UC32 February-March 1979 by Christopher Squire

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Undercurrents 32 February - March 1979 Contents

1 Eddies 7 What’s What & What’s When 9 The British Road to Ecotopia - Stephen Joseph: Why we don’t need a Green Party 10 The Ecology Party - John Pezzey 12 Playing the Parliament Game - Oxford Ecology Movement 13 Greening the Labour Party - Dave Elliott 15 How They Kept the Larzac - John Lambert The struggle to keep the French army off the sheep walks 18 Scots Seek Soft Path - Tony Webb: Anti - nuke feeling is growing among Scottish unionists 20 Workers’ Plans - John Darwin & Hilary Wainwright: The answer to all our problems 22 Soft Chips - John Garrett: Micro can make you free 23 Shruggin’ It Off - Peter Nalder: How to deal with those communal blues 24 The Political Economy of the Peanut - Simon Watt: How Senegal swapped slavery for cash-crop serfdom 26 Hell, Hull & Housing - Tony Small: The world’s first wind-powered council houses 27 Wither the AEA - Pat Coyne: We try to find work for Britain’s redundant atom scientists 31 Free Speech - David Gardiner Build your own VH F transmitter 33 Save your own Steelworks - Joe Atkinson: The Shotton workers’ struggle 36 Letters 39 The Undercurrents Review of Books 46 Small Ads 47 Book Service & Back Numbers 48 Subscription Form ___________________________________________________________________________________________

Published every two months by Undercurrents Ltd, 27 Clerkenwell Close, London ECI R OAT. Full details of editorial meetings etc. are on p. 48.

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rial alcolm Caldweh iind

fRIAL ENDS

Police Computer: COMTEK

Extracts from the speech delivered by Sam Silkin before the Parliamentary Labour Party Iwant to acknowfadga straightway that this caxÃ h i m a a d concwn, and antiroly lÂ¥gitim Concern, among mmv minim of thÃ P l y and othen Ihave always bean aware that it would cause concern. Ihaw always been aware that a decision to give my concent would be popular with many of my friends; that beoum it concwned journalists Icould expect no sympathy from the Press and that there would be a persistant campaign of propaganda. My expectation! h Ã § not bwn dioppointed.. Iam not a military ~curity expert. or an international relations,axpert or a communications expert. Ican do no mom than apply the thoroughness, the analytical ability and the judgahnt of years ' of experience in my job to the material supplied by others.. For soma hours Mr Campbell questioned Mr Berry in the closest detail on the activities of Mr Berry and his unit and on nuny other matters. .They were arrested before they could do anything with this =rat information. So how could one be sure that Mr Cawbell h i d a red intention t o publish it or pass it t o others? Iremained satisfied that Mr Campbell had every intention of disclosing the information he had obtained. And it is t h e only conclusionconsistent with what happened at the trial. The defence of Mr Compball and Mr Aubrey Ãˆ thet they had no intention to publiÃ§the secret information and they swore that they h o n d y b e l i w d that they would not be prosecuted so long as they had no xuch intention. The jury, after long :onsideration, unanimously :onvictad both man. They must me be- atiified that these defences were dishonest and were lying.. But although he dealt

not

..ru Jndercurrents n readers will have heard the sentences passed on ABC; their leniency effectively passingjudgement on Attorney General Sam Silkin rather than the defendants. Thus no further point would be made by an appeal and, contrary to what was predicted in Undercurrents 31, there will be none. All costs (read: 'fines for having had the temerity to press on with the case'), except for John Berry's Â£20 and Â£20of Duncan Campbell's will be bidby% out-

So why the whole fiasco? No sane government would voluntarily humiliate itself in this way; so what made this one do so? Attempting to get answers to these questions more that 50 back-benchers questioned Silkin at a session of the PLP on November 30th. Extracts from his reply are printed here. The ABC case concerned communications surveillance ' information picked up by the ' RoyalSignalsin Cyprus-a hidden 'exportito the USÃ‘interceptio of military and diplomatic communications of many Third World countries contrary to international agreements. It is ,. dear that exposure of the use of this country in aiding US operations Ã§gainsthe Third World i s not ; information that the British : government wouldlike knownespecially by the British public. The most important lesson of the trial is that the instigators were the security intelligence and other agencies of the state. The agencies who convinced Silkin he should prosecute were a team from MOD, the Director of GCHQin Cheltenham, the Defence iltelligence Committee, and Sir Leonard Hooper/the ex-head of GCHQ The fact that a l l but 3 charges under Section 2 had to be dropped shows the bizarre influence these totally unaccountable agencies have in advising elected Ministers. That anyone would have thought that Section 1 charges wouldstick i s a puzzling matter. To get a conviction on this kind of 61. charge you have to prove three thing;: thatsomething was communicated; that this something might be directly or indirectly useful t o an enemy; that the act w#s done for purposes prejudicial to thesafety of the state. The first two are usuailv easv to Drove and

indirectly useful t o the enemy, even a photograph of the Prime Minister's loo. 'Purposes prejudicial' i s usually easy in a spying case-the defendant was seen slinking in and out of the Russian Embassy, for example. In this case. Mr Leonard stated that the 'purpose prejudicial' w a s the intention to publish, proved by the fact that the defendant was a journalist. According to this logic, giving someone a photograph of Callaghan's loo isalt right. Doing so with'the prejudicial purpose of publishing it i s not. Section catch-all 2 is a different animal altogether. Applied literally, hundreds of people break i t every day. Most serious journalists would be in contravention of it. Section 2 charges are therefore applied ditcriminately-to 'Subversive' journalists, who might publish embarassing details which aren't on the official-to-be-leakedlist and who aren't employed by serious Papers and magazines which would make sure that nothing embarassing would get into print. There is one rule for the Chapman Pinchers of this world and another for the rest. The most serious cause for concern is that there will always be the assumption that the function of the journalist is to publish everything he receives, an assumption that wquld put in jeopardy m a t serious journalism i f i t were taken seriously. It seems to follow that wereany other iournalistTi a similar paition there would be no defence whatsoever. The further assertion on the part of both the Prosecution and Silkin that the informati,on was not merely received but actively sought-and therefore Duncan would s t i l l be prosecutedunder a reformed S2-is a lesson that all Journalists must learn well. Sit at home and wait for the news to

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with them lenientlv bv a 3-vear conditional discha&,ha his viÃ§ of thÃ§iconduct c l w ordering them Â¥act o pÃ§ Â£5.0 or in The second criticism, whiph has been repeated again and again before and &ice the trial, was that saction 2 should not have boon used against the journalists because all they did was t o receive information and Franks recommended the abolition of the offence of "mm recftipt of information." But you ortly have t o read Franks to sea that by "mere rÃ§clpt he did no mean deliberately inciting somebody to give away secret information, questioning him d d y for hours and pumping him dry of secret information. How could he ponibly haw meant that?. If there wax nothing in the section 1counk, thay might have bean thrown out at thÃ committal stage. They were not. .Why then did they fail at the trial? Anyone with any knowledge of the courts k n o w that, h o w v u thoroughly a prosecution may prepare its car, witnenm don't always -re up to expectations-particularly when skillfully, some have said brilliantly, cross-examinad. Without any pressure fron anybody I discussed the situation with leading counsel before the second trial started. He agreed t h a it would be right to drop the 9th Count as u d e t o proceed with.. Ithink, looking back, t h ~ the wiser decision would hive been to drop all the section 1 counts at that stage.. Andsofarasmy competence is concerned, Iam content t o leave a judgement on that t o those of my colleagues who have tested it by relying on my advice and my judgeml* over the yeus When they cams to doubt it,then Ishall r d l y begin t o be concerned.

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POLICE FILE

THE TWO-YEAR marathon government investigation into data security which reported last month has turned in a set of findings which are a severe embarrassment to the authorities. Its report. which reserves its fiercest abuse for uncooperative police witnesses, draws particular attention to what the police are up to at the brand new Pulics Rational Computer. The Data Protection Committee's report (Â£ for 460 fun-filled pages) picks up the vital point that the PNC does far more than store criminal records for use i n finding villains. It also collects 'speculative, suppositional, hearsay and unverified intelligence'. This can concern people's associates, s~soectedactivities and the like. A n d it says roundly that: 'The linking of factual personal information about an identifiable ndividual with speculative data about criminal activity could pose a grave threat.' The PNC, which is t o be found i n leafy Hendon, North London, consists o f t w o large Burroughs computers and will eventually store over 4 0 million records o n 1 9 million vehicles and their owners, and o n four millionother people. . . The PNC is linked t o screens in police stations round the country. Among the delights i t offers are data bases on vehicle owners, convicted persons, and wanted and missing persons. There is a fast retrieval system for matching fingerprints taken w i t h the PNC collection. All this data was previously available t o the police, but was much less accessible before the PNC was there. A n d despite the Rehabilitation o f Offenders Act, which removes some offences from the record after a period, there is n o procedure for purging conviction data from PNC. The PNC gives its owners wide flexibility in terms of data handlingfor example, only 30,000 of the 120,000vehicles i n the stolen vehicles file have been nicked. The rest are impounded vehicles, cars found but unclaimed, unmarked poiicevehicles (presumably t o avoid embarrassment when they dct suspiciously), suspected vehicles (seen at scenes of crimes) and vehicles of long-term interest, e.g. ones owned b y active criminals. The vehicle files also contain information on owners, as the well-known case of the three who were. members of the Anti-Blood Sport League (the policeman knew about it when he stopped them) showed. This amounts t o preemptive policing, o n the assumption that people w h o object to hunting are troublemakers. Other files, too, contain more data than names might imply. 'Missing Persons' include not only amnesiacs b u t deserters, people wanted for offences, prison escapers and, incongruously, 'people found*. There will soon be 50Ã‘60,00 lucky people

ncluded. Other ad hoc data like facts on stolen goods have also -. been p u t on PNC. So far, some things like the &ecial Branch personal files (1.15 million people and 2,000 more a m o n t h ) and the SB subject indexwhich piesumably tells about oraanisations under surveillanceare too h o t or t o o complex t o be computerised. But according t o the DP Committee, even this data will go on the Metropolitan Police National Intelligence Computer which is being commissioned, probably somewhere in SW London. The DP committee rejected the Home Office view that this data was already available o n paper, and questioned the collection o f data like the 100,000 plus names on the Central Drug Information Unit. Only 35,000 of these have been convicted, and the rest are 'associates' whose names were got from address books and the like.

Leaching out

ZERO ENERGY growth for 50 years while incomes treble and investment savings of more than Â£billion a year for 20 years would result f r o m the adoption o f k n o w n techniques of energy conservation i n the UK at Quite moderate rates, according t o Gerald Leach and his team a t the International Institute f o r Environment and Development. Forget yer fancy windmills and Severn Barraaes: all that is needed is a thoroughgoing Save It campaign. Even winter woollies will be redundant: houses w i l l be warmer, and everyone can have a car and all the other goodies that we ecofreaks affect t o despise. You don't believe i t ? Then get yourself a copy of their report, A L o w Energy Strategy for the UK (Science Reviews Ltd., Â£7.501base; o n 2% years of work funded b y the F o r d Foundation, which sets out the detail; they have considered the prospects for some 5 0 0 end-use categories i n the industrial sector alone, which makes possible a much more realistic forecast of future needs that the highly aggregated methods used b y the Department o f Energy. Assuming they're right, the electronuke lobby is really in a hole: 11ED forecast that demand for electricity will hardly increase at all i n line w i t h recent years b u t

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ON THE 19120th December there was a special meeting of the International Whaling Commission i n T o k y o t o set catch quotas for the Sperm Whale, the last great w h a l e t o be slaughtered i n large numbers. Last year over 1300 were taken b u t scientific reports indicate that the population is n o w so reduced that it may continue t o decline even if hunting stops now. On the 17th December a 40' whale balloon ( F l o l was flown i n the Ginza, Tokyo's main street. After half an hour the police told demonstrators t o deflate her. On the Sunday Flo flew again at the hotel where the the NGO's press conference t o o k place. Unfortunately she got caught up in a demo against income tax and she and her five keepers werb arrested and held for 24 hours. On the Monday the Japanese Seaman's Unions demonstrated outside the IWC meetinq, handing out leaflets t o delegatescalling f i r a higher quota. Their banners read: Down with Dietary and Culinary i n conflict with the 6% p.a. ncrease assumed t o 'justify' Tornessl. This means that when the plant now being b u i l t comes on line there will be a huge overcapacity. So there w i l l be no need for further nuke orders for ten years, o r ever again if coal output is increased only slightly: I n fact they cast doubt o n the NCB's o w n target of a 40% increase b y the year 2000. This report is now being 'examined' b y the Department o f Energy. Strenuous efforts to debunk it b y faur means or foul are confidently expected: the atom hard men can feel the chill wind of the dole aueues whisthno round their necks and it's concentrating their minds most wonderfully.

PEAK RATE The CEGB has decided that i t would like another 1200-1800MW of pumped storage capacity b y 1990. . With its usual sensitivity i t has decided that the only possible site is the Longendale Valley, i n the Peak District National Park. The dam and an office block at Longendale w i l l be visible, b u t officials of the Peak District National Park fear that permanent damage t o the environment will occur during the construction. Although it will be some time before the public enquiry and

Imperialism1 Conservationists leafleted the meetinq, aided b y Martita, a ballerina, w h o danced her whale dance before sevcral busloads of police A t midday an American Joe Healev, climbed part way u p the T o k y o Tower (the local E ~ f f e l ) ,with a Save the Whale banner. He and every Caucasian m siqht were arrested. Those that were still at liberty acquired police tails, some of them n o t very subtle: the Director o f Greenpeace ended u p sharing a taxi with his t o c u t costs. The 'Scientific Committee' admitted t o the IWC committee (for the first time1 t h a t they didn't k n o w h o w many sperm were left and recommended a zero quota for females and the same as '78 for males; members o f the commission considered they were letting the side down b y n o t coming u p with definite 'objective' Proposals. After a private meeting and much arm twisting the Commission settled o n zero for females and 3,800 for males i n the North Pacific. But because the whalers claim they cannot distinguish females f r o m young males in the water they were: allowed a 'by-catch' of 4 7 3 females. They will stop all whaling f o r ' 7 9 when they have filled this 'by-catch', whether or n o t they have killed the male quota.(which they never have in the past). Southern hemisphere whales were completely protected o n the advice of the scientists.

RIGHT LINES THE LATEST issue of Searchlight tarries an article which has a most promising beginning: "Magic Runes, ley lines and ancient folklore are not only associated with hobbits or living on the land. There is long-standing tradition of involvement of fascists and rightwing nationalists . . . '' I t is a pity that a later paragraph ruins the whole effect: "Earlier this year Searchlight's attention was drawn t o a book b y Francis Hitching, who lives in Bath. The book was a collection of Hitler's sayings, and when we iooked at Hitching's other works we found he had written several other books on Britain's ancient history, the runic stones and what is often referred t o as Earth Magic. I n his book Earth Magic, he published.. . "Actually, Francis Hitching wrote Earth Magic and lives in Twickenham: John Michell produced the collection of Hitler's sayings and fives in j3ath. H o hum. parliamentary approval stage is reached, the Board is getting ready for a fight. Public access t o the high ground above the valley was the cause of great legal battles i n the 1930%when country lovers won out over landowners. A n d in the late 1960s. the CEGB was forced b v public opinion t o run a 400 k V line through a disused tunnel in. , stead o f over the moors.

TORNESS

Amid the confusion a orotester siezes the chance t o sticker e dimmer.

workers appeared determined t o work. rather than hostile. Tht police presence grew t o 100 as the day continued Several times, wher there was a risk of imurv t o orotesi ors, they halted work, at others they stepped in front of moving machinery t o drag them away. Some people were driven off in police vans and left t o walk back loolice use nonviolent action 1.1. 38 ~people were arrested andcharged w ~ t hbreach of the peace, maonly towards the end when everyone's energy was flagging. The only serious injury was t o c policeman who was hit by a passin{ lorry on the A1. A t a mass meeting ifter the accident i t was decided to tnd the action for the day and a public statement was made expressing sympathy. This was a successful start t o a type of opposition new t o much of the British anti-nuclear movement, the sense of purpose and solidarity was much greater than at other recent anti-nuke events. Discussion continues about organisation, structure and strategy.

PIPE DOWN WHAT MAY BE the worst US reactor accident yet occurred last June at the Duane Arnold nuclear centre in Palo, Iowa. A 10" diameter primary cooling system pipe was found t o be cracked three-quarters of the way round rts circumferenca. The fault was only discovered by accident an electrical malfunction shut the plant down and an inspector went down into the reactor drywell and saw water spewing out af a 4 long crack. The teak continued even after the system was depressurised, and ultrasonic testing showed that all seven of the other pipes were cracked as well. Replacing them is difficult as the working space is very cramped (about the size of a large car boot). Meanwhile Duane Arnold is out of Serwce. A complete break in one of these pipes would cause the 'worst possible' loss-of-coolant accident at a reactor of this type fa General Electric Bo+lingWater Reactor). Testing the pipes in situ for cracks by radiography is difficult because of the radiation scatter from the core I t may be that cracks will be impossible t o detect until the pipe breaks completely. Two sister plants to Duane Arnold in North Carolina have been shut down for inspection, and at least nine others are at risk I t is only a matter of time Shortly after the Dyane Arnold accident became public, it was also announced in Canada that the Pickering Candu reactor, on the shores of Lake Ontario, is leaking a gallon of radioactive waste per hour into the lake The operator, Ontario Hydro, points out that the lake is very large. And presumably half the pollution ends up in the USA, which occupies the southern bank of the lake

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November 14saĂ&#x192;Ë&#x2020; the end of the occupation or m e proposed nuclear'reactor site near Dunbar (see previous Undercurrents}. Although it was away from where thecontractors were starting work, Half Moon Cottage was bulldozed into the sea and its inhabitants arrested. Work then started on access roads. Well before dawn on 20th A day 6f action was called for November the first groups moved by the occupiers: SCRAM (Scottish Campaign tA resist the onto the site. Some established camos. some occupied madiinery, Atomic Menace) and the East onegroups started rebuilding the Lothian and Borders Ann Nuclear Grouo. Peoole from ah over cottaoe. The largest number of peopL was t o be found around the Britain (and sohefrbm beyond) started assembling two days before machinery that had t o be brought across the A1. In the dark Many cameas a r m - those who bonfires were springing up all over came individually formed ad h6c groups or joined existingones, as all the place I The machines already on site action was t o be u n f m k f w e r e not used that day and those groups. Taroup ~d ai off the ate were considerably support p lil who woufd pr delayed. Work started at avery slow essential services of information, pace. the 300 people on site talked food and transport. t o the construction workers, the The day before the main action police, toe motorists held up on the there was a 400 strong march A1; encircled trucks; leapt into holes around the site. Many of those that were being dug; climbed mounds involved were local people and one of the farmers ploughed up some of of earth, threw themselves i n front of bulldozers. The construction what had been his land.

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storing high level nuclear wastes APART FROM TORNESS nuclear are relevant or practical, although objectors are at the moment they have been developedat great centring their activites on nuclear expense by the UKAEA and waste disposal. others. At the Windscale enquiry, The UKAEA's plans, in cahoots questions from FOErevealed that with the Institute of Geological the glass which these processes Sciences, tocarry out test drillings produce is lust as likely t o leak out in various lucky areas have come nuclear waste as the original fuel badly unstuck so far Local would be Now Professor Jim authorities in Kyle and Carrick, in Ringwood of the Australian Scotland, and i n the National University is claiming Northumberland National Park that a rival technique which have refused permission for test produces artificial rock-he is andrilling to start The UKAEA is expert on the origin of now thinking about appeals, but igneous rock-would work better is anxious not t o be rebuffed again The only place w e r e the AEA Ohdear,,AEA I n California the USA is has permission r,adrttl is i n Qithness, not far from dts Dounreey planning t o collaborate with Taiwan) Canada, Mexico and Japan fast reactor site, in an area where mostpeople work for t h e Authority in buildings major. nuclear wastes park which may open i n 1985 anyway. Areas also on the AEA and would have 1 5 3 5 , 0 0 0 tonnes shopping list include Cheshire. of waste in it by A D 2000, i t is not Somerset, the HantsIDorset area, known where the wastes park and Worcestershire. Nottinghamwould be, and no signs of ob'lection shire might also be blessed with this disinterested research, in t h t o i t hive been wfn y e t . *

The ex-occupiers have now established an office in Dunbar, from which they are involving increasing numbers of local people. Their address is 3a Westport, Dunbar, E Lothian (Tel 0368 62915) They welcome working visitors The next Torness Alliance meeting is in London, January 27-28 For details contact Greenpeace (Londwl', 6 Endsleigh Street, London WC1 (Tel. 01-387

5370k.

A MAJOR nuclear fuel setback has been i n terms of nuclear transport, when the nuclear waste 'ship Pacific Fisher docked at Barrow before Christmas with 29 tonnas of used fuel from Japan for

circumstances o f his death except that i t was probably caused,hy a heart attack, he was or!y 36 The indications are that BNFL was relieved t o call off the visit t o Cherbourg because the Rainbow

reprocessing at Windscale. The journey was t o have taken in Cherbourg first to deliver another 25 tonnes for Cap de la Hague, but the ship was forced t o go t o Barrow, its home port, because of the death on board of Mr Robin Hartley, an engineer, who was in charge of the cooling systems for the fuel while i t is in the ship.

Warrior, Greenpeace's ship, was planning to lead a major demonstration against Pacific Fisher which would have included land and sea demonstrat~ons-2000 riot police had been drafted into town. The waste will now all sit at Windscale until at least 1982partly because Cap de la Hague cannot be made t o w o r k and is

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having a new plant built.

I F YOU THOUGHT the opposition to nuclear power, 'was confusing you should take a look at the nuclear power plant business. Thirty years of government and industrial policy is now completely in ruins after a decision by Rolls Royce, Northern Engineering Industries (formed last year by the merger of boilermakers Clarke Chapman and electrical engineers Reyrolle Parsons) and Combustion Engineering of the USA to form a consortium to build CE-designed pressurised water reactors, possibly for the UK market market. 1 The PWR is, of course, the sort of reactor which the CEGB and the South of Scotland Electricity Board want, and which it seems will they will finally be allowed t o get after the last Advanced Gas-Cooled reactos are ordered for Torness and Heysham. This means that the flies are gathering around the potential honeybot. So far, evewone has assumed that the PWR order will go t o the Nuclear Power Company, whose main shareholders are the governemnt, via the UKAEA. and Weinstock's G E ~ NPC holds the British licence t o build the notorious Westinghouse PWR, which is bein@built inmany countries the USA. so far combustion ~ ~ i ~ is ~ only found in the USA, and it has avoided the political problems of the Westinghouse system. GE wen claims t o have made some money out of it, or at least to have lout less than Westinghoust. The formation o f the dew joint venture-called RNClNuclegr) -means that there are two major ingustrial groups wanting t o build PWRs i n the UK and the

AT WINDSCALE the authorities a n wm more fed up thm usual about their I n e r t mishw. Processing has had t o be stoppec because of the build-up of hydroger i n the silo where they stash magnox, the magnesium alloy which is stripped off the feel before reprocessing. The magtiox is stared under water and nobody had told BNFL that magnesium and water can give off hydrogen. Windscale representatives telephoned about the incident claimed not t o know that the acidity of the water dictates how much hygrogen is produced; somebody with Dlevel chemistry should be sent round' immediately. ' 'Â According t o the Health and Safety Executive's latest quarterly review Of 'nuclear incidents', there also a release of radiation from Widscale on July 14-17 last year after which topsoil from outside the radiation control area had t o be removed after a leak i n the system which carries low \we\ liquid Out t o sea. A t least the fish t h a q h n happy. There was

generating boards both want to buy them. The only problem is the UKAEA, which would be politically embarrassed if its gas-cooled technology were abandoned Thus we might expect t o see an alliance between the AEA and the anti-nuclear lobby, who point out that-the PWR are inherently less safe than gas-cooled reactors, although detailed sums for the CE design are not yet available.

