St, back bar: The Oyster Band. No excuses. They'll be brill. Enough trad style for the diehards, enough pzazz for the youth of today. Be early. Pressgang in support. Horse & Barge, Duke St, Dance bands and callers ideas exchange evening. Will they resist going round the corner to dance to the Oysters? Details 0635 / 33320. Mon 19: Nettlebed (at the Bull, High St.) Scottish special. Tues 20: Fleet (Fox & Hounds, Crookham Rd) Mike Silver. Voice / guitar. Turk's Bottom Club at the Cap & Gown, Kings Rd. No charge but a collection. Singers' Night. Wed 21: Fairport Convention who are supposed to be wonderful are playing at the Civic Centre, Aylesbury at 8 for £5. 0296 / 86009. I'd been thinking our own hallowed council chamber in the Civic offices would make a great venue... How about it, Mart? Thurs 22: Pressgang Club: The Onan Brothers: left and satirical. Sat 24: Bracknells Anonyma. Two women one of whom, Anne Lister, is especially known for her songwriting; they do women oriented songs. Should be good. Africa Centre, London. Shiati Jazz from Kenya: benga music based on traditional dance rhythms, and bodi, a traditional form of women's singing. 01 / 485 / 8262. Sun 25: Readifolk: Burns (as in Robbie) Night with Scotch Measure (who really are Scottish, and stylish with it). There will be haggis, some of it vegan. Can this be done? Is Readifolk becoming a gastronomic enterprise? Mon 26: Nettlebed: Pearl O'neill & Beverley Arscott (songs & poetry) Tues 27: Turk's Bottom at the Crap & Groan: Ministry of Humour. You'll like them. They're dead good. Lyrical left lampoonists. Wed 28: Bversley Cross (Toad & Stumps) Orion. Thurs 29: Maidenhead: Paul Metsers. Very popular singer / songwriter. Oxford: The Oyster Band, again. Radcliffe Arms. Pressgang: The Doonicans. Wild Irish folk, "civilised version of the Pogues", "really young & upfront". I'm told. With 2 women vocalists. Sat 31: Bracknell: Blowzabella. I've been accused of indiscriminate rave reviews in these columns. This is a discriminating rave: these 6 are different from anyone else on this page in terms of what they play (strange, to us, instruments and an eclectic range of tunes from all over Europe) and highly excellent at it. Saxes, hurdy gurdy, melodeon, fiddle, bass, cittern, bagpipes, whistles, shawm and a neat line in percussion when they get going. Which they will. Go! Sun 1st Feb: Readifolk. Crows. Oh this lot do sound like they're good. I ain't heard them, but I get the idea that their (male) vocalist is v. special. Quality stuff. Speaking of quality. The monthly Farnham Maltings gig features the wonderful Jo-Ann Kelly of the blues voice with Pete Emery on sparkling guitar, and the Guo Brothers from China who are quite entrancing. They play gorgeous Chinese folk tunes on an assortment of flutes and the sheng, which I can't define the look or sound of but it's a bit like a bird, or a wee church organ and it sounds like nothing you ever heard. Also a frenetic percussionist. These two acts have nothing whatsoever in common except excellence. Will they do a jam at the end??? Details 95 / 724638. That's it. Forthcomings include Bonnie Shaljean at B'nell (7th), (harp, keyboards, strong voice & varied repertoire), & Adrian Legge the guitar wiz at Readifolk (15th). I'll get that typewriter under control by then. Details to Box 79, 17, Chatham Street, Reading or ring liz on 53437. - - - IS READING REALLY SUCH A BAD PLACE? Have you ever heard the opinion expressed that Reading is a dull place? Have you ever heard that nothing goes on in Reading? Do you know people who think that Reading simply isn't a "credible" or "cool" place to be, not like London or Liverpool - cities whose seamier sides are ignored in the blaze of fashion hype that surrounds them? Are you, like me, sick of those people who pretend that the town is in some way "beneath them", who think it's hip to moan about the place the whole time and who do nothing about getting something going themselves? Did you know that these people are wrong about Reading in any case? Well just in case you didn't know, let me show you how it's happening; everybody should know this, because it's about time Reading started taking itself seriously. I'm not talking about discos or bistros! Nor am I talking about rock music, although the good news is that it is available, as ever. If it is what you want, you're not quite as spoiled for choice as you have been in the past, but it still looks pretty good: You can go to the Majestic on Tuesdays, the Paradise Club on Fridays (and sometimes on other nights at both those venues). There is music at the Cap and Gown on both Fridays and Saturdays, and once a week at the University, Tuesdays, if you can get in. There are one or two less regular options as well. This is all pretty good, but it's not what is most exciting at the moment. In