UC33 April-May 1979 by Christopher Squire

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Undercurrents 33 April-May 1979 Contents

1 Eddies : News from Everywhere 7 What’s What & What’s When 9 Don’t Shoot the Planner - D R Scharf : How to resettle the countryside with new villages 11 A Garden City for Today - Suzie Lobbenburg An interview with David Lock of the Milton Keynes Development Corporation 12 Wasting Away - Tim Cantell : How our cities have been made into a wilderness 14 Parks for People? - Edward Dawson : How to foil the spoilers of the countryside 16 Country Consciousness - Mark Kidel : Rural is beautiful, and all that 18 Scilly, Skye and Shetland - Ruth Wheeler : A fair deal for the British islanders 20 Country Life - Barbara Girardet : The rose-tinted vision and the Tintern reality 22 Duck Lane - Maria Hanson : Solitary self-sufficiency 24 Trees Please - Simon Woodhead What will replace our immemorial elms? 25 High Way - Laurence Golding : Paths physical and spiritual 26 Back to the Land - Malcolm Caldwell : Why we are going to have to dig for our dinners 27 Wwoof! Wwoof! - Sue Fenton : A midden maiden’s tale 28 AT Workshop - Greg Shoop : A solar collector from Havering Tech 30 The End of the Nuclear Road - Dave Elliott : What an Alternative Energy Programme would mean for the atom workers 33 Low Energy Cornucopia - Pat Coyne : How we can have our cake and eat it 36 Letters : Your chance to get back at us 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 EC1R OAT. Full details of editorial meetings. distribution etc. are on page 48. Cover design by Peter Bonnici from a drawing by Chris Unwin and a photograph by Timothy Cantell. ISSN 0306 2392. _______________________________________________________________________________________

Undercurrents

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LUCAS AEROSPACE shop stewards have at last succeeded in breaking through management resistance to their proposals for the development of socially useful products. They have produced a new, very detailed diversification plan for the threatened Liverpool and Bradford plants, including proposals for financial aid f r o m the government, following u p on the original Alternative Corporate Plan produced in 1976 b y the Lucas Aerospace Combine Shop Stewards Committee. The new 350 page plan, Turning Industrial Decline into Expansion was drawn up b y a working group of 41 stewards, under the auspices of the Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions (CSEU) which, unlike the Lucas Combine Committee, is officially recognised b y the Company. (The CSEU isa national negotiating body drawing together unions i n the engineering industries.) The plan's product proposals include gas heat pumps, combined heat and power systems, gas turbines, fluidised bed combustion units and kidney machines-all designed t o avoid the 2000 redundancies scheduled at the Liverpool and Bradford plants. The Company has nowagreed to set u p a Joint Union-Company working party to examine the proposals and t o use its "best endeavours" t o manufacture any of the products that are "commercially usable".

fought against for t w o years. For example, as Lucas General Manager James Blyth put it during the A T V Programmeon Lucas last year:

There's a long way t o go before the Company fully accepts the Combine Committee's idea of 'socially useful production', b u t at least it has now been forced into discussions on diversification with shop stewards-something it has

"We are very unresponsive t o a n attempt b y a body of workers to achieve a de facto power situation by using a series of suqqestions t o achieve

bargaining rights across one of our companies" Clearly, the Company's approach has changed-but whether this is just a tactical retreat and whether combined pressure from the shopfloor can force the adoption of the proposals remain to be seen.

Solar rules

LUCAS BURNLEY shop stewards have been trying t o pressurise the management into installing, for test purposes, a hybrid petrol-electric engine into one of Lucas's existing electric buses. The engine, of the type outlined i n the original Corporate Plan, is expected t o be more efficient' and less polluting than a conventional engine. But so far Lucas have refused t o co-operate. I t will be interesting toi~whMthmirasponMwill be t o the proposals in the new CSEU Plan.

LUCAS - THE SMALL PRINT

the new plan the stewards were able, because of their status as a CSEU working group, to obtain a vast amount of detailed technical and financial information directly from plant management. Earlier the Combine committee had met with an impasse it tries to use the 4disclos,,,e. provisions i n the Employment Protection Act t o gain access t o company Wormation-which reveals the weakness of legislation as a way of changing

MONEY-The CSEU report calls for a total of E12,25 million in the Government-via rwional development grants, temporaw e m p l w m m subsidies and so on-in order t o save the jobs o f the Liverpool and Bradford workers. It's worth noting that although Lucas has already received Â£8 from the government for new equipment at its Liverptol, , plant, this w i l l still mean that 1500 workersface redundancy. The report points out that the cost t o the taxpayer of keeping these people o n the dole, when administered. will be up t o E5m. A basic underlyingtheme i n the Lucas stewards' argument is that i t would make sense t o use this money t o employ workers on socially useful production: they calcuhte ' that the average cost of redundancy (dols, loss of tax, retraining etc.) Â¥( about the same as the cost of keeping someone in employment. The report also points out that Lucas already receives considerable . ! financial help from the Government (which is its major customer in any case) i n the form of regional development aid, investment grants and so on. This assistance amounted t o some Â£10 between 1971 and 1977, together w i t h nearly Â£75 i n 'deferred taxation', a cunning tax relief scheme designed t o compensate for inflation, which means that most big companies actually pay very little tax these days. The Lucas stewards argue that these public financial subventions ought t o be subject t o some sort of genuine democratic accountability, rather than just being handouts. And i n fact there are rumours that a 'planning agreement' is being negotiated between Lucas and the Government. But i n the meantime the stewards hope that they can put sufficient pressure o n the company at least t o hold o f f redundancies. I n this they seem t o have succeeded. Theagreement reached w i t h thecompany includes the suspension o f compulsory redundancies f o r t w o years, plus the creation of some 300 new jobs at a new plant in Liverpool. POLITICS-What happens next dewnds o n the company's response t o the new diversification proposals inthe plan, hi^ inturn depends, at least inpart,on the pressure ,h& i the CSEU can bring to bear on the company. N o t ail the Lucas stewards are happy w i t h working through the CSEU, which (at least i n the past) has not been noted f o r its militant support for the Alternative Corporate Plan-or the Combine Committee. The possibility of a 'sell-out' remains. Even so,considerable practical gains have been made, w i t h significance well beyond the Lucas context. For example, i n drawing up

NOT SO LONG ago it was impossible t o get the authorities i n most places t o take solar energy seriously. B u t now local government officials i n one Californian county have swung t o the other extreme. San Diego County Supervisors recently passed an ordnance that I require solar water heating systems to be fitted tn all new homes built in county areas that are not cart of "incoroorated cities" after October 1, 1979'. Despite opposition from the constructton industry, the ordinance was passed on January 12. Supervisor Roger Hedgecok commented: "Solar water heating is a practical and economic soiution to-the shortage of natural gas." his fellow-supervisor, Lee Tayloe, put 11: "There comes a time when w t i a v e to force technology. ."

Of in The actual process of putting the new plan together was unique. The work,ng party toured all the relevant sites, and spent two full.time land fully writing up the report in London at the Cantre for Alternative Industrial and Technological Systems ICAITSI, with provided and support, #Ie

TECHNOLOGY-Despite being assembled in only eight weeks the document n extremely comprehensive. There is a detailed critique of the company's corporate strategy, an assessment of the social cost of unemployment, and a thorough analysis of the alternative product Options: these include reviews of various energy conversion systems &signed t o make more efficient use o f our fossil fuels (CHP, fluidized bed coal combustion, gas powered heat pumps and turbines); home dialysis (kidney machines); the hybrid engine concept; and the general field o f dceanics-all analysed i n terms of technology, social needs and market potentiai. Some o f the production programmes proposed (for example, for Industrial turbinesand fuel control systems) have lead times of only 3-6 months are are designed t o stave off immediate redundancies. Kidney machine production is seen as a feasible option for the Liverpool plant. w i t h a six month lead time. But for many of the other products R & D lead times are longer-up t o two years for fluidised bed systems and 18 months for gas heat pumps: these are seen as especially relevant the Liverpool piant. what the stewards are after is essentially a short term crash programme t o COP" w i t h the Current unemployment problems, together w i t h a longa 0 and investment programme designed, as the report puts it, t o term R turn 'industrial decline into expansion'. Cooies o f the 350 page Interim Report Turning Industrial Decline into Expansion-a Trade Union Initiative can be obtained from CAITS, NELP, Longbridge Road, Dagenham, Essex. Â£4.5 f o r trade union organisations, otherwise Â£10

Undercurrents 33

Italy THE ITALIAN fight over nuclear energy has been little publicised, both inside and outride Italy. One reason is that the two main political parties, the Christian Democrats and the Communists, have taken positions i n favour of nuclear power and party leaders have stifled internal opposition. But opposition isgrowing. Theofficial government plan is to build 20 nuclear reactors around Italy. But the situation is complicated by the earthquake danger that leaves only 30% of the country suitable for reactor construction. The choice of land is further limited by having t o site reactors close t o the sea or rivers, for their cooling systems. On top of this, every region, except one, has rejected plans t o build reactors. The one site approved b y the local government, Monalto di Castro, north of Rome, has been,the target of protests and occupations since construction began three years ago. Of . the three small reactors in operation before3he publicdebate, one, Garigliano, has been closed down much of the time following an accident. There are unofficial reports that the reactor came clo to a meltdown. The only reactoi ~

that Caorso, has has come never on line managed recently, to produce more than half its planned 850 megawatt output because of technical problems and strikes that have plagued it since i t went into operation i n 1978. ~~~l~~~ opponents in sicily won a major battle last year, blocking plans for a 500 megawatt reactor by suing the Italian government. The reactor, on the souttruest coast of the earthquake-plagued island, was part of the reactor plan approved by the Italian parliament last spring. ~ o c anuclear l opponents noted that the government had not sought the required regional approval before designing the site. So they sued the government for not consulting the local government blocking construction until the case is decided. All of the leftist political partiesand labour unions in Sicily have united i n opposing the reactor. Opponents point to the earthquake danger, the necessity of forcing large numbers of people off densely populated quality farmland, and the strategic location of Sicily in the Mediterranean;which would make the reactor.a prime target in

war. Instead, nuclear critics say the' bihion dollars (1000 billion lire: dbcated for the Plant would be put t o better use harnessing alternative energy sources. Waterpoor Sicily receives more water during the rainy season than can currently be stored. Local residents say that if properly harnessed, Sicily's rainfall could produce 3000 megawatts of power-six times the projected production of nuclear plant. And that water could then be used t o irrigate fields, increasing the island's agricultural production.

Despite media opinion to the contrary the Pacific Fisher, which brought a cargo of nuclear waste from Japan t o Barrow-in-Furnessi n December. was met b y a protest from local anti-nudear groups. On Friday December 22, Employees of James Fisher and Sones L t d were surprised on looking out of their windows t o see thirty wople, led b y several Mother and Father Christmases, approaching bearing gifts. The gifts were parcels labelled "nuclear waste"! Fisher'sgift t o the local populace. Protesters then occupied the entrance t o the off ice foyer and put posters up declaring it t o be a "liberated non-nuclear zone". Damite the avowal that there was no-one in a msition of importanato accept the latter of protest addressed to the company's chief executive, William Fisher, i t was handed in. Two Japanese Buddhist monks also stood in vigil outside the office. Later the group laaflattcd -- ~Christmas -~..... ...- shoonarĂ&#x192; . .i..n tha . . town ~ n n t.r.aSinm carnow: . . -...of . nuclear w a t e will be coming t o Barrow on a regular basis i n the months ahead it's important, as the demo organisers pointed out. that such protests take place on every occasion. "If the citizens of Cherbourg can turn out in thousands," they say,"so should the British." -7T.

give the federal parliament the right to approve further reactor construction, providing t w p . conditions were met: 11 that an energy need for every new reactor must be demonstrated in advance, and 2) a safe method of disposing

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But the closeness of the vote , hasforced the proponents of nuclear energy t o start taking into This reactor. wnment proposalwill account the large number of be voted on b y the electorate in a wple opposed to nuclear powerfew months, but the-close result indeed, the main reason the has C I ~ Ifrigh,tened V Switzerland's referendum was voted down was nuclear l&by, and the P'-OtestOrS because the hiss government has will be listened t o in the future. its own nuclear controls, giving into many of the protesters' demands. . referen,jum-which was supported b y Switzerland's largest political party, the Social Democrats, along with environmental groups-would have WEST GERMANY'S 16 required a referendum allowing people living within 30 kilometers nuclear reactors are producing Of every planned nuclear power only half as much electricity as station and reprocessing plant t o they are S C P P O S to ~ ~ provide vote on whether they want atomic According power on their doorsteps, ~ h ~ ~ to the ~ environmental ~ f BBU, of the 16 ~ ~ i ~ ~currently ~ ~ operating l ~ n d ' organisation, ~ reactors in the country, only five six reactors would also have t o seekretroactive approval from local are operating a? full capacity, three are running at reduced output, voters. while eight are closed down. industry admitted ~h~ nuclear Altogether, West Germany's that such a law would have ended reactors are providing only 4804 reactor construction in switzerland MW of the 9561 MW they are -no area would have approved local reactors. This view was borne supposed be providing. BBU ,concludes that the German federal out inthe referendum, astheareas government ought to reevaluate or planned reactors with existing the usefulness of large nuclear showed large majorities against power Plan"- It recommends nuclear power: I n Basle, which is Putting more emphasis on domestic within 70 kilometers of 14,existing resources like mal, and concludes or planned reactors, 62% of the that wandering further down the vote was against nuclear powerhighway will lead The key t o the referehdum's "unavoidably to the hardest defeat was a counter.proposa~from the Swiss government that would confrontations".