A t the moment, CE is building no fewer than 24 PWRs in the USA. and NEI expects topick u,P orders On them before RNC gets its first UK.or other nonAmerican order. Over the last few~yews~CE has ~ heavily ~ outsold ~ ,' Westinghouse in terms of PNR orders, perhaps because of all the bad Publicity, and near bankruptcy, which the Westinghouse has got into with its PWR. Observers think that any moves towards the UK market by the other two PWR, , , makers-eeneral Atomic. 3 P h venture b y oil firms Shell and Gulf. and General Elect~ic.pfthe , USA-are improbable.,

I N AUSTRIA, asall the world knows, a very narrow majority voted i n November not t o m e n up the &ompleted ~ w m t e n d o t f PWR. Since Chancellor Kreisky's soi-disant socialist government made $^poll anJ^ueQf confidence its defeat by" conservatives plus nuclear objectors was hardly an eco-triumpb pure and simple. The poll will pfobaiSy,bb ; re-ruifwnh a mote intensive * campaign (n fafour: Art aHA-rlaltve energy scheme involving conservation and renewable resources was put forward by the objectors, to , Zwentendorf, and had a :onsiderable effect o n the referendum campaign. p Next w after ~ Austria 1s Switzerand, with a two-part referendum in

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February and March an whether to, go ahead w i t h nuclear power. The first part will be a call f o r a complete nuclear moratorium, and the second will be a govprnhyeftf-i': backed proposal for an en&&, , , J IndEpendencqc q p a j g ~tpbpost i nuclear power and eonservgtiw. Loins are being girded up o>rJHl 3 Sides; WatcK this SpWe 1 8 J It)Belgium, the countff$<i&t ' atom poH-ovefrvAeiher f o Ayild' a nuclear powerstation at ' ' , Anwne-produced an 84% vote . agaihtt; the,goyergmisnt promptly ' , reclassbfted i t =<an opinion pdl, 1 In Holland, government plansÂ¥fo 8 threaRiWRs are :in abeyance' and thergwarnment is planning an 'organired pubticdebate' omthe -. : mattes; presumably Prince Bernhard will he i n charge of the details. 4 ! 3t

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The chard 77 publication is,:,; 'i called Dokurnent.?Z and was released to Western ~ournalistsb v Czeyhoslovakian emmigrants i n , Vieprija. Drafted b y nuclear energy, experts withinJhe organisation. , civil I N CZE~I~OSLOVAKIA rights movefnent Chafta 77 h a DMqrnent 4 ' 2 is a report on a to devote itself t o drawing ' &id& meeting of 150 nuclear experts , attention t o the dangers of 'hcleat from Eastern Europe, held in , \. energy. I n a new document from ' ~zechoslobakiaa t the beginning the underground organisation, of November. also a rferailment of an irradiated L z Charts 77 has revealedtwomaj8r ~t that meeting i t was revealed nuclear fuel flask an the railway ~ ~ i U d n at t S Czechoslovakia's that (2echosloiakia's first nyol~ar: [me near Windscale and a , first ductear reactor: T ~ b ' ~ e o ~ ~ reactor, e pt J ~ l o y s k aBohunice, ,.. reassuringly low number of cqes reportedly died as a result of one leaked radioactive gap o n January of personnel receiving mow, than of the accidents. 5 1972 TWOpJant emplovees.(?is$ the permitted dose of radioactivity, as a result of the leak. Another rT leak, of a 'polluted solution' occurred on February 24, 1977. In < the second case the radioactivity escaped intoa surrounding I N THE U K the nÃ§xi m e which Bridgewater, or t o Portskewett, in community the nuclear industry^nuAface is South Wales, not a nuclear site at Because of the-two accidents - . what sort of power plant t o b u i l d themoment, for the-PWR. A t the the Czech reactor has been closed J c momept Portskewett ts bogged next and where. down. Nevertheless b j O c u m e # t ~ j f The South of Scotland down in planning permission raises a few questions about the 'p Electricity Board's AGR planned at problems, and the CEGB is thought response of the Czech authorities ; Torness are being fiercely to be leaning towards Hinklev t o the accidents Plant employees resisted-see elsewhere i n these because it would help solve the pages, and the CEGB is now scared electric power dearth in SW England were never informed of the extent ' of the accidents. and despite of a similar fight with ob!ectors at The Department of Energy h a international agreements, the the two sites where it plans t o already refused permission for an Czech authori ties neglected t o build new plant-Heysham i n OIIfired station at nearby Inswork n f o r m the International Atomic Lancashire, where it plans another Point as a favour t o the miners, Energy Agency in Vienna until AGR, and Sizewell in Suffol k, , but SW England is now the after the information had been , where Britain's first PWR may be weakest pa(t pf thenational gnq, L, leaked t o gresp; built. t system; ,, c ~ e a f i w h i fD q P~U~~~@~~.O&-~ Sizewell has already been the A new candidate for a- nuclear that th6 p&gfirqts a$th& site has JUSt be?" leaked < r ~ m the renue for t large awl-nudeep s CEGB, Druridge pay i n Morthuqb, meeting o f as rn European' demonstration and'there are knohn nuclear expert,stqted oficiaily that ' 1 erland, handy for t to be problems with the $found despite th&acpfdenfs nuclear energy, England :onditions at the site-it is orteof is trustworthy. Chitrta 77, on the , the few nuclear power stations other hand, has promised t o actually built on sand. So the CEGB -@I concentrate its efforts on exposing[ may decide t o go t o Hinkley, near the danger of nuclear power. .*. *--------... .*%

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EDWARD THOMPSON, the twentieth century's answer t o Christopher Hill, and author of The Making of the English Working Class, late last year fired the l a t m blast i n the current battle against official secrecy. Speaking at a meeting t o mark the publication of State Research's Review o f Security and the State he said that 'State secrecy running out of control. which i t is. represents the biggest threat to British liberty since World War 2'. addinn that 'official secrecy on defence and other political areas is going t o be a major item on the political agenda for the next ten years.' State Research and other organisations are active i n publishing the facts about official secrecy and other aspects of state power. But i t is obvious that there will also have t o be a general political campaign about official secrecy if the government i s to be persuaded even t o act on its undated promise t o reform the more daft and frequently disregarded parts of the official secrets acts. This is the intention

of the Liberal dogfood gourmat Clement Freud's private member's Bill which will a t t e m t t o net on the statute books this session, but whose chances are not rated highly by Commons insiders. Robin Cook. one of the small group of Labour MPs who take a persistent line against official secrecy told the State Research meeting that the secret vote, which funds the British security services, is 'the only part of government spending which we are not allowed t o d e b a t e i n contrast t o the USA where there are standing committees on the security services, which have helped uncover major abuses. In Britain i t wouldn't even be possible to say if the security services were overstepping the mark, as they have no constitution and legally don't exist.ln the same way. theaecial Branch is not mentioned in the annual report of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner or that of any other police force except Durham, although the Branch is large and growing. Most attention now seems t o focus on Freud's Bill for starters, although the Labour Party investigation into the security ,services may lead to more worthwhile action in the long term. Although the Labour Party and some trades unions feel strongly on the matter, Thompson pointed out that quite a change of heart iscalled for if the left is t o take official secrecy seriously: 'The left has been caught up in statism, through initiatives like the welfare state, for many years. It must recapture the libertarian values of the old working class and radical movement, and its traditional sense of outrage and bloodymindedness about its liberties.' State Reseach's Review o f Security and the State is published by Julian Friedmann at Â£12 I t is intended mainly for libraries. Its contents, apart from Thompson's intcodiction, consist simply of State Research bulletins 1-7. Individuals who want the same facts can get them a l o t cheaper by buying back issues of state research 11-9 available at 50p each) and subscribing to the bulletin at Â£ a year, from 9 Poland Street, Wl.

Revolution from those who could be expected t o k n o w R a y Curnow of the Science Policy Research Unit at Sussex University, Derek Roberts, Managing Director of Plessey Micro-electronics, and Tim Webb of ASTMS. All agreed that the chips were going t o take away a l o t of jobs, and provide hardly any replacements. Ray Curnow estimated that a 6% per annum increase in production would be necessary t o maintain full employment i n the UK, and nobody thought that was very likely. Sadlv. these miracles of technology don't result in any worthwhile economic activity, Who needs calculators or digital

watches? Hardly anyone, but we've all got one. For Tim Webb the revolution' had already started; for example, the number of people employed in telecommunications had dropped from 91.000 in 1971 t o 56,000 i n 1977 with the introduction of electronic telephone exchanges. When the computerised 'system X' came in there would be even more jobs lost, Overall then, the conclusion was that we have proof of the loss of jobs caused by micro-electronics and a clear indication that this is only just the beginning. We must either accept that people have a right t o income rather than the right to work, or arrange for what work there is t o be evenly shared.

Malcolm Caldwell

THE NEWS OF Mslcolm Caldwell's murder in Pimom Penh was heard in Britain on Cnristmas Eve. Dr Caldwell, an economic historian at London University, was well known as one of the few Westerners friendly to the Cambodian revolution. He was shot dead at 1 a.m. on December 23rd in a government guest house where he and two American journalists were staying. The killer escaped. Caldwell was a charming and outspokenscot. His forthright style, which warmed up many lectures and meetings, had a mixed reception in academia. Those scholarly but passionate attacks on imperialism probably prevented his rising above the rank of lecturer. The BBC regarded him as dangerous enough t o be placed on a blacklist of those (including Enoch Powell) not t o be interviewed without management permission. Caldwell's interest in Asia stretched from the Middle East t o Korea, with South-east Asia his special expertise. But his analysis of imperialism was global in its implications Unlike classical Marxism it stressed the role of natural resources and, increasingly over the last few years, ecology. The mass evacuation of Phnom Penh and resettlement of the Cambodian countryside was almost universally condemned i n the West. Caldwell was prepared t o argue (in his article in Undercurrents 20 for example) that it was a necessary move t o demolish the parasitic 'tertiary' economy of the city and t o restore self-sufficiency, especially in food. And in his last book The Wealth o f Some Nations (reviewed in Undercurrents 27} he argued that 'overdeveloped' countries such as Britain, too, will have t o turn towards selfsufficiency as the Third World regains control of its own plundered resources. Caldwell's future scenario for Britain included a return t o the land and t o small-scale, co-operative production. Those who knew him w e l l p y he had a lot more to write on these themes. A memorial meeting for Malcolm Caldwell was being organised as we went to press. The provisional date is 23rd January, the venue undecided.

SOGGY JOBS . LIKE THE WEATHER everybody's talking about the microprocessor revolution, but nobody's doing anything about it. The latest i n the current season of conferences on the effect of electronics on employment was organised by the National Federation of Professional Workers at Congress House on December 19th. A surprisingly large audience, foregoing the pleasures of the office party (or, in one case lurching in direct from it), gathered t o hear the grim facts of the New Industrial

STATE RESEARCHED

5E"" -WO. .KS

THIS YEAR a new law will enable the public t o bring prosecutions against industries and sewage works which do not meet legal require-" ments. Understandably, the water authorities, particularly at risk because they operate the sewage works which are responsible for about four fifths of the discharges into rivers in England and Wales, are worried that they will face a rush of frivolous private prosecutions when their registers become open to the public. Every industry and sewage works is therefore being examined t o find out what standard it already achieves and this will be the new requirement. Since i t will be too expensive t o reduce the effluent to meet the standards, the authorities are changing the standards t o meet the effluent. The public is being given no right of objection t o the review. The official line of the authorities i s that the review will not worsen the state of rivers since i t will only make legal the amount of pollution which goes is anyway. Various water authority people have privately stated, however, that they think the rivers in Britain will inevitably deteriorate.

In code

THE NATIONAL RIGHT TO FUEL CAMPAIGN (whose policy statement advocates among other things "serious action research into alternative fuels, including solar, wave'and wind energy") is understandably disappointed with the latest Code of Practice issued b y the Electricity and Gas Industries. Following the precedent set by previous Codes, the 1978 issue is again an over-wordy compromise. A complete end t o disconnections seems as much a dream for the future as ever. The only change is for families with children: you can now tell your Social Services Department "who may be able t o help avoid disconnection (my italics)" if your children are under 11 years; previously you could only do this if they were under 5. Of further cause for concern is the promised "independent longerterm study" carrot which is being dangled before many worried campaigners when any queries or objections are raised. They suspect that the wrong questions will be asked and that the study will be a rather narrow one of the Code in principle, not in practice. No-one will ask if the code is doing what it is supposed to do: whether i t is effective in making sure there is "a warm, well lit home for every one". For further information, contact David Green on 0385 45040.

have still t o build a large insulated hot water tank, which w i l l ultimately take about a half of the mill's annual output These facts gu a long way t o explaining why the m i l l is not yet supplying a large part o f the community's energy demand The mill is n o t a fiasco

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'Giant Windmill is Fiasco'. The previous week a report on the BBC World at One made the same claim. The claim is n o t true. Why are the straight media mounting a campaign of lies and innuendo against ~ v i n d , the world's biggest windmill? The answer is fairly simple I n 1975. faced w i t h ever increasing electricity bills (electricity was the School's main source of heatingi) t h e people decided t o make themselves less dependent o n the local electricity board, and the international o i l companies. F r o m their cooled resources they designed and b u i l t the world's lamest windmill When during construction. they needed certain types o f knowledge they either taught themselves (e g welding, GRPtechnologyI or went t o the relevant experts f o r advice (e 9. for the blade design) The m i l l was finished last May and will probably be fully operational b y next May The intervening year is being spent testing it, and solving inevitable teething problems like the failure of a gasket i n the blade feather~nqmechanism, which dumped a couple of hundred litres of O i l down the side o f the tower last summer A t the request o f the Danish authorities the mill will n o t be run at more than 3 0 r p m u n t i l next May, when it will reach its design speed o f 42 r p m for the first time I n addition the people

Tvlnd 1s a revolutionary place It centres around the so-called 'After School', which takes 14-18 year olds and 1s an alternative t o Denmark's state Folkschools. A t the After School thereare only teachers and students A l l the functions o f t h e school maintenance of buildings, cookini for 700 people, running the presses, cultivating the school's 3 5 ha fishing, looking after u p t o 100 visitors a day etc are carried out b y groups of students and teachers These are organised democratically, w i t h everyone having an equal say in what isdone when and how. These activities are integrated w i t h the normal school subjects and the whole .croaramme " aims t o educate people for an active, self-directing, socially and politically responsible life later on, b y concrete example. The educational ethos of the place is diametrically opposed t o that of the UK, which is dedicated t o producing de-cerebrated fodder for a passive mass consumer society, which stifles initiative ! and self-confidence, ignores the arts of living and working as a community, and indoctrinates 1 children w i t h the dichotomy between work (ribintless, boring and painful) and the rest of life.

The fact is that people i n Denmark and elsewhere are frightened of Tvind and the initiative, creativity and skill i t is developing i n ordinary people. Tvind is part of a movement, an attitude t o b o t h people and technology which can b u r y our existing society. T o accept that the Tvindmill is not a failure is for some people equivalent t o accepting the existence of alternatives t o their whole litestvle. . . as well as their energy supply. They cannot allow themselves t o believe i t w i l l work, and they are rationalising their position w i t h lies and half truth. growth, increasing affluence, low unemployment, universal car ownership-almost all of which are now false So the Milton Keynes Development Corporation (the occas~onallybenevolent dictatorship which acts as Government-owned property developer in the area) is mildly interested i n permitting alternative forms of development which could help t o make the city viable in the Brave New World of l o w growth, high energy a n d food Costs and massive microprocessorInduced

COMTEK

IF Y O U ENJOY sun, music and windmills, here's some good news: it looks like there's going t o be another COMTEK (Community Technology) Festival this year. B u t unlike the previous COMTEKFestivals, which took place in'Bath in the summers of 19?4, 7 5 and '76, this one will probably be held in Milton Keynes ~ h e r e ' 7 ' ~ i l t oKeynes n Why^ Well. Milton keynes ('the biggest buildtng site i n Brnain') n a N ~ W Q t v being b u i l t i n North Bucks 'Ies us during the 1970s and 80s largely o n the basis of t h e planning A Solar house has been b u i l t assumptions o f the 60s-cheap (and more are planned), a large fpd-mdenergv.popu~ati&. ' , i y c ~ w a ynetwork is being

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A N Y O N E W A N T I N G some of the taxpayer's money t o develop their windmill should avoid taking the idea t o t h e Department of Energy. Schemes submitted t o D E n for funding are immediately bundled off t o its Energy Technology Support U n i t ('Weare quite neutral, b u t Harwell isso convenient') for approval, where they come under the eagle eye o f assessor Ron Bird. He, like most ETSU people, started o u t on the nuclear side at Harwell (in his case as an engineer).

He has trted even less hard inan most ETSU people 10 distiiiice himself f r o m nuclear enthusiasms. Result: very l i t t l e of the taxpayer's money actually goes t o w i n d projects. I j i y o u have'an idea that might be w o r t h developihg, the best idea is t o take it t o the Overseas Development Ministry .(prop J Hart and say that the device has potential uses i n the Third World. Apparently a much more sympathetic hearing is usual.

IDEAL MARRIAGE

IDEAS F R O M the past can have a great potential as seedbeds for the

future, as the T o w n and Country Planning Association's newest innovatory proposal shows. This organisation-the oldest environmental pressure group i n the country, which originated i n the Garden Cities movement-has been challenged b y the Chairman o f the M i l t o n Keynes Development Corporation t o develop an experimental garden city on t w o grid squares of the city (I e 'a settlement of about 10,000 people) Such a newcommunity would be modelled o n many o f the ideas of the father of the garden (iity, Ebenezfer Howard This far-seeina man saw the need for 'small scale' settlements, a basically co-operative economy, a marriage Of t o w n and country, control by the commumtv of its o w n development, control by the community of the land values i t creates, the importance of a social environment in which the ndividual could develop his own ideas and manage his own affairs in cooperation with his heighbours The TCPA, workmg in close conjunction with the Development Corporation, are thinking in terms of a marr~aqebetween Howard's oriqinal conception o f the garden

city and a number of ideas bcodght t o light b y thf* 'alternative' movement', which readers of Undercurrents will be familiar with A p i l o t project is being considered, consisting o f a small-scale experimental commuritty Vvhlch might consist of 'twenty 'dwellrnos in each o f the followingfiv6 cstewries. owner-occupation; self build, smallholding, ownerdesigned starter houses, ptus ten ' Energy craft workshops conservation and supply dre b a n g seriously considered i n this project perhaps we wilt see a new community incorporating enerdy saving houses and alternative technologies ' ' They are also looking at the implications o f creating employment, tentatively exploring the possibilities o f worker cooperatives A l l i n all this could prove t o be quite a remarkable experiment, especially if the Association take u p Colin Ward's idea (see NewSociety 3 0 Nov 1978) of establithing a National Innovations Centre o n the grid' squares offered, thereby creating a freedom zone where all building and planning regulations would be? waived, allowing enormous scope for experimentation. .

M i l t o n Keynes at the same time-the 1979 ^MATTA conference The last N A T T A ' N e t w o r k for Alternative Technology and Technology Assessment ' conference was held at Cranf~eld, prev,ous COMTEK~,th,s ~,ke one WIII probably be held A U ~ U S ~ , marMalton Keynes 1976 [see r'pOrt " "ndefc"rrents 16J This around Bank H o l ~ d a ytfme, There'll year the main topic w i l l be t h e be exhibitions of A T hardware ncreasing tamover of A T b y (with emphasis on communityGovernment and big business, and , scale and D I Y technology). how t o counter this trenq towar+ demonstrations of techniqueS, centralisation b y encouraging stalls, films, video, slide shows, ?t development and control debates, discussions and all the the grassroots. usual fun of the fair r For more information, write t o The organisers expect this Godfrey Boyle (COMTEKI, or Dave COMTEK to be bigger than previous COMTEKs, because the location Elliott ( N A T T A l , Faculty o f Technology, Open University, 1s more central, the site will be Walton Hall, M i l t o n Keynes, larger, and another AT-related went i ig plat -.MK7&&& constructed, heat pumps are being experimented with, and cooperativesare beinq encouraged Modest beginnings, b u t beginnings nevertheless

Q~'AT

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t o answer some of the questions facing rural planners today, and t o consider what communities can do t o help themselves. Details from Peter Townsend, Peak District National Park Study Centre, Losehill Hall. Castleton. Derbvshire 530 2WB. Tel: H o w

Committee of C A Parsons, the turbo gtiwator manufacturers i n Newcastle, have recently come out strongly i n favour of combined he8 and power (CHP)technology-as a way of ensuring continued orders for the power engineering industry. Parsons won most of the Drax-1 coal fired power station contractbqe J t is clear that this will not maintain employment for ever. The'Parsons Committee have therefore called for 'the updating' of existing plant through refurbishing and revitalisation of older stations'-thus recognising that, with the UK'S current 40% or more excess generating capacity there is little point in building new plant-but a good case for upgradir the efficiency of existing stations. And that's where CHP comes insince overatl energy-use efficiency canbe raised from 30% t o 60% b y usirig otherwise wasted heat t o fee< district heating networks and for industrial' process heating. The Committee point out that 'the nee for revivalisation is most evident in our city-centre power stations, and should take the form of CHP stations for both industrial and domestic use!

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The AQUARIAN FESTIVAL will be at Lambeth Town Hall (London S.W.9) from March 2-3. Lots of exhibits covering a wide range of New Age interests are planned, from Green Peace 10 Pvramidologv, and British Mysteries t o handpainted clothes! There will be talks (at 20p only) on various subjects, and Geoffrey Ashe, Tom Graves, Rose Gladden and Colin Wilson are among the speakers. A l l enquiries to Joan Andrews, 16a Franconia Road, London SW4.

From April 9-10 there will be a joint working course on RURAL DEPRIVATION at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. organised b y the East England branch of the Royal Town Planning Institute. Speakers include Alan Walker (University of Sheffield), David Clarke (NCSS) and three MPs. There will be a mix of formal and small talks, ~oare~studies group workshops. The cost is approx Â£1 for the conference alone Co-operators who suspect they're and Â£27.5 including accomm. i n danger of being sacked by their Details from Alan Mossman, c/o comrades (or who want t o sack Rural Deprivation, ARMS, 156 their comrades!) should hurry High Road, Romford, Essex. Tel along to a day-school on 01-597 2321. EMPLOYMENT LAW FINANCIAL PLANNING & PRACTICE I N CO-OPERATIVES CONTROL is the title of hte next on Saturday March 3rd. organised course organised b y CENA and by ICDM and Inter-Action. Details sponsored by ICOM at the from Keith Smith at Inter-Action, Beechwood Centre (Elmete Lane, 15 Wilkin Street, London NW5. Roundhay, Leeds 8). I t 1s on For somethinga bit different go to February 17 & 18 and costs Â£1 the MOLINOLOGICAL Free overnight accommodation CONFERENCE April 5-8at in the form of floor space and North Worcester College, mattresses is available The course Bromsgrove: wind and water mills. will illustrate 'the financial, millwrighting and milling etC. constraint on a Co-operative's Details from Jane Field, Gatepiece achievement of its gaols' [sic]. A Cottage, Highfields, Wickenford. Freudian skip, nodoubt' Future Worcs. courses are on Raising Finance (March 11), Tax & V A T (April The LOWER SHAW FARMHOUSE 8), Co-op Law (April 29) and folk are having a series of Open Advanced Accounting (May 271, Weekends this Spring: Approaches i.e. the mysteries of nominal to Self-Exploration (Feb 16-18) ledgers, trial balances, auditors Movement & Drama (Feb 23-25), etc As we said last time, these Walking Weekend (March 9-1 2). courses are a bargain Details from Legal Frameworks (March 16-18) CENA, 11 Wharf Street, Leeds 2 Women's Events (April 6-81. Tel. 0532 449588 Easter Celebration (April 12-1 71 Towards Being self-sufficient The NEW MILLSSTUDY CENTRE (Aoril 20-22).Political Weekend has organised a busy programme of (May 11-13) and Livingend events for the next two months: Working Together (June 1-3). Cost Methane Digesters I (Feb 2-4); is Â£1 t o Â£15children 12and Energy Economy in Building under half price, 3 and under free, Renovation 1 (Feb 16-18); reductions for those in need. For Politics of Landscape Conservation details write with sae t o Lower (Feb 23-25); Home & Farm Shaw Farmhouse, Shaw. Swindon, Traditional Cookery (March 9-11 ); Wilts SN59PJ; lei; 0793 771080. Geomancv (March 23-25); Methane The FOURTH LONDON TO Digesters I I (March 3 0 - A w l 1) BRIGHTON BIKE RIDE will be on For details of costs etc and their Saturday May 12th, starting at plans for the rest of '79, write to 7.30 am from Speakers' Corner, the Warden. New Mills, Hyde Park. The organisers are Luxborough, Watchet, Somerset aimingfor 1,000 riders ( a TA23 OLF. Tel098 44 281 kilobike?) and would welcome anyone interested i n helping t o The Rural Resettlement Group plan the Ride at the next planning (now resettled at The Manor House, meeting (Sunday February 4th at Thelnetham, Diss, Norfolk, which 6 p m at the Columbo Street sounds as rural as you can get) are Sports Centre, Colombo Street, having a Weekend Workshop on London SE1 in the Lambeth FOE RURAL CO-OPERATION on office). To raise the Â£50 needed 23-25th February at the Nurtons t o finance the Ride they will be Field Centre, Tintern, Chepstow, hawking about a 20-minute film Gwent. The cost is Â£10For of last year's ride made by Bath details write with sae t o Adrian Arts, and on Sunday April 1st Wood at Nurtons.

there will be a London t o Bath Challenge Sponsored Bike Ride eavina- Sneakers' Corner at 7.30 . sharp. Sponsorship forms from Robert Stredder, Groundwell Farm, Cricklade Road, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts Isae please). The Groundwell Farm Arts Workshop announce that their NUCLEAR SHOW, a ludicrous olannina - enouirv . . which toured the South last spring, has been revamoed and is now available for Street Events, Bars, Parties etc. Also a show called SPREYIT & BURNIT Ltd, a satirical anti-crop spraying event. They say they go places other people daren't or won't or can't go. Details from them at Groundwell Farm, Cricklade Road, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts, tel: 0739 721717 EARTH EXCHANGE. 213 Archway Road, ond din N6, has exoanded since the davs when Undercurrents meetings were held there. They have natural food, craft and book shops. There is a vegetarian cafe which also serves vegan meals, and they have a greenhouse t o demonstrate the growing of the organis veg that they use. There are rooms for meeting and group work, and they hope in the future toopen a complementary centre in the country. There they would grow more organic produce, have a craft work shop and week edt groups. EE 1s closed Thursdays. LAURIESTON H A L L in Scotland has operated a residential centre for radicallalternative conferences and events for the past six years. They now wish to expand the scope of the People Centre so that space and facilities are more evenly used throughout the year, not just the summer. They would like t o run a series of small intensive courses 112-30 people) which would be aimed at learninq and developing new skills. Most courses will be practical, some without a course leader, and participants will live and work as a group. Some suggested ideas are: self-help therapy, gestallt, alternative medicines, arts, natural dance, alternative building techniques etc. For this idea the collective is looking for course leaders and facilitiesto work with them setting it up. Some courses may be oneoff, but they would like the courses t o continue and develop. I f you are interested, write. with sae. t o Laurieston Hall, castle Douglas, Kirkudbrightshire. Scotland. I f you want t o receive their newsletter it costs Â£.OO a year.

THE LAST ANTI-NUCLEAR FESTIVAL which p l Ã § yto pecked h w s at ~ London's Almost Free Theetre. it planningto go on the road if wnuea can bÃ found for it to play at. The festival as it aoaeirod -~~ Free ~ , . - at ~ the ~- Almost consists of theatre. filma, talk, an exhibition, music and more. Anyone with a venue where it mioht be st& is invited to contact the &IO#~ Free at 9 Rupert Sum, London W1, or call ~~

FRIENDS OF THE EARTH am lopking for a new 'Executive. Director' (see Undafcumntt31 mid the letters p a p for bwkgrwnd). For deuilsof fob (DM. etc. phone 01-434 1684 b n ' t forget to ask about your Contract of Employment). The IMW Director will hwe the tusk of reconciling the demands of the m d i i and the State for a 'bod with whom they can deal with the ntud and healthy prenurex within FOEfor a more democraticpnctice'than they enjoyed under the BurkÃ regime. Applications myst b* in by February 9<h.