terms of rock music Reading is really pretty ordinary, because Reading only turns out ordinary bands, with rare and notable exceptions. But Reading is far from ordinary when it comes to "roots music" and it is in this realm that Reading goes right onto the national map... In themselves, you may not find the clubs particularly startling, a folk club is not a particularly new idea, to say the least! But consider how many of them there are in the Reading area at the moment, consider how they are thriving, well attended and lively, and then look more closely at the differences between them - it's something that is well worth checking out. In the first place there are lots of them, be they called folk or roots music clubs. If Nettlebed is too far out of the way on a Monday night, try the Turks Bottom Folk Club at the Cap And Gown on a Tuesday night. Floor singers are very welcome here, and the passing round of a hat ensures that quality guests can be brought in regularly. It was a University folk club until the Students' Union realized it was subsidising entertainment which was enjoyed by students and (horror!) non-students alike! Who said apartheid?! Anyway, its origins make it a youngish club. The Comrades Club on Fridays, just off the Oxford Road, is a more traditional singer's club, while Readifolk, at the George Hotel on Sunday nights, remains the heavyweight member of the club. Here you can see the best of the major touring folk acts, the big-money people. They have singer's nights also, but lest you go away with the impression that it's a stuffy old folk museum, it has to be said that Readifolk do also promote the rogue end of folk! And I've left the Pressgang Club till last; it runs on Thursday nights at the Cap And Gown and depending on your attitude is either the jewel in the crown or the joker in the pack as far as this group of clubs is concerned. It is very different, in any case, as you will see... In some ways, it's a bit like a rock venue, you can talk or even order a drink while someone is playing, for example. (Have you ever been to a traditional folk club?) And it's the place to go if you want to see young people do exciting things with traditional music, be it from Scottish, Irish, American roots, from anywhere in fact, even England. Does it surprise you to hear that it can even be hip to be English? (If you're bothered about that sort of thing!) Lots of things are happening in this field, it is even tipped by some to be The Next Big Thing in popular music, and it's at the Pressgang Club that you can regularly see it happen at the grassroots level. What is more, admission is only £1, and that is for an average of two bands a night, and not just any old rubbish either! Watch out especially for the Onan Brothers on Jan 22nd, the wild and exciting Doonicans the following week and The Tennessee Three the week after that, with supports. These acts are all coming down from London and depend on door money to pay their way. With so much being brought right to your doorstep, is £1 a lot to ask? No, obviously it's not, so get in there - and before 9.30pm, or you'll be charged a staggering £1:50! With all these clubs, and without mentioning the jazz venues, Reading has more than the seeds of a really good thing. Just by going out a bit, you can help ensure that Reading becomes an even more exciting place, and with so much to choose from at so little cost, you've got to be daft not to! Reading really isn't such a bad place to be. Jonathan Kirby. Yes, I am one of the people who runs the Pressgang Club, but if I'm not prepared to sing the praises of the Club, why should anyone else? - - - RED RAG Advertising Rates 3 for 10 by 6cm £6 for 10 by 12cm 'Small ads' are still free. 4 ads in consecutive issues are £2:50 / £5 each. For more details: Simon on Reading 666354. Published by the Red Rag Collective, printed by Acorn Bookshop. Red Rag, Box 79, 17 Chatham Street Reading, Berks Outlets: * Acorn Bookshop * Blue Moon Arts & Crafts (Emporium) * Bulmershe S.U. * Gill's General Store, 80 Addington * Harvest Wholefoods (Traders) * Pop Records (Yield Hall Place) * UB Cycles (London Street) - - - (paid adverts) Majestic Reading Big Brite presents: 'Ard'n'Eavy DUMPY'S RUSTY NUTS Tuesday 10th Feb 8.30-late. Tkts £3:50 adv (Box Office & Listen) £4:00 door. - - - The Conspiracy presents GRAND ALL-NIGHTER Sat Feb 7th '87, 7pm onwards Lights, bar, food Featuring live: Ring, Another Green World, Webcore, Ozric Tentacles, Snorkmaster Grobbblie sound system, videos. All at: Reading Centre for the Unemployed, East St, Reading Admission by advance ticket £3:50 (£3 UB40): Acorn Bookshop, Chatham St, Reading; Pop Records, Yield Hall Place, Reading; Listen Records, Butts Centre, Reading. - - - $Id: //info.ravenbrook.com/user/ndl/readings-only-newspaper/issue/1987/1987-01-13.txt#3 $