Ger

nuclear industry executive but withdd from the press reveals the dubious economics of the nuclear industry i n theonly nation i n the world that has been the target of a nuclear attack. The speech was made by ~ a k a o Nakaiima, Director of the JGC Corporation t o the British Nuclear Forum International Conferenceon the Nuclear Fuel Cycle in London i n September 1978. The texts of the addresses made t o the conference were not madeavailable t o the press, but Australian researcher Ian Wood found a single copy of the Nakajima speech at the library of Britain's Atomic Energy Authority. At the time of the speech JafSa had 15 nuclear reactors in operation, with four more plants due to go on-line by ~ecamber 1978, making the country thethir largest nuclear power generating nation in the world, after the United States and the Soviet ~ n i o Ten more plants are under consyuction, with plans fbr a further eight. By 1990 nuclear power is planned to supply 11.2% of Japan's energy needs, and 15~30% of the electricity. But Mafca~ima,discuping the ' economic side of this massive nuclear programme, revealed that ' . .for the past 21 years Japan hasdone into the red for a total 01 more than 130 billion yen in connection with the construction of nuclear related plants", and tha "there is no prospect at preient that suggests that Japan's nuclear industry will reach a financial break-even h i n t " . His explanation for this bewildering state of affairs? "It is crystal clear that t o a munrty whi is poor in energy resources, such a Japan is, the maintenance and continued development of the nuclear power industry is of supreme i m w i tance and emnomfi becomealmost a secondary consideration."

Swiss POIIS SWISS VOTERS have rejected by the narrowest of margins (51% against 49%) a referendum that would have meant an immediate halt to the country's ambitious nuclear power programme.

A SPEECH made b y a Japanese

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A MAJOR coalition of , Swedish anti-nuclear groups i s launching a campaign calling for a referendum on nuclear power. The Swedish nuclear situation paradoxical in that public opinion polls have consistently shown a majority of the populatio to be opposed to nuclear power, while at the same time the leaders of most of the political parties continue to support it The antinuclear leader of the Center Party, \ Thorbjorn Falldin,was forced t o resign as prime minister last October when his malttion partners refused t o accept a nuclear referendum Now the Popular Campaign Against Atomic Energy is launching a strong drive to put the question back on the ballot.The coalition 1s made up of a large number of political and environmental groups Its members have 11,000 local chapters spread across Sweden, and these local groups are expected t o participate in the two month campaign, which started in March.

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Undercurrent!

Tv....hvJ- B"Â ¥ d@stEver? PREPARATIONS FOR what could be the largest protest yet at Torness are underway. May 4-7 1979 will see thousands of people from all walks of life participating in a mass festive gathering. Many of them will continue the campaign, which was' started last November, of non-violent direct action against the "orness reactor. Last year, over the week-end "Torness 7 9 says SCRAM, uf May 6-7, 4,000 people occupied "will demonstrate the strength of Torness, the site for Britain's next the anti-nuclear movement i n this Nuclear Power Station. I t was country and will show the the biggest demonstration of its \y !=~," kind ever seen in the UK. Since Gx.qGdh:.? +.q ..-,u "' then, local and national opposition t o the plans of the SSEB (the South of Scotland Electricity Board) t o build what could become one of Europe's largest nudear complexes has escalated dramatically. The Lothian Regional council has made repeated calls for a public enquiry. An independent opinion poll has confirmed that the a j o r i t y o f people in the Lothian Region are opposed t o the Torness reactor. Following the SSEB's ruthless eviction of the Torness occupiers and their brutal destruction of Half Moon Cottage in November, over 400 people risked their lives in front of the bulldozers and more than 100 local people courted arrest b y staging a mass trespass on the site. An eloquent plea for the halting of the Torness reactor construction was even made in the House of Commons b y Robin Cook, Labour MP for Edinburgh Central asa specially arranged debate. But all efforts t o halt the Torness nuke have so far failed. The Scottish Office Minister with responsibility for the Electricity Boards, Gregor Mackenzie MP, has repeatedly emphasised the Government's determination to press ahead regardless. Meanwhile the SSEB has erected a 10 foot fence all around the Torness site (see picture) and has bulldozed o ~t the close of last ~ a y ' t i a i i y the Torness Declaration committed groupsand individuals t o "all nonviolent steps necessary to prevent the construction of a nuclear reactor at Torness" was adopted. ~ C N E S S1?7q Out of its signatories the Torness ~ A - T H E R ~ N GC - ~MPSLTE Alliance was formed. The Alliance b a k d o.n a decentralised regional network of Britain's many and wried anti-nuke groups (of which SCRAM is a part) i s now preparing the May 4-7 gathering this year. The 4 days will incorporate a Festival of Alternative Technology SWEDEN COULD put together an designed primarily for local people, atomic bomb within a year, o r ptUs a wide variety of other perhaps six months, according t o entertainments. The latter half of Swedish research experts. A the Gathering will allow time for spokesman.for the country's group discussion on the character military research agency says and nature of a proposed mass Sewden has the technical ability t o ion-violent direct action o n the build a Hiroshima-size bomb. Monday. (May7) Despitea decision by the Swedish From now on until May groups parliament t o abandon nuclear and individuals everywhere who weapons research in 1968, the are concerned about their future agency continued t o carry oud will be spreading the publicity, organising transport, arranging research until 1972. displays, exhibitions, entertainA Swedish television . programme recently brought out ments and, crucially, preparing hitherto secret detailsof planst0 themselves for non-violent direct build a Swedish A-bomb, back in action and the consequent risk of arrest. the 50s and 60s. The bomb was to

government and the SSEB that people simply refuse t o allow such a dangerous and unnecessary burden as Torness t o be foisted upon them,,z Edited from the excellent SCRAM Energy Bulletin Â£ (mini from the Scottish Campaign to Resist the Atomic Menace, 2a Ainslie Place, Edinburgh EH3 6AR.

TORNESS How to get

SAAB Story

be built from wastes produced by the nation's civilian nuclear reactor programme. The SAAB company actually began designing bombers and missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons. In 1960 Sweden was in contact with an American missile producer: the goal was a nuclear missile that could hit Leningrad. Some supporters wanted as many as 600 missiles with nudear warheads. According to the television report, the world was spared another nuclear power when the Swedish military concluded in the mid-sixties that nuclear weapons were militarily obsolete.

Politics THE ECOLOGY PARTY (ECO) and the Oxford Ecology Movement (OEM) both intend to fight at the next general election. Leading ECO members outlined the party's plans at a recent Dress conference in London. ECO are fielding candidates in fifty constituencies; they hope t o retain their deposits in two. For an outlay of Â£7,50 they get a free postal serviceand five minutes of television time, which they regard asa good return on investment for what is, in essence, a publicity venture. At present their support is predominantly middle-class, concentrated in the areas around London, Leeds and the South West, and it is in these areas that most of their candidates are standing. They see their appeal as being to the young, aged 18-30, ihd the old-those who have not yet entered the system and those who have achieved a certain imount of detachment from it. In the majority of wnstituencies where ECO have welded candidates in the past the Xmservatives have been elected. 3ut the party's response t o the iuggestion that it might draw iupport away from those parties with aims nearest its own was liven by Jonathan Porritt, ECO fiechairman and drama teacher, vho pointed out that it was .elf-contradictoryto work for icological policies within the mjor parties, all of which are nmmitted to economicgrowth, Jonathan Tyler, ECO chairman ind university lecturer, !mphasized that "economicgrowth s not faltering. It has effectively Ãˆm t o an end.Resource ihortagesand inflation, environmental degradation and wman alienation make growth no onger credible nor manageaMe:' Fheir party's long term aim is t o reate a decentralised, selfiufficient, caring and stable i c i e t y based on regional authors, n d localised industries. The means :o this end are a little vague-but with one parliamentary candidate to 'very twenty members they have a ong way to go. Their immediate concern os t o 'stablish themselves as a credible aolitical force. They see themselves is the heirs of the ecology movement; as Peter Frings, andidate for Exeter put it, "These icology magazines. Undercurrents, Vole, Ecologist-they've build up their following, it's stopped jrowing. The next step is political mwer." The Oxford Ecology Movement s a local group formed solely to contest the Oxford constituency in he next election. Although its platform is similar to that of ECO t eschews links with any other Â¥nvironmenta or political group. 3EM believe that "local groups should) seek independently for a wlitical philosophy appropriate to :he ecological perspective". The 3EM manifesto, a comprehensive ind stimulatingdocument, can be ordered for l o p from Sue Manning, 3 Glebe St., Oxford.

Homeopaths dose MALL, it appears, mint make lay for massive yet again. Â¥amde& Islington Area lealth Authority have ecided to dose down several ;mall' hospitals in their area y 1982-3. Among those t o be dosed is the loyal London Homeopathic lospital. which is one of only six ospitals in the entire country in fhich patients can receive omeopathic treatment under the lational Health Service. I t isalso i e only hospital i n the UK roviding full postgraduate courses i Homeopathy. The closure seems in direct onflict with current trends: ?creasingnumbers of people are ?ekinghomeopathy treatment and the number of doctors desiring ., homeopathic training i s rising raoidlv. ' Atpresent, very fewdoctors are ale to survive by practising omeooathv under the NHS as the pa'yingdoctors 'by the 3licy ead' per day lust does not work 0th homeopathy Wheras under lopathic medicine thedoctor only -eats symptoms and is able to x n d five minutes with a patient, reaibe a drug (thereby keeping ie drug companies happy), and ass to the next, under lomeopathy the person is treated as a whole and the doctor must obtain detailed information regarding the patient's 'constitution before making diagnosis and precribing a remedy. So,the homeopathic practitioner is unable to cram into his surgeryas many patients per day as theallopathic ractitioner.

Another factor makes life difficult for doctors wishing t o practise Homeopathy. W+r&s doctors wishing to'sudy other'. specialiied forms of medicineare able to obtain government grants for their period of training, those who wish t o follow postgraduate courses inliomeopathy are not offered grants. This is because the Council for bstgradtiate Medical Education refuses to recognise Homeopathy courses, saying they do not beliew in the validity of high potenciesof Homeopathic remedies. Yet in order to provide the necessary scientific probf, a massive project would haveto be mounted, requiring equally massive funds-whichof course they refuse to helpprowide. Catch 22. TheBritish Homeopathic Association is petitioning the House of Commons asking for: Â¥Continuanc of the ~ o y a i London Homeopathic Hospital; Â¥Tha Homeopathy be made more widely available through the NHS; and Ofha provision o f government grants for doctors to learn Homeopathy. ~his8HA iscallim for a rress lobby in the House o f Commons on Tuesday 27 March at 7pm. i n the Grand Committee Room. I f you can attend, please arrive early, ask i n the foyer for a Green Card to call your MP down, speak t o him and ask him t o attend the meeting. 100 Lobbyists are needed before a Mass Lobby can be claimed. For further information please mntact Mrs Mundy, British Homeopathic Association, 27a Devonshire Street, London W1. Tel: 01-935 2163.

thmir almwdy h a r i d tnvdlert. I n an ttt.mnt to d Ã ‘ H d i t i r w M mwkhm from 'busking' in thÃ tube tunnabunbdiwÃ§bl lo-fi mmak (to which this wriur had tho u c r u c t i n g misforturn to ba s u b j i c t d l hm h n n Â¥xpuinwntall piped into thÃ mbww of thÃ Oxford Circus . But the latest step in the LT's fight against the Buskers seems to have back-fired. Cudgels have now been taken up bv the Demolition D e m r a t m an amorphous collection of clowns, buskers, street thespiansand loons-as part o f their wider Campaign for Street Performers. Demolition Demrators have christened their bizarre brand of theatre anderground Tube Theatre'. Bemused travellers have asked them ifits a new ploy by LT to alby anger at fare increases, and received letter forms with a petition o n behalf of the buskers and space for them t o add their own emarks. These are sent to Charles Cope, LT's Director of Operations, who has been quoted as saying that if enough people contact him I55 The Broadway, SWI) he may wnsider changing the bye-laws. Demolition Demratorsalso organised a Bust-In against Tube M u s k at Marble Arch recently. Horace Cutler, leader of the GLC, has also beeti getting i n on theact, making remarks like "I think they bringftouchof humanity t o a somewhat dullarea. I am encouraging LondonTranspon t o look seriously at the question of licensing these underground players" and suggesting that if theyareallowed to play i n tertain 'well-defined" arms their "numbers can be controlled". DD haw stated in resrwnsff'that "while we are oleased t o ha& Horace : ..' f. agreeing that buskersareagood thing, %yetotally reject &,idea o,f " ,: licensing inspiration or restricting performers t o certain-. Thiq will , :; 1 turn street entertainment into just another commercial rip-off. D o 9 + I , : i. . , invona reallv want a human zoo?" , ' The wid& campaign continues. T k 'court &Gsare still pending. Both : arose as a result of street theatre protests i n Leicester Squflre last Aligust ; $, i n support of two members of Ashe, arrested. last April while performing : "Willie the Clinkerlet" in RupertlStreet. The Leicester SquareFour, conducting their own defence, entertained the Wells Street court to such a .\ degree that their case has been adjourned for an encore on May IS and a Nationwide film clip of the episode will be screened. . ~, . Nine members o f Demolition Decorators, appearing the foll&ing cia$.> , ; ; also won a repeat performance, and are due t o reappear, also at Wells Street, o n Tuesday June 12. For both occasions DD is organising further, ! ,, : eventsoutside the court. (For more info-or active participation-ring Rrti, at 485 0881 ). i.