New from FOEis HARPOON, a bimonthly newitheet about the , mti-dingcampaign (Â£1.5 (rom FOE, 9 Poland Street. London 6'11. The best new in it is that HMlfflU &Job. the main UK importers of aperm oil, are in financial trouble because thw are unable to pan dn to their leather industry customer! the recent Kurp.Jncreansin theprice of raw e r m oil: it ferns (hit contrary to what whalers have laid in the put, satisfactory synthetic w i x t i t u t a are mailable at roonoble coat Furthermore. Mgotintion with Glesqow TGWU to 'blacklhf aperm dl imports em m i n g fruitful. So now ia the time to write to your MP, favourite Obinet Minister ate. to get tlwn to km off this trade before it kills off @a Ian apenn whale. An electionb on the way, so wen the most hardfacadof our nominal rulers Â¥r looking for your vote.

Aho from FOE is TORNESS: KEEP GREEN (95p pott frw), an a w n t of t h e c m against what anma likely to be the wortcfs mot unnecsuary nuke. Its lole purpose is to provide the promise of busywork for the boiler making and turbogenerator industries: cynics willsay that after the Â¥tactiothe Tornuke will be cincdled, v^howr get! in. They mw be right, but don't bank on it; Tonwtkouid be athe Cotyo& of the Eightlei.

The TOWN &COUNTRY FLANNING ASSOCIATION Hennim Aid Unit are looking for nqlunmn to help them withtheir work of protiding free plannine W k e tocornrnuhity groups They hriw a network of volunteer iMlmm.who am nrofeaaional plinnen and ttny hwe publiihed nchnkal d i c e . ~ m p h l n giving s Wails from thmatl?Cariton .Houri T e r r a London SW1: td:01-930 8903.

THE STATE VERSUS ITS ENEMIES is a welcome reprint dingo* of Nuclear Power ITMV be (by the Merlin Press, 3 Mancheater this country's Iat m i p i n g growth Road, London â‚¬1 6p + sac) of a induttry. but up till now there has polemic by Edward Thompson been 4 distinct lack of material for which first appeared in Atew uw atpublkmeetlngx, such s Society (19 October 1978). It k , short films, filmstrip!, etc. Sowe easily the best written cornme t o n amglad to we that Oiam Wylie the ABC affair to far, putting in L t d . have added NUCLEAR the perspective of the previous POWER t o their series of film attempts to peck juriesand rig stripslslide sets on the environtrials in days gone by. No doubt ment (other titles include E m , Slippery Sam was perticuledy &r, Populuilm and noise). The interested to read of the 'penel of commentary is by Michael Flood 48' from whom 'special jurita' of FOE, but it hat been admitted were drawn: they were m i d for by the UKAEA to be 'impartial'. It their sewices and if any becan'ie is in three parts, each containing disaffected. they wereremoved. 45 siides plus a 30-mfnvte caoette m e modern practice jof juryend costing from Â£7.5 to Â£1, wttina i s d w i b e d in a Otmohlet depending on format. Just what JUSTICE DESERTED by J the anti-nuclear movement needs 1 Grlfflth and Harriet Hemrn ( 5 0 ~ to counter the sii kv PR of the other from the NCCL, 188 K i m Cross aide: not so much gut reaction and Road, London WC11. a lot more informed opinion. As Independent Rewrch Publications Amory Lwins has remarked, 'the (who publish the ixcellent STATE more you know about nuclear RESEARCH)are dennina to power, the more frightened you reprint key pamphlets and articles become'. Diana Wylie Ltd am at on the state which are now 3 Park Road, Baker Sweet, London .unavailable. and e w r i s of new NW1 6XP: wl: 01 723 7333. If mphleta, the first of which will these filmstrip! are available for by Edward Thompson's hire from anyone, we'd like to introduction to the hard back hear from than. version of State Research's first .year's work, the Rmiew of Isue no. 3 of ON YER BIKC,soi

Rumours of the dÃ‘t of <*>Â COMMUNE* NETWORK ere. ifc. am happy to report, much exwrated. Would-be communuds. VovWrs etc. em invifd than c/o Crabapple, Berrington Hall, Berrington, Nr. Shmmbur Mop, SY5 6HA. 2 6 will ~ bring you the current issue of their newlatter lor send 13 for 12 which exutsboth to keep , . commum in touch with Ã‘c other end with 'outaidad w h ~ want toioin.Thw Ã ‘ us to pol out \hatthey much v<rf~itiÃ people tell them lbitabout . thanwivn, whetthq.6" lootd In a commune etc.;Butd$n!tp writing reams endreemil: : .

k r i t y and the SUM 1978.

Information and wggeStionÃ to IRP i t 9 Poland Street, London W1 Two pamphlets of Regional Seats of Government etc. are REGION 1 which covers Tyne & Weir (35p p a t free from B k k Jake, 115 Weatgate Rood, NÃ§wcastlon Tvne) and REGION 8 (25p from Brighton Voice, 7 Victoria Rod, Brighton, Sunex) which covers the SouthEast. Collectorsof late 70s ephemera should map up the list few BUZBY T-SHIRTS (Â£2.2 from the Time Out N u n Room, Tower House, Southampton Street, London WC2 K> that the stalwarts of the A8C efence Committee can , belance their bookt end disband. Thank to the generosity of Time Out whichhu paid most of the wt!of the defendant*, there is about Â£80 left in the kitty, which they will administer as a fund for projects and publications related to Official Secretsetc. Finally, there is to be a public meeting to d i t c u l THELEMON* OF ABC on Friday 16th Febniw at 7.30 at the Conway Hall, Red Lion Souare, London WC1. Spe~terswill include Edward Thompson

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disant 'radical^notorcvcling journal, is going to be on ecobikino. OYBi would welcome contributions from Undeicumna readers, especially on looping old machinery on the road. As car engine design is tending towards , fuel concawation, Japanew bike design is going the other way, producing huge fuel-guzzling 20 mW 'su~e'rbikes' OYBI ia available for 66p post free from On Yer Bike!, 30 Clerkenwall Close, London EC1R OAT, or from PDC outlet!.

Richard Gardner. PO Box $M Harvard Square, Cambridgevq 02138; USA. Richard alto <S5 publishes for 12aisuesl, Rewurcas a roundup!,. ~awii$

'whet's happening onthÃ§.(Utti,nf edge of w r toclaty', , . mailing Itett o n ~ i f - l d h Ã ‘ f W f , ?'. isb~ls~ u n i v r i i t i i b o ~ l c t o m . Â¥cotctivitt!tc) Wxt ~ f t M d now are lonr Brit& 8lternÃ§) computer tyw to get out 4 similar directory over herÃ§ . . .. . taken? ,-+I ::

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SISTERWRITE, a C O O P ~ ~ ~ ~ W women's workshop, openwin November at 190 Upper Street,.,; London N1. They have a ?tock,o< 5. British and ~ m e r i c a n f e m i n ~ ,;:; : , ... > .'. books, . . ....*:v' ~

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General Secretary The Network i s an alliance of many group concerned with community and personal responsibility fa health, and with'. complementary therapiet.

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'ECOLOGY P A R T I E S of various types have emerged in Europe in the last few years. But so far these have had little impact in Britain. Things could soon change, however. The Ecology Party, although tiny, is planning to field 50 candidates at the next election; at least two independent 'ecology' candidates are also planning to stand For office; and the Labour Party seems to be trying to paint itself green. In these special Undercurrents Ecopolitics features, the Oxford Ecology Movement explain why they see some virtue in following the parliamentary road, John Pezzey describes his impressions of the Ecology Party, Stephen Joseph questions the political feasibility of the strategy of the ecological parties, and Dave Elliott reports on developments in the Labour , Party.

NO. 10 POWERED by solar panels? rhe PM cycling t o question time? Cows [razing i n Parliament Square? Yes, the iritish Road t o Ecotopia debate is on, and lown i n the woods, Teddy Goldsmith's laving apicnic. Encouraged by European ;reen parties and Celtic nationalist success,s, he and the rest o f the Ecology Party are u t t i n g up 50 candidates at the next elecion. These ecopoliticians spurn the major ~arties;'The battle they indulge in is out if date', wrote one recently. The ecologial approach is a distinctive one, they laim; other parties are mostly f o r growth nd nuclear power, and sriould therefore ie left alone by environmentalists. The ecopoliticians' independent stand ; based on a number o f debatable ssumptions. These are that the best way o attract support for, and ultimately, nplement environmental policies, is t o ontest elections as a separate party, that 'ie major parties can't be won over t o Jpport environmentally sound policies, 'r will only do so after electoral shock, i a t there exists a homogeneous environqental philosophy, t o be set against the ither philosophies such as socialism, onservatism and liberalism, and that nvironmental issues take precedence ver all others. The problem with the first assumption that, firstly, there i s little room for mall or new parties in the British political {stem. The 'first past the post' electoral {stem makes i t difficult for new parties J gain seats. Proportional representation, ften seen as a solution to this, would lake it difficult for a parliamentary arty o f any sort t o gain a majority, so ?atecology MPs would have t o compro~ i s ewith other parties t o reach power.

Commentators point t o the rise o f the Labour Party, and more recently t o the Scottish and Welsh nationalists, as examples o f their hoped-for achievement. But the rise o f the Labour Party was based on the new consciousness o f the working class that its interests were not identical t o thoseof the ruling class in the other two parties; the nationalists' support has been based on a similar sort o f belief that Scottish and Welsh interests are n o t identical to those of England. Class interest in one case, national interest in the other are seen as the overridingly importan t factor by the supporters o f the party. Where is the mass o f people whoregard environmental issues as important above all others? The truth is, the whole'ecopolitics' debate is a partial one if i t deals only with putting environmental policies through at national level. I t isn't just a question o f g e t t i n g party committed t o ecological policies into power and hullo Utopia. Parties, especially those supporting change, need active mass support as a counterweight t o the massive vested interests and institutions ranged against them. But at the moment, most people have little awareness o f environmental problems, or o f the solutions environmentalists propose, let alone o f ecological principles. I n fact, Britain has the lowest level o f ecological awareness in Western Europe, according to opinion polls. Resource limitations, dangers t o the balance of nature, loss of historic buildings, nuclear power, open-cast mining, pollution - these problems, seen as impor-, tant by environmental groups, are either unperceived or regarded as unimportant or unrelated t o each other by most people. And I would argue that this is because people have no clear idea o f how these problems affect their daily lives, and how solutions t o those problems could better them. On the transport issue, public opinion is clearly aroused, against heavy lorries and in favour o f better public transport; but this is because juggernauts, traffic jams and long bus queues are part of people's everyday experiences. Look at nuclear power; 10,000 at the April '78 Windscale rally may sound good, but 80,000 at the Anti-Nazi rally the next day sounds an awful l o t better. Windscale is. t o someone i n a derelict inner

city area, afar-away threat of which they know little; even i f they do have strong views on it, it comes well down ,. their list o f major concerns, whereas racialism is a cancerous growth on their: own doorstep. We need a new approach. As Ken Marks, DOE Under-Secretary, said at the 1978 Labour Party Conference, 'it isn't just a question o f preserving natural resources, o f looking after the countryside the landscape and historic buildings. For many o f our people the environment is ' not mountains, lakes, coasts and rivers. It is houses, flats, streets, traffic noise, , litter, and vandalism. For many o f our ' , people, the environment is a mess'. The new approach means environmentalists, putting forward, as a priority, solutions t o the problems o f these areas, the pro.' blems on people's own doorsteps. They should start by making themselves aware o f their own area's good and bad points, then work out ways o f retaining the good and improving the bad. Action a could range from fighting new road or , development schemes, t o getting cracked pavingstones or broken street lamps ', repaired, or tipped rubbish removed. It,,, would include clearing litter, encouragins cycling, planting trees, recycling waste, campaigning for improved public transport (or running it ourselves), looking after gardens and parks; in short, looking at the whole environment and ways of ,. improving it, using its unused or underused resources, creating in people some ., pride in the place they live in, and some feeling of 'community'. And once people realise they can do something t o improve their immediate environment, action t o improve the wider environment i s likely to receive more support.

Community Improvement Community-based environmental improvement has been quite successful,..; where it's been tried. Cardiff Friends o f the Earth has started an eco-street . scheme i n one of Cardiff's ordinary work ing class areas; people in the street collet materials for recycling, and use the mone from that for insulation and improving the street. Community uses for waste ground or derelect buildings also arouse local interest; 'city farms', and places . like Meanwhile Gardens near Paddingtuh

are examples. rods formed to fiitfrt environmentalists. radical reform; but that doesn't stop single local environnlcntal issues WmsSo I'm suggfeftingthat environmentalis% from working with Tories and Liberals $0 far as they act i n concert, should Conwho also want an integrated transport times successfully expand their brief to centrite on building up in effective, nonpolicy, an end to nuclear power, a massive caoflg forfie whole local environment,. *party, single issue pressure group (or a '- programme o f recycling and reuse and so like-the Archway Improvement Assqia-number o f such groups, as at preterit). For on,just as I march againsfracism with , tion, ydych 6Zginaieri from *e,campaign members of the Socialist Workers, Party, the environment is a single issue and against the widening of %%Archway Road with *horn I disagree on many other the strategy I've been sketching in North Lon&. ksues. SERA, and the Liberal and Conout so far merely aims to bring it, The su%es of -lh<'whole enyironment' krvative Ecology Groups are a welcome bett illustrated by the -asan issue, neater to the top of approach isper& rwult of environmentdisp agreeing on " l i e o f voters' concerns I've already Sou@a&En$rqlme'nt Project; formed 7 .-,:that <-mentioned, This approach will o f course + *- some o f the wider issues coming together in 1'97Y,@stop Ealing Council's previ$V . * be anathema to those ecopflliticos who .-and helping develop some environmentall) neglect of,the area. A year,latei, the.. sound socialist/liberal/conservative pol~ r o j e cbad t planted trees i n the streets, see"ecology"as an alternative philosophy got the High Street repaved, cleaned up " to those of the present day left and right. icies. t can be no such homogeneous Â¥ - So,edo-hacks, I'm afraid a rethink o f derelict sites and premises, and all with '' ~ uthere

The more toeal branches ofsnational An Ecology Government would still te ,'empty phrases. And ~'mafraidthat, howenvironmentalorganisations expand this faced by questions such as the levid ofmuch you try to run away ftom side o f their w&rk, t(ie rn& support"(tiey equality in the distribution of wealth, tht ,-them, awkward 'out o f date' issues such :' will be able to b18Wup locally j o t their proportion o f the population that is^oin$- ' as f t e distribution of Weallhayid power to own, control and,manage â‚¬ si m fse campaigns on.nationd$lyifqnwftal' Â¥"*ill continue to pursue you; attempts %sues. Which brings me to the s e w of production, defence and foreign policie$;to fix an environmentalitt 'line' on assumption'of the ecopoliticians.that crime and punishment. On all these issues 9 these will just lose sopport forother only an electoral shock. if that. will make the? i s no coherent environmentalview, :.'useful;achievable environmental meas'the existing parties 'Ihink gteeh'. The and there is no reason why there shwldbe? ures. Beyond those measures, conserva: truth is, there i s just not enough grass(redefinition 6f terms such as 'wealth, . : tive Iiberal~andsocialistroads diverge. , roots support for environmental policies . 'ownership*, 'power' will not solve the . And thevarious political/environmental , t o justify politicians taking much notice problems; the question of distribution ire there to ensure that travelllers '.. of them,~unless'-theywant to. So back COW UD even if wealth.is counted i n . . drnun -- . each --- of - these - - - roads - -- take environ"'to the firskpoim; Etenvironmentalists . land, or.dar~anels).~lread~there are *' mental attitudes - - -. -- - with them. Will the build up grass-roots support, they can different views in the Ecology Party over Ecology Party join this work, or will it ,then applyenough pressure to force welfare and women's liberation. As a a and i t s members continue to charge up those in power to take noticeland those socialist, 1 hope to see a left Labour . a blind allev? in power, being by definition good Government adopt environmental policies Stephen joseph politicians, will do so). This pressure can as part o f a much wider programme of - . -. come from two directions -internal - -and 'exp&ly"; ~ r i t a $h&.a much stronger tradition than 9 q e r c&ntiiedFrance, ~ W i s ~ ~ G e & a n y ) ~ o f ~ w - bpressure ased groupsinfluencing governmentpolicy. Pxliaiwnl.try reform,-labour rights, w i a l '-.religiousand trade policies have all be&influe'wd by pressure groups. ';~hese c&'tofSsti~'nes l$lp'eteare a c + , climate fn'yhich Myir %pp?dnts ate o n the'&f&Hve+dreform becomes ipvitable3l@llayWntary 6sform:labour righ tshs&i~(,_rhigioks andgridepoliciej ;have all'bqen I ~ f l ~ hbyyresiqre if create groups. These can sb&tj&help a climate in which their-ppponem are on the defensive, and reforrt3}ecqmes Broadcast. " inevitable. Mirrored by this butside .F f pressure is pressure from those 'witfiin ' 'Â¥Ãˆe, the parties with more sensitive political ': : 'noses scenting a new p o l i t i c w i n d to Â¥<'.%: on behalf of AÃ Ecology Party,"/ -" until then had tooked as attractive as follow. O r simnlv convinced bv the ' :--' The Ecdnev did th&^ those of Lake Erie) bv attendint their ,-i -* Party? - - , Whore .-.--.--.-,,. argument;. Appropriating environmental ' spring from? A name like that might be recentan$al conference at ~ i r m i n g h q'.t policies for aseparate party makes those University. 1 emerged with quite Wet worfli voting for. i n other parties sympathetic t o such (but clean) feet and a strong desire to Thatwould be the reaction. I susnact *

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t was immediately obvious how tiny the party is, being an order of magnitude smaller than the two pressure grou with membership only in hundred income only in thousands, and no full-time staff. Yet a near-doubling

and heady discussion on General Election Strategy at the end. The rest consisted o f a debate on unemployment chaired by the charismatic if sometimes incoherent Edward Goldsmith, a debate on enekgy led by the somewhat smoother Peter Buriyard, a group session on a l l rtianner o f philosophical-subjects,and a learned if elusive discourse on ecopolitics by "[om Burke, Executive Director of Friends of (he Earth. -. Having heard warnings about starry-eyed idealism, bogged-down bureaucracy and the thin end of the ecofascist wedge, I mentally confronted ECO with various hurdles-seriousness, democracy, comprehensiveness, imagination, practicality and reprqsentativity-and it cleared'most of them with ease. There is no doubt that the party takes itself serioudy-witness the amazing energy and dedication, so often found in environmentalism, which enables people to look after family, bread-winning and part-timecareer all at once. But often it . gets darriedaway into the real 3 of What An E-cologicalGovernment &ld Do. . . and then has a hard time coming back to the reality o f i t s size and How To Afford clearl~ All Those Lost Deposits. It is a l ~ Q concerned about protecting 'democracy' from the threat o f totalrtariitnbm which may arise when the resource crisis Starts to bite-but, almost reassuringly, there was a healthy level of intrigue behind its own internal elections with no overly dominant characters.

Facing the Hard Issues Coming from a movement (FOE) which by definition concerns itself with morally Ă&#x201A;ÂĽwyissues (everyone is for whales and against waste, although this h i k e s t t no less difficult t o do anything about them), I *as particularly struck by ECO's willingness to think'about the 'hard' issues as well, as a political party must It's hard enough understanding sensitive issues like race, baffling ones like unemployment and plain nasty ones like defence, let alone Agreeing about them, but they cannot be ignored by environ~entalistsfop ever. Also the imagination behindltheir discussion document After Affluence i n analysing the effect of-the microprocessor revolution the 'formal' and 'informal' industrial sectors of the overdeveloped w o r l d (the crunch may be nearer than you think!) should be a very valuable addition t o the dogmatic sterility of cqvenponal politic*.' 1

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Finally, we come t o the crucial question: is the Ecology Party worthwhile? It ha undoubtedly suffered from a vicious circle of lack of publicity and credibility in the past, so with a general election in the offing it would seem an apt moment for thp environmental movement to review its attitudes towards party politics. In my limited experience I have found five prevalent reasons for otherwise dedicated 1 campaigners not supporting ECO or any other environmental political #arty. These can be summarised as: bunch of , cranks; can't leave my present party; mustn't antagonize existing friendly politicians; scared; and, waste of time. THE SURVIVAL PARTY, l hope that the least I've managed t o do hereis knock the first one on the head. As for the second, how can you be i n ~ight-wingtendencies are & b a d y apparent In the d n u c l e n movement TheSurvivalPart~, your present ~ ~ r t y . w h eitnstill believes in maximising crude economic growth a apmiXly*s@ineiWU Pity,apes ad para-dftary fmmthe uniforms Ikol fundamental objective (apart from the insignia. l , Liberals, who are now trying t o have their Earth and eat it)? The third (from apolitical people) i s more subtle, but can y<tu really see any genuinely friendly MP in one of the 'inside' ecology groups going off intoa huff because your support , sooner and more smoothly, would if a purposfe-byiit party? In lead tothe unlikely phenomenon of a ~ Government ~ ~ b ~ @ itself ~ ~of ~ l they were that ~ ~ ~ s e ~ ~ ~ British divesting I doubt whether ECO would Oppose them power (sintfe decentralisatibn is one of 'scared', well,take 1" the first case. As ECO's key policies) but we-can cross that heart, We all were once. And You can be bridge when we come to it Thirdly, helpful without staining Your principles three weeks outof four or five war.; is inmuddy waters: for the rich, a flip of no great time to ask anyone to dveup> the cheque book is alb that's t~eededperhaps fruitlessly, in support o f the greater cause they believe in. Yoir don't A Waste of Time? need to be a long-term party worker to far as itm concerned, 'waste of tune' make a real difference t o a hectic is the only valid argument. Our electoral ' ' campaign. system of deposits and first-past-theOf courfce, I'd never dream o f advising post poses huge problems for any you tp support only ECOcandidates. You minority party trying t o scratch the just can't get out there and startpiugglng surface of public life, and an enormous the one with the soundest environmental amoutit of effort alpdmoney can yield policies, t o make them real election issues precious little i n the way of publicity, let But I'd be surprised, if you're in one of alone electoral success. I n five years of the 50 constituencies with the new green existence the Ecology Party has.got only colour M the political scene, if this , a smattering of parish, district and county dash' J you to stipfrert KO! 11 i ' ' xmcillors,into office.I-can nderstapd the feeling that d & , ~ r g i a s (ohnfezzey,

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Three Approaches

any seat might precipitate a Conservative There are essentially three approaches to government. To those ecologists in the achieving aims through the electoral. Labour Party with such feelings we woult system: pressurising all political ask the following question: is it i n groupings from outside, penetrating power or in opposition that the Labour chosen ones from the inside, and Party will move more quickly t o opposing the existing parties directly at ecologically sane policies? We submit tha elections. All three approaches have their in power the Labour Party can't see the merits, and we are not here going to wood for the trees i t is (Shoppingdown, argue for one method against the others, and that only in opposition will there be but rather to explain why we have felt it any hope of sufficient detachment t o necessary to add a direct alternative at. grasp the necessity o f ecological thinking. elections t o the many groups and In a tricky campaign, a tactical defeat individuals working hard already on the may be valuable: unwanted heads may first two approaches. roll. Better t o endure in the short term Pressure groups work most effectively , the disadvantages of a Conservative with single issues that do not involve the Government, if the prospect for sanity in central dogma of the major political ;,-, . the long term i s thereby drastically IF YOUBELIEVE that a proper respect parties. Thus abortion law reform (and improved. and understandingof the environment ..its reverse), or changes in, say, the gaming To ecological activists within the and o f people's real needs is fundamental . laws, can be brought about whichever . Conservative Party we would like t o say t o any political structure in the future, .'-""major pahy i s i n power. Certain that our view of society i n which then you are faced, at present, with a "' Â ¥ ' environmental measures are similarly '" individual responsibility and..small-scale difficult dilemma. How best can t h i s susceptible to non-party pressure ' enterprise are an essential part is not objective be approached? The means (e.g. some pollution control, saving inimical to the spirit, asopposed t o the must involve both an effective method o f ' whales, minor alternative energy projects, actual practice, ofconservatism. However increasing public awareness o f the real nature reserves), but the ecologists' the conflict between' the private interests urgency of the problems, and also a means major planks are the cessation of growth, of the financialbackbone o f t h e party, of putting this understanding into abandonment of technologies likely to . " and the good of the publi~.whomi t need! practice politically. -;'- cause serious damage t o the earth (e.g. for support, makes the prospectpf > . . . nuclear power, chemical agriculture), and internal change unlikely unless votes are decentralisation of power, and these Many concerned people have, lost to other candidates offering the strike at the root of the philosophy that" advantages of conservative ideals without consciously or unconsciously, adopted ' i s the mainstay of both of the the shadow of multinationals looming the anarchist approach. They have Conservative and, implicitly, the Labour behind them. Under i t s present leadership eschewed conventional politics, and set Party. Ecologically-minded people aconservative government i s likely t o be up alternative projects on their own, , . working within the existing political dangerously unecological in its attempts making themselves as independent as " parties, including the Liberals, are faced to 'revive' the corpse of growth, and it possible of the existing economic with the pr blem of turning the soul of these may prove t o be very hard to work withir structure. Their attitude toconventional parties to w ence it sprang: Conservative the party without a conflict o f consciencf elections can be summed up i n the slogan printed and distributed by Peace News at . once meant 'tending to conserve1-but I n recent years the Liberal Party's tell that to the CBI; the socialist ideal is main function ( i f not its iptent) has been the election of October 1974: "Don't "from each according to his faculties, to vote, it only encourages them." to be a source of policies to be plundered each according t o his needs1'-but tell that by the ruling party whenever i t seems We have a lot of sympathy with such to the T & GWU. expedient or appropriate. The only feelings. We too find the attitudes and While in no way wishing to disco.urage important policy not so adopted i s aims o f the established political groupings the efforts of those working within * barren and corrupt However, we believe proportional representation, for the existing parties, we believe they face a obvious reason that i t would prevent the that anarchism cannot stimulate sufficient major contradiction, which in the long popular action quickly enougff to two large parties from winning a majority ran may result in a fundamental change + of seats on a minority vote. The present overturn either the prevailing massive in their party, but is more likely, given 1 . trends suggest that the public are looking assault on the earth and on human sensibilities, or the deadening apathy that Â¥thvested interests in thestatus quo, to. for new ways of expressing their :disenchantmentwith the ruling parties. accompanies it ' -end up with their being bought off with, half-measures, or their finally giving up We strongly encourage all individual , Originally (1950,s and 60s) the answer wa - the struggle in that direction. What we initiative &at is based in ecological to vote for the Liberals, an@pow, faute * intend to offer is a credible and honest de mieux,has slipped backin the understandingand brings meaning into. . alternative that will provide at the same direction of square one (apart from those the lives of those participating. What we time a candidate for whom ecologists can who have turned to the NF). T o return t o don't believe is that example alone is vote without the usual "They're all enough-even if the experiences of these significance the Liberals must have dreadful, but we'd better vote for X examples are publicised by their credible future policies, not rely on past because she's marginally less appalling practitioners. Only the converted and the hopes. Will this happen while the patty i s than the others", and, in a marginal very inquisitive read the pamphlets and still dominated by Lord Byers of Ria constituency, provide ecologists who Tinto Zinc? broadsheets of the alternative culture. prefer working within their parties with The great majority of people are To sum up, we believe there is a very greater leverage to alter the direction o f important part t o be played by an conditioned to learning what goes on those parties. The threat of a lost seat is from television and the 'straight' press. independent and diverse ecological more likely t o spur the ordinary The same people see politics in terms of movement in the shaping of British politician t o reconsider his or her views elections where Labour and Conservatives, politics. Not only will t h i s offer the publit (orat least his or her public image) than with occasional light relief from Liberals, the possibility of direct representation i n a minority of the local party members Nationalists and the NF, fight i t out, Parliament and on councils, but will also, , occasionally making a fuss. generally via the personalities o f their by taking votes, spur ecologicaUy-minded party leaders. Our belief is that this , 'factical Defeat activists in existingparties to persuade' As things stand in Oxford it is natural thsoe bodies that the only sane future 1 miasma must be penetrated, and the and implement,ing lies in that supporters of the sitting member (or cycle broken, if any real progress i s t o be ecological policies. made in changing national priorities from at least, his party) should feel that an Oxford Ecology ~ o v e m e n t endless growth t o ecqlogical st*ility. ecologist candidate is a threat-the loss o f

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sidlar t o those of fibour i n the UK. As Henry Kissinger put it. 'Idon't see why we need t o stand by and watch a country go communist due to the irresponsibility o f its own people'.

The real crunch comes with the multinationals. AÃ we have seen, reforming Labour Governments, whose proposals were i n some respects less radical than those outlined by the ecology parties, have not succeeded, faced with the hostility of monopoly capital. How then are the Green Parties to do better? After L . governments ~ ~ have ~ at least had the support o f large sections of the workforce - the only really significant source of countervailing power in miety at presnt G~alliances of a few sympathetic middleclass environ. mentalists succ3d ere gemrations o f well organised Labour activists have failed?

The Green Parties

Into this situation have come the various ecology parties, full of enthusiasm to regenerate'politics. Their dreams are often visionary 'blueprints for survival -<, of the sort that few Undercurrents readers could object t o - decentralisation, local democracy, community-scaled alternative technology and all the rest. The main problem; concern h o w these ITS NOT surprising that during a desirable ends are to be attainedperiod o f disillusionment with the two although thererare some who would also main conventional political parties, % ~~d~ Socialism criticise the ends themselves from an people should look for alternative ways Ifs defend the Labour .ideological point o f view. Obviously of expressing theire far, hopes and conand am suggesting means and ends interact. Let's take 'ends' cem. that aspiring eco-activistsshOuld first. The underlying goal of some of the , e ithethe r rev$utionary leftnor the the idea o f creating a new eco-politics. prescriptions for a return to small scale far right have yetoffered credible alterBut I am "Ot convinced this can usefully village life, based on craft technology, is nativest o sufficient numbers of people, 2~u neither t hasthere-been much growth to reiqrroduce the sort of close-knit combe by up a new POriticd be effective munity that existed before industrialisation Party- political parties hi thecentre: the 'iberal party isindismust have a broad constituency and and the growth-of giant cities. In such array and the attempts by various . they must represent people on a wide communities there might be strong allegedly non-political eco-groups to range &issues. Some people will of pressures to conform to social norms set up new alliances have so far not course see as an philo(backed up by al~usions to 'natural orderJ) borne much fruit. A political vacuum WP~Y encompassing all aspects of 1 meaning that deviant; would be repressstill seems to exist, at least as far as ed, 'morals' upheld, permissiveness restrain- human activity and experience and subpublic.perceptions of party politics is suming 'polities'. Well, maybe so, but ed. A very appealing package for your concerned., it seems an extravagant claim, and I am average conservative but having nothing But in reality there is ~o,vacuum. - suspicious of all such claims, (including in common with the counter-culture's Power in society is i n fact wielded not those from deterministic Marxists, vision of libertarian society. by parliament,but by the int.rlocIfing claiming to have uncovered the laws o f This hint of repression is carried over network o f private interest groups, society). 1 feel we would be better into the 'transitional' programmes designfinanciers, corporati magnates,mbltisewed by introducing elements of the ed by some of the ecology parties in order national bosses, union leaders sand the ecological viewpoint into existing , t o help us reach eco-utopia. For example - like* me Of *is'network is political thought and into qxisting the Bf~epr;"!for s"m(vu, (1972) argued necessarily absolute power,nor is it that political practice. Environmental issues necessarily consciously wielded. But (like pollution) are important, but they , . .the transitional stage that we and anyone wishing t o interyenein political part of pro,,,le~. we our children must go through will imreality must come to terms with it. how questiom relatin ,the pose a heavy burden on our moral The power o f international p n o r n i c environment' link with the economic courage and will require great restraint interests is now appreciateddat least political issues been the Legislation and the operation of police subliminally) by most people i n Britain, head and butter of co,.,,,entional forces and the courts will be necessary partly as a consequence of the direct This is already happening within the to reinforce this restraint but we believe impact that the terms and conditions of - as witness for that such external controls can never the International Monetary Fund's loan recent NEC statement on ,Labour be so subtle nor so effective as internal to Britain have had on wage rates and Environment, which adopts controls. the social services. The IMF rules. It's many of the arguments put forward by not OK, b u t what can you do? SuccesMore worrying is the fact that many of SERA (see panel). sive Labour Governments have been the ecology party's programmes are Iam not saying that t h i s will neceselected on relatively-radical programmes, borrowed directly from existiwcentre sarily mean that ecologicalpolicies will involving proposals for redistribution of and right w h g parties. For example the the day it*sgoing tobe a long wealth and power, 6nlV'to find their Green Alliance (nee, New Alliance) in its hard struggle. B U itwill ~ be a struggle ideas being vetoed by domestic and recent draft prospectus called foc the carried out i n a relatively broad-based, . foreign representatives of capital. It was imposition of 'strict controls for immigratrepresentativepolitical organisation ;the city .financiers who called for the tion' while in its 1974 Manifesto the not one just at the margins. removal o f Benn from the Department Ecology Party called for wage restraint + 'There i s obviously a role for ecologiof Industry i n 1975, just as it was interand statutory incomes policy. c 4 pressure groups i n keeping the issues But it is what is missing from these , national financiers and bankers who in . ive and lobbying; likeFriends of the - programmes that worries me more. For - alEarth, 1966 told Wilson that he must abandon 'on behalf o f the environment'. example, neither the E~~~~~Party nor his party's programme o f reforms and and bureaupoliticians the Green Alliance propose any restribut, adopt policies in line with their needs.. a nbed their toes- There is ' -Could this have been avoided? Could - ion of wealth. Instead there are pious calls . crats for cut&acks, frugality and sacrifice, NOW a'mare principled and courageous par ~ ~ , P e ~ ~ t h ~ ~ ~ ~ $ $ such measures might be justified - and a successful show-down. ~ t e v nwur~ted e demonstrate links between environmeneven necessary at some stage, but only ,' itis.unlikely, given 1he imbalance of tal and conventional economic and if they applied equally t o all membkrs #&tea itthe time. The international as SERA hastried to Political of society. As it is, one gets the impresmonopolies and their governmental allies do. But a new Party! In what way sion that the Green Parties are merely would have intervened, a i i n Chile, to ' p to solve the real proposing to graft a few w n i c a l and . topple tt)Ãˆelected gwernnkflt - in t h d organisational reforms onto an unchangcase of Chile the government were in fact " radical motions - at^9*ÃˆtyÂ¡"-c Party conferences ed economic power structure. trying to implement policies somewhat ~

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Undercurrents :

ABOUR AND THE ENVIROI vI Extracts from the Labourparty National Executive's Statement to fte 1978Party Conference Growth 'An uncontrolled commercial society, dominated by high pressure advertising and the search for quick profits, can lead only to big gains for the few, frustration for the many and a massive waste of human and material resources. . ' ...It is becoming increasingly accepted that more grow* and investment - in t h absence ~ of proper planning - cannot be the panacea for the His of society that we once believed (hem to be. On the contrary, the twin orthodoxiesof indiscriminategrowth and investment at all costshave caused us to lose sight of the social objective of using the skill and effort of our people to create a healthier, mbre pleasant society. We commend, for example, the efforts of the Lucas Aerospace Combine Shop Stewards Committee. . : 'Growth must be carefully selective and properly planned - with socially useful production given clear precedent over the dictates of artificially induced 'free* market demand . . Nowhere is the need to plan more evident than in man's use of technology ..We must begin now to plan for sustainableemployment - rather than merely resisting the unemployment caused by a decaying, outdated economic structure buffeted by rapid technological change. . .' . .Such potentially revolutionary c es as the widescale introduction of themicro-processor, o r example, could mean hundreds of?%usands of people having to be redeployed into new jobs, with new skills. The implications for leisure - and for our accepted values of work - need to be radically reassessed

Decentralisation 'To achieve our socialgoals whilst entering an era of resource constraint, and of industrial and social restructuring will require a new policy framework. Intensive resource conservation, including the waging of war on waste, the creation of local national recycling and reuse industries, the promotion of longlife goods, and the curtailment of advertising for wasteful and potentially harmful products. The encouragement of more national and local self-sufficiency wherever possible, including the maximum decentralisation of political and economic activity compatible with the good of the nation as a whole. The development of mall co-operatives, workshops and of urban allotments, to meet local needsaid helo restore a sense of community . .

e n e m supply'. "Energy production is not a goal in it&. Its paiposc is to f p e people to enable them to enjoy richer healthier lives. That anation qassvast amounts of energy d m not reveal the extent to wliic)>this eneagy is actually bebyput to wise, effective ate ,, ,I ! mern that O U long ~ p

' . which your party, whfintii&ernment, is una64e t o act on wjthout challenging the forces o f international cqpitalisrn7 What we need, rather, i s to d6tmnue ,, to organise within the Labour Party and Labour movement in order to improve its internal democracy and representatives; to radicalise its policies pushing for decentralisation, workers' I control and community control; developing a widerrmge of political and ecological awareness and in doing so, strengthening the chatlenfee t o monocapi(_l. I'm hot saying that the Labour p h y -certainly as 'A is presently constituted -is the whole solution, or that parlja ' mentary 'party fs this only answer. clearly, we need to bugd up + , decentral organisations and campaigns i ' 'firmly based i n the community andin ' industry; we nsed to regenerate,, democracy from betjeatfi. But it - suicide to ignore the potential of the existing labour movement, .at local levvr, in favour o f trying tp^,t^ Up a new party structure. , A new ecology party could,$t frighten the existing parties into taking, some eco-ideas on board; at worst i t 1 , , could provide a platform-for irrcreasind- , Iy reactionary ideas - as happened i n Germany in the 1920-30s (see DC 21Lf SOon balance Ithink our energies; would be better spent trying to build . links between so callstfecologicaf issues and,@e issuesthat affect peopg every day -unemployment, health safety, housing, transport and insensi. five bureaucracies. 'Socialism' is no simple panacea. It * can ossify into a,remqte, callous technocracy. Wtiat we must do is make:' sure that this doesn't happen. And that means getting involved with the la(i(~;; movement at the grass roots, co,mww@y and shop floor level. The messianic fervour associated witftthe idea of creating a new, uncompromised, ecpt,o@ party isunderstandable. But like most, elitist intellectual movements (whether of the right or the left) it c i n rebburt(?"& into reaction, and lead to political

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T h i s c o m p r e h e n s i v e s t a t e m e n t b a s e d o n t h e d o c u m e n t a p p r o v e d by t h e 1 9 7 8 Labour P a r t y C o n f e r e n c e w i l l be p u b l i s h e d a s a b o o k l e t i n ~ e b r u a r y rice ~ i t e r a t u r es a l e s he 35p ( i n c p. & p. ) . P l e a s e o r d e r your c o p i e s f r o m : Labour P a r t y , T r a n s p o r t House, Smith Square, on don SW1P 3 J A .

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JOHN LAMBERT tells the story of the (so far) successfulstruggle of the sheep farmers of Larzac against the militarists of the French State: 'If they lose, it is our loss. I f they win, it is a victory for people everywhere aaainst oppressive, short-sighted, inhuman central government'.

defence switch to threats as national interest died, was in perfect keeping with the rest. It has taken the official procedu leading to expropriation eight year grind through to where they now stand, with compulsory purchase order's on land in two villages passed in September -the march was part of theveaction and the rest due before D m b e r 31. ,--

ings, the laying o f 'illegal' water pipes, and the installation within the area the army wants of no less than 13 new shepherds, some o f them squatting farms already bought up by the army. These few examples show clearly the trend: from purely demonstrative action to practical steps which demonstrates their determination to stay put on their land. A 1977 poster showed just a clog, putting down roots. But i n December, when they turned again to more dramatic moves, they were able to pull together in one demo on the outskirts o f Paris, a wider range o f the French [eft - and beyond - than had marched i n step since May 1968. The Larzac is a forbiddingly beautiful expanse o f windswept upland, looking virtually deserted t o the motorists speedhe srnwards along the N9. The farms and sheepfolds nestle in the hollows. At most you might catch sight of a flock o f sheep, of the scraggy, thinfaced kind. They are raised not for meat or wool, but to give milk for Roquefort cheese. It was as long ago as 1899 that the ~ r e n c harmy first bought land from the village o f La Cavalerie for a camp, and in-WZI local mayors accepted the dubious swop of the right to graze

(boycotted by all the farmers). There remainisonly one stage to go; physical expulsion. The sheepfarmers on their side have come a long way: from a first cautious tractor demo in avillage on @eiplateau,d (autumn 1971), a hunger strike and an 'open farms' operation (March 1972), the

In 1970, when the, French army was looking for more space to test modern material - the politically unscrupulou~ .sale o f which props up the nation's balance o f payments - the Larzac loo1 obviouschoice. For the generals and politicians in Paris, it was clearly a near-desert, with a few peasants who

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ERE is one struggle i n which all tftyconquests and question marks o f citizen action in the 'seventies are present, M s '& thezac'. There can be few with a& link or commitment to an alternative society wiio do not know what Larzac stands for: the eight-year refusal o f a hundred Fredch sheep farmers t o be driven from their land t o make way for tfit extension o f an army camp. I n November and December 1978 it came to a new climax, making one o f i t s rare breakthroughs into French national media coverage, and even reaching the pages o f the Guardian, when 22 of the farmers marched the 450 mites to Paris, to try td put their case to president Giscard. Giscard not only refused to see them (or to let them enter Paris!); it now looks as though the French I authorities are determined to try to force through the extension. So the Larzac story is worth telling today not just because it Is rich in lessons for citi,zfcn action everywhere, but also as an exercise in practical solidarity: the farmers need support, and it is not too

(fascinating story of steadily growing political awareness on the part of the farmers, and the creation o f a remarkable network of support throughout France and beyond. On the side of the French authorities, it has been a text,@k performance of wrong information, mi&ken assessments, dishonesty, and

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camp. ,%ting every official move with a ' itiatchihg ripate has indeed become a i m m a way o f life on the plateau. When the army continue to send military vehicles along lands used for taking children to school, the women surround the trucks and refuse to let them move until an officer comes and apologises. One year, dangerous manoeuvres, with 'aircraft harassing the flocks, were answw by a collection o f old military material, ceremonially dumped fn the frant of the camp.

commitment o f the Larzac committees that exist, in almost evdry major French town. When farmers went on hunger strike in Rodez, the regional capital, within hours of the decision, there were supporting hunger strikes, with rotating participation, in over 30 towns.On; October 28 there were demos i n 35. The strength of the Larzac committees is that, like the farmers themselves, they have no special political colour, but bring together ecologists, trade unionists, socialists and communists, around this one theme.

for the sheep-famrs is the dgh t to stay on the land, that is theirs, but they have come to stand for the right o f every citizen not to be deprived o f a socially-useful occupation for the sake o f destruelive, unnecessary public projects, be they army camps, motorways, nuclear power stations or hydroelectric dams. And precisely because of what they symbolise a government like that of Giscard d'Estaing and Barre cannot admit they jwe right The cries of 'Lip Larzac one struggle', 'Food not guns', the ploughing up of army land, the handing in of army papers, the illegal buildings, cannot be forgotten or forgiven. It is a trial of strength, which gobs beyond the Larzac. That is why Giscard, too small a man for the grand gesture, was afraid to receive the 22 marchers, t o tell the& either 'Yes' or 'No'; why the government dared not let them enter Paris and march to the Elysee gathering crowds as they went; why it felt obliged t o make them a phoney offer - and make a mockery of it once they were safely gut-of the public eye.

Garderem lo Laizac

While the staying power of the Larzac farmers is their own, because their

plou&ing up of land that is being wasted. This has been used t o oi t%e Rngir at political ~eculat!oi?politicians b1wSing Chirac's deputy in Paris, fanner Gauttist minister ChrBtian de la , Malene who bought up land when they knew there would be an extension, ready to sell it to the army at a vast profit. Their land, neglected, has been plough:ad, sown and reaped to help the poor teu.ntrfesor local workers. I n October 11978, following the news of the first compulsory purchase orders, n o less .Than 151 farmers jurned u p at a protest Meeting with their tractors, some from as far as 45 miles away. Thsy proceeded taplough up every inch o f army-owned , Â¥pultivablland in the two threatened areas; A t one point, young soldiers "&fending1 a farm saw the tractors . ,roaring by within yards of the watts, * gild Wa"football pitch turned intoa

the GFA (Groupement Foncier Agricole) formula, under which su porters take shares (1000 francs each? and join* buy up land, which the legal provisions require them then to hire out to be farmed. The GFKs - there are now 3 - have enabled thousands t o take a direct stake in the land of the Larzhc, and have skilfully boughtup land at places that will make the Â¥etension harder; then, by . renting it out, they have helped several young farmers to start up.

^he 3%Formula Another.3000 people have opted for the '33%formula', withholding 3% of their taxes, out of protest at the Larzac ex-tension, and paying it over to the Larzac Safeguard ~ssociation>whichi n turn has used it to finance La Bfaquiere and other 'illegal' schemes. Symbolism seems to

There is no point here id predicting an outcome. For the farmers, there is no dbubt about it. Their motto, and the title o f the Larzac monthly paper, is 'Garderem la Lsirzac' (We shall keep the, Larzac; in the langue tf'Oc} What would happen if the authorities misjudged, and attempted to end it all by force, is unpredictable. What is more important, is the need for support. There has been evidence enough i n recent years o f the practical value o f international attention, as a moderating factor on governments' actions. Ways of supporting the Larzac farmers are not lacking. What they have been doing for eight years at Larzac others may have t o do nearer home, at Tornessl Or Carnsore~Heysham Or wherever. If they lose it is our loss. If they

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Them are afeo various f i l m available, plus boob, pmphlti, pntan, ate. From ~o-ordinationdoc Comitai a r m rue du G~onop,1 2 1 9 Mill u ,.,,t &, ,ddv to syw

decida to wt up a focal ~arzaccommittee, or want to hold a demo at crucial monmnts.

To join e GFA (but this will be blocked ii compu~soryp u r e h ordm ~ am published for tha whole am),con&% GFA Larzac, Robbrt Purault, St Mirtin du Wac, 12100 Millau. In English, the Awnor grouppublMied e

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mbli&men$ has many tricks up its ??<I $@eve to &vwt or co-opt emergent a& h l a t e d &add unlon demads , ,For example, i f l m k s likely that the' * lion1$share bf both the Tomes and ' Hey+am contracts will go to Parsop4 Clarke Chapman and it will be retati.dl h Nuclear Establishbnt to easy'for t use the outcry from GECIBabcwk and Wilcox to ove~omethe political oppe sition t o i m o o r h an ~ American Pressur- -: ised Water ~edct&(PWR). The serious environmental concerns over the design safety of the PWR would then be p w d ~ a i n sthe t engineeringcompetence of CEC and Babcock & Wilcox workers. , A other possibility is that the SSEB will $piy to convert planning permis sian it holds for an a$ fired station at' Corriden topermisbn for a new coal , fwdstation #TW SQ undermining Kincardine alliin* & a w w oil fir,& station would i n any case arouse an w%ry against waste of (ScotI?nd1s)oil this would relieve another ale2 of . potptiid emWra&mknt. >* *; And thax here's the '@mm$tt%@or C&hbrt+at W &actor5(S stages of t o hW m t a t i c w&dss away1 whiih bp& tj4ef9 to be hilt ac Caft#thess (if only bhiu3e the majority of t e i i d e a &$ere are empioykd rn Wind s @ ~ , Caithms 1% the one are@whichh % h far granted permision for @$* driltihg at potential lo~termanuc~ew&aste disposal site?.. As a 'dcmensea~an'it wouldn't have to Mstify itdf'bnltha basis of nee& &ow wwld it? ' All this indicates that there is mush to be done within the union brarfd~w and trades cwi%ils before h'Scottish TLpZ rhekp in April. A 60wtitubnoy for thqw I&& musf be built h the wor place through shop stwar&' ebmmktees. Thdn perhaps a re01 4t~tegraMd' enekgy pciircy wili emerge Mi&ha!4 some d&gm of bWaWt bfWemW diffepnt t&hnol&es aiaifable, I& G r c h artd helopmerit f u n d i m k t each, capital inVmtmentava;labJe, employ~entgenerated, and the actual needs for energy to really improve the quality-of life. So much for ScWahd. ffowrai5but 'Wates artd the WelsVTj9C in Juneand then on to Blackpool in September 1979 for a real and continuing debate wi&n the labour m o m n t on fdture energy policy. Anyye interested in a campaign?