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WWLE THE oil industry and their guea ce'*ra* the official opening of the Sulldm Voe terminal in the Shetland Islands on Saturday 20th January. anvironmntalists were still out cleaning up the damage caused by the spill f r o m the New Year tanker accident at the terminal of Though has been the incident in the press, the, N~~~~~Conservancy councilhas called the incident an ornithological disaster with bird mortality approac~ino 100%. id^^^^ of the islands arealso feeling the effects of the disaster. Thousands of have been in~ i i , as has the which the sheep depend on.as part of their diet and which the farmers use t o manure :he land. No legislation or regulations lave as yat been brought into I

effect t o lessen the posaibilityof ; such further disasters. It has been swgested that tankers should keep at least hlesoffsbre, a, navigation closer t o the Isles is very dangerous and one small error could easily bring a tanker o n t o the subme-& rocks, Yet reports have been made of tankers seen cutting corners by travelling between the Ve Skerries and Papa Stour as well as the east side of Foula. The Ve Skerries are notorious for claiming many ships and Iives, vetthere is still no lighthouse lo aid nav@atiOn. If another spill doesoccur, those islanders who do not benefit from theoil boom, and who On

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industries of crafting and fishing, -and to lose their entire livelihood -as we" "their m i o r " w c e o f food supply. (For further inforrmtion concerning Shetland, lee feature

Status for ShMlind.1

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Trouble on oily waters

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THE BRITISH SOCIETY for Social Responsibility in , Science (BSSRS)Agricapital Group's report Our MIy Bread (reviewed in Undercurrents 31) has aroused the wrath of the giants of the white sliced bread business in general, and Associated British Foods (ABF) in particular who have been taking seven league boot sized approach t o BSSRS Agricapital steps to suppress it. On 14 September test year a press conference was held t o announce the publication of the Bread Report. The following day an article appeared m the Guardian quoting the report in somedetail together with further information releasedet the press conference. Within 24 hours, solicitors representing ABF announced e writ was being served on the Guardian and their reporter on the grounds of libel. This rapidly became known to the rest of Fleet Street and other newspapers became very cautious about handling thestory, prefering to e m i t the outcome of the case which may not be hsqrdfor tvroyears.

Shortly afterwards fiankHovis-MacDougall,the Federation of Bakersand the Ffour Advisory Bureau contacted the Rowntree Trust who had put up money for the research, asking them t o publicby dissociate themselves from the report and t o demand their money back from BSSRS. The Rowntree Trust refused t o do this. The ABF solicitors later contacted the printers, the Russell Press, Nottinghem, stating that they considered the pamphlet t o be libellous, but that they would take no further action, providing an undertaking was made not t o print any further copies It was not until 14 November that the ABF-solicitors made an

Group, stating "that summarised, thegeneral message is that iABF1 ~ I o ~others, D produce unhealthy bread b y methods which expose their workforce t o the risk of ~hysic"!b m , wlely i n order t o achieve maximum pecuniary advantage, and thus are unscrupulousprofiteers." They also claimed that the pamphlet was "rtddted with inaccuracies, half-truths and distorted statements." Threatening legal action they demanded that distribhon be stopped. The Agricapital group had already put e lot of energy into double checking meir facts in the light of the Guardian writ, and 'ad not found any facts of ubstance t o be incorrect-merely 3me spelling mistakes and an rganic compound given a longer ame than it deserved. They mute back asking the ABF alicitors t o specify the facts in Ispute. The reply came that it ins not necessary t o itemise these s the overall tone of the report as libellous, and &re they going to cease distributing the report or not? I n view of thevagaries of the be1 law, where it i s not necessary arthe plaintiff t o prove that lies ave been printed* but only that heir reputation has been impuned ^ ~yinnuendo,and because libel ction can be very costly, the kgricapital group replied that whilst they stood by ell the statementsthey had made as being true, they were unwilling t o risk the cost of litigation and would therefore cease distribution. ABF agreed to forgo any future right t o litigation o n grounds of the report. As the OED 90 chirpily quotes, "the greeter the truth, the greater the libel".

FIRST PRIZE at the recent Enagy Show i n Birmingham went to t h i l dosign for a low-~iwgy-hornb y John Liilw and Randall Thomatof the Ambient Enagy Design Partnership in Cambridge. The dÃ‘i@m claim that for a t-nur of house* of standard size they can redum M C family's ~ ! from 25 GJ (7000kW per year for spice hmting t o about SGJ. A d the oxire wsI of buildix t o whiive ht#hw I bailmion Ws.phu Â¥quiDment o conÃ‘ry and cwtun energy, should Ibe onty a few hundred pounds (at today's prim4 &ow thÃ govarnnnnt =st-vrdstiek. -. Tha -atow ~ - ~ o n -tha.. mirth % account* reduetktn .- s .-- - --far. - 20% of thft ~. in honing dumnd, whilst providing a l a w Ã§ctÃ§uit o the living sp~ce It low out.Tha mn~ntory, which could b* u d for ucample for m i n i a m fruit trns, provides ls h Ã § l t e wean arm throughout tho y Ã § r As a latar st-, houMhold&s can incorporate a hut recovery unit to mttrart warmth from tha IMIÃ vantilation air and trÃ§n<fÃ50-80% of the outgoing h u t t o the cold incoming f r o h air. The f o a i l fual boiler required is so watt thftt one year's supply of coal could easily be kÃ§p i n the store provided. This sfon filled at high Iwalfrom the s t r m and has a floor which dopw towardsa h e r . I n the future an automatic f d i n g device will charge the boiler when r n c ~ a r y . Among the mwsurastaken t o achieve economies in energy consumption are: the d v i t y wallsarelined internally w i t h imulationand can be filled for additional protection. 0 specml doubleglazing units with an infro.mil reflectingfilmItrtchad, invisibly between the pienosof glassare uÃ§dW i t h w c h windows the heat Ionis lex than o m fifth of that through tingle glazing. Thus. large south-facing areas of glas can be uxad t o capture more energy tin the form of solar radiation) than is lost ai hit. durinn m a t of the winter. 0 ft night, multi-layer roll-shades providi additional insulation the f i storm wall and the roof which face south are made from an inucpmsive a i r . h ~ t hsolar callactor. Thisdwio, which raplausthe wall and roof cladding, is free from problems of f r w i n g and I a l u g a I Air rkim throuah the- e.. a l..l..f.t a r .. Imted om d d l v brmht .. fn - .-. - dam -- ,and upif -ry via a hot wator wil from the boil-. It is then distributed throughout the house. On d a y that have been particutarty sunny, maw stond i n tho tank full of fist-size rocks undwnath the sta'nsw be used t o h a t the h o u r w i l l into tho night. Many of the tahniques u f d in the Â¥ward-winnindesign can be appliad to uc&ing buildings. For exampto, i n w i f b l e circumstances and with armful W n , the addition of a wnsirvatory can redum the < p ~ huting e deimnd of e house by 20%. If a house is being renovated the oboortunitv exists t o fit en air-to-air heat recovery unit, which may cut the hut toad Iby 25%. I f a roof r d m renewal. a i r - h u t i m solar wllactDrs can be used i n place of rq.v t i b t h e energy savings here depend on the TO for renewal but &n be very signifiint. Further detailsfromAE0, 36ApthorpeSt., Fulbourn, Cambridge CB15EY

MTE is 7

KEEPTHE August Bank Holiday wwkand free in your diary: that's the -q from the organisers of t h i s year's Comtek Fntirol. It's now virtually certain that the COMTEK '79 Community Technology festival (see UC 32) will go ahead as planned in the new City of Milton Keynes, 50 miles north of London, on August 26-27. The venue will probably be the Milton Keynes Bowl, a big new

g-sbws. dimssmm, stalls. food. inflatables, street theatre - and b o b a b l y l sunshine. On the twodays proceeding CmTEK, A u g q 23-24'the 2nd NATTA conference (Network of Alternative Technology and grass covered open air amphitheatre Assessment) will be Technology which is just off the main A 6 held at the Milton Keynes College within easy reach of the M I and Crf Education. This year's NATTA railway t o and from Euston. writ discuss ways of implementing The three themes chosen b y the Milton Keynes Comtek for AT in a decentralised rather thane centralised,wy. the three day event are Energy, ' if you'd like further details of Food and Cooperative Working. Comtek '79 (especially if you wish And as in the earlier Comtek festivals (held in Bath i n 74. 75 to participate as an exhibitor) or and 76) there'll be displays of AT the NATTA Conference, write hardware, demonstrations of with see t o Rosemary Rhoades, Redfield Co-op, Window, Bucks. techniques, music, films, slide

rHE CLAYMORE A o i l production platform issituated i n the North Sea ibout 150 miles north east bf Aberdeen. It is operated b y Occidental of imtland Inc. and came o n stream i n lam 1977. From November 7 6 t o lctober 7 8 a minimum of 500 men were employed on the platform. They vere acmmmxlated on the platform itself, o n the Sedco semiubmersible dniiina ria and at various times o n theBradford Dolphin and l i k i n g Piper vessels. In August 1978, at 8.30 pm o n at 8.30 p m the platform was I cold rainy night, an unusual series efficiently evacuated. But the bomb )f events began. Evervone on the squad took almost 3 X hours to ~latform-construction workers, arrive-it's a 70 minute flight f r o m f i l i n g crew and oil comoany Aberdeen. The bomb was >ersonnel-hurriedly abandoned identified as a realistically he platformvia the gangway constructed fake. which linked it to the Sedco 704. FromS.30 pm until 6 a m t h e "he gangway was lifted aboard the next morning the Sedco 704, w i t h & d m which then moved away about 500 men on board, was only rom the platform b y winching in about one quarter of a mile a way he starboard anchor chains. Oxyf r o m the platform o n which a icetylene burning gear was moved 'bomb' had been planted. The rig o the port side anchor winches so was surely in a dangerous position if hat theanchor chains could be an qxplosion and subsequent fire u t off if it was necessary t o move had occurred o n the platform. urther away. The Sedco rig was When the platform search was low about a quarter of a mile carried out at 6 am noneof the way from the platform, which crew were aiven accurate had been shut down. information about what t o look for. The scene on board was We were [old t o csrrv o u t a onfused: large numbers o f eople milling around swapping umours, conferences of various roups of bosses and a lot of enerally tense people. The ommonest story going around had omethimg t o do with a bomb laving been found on the platform. A t 11.40 pmthebombdisposal quad arrived b y helicooter. Thev topped briefly on the Sedco, and& o n the Claymore for about n hour. returned to the Sedco Their attitude was that a refusal t o nd then left for the mainland. give one's prints was an admission A t about 6 a m the following of guilt. We had thechoice: give norning the Sedm moved back your fingerprints or be sacked. longside the Claymore, the And yet their investigation was far angway was lowered and the entire f r o m thorough-1 know of a dorkforce went aboard with number of people who didn't give istructions t o search for a their prints and were never asked omb. The search continued for them. pasmodically for about an hour Somedays later the platform nd then work continued as received another bomb threat w i t h ormal. a ransomdemand. I t turned out t o A few days later CID officers be a hoax, b u t the first most -om the Grampian region arrived people on the platform knew of it n the scene and began fingerwas when a short article appeared riming the entire crew. in the Aberdeen Press and Journal. (The hoaxers were arrested when they went t o collect their money from a bus which happened to be nportant Questions full of police!) h e events of that night were M y strongest memory o f the uickly forgotten; an official night is of the total confusion. We 'count o f the incident was never were never officially told what was ven t o the workforce. But there going on. We never knew if we were -e important questions which in real danger. The cost o f ensuring iould have been answered. our safety was obviously Occidental apparently received orohibitive to theoilmen. The telephoned bomb threat in the i r l y afternoon of the day in bastards could have killed usall. If vou in uemion. The platform was , .- want . . . t.o .ao -.and . .work iformen and a token search was the North Sea, don't go near tna C a y m o r r I expect that bomo r r l e d out b y foreman and oil t h r o i t i i r e now tot# v ignored. i r n p n v staff. Tho threat w i i And y d t n i pO88ibiloty of Imi,or bvlouily not taken 1erlou8lv: to erch tho pintform thoroughly i x p i o ~ ~ oi vne r y r r l . With tho ould taka a lot more effort approprlat@bomb In h i n d It Ian w r given t o It. M o l t people would be aultm ponlbln t o n the platform were totally destroy the platform-in spite naware of the threat. of the security precautions i n Whan the t o m b ' was discovered effect.