@gy policy' - not surprismgly givm ~<MM@w $traR@o role inetfe& ~ r a #*hfwkd~n

a fitue sanity in energy pol'ky wlll be to generate in the Scottish boilerm&mg ind~try.thekind wf awwenes5 now emetginpon Tywdd&- that them wdiy is no kwre tfi eyen &gsf-~ded@W~?,

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mwmment-fund& advanced factow ;@sf the conversicfnof older. small& power stations fof industrial CHP and in the longev term, domestic and commertial distriqt hating schemesa. A suitable prototype for babcock & Wilcox t~diversify into wcti shemes might be the sturry-b@rning6OMWBarony itatibn in GlasgaG. When we e g ~ bto put t h w eIc+mmtsctugether,tke :\aim that aJternatim would creak more jobs in a broader r a m o f skills. at less cost and bemr mqtckd to rekurces, skills artd m ~ r g yIPS?& wns?&o &ke sense. A recent analysis do* at ihe CAITS cenw at the NoM-East London Polytechnic $.!tow that; at a Wwy conservative estimate, 'alternatiw' energy technologies copbd provide 1,s dmes the maxim~~m energy expected f r h nuclear plants in , ~ ye% e 2 W g d w w l create h b l e t h e ~ m p t + ~ "qtt ~ ~ ti-te m k 4 'I &w~pedfkat@ th6'GAITS report suggests that offshore wind and wave . powert~stemskwl& provide up to S Q W pem~-yearsof work for shipyards, ahd aef&ace workers. CHP plant

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An example of firs$ type of.palgn took p l x e i n Bologna t t ~1974. The Unions drew up a p r o g m wfilch demanded a direct contribution t o sccial s e ~ from k privafi employers. They focussed on two issues: free publk tfan* port qnd an adequate nursew s e ~ i w to allow women to work. The costs.we~t o met by a'social deduction from the highest incorps,and from profits'. The contribution required from an emplqec was t o be negotiated by the Unions as part of work contrack The second, and wider, question, concerns the type of produ4on presenay w u r r i n g i n an area, and its relation (or lack of Glation) t o h e needs expmwd

IN THIS extract from a paper presented-tothe~recentCAKS~confer-, . .ence in 'Alternatives to Unemploymenf,(mEddies) John D w i n H i i w Wainwright ergue~thata-ordinated Workers' Plans cnn be OW way h'whkhtrade unionists and community stivists can join together W , .: challenge the power of the giant idustrial and governmentd mpiw

communitywe not,-

ting an,exwt link - a f=&eeconmy plan' for each area - but instead a 1% ,term process of linking (a) on the p r e , ductive side, reswrws which are blatant,. . . . ly wasted (the unemployed, empty , = factories, idle capacity) and rescurces the economy. A t British Le~land's5 v k e I N THE LAST f i w yeiirs, as the eco- . which aE btatantly,misused(producing plant they began to think of invalid cars, mmic crisis h , adeepened and as capital's armaments), dnd (b) on the consumer ,road rail vehicles and SO on. But they - . need for yage control has intensified, wage side, existing kampaigns fw swially use h e s have beeme increadngly sh,arp. But,, were tw late. . .ful products - such as c3mpaigns for flghting on the basis o f wage demands better bublic services, for a more w o n o m -t &,cub 'done, workers have been unarmed i n the . woAa ph id heating system, for greater prwisipn lf horkplace campaigns have i n $e of clwure,â‚¬ompetiti failure, and f ~ the r el&rly, for cycleways. & The problem with m r p r e s e n t . c m . , the lmposiiion,of productivity deals. As a . past suffered from,their failure t o Q &count o f the end-product, t h e p lem m u l t workers fighting wage restraint have:: paigns is that they frequently lack credi- . . , bility &ey are,fragmntary and un.has been even more marked on the.o*er been all too easily.isolated and defbated. : .. d k Si v e v strike in crisis-ridden . ,'..;side. Community campaigns have Suffer- : related, or they are overgeneralised, and . .&mpan;es like ~ ~ i tLeyla"d i$ kcom so, '...,idthrough their failure to take z,ent ., therefore divorced from the immediate of the producti6in process, q d thmzh@.::~... .problem%..Mmy pebple, as a rksui& prefer,' aily idated, and e workers i"volved been most obvious in the campaighs.:, ' , , ~ .:The rough c,omfoct@fM,atthey . k n ~ w pressuredby thethreab of government against public spending cuts. I n the yearsf;.; p d h*e-@flie v,ague:prd$ises . . of social..and r n m ~ m e n t ?A major reawn istha!, when the ?Ifare state was growing, co'm-. 'Ibb;' .:, ,-:..: ,':. .!,. ,. pressing claims solely concad .with munity groups were able t o take for ., :One r&nt attempt to i e t beyo"d thi? wages, the impression is easily created granted that there was money available "impasse.has been the production of the '. that the strikep are cutting h i r own for the improvements they demanded. . . 'Red Paper on Housing' by a g t w p , d throats a faras j6bs ~d prices are conW e n *e p@ , o f gold vanished so did socialist housing activists. Thts is an cernd. In a certain &%.they are; inwfar many of the. campaigns. Local Councils attempt to bring M t h e r the three key emands f ~better r facilities elemen% M i c h usually appe'ar only in at they had no money'to Pay separate form: ,and activists had no practicd . I. analyds of the present busing system, *owing that a serious crisis re. xample, the Tyneside Ac* . mains, and that there can be no adequate Committee Against the Cuts ( T A U C } solution under a system geared toward clearly unable drew u; a list o f 'Constructive Altemaprofit, n i s part shows the relationship of housing problems to the present pronable demands tiues' covering housing, education, public . , ' . of the.workfome. At-this point the worktransport, health and social sewices ductio,n, .finance and^ use of houses. force, believing the'ir demqds&ould be These ranged froth specific demands, though only of : .~ met, realise the, need to overthrow the such as a better housing repah W N ~ 2 A &monstratlon mflin! form that a =ia1ist cmw Wtem. which caimot m e t them. The f a d to very general demands, such a nationale,ative to the presentvstem is , disation of the.construction indwtw , , flaw In this approach is that, however istic, an work, and will provide solutio,n~ re+onable'people feel their demands m, . and the drugs companies. What th9 is not pmsenteda a ablwprint# : IFthey caiinot see how their demands .. did not do adequately was WShw how red the intention is simply to give . these diffexent demnds%vere related.to ., could be *t if things were organised subance to wialist daims;to how, each other, and what they mant in differently, then they are very unlikely to for example, that there are ways to attain terms o f practical camp+igns. If the bed .. take ,therisk of jeopardising their futures an adequate housebuilding prqramm, Council, for exampk, MISYOU that they within th~eexisting system. And so they and there are ways to eliminate all the cannot improve the repairs service for back down. The importance of wwkers 'exchange professionals' who make a your housing estate k a u s e thq have plans (including demands on employers selling riblki".g from the buying tn keep p r b s down) i n wage struggles i ~ .to pay interest on their capibl lorn,.: of owner-mcupied ho,,m. how do y w react? that they show practically that there is an dtemative t o production for an unpredictable market whose fluctuations are

;

; '

make immediate campaigns,fq

m c

i wfor planning: the lB-strong Cleator Mom Enginwing Cmtinfl cwwratiw we fom& inN m e p b r 1977 when the original company failed with fl8,000from the heln f , , a sympathetic bank manager. Now they am lookins for ~0.000f* a 1 ~ 0 ~ lathe SO that they can start to take on aPpmntiC=.

Confronting @e red centres of power

capitdbt

One of the greatest dangdrs ~hthe move towards w~rkersplahs*s that instead of seeing them as the basis of a direct challenge to the presknt system, we see them instead as the basis of small scale altelnatives to that systettl, but which nevertheless are desrgned to fit , comfortably into the system. c he mount'ing enthusiasm for small scale prducer ceoperatives illustrates e+e problems. We are now in a situation &here unem2loyment stands at one and a half million, and will get much higher. The true situation isalready masked by a welter of job creation programmes which are r e k i n g , on a temporary basis, the number of unemployed. This strategy holds real dangers o r diversion from thekentral problem. It might be argued that small firms which ,+re producer cooperatives can overcome the normal problems which occur in the small business sector - the 'scab sectbr' as it has been accurately named. But even if they do so in their internal relations, there remains the problem that t h w must co-exist with acapitalist system based on pvaduction for profit.

A study ot Japanese industry recently cited as a major competitive advantage the fact that the large Japanese ~ndustriai groups usually have behind them a hierarchy of suppliers and sub-suppliers, with varying levels of trade union p r e ection, wage levels and job security. 10,000 small firms suppl~.service$or Lomponents to British Levfafld and Chrysler. The intervention cd the Ciovernh h m t in rescuing these firms has so far prevented many of those 10,000 from collapse (though for how long). This interdependence, and this vulnerability, remains unavoidable for the great majority of .small firms, including Pro-

ducer Cooperatives. One of the major intentions in the development of workers' plans is to challenge the power and prerogatives of private capital. We wed to be aware that concentrating our energy and resources on small scale job creation is a total abandonment of that challenge. The top 100 companies in Britain already account for some haif of manufacturingout~ut, assets and employment. The workers they require will diminish In the future, but their 'dominance of the commanding heights of the economy' will continue and grow. As the conclusion of the recently published report on Tyneside's 'Permanent Unemployment' (Benwell CDP) puts it, 'What we can expect in the future, unless a serious challeqge is made to this whole system, is that the multinationals will continue to build up capitai intensive industrial basis, aided by massive subsidy from nat~onalgovernments who are competing to get new sites into their own countries. A t the same time official reports and policies will encourage the development of the 'inform?l sector' in inner city areas. Here local authorities will play the major role of providing incentives: and again competition will be fierce, as each council makes use of their new powers to fight each other for a few more jobs'.

The role o f trades councas If bargaining for the implementation of alternative plans drawn up from below i s tobe a realistic alternative to waiting/p~essingfor plann~ngagreements, and if we are to guard against the reactionary separation of the struggle within the big corporqtion5 from the struggle,in~ecommunity and small firm sector; then we need to think more critically of how workers plans should be developed beyond combine committees lik6 thase at Lucas Aerospace and Vicke~s ..

Too much faith in the possibility of government support has perhaps tended 3 to inhi bit thought in this direction. Building up general political pressure to back the proposals o f combine committees seemed enough. However once the limits of political pressure are understood, a very important distinction becomes clear. Taking suooort for the Lucas plan as an exaipli,'it i s the distinction between demanding that the government force Lucas to lmplement the plan and, on the other hand, turning your own union branch, tenants group, trades council etc. into an embryo planning body itself. For example members of NUPE could demand, either nationally or i n particular hospitals, that orders for more kidney machines (or other medical equipment proposed in .? the Lucas plan) be taken up as part of ; the unions wage bargaining. Similar'initiatives are possible in the NuR and T'Gwu with the vehicle, and among car workers with the poyer pack etc. Tradm Councils could be an important part of such an alliance. Their role has ,., alwaqs been to bring together workers , in all industries and sectom, ta be a focal, point for community campaigns wanting+ trade uhion support and to represent the Labour movement in various local ,i, institutions. The form of unity they have achieved.has normally been on a very ,I defensive basis, although they have taken a lead recently in co-ordinating many of,, the campaigns against government policy; In most areas thev tend to unite mainlv public sector woikers. a disproportion~fely small number of trade unionists in ,, the private manufacturing sector take them seriously. In the past trade unionists have in the private corporate sector felt confident in thkir strength to go it alone, extending their organisation only across the company and rarely across thq locality. In asense it seemed that any- , t thing more was unnecessary; jobs could 1 be defended, wage claims won, without links with public sector workers and community organisations. And the tight . for more public expenditure could be left to tne Labour party. ,: Faced with the crisis and the impasse of a sectional approach to fighting its - 1 effects, the conditions for unity are fundamentally more favourable. But firstly a sense of demaralisation in the t face of all this has to be overcome. Unity won't come simply through calls for it. It requires policies which show a way out of the impasse; which show alternatives to the apparently immutable' constraints behind the crisis - the market, government's spending prior- d ities, the private appropriation of -; wealth. If Trades Councils, working with? combine committees, were to take !, steps to draw up alternative plans w h i c h started from needs already fought for, and human capacities cast aside as redundant, they would be beginning to provide such policies. John Darwin 4 Hilary W a i w r i M

Undercurrents 32

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4 ?

I I

s it off BLOODY BUT UNBOWED, Peter Nalder tells us of his so far fruitless experience as a communard and co-operationist. Has anybody g o t any other schemes to tell us h o w communes succeed and fail, and h o w to keep everything blissful? I

these 'smells a bit' and it might be an unnecessary or expensive business making (physically) the money-tokens, . The second and first are therefore better. (The-first, foreign coinage, is, I believe, against the law to have and t o hold and to use in t h i s cohntry, but,. .) These first two types have the advantage that members could 'cheat! and b3f up Monopoly sets, or change ordinar$:ea$h into Peruvian i n a bank, but o f cout& uld be 'worth whiler doing, way you are all pr~cticingtrustother! There would be no real behind doing any of tk$% extheir fun value and ttie advantages o f a.psychological,type fKat might accrue So the group from hSiiig their own geld.

. .

A,\ -

EQUALITY: The French Ukvolution did us a dissewice, I maintain, in suggestrng equality as a suitabte brother to' fraternity and liberty; the con~eptis dodgy, and at least some groups M m to have foundered by not makihg>best(ie h u w i s t i c ) use o f their intefoal inequalities. Why should everyone do~everything i n th$ group in rotation. Suttlv if c'e hesioniias been carefullv established and &rue are at a minibup, then your system could stand and even bemefit byb inequalities?The inequalities that must be destroyed i r e those o f the rapist and + the raped, whether in a by$n$ss, social or sexual sense, su~ely;Walkingdown the road with a fribfid yodcan't both walk nearest the wall if you ?re to be side Fy side; inhuality will exist. (Swnds like tricky country. Ed.)

AS A COMMUNARD/co-opist, I I suppose that the law further needs haven't had my first success nor my last to take into w o u n t exxtJy w h y is try. The idea of presenting these notions m a n t by 'people' here; it i$likely to is that others should pass comment on mean somethhg like 'pe~plerepresentthem; more humbly still I'd be delighted . ing- essentially fliffemnt v k m d n k if anyone learnt anything by them. upon importint mtterql. ( ~ k t e all r SIZE 1. Parkinson has more than one eo x % 100 robots would p r e w & y gree law. A less quoted one i s what might be q,% with no Shrugs atalLk) Perhaps ~tfollows termed the inverse Ripple Law, whlch he:$.& that a group shoukd Have fewer Shrugs develops from the h15toryof British ':yrthan members. To achieve this it is Parliament. I suggest i t s appl~catlonto *,-- evickntly necessary to reduce by dear co-operative groups. I t 1s simply that ,-plinning, clear guidelines, cmtinuing whenever the 'cabinet' (or 1ts earller communication add discussion, and equivalents) reached a number of people ' .'religion', the number ofessentlally different viewpoints. By religion I greater than about twelve, a new group formed or coalesced at its centre, con- , mean 'c.ommonly held beliefs and "?sistlng of fewer than twelve, and who value systems*. I suggest that marriages FLUXSANDSTATE: I am i u i ~ t yas I and religious movemfits that succeed actually d ~ d the commun~cating.Those believe others to be most o f the time, ,use one Qr more of these ways to reduce outside the central coterie become planning and thinking ahead t o h state; " 'ossified' so to speak, a non-communishrugs to a minimum. , 'once we have achieved .!, !we want ?Q cating exoskeleton to the Ilve Interior. set up a. a .' People &e ali$ (despite Is there a lesson for co-operat~nggroups CASH FLOW AND CO4PERATIVE wme evidence to the contrary) and PHILOSOPHY. Over and owat again cash on optimal group size, I wonder? groups of people are too. Shwld w flow and finance, management and SIZE 2. As a musician I have practical not be awafe that, trowvet we may plan experience of the incrgasing diff~cultles economic hassles are mention4 as - it, we shall end up with a path' not a attending making muslc as the number thorns in the side o f h w k a l of ceopspot, a film not a snapshot. If plus ca erative venture% Thuieprint (tTM 5) of people ln the group Increases. And change. then there are three possibilthe difficulties Increase exponent~ally, wrote: 'Our degisions were not always ities; the unlikely ,me is ritual permanbased on what we could Ifterally afford reckon. I therefore propose Nalder's ence (should it be called stagnation?); Law, begglng the pardon of whoever we had to achieve maximum producthe other two are decline and growth. thought it up in the first place, because 'tivity all the time.. worry about money Many of us have experienced both at , it just can't be orlg~nal.The law says prevenwd udfrom being patient with one time and another, certainly decline that, The difficulty of attaining coheeach other'; and Treske said it 'had sur' i s within my experience. I sugGest that slon in a group 1s drrectly proport~onal vived though many of its initial objee both decline and ritual permanence to 2"-', where n IS the number of people tives had not*. May I suggest that surviv- , are to be avoided. The rest of'these ln the group. For the non-mathematician al has to be an initial objective, and that notes have been an effort to avoid these. this means the figures In the table. agraph might be drawn after this I suppose. And yet growth also had fashion, on which as you move along hidden rocks on M i c h ideas and ideals may founder if Parkinson and my exthe arrow time passesland y w move more into co-operative philosophi and perience as a musician are anything t o go - less quickly into economic (success': by. What recipes can be suggested for I growth-suwiving? Continual splitting 1 2 4 8 1 6 3 2 62 128 266 MONEY: From tIm 6 time money i s comes tint to mind, akin to the growth the subjwt of an attack, either anarchic o f some bask life forms in ponds. ls,thi$ or highly,technical. This is neither. If a matter worth cansiaering, and if w, b s group wishes it*how about using two anyone to say on &e matt&? . , (The law m ht of course be (2"-l-1) or kinds of money: fp as usual for dealings bepd as I started; these are notions ' even (n - 1) instead but in any case the with the B W (fflg Bad World), an4 one loaking for heads, and I'd be ddighted ' numbers would rise rapldly, I suggest o f Peruvian coinage, 'Monopoly' money to hear back on them, whether i n sup that the units for difficulty of attalnPOI?or otherwise. or lrm Mater wdkinson style t~kehs, $4 Weion might he called 'Shrugs'.) fw theit intern4 & a l @~.!a$@~ , , ~

...

1 7 Y

Pew Nwef l&'.*-"w.

r1*4**

?.;*-&ii, ,, , +

$+%?{@&

, for the cheap labour encourage anii+fr

any more, but they don't have it easy. Simon Watt was ther lately and

tells -. .- u--s that -- - - the - - humble manut has reolaced the slave shio s the main

instrument of repression.

DURING THE CENTURIES of the Aifantk slave trade about 250,000 Africans were taken i n fettered batches through the seafacing door o f G e m Island's slave house t o the waiting boats and the infamous middle passage. This slave house or 'barracoon' as it was called, is of no mean construction with its courtyard and t44n staircases curving up to the palatial,merchant's rooms . above the slave cells. It stands inconspicuously and unashamedly i n a street o f other 17th century merchants' houses-slaves were considereda legitmate trading 'good' like any other. Fought over by the French, English and the Dutch navies, Goree Island - a fort the natural ~... ~ . -to .. defend ~~~~~. .~~ o ro -tf Dakar -- ---* Senegal's capital city -finished in French hands as the stronghold and administrate centre o f their West African Empire. Slavery was a fact of life for millenia before our fossil fuel era, and slaves were owned by Churchmen, gent&, and s p k e oynm alike - although it was . $Memned towards the. end by Adam With who considered it inefficient The Atlantic t i a f f i c k q m in earnest after %@,a?-a reptamyint for the $den*ed Eneiish servants and convicts whose labourvalue grey apace with the developi n t factory cmitalism in Eneland. With ~

national tfMiion o f labour; few Afri& workers achieved skilled or supervisory grades; and 80%of national devtiqnxftll funds c o r n from overseas. Rut it is thft

over 300 capital offences Per Year during the turbulent years of 1640-1 740 and

labour. The su& plantation owners turn- underdevelopmen ed t o West Africa for labour, making slavery with i t s moral and intellectual ?. The growth of the pean degradation the essential economic instiEuropeans f o r several htindratf yf& tution for the sumr olantations which e d y capital for .- ' stayed i n fortified calt7ps on t h e ' ~ ~ ~ & o f provided much of West ~ f r i c a ,trading manufactured Britain's Industrial Revolution. A t home for staves and tropical produce. Wilh fto the planters lobbied for monopolies and slow abolition of slavery, African fwnets, created the rotten political boroughs respondingto market opportunib', WIQIwhilst h e i r trade rotted teeth. Slavery ed to trading peanuts for imports. This was abilist ed by the English i n 1807 Caused severe dislocation and politicalA. after a lengthy 2nd emotional campaign reversals amongst the African leaders bv leaders whose h v m r i s v has been dev$tatingly exposed byEric Williams. * * whose we th was based on time &lag their fell ws. With months of 'forced , The mercantilist policies which protectleftui<el, the fannftrs began t o dev9w ed the sugar planters and their economy cash crop as well as gfop staple foods based on slave labour was pushed aside for home fconsumption. Exchange Was by the growing tide of more profitable factorycapidism with its philosophy % battler, th6 terms,antfbenefits of w h i Ã § were largely set by African rniddl of free trade and freedom of imports. The period before the mad scrÃˆmb(<d The abolitionists were successful not on Africaby England and France after humanitarian grounds byt became the 1880-during which evolution w i t b d West Indian sugar ~@iiom-werq farmed out and had exhausted their soil. have taken dace at the Dace of die - '-hGte@~ S&I as alitiosta g61de~wa;f Goree Island's && house isnow a museum With thercosts, suffering. cvniAfricans. " 3 , The brutal miti@&Â¥<6ltia <riKJ bouncism and humiliation of the trade soakad dary carving. opening the colonies tb Into the vew s t o k work. Notices with * T

course.

high technology industry-the latter to allow West Africa a fairer share of

unueruurrenxf Ã‡J

precious a i d valuable resources'. Overall tosts are only some 10% in excess or siandaril council house construction fcu5ts about Â£10,00 per unit. Runnit-gcoils will be considerably reduced I i r example, relying on the conventiui ,,I solid fuel burner for space heatin" mini.t cost Â£4 a year, while the windniiil system will mean annual energy bills of as little as Â£1 a year. The ~ I ~ I J Y L S wiil be three-bedroomed, built in f o n tcrr.iced blocks. Ideally for maximum sol ir gain they should be south f a u t 4, but to minimise windcooln g they sl 'ulcl bL end-on to the prevailing wind ( \ W ) As a compromise they are plann-'ti to be I So East of South. Large gad 11s and allotments will also be provid~d,some degree of food selfsufficien~~ beine envisaged. Â¥f

Any tahrrs?

SEVERAL LOCAL authorities are experimenting with low energy housing projects, for example the London Borough of Southwark (Undercurrents 31). Tony Small reports on another major experiment, this time in Hull, free telephone capital of Britain, which has recently received the go-ahead. he scheme is based mainly on wind power. THE LOW ENERGY HOUSING prot proposed by the Alternative Tech-

nology Group at Hull College o f Higher Education (see Undercurrents 16) has recently been approved by Hull Corporation's Housing Committee. Following a two year run-up project, thirty-two terraced houses are to be constructed in the Bransholme area o f Hull-with construction scheduled t o cummenee i n 1981. Each unit wil'l be highly insulated (100mm brick, fitted 100mm cavity wall, plus 100mm internal block) and the main energy source will be a single 132 kW, three waded windmill, which will generate AC power for immersion heaters in 3-tonne heat store water tanks in each house. This is to be backed up by passive solar systems together with specially designed solid fuel low pollution burners, developed by the National Coal Board's Coal Utilisation Research Establishment.

Windpower rules The design concept has undergone some changes since the proposal reported in UC16. Solar power has been demoted in favour of windpower - based on the fact that the Humber area is one of the few places on the East coast which is windy enough to make the use of a windmill a reasonable proposition. The energy available from wind i s 50% higher in winter than i n summer, making it far more suited to providing space and water heating than solar energy. Over the year,

73% of the likely demand of the well insulated houses can be met from wind, compared with 43% from solar. The - Hull College team hope that the wind system will in practice on average supply 70%of the annual Space and water heating demand - although :hey have retained a solar conservatory/greenhouse facility in the south facing walls in order to obtain benefit from solar energy in the Spring and Autumn and to reduce the heat loss by the chill effect from prevailing wind

Wind and coal They plan to order a 30m diameter, 20m high Gedser-type windmill from Denmark. As the houses will have relatively low space-heating requirement (about 4kW) only small amounts of additional energy will f !equired -,even during periods whe wind speed 1s low. The NCB have devised a special low output coal burning device, designed to accept local bituminous coal with a pollution level acceptable in smoke-control areas. There have been surprisingly few bureaucratic hitches. Despite the novel design, planningpermission has been given and the project has received enthusiastic support from Hull Corporation. As Councillor Phyllis Clarke commented: (1 think that at this stage every authority should be looking the future to consew4some o f our very

u$%$

i~a?"f.Â¥rti*

Public reactions l o the project have been ver. lavourabic - with the local presstalking of 'futuristic houses' and 'science fictional homes'. Tenants wilt probably be dtewn from the standard housing u..!iting lists, although they will be warnrd ihat the project i s an experiment wlliii; may involved them in some monitor:ri: and the attention of the media. It is planned to mount an extensive twining/induction programme for incorrtng tenants, designed to . orient ttv'rn to the low-energy concept; An tS,.OOO grant from the Nuffield Trust will piovide lunds for a social scientist , cxplo!'; reactions to the system. I: .;i!dition the design team are rnakin c'ver! effort to ensure that prospccli'.: icn.i;j:s will be as closely involved a- nosiibie in the detailed design a n ' :nana~ementof the project. In the Iringcr term, after the system has been commissioned, tested and monitorcJ there will be an option to dismantle Lhe turbine or i f the tenants so wish, to hand it over for management by the tenants co-operative. Another option i s to feed excess power from the plant to the electricil~giid. There ,ire inevitably some institul al hurdles to-overcome, but so far funding sr!cms no problem with Hull College oi Higher Education already having provided Â£20,00 to support the design tt,,in'i, and promising to continue funding iiiern 'for as long as necessary'. The n r x t stage is the drawing u p o f detailed construction plans by the city . architects it will be interesting to see i f the oriwial deskn concept is carried over unn1':idified and to what extent i t will be t>ossiblc for potential tenants to parti<.ip.ite in the design process. But ti.ward Liddell, Director of the Hull C o l I c ~AT - Research Group is ., confident :hat all will be well, and adds that, in .;ii\ case, 'if the experiment fails, then the council will be left with houses which can be used normally'., ', Undercurrents will be keeping you up to.date r t ~ developments. ? Tonv Small

Future Demand Underlying, and partly causing,

gut of indigenousenergy and a drastic scaling down of demand. In 1976 forecasts of UK consumption in the year 2000 m g e d u to 760 million tonnes of coal @uivalet!t.l By 1978 this had been reduc ed-to 450-560 mtce in the-green paper e fallen from the

. .

..:

.,.. -,.

, .. "

<:d&$pp@before 2QOOtheohlyrealout ,i,ler forthe.extra30 million tensorso': .'!. of&oawoi~ldk i n electricity gewt+foi ..>..< . :, iÃˆ-..' , , . . whic cou'ld only be at the expertW0l -?- :-. .-. .@:.,..yclear capacity. ,., ,. . . > ,.~. I

. .::;

Ideologicallytoo, nuclear yower.rnayf fac'inc&nfopppition from .thet+ &-&'major parties..I *@I deal w t h the Lab(?l .~.*. .

,....l,,~..-$ . :?. :

..g$arty.in the stetio^'*trÃˆ< !+bWS,'3ii.,

-txstow. Opposiii~nin.the~serv@retfi,

> . ....L..

,;,:::.'~:n$;& is l i ~ ~ l ~ ~ f e ~ o ~ f f f e - . ~ r o m , a t o ~ ~ a . ;

a c ~ v i t y , ' very ~ i ~ large ~ s u m have been expended with relatively little return and since some costelements o f the fuel cycle, such Ă&#x192; reprocessing and fuel storage remain indeterminate, (no commercial plant is yet operating) it is probably more likely than not that Conservative opposition will harden.

Trade Unions TUC views on energy are largely tated by its Fuel and Power Committee which is dominated by the Electrical Unionsand the Miners. heh host comprehensive expression of theirviews was published i n 1972 in Fueland Power Policy: their-klet This criticised previous government attempts at policy, such as the 1967 white paper, on the grounds that 'they depended too much on extrapolation at current trends and were too concerned to exploit the latestapparently cheap and available fuel'. The error had been t o pursue the de@loprnent,of one particular fuel industry, because it looked promising, white failing t o measure in appropriate detail the effect on other fuel industries'. The solution was therefore t o rely on 'reresource cost' rather than price in deciding on fuel mix. What this meant practice wasfiat oil would be downgraded in i m p o r t a m while nuclear and coal were upgraded. Electricity 'provides the key t o acoherent and consistent fuel and power policy'. It should become the 'maor secondary fuel for domestic and

cod

Mtunl Gu A l f r n t i v source* Mid

'Ccmwmtion Total

This level o f production was ctearly enough t o maintain employment levels i n two key sectors, coal mining and electricity production, and so the Committee could fully endorse nuclear power. Indeed they went further, endorsing not only the FBR as 'clearly crucial to the increased use of nuclear power after 1980' and urged that 'a considerable amount o f funds (should be) channelled into fusion reSearch and development'. Ifdemand i n 2000 only reaches 500 mtce or less, and there Iscompetition w'between coal and nuclear, then this view

ed i n some areas. The Yorkshire Area , President, Arthur Scargill, for example gave evidence for the objectors at Windscale, mainly on safety. The position of the electrical unions is more problematical. There is no Particular operational reason- why they should favour coal over nuclear, or vice versa. The determining factor may well be the effect on employment. As far as I know there hasbeen no thoroughgoing exploration o f the employment effect? o f various energy strategies for am cite a recent The US Council on Economic Priorities exploredusing an input/output model the energy/employment relationships i n the Long Island area. The alternativesexamined wee two 1150 MWnuclear plants or a solar plus conservation stratejy.The alternatives were examined on both their local and national impacts and on their multiplier effects. The resultswere that the Solar/ ~0nsewationstrategy was cheaper $1540 million against $3760 million would generate more local revenue and perhaps most significantly created more jobs, 30,000 as opposed t o 17,000B. Ifthese results are valid for the UK also then the likelihood mutt be that, With 1.5 million unemployed and predictions that this figure will be much higher in the 19801s,the trades unions wilt start Pressing for an energy policy which Promises more employment. Small, but potentially influential sec-

-Business Industry's experience of nuclear powef world-wide has been summed up by Richard McCormack, President of power group,general Atomic ' . the front line vendors have yet to make a dollar with certainty after some 20 years o f effort with high and often open ended The list of companies involved in nuclear power i n the UK reads like a corporate graveyard. The fiction of competing consortia has been jettisoned and the entire consyuction programme is in the hands of one company, whose major shareholder appears t o wish to pull out.

Given this history the question has to be asked whether UK firms or consortia would want to be involved in the construction o f CFR-1 and under what terms. No detailed cost estimates have so far ,been fbrthcoming from the UK Governrnent or the UKAEA for CFR-1 but in a comprehensive study of the German FBR programme Keck estimates that c o w e r kilowatt of the SNk-300 prototype are 5-8 times that of thermal nuclear power plants, which might be reduced t o a factor o f 2-3 by staling up to 1300 MW. Fuel cycle costs of,SNR300 are 'so high that the plant would not be commercially competitive even with nil investment costs'. Under these circumstances any industrial consortium is likelv to want cast-iron assurances on cost liabilities and compensation for possible cancellation before agreeing to enter into the CFR-1 construction programme.

Undercurrents 32

Conclusions

y ' &

The,announced long-term strategy of government to base UK energy polity on nuclear power and conservation contains potential contradictions in the medium term. The uncertainty of forecasts apd the failure of indicative planning must militate against projects which, like nuclear (especially FBR's) have long lead times, and involve considerable front end capital loading. Energy planning in the future is likely to become increasingly short term and demand rather than "supply orientated with more reliance placed on conservation measures both physical and financial to constrain demand within easily ascertainable limits - rather than on attempting to plan for a fflture demand which may never materialise using technology which'may become obsolete. Reduction in overall demand and in the relative growth rate o f electricity may within a few years force government to choose between the announceM expansion of coal capacity t o 170 million tonslyear and the expected, 25 40 GW o f nuclear plant. In that event government is likely to favour coal, not simply because p f the power and influence of the NUM but because coal is more flexible; is cheaper for most heating purposes and will certainly be needed long-term as a source for hydrocarbons. Active opposition from major sections ot both Labour and Conservative parties and the trades unions and at best neutrality from industry i s likely considerably to diminish institutional support for nuclear power, and in particular CFR-1. If total nuclear capacity is restricted to 30GW or even less then constraints on uranium supplies will be much eased and the immediate necessity to develop CFR-1 in preparation for largwale breeder ordering around the year 200& will disappear. Widespread deployment of the LMFBR is then unlikely much before 2020, in which case it will have to compete with other supply technologies solar, wind, tidal, wave, geopressupd methane,coal gasification, as well as possibly fusion and the gas". cooled FBR, many o f which may be capable of making significant contribu* tions to UK energy supplies over that timescale. Prematt8redevelopment of the ' LMFBR that i s development [ahead o f a clearly recognised need add v reasonable expectation of economic viability - is likely to strengthen and focus institutional opposition since CFR-1 will pre-empt a large amount, o f money, Â£1-billion, which could Â¥timbeenspenfekwhere. Those on the left o f the political specttum will ask , how spending this money will alleviate structural unemvlwment or advance egatitarianism while those on the right wili ask why, with the present Test

future) a commitment is being made technologies. Secondly there needs t o which is unlikely t o show a return in be some form of pluralism of assessment less than 40 years. so that the proposed agency avoids the In these circumstances there remains situation where i t i f both the developer one major question - the future o f o f the technology and the sole source . of advice to government - something the UKAEA. An ordering pattern of 1 GW or less a year is hafrdly the volume which has plagued the history of nuclear of business necessary to sustain the subpower in the UK. Thirdly there needs t o stantial business the Authority has bebe close and continuing contact with come. BuildingCFR-1 will make little industry, preferably on a risk-sharing difference i f a repeat order cannot be basis, to avoid technologies being develovexpected within a decade. ed more for their scientific interest tha Clearly, once the possibility of change their usefulness. of status for the UKAEA is accepted The room for permutations between there are a large number of possible ways these two options is clearly considerable. thismight be accomplished. I do not One thing, hbwever, does seem certain: think this i s either e time or place to In the relatively near future the governsuggest specific or etailed ideas but it ment is going to have to bite this particular does seem to me that there are two exbullet and examine very closely the future tfemrt to the spectrum of possible'reand the institutional role of the UKAEA. arrangement. "lt Coy, The first is building all firtufe nuclear References generating capacity under license, closing d o h all R, D & D activities and retaining only a small core of people for technical 1 Dept of energy, Energy R & D in the ~gnited assessment; hiving off those activities, Kingdom: A Discussion Document, June 1976 such as reprocessing, radioisotopes and \ 2 Dept. of Energy, Energy Poljcy - A Consutenrichment which are capable o f sustaintative Document, Crnnd 7101, HMS0,Feb. , ing themselves commerciallv. k i t h a 1978 limited domestic nuclear programme 3 Energy Commission Paper No. 1, HMSO most of this business would have to be 4 UKAEA, Evidenfle'Sutammed 1974175ti in exports. The Royal Commission on Environmenu Pollution, Table 3, p.12 Or one could try, duplicating US, and now apparently, Canadian, experience, 5 A.J. Surrey & J.H. Che~hife,Estimetin~ . , UK Energy Demand far the year 2000: A ,:; by transforming the UKAEA into an Sectoral Approach, Science Policy R n e a i 9 energy R, D & D age/icyi,This has attracUnit, University of Sussex, Fqb. 1978 .; tions, not least retaining a centre of ex6 J.H. Smith, Address to the Nfitiong H sins tellence and a large number, of highly any Town Planning Confarany, 3t'Ofc$her, : qualified people, but (here would need , 1978 . , , ,... to be safeguards. 6.rtt the heed for such 7 P.C. cook & A.J. s u f r ~ ~, m r g y?orcy: : ' , an agency <couldh a w bq firmly estabStrategies fob Uncertainty; h r t t n ~+tson, lished, otherwise it would simply be , 1977,p.13 . . .,,: ,,:..,,

Y '

Undercurrents 32

- -,-- -

Free Speech obtained without recourse to the complex THIS TRANSMITTER js intended for FM generating circuitry favoured in many short range broadcasting on the VH FM professional designs. (very high frequency, frequency m dulaThe power switching is arranged so that ted) band, using that part of the band around 90-95 MHz. With it, one might extra b l e d resistors come into circuit expect to be able to cover a large segment when the 6146 is drawing no current. This of a'city when working into a good, high is an important safety precaution, offering aerial, with anabsolute lire-of-sight a degree of protection for the power supply range extending to at least ten miles. smoothing capacitors, and also helping to ' * Theactual range obtained is dependent maintain the stability o f the supply to ' on ,so many factors that general statethe oscillator under 'tune' and 'transmit' ments a b d t it are only just this side of conditions meaningless. Thfe device i s stable and the modulation quality iegoortoValveswere employed in f e r e w to transistors because'of their trf tolerance of operator wer transistor devices can ~ e r easily y by momentary , and, as substantial power Irequired, they offer few over valves for t h i s type o f application. (However, if operation from battery rather than mains supplies i? required, then a transistorised inverter mtal bhassis housed inside a ventilated must be used.) metal box, to cut down any possible uninThe transmitter therefoe represents a tended radiation atthe multiplier frequenvaluable tool of non-violent direct action, for ties. Shielding is desirable between the base example as a propaganda station d the 6146 (including the two 90 MHz for an hour a k o m a sees of d i f f e r Fig. TiansniItterandPower &pplies locations. It has been necessary t o assume a ckrtain degree of sophistication on the reader's part regarding electronic affairsotherwise the article would become excessively long.

Basic Design The basic chassis on which the pr6totype was buitz began life as a ' ~ u l f i t o n e ' radio-paging transmitter operating on 31 MHz. The power supply unit as well as several o f the original valves and'compoBents were retained and used in the VHF ' design, but all the components are available separately from standard commercial sources. V1 (EF80) is an oscillator/tripler with the control gridlscreen grid circuit tuned ; I n t o approximately 10 MHz in an electroncoupled Hartley oscillator circuit, and the anode tuned to 30 MHz approxid~telyso that the valve also functions as the first tripler. A separate oscillator and tripler could of course be employed if desired. The second tripler is a 5763, which drives the power amplifier on a frequency of about 90 MHz. The coupling between V2 and V3 is accomplished by the proximity of the two coils L3 and L4. To improve the general rigidity a common former atje of &on was inserted, the dust core aving'been removed. The modulator i s of a novel design ,&ich nukes use of the 'Miller effect' ' (the chawe in inteblectrode capacity in 'Tavalve brought about by changes incontrdgrid potential YThis.allows /'anftt largefwqucncy deviations to be

p i 2 m e r effect modulator

tu.$

wiring-

coils) and the rest qf the multiplier The most important shielding is that between the base of the 6146 and the Y-, wiring around the top-cap, which is provided by the chassis itself. Coils L l and L2 s h d d be mounted so that their axes are at 90Ă&#x201A; t o one another t o avoid undesirable coupling. A grid-dip oscillator is very useful for aligning the oscillator and multiplier stages . approximately on to frequency before power is applied. Failing this a good short wave receiver covering 10 and 30 MHz may be employed to observe the carrier level while the multiplier's are adjusted. The final 90 MHz circuits should be peaked for maximum grid current the 6146, measured by breaking the grid circuit at point X and inserting a 0-5 m.A. test meter in series, positive terminal to chassis. Finally the 30 MHz tripler coil L2 should be adjusted for absolute peak meter reading as well. Coils L3 and L4 will be found t o interact to some degree, and the best setting must be found by adjusting the two i n conjunction. When the adjustment is safb factory and the carrier frequency is correct (grid current reading at least 2.5 m.A.) the meter may be removed and high tension applied to the anode of the 6146. The aerial loading is best adjusted with the help of a small VHF field strength meter. It should be positioned a few feet from the transmitting aerial and

&& '*^^tiv'ej&t ".<:'

brought into the affect9ecjiie<&If the Action Committees ichiekd notfilng morethan this, ' their6xitttnct and their struggle would i,Ă&#x192;Ë&#x2020;.(hav been justified. ' %n the initiative of the Shotton ' ' . 'Action Committee, stem were taken at an early stage in the struggle +- "anvass s u ~ ~ ofor r t the idea of a Na I shoo-

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Qwemment has indeed halted the ~$0wredate for several years, white review :Webeen taking place. As a conaquenc6 ,' of, the@ reviws, and tfre'use of new iti$t}cs by BSC, partial or fetal closures , (ate taken p l q i n Scotlanfli, England 5 ' , ~ @ / ~ a f q .Resistance to cl&ures sfid a 8 "jb&losses was undermined b\PW offers 1 ofjarge redundancy payments. Ttrdsall, 'dbdLof iob* d i w ~ e a r e dwith no sim by del&t& f&n 22 plank representing ' of the promised 'newly available employ115,ObO steelworkers. Conference unment' in the required numbers. ' ? animoudv decided on the formation of Alinost alone. Shotton stands unde-' national StWIiAetioi^CoBMBlW and 'kited. still makine steel. The Beswick agreed to the Policy Outline whkh in~eyiewhad assured Shotton of eont i n u t d life into the Eighties. Then, on eluded a demand for a halt to ail closures, ' acomplew rejection of joblowel, a . 16th . March 1977. came the announce national steel target of 43 knt that shotton was no longer to .minimum . . milli,o$tdrinei and a ban on* hpOrt be regarded as part of the 10-Year o f raw' st&&[ which could be produced 'Strategy, the threat of closure rescindat home. .@niniari Marketdictation WM ed and the f e y of farge-scale redundancy oppose?,' Ã § n d , t h q s y rcallsfor. a c.di,spelled. . 1 ', real nati'~M(pj"ol?t~for iteel, and the ,. : . , . . early implembntation of a shorter workHardest nut ing ~$k.,'~:.,~.<;~*;. .. "Ã ., , For the BSC, Shotton has always been ,?r.l..', ' , :.+. ..,., . .,. * .,. the 'big one'. The problem of dealing par&,p<flicy. !i !.;.:/, , . + .9 ) . . ., satisfactorily with a works and a work- , force,which refused to be killed off in ,fi>Lab&ri'&r&, then in opposition, accordance with the diktat of the 10gave prominen&in its Manifesto 'Labour's Year Strat& Ãˆt one which all their Programme-1973' to the problems facing efforts had faifixl tosolve. The workforce steelworkers throughout the industry. had won, and wccessfully exploited the Declaring that ttie Stratem involvedre-support of their community, of countless dundahc'fei an,uijacdep@ble scale and uade unionists, o f local authorities, of pointing ourfiel<t&ere;&is noi~oherent powerful groups of MP's, of industrialists. plan for providing'alter~ativejobs for The battle which the BSC had wished those affected, &e"~abyrrPar,$ pledgtofight on the principle of concentrated a new deal for steifcl,&t((f.next, ion of.production at a minimum number Labour G o v e r n ~ ~ t i ~ l f ' 5 skated t s @ that, , of complex sites, was fought essentially immediately on taking@fficei>lt plans on political and sociological grounds. be for closures and ~dunda.pcies.~ould The fight was taken into the heart of frozen anda review o f q c h individual .the TUC ftielf:,Various trade union headplant i i t s t i ~ t e dThey , promised tocon- . suit with all wnqerned t o e n s u r e h t , .i@artfs'Wre@mpelled by the pressure <rf d d r members to change their policies ; wherever possible, unavqjdable re&ndahcieswould be phased to link.w(?l-: :.> and to oppose a strategy which, in its newly availableem$loyment. The Party . early stages UK) before the advent of, ' Manifesto promised to bring raw life the Action Committees, they had taniely nad hope to the traditional steel cornaccepted. I t was Shotton power and' miinitips e n e m 'which.ted the wav to the forma-

lar victoria. united numerous Aetierr Committees, worked for a common

. .

.. .

Sfiottoh'e. uldce^ful camoaicn had 5' . Pats:,' .,. 1. Demolishing the pan of the Strategy which threatened to end Shotton's role as a steelmaker; 2- Exposing the &seness of the claim that thousands o f new< jobs could be attracted t o Dceside to replace steel jotfs; 3.Qm~nst~atingthat any plan to transpat 30,000 tonne$ of Hot RolledCoil 'weeklyfr~mother plants to Shdttofi p l d be doomed to failure; 4. Proving'that ample de& w q ~ ~r t ~ ( ^ : / f i ~ i & ~ y ^ l t f " n ~ - e ~ s y . , reach; &&t% ~ d ' csq t r a claims; and 5 . hGht$ in tii&fi caustp phis B , $ ~ ~ t t ~ w ilj$ h i i hI@of 6,000 jobs'&ld hav* had on 'hinterland.. ;Â¥".:, Inaddition, and inthe heal of the i'. . ; ,$rlfggle, help of middle showed tobdern half the {Z@J mi1liot-i in~eitmentthe , Corporation said was necessary..i:, . The fight continues, for 'there can 1st no lettingup until Shotton h' won its final victory. It is high time that the Government came dowg ff the fence .of indecision endiilah6rGd the investrnent which would snableSh~ttont o

&de^T,d+#

necessary.

TILL GOOD FRIENDS om Burke is not being'gently but rmly eased out by FOE'S introlling board' (Undercurrents !I) For . some time the Poland tree1 staff and the board have sen discussing the role of the xecutive Director, and whether id for how long Tom wanted to intinue to fulfill this role. After ide-ranging discussion Tom and ie board reached unanimous (reernent that plans should be lade for his Leaving and placement. A further discussion F the most appropriate timing was impleled with the formal inouncement in October. onsultations on the selection and :sponsibilitics of Tom's successor -e stilt continuing amongst the aff, board and local groups. At i e request of all members of the taff and board, Tom has agreed to epart only when his successor has cen appointed and fully settled in. 'on1 wilt. otcourse, remain a full iember of the board. FOE has always thrived on iversily. including diversity of pinion. But we are united in ursuit of our common goals, and torking together with shared onfidence to achieve this. We at oland Street will try to ensure that i the coming months lnderciirrents has plenty of real ews to report.

By all means decentralise and democratise-and certainly more consultation by the FOE board of local groups would not come amiss. By all means criticise Tom Burke for his manifest shortcomings, but also praise him for his achievements. He has done much to make FOE into something respected by the 'establishment' for its knowledge (especially on energy questions) and its integrity. Perhaps Birmingham FOE (on whose recycled notepaper I am writing this, and whose recycled paper products-e.g. toilet paper1 can recommend) can lead the way. They have formed themselves into a limited company independent of Poland Street, and provide an excellent example of local initiative and sensible management (if I may use a word that is only guilty by association). FOEB u m was, in fact, severely and unjustly criticised by Poland Street when it recently published an educational folder on waste and recycling. Love and peace, Edgar Locke St. Boniface Cottage Coldwaltham Pulborough Sussex

GLASGOW METRO In Undercurrents 31 a map was printed'of Glasgow Underground and 'Trainspotter' remarked on the sinister note against St. Enoch's Station: Ministry of Defence Proect 1 recently lived in Glaseow and duiins this period St Enoch's mainline station (above St fc-nocn s Underground station) was demolished. The site was earmarked for office development in line with the plans for dispersal of civil servants, and the Ministry of Defence was allocated this prime site, being in the middle o f t h e city centre. The faceless ones were protesting against this move from the affluent South E,ast. They do not want to live in this beautiful city. Please forget the East End horror stories, the West End is a masterpiece of urban planning. Far more sinister is the housing development note put agamst the station at Cowcaddens. c he citv - council is here busy building blocks of flats of a type abandoned In all other parts of Britain. A 'desert of windows' as Billy Commolly described another Glaswegian housing estate. The Glaswegian underground would in any case be useless as a bomb shelter because it is of a shallow 'cut and cover* construction type. As yon are no

ENDANGERED SPECIES I was so delighted to read the 'Women and energy: Issue of Under currents, but was very disturbed FOP . -that there was no reference in it to Poland Street the impact of new technology on ondon W 1 women's work, after all, the editorial made it clear that it was to bd about women and technology. am very sad and sorry that your An article bv Ruth Hliott refers ~agazinehas gone in for 'Poland to 'campaigns aimed at getting the treet Knocking", an activity which women of Britain into the factories terns, 1 think. from an ignorance f how FOELtd. operatesand offices' at a time when camI have been a voluntary worker-,. paigns are being waged to try to t 1:oE's Poland Street office for keep those who arc already in, in. One of the groups hardest hit by [early 2 years, although I go there ;ss frequently now. I am also in the imminent introduction of ouch with some local FOE groups micro-processors will be secretaries hat are in the process of forming and typists - the new word pron extra-Poland Street network cessors will decimate their jobs. in a more libertarian basis Susie Lobbenburg's article menConsequently 1 wouldlike to tioned the fall in women's employay that I understand and ment which has taken place ooreciate both sides of the through cuts in public services. renment.. and- I would like to The alternative lifestyle tech%pressmy desire for a nology movement fasionable econciliation between the pro and among middle class people will be nti Poland Street factions convenient for the capitalist state 'ontinuing strife does our as the new technology creates novement no good at all, and I am mass unemployment. How convenlippointed that your (sorry.our) ient that some middle class people nagazine should just abuse Tom wish to create alternatives. But where does it leave all the women lurke. school leavers with no jobs to go A central office is, regrettably, to in the future? Back in the iecessary because we have to cope home producing babies? Would vith a centralised Parliament, that be in the State's interests? [ovemment, corporations, trade Where then?, No wonder there is inions etc. A lot of FOE Ltd's a 'Women as an Endangered iffortgo into researching for its Species' campaign. niblications, writing them, At least the special issue of niblishing them, then marketing hem from the Ruoert Street office. Undercurrents should have mentioned this problem! rhis effort ~~... ~-~~~ needs capital. eauivment ind full-time staff. f doube\&ry Lynn ~ o o d nuch whether a network of ibertarian FOE groups without a Flat A ecretariat and so on would be able, 39, Cranwich Rd, ,o do one tenth of what FOELtd London N16 5HZ. ictually does

~~~~

doubt aware, withHoly Loch and the Carelochhead H-Bomb dump within 35 miles, Glasgow would one of the first cities to be taken out' in a nuclear attack.

A Glasgow Admirer

The Ministrv of Defence oroiect at St Enoch's &lion in ~ l a & o & is. as far as I know. the new office building to house MODcivil servants (probably salaries, pennons etc.) transferred from England. In contrast to other 'defence' matters this has received fairly widespread publicity over the la& two y k & Perhaps they are also building some rather more interesting offices deeper underground?

Feorag

RIP OFF AT T'MILL I wonder if 'Grain Games' (Undercurrents 311 are being played by lesser organisations than the big US wheat corporations? I, along with others, mill my own wheat and buy the grain in about 56 lb sacks, but the grain costs the same as the whole wheat flour for ' the same quantities and quality. This seemsvery strange but from my enquiries appears t o be common practice even with Soil Association members. This contrasts sharply with my experience in the US where the

Ever Thought of Doing Research? Our research students include shop-stewards, design engineers, teachers and mothers with snail children; aged 21 t o 60; studying full- or part-time. Many are registered f o r higher degrees - MPhil or PhD. Present research topics include: Design f o r t h e handicapped; How children draw; The impact of computers o n designers; Alternatives t o unemplxx unemployment-a new approach t o economics and work etc. Have you a special interest you would like t o follow u p in greater d e p t h while working at y o u r present job? If so, w e can probably help you. Why n o t give us

a call?

Contact: Richard Fletcher, North East London Polytechnic, Ref VE 102 Greengate House, Greengate Street, London E l 3 4JB. Tel. 472 1499.

~~~~

North East London Polytechnic

?<.

LETTERS 2

WHOLEFOOD BALLS

tomatoes and beans on my small allotment and a shop most eagerly offered t o buy the surplus. Similarly, around here there are 'alternative' workshous which product' gorgeous candles. ishcrnlan's smocks, prett) pollcr! and mock Olde InpJnIi: lurniiurc etc., but if you want a straightforward warm jacket of a simple kitchenchair you won't find them. A few months ago I read a piece (in your magazine, 1 think) o n people who had left the rat-race t o settle in Pemhrokeshire, and there was a breakdown on how they supported themselves. There was an abundance of potters, hand-loom weavers and candle-makers. but

I enjoyed your issue o n food but there are a few comments 1 would like t o make. Here in North London there is a fair aumber of wholefood shops but only in one o f those known t o me (which has closed down) can one buy such basic things as peas, beans and taters. The shop nearest t o m e has such mysterious goodies as French aniseed balls, Cypriot carob soup, Polish sauerkraut and Argentinian clover honey, but apart from wholemeal bread and rice there are no fundamental foods a t all. Not that there's no demand for simple foods. This summer 1 had a glut of

by their absence. Is it any wonder that, as was reported, the locals tended t o give the newcomers the cold shoulder. The reason for the preponderance of arty-crafty workshop products and exotic, esoteric foods over ordinary everyday things is simply that there's more money in the former. Also, it's more pleasurable to make pottery than to grow potatoes. It seems more like a n exquisite offshoot of the capitalist mentality than a genuine alternative. Jeff Robinson

grain was much less expensive than the flour. It may well b e that the Beitish sources have developed a method of low-cost milling, but it is more likely that it is rather a nuisance t o suppliers to have people grinding their own wheat. Have others experienced the same problem, or is there a perfectly good case for this apparently illogical system o f pricing? Either way, it would be helpful t o know. Ken Milne 125 Pack Lane Basingstoke Hampshire

THE TEACHERS COMMUNI

Dl RECTORY OF ALTERNATI C~MMUNITIESlists 50 such gr toaether with details of their be economic relations, decision-making processes etc. It's a paperback A4 sized book and qosts Â£1.5(cash with order please). ALTERNATIVECOMMUNITIES MOVEMENT: to join it, send us a s.a.e. for details. Dept MA4, 18 Garth h a d , Bangor, Gwvnedd, North Wales.

&-s a a l'-*

. +

'A"'

FREE SCHOOL

KILLER FERGIES

As an addition t o Ruth Elliott's, article on 'Alternative Nurseries in Undercurrents30, I should like to point out that lessons learnt at such projects d o not always have to be shelved after the child turns 5. In many ways 'experiments' in non-hierarchical co-operatives may be tolerated, and even sponsored, as the education of very young children is Frequently regarded as unimportant- 'real' education only starts in the junior school, something many children discover when they leave the comparative bliss and freedom of nursery and infant school for the alienating grind of junior school. There they must accommodate their needs t o those of thc school, rather than die opposite. The logical extension to 'alternative nurseries' are 'alternative schools', where the school is run democratically by parents, staff and children. As far . as I know there are only 2 schools in London-Kirkdale and White Lion Street-where the day-to-day runnine of the school-uolicies.