. . . . . . rirculation of Undercurrent'! h present level perhapswe can aspire t o a building like thisone. It's the new 31.4 million home of the Clenrwarcr Time-. in Florida. The building is surrounded b y an earthen wall to hold heat i n the winter, and help cool the building in summer. There are t w o complete roofs: the regular roof of the onestorey structure is topped b y a second roof w i t h a t w o metre airspace between them. The top roof acts as a shade over the building preventing heat building up inside from the scorching Florida sun. The 240 solar panels are arranged o n a wedgeshaped structure at the t o p o f the building. They weigh 15 tons and heat water i n a 13,000 gallon enclosed system t o a temperature of 185 degrees F. A 36 metrewind tower w i t h Darrieus turbine^ w i l l be added t o the building t o generate electricity. Althnnnh it .. has wwf hptween 3250 000 and - 3500 . -,000 ~more than constructing a conventional building, the paper'sowners believe it will save at least $2.000 a month i n operating expenses. Florida has virtually year. round sunshine. The catch? The office building has no windows and the only exterior glass is i n the front and rear doors. Even this is tinted and double-glazed t o reduce heat loss. Maybe we're better o f f i n our converted warehouse, after all! ~

HUNDREDS of members of 'autonomous collectives' gathered i n Paris o n February 5 t o test the effects o f slipping a five centimes coin soaked in acid into parking meters throughout the city. Some say that as many as 3000 meters met their end in this way. The 'autonomes' were protesting at the heavy sentences against four of their comrades at a trial eartierthis year and "chosean act of sabotage involving little violence and much mass action", according t o the communique they issued. Their action followed hard on the heelsof the raid b y 'autonomes' on the dwelling of Judge Berger, State Prosecutor in the Paris Court of Appeal, o n Thursday February 1. Four masked men had entered the judge's flat, bound and gagged the judge, his wife, and their dinner guests and then proceeded to wreck the apartment, destroying furniture and spraypainting the walls with slogans of outrage against the verdict o n the 'St. Lazare four'. They did not harm the judgeand his companions. The 'autonomes' at the centre of these demonstrations, known as the 'St. Lazare Four', were given extraordinarily heavy sentences, even b y French standards, after they were arrested o n a demonitration 'contra la via chore' lagalnit the high cost of living) whan f i f t y 'autonomei' want on a rampage, brmklng windowl of axponilvo shop8 and smashing up cars on January 13. Two of the four arrested were sentenced to four years in prison,

one to three years and theother t o three years with one year suspended. Such sentences are believed t o be the heaviest ever handed down for vandalism. A source o f particular outrage amongst the young in France is the contrast between this verdict and the recent spate of acquittals or minor finesagainst property owners who have shot burglars dead on the groundsof 'legitimate self-defence'. The 'autonomes' have been n feature of the French p o l i t i c 1 scene for a few years now. They consist mainly of young people, unemployed, students and others who have become disenchanted with theorganised left-preferring autonomous action of a spontaneous kind t o what they consider the inactivity and sterility of the left parties. They always emphasise collective action, and in fact regarded the attack on the parking meters as a failure since six of themgot earned away, moving o n t o greater things than parking meters, and were subsequently arrested. The French 'auionome' movement, which isalmost impossible t o characterise because of its independence from any central organiiation, bearsa strong slmllaritv t o theautenomist movement in Italy which PNS has previously reported. lPNS/ Liberation)

THE VEGAN SOCIETY'sannual Dr Frev Ellis Memorial Lecture will be given by JWT Dickerson, Professor o f Human Nutrition at the University of Surrey, on Thursday, March 29th at Friends Meeting House, 5 2 St Martins Lane, London WC2. The lecture, on the theme Plant Foods for Human Health with specific reference to The Diseases o f Affluence a n d the needs o f the Developing World begins at 8pm; Vegan buffet from 7-7.30. If you really must get into METHANE DIGESTERS find Out how t o do i t properly at New Mills Study Centre over the weekend March 30-April 1. Full details from the Warden, New Mills, Luxborough, Watchet, Somerset TA23 OLF. Tel: Washford (098441 281. On April 1 (no foolin') there's a LONDON T O B A T H SPONSORED B I K E RIDE starting at 7.30 am. This is t o raise the Â£50 needed t o stage the LONDON T O BRIGHTON event on May 12. The distance is 104 miles, and there are frequent trains back t o London.. Sponsorship forms f r o m Robert Stredder, Groundswell Farm, Cricklade Road, Upper Stratton, Swindon, Wilts. A reminder about the MOLINOLOGICAL CONFERENCE at North Worcester College, April 5-8. Details: Jane Field, Gatepiece Cottage, Highf ields, Wickenford, Worcs. Lower Shaw Farm is running a WOMEN'S WEEKEND from 6-8 April. Part of the time will be spent on everyday things like plumbing, electrics and ear maintenance, the rest on feminist politics or whatever the group decides. Cost is Â£ 5, more details from Lower Shaw Farm, Shaw, Swindon, Wilts. Tel: 0793 771 080.

AH our problems may be solved by the WORLD SYMPOSIUM ON H U M A N I T Y at the Wembley Conference Centre from April 7-13. Workshops and symposia will be held on various important topics i n three shifts, a special feature being the T V link-up with similar conferences i n Toronto and Los Angeles. Cost for the whole week is Â£60 individual sessions are Â£ for the morning and evening events, Â£ for the afternoon. Contact Brenda Brett, World Symposium on Humanity, Play Space, Peto Place, London NW1. The Easter holiday period has enough events t o send you back to work a complete wreck. There'sa CRAFT CAMP at Lower Shaw. (12-17, Â£251 while Laurieston Hall (near Castle Douglas, Kircudbrightshire, Scotland; Tel 06445 2751 is devoting the week 12-19 t o NON-VIOLENT ACTION traihing-just right for the Torness occupation (starting May 4): Cost is Â £ per day per head, kids half price. While you're there, why not stay for the EXPRESSIVE ARTS April 20 t o 27 Workshops include: clowning and mime; theatre; shiatsu massage; expressive body drawing. Â£28.5 inclusive. The N A T I O N A L CONSERVATION CORPS is running a total of 32 tasks, starting around Easter and winding up with a drystone walling course at the end of May. Cost is Â£ t o join the Corps, Â£ t o book on a course and 60pa day towards expenses. SAE t o NCC, 10-14 Duke St., Reading RG1 4RU. Tel: 0734 596171 The third FESTIVAL FOR MINDBODY-SPIRIT is running at Olympia f r o m April 21-29. Details: 159 George St.. London W1 H 5L3. Tel: 01-723 7256. TOWARDS BEING SELFSUFFICIENT isa study weekend on practical gardening at Lower Shaw Farm f r o m April 20-22. Cost is Â£5.

There's a course on ORGANIC HUSBANDRY at the Shro~shire Farm Institute, ~hrewsbury,from April 8-12. The fee of Â£4 covers tuition, accommodation and meals. For booking forms and details contact The Soil Association, Walnut Tree Manor, Haughley, Stowmarket. Suffolk IP14 3RS w i t h SAEI. Tel: Haughley (044 9701 23516.

Learn all about the V E G A N DIET o n Saturday 28 April at the Richmond (Surrey) Adult College, Parkshot. Cost is Â£3.50 details f r o m t h e Vegan Society, 47 Highlands Road, Leatherhead, Surrey.

On Aoril 9-10 vou can join a working conference o n DEPRIVATION at the Unlver8itv of Eait Anglia, Norwich. ThI8 m i t i Â£27.6 with accommodation, E l 6 for t h i c o u n t elona. Detalli: Alun Mowman, c/o Rural Deprivation, 156 High Road, Romford, R M 6 6LX, Essex, Tel: 01-597 2321.

The biggest ever TORNESS festival will be held on May 4-7. For the more serious minded, other event! are baing planned o n the Sundiv and Mondav Ã w i l l a1 the f Ã § t l vBadgin, p o ~ t o r i a n d lonflnti are nvnllible f r o m York Sals Energy Group, Box 7, York Community Bookshop, 7 3 Walmgate, York. Tel: (0904) 37355.

RURAL

SCIENCE A N D TECHNOLOGY A N D THE FUTURE is a conference linking with the U N conference on Science and Technology and will be held ( f r o m Mav 8-10) in Berlin. Contact: ~ e i nBuchholz, i Zentrum Berlin fur Zukunftsforschung e.v. Giesebrechtstr. 15, 1000 Berlin 12. POWER FROM COAL is the subject of a murse at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers, (1 Birdcaqe Walk. London SW1 H 9JJ, 01-893 12111. The conference will be on'May 10, and costs Â£53.54 w i t h an extra Â£ for a field t r i p t o ECURA at Leatherhead on the 11th. ENERGY, ECOLOGY A N D B U I L D I N G RENOVATION i s a development o f waysand means of nsulatingand conserving energy in . old buildings, concentrating on Practical solutions, at New Mills Study Centre f r o m May 11-13. On Saturday May 12, Turning Point are oraanisina an all-dav meetiw o n CONTRIBUTIONSTO A N A L T E R N A T I V E FUTURE w i t h speakers including Hazel Henderson and Fritiof Capra at the Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1. It costs Â£2tickets and details from Alison Prttchard, 7 St Ann's Villas, London W l 1 4RU. Tel: 01-603 6572. PEACE A N D SECURITY I N EUROPE: TRENDS A N 0 ALTERNATIVES will be considered at Centrum voor Polemologie, Vrije Universiteit, Pleinlaan 2, 8-1050 Brussells, from May 17-19. Contact: Peace Research Centre. Institute of Political Science, University of Nijmegen, Van Schaek Mathonsinge! 4, Nijmeqen, Netherlands. 18-27 May, PAPERMAKING A N D THE RECYCLING OF MATERIALS at New Mills Study Centre. WEST SOMERSET WATERMILLS A N D WATERPOWER are the objects o f study at New Mills Study Centre from 25-27 May. The murse includes visits to the many local examplesof watermills., Three workshops are running concurrently at Laurieston Hall over the weekend 25-27 May. They ere: DECORATIVE LEATHERWORK, SHOEMAKING and MASSAGE. Numbers are very limited, 80 book early. The Future8 Network In mnalcHrlng THE COMMUNICATIONS 80C18TY o n Thuriday May 31. C s n u a Richard Whaley, PCIL 2, Rotherwick Court, Alexandra Road, Farnborough, Hams.

If you missed last year's, CONTROL OF TECHNOLOGY Open University T V programmes now's your time t o catch up. The course will be shown on Wednesdays at 5.1 5 pm on bBC2. -Nuclear opposition in th',i USA: Legal intervention I ? May) -Nuclear Opposition in the USA: direct action at Seabrook (30 May) (these cover the whole Seabrook story up t o t l ~ e occupation in 1977) -Alternative Technology Centre Machynlleth (29 Augl -Appropriate Technology in China 126 Septl On Saturday 30 June at 8.05 am you can see the OU's Lucas Aerospace documentary 'Doesn't Anyone want t o know? ADVANCE WARNING A t the end of September there will be an I N T E R N A T I O N A L COMMUNES FESTIVAL at Launeston Hall. This will probably be for b o w fide communardsonly-write to Dave at Launeston for details (see Easter Diary entry1 There's a call for a N A T I O N A L ECOLOGICAL CONFERENCE involving all interested magazines, movements, parties, unions and individuals. If you have any comments or would like t o contribute,get in touch. G A Y PRIDE WEEK is from June 22 t o July 1. Details o f the events from 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DX. The MIDSUMMER FREE FESTIVAL will last for a record 23days, starting at Stonehenge o Saturday 16 June, and continuing at Avebury and Glastonbury w i t h Fairs, Festivals and fings.

CONTROL i n Milan later this year, with a preliminary discussion over Easter. We don't know yet if we can get a representative to these meetings (we all have to work for a tving, t o o l but if we can, what d< you want himlher t o say on your behalf? Let us know as soon as possible.

WHAT'S NOT ON The SCIENCE STUDY TOUR of Chlnn, orannlied b y the Society for Anglo-Chine80 Underntanding, hen been put o f f until next vnnr, but they i t l l l have seme vaeanelen for thelrathsr '7Q frlpi, B t a ~ l n from Clare Picket!. SACU. 152 Camaen High Street. Lonoon hW1 ONE Tel 01-485 8236

Anyone who would like t o join Sue Fenton (see p27) and her fellow Wwoofers should write with sae to: HWOOF, 19 Bradford Road. Lewes. Sussex BN7 1RB asking for their introductorv leaflet; membership is Â£2.6 P.a. iCIENCE FOR PEOPLE Nuclear ;sue isa must for ah anti-nuelear ctivists. Packed full of iformation and analysis, icludiilfl stuff on transport of uclear wastes, an accident log

t-it's almost as good as Mdercurrents. 60p from B I Poland Street. Los@on W1

Â¥ommunotie ' ctivtsts in Cal

COMMONWOJIK is a Series of linked trusts dedicated t o promoting co-operative living and work,ng -rhey have lust got their down in the weald open i t can take up to twelve people up to four physically

NUCLEAR POWER: THE ISSUES AND DILEMMAS is the title of a set of mlour sldesand comprehensive notes wrinen by Adam Suddaby (of ~oughborough and published by Conservation Trust, 246 London Road, Earley, Reading at Â£9

handicapped) t o work on their own programmes or One For organised by COÃ‘Ã‘Ã‘Ã details write t o Jenifer Wates. Commonwork, Bore Place, Bough Beech, Edenbndge, Kent TN8 7AR. ~ ~service on E~~~~~~~~~ as a ctearlng house for information from all sortsof

Think Electric was the industry's

paying for it that hurts. Their London N1 latest pamphlet RETHINK ELECTRICgives details of the FRIENDS OF THE EARTH have f current (sic) ~ overcapacity, ~ and how~ t ~ ~ thss will tncrease with generators just appointed a Land Use alreadyordefed and InIhe Campaigner, Alan Farleigh. As this pipeline. The cost of OvermpaatV area bf .nitation, he asks "I" be met now by anyow t h ~deasas t o what he and taxpayers, and b y future should be doing and how he should generations saddled with the do i t etc- to contact him at 9 Potahd problem of nuclear waste disposal. Street, London W1, tel01-434 1684 Not very good valueat 20p for ,1684. To begin with he will be 12 pages, but a handy condensed t o the working o n the use of derelict ~argument ~ fordistributind ~ , unconverted From FaE, 9 Poland urbal land for allotments, a 'Ondon W1. campaign manual will be coming out soon.

6 12

[Â¥hINTERNATIONAL

IEGETARIAN HEALTH FOOD HANDBOOK (Â£1.3 post free rom the Vegetarian Society. 'arkdale, Durham Road, Mtrincham, Cheshire, WA14 IQG) a biennial )f health and whole foodstores, estaurants, products and nanufacturers hkre and abroad UHURU have produced a third jet of 'pol~tic?lpackages',bags for wholefoads w ~ t hmesaOes about food politics printed on them, aimed at the compuls~vereaders who devour every word on their ~ornflakespackets The subjects ire the role of women, the arms trade, British bread and the multi-nationais They have also lust published No. 4 of their ~ccasionalmagazine Indigestion which takes up the same issues Details from them at 35 Cowley Road. Oxford.

ng.

plantsoen 9, Amsterdam, ~ ~ h ~ ~h~~~ l aare~G d ~~ Spanish and Italian language versions, too, write t o Amsterdam first for detads At the second SANE (students Against Nuclear Energy) Conference In decided that ,twastime t o set up a central clearing house to cope with theever-increasingnumber of SANE people and events. Although the emphasis is still very much on local decisions and grassroots control (witness Sussex Univer. s~ty'santi-nuke festival), it is much eager to organise and recruit using one of the best-known addresses in the UK-9 Poland Street, London W1 Be inSANE, as they say. Y FANER GOCH helpst0 the lack of news about Wales availale to Expatriates (and the English) lt costs 12p + postage from Y Faner Goth, 21 Howard

MAKING THE CO-OP WORK lsa training handbook published by the Holloway Tenants' Cooperative and North London Poly, setting out a training programme for new to teach membersof the them not lust what the "-OP does

EARTHCARE is FOEsponsored shop muurham (33 Saddler St) which sells environmentally acceptableeonwmer goods and disseminates informafi~nabout environmentally desirable products They are keen

but be active members Self-mewed groups Of

t o asstst other s ~ w s w h want 0 to sta*stm11arventures. A large sae will bring you a list of products and suppliers; note, however, that they don,t want to order business.

who face

encouraging new members will find it a useful guideto designing simulation exercises (Chairing, Interviewing etc) and t o the dynamicsof such groups, the importance of nurturing, energising and relax,ng Â£ (sop bona ode co-opsand communes) from J~~~ Southgate at the of

Gardens, Cardiff Our Social Studies, NLP. Ladbreice correspondent writes House. Highburv Grove, London Nid vw CYmm'n d e r b ~ n 9was.anaeth ~5 ;AD, te101.359 0941 da gan a gyfrvngau ffh vdd v cylchgrawn chwi* newvdd vma 1s A MACHINE AFTER YOUR wybodaeth in, vnghy/ch eitemau JOB? is a pamphlet written b y anghvhoed~dfaled-led Cvmm' Chris Harman for the SWP (Xlpp, 4 7 post+ree ~ from PO 82, Pwysleisia'n arbennifddfrmvg V Llwyodraeth Llafur tuag at ein London E2; 10 copies or more, 9wl8d. D ~ l aei n d cehogaeth 30p each). A clear account of what m~crocomputersareand o n do, leal oherwydd yn y r ~ a t t hCvmraeg what lobs they will destroy, how y mae'r erthyglau gorau Ondmae'n the Government and Union, Bosses anoddrhagweldsuta gallpapur fel are d l t h e r i ~ how * not fight hyn gml dylanwad maw, oblegid ( @ I w lobs), and how t o challenge bob yn yn v,f cyhaedd,r the system A good grounding for luta lot Of stuff anyone engaged { n defending the as statusquo but it says nothing about how the 'rational planned society' that it sees as the only tolerable SERA needs a volunteer to help eltermt,ve mght beorganised. out with their publications department, orOanisiW new ECO-ACTION s a new pressure1 pamphlets and helping t o supply mail-order and trade outlets. action group at the University of This could bedone from home, London Union, they meet at ULU but prefkrably from the SERA (Malet St., WClI every Wednesday office at 9 Poland Street,Yl, even even,m_ Fw details, on a part ttme basis. Contact Cox South 'Ide, Frankie Ashton on 439 3794 for SW4) or Carol Brayne lat ULU). more details of how you could usefully fill those odd afternoons.

don't WORKER aims to PHOTOGRAPHER demystify photographvand to enmurage everyone make a record of the conditions around them- their working and living conditions as well as their holiday Â£ for four issues from' worker phot52 upp %reet,

~$~s3~7r~~~;f2~22~-itrs

ncerned with all forms o f energy

if solar power in the US and a tate-of-the-art review of the arcous soiar techniques, it nalyses in detail the job creation nd skill reauirement imptications. t also discusses organisattonal / nstitutional problems getting unding for solar co-ops, nterfacing with the unions and so >n, An earlier draft was d,scustpri n Undercurrents30 ('Solarcal'l rhefull version is fully llustrated and contains a wealth )f useful information-including ximpar~sonsof the job creation ~otentia~ of soiar compared with iukes. ?ou can get copies lirect from Mid-Peninsula bnservation Project for $ 3 50 Â£ including postage) MPCP iavh also offered us a 40% bulk eductlon for 10 COPIES Or more, , lf demand Ishigh we'll orders tash Let us know if you're nterested MPCP. 867 W Dana, Suite 203, Mountain View, CA 14041. California, USA

Can workers take photographs?Of course they can, at least as well as the aristocracy The trouble is, they

Two new additions to Release's DRUG EDUCATION series cover the dangers of Amphetamine ( 1 5 ~ ) and Glue sn'ffing I5P) from Release Publications, c/o 1 Elgin Avenue, London W9 Please at tea* l o p nostage

Zed Press isplanning to wit together a volume of QUOTATIONS FROM REVOLUTIONARY THINKERS all over the world, a s,ort of eclectic Little Red Book They's beglad to hear ti.f youf favourite quote at 57 ^Caledonian Road, London N1 9BN I s there an Undercurrents readei who knows of a quick and unobtrusive way to disable a bulldozer or mechanical digger? Our enquirer wants t o know the JCB equivalent of what ballbearings are to police horses Any ideas? An ECOLOGY AND SOCIALISM discussion group is being formed initially in London Contact Martin Stott, 58 Presmtt House, Brandon Estate, London SW17 (01-735 3368) for more details,

. GETTING PERMISSION to build on one of our 'precious agricultural acres', says D.R. Scharf, ip not impossible; only very difficult. Paradoxically, a new village,may be harder for our rulers to refuse than if single house. What we need are a fct .more well worked out proposals to push the planners onto the defensive. tion if it i s broughtito their attention. My emphasis will be attached to groups as I , feel that the,individual or family flight to the countryside is largely irrelevant to mass rural resettlement which Iwould suggest at the very least as one alternative means of relieving the housing shortage.

TOGETHER, the need and the demand for a widespread movement to resettle the countryside may mean that such a revolution is not the utopian dream discounted by the establishment. It may not be as beautiful as some romantics would have us believe, but neither would i t s realisation be as difficult and distantas some crackpot realists try to make out. If such a process i s delayed until a tidal wave of hungry refugees burst through the green belts and flood the countryside, then 'planning' will be largely irrelevant. However, while the exodus from the cities amounts to no more than a trickle held back in part by the inhibiting effects of traditional planning policies - the chinks in the development control armour or at least i t s less well protected parts could usefully be exposed to view. There may be some groups who have the v a n s of exploiting a weakness in the opposi-

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Reasons for refusal Notwithstanding the greater sensitivity of planning authorities to developments ingreen belts, Areas of Natural Beauty and National Parks, the objections commonly raised to development i n the counttyside include:a) The visual intrusionof buildings in the landscape; b) The loss of agricultural land - loss of productivity and disrup'tion of agribusiness; c) Relatively high costsof servicing dispersed development; -Ă&#x201A;ÂĽ

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d) The setting of a precedent which generally applied would open the floodgates; e) Evenlaking the proposal on its merits the special 'agricultural nee. for a dwelling' may be unconvinc'ing; inadequate to satisfy official , criteria of aviable holding. I am not wholly opposed to these be used to refuse applications for single isolated houses. However, the policy ob jections are not so easily sustained if thf scale of the proposal is increased. No doubt new objections will be concocted to oppose applications for new rural communities and the sooner that these are revealed the sooner that, in turn, their inadequacies can be exposed. I t is worth remembering that there should bp a presumption in favour of an application in the absence of strong reasons for refusal and not vice tersa. This is not to say that it will be easy to satisfy the planning departments that their doubts regarding the servicing and employment problems are not well founded. However. I feel that there is a sad lack of proposals with which to . formally sound out the planning authori t l ~ (views ' on these matters. Planning

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applications are free, and the case law" slating to development in the country- . ;rde on which future appeal decisions :auld be based may be bolstered and extended by a wide range of applications being made and appealed as necessary. A complete relaxation of planning control over development i n the countryside would have remarkably little effect It is i n the inwrests of all those who own residential property to limit the extent of new development in order t o maintain the excess of demand over supply and hence the value of their stake i n land and housing. Not only must planning become more readily available,'but so must land on which to build. While property remains concentrated i n the hands of those with limited urban and industrial interests and generally wasted By public authorities, may Ihumbly sfiggert that we do not 5h

The village There mustbe doubts ity of the liberated city dweller to take . advantage of the *sources offered by the countryside without, at least i n the short term, doing more harm than jeod.Ifthb brake is to beapplied bv 'planning'," the0 'planners' should be genuinely tonamed that all new development, i n town and country, [eflects the true needs o f the coming order. T k y remqin to cowinced that new village satisfies these needs; is better adapted, tothe various shortages we are expefiencing, to a more benign expression of the human resource, and can take place without imposing an intolerable strain on the immediate natural environment. The village is the form of settlement which, until the unfortunate advent of the County Planning Department, has best stond the test of time. Since prer historic times, villages of varying degrees of autonomy have survived and until ' recently flourished. Now, the so-called affluent society finds that it cannot afford villages. The village has become a problem at the levels of local government responsible for the services and will remain so until the opportunities and benefits of a more~arochialexistence become overwhelming. Current efforts by central government to sustain the cities i@ plapesto live i n - they may suryive awflminfstrative centres while people are pryeared to tolerate central administratton - will prove futile as the city dweller turns refugee, voting with his feet i n favour o f smaller settlements. (Gallup Poll says 7 W o f Britain'spopulation would prefer to live in a town or village of less than 10,000peopled While new homes are demanded outside existing cities, the choice i s between peripheral suburbs, new towns or new villages, Many existingtowns are splitting at the seams and the* character is being destroyed. ew towns are highly complex projects' signed to fit into a regional and national context. While a powerful company or development corporation can engineer the creation of

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a settlementof'50-1,m,000 people, this task is beyond the scope o f DIY. If much of the groundwork were carried out by a public authority then perhaps the super-structure could be applied on self-help lines. However, the larger the tpwn the greater the bureaucracy, so although there is much to gain by grouping individuals, there is less benefit in calling villages neighbourhoods and grouping them into towns. Although it may be difficult to find sites for hundreds and perhaps thousands of new villages, it is equally very easy to find sites for <he few ivhteowe necessary toprdve the case1 Qr t o discredit these ideas for the time being.

enough to encourage the compensatory gardening and it Is better that low ' density development tikes the form of a village than of suburban sprawl. With over 1.5 million unemployed it does not seem to make sense for the MAFF to encourage agribusiness to employ fewer people. "

Reasons for approval -

The traditional grounds a) toe) for : fusing new development in the country-* de are much weaker arguments against iroposals for clustered development.

Aesthetic ?) (he beauty of the countryside is more severely damaged by developments by agribusiness, many of which A. do not require planning permission and may even be grant-aided. There is a clear correlation between large farm buildingsand large field;. Ifaesthetics . @WJI anything in planning&iifcmg then carefully sited,<iefl-desig(ie<l . wd genefwdy l&&d ebflsfs of hhses, eipeeiajly $ p r b o s e d w Ă&#x192; , p m b d y derelict As,wouM cornpare veiy favourably with grain silos and massive asbestos-cladbarns currently jwtifed on grounds of efficiency. While a cluster of houses has inhe*t of urban space, . isolated dwellings or farm buildings rely wholly on the generally poor quality of the architecture and mater- s ids for their appeal. Problem5 of siting a i d landscaping are eased i n a cluster of housesand there can be economies in the erection of non-residential buildings. A cluster or village of new housesare likely to have more character and identity than the equivalent number on a

Cost of Services: cpisolated dwellings only rarely enjoy mains supplies or drainage. Many of theĂ&#x192;Â§ existing services can be dispensed with to advantage and where necessary the expense of mains connectionscan be s h a d amongst a cluster o f houses. Appropriate technologies have as yet been deprived of the opportunities to ' be tried out extensively in the field and a# i n an early stage of develop-

, Precedents: = d) individual housesari dangerouspre-, ceftents. It is.e~siecfm a planning - authority to trust a trust or managemerit company toabie by an agreed constitution relating tosthecare of the' land than the individual who i s always vtilnerable'to'the temptations of horses' swimming pools and property specula. tion. A pefmission grartted specifioally, to a corporate entity wHI'opl$be a precedent for similarly f i ~ r a t i v e f $ organised groups.

VlabMtys

e) the tultivatien of the land cap be.' guaranteed by aco-operatTve I$ likely to embrace the land hungry and the disinterested. The viability of a co-operative be ofequaf concern to itself <(s to the planning authority. The structure will have to be presented for scrutiny ifa planningpermisis to be w*t, and thiswillhave to include proposals for the e.irtploymentofit* Ambers. I t should be possible to show how a co-operative' can generate work for it~imembers and not be a drain on the local econom

Land Loss: Rural resettlement can emerge as a b) the Minis alistic alternative when considering ' would not dispute thata new village A- location for the development of new could be highly productive of food homes and can embrace the village in the and by labour intensive cultivation city as well as that in the country. The may even Over-comPensate for the loss Bsence of the new.village will be l ~ a 'l ~ . suffered by the displaced agribusiness., , basedemployment and ifthissj& be However, they would be very sceptical regenerated then based admifib of the Capacity of a small acreage Per yation and-planningwill follow. tiowhead to provide acceptable wage levels, ever, while employment catchment areas and generally appear to be more conman regons, co cerned with the livelihood of the faro l eOK. met than the quantity or quality of the food produced. On our part there is a need to demonstrate how many new villagers could be employed in food production, on c/o Foodand Energy Research Cehtra Evesham Road, Cteeve Prior, Evoshai'n, wore how many acres. Wherever houses, factories and roads are built, cultiva2. Rurd Resettlement Grouo are a The M a 7 House. ~heinethanbiss,Norfolk tible land is sterilized. It is better that In June 77 a planning advisory council was the density of theLdevelopynth low ,2 1 estabijshed.

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EBENEZER HOWARD'S GARDEN CITY CONCEPT brought together a number of ideas: the community ownership of land and of the land values created by development; the holding of a town's freehold in trust for the community; development based on a plan; and the limiting of housing density and the physical area of a new settlement. It is sixty years since a garden city was just started: but some people think that it's time for another. David Lock, Principal Strategic Land Use Planner at Milton Keynes Development Corporation talks to Sue Lobbenberg about how the Garden City notion is still alive and thriving. ..-

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There are a number of impor distinctions bttween new towns and garden cities: the new towns are controlled by the state, so the land is owned by the Treasury rather than by the community, as i n garden cities; and new tow are based on a mixed economy whereas the garden cities were based on the intention for co-operative forms of enterprise.

WHEREWIU THEY GO?

Fabian Socialist who believed in a peacefill rather than revolutionary path of reform. He envisaged garden cities as a way o f achieving social reform, and wrote and published at his own expense 'Tomorrow: the pathfo peaceful reform. Republished editions of the book are pow called Garden Cities of Tomorrow. The central core of his argument is that if people lived in places with which they could identify, over which they had control and where the emhasif was on a cooperative economy and organisation, f t would be possible to build up a society on a solid formation. The physical form of the city -muld be a marriage of both town and country, bringi g the advantages of both rural and urbah areas..ThÃˆi clearly shown by Howard's diagram of the three magnets.

SL Did the garden city attrbct enough support for It to be called a 'rqovementÃˆ DL No,-it ,wasnwer a mass movement, but it did win the support of many middiklaS intellectuals. This is because of the many aspects of liberal thinking within the garden cities idea, which attracted people interested in such things as the development of housing tenurei ltbR1y became a as such via middle-class thinking. But the residents of welwyn and Letthworth anij the 32 new towns suPPmthe* be "led part of the 'move they ment'. although their support is silent! The Tow and counw Ã£anni Association remains the focus for advo

agricultural use and there were no roads OF water!

A few years later Ebenezer Howard thought that there sh uld be a W d example of a garden &h resulted in the establishment of W w n . .* Howard himsew hidfor the laa)d% f r i e r i * ~raise auction and (~puÃ§^e( the g m city hotion. the capital. He sked FJOtborn (later SL There is now ipe possibility of a to become President of the Town and third garden city in Milton Keynes (See be cwnw plqff'ngmmiatiOff'l . Eddje4 l)C 32). ~ a t ~ ~ c ufeatures / & ' the manager. Thw&out the 1'920's from the oldgarden cities do you see and 30's both towns were used to SL TO what extent did the idea ofthe -.-demonstrate the Ãˆdv&tage of town incorporated iif the new one? garden city become arealty? ' , planning., ' DL The new towns were a version of the garden cities, which has now been DL Initially, by mearts of a pressure SL Huware the new towns related taken to its ultimate possibility. Now group, the Garden City Association. I n m fte -wfo&n citie sftxy? the Town and Country Planning Assoctii1903 the Association found a site for DL During the SecondWorld War tioitis looking at the original principles 1 building the fjrst garden city, Letchworth, the gmnmerflreÃˆ)is that **re Would 4 tfiinking of experimen n g with a r*d f~r'misby have to be massivq redevel&men,t. So they third brden c i ~ with , wi1 incfude: and prmectus for b k e d * b mwmw5 a a d b * for* from shareholders. The first families Community ownership of tly land social organisation, apdqw$sed the iflwd into tHe m w ) n October 1903. , of Ã ~.fo*!~f develop~ent+ich,rs boft NewTowns Act n i 1946. , . , . * &&e~'niuch ofA&Jand was still in ,

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GOOD A~RICULTURALL&D is disappearingat a n alarming rate, hile an increasing area of derelict urban and waste land is lying - . - dormant,

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the situation.

LORD STRABOLI, giving the ~overn-, pnt's views o n the 'SSfratt Report on, griculture and the puntryside' last ity, told the House o f Lords that 'the eody increase in the amount of itturalland taken fordevelopmentk a wse o f concern'. ' The soft-soap expression of caring ems rather mild when an average of 5,100 acres peryear was transferred, . it o f agriculture to other uses in the six ending June 1975;andif that xsn't alym you then remember that edfordshire covers 305,000 acres. So' e arelosing the equivalent o f the tare county of Bedfokditiire fro? . ii . rtning every four years. That paragon o f established respe^+, hy, Country Life, has described thb Mion of farmland as 'almost unbellev>/6"collectivenational lunacy '. Not only . our green and pleasant land being minished butwe are rendering wrselv- . . more vulnerable to the uncertainties M%rbpean and world food supplies. What is Lord Strabolgi doing about it? ~s.ooilcv o f successive aovemments.~~r -;informed his fellow &&, 'has been 1 steer development aXoy from higher SMftty land on to tatidof a lower quality hqevw possible, and t o prevent too acfl land being taken for b y one Â¥KtepmentlIn practice, the Governtent if protecting land i n grades Iand it. h l k (he remainder is la&ly expandable. ,

from derelict and waste land. The Urban Wasteland report points out that the vacant land total for inner London (2,076) is only Ã little less than the area of Hatfield New TOW^ (2,340) whose population is 26,000. Alice Coleman has found that the a-nt of dead and disturbed spacein the London Borough o f Tower Hamlets rose from 3 to 15%

The pdlicy - albeit of successive governments - is inadequate as the stat tics show. There will have to be a clamp down on the development of farmland good and medium quality forcing devel e n to seek out the very poorest land an the huge acres of derelicti~tddormant land.

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of the whole between 1964 and 1977, and she suggests that the 45 kilometres of corrugated iron erected must have cost at least Â£300,000 . .

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Undercurrents 32

Parksfor the People? SHAW

I N 1929 GEORGE BERNARD urged t h e Government to tablish the first national park in the Malvern Hills. Today, 50 years, 10 tional parks and 2 Countryside Acts later, are our fields a n d forests any oetter protected? Edward Da+n looks a t the current state 6f t h e rural environment. COUNTRYSIDE POLICIES are in a te of flux. In the past twenty or so irs the pressures of an urban society our shrinking countryside have built to an'almost intolerable degree; felt much in national'parks as elsewhere. is amusing to speculate that the foundifathers of the national park system ibably thought they had got the irst over with by 1949. From now on, th fresh legislation under their arm, t going would be easier. But they had laboured under a false ision. The full force of urbanisation; resource shortages; of plain environ- , antal dismantling is yet to be felt. sides this the need to grow more od, the effects of physical over-use and e dawning of the 'Silicon-chip Age' all reaten a rapid demise of our national rks within decades. So what i s the reaction of the move:it which led to the establishment of ir park system and rural legislation nerally?The reaction has been cornKent and unimaginative The movement must rget its strange origins and develop nore relevant, energetic and pragmatic proach if it i s not to become one o f e great lost,causes of the twentieth