A comment on Hcrbic G n a u c ~b otherwise good article - Small Tools for Small I'arms UC" 27. Sure, the Soviet and Japanese small tractors cost Â£250 but they can and at least in the case of the Soviet machines nornially do, have safety cabs. Tlie I crmison T20 didn't and far too niiiny drivers have died from being trapped under '1-ergy's' and other tractors' mudguards, when they overturned. Work safety matters as much with small machines as with big so please. p l u s c tell anybody thinking of buyinga tractor, any tractor, f i t a safety cab if it doesn't already iiavc one.

responsibility and respect

instrumental in realisink a more open sociaty. Yet this is no easy option. Kirkdale has demonstrated exceptional longevity by operating without any external support for 14 "ears. which is rather like an economic equivalent of reversing gravity. Kukdale is self-supporting through choice and necessity. A self-contained cooperative is considered a luxury, especially when the majority of the children do not fit into conventional classifications of 'need'. Boredom. frustration, humiliation and oppression are again regarded as 'unimportant' in schools. Another point t o consider is that financial support is seldom offered without stipulations irrelevant or damaging t o the project. So Kirkdale at present has little choice but t o go it alone; in this we welcome as much support as possible-in donations, in families willing t o commit themselves to alternative education for their own and other children, and above all in people t o work at the school. Strangely enough we find teachers are very hard t o find-certainly the wages offered are not going t o make anyone rich. i n addition, we will need workers-not necessarily skilled-to help when we move t o new premises next summer. So if there are any of you who are concerned about education with a broader scope, please right to us. It's worth remembersing that all alternative projects need your support. Best wishes, Steve Haisman

Alan Robson

FAN MAIL You folks put out 811 ekrcik'nt magi'zine. I look forward t o receiving it. and, wlien it come'i, actually read it. I can't In-Ip myself. llavid R. Hunter Stern Fund 21 1-;ast 40th Strect New York Just to let you know thiit since I received no reply to ii request for technical info. from your Gloucestei address last year I have let my subscription lapse. Perhaps tin; eternal laws dictate a balance of Alternative Lncrgy and Alternative

. .r" ...,

~ l s to o let y u u know that my DC/AC Inverter bull: from a long ago edition with great patience and help fruin very experienced technicians remains inert and ohmless. To be fair it has provided several bursts of lidit lasting almost three seconds at a time. bill after a few such spasms the switching transistorsgive up the ghost. Derek Simpson

. . . There3>another reason why I think you should have a regular sort of diary column about the everyday practical details of the lives of everyday folk like us, meeting all the problems that urban nincompoops like us hiive when it comes to gardenins goatkeeping, beekeeping, cow-keeping, well-digging, house-biiilding and so on, it is this: be realistic- large chunks of U~~d(.~rcurrent.s are frequently unreadable. It arrives in the post, I think 'Oh good'. I look through it thinkin<Tlhis iirticle looks interesting, but a bit heavy fur now. I'll read that, and that, later . . .' I turn the paws, secretly searching for those same ineredients that make millions

that alone can grab the flailing, flogged-to-tirednes'rat-theendof-the-dav attention. In other words, a bit of gossip Ann Pettit Gwastod Bach

Llanp~in~int Carmarthen

LETTERS 3 SCHIZOPHRENIA In early 1970 I read Hoffer and Osmonds 'How To Live With Schizophrenia' (Johnson Puhlications 1966) and found a psychiatry which made sense. By this time I was going to a local psychiatric hospital as a day patient. I asked the consultant if I could try nicotinamide since I was not responding to drugs and was amazed by his reaction. He said mega-vitamin therapy was nonsense and I should listen to him because he was the doctor. I replied that Hoffer and Osmond were also doctors with better qualifications than he had and asked who had disproved their work and in what journals I could find details of this. He tried to change the suhject, but I persisted and he became angry and saidthere was no point in discussing it. I repeated this request 2 months later and also sneered at this consultant's existential beliefs He had me 'sectioned' for my insolence and there followed a horrible 3 months. He and his assistant told me that my mother

Please keep y o u r letters short. Those longer than 300 words may be cut.

had made me schizophrenic although I protested that they were talking nonsense. It is an eerie Kafkaesque experience to have one's life history made up by someone else. 1 was allowed to leave after the consultant left and 1 threatened his assistant by saying I would write to the NCCL. I have heard of similar cases of medical megalomania. Ovci the next 3% years 1 experimented with different vitamins in high doses but results were disappointing. In early 1974 1 started taking iron to see if it would help with the fatigue and lowered resistance to infection. It did not but to my surprise the attacks of violent nausea which I had been suffering from since late 1971 stopped and have never returned. I badly wanted to try zinc but tablets of it did not become available in Britain until 1976. In late 1974 1 read Linus Pauling and David Hawkins book 'Orthomolecular Psychiatry' and made up a 10% zinc sulphate solution and started taking it according to the hook's instructions. Five months later there was a sudden improvement in my concentration and vision. When the 'Aminochel' range of chilated minerals appeared in health food shops in 1976 I started taking manganese and chronium as well.

The improvement has not been a steady one and I am still not able to function as well, relatively, as I could before my 1970 experience when I was forced to take large doses of stelazine and Orap, the latter drug nearly killed me. -However, my concentration is better than it was before 1970. The stress from years on supplementary and invalidity benefit has taken its toll. I have described a psychiatry that uses cheap chemicals and demystifies. It does not offer rousing rhetoric, the destruction of society and the abolition of the nuclear family, by its nature it cannot, but on the other hand it does not moralize and psychiatrists who use it (there are still none in Britain) do not need to lie to make their arguments convincing. Roderick Saunders ECOTOYS The 'Ecotoys' letter in Undercurrenis 31 raises a subject that seems to us to be worth a great many words. Rounded eggs and halls of wood, polished and smooth, have a fascination for all ages, and these with other shapes will interest children for hours. If you want a Jungian explanation of why they help and how to design them, we can photostat pages and pages. . .

Remembering the Gross-FamilyPeasant-Households, in which the so children nlav. with live animals ---~ .much that toys are not wanted, we can remember the wooden blocks and the rounded shapes among them. Let usget out our tools, and sheets of the wonderful, newish 'Wet & DN' that has renlaced ~ a n d - ~ a ~and e r ,make what pleases our children best. . . Saul & John Dennis 16 St Peters Road Sheringham ~~

Congratulations, Angela Thomas, on your firstborn! Said an aged widow at the Christening of our first, "there's nothing like being a mother". Having had 18, she should know. Romantic, creative, enjoyable toys? They must be legion. Up to 3+ the only plaything our first never tired of was a pebble in a boot olish tin. The rest were virtually ignored. Yet after school he studied law and engineeriq, tool up painting, worked at a solicitors, became a hank clerk, then a draughtsman-designer, finally a successful racing driver, so his early simple preferences neither foretold nor fostered retardation. But expensive, intriguing toys do serve a purpose. They milk many pockets-and keep fathers out of mischief. I suggest the dramatic rise and fall of costly skateboards shows how easily sucked we are. John Moore

Stable Court, Chalmington, Dorchester, Dorse: DT2 CHB. Tel Maden Newton (030 02) 524

BUILDING YOUR OWN HOME

ENERGY PRIMER

Murray Armor

Edited by Richard Merrill

2000 people build thc.r own nomes eocn year -\oo!>e 7" :n,, own. others as memoers of seif-o-iia ng hodst-c) ~ S ~ C'3: L0"s f ~ s e s..uWhether VOJ wish to lay the bricks v o u r s ~ lor contractor, this book will lead you through the planning, financing and designing steps and give you up-to-date costings and designs. 16 detailedcase histories are included. Illustrated 144pp Â£3.4

PRACTICAL SOLAR HEATING

2 n d Revised Edition; 4 0 % n e w material I t ' s n o good. I've spent the last couple of days trying t o pick holes in the Energy Primer, and there just aren't any worth talking about. Without a doubt, everyone interested in harnessing renewable energy sources ought to have a copy. It gathers together a vast multitude of strands of information about renewable energy, information which would take you years of digging around in reference libraries to compile yourself, and presents them in a way that is satisfactory to the technicallvminded, but not so technical as to put everyone else off. -Godfrey Boyle in Undercurrents 14 Paperback Â £ 4 . 5 256 pages comprehensively illustrated

Kevin Me Cartney with Brian Ford "Delightfully and straightforwardlv written . . . they have created a masterpiece DlY t e x t . . . plain jargon-free English, technology fully demystified, and put in a bit of social context, andconstruction details so complete barely a twist of a spanner is omitted." Pete Glass in Undercurrents 30 Hardback Â£3.5 Paperback Â £ 1 . 9 More t h a n 1 0 0 illustrations

2 1 0 pages

THE SPINNER'S WORKSHOP John Mercer All you need t o know about the history and techniques of hand-spinning with information in the many kinds of raw material. Step bv step guide to the craft as taught in John Mercer's workshop in Scotland, with detailed plans for a DIY wheel made from recycled materials. Illustrated 160pp Â£5.4

These titles are available from all good bookshops or direct from the publishers. If orderin direct from the publishers please enclose an additional 15% to cover postage charges,. Send us a stamped an addressed ., _envelope and we will let you have details of our full list by return, , , .J.

REVIEWS The Case for Workers' Co-ops, Robert Iakeshott, Routledge; 304pp Â£7.95

rhE FIRST question that one should ask rf Robert Oakeshott's The Case f o r Workers' Co-ops is, t o whom is he iddressing his argument? If I were an ulcerated industrialist 'rappling for ideas t o motivate my rrotskyite and Maoist-dominated trade ~ n i o nworkforce to productivity levels ;omparable with their European ;omrades I would be overjoyed with Mr 3akeshott's strategy. If I were a City o f .ondon stockbroker or a Wall Street 'inancier I would be cock-a-hooo at a jevice that gave the 'Sons o f Toil' total ~esponsibilityfor running capitalist ^reduction and, at the same time, made them liable for my usual returns on investment On the other hand, if I were i 'left1-minded trade unionist, or simply a :itizen half-aware that life is not all it :ould be, I would think the case for workers' co-ops advanced here was a good :ase against, confirming the worst fears of those Marxists that nobody wants anything t o with, but who often sound so plausible.

the notion o f a line management structure at the commencement o f operations in 1973. This proved to be a gross miscalculation which the tradesmen quickly recognised. Most o f the ensuing problems arose out o f this leadership vacuum, as a review o f the company minutes o f the board and general meetings amply demonstrates. I t was my experience that the majority o f the Sunderland tradesmen (admittedly not all) were both competent and committed. Understandably their frustration manifested itself in an anger at managerial incompetence, which may be interpreted as justified mistrust. The company now operates at a profit under the leadership

I will confine my observations t o Oakeshott's use o f the example of the worker-controlled Sunderlandia building enterprise, and the 'Little Women' retail co-op, to substantiate his arguments: I shall leave the political and economic critiques to others. f

I worked with Sunderlandia up until late 1976 after being involved from the early planning days o f 1971 as one o f the three promoters. The book argues that the reasons why Sunderlandia floundered during its first four years were because it operated without any line management structure, and that the workforce o f Sunderland tradesmen failed t o moderate wage earnings or operate bonus payments. He goes on to suggest that these problems were compounded by a basic mistrust of middle-class management, and concludes that 'the main lesson. . is that within a co-operative enterprise, democratic power has to be reconciled with the requirements o f efficient management" Whilst one must obviously agree with this conclusion, the underlying problems of Sunderlandia Ltd. had nothing t o do with bonus payments or trust as such. The underlying problems were basically two-fold. Firstly none o f the promoters, including myself as a nonmiddle class ex-chemical worker, had any experience o f operating a building enterprise: this meant that we were i n n o way in a position t o offer 'efficient mana~ement'.Secondly, at the initiation the Promoters, the company abandoned

Fhe cartoons o n the Reviews pages o f th~ ssue are from Nuclear Energy for Yeginners, b y Stephen Croall and Kaianders Sempler, the latest in the ~ighly-successfulline o f 'Beginners' looks that started w i t h Marx for Teginners. I t has just been published b y :he Writers and Readers Publishers' :o-operative (9- 19 Rupert Street, London W1V 7FS) at a mere Â£1.80 i f a professional manager. There are still o bonus payments, but there is a mutual 1trust and respect throughout the enterprise. Oakeshott then goes on to argue that the 'Little Women' retail co-op may be a significant pointer for the future development of producer co-op$ an0 gives two main reasons. Firstly, the resolute determination t o succeed on the part of the original seven women. Secondly, their preparedness t o take a personal financial risk i n promoting the Ii

In no way would I want to minimise the heroic efforts o f the seven women who started 'Little Women' for perfectly laudable reasons: to get away from the kitchen sink, share some time together, assert their ability to control their own lives. The fact remains that the co-op was simply a convenient vehicle and Robert Oakeshott was able to help raise the cash. There is no political or social significance beyond that-still less a concern for the macro-economic problems of Western capitalism. It took eighteen months to find seven women to participate i n the project and four o f them left within the first eighteen months of operation. The financial commitment did not come from the women themselves-working class housewives have little i f any assets for investment I t was their husbands, three of whom worked at Sunderlandia at the time, who severally guaranteed a Â£4,00 overdraft. The commitment to a financial stake had operated at Sunderlandia also. The general meeting had agreed that company members would subscribe Â£25 each t o company loan stock b y deduction from wages. Additionally members agreed to severally sign a contract bond for Â£12,00 when the company built thirteen houses at the nearby village of Ryhope, t o cover subcontracted civil engineering work. I would submit that the Sunderlandia tradesmen had a greater financial stake i n their project than the Little Women had, but it did not 'work the magic' that Oakeshott suggests it might. Any strategy for workers' co-ops that is not viewed with the broad context of the social, economic and political affairs o f society must be regarded as facile and pre-emptive for those who seek basic changes in society. The world's multinationals will not become accountable to society and to their workforces unless such a strategy addresses itself t o them and t o the trade union organisations that operate within them. Furthermore in an economy where over a third o f the working population are employed in the public sector, 'granulated capitalism' will not liberate them from the fetters o f bureaucracy, or enable them t o maximise profits from primary education or the nation's sick. The Case for Workers' Co-ops is an eloquent and readable book, b u t the strength o f its arguments do n o t match the writer's style. Hopefully its main contribution will be t o sharpen the pencils of those who believe that there is a case for workers' co-ops as part o f a broad strategy for achieving a peaceful and sane society. P. W. Smith

'.a

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Dead Anarchists Tell Tales

The Slow Burning Fuse - The Lost

such as William Godwin and the Diggers, History o f the ~ G t i s hAnarchists, John Levellers, Ranters and other movements Quail (1978), Paladin, Â£1.95 ' o f around the time o f Oliver Cromwelt, Admittedly these have been well THE DISCOVERY, or invention, o f a , documented already, but a single glorious past has long preoccupied additional chapter might have been anarchists in this country-often, one warranted in the interest o f comnletenfess. fears, to the exclusion o f more pressing As well as starting too late, the book issues. (for me) stops too soon. The author The pages o f Freedom, for instance, refuses to tackle developments in the littered with the ghosts o f long-departed movement from 1930 onwards, because, comrades and further burdened with the in his view, ' it would be a brave latest point-scoring inter-sectarian snipehistorian who tried to argue too much mail, are often hard-pressed to find space with the living'. O f the whole post-war for mere present-day reality. revival we are told only that: 'A new Most of.Quaills book is given over to movement emerged out o f CND and detailed accounts taken from the Committee of 100 and that too contemporary newspapers and pamphlets dispersed The student movement of the and culled from the memories o f elderly late 1960s again showed strong libertarian comrades like the late Mark William proclivities. And that too seems to have Kramrisch. It represents an admirable largely disappeared.' The important feat o f reconstruction, pieced together ~inks,betweiin anarchism and an emerging i n libraries up and down the country women's movement, which can be traced while the author was working as a partback further than one might imagine, time stage hand at ttie Fortune and receive no mention. Drury Lane threatres. But for my taste The only positive thesis that I can the emphasis i s too much on events and find in the book, which is that'. the personalities tuthe exclusion o f ideas. Anarchist movement grows in times of Historical explanation, although an poputar df-activity, feeds it and feed's elusive concept, is necessary to make a off it, and declines when that selfchronicle of events interesting and activity declines' (p. 307) seems to me meaningful, and Quail seems t o shy circular in that a good definition of away from it, merely assuming that his anarchism would be 'popular selfreaders already possess a framework o f activity1-the refusal to took to leaders the labour history of the period into for guidance, the taking over of the which they can slot the incidents he running of one's own life. recounts. On the other hand, the work JS reasonably well-indexed, and contains at the back a chronological table of events, which comes very close to providing a full summary o f the book. I could imagine it finding its principal usefulness as a reference textbook for settling those endless sectarian disputes about what dead anarchist said what in 1893. If by doing this it reduces the amount o f time spent on such discussions by living anarchists then it will have rendered the movement a valuable service indeed. Hi TdE SWtf Of WAR NUCLEAR POWER IS A LIABILITY David Gardiner

. ..

Nevertheless, his book fills a genuine

zap in that there has not (to my knowledge) been another extended treatment o f British anarchism over the act hundred years or so- Ouail seems to squate the emergence of anarchism with the first use o f the word to describe that a ~ politicdly q selfposition: ' ;onscidus,self-defined mdement it !merged in the middle o f the nineteenth :enturyl. This leads him to omit some lf the very interesting early history of

. ..

Inside Story, by Chapman Pincher, Sidgwick and Jackson, Â£6.95 Inside Story is a record o f a career o f Whitehall snooping by ChapPincher o f the Dally Express, a newspaper. Pincher is the authorities' idea of what an investigative journalist should be. Most of his sources are in the Ministriesespecially the MoD-and Parliament. But virtually all his revelations are carefully controlled official versions o f the truth, designed t o head off reafiesearch into what is happening in military and political circles. Still, if you think the lack o f positive

. vetting for ministers is a scandal, or that the KGB is a major threat tb soything, ,this is the book YW. If you want to see how our rulers do their leaking. do have a loo.. Inside Story. If nothing else, it does contain the most obviously forged photo ever see. S,-.:-S--

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Prostitutes, Jeremy Sandford, Abacus, reprinted in paperback at Â£1.95 JEREMY SANDFORD wrote PrasMgtw in 1975. A t first publication It gained considerable notoriety (not to mention,' sales) from the simultaneous found! PUSS[, a prostitutes'pressure-aroup which Sandford was a founder me*. The book is a very poor account af the lives of a number of pros, superimposed with reformist titbits which he feels would help the prostitute's lot His glib paternalistic attitudes are prostitutes are primaril nauseating: ' people and secondarily prostitutes. .', yet his interviews show little depth of, insight into the workers' real lives, contradicting hisown expressed interest and concern in his subjects as people. I first worked on the streets when I was 14, started again at 19, gave it up to have kids, and now, twelve years later have found it's the only way, as a woman without formal education, I can earn a reasonable week's waae. I whollv sunoort all pressure groups which aim tochange Out-dated sexist ~ ~ w & t hStreet e Offences Act, for instance-but unless these campaigns are linked to a radi~alpoli$cal and feminist perspective the~.willbeep ' dangerously reformist. l^datt?q ^pw is useless. A state which allow msn's ipleasures free reign but manipulates+ prostitute is a complete paradox. A Hv?* fwage is the prerogative of aD women, ftnri, 2 we should be able demand it-without selling our cunts as a sideline. . - ,Jd.

. ..

Our Bodles Ourselves, a health book by and for women. Boston Women's Health Book Collective, British ed. by Angela Phillips and JillRakusen. Allen Lane, Â£7.9 (Cloth); Penguin Â£3.50 592pp. &rectory o f Social Change Ill Women by Wendy Collins, Ellen Friedman, Agnes Pivot; Edited by Michael Norton; Wildwood House Â£7.9 (cloth), Â£3.9 (paper), 2 4 9 ~ ~ . ITAS VERY encouraging to see so many Women within the women's movement . learning t o redirect their energies away from the initial angry onslaughtagainst men and society on to the more positive path o f discovering and sharing knowledge o f their own true naturebody and soul. With this knowledge women may then help not only each other, but men as well, towards the recognition o f the duality o f the inborn masculine and feminine principles dwelling within the psyche o f everyiman and woman. For me this awareness marks the beginning of a positive development towards the ~ ( ~ l s t p c t i o fnan ailing and unbafanced society. , A welcome stepping stone along this path is the appearance o f books such as Our Bodies Ourselves and the Directory o f Swill Change 111- Women. The first is abook which i n its original American edition I have been recommendingt o friends for years as the most comprehensive guide t o matters concerning women's bodies and health. The book wasoriginally conceived in 1969 by the Boston Women's Health Book Collective as a result o f a group of women getting together to diicuss and shire experiences concerning their bodies. The realisation o f just how little they knew led t o research, followed by courses. So great became the demand for information they had gathered that inevitably they decided to publish their work. Royalties from the sales then and now support continuing health education work and research. That the book was created by a collective of women marks a milestone on the path towards women freeing themselves from the masculine authoritarian and hierarchical tradition. Also important is that it evolved out of the sharing of personal experiences. These experiences are incorporated i n the form of direct quotes throughout the book, producing a text that is interesting and , sometimes even compelling reading. On the other hand, Our Bodies Ourselves is a valuable reference work h covers a wide range o f topics such hildblrth, rape, sexuality, communal living, nutrition, homosexuality, selftxanlnation, the structure of the National ~ e a f t hService, patients' rights, as well as Including extensive bibliographiesand resources at the end o f each section. On the otherhand it is even more.valuable is a documentation o f thoughts, feelings

time-not from an intellectual and masculine viewpoint, but as communicated from the heart. The Directory o f Social Change IllWomen also draws extensively upon personal accounts and experiences. The book is the third i n a series (Education and Play and Community are the first two) produced by The Directory of Social Change, a registered educational charity which runs training conferences and seminars for voluntary organisations concerned with social change, and publishes a range o f materials for community and educational use on fundraising, communication and the environment

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W 8

section. It also fails to mention that the NHS and orthodox medicine goes out of its way to discourage 'alternative' treatments such as homeopathy-which i! why the cost is usually 'so high. There are many who are concerned about this, and organisations such as the Ramana Health Centre are working to provide further research and education. I was also disappointed to find, in the section on childbirth, no mention of the Association o f Radical Midwives, who are making a most important contribution to the women's movement by campaigning to improve the status, conditions and , training for midwives in.this country But in spite of these few weaknesses, books such as Our Bodies Ourselves and Directory o f Social Change IllWM2n are vital if women are to learn to help themselves and to find their ovin way. Stephanie Leland

I < f r m WmdqalB's i l o t t g e l i n k s in 18TB.. .

I suppose the best recommendationTor Vol Ill-Women i s that the book hadn't been in mv ~ossessionfor more that forty-eight hours when I found myself actually using it as a resource book. And then, as an experiment, Icreated questions and problems that might arise either in my work outside the home or in my role as mother, and used the book to try t o discover the relevant , information. I was satisfied in almost every case by the information of sources ' provided. The wide range of topics covered, which include a description of the current situation, organisation involved and books providing relevant information, are: women's studies and research, women and work, relationships and lifestyles, women's art, women and the media, health andchildbirth, therapy, childcare, violence, political action and women's groups. There were only a few areas which I ' felt to be weak. For example, the section on alternativemedicine, an area important to woman as an alternative to the patronising pat on the bum followed by a prescription for tranquillisers which is meted out byorthodox practitioners, lists very few relevant organisations and

A Lemon

for Teacher International lournal o f Alternative ~ o k m u n i t i eThe i Teachers, 42pp, Â£0.6 Available from 18 Garth Rd; Bangor, North Wales. THE EDITORIAL of this journal spells out in detail the criteria for articles i t will accept Articles must not be: 1) not relevant; 2) political; 3 religious; 4) of inadequate standard; 5 myth masquerading as fact. Unfortunately few articles in this first edition manage to live , up to these exacting standards. The journal is produced by the Teachers, a community in Wales who have some interesting but rigid ideas on how to .,>, organise communities without evetytfling fallingapart Half the journal's articles. ak by members of the Teachers and are a curious mixture of ooinion, whimsy and fact about organising communal living. The other half are about communities 4 abroad-mostlv descrintive,and nothine

undercurrents 3

chapters-industrial democracy, nationalisation, devolution and the like. It spells out the pragmatic, com'prmi'iing

Undercurrent. EICOME TO WE POLICE STATE.

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THE COVER OF Technology for a Changing World shows two bakeries. One is the traditional small bakery, producing delicious-looking french rods largely without mechanisation; the other is a large, highly automated bread factory, churning out Wonderloaf by the megaton. The message, from john Davis and the other inheritors o f the Schumacher leg at the Intermediate Technology ' Development Group, is once again that< Smdl is Beautiful. Technology for a Changing World, an edited collection o f reprints of articles from Davis's A T-UK Newsletter, ' concentrates mainly on the need t o revive the small business sector in Britain. Davis makes out a convincing case (at least for the liberal administrators and businessmen who one supposes are his target audience) that more small businesses would help develop more 'appropriate' technologies, would give people more job satisfaction, reduce wastage, improve the environment, increase employment, help the poor dnd even help the multinationals. An irresistible package, you might think. But for my money Davis is dangerously ambivalent on the question of who will own these small businesses. Although occasionally he stresses the need for locally-controlled cooperatives, mostly he implies that conventiopal, shareholder-owned small businesses perhaps with 'enlightened' managementswill be sufficient (if only there were-more of them) to effect the desirable social reform he talks about. The trouble with conventional small businesses, however, (quite apart from the problem o f exploitation) is that the dynamicsof capitalism mean that they have to grow to survbe, or else be taken over by bigger firms. Only ifthe enterprise is both cooperatively awned by its workers, and subject to some wider social control, is there any hope of it staying 'small' or 'beautiful'. Still, it seems that nothingcan now stop the accelerating Appropriate Technology bandwagon. What's so nice (and so awful) about the phrase 'Appropriate Technology' i s that there's something in it for everyone. So my initial delight on seeing that Rodale Press in the USA have reprinted Lectures in SociallyAppropriate Technology (originally published in 1974 by the TOOL Foundation in the Netherlands) into a glossy book entitled Introduction to Appropriate Technology, quickly turned togloom when I noticed that kodak's aAiertise&ts for the book in the States declare proudly that Appropriate

Technology is "America's Answer to-ffid Marx". Who says there's no such thing as bad publicity?

It's Gonna be Dull Meanwhile, back in the First Wor Baldwin and Brand's fact-packed gets off to a good start with t h i s delightful quotation from Steve B a r : I didn't believe in Ihe dternite energy future until I saw how dull it was gonna be and how stupid the logans were gonna be and how much wasn't gonna like it Then 1 knew i t would come." Soft Tech is a distillation o f snippets articles from be~ fTechnology1 t sectionof that moststimulating (and sometimes infuriating) of magazines, the Coevolution Quarterly. Technically (as with most things American) it's superb stuff, giving detailed access iqformation and witty, incisive evaluation right across the astonishingly wide spectrum of soft technology hardware and software that's available in the States' Like the Whole , Earth Catalogs which were its predecessors, Soft Tech is the sort o f publication you can keep returning to, and still find something interesting you on a previous reading But once again I was unhappy about Baldwin and Brand's studious avoidance of politicsthough perhaps it's understandable in a country where the mere mention of the word 'socialism' i s ,till sometimes enou@ to get branded as a lcommiel. Yet the logic of their own book implies that 'soft' politics will be at least as important as -soft1 technology in helping to bring about a world which is more just, more ecologicdlysensitiv+ and more fun. They quote, with wry approval, Steve Baer's prediction that the 'alternate-energy future' is Ugonna be ,y, isi t gonna be &It? dull". cutb Because Soft Technology under capitalism (or under Stalinism, let me hasten to say) i s bound to be dull: and the slogans which advertise shoddily produced solar collectors with built-in obsolescence are bound to be 'stupid'. That's not because there's anything wrong with Soft Technology: it's because there'sa lot wrong with capitalism. Similar criticisms, and compliments, apply to IPSEP's Soft Energy Notes, which is technically excellent-thou@ more orientated to the pocket-calculatorfingering energy analyst than to the spanner-twistingwindmill builder. That's what you'd expect from a publication with Amory b i n s on i t s advisory panel. It's significant, however, that Lwins is now under attack in the States by Barry

commoner and automatically

~aive'itisn't The charge o f political n levelled at the new, revised edition o f the classic Energy Primer (originally published in 1975). As the editors. Richard MerriiI and Thomas Gage.Wt it i n their introduction: 'Perhaps more h?portant than a changes fn technology is oar nee change our social and economic relations.. If the control of renewable energy systems is centralised by proft-motivated individuals and institutions with nc regard for just and equitable distribution of wealth we will have all gained very little. We will have substituted a solar economy for a fossil fuel economy and failed in the meantime to increase the quality of human existance." But i n commending the Energy P ~ W editors for their stress on the importance' l' of politics to the Alternative1 ~~~ropriate/Soft/Community technol~gy. movement, I ' m not trying to Say that technology itslf is unimportant Far from it. So let me end with a look at some technical publications. Wind Engineering is 'academic' anc expensive and a pretty heavy read, Ihe kind o f journal it's very useful to access to when you're going back to I drawing board and need a stiff dose o theory. So get your library to subscril to it WinDirections is the newsletter of new British Wind EngineeringAssocia and makes much more interesting rea There's even an article on Tvind whid spends as much time discussing f t e sc aspects of the Tvind Colleges as it do4 on the technical aspects o f the big % Tvlndmill. But by far the most essential maga for anydne interested in wind energy from a practical and technical fthoudi rather apolitical) paiht o f view remains

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From Massacres to dining- The Colonisation o f Aboriginal Australia, War on Want, 212pp,

back

some of the myths about them. The ne set of chapters show the Aborigines' .struggles over the last 300 years and the development of Aboriginal reserves. Tt Not for the Aborigines, the original rest of the book deals with their currer i-i~stralians,it isn't The Federal and legal, health and racism problems; the . . State governments have banished them to Aboriginaf Land Rights Act; and the mission reserves, controlled by whites, invasien,of their land by the huge mini-2 a n d from which they need a permit to companies (e.g. Rjo Tinto Zinc). . '.be able to leave for a few hours. The 'This latter section is probably of m< value-at least in terms o f suggesting possible action we can take to help the Aborigines in their struggle. \ From Massacres to Mining is well ' " . ""*- - $',a"- ' --. written and easy t o read, yet it contains* WindPower^O~&s~For details of the suggested putting a bounty on Aborigines! up-to-date, detailed information and latest de~eldpmepts-from-the premature -^ book, published to coincide with been well-%esearched. Ifs demise of t$e big Magdalene Islands the visit o f 3 Aborigines to Britain, Darri& mill (someone took the braka dexribes the living conditions of the h&vt off for maintenancite just before a storm), to the State o f California's plan to instaft 500MWaf wind energy generating ,* capacity by 'the mid '80s-you just can't' *. beat WPD. Back in the UK, however, at least G e "ow to ,^,f M~~~~~~~ AT group seems tobe succeeding i n developing wind ener&hardware withoutmassive institutionat backing and New Age Access, whose 5kw-Darrieus by ~ i ~ publishing h ~ c ~~ ~~~ ~d , , , Parts II and I V o f the series are o f windmill shows how much-canbe (Orchard Road, Richmond, Surrey rather more specialised interest. Part I,I achieved by grass-root5AT group? TW9 4PD). isa guide to the Friesian genera-the NAA are into ~preadingtheword, iob. grou~ingsof fungi based entirely on their ~h~~ refitlypublished W,nd*r& to ' IF YOU WANT to learn what mycology macroscopic appearance. It's an (or any of the classifying sciences) has to help other groups u & r s t a n & d use excellent summary o f the information offer, you'll sooner or later have to : wind energy.!Itls a miodd of f i, ' acquirethe daunting but apparently you can also find sprinkled through sol demystification. ' ~f the older fieid guides in the form of ~ ~ d %yle f m ~ pretiscvocabulary the initiate indulges in. tables and keys. But atL1.80 it'<^^^,& And you'll have to startWentangling ,['a .worth it unless you're deter- '"' the strange behavi~urof that mythical ' Technology foreChimgiw World, .bhg@vis 1 (1978), Intennediqte Techno!ogypblications, the historical t a x o n o m i ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ beast, the rampant taxonomist-or in the 62pp Â£1.?5 mushrooms. Ditto Pai.*~nquiry/ ~ o sot case of Mycology, the many taxonomists AT-~ewsletter.-availablefmm John Davis, for Small Farms / by Daniel Stuntz ITwho all have good reason for not agreeing IOCrenfeH Road, Beaconsfttld. Bucks. 8 -"riountemfasiires/ Intwducrqn to Appropriate Technology, with each other. Singer's systems* 4 e e l i n ' / Hull Docks Fist RJ Congdon (ed) (1978), Ro$dePress, 296pp, Part I of this series of slim and key Sing$^, / Shaker Communities. Â£2.95 * somewhat expensive paperbacks is the Jndercurrents 28 sof*ech, Edited by Baldwin and best introduction to mushroom $Tomess Demo / After the Wind Brand, (1978). penguin ~ooks-,176pp,Â£2.25 terminology I've seen. It's clear, concise, CoEvolution Quarterly; Â£a yew from CQ, . scale Enquiry / T h e Tvind Wind mill / Primal Therapy at Atlanti PO BOX428, Sau^allto California, USA. illustrated where necessary, and b f t ~ n e m Holes y published occasidndy by ' ,A> / Basque Co-ops / AT in UK & acknowledges the possibility that some the International Project 61Soft Enefay Paths Canada / Behaviour Modifimtn mushroom characters are less reliable than ( p ~ ~ p 124 ) , SpearStreet,~afl~ranclsco, . Womens Undercurrents 29 , Callfornra 193105. USA and available in the others, that mycologists don't always use Women's& AT Movements link UK from Czech Conr&y,Friends of the Earth, the word the same way, and that much Windscale Visit / Anti-Nuclear 9 Poland Street, London W1V 3DG. technical is useful in Dance / Feminists Against Nuk Enem primer. Edited by Richaid M e d and Women & Science !On Roles / domena / certain 'conventional' way. Thomas Gage, (revised edition,J978)."A Delta ~ ~ e c i a l / ~ e y m Lawrence, our publish@ In' Part I is called 'Macroscopic ~eatures'. lfs,, Welfare Services work and & The Ihe Trade Cuts / cooperation with Portbfa Institute, 256pp, by David Largent, will Cost you Â£2.5 .And ATman Cartoon / Birth Contra Â£4.50(Available in UK from Prism Press, and frm Richmond Publishing and S3.50from Undercurrents Book Service's. book'Accidents / Undercurrents 30 ' from Mad River direct. ( ~ these ll WindEn@neerh. Â£2 per yew from MultiBarefoot Socialism / Alternativ Nurseries / Solar California /A" Science Publishing, The Old Mill, DorsetPiacq, are much cheaper direct from the dance Making Lond n E l 5 W). p ~ b W e r ) part . Compost & and State Money / Emtopia In! of the series, hal~m R & ~~ O e dew N F ~ , , n t m m w s w e s ~ W/m$><?wer~i& (quarterly). Â£ per year "Microscopic Features' by Largent art 2 / Magic Mushparish ~olitics ~~l~~~ and from Sfster Ptete' (We kid you not), 54468,. David Johnson (with a little bit by F Y 1 SWAPO Feminism / Windscale Scandal. ~nlfol,1hditoi'46807,'IbA.' " 1 t , WUSiisctmns (British Wind Businwiing Watling) is probably the best book @ens' LfcUndercurrents 3T-Food ly Association Newdetttrh Details from Will? with which to start your career wifnts 25 Factory Farming / Food Additives / mushrooms and microscopes-agaw in Cooperatives/ Wholefood Co-ops US & UK 1 O'mmodb'campaigns/ Common clear, useful text and lots of techr A~~~~~(PO .windworker, published by N~~ 8 BDX4, Hexham, Northumberland) (1978) Unilke the closest British equivakLy ~ ~ d/ icarVsharing o / Agricultural Policy Explained / ,,,litics FemiBBm Food 48pp,Â£1.0 plus postage. Watling's Identification o f the lctgy /Thai Dilemmas. FU,,,~~

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& ~ f f l ~ $ ~ x ~ ~ ~ $ "/Â¡%::& ~ r i

1ALL ADS

Make your contacts here! Small Ads at special giveaway price:' 3p per word: Box Numbers 75p. Copydate for Number 33 is Feb 20. Please send copy and replies to Box Numbers to our London Office.

7URAPCommunity of'designers. ind craftspeople in Mid-Wales seeks m p l e with commitment, capital and children), to buy parts of a mnplex of self-contained houses [converted, unconverted and inbuilt). olus share in communal paces, workshops and land contact Nicholas San. Caecoed.lor lewtown. Powys. Wales.

DEVOLUTIONARIES and dog want t o live and work with others in the country on a smallholding or similar. If you too are lacking i n originality, or just plain deprived (of agression, dogmatism, talent) we'd probably have something i n common. Would you like to meet us and work something out? Please contact: Jane and Ian, 4 Winton Close, Bramhall, Cheshire.

VIEBKE (371. Stephen (34). Frevia 81 and Jenny lone) are corning to ingland i n March 1979 for a year II longer We arelibertarian ocialists.with considerable ~xperiencpin,edpcation, social work andthe environmental nwement. We seek firstly, ommunal accommodation i n town ircountry i n a group with children; econdly, interesting temporary or jermanent work i n alternative ;ducation, community work or nvironmental movement. Any , uggestions or helpful ideas to: Stephen Castles, Wielandstr. 24. LOO0 Frankfurt, W. Germany.

GREAT GEORGES ProjectIThe Blackie: Great George Street, Liverpool 1. 051-709 5109. Join our self-helo Community Cultural Project. Help rebuild the Blackie. Your opportunity to work hard alongside skilled tradesmen on site, and join the kids in cultural workshops (video, sound, film making, printing). Minimum 12 hour day, 6 day week. Accomodation provided, contribute towards f o o d Small wage negotiable after 6 months. Interested people ( 1 6 t ) pleaseapply for more information.

IELP to Create a ~ o m m i i n i t v .We 'e opening a community home fitheight-metally fandictipped. eople i n a superb 19th Century louse i n the middle of York, at the nd of January. We w i l l live as a ommunity where everyone will iare work, social activities and ieals. No fixed wages will be paid a the two or three co-worken who r i l l be guiding the project but they I receive according t o their needs. his venture is intended to broaden i e ranoe of accomodation callable for mentqtly handicapped eople. It, i s also a different xperiment'ihliving (a convival ' ' istitutisn) an. an attempt to =hiiii.itt^8notidn'of community i n fe,asldg individual 8 ,

&Â¥>.Â 1

red chariwand grapidly by. , ;and work

DAIRYING Cqurse. 3 4 t h March. How t o make hardlsoft cheeses, butter, yoghurt. Making your equipment (cheese press). Management of cowslgoats, integrating the whole into smallholding lifestyto. WOODBURNING Course. 10.1 1 March. How t o build various types of stoves/open fires, from sheet metal, churns etc. Collecting1 cutting wood, use of chain saw and benches. Ravburn dumbing. Cost for both weekends (full board) E3.25/&yz for staying weekdays between Â£3.00/dav Send 5.a.e. for full details of both courses to: Lauiieston Hall, Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire. Phone: Laurieston 275. (Love t o Dave wherever you are).

NURTONS Courses: Spring 1979. Feb 23-25: Weekend workshop on Rural Co-operation, sponsored by Rural Resettlement Group. Feb 25March 2: Weaving and Spinning Course with Barbara Girardet. March 9-1 1 : Weekend Workshop SOLID STATE Fluorescent light 'Starting and running a small farm' inverters will run two 20w or one with Patrick Rivers and Herbert 40w tube from 12 or 24 volts. State Girardet. March 16-19: Organic voltage required. Â£20.9 each Gardening,with Adrian Wood. including P&P, mail order only. A c c o m m o d a t i ~and wholefood Brodie Electronics, IslandStreet, , . . , cateringprovided. Details from: Salcombe, Devon. 'Adrian arid Elsa Wood. Nurtons SUN'POWER ~ c o l o &~ ~ n t r e i s ' a Field Centre,Tintern, Chepstow, Gwent NP6 7NX TÃ§lTintern 253. new bbokshop on 85 8takkstock Road,'bnddn N4. We ~pecialisein. literature on the environment, energy, organic gardening, wholefood cooking, wildlife and crafts. We also sell crafts from 3rd world countriesand local peopfe ana have a limited supply of wholefoods. Phofie: 01.2261799 MALE, into most topics i n Undercurrents, rarely meets females with similar interests. Anyone like' to prove an exception. I'm 30, , unattached and dwell reluctantJy in the West Midlands..Box 123. ,,

.. .

ALTERNATIVE . . COMMUNICATIONS.' What are thealternatives? Present commu~icationsdependentirely dn non-ferrous metals some of which are nearer exhaustion than oil. Few law and order when radio, k s grind to a halt. The only echanical/electro alternative wnich our worldw.de been scientifically nq for several decades. We k r c a few more members

HANDPRINTED cotton smocks ,'' from Â£5.50 Different styles made to measure. Send for details to: Sue Manning Designs, Blairerno, Drumlithie, Kincardineshire, Scotland. BADGES designed and made tor your group or campaign. Silkscreen p a t e n and litho work. Design and photography. Pretty Snappy. We are a collective orientated towards' left;community and feminist groups. Quotes: Fly Press and Badger: 01-274 5181. ASTROLOGER offers accurate personal birthchart and character. Analysis Â£6 Including future trendslpotentials 12 months or 5years Â£10Alternatively send for literature: John Willmott, Millbrae, Bunessan, Isle of Mull, Argyll. ALTERNATIVE Healing. Herbs, Homeopathy, Tissue salts, Pyramids, Pendulums, olant svnthesisers. Send for catalogue>nd orice list enclosmg 30p (refundable on orders over Â£5 to Second Sun Healing, 7 Terminus Road, Brighton, Sussex. "WHERE can I purchase a ringside seat?. . I wanna hear the Earth singeveryday." (Jim,). Celebrate the planet. Walking1 camping expeditions April October. Eleven areas England1 Wales. Small groups, unusual routes, natural foods, carry no packs. Applications for work invited too. Head for the Hills, 21 Pembroke Ave, Hove, Sussex (+ statno).

' or sale. Two o one, 8 rooms. I. One acre i garden. Snowdomaa. Â£15,00 klogerson,

orth Wales. ' for urrents Noel,

ISLAND Holiday? Four berth caravan to let on unspoilt island Tel: Papa Stour (Shetland) 234. FOR SALE: Eight-pedal loom i n vdlow pine. unused, offers. Phone:

PEACE NEWS for non-violent revolution. Reports, analysis, news, of nonviolent action for social chanoe, building alternatiws and resisting the megimachine. Covers anti-militarism, sexual politics, ecology, decentralisation, etc. 15p fortnightly. Â£5.5 fora year's sub from 8 Elm Avenue, Nottingham.

THE COM'NG AGE: me@zine " W a r c h a l religion and spiritu

35^ Lux MÃ§dri" '"'s John street' Oxford' a'. THE MOIRA HANDBOOK: -~ challenging collage of mafiiarct -. society, based on reincarnation memories. The t e c h n i q u e u d n, also described 7%. 4 0 St John Street. Oxford. REHEARSAL for the yew 2000 b y , Alan Beam, one person's experience of the Alternative Society 19661976. 'One of the most important biographies of our generation' (Gruner Zweig review). Â£1.9 + 5 5 p p&pl from Revalaction Press, 68 Edith Grove, London SW10. 0 reserve a copy through your local library. MILLIONS of animals art being tortured i n laboratories and factory farms i n Britain today. DOYOU $&RE? I f so write for our IÃ‘fle Guidelines for Action'. A n i d Aid. 11 1 Estridge Way, Tonbridgr, Kent. INTERESTED i n music? Opportunities exist throughout thÃ country (including working from home!. "Music Industry @wined and Employment Guide"cowk everything from setting up : *5 profitable record companies .': without capital to promoting lG+l 2 concerts. Â£1.0 from Dept. 52, RS Productions, Hamilton House, Nelson Close, Staverton, Totnes, Devon. BALANCE The Ball tells how to enable all human beings to live a life with enough of pure food for all - w i t h enough power without nuclear hazards - without fear for wars or need for armaments. Almost all troubles i n the world of, todayoriginate fromoverpopulation, mainly in the wealthy industrialised countries which consume most of the income of the world. To make , the world suitable for our child1 and grandchildren to live i n W must start today by having only the number of children the wor can feed safely and provide will plenty of space, clean air and w and raw materials and energy in plenty without environment problems. Everything for ~ e r y o n a ! ' Send Â£1.0 via Nat.Giro to Swedish: Postgiro 604025-7 or Â£1.3 any other way to non-commercial: BALANCE, BOX 9121, S-1027 Stockholm. RECYCLED Papers and persue* letterhead service. Domestic anc commercial papers and envelop* Also Conservation Society Re-u Paper-and Save Trees envelope re-use labels, posters and comprehensive environmental b service. For details of any of the above, please send a large SAE to: Conservation Books, 228London Road. Readina. Berkshire RG6 1AH

' I

d&&ents

Underwren 14

I-

1. Undercarrent*9-

Special Nuclear Power Issue

Undercurrents 15-'Who Needs Nukes?' Issue Insulation vs Nuclear Power / To-

Y A-Bomb Design / Kiddies

.Fh&E Roliferation Pail<!

' Undercurrents 10-joint Issue w i t h Resurgence :Solar Collector Theory & D1Y Design / Sward Gardenin 1 Anaxti-

istCitie8 / Future of AT Land lor General Systems ~JtheoryI Alternative Culture fan ! .',

' Undercurrents 11-Last Few 'Â¥'-Windpowe .,~.: theory and D1Y Wind, chargaDesign / Beekeeping / Ley ,vtfelotui6 / Autonomous House I ' M i n d E x ansion / Alternativu .,?:a,t k,j tr 2.F .A

AT days that Shook Port a1 / Growing Dope at Home /<fting In theorkneys / Community Ham Wdio 1 R r i n g p t y N w m a l e AT ou / u a Alterna tin* ~ardware/'~u&n weaponry.

Undercurrents 21

Undercurrents 27

F s c h and the Ctounterpdturc

SoL1r

..Vegetables

~ o n Benn y on the Diggers / Farming: Chemicals or Organic?/ Control of Technology 1 Cambodia Self-sufficient? / S o b Energy Report / Paper Making / Amnn Report on Broadcasting A s d

Soft Energy: Hard Politic* / The / wards a non-nuclear future / AT& Motorway ~ a d n e s /s ~ u c ~M~ t r Fast Br er Emuby / Not so Job Creation / Production for Need'/ icy Chaos / 0 one Energy / Free Small Tools for S d F u m s / AntiBiodynamk Gardening / DCIAC Broadcuflng /Good Squat Guide 1 Nuclear Countammsum / Inverter Design. Free Whedin' / W Docks Fish Iron Age Fanning / ~awiestbn's Farm / Shaker bminunhki. Magic Garden / Mnt-it-Yo,wself. Undercurrents 16-S~ecial Undercurrents 28 Habitat Issue Undercurrents 22 Torhas Demo / Aftw the WindGarden V gei/ Wood Food Guide Patamit Power / W i n d d e Backscale Enquiry / The Tvind Windground / Croft' / Food Co-opt / D1Y N e w f r o m / Self-sufficient mill / Primal Then a t Atlanth / Solar T e n a w / Lifespal Commun- Stonehenge / zing Limits / UK & i i y / Byptssing the Phnners / Citizens' Primal Therapy / Itthan Free Ralio / Basque CO-OM/ A'% Cuuda 1 Behaviour Modification. Band Radio / Free School Methane / Fish Firming. z Womens Undercurrents 29 Undercurrents 17-Inner Undercurren,ts23 Technology Issue Sobiook AnttNudeu Demo / * Women's A AT MovmienU linked? compute L~~ ~~~t /mww-l+ Nuclear & T n d e u h ~ . / W M W Vnit / Aoli-Nitclexn Dance / Feminists A@taut Nuked / Herman KÃ§h btaview / DIY Yourself / KuUui Phot tphy / Woodstove / Fortun Phenomena 1 Women & Science / On Roles / %v,ne your ownSeed~women DIY Solar Collector Dei' n / Small- Women, Work and the Trade Unions & AT / Tareaial Zodno. Welfare Services & The Cuts / scale Radb Transmitter %am/

:Cq# om/ Grow All Your Own

&t@ People /

Undercurrents 26

Jack Mundey 6 ? Austnlhn Green Bans / AT Round the World / Building with Natural Energy / DIY nsubtion / AT in India / BRAD ommumty.

>J~@~EK, National AT Centre / h n i c Gardening / Free Radio / :&@ding with Rammed Earth / Windmill Theory / Hermeticism

Undercurrents 18-lntefmcdiate Technology Is&

Undercurrents 12

?&,&.~eros~ace / Biofeedback / mmunity Technology / COMTTK / . - Windpower Part 2 / Alternative *;MwUia)~are /Alternative Culture J

,,.w<3;':

IT & The ThirdWorld./ Chinese Science / IT & Second Class Capit a l l Supermacker Cartoon 1 Leyhunting: The Linear Dream / Hydropohics / Lucas.

Undercurrqts.24

NkhrWeaponq Accidents / Electronic Surveillance / Making . Cheese & Cida / Compost A : Communism / Small-scale Radio

ATman Cartoon / Birth Control

Austrakn c k a e i x B u d

Undercurrents 30

Barefoot Socialism / Alternative Niusaies / Soln Chlifornia / AT and State Money / Ecotopia Interview / N F Counter Feminism /Wind&

Sandal.

Undercurrents 3TÃ‘Foo Issue A#ernaiive England & $ d d s Supple / Banning & Communes 1 ' U hanc 1 Alternative Culture Part 4.

Potato Politics / Feminism & Food / Organic Fuming.

What is your image of 'science' in society?

Q UEBBw00DBK2E -

5" flue top,

back or side

'Ã Large Cooking Surface

Heavy Steel Plate Cannot Warp. Break or Burn O u t

, Fine r i ~ Control Perf Do0

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1 Who controls science 7 1 Why are thereso few women inscience and technology ?

1 Are the problems01 poverty, population and pollution technological or political ?

1 Who gains what from advanced industrial society 7 1 Is'alternative technology' the only way forward 7 I f you're interested in questions like these, and in acquiring some of the relevant know-how of both the natural and social sciences, write for details of the B S c a n d B S c (Honours) In S o c i t y Mid T c h n o l o s v (CMAA) w u r s o . It lastsfour years (ten terms plusa placement pellod) You will need any two A levels or e~uivalontor appropriate experience Write t o t h e Admissions Office (ref. C204B), Middlesex Polytechnic, 114 Chase Side, L o n d o n N14 5PN, o r taleuhone 01-882 1074

Optional Removable Ash Tray

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Haymarket Stores (Dept UCI 4 Market St Hay o n Wye Herefords. o r p h o n e ~ a r d i s l e y338 BUY direct f r o m the makers and save

Nuclear Power 140 SLIDES to make your point Three tapelslide sets or filmstrips with cassette commentaries and very full back-up notes by MICHAEL FLOOD 1. Harnessing the Atom 2. Radioactivity and the Nuclear Fuel Cycle 3. Fast Breeder Reactors & the Nuclear Economy Also available: ENERGY THE AIR YOU BREATHE AIR POLLUTION WATER POLLUTION WASTE & RE-CYCLING POPULATION AND RESOURCES NATURE CONSERVATION

In preparation NOISE RACE Full details from the producers: DIANA WYLLIE LTD 3 Park Road, Baker Street, London NW16XP

Tel: 01-7237333