As the report of the National Park ticies Review Committee (the Sandrd Report) notes, official interest in d n a l parks in Britain i s about fifty &old. But it was only because of the rsistent campaigning of John Dower d others in the 1930's that the postK Labour Government eventually pintea the HobhouseCorMittee then passed the. National Parks d Access to the Countryside Act in 149. .' 0 ' ing the fifties, interest i n wildlife id e countryside continued to we op. The formation in 1957 of the tit for Nature, slink body for all d, is an indicator of this. ,it was not until the at concern again began to grow bx rate, helped by the efforts like Garth Christian rand son, who drew 'attention to e poisorting o f wildlife from agrtcultut'chemicals. lncreakd leisure was ready bringing more people into c o y c t with the landscape outside cities. In 1963, largely because o f the

waswen as a whitewashing exercise: such was the public's sympathy for nattonal parks and the countryside. Even with this clear declaration of public faith, the national parks move-, ment'has still failed to mobilise support and build on it in order to improve and enhance the protection of the countryside. The movement has got to develop or else get left behind the mainstream of environmental opinion. A Plough in Time The contradictions and conflicts of Government policy often become manifest in a partiuclar locality. An example of this is Exmoor National Park, an area of nearly 200,000 acres, which is receiving growing attention by i t s proximity to the M5 motorway. Bkmoor is 'Lorna Doone' country, mist-laden and heather-clad. Herein lies the problem. The conversion of moorland into grassland has gone on for years, but i s now diminishing the areas of open moorland ' severely and threatening the character of Exmoor, which was the reason for its original designation as a National " mrK. The controversy reached its height in mid-l97, when Denis Howell, Minister responsible for natural disasters, ordered a special i~ovdrnhentInquiry

a 'Countvside in 1970' Conference was held under the presidency of the Duke of Edinburgh. This was to bethe first of three highly successful conferences and brought together a divergent group of countryside users While back home as they quarrelled together they had unwittingly become the spearhead of a new a i d uynamic concern for the countrysite and the environment. The dramatic sinking of the Torrey Canyon was undoubtedly the event which focussed attention on the 'Environment' as a nascent public issue with pollution getting the highest rating. This finally led directly to the complete recognition of environmental problems as being worthy of immediate addition to the political agenda, albeit in a low position. This new movement resulted in the 1968 Countryside Act and in the formation of bodies such as CoEnCo - the Committee for Environmental Conservation - and in 1970 itself the declaration by the Council of Europe Of European Conse ation Year. . owever, throughout the media's m m c t with the environment, pollution, population and *cycling have begun to on Howellps desk. many ways the leave more wiidlife and countryside con- Rport was for *e amenity cerns limping behind. This whirlwind of countryside Commission. and for g e has abatement and porchester,had found that there was a the atrival pf the seventies has added case f i r establishing category ofland and energy policy to the fray, where change from the traditional It seems to me that these subjects at gJpearance should be resisted with the times almost eclipse tile public,s interest utmost determination and should be in other areas, such as tfc countryside. for a ll us the made Th? seventies started o f f badly for tainties o f both human and natural national "arks with the Goverpment's aFairs may ao l w., decision to make available Â£5 million The signs of a stronger countryside for exploration into mineral deposits. protection movement,are perhaps ' Here the development of a new body, beginning show' Friends o f the Earth, had more impact Doingour Level Worst than its young yearsmight have led i t to expect. The battle started over whether MeanwMIe net f a r a ~ a ra similar confrbntation was beingenacted. his * ' BT-Z should be alloyed to mine copper time on the ~ f i ~ s e t ' . b ~ & s . - T hlevels e in Spowdonia and theeventual reaction cover about 260 square miles; perhaps of ihdustry was t o set up an independent, the largest and most inmesting wetland but .industw'finanwd, Commission pn area in Britain. AsIn Exmoor, farming ming and the Environment - under LoM Zuckerman. The FOEdocument, has beencarried out for centuries, but Rock-Bottom: Nearing the Limits o f now the area is being drained and the Mineral Mining in Britain, submitted to r' wildlife is on the way out. In some Zuckerman, argued heavily against the t places the water table has dropped to a depth of 3 feet and the rewtt i s that expansion of itt&t?l extraction in the vast flocks of wintering waders an*. national parks and areasof wt$Bndin& waferfod will find $he@food Supply natural beauty. Similarly, CoEnCo put disappearing. the case for a total legal ban an such This time the official conwvation2\.% workings and repeated this in its later bodv in the firing line i s the Nature submission to the official Committee ~onservancycouncil. In the same month on Minerals Planning Coritrol under Sir that Porchester was appointed, the L d ,, Quncil st "g a .workingparty fifd i s y e d i , , ..

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;onsultation document. Although ith sides are less polarised than at cxmoor, the result is nonetheless significant. Almost total support was given to the need for a 'Land Use Strategy '. This idea had already been mooted by the Council in Nature Conservation and ~~rkufture which ons of modem looked at the imp1 agricultural policies teildlife conSfervitionind the reearnitins of two conflicting national Wectives inceasingfood ptqdu@pn and maintainingBritain's flow and +na. The idea ba novel one, but ifconsepation did h o m e an objective and not merely acona'derattwi of policy, then a mechanism for real progress might befm&;Such a national policy is, howewr,.a long way off.

What's happening now?

1fhe year just past must be regarded gfthe most significant in connee tion with conflicts Over land use. In 1976 the Countryside Review Committee suggested that Section II of the 1968 Countryside Act should be monitored forperformance. This section is highly significant, since it requires all Ministers, in the exercise of their functions, 'to

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~evels,was the case of-Amberiey wild Brooks, a wetland in West Sussex. The Â£300,00 scheme was t o drain 900 acres but due to pressure from amesnity bodies became the subject of an unprecedented public inquiry. The result was an overnight victory : for the.conservationalists. The Council for the Protection of Rural Engtand (CPRE) had put up a p~ticularty devastating case on economic grounds and the Minister had little option but to turn down the scheme. The third event of 1978 which indicates a change in direction in official attitudes to the countryside CoVerns the kibble Estuary. Here some 6,000 acres of unique wetland habitat had been bought a Dutch developer with the intention of converting it into farmland alomg the lines of polder. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds had earlier offered Â£ for the site and now they and JNature Conservancy founcil set nut to alert the Depratment of the Environment of the problem. The DOE acted quickly, and to his credit, Denis Howell announced that the DOE would underwrite the NOG'S bid to buy the cite. Cnflectively thew A-risinns wu1d be history of conflicts over conservation and farming. So perhaps things aren't so bad as 1 first thought.

Project Officers. The fir,. ,. u..,D Suffolk is already achieving remarka

The other Government body, (he NCC, is about pritub sih l its second policy paper in forestry. The volui bodies are not sleeping either; the new ly formed Council for National Parks, a group of about thirty national and regional hrdies, is launching a fundraising appeal. Not many people have heard of i t yet, but I am sure they so will. A t the time of writing, a new Cou side Bill has just had i t s Second Readi in the Commons The Bill will provide for the Moorland Conservation Orders recommended by Porchester and is thus an important step forward. I started out by saying that the national parks movement was no longer at the forefront of public concern about t h e environment. Yet there have been, as l have quoted,unprecedented developments even in the last few months. Is my contention true? The answer might be gauged from the"54iour debate in the Lords on 24 January 1979 on a motion calling atten tion to the need to balance economic and environmental factors in &ision

e Countryside in 1980

Edward Dawson

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far - more ..information. communic tion and creativity in an urban environment, but it ha$a quality which reflects i t s roots. and those are firmly embedded Ă&#x201A;ÂĽiconcrete. Through this lens, appropria no doubt for dealing with past and mewnt-rtm urban challenges. thecountr

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I wasone of those blinkered basemen flat dreamers myself, deeply attracted to the great silence and open spaces, longin. to hear the sound of my body, the wind THE COUNTRYSIDE has a far more vital role to play than simply as in the trees and the gurgling of moorlartc ~ k y a r dto the city. Mark Kidel believes the source of the next stage of of Devon life brooks. with 2% lr evolution lies within the heart of ourop n spaces and through a CIO* khind me, am stil the priwnkr of my intact with the earth. almost exclusively urban past, but there has been a change, more than just the IT HAS BECOME something o f a cliche It is because it is a move forwards, , bf3vitable slowing down. Although I WR wail a b u t the death throes of the that the steady trickle out of the urban still something of an 'observer', cut off untryskle. The sales of Lark Rise to areas is so deeply misunderstood. The by my media-mind, there has betn an ndleford, Flora Thompson's moving qualities inherent in the countryside opening up, a growing susceptibility to (elements which have not quite been d meticulous account of rural Oxfordthe changes of the moon cycle and the , ire at the end of the last century, are annihilated by tourism, agribusiness, seasons, a feeling (quite unmeasurable ~ .) are of second homes, the E E etc\. oming, and nostalgia thrives. Some and outside the realms of scientific pro0 ing that needs so obviously 'preserving' 0rin0ug importance to the sane sup&!of being a part of <hf whole - the earth, f humanity in something other than 1st already be stone dead. the trees and all the increasingly familial rave new world. They are being And yet, there is more to the faces of the people who live down here. vitalised through the growth of a yntryside toda than the chocola The categories that once made up r t Y radigm or consciousness which is only x and colour-s pplement romance mind for me (right, left, feudal, free,, st coming into being. In our attempt )uld suggest. 'Going to the country' democratic, authoritarian, paternalistic nderstand those qualities from the the great'escape from the self' etc. .) have grown blurred: in a world spective of a 19th century humanist, angling cities - may have looked to where political party and class have a ialist and rationalist system of thought, me like a retreat from reality, a very diffetent meaning, the ofd pigeonwe almost completely miss out on their 'usal to face up to the challenge holes and theories do not quite fit I relevance to the present and the future. ~ i c hfaces the majority of people in found it difficult at first to belime that. industrialised world, but while in local elections, it was individual repuractinga very limited amount of Concrete Stimuli tations rather than party allegiance whu :w settlers', it i s a trend that reflects It is commonly assumed by the drew the oreatest number of votes. leep malaise which goes much deeper average Time Out reader - he/she, plugged Over the months, a picture has emerg an all the rhetoric would suggest into the mass of city-stimuli, and hip to ed, particularly out of the work I have The moves out of the metropolis is all the latestintellectual trends - that been involved in with a group of local t so much a flight as a return to the nothing mu& happens beyond the volunteers of all ages and background Jrce, and the first tentative steps in a - documenting the change in village life point where the red buies stop, and that irney forwards (rather than backnew ideas only grow out of the ferment over the last century,xnd i t i s a picture irds as urban critics would have it) which I have felt in my heart just as which is the only positive side effect of the uncharted territory of the next mass overcrowding. There i s no doubt that' m u c h as in my intellect. ige in human evolution. %

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i s through involvement at the m humble (and yet cruc'ii) local level that ,. 7s 2i we must begin. Group consciousness , , (the truly Christian sense of love an'd sharing which must evolve out of the . preseht dominant cult o f secular, eg& based individualism) will only at first grow'on a small and intimate scale, and It is much more tikely tohappen i n the countryside. . . , ... * .

~with nature ~ : ~

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- ~ h ~ c ~ &pp&;t'wf~ ose natural flows and cycles which countryliving implies

i s also fundament$ t p our evolution

from an over-emphasis on the tyaBrialisfic, scientific, technical and rational rds shore balanced approkh'to

he dream of the city represents -* an over-indulgence-inthe Yang side of ' our nature, taking-Os far fromd%e central needs for survival into a world t h a t has grown increasingly artificial and fragmented. The countryside (the , b earth that keeps us growing) provides ' , the Yin energies that we so badly need ; foralaneequilibrium. urban ~ h & t of the welfare state must be replaced by ' '- We have overdosed ort out need for material security, attempting tocontrol The countryside is under threat: agri- . small group interdependence, a greater individual self-reliance, matched by the the forces of nature instead of accepting business, land speculation, the very mixsort ofgroup interdependence,which that we must work with them, surrened blessing pf'tourism, the influx of the only a certain degree of~!f-6pflffdence derhig to the inevitable, as so many old elderly, the decline of services (educafannersllave so wisely always done. can create. tim, transport, health in particular - to These are dalities v^'wh still exist in They have gone by their feelings and ' name but afew o f the factors involved the CWnttythte, a Worfit'ftÃˆ&ff there intuitions, h o t by the book of $he are dl contributing to its r q i d trantfot*"; dismay be plenty ofgosip;but scientific advice from the Min. of Ag., [nation. We are tumbling towards a mixffessraMy (oemnnatteBd and~ncared and you do ~othavtetareadthe TaoTe toreof manicured wildeuyss, factoryfarm and playground, the country a4 a for, *re famwnatyrally help each Ching-to'see that.,\. other Out at haymaking and harvesting -+It is notthat ye <tp nGt have.achoice, backyard for the increasingly unpleasant time, without becoming bound u p in ;:t. gutthat we sorely, need to make contact cities. the exchange o f money, , copteagain with the^polarities and More deeply alarming, perhaps, be10%unemploynient is a major--, '- tfalapce that are so fundamental to the , cause it is so difficult to desctibe con' -maintenance o f healthy life. The country _problem on a national scale, callink'for vipcingly, is the fact that power and * massive and uniform government "-. . i s o f vital.importance'because i t embodinformation are controlled by 'metrevention and the'inevitable creation of ies many of the positive elements that are politan' minds (piannerswho believein ' ' integral to the new ~onsciousness which concentrating people and their work in , large administrative body to 'im@* has grown so widely since the 1960's key settlements (micro-cities), resplen- "%,'f&tgovernm~nt policies and channel public funds. I f it were dealt with on a '(and which hlnotmentioned so often, dent with wide con&te pgvements, itiage or small town scale, needs and now that i t is no longer 'news')- a streetlights and supermarkets, and a te~ ources could be more easily coordlna-. consciousness which by its very nature vision service-which benevolently stifle . ,and the wishes of the whole Popula- refuses to be pinned down '6y the overconviviality',an~sprbadia very dubiou cultural homogeneity) - the full long'-tion taken intoiaccount The problem intellectual and rationalistic'framework ; -s of the era that i s no* sfowl9 dying. It term results o f which we have not be provides the only true and fertile ground to understand. The small scale ruralapproach also for e~perimenptioii~for building the What makes the disintegration of the a * new. This view do@-Dotignore t h e v , ~ countryside so dangerous if that we need . ensures a dore holistic view, a recognition that all spheres of tinman activity real problems of the'cities, but i t calls Its integration so badly, both as a model are intertwined, that a problem is not for something like the ruralizatioi'i of and a seed-bed for the new conscious. necessarily test seen as a 'housing' metropoli~,rather than the urbanization. ness as well as the social/economic/ problem, but as a question which canof the countryside political f o r m that must replace the cerns aparticular locality and its in- ' Whatever happens, a great deal of, outdated attitudes and institutions of openingup will have the national, industrial and maximum growth era.

$,.

Mark W

Rural means small The scale and low population density of rural areas make it possible 'to create truly representative and responsible bodtes, built on mutual cooperation, a first-hand knowledge of the problems

The v . r s p h t w * scorn ttl~'0>rtington R u d chive.~communttyhistory prqect based in South Devon. They appear in b ~ n t e r d a y ' W&e, s en archive publication that is available from Mark Kidel, Oartington Hill, Totnw.Dmmn, Â£.?5 plus pottage.

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SHOULD ISLANDS such as the Shetland Islands be given special status within the British Isles? Vicki Colet'nan, a Slietlander herself, supports this view and laments the lack of interest from the mainland.

WITH SCOTLAND and Wales demanding devolution and other areas o f the United Kingdom getting ideas about it, it is time to consider the whole 'British Isles question'. Should we not be attempting t o take advantage o f the fact that we are a group of islands, and try to make the most of each one o f them? The problem here is that Shetland does not feel it is part o f Scotland, though most Shetlanders would agree that they are part o f the British Isles. The islands were 'mortgaged' to Scotland in 1469 as part of the dowry o f adaughter o f a feckless Danish king. Up till then Shetland had been for several centuries under Norwegian domination, and indeed for several centuries after the mortgaging there was talk in Scandinavia o f redeeming the islands, but as the years went by Scotland came to have a stronger and stronger foothold. Scottish people o f all descriptions came and made their homes in the islands, in many cases taking land by force. They introduced the feudal system; under Norway the islanders held their land with no laid down duties to a

landlord, although they owed allegiance to the king o f Norway and paid taxes to him when someone managed t o collect them. I would say that Norse and Scottish have had roughly equal influences on Shetland as it is today. In terms o f dialect and place-names there are many many Norse and Norse-derived words still in use. The Shetland language, Norn, was still spoken in Foula, the remotest o f the islands, in the eighteenth century.

Westminster far away Shetland has an identity o f its own, so has Orkney and so have the Western Isles. To all o f them there isn't a great deal to choose between government from Edinburgh or trom Westminster - both places are a long way across the sea. And although our representatives may have their say, those who sit in the seat o f government don't understand much about islands, such as their problems or needs. There is a lot happening in the Scottish Islands just now. The people have a l o t o f

The Shetland Islands CouncilJwat 'Spa Clara', a converted fishing veswl unloads the Coleman's 20-war-old Land Rover in the spring of 1978 at Papa Stour Pier.

spirit and now they have well and truly thrown o f f the yoke o f tyrannical landlords. Add to them numbers o f people arriving seeking various alternatives some o f them 'back-to-the-landers', others adventurers seeking something more challenging than a steady job, and the knowledge that at the end o f it all the life insurance will pay tip - and you get quite a promising mixture. Not every outsider makes a success o f it. people continue to think that islands are romantic; so they are, but they do also present problems.

Economic problem On the Shetland Island o f Papa Stour where I live, the population seven years ago was sixteen, having been over three hundred in the last century. It is now forty. The numbers have been swelled by young English families, o f which I am one. My three children were born in Shetland. The problem is chiefly economic; the teacher and the postmistress are the onlv employed pepple on the island. Everyone else scrapes a living as best they can - crafting, fishing, tourists, knitting and occasionally going away 'to work on the oil'. A couple o f weeks at Sullom Voe can do wonders for a bank balance. We are always racking our brains for new ways t o make money. The first venture we went into when we got here was a grant and loan from the Highlands and Islands Development Board for a shell fishing boat. My husband and another man were partners i n this. Finandally, it was a total flop due to a combination o f very bad weather, lack of fish (it's been overfished round here for decades) and lack o f experience. They worked hard but there wasn't even enough money for the upkeep o f the boat, let alone the wives and families, and the 'Quest' was sold, sadly, after a

Jndercurrents

SHETLAND ISLANDS

dear. However, Iconsole myself with thought that we do haw somtthing rery pbsftive here t o offer yffiiicxs in the way of peace and quiet, not tw$ mention .cenew and birds, debought three small :aravans last springsWehad to db a lot if hustling to get a big boat to bring them n. Up till Wen all our supplies had come n with the 25 ft. open small boat We low get visits three or four times a year rom a bigger boat subsidised by the 9ietland Islands Council. Although many tiewed our caravans with suspicion at first hey are quite pleased that they don't lave t o hump tons o f coal on and off the mail boat every year any more (about hree tons per household). Tourism ean wily be carried on during the summer nonths,and even then the weather isa >itchancy., We live fairly cheaply i n that there are 10 shaps to tempt us, except the post iffice d i c h sells a small selectionof canred food and groceries. We grow a$ many legetables as e are able to. Also we get luite a lot fr& the sea; mackerel, mithe ind crabs are all plentiful i n their season. dostpeople who catch lobsters tend t o ell them rather thanĂ&#x192;Â§athem as people' iu$there are willing to'pay suchalot or them! Ikeep about a dozen hens and a cock'(el. This provides us with a plentiful upply o f eggs through the summer and i meagre supply through the winter. towever, we always manage t o raise a ew young ones fromo broody hen, and foungcockerelsmake very good eating ound about Christmas time.

i o services There are no services here - no lectricity, not even a ferry. There is a ost office and bnie'of the island's boat wners has the mill contract; this subsidto enable him run ies him is boat and bring i n almost all the upplies the island.oeeds. The quality of life i s excellent here. kit does the government recOgnise this? t would seem not. A small population Oes warrant pod the ioney must be spent on keeping the ities We and others like us are a it of i nuisance; sometimes we get sick nd need a doctor; we get pregnant too. Tiere is a rule in ttie medical ptofessiwi i a t after childbirth a wo'man must be (tended daily for ten days by a midwife. te aren't of cours* but these things on't seem to worry the authorities. It ppears thatwe are an inconvenience.

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OUTER HEBRIDES

h e l p 4 a lot financially as the inhabitants can now get work, but I suspect many think sadly o f the old days when they in the house of an amusing themselvesand eachother, ratherthan getting in the car to go to the pub or the pictures. The point is that all islands and island groups should be given a special status within (he British Isles, with freedom to work out how best t o keep these small communities alive and viable, thus encouraging them to grow instead of clinging on by their fingernails, which &pect to do at present. is about alt we ,'-3. -.L<sf

k/Wl'& &

Postscript

s an Since writing this, there h ~ been oil spill only a few weeks after the opening of the Sullom Voe 'terminal. lt.is obviousthat some o f the equipment sup-

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of blunders resulting in failure go contain the oil within the Vpe (Voe means inlet). Or. Mike Richardson, Shetland Nature Conservancy Officer, estimates bird mortality in the worst hit areas o f Yell Sound and Sullom Voe as one hundred per cent.

Tanker IanesJor ships going to and from Sulforn Voe have yet to be determined: they run on the west side of Papa Stour where the notorious Ve Skerries have claimed many ships and lives. The Northern Lighthouse Board has agree* Put a light on the Ve Skerries later %is Year, but with the visibility at sea in a storm such a thing will only be visible at dose quarters. Adequate precautions are justnot being taken, and we who ti& here feel the thread on the sword of Q ~ ~ , -growing J ~ ~ ever thinner.

VikiColeman ' -"^

our organic principles and simply covered the weeds with thick layers of newspaper, cardboard and black polythene. We caused a greatdeal of amused curiosity, goin around the village begging old cardboar boxes and other materials suitable for laying on the garden. We then made holes in the covering and planted straight into the weedy soil beneath. The amused , curiosity turned to puzzlement and scepticism when people saw what we were doing and we weren't sure how successful this method of gardening would be. But, as I said, we were desperate to eat our own vegetables. We need not have had any qualms. The seeds germinated and we had a bumper cropof everything. Our wishes, and hard work, came true - we ate our own vegetables, froze some for the winter and gave a lot away, and the courgettes still came in abundance. The garden is now growing so well that we have not had to buy any vegetables since coming here, except for the occasional exotics such as aubergines, and we hope to grow these too, when we havdthe time and money to invest in a greenhouse. Is it all hard work and slog? Well it's hard work, but not all of it. There are times o f marvellouseuphoria when the rose-tinted spectacles present a very rosv picture indeed. The time, for instance, when t h m l d plum tree literally rained down the most lusciously sweet, richly purple plums anyone has ever tasted. We froze them, ate them, made jam and juice from them, gave them away by the boxful and they still dropped silently from the-tree waiting in the cool grass for us to pick them up.. There is the sheersmug satisfaction of friends and visitors commenting on the marvellous taste of your vegetables There is the good feeling that spreads over the place when friends come and help with their muscle power in exchange for a bed and food. There are times of embarrassment when t+e ?mateur is caught oljt by the professional, as when we were quietly watched over the hedge for half an hour by three experienced shepherds as we ' went pounding and shrieking over the fields in a vain attempt to get the sheep into the fold ready for shearing. Then we watched the sixteen year old lad calmly coax them all into the fdld in three minutes f l a t

MORE AND MORE people are attracted to t h e idea of self-sufficiency md t h e rural life. It is not always a* brightly coloured as the pages in the soffee table self-sufficiency books. Here are two accounts of the reality of m w n g self-sufficient. The first is from BarbaraGirardetwho moved from 3 London f l a t with her family, WE MOVED from our small, dark, lamp ground floor flat i n Kentish Town, vith its overgrown garden, to our shall, lark, damp cottage in the Wye Valley uith its even more overgrown garden it the beginning of May two years ago. Somebody wiser would have been orgiven for thinking 'out of the frying >aninto-the fire' and there were times Ă&#x192;Ë&#x2020;he we thought so too. But for the irst two weeks we determined to do 10 work and to have a country holiday. i o we revelled in the place, in the fresh tir, the bird song, the spring flowers, [he forest surroundingus and the lack r f petrol fumes and traffic noise. The nustysmell in the cottage, and the ;olony of mice in residence in the roof mre all part of a blissful country peace that we luxuriated in after the last few f w s of rushed existence in London. Fhe boys could run freely in the fields md forest and we didn't have to worry about them being run over, but a new worry took its place. Adders, we were told, were to be found in their hundreds, and although Istill haven't seen one, the kids are forced to wear wellies in the forest even on a sweltering hot day. We were like children with new toys at Christmas, delighting in everything, the birds, the silent velvety butterflies, anything and everything seemed new and wonderful to us, especially the beautiful spring water that gushes out of a hole in the ground in.the top field and is brought to the cottage i n a black plastic hose pipe. When we fill the bath tub with it, it is a pale turquoise blue, and tea made with it is really gorgeous. even the loo is flushed with this soft silky water that pours out of the earth so clean and cold and without our having to lift a finger. We gloried in the sea of fruit blossoms in the orchard and in the flurries of petals as the breeze whipped them off the branches. We thought that we had arrived in paradise. The vast tangle of weeds which covered what was to be our vegetable garden with a four foot high jungle and was threatening to envelop the cottage itself was not enough to warn us of the backbreaking work in store for us, nor did the sight of beams peppered with woodworm holes. Even we knew that this lotus-eating could not go on forever, and after our . holiday, we set to work with a will, and with a very great deal of welcome help from our friends, attacked both cottage and garden simultaneously. We had to dig out the floors in the cottage to put in? fordays the downstairs damp CW*,

windows had shovelfuls of earth thrown out of them and then carted off i n a wheelbarrow to form piles of rubble in the orchard. Coming in through the front door, one was confronted with a gaping hole in the ground and lo@of very damp earth. As we had taken possession of the cottage in May, we had to work fast to transform the jungle into a vegetable garden. We dug the top half of the garden four times in order to abolish the couch grass, nettles, docks, bracken, brambles, you name the weed, we had it! It was both back-breaking and time consuming, and the planting season was slipping past. We felt as if we were running after the spring brandishing our seed packets, much as a commuter rushes after the last train home, furiously waving his season ticket. Halfway through planting the garden we'd panic about the condition of the cottage and dash indoors to hack plaster off walls and take down sagging ceilings, only to reveal yet more beams playing host to a multitude of woodworm. We had hoped to escape from the pollution and anxious rush of city life, and,here . we were up to our eyeballs in dust, gulping down enormous lungfuls of diesel 'fumes issuing relentlessly out of the tractor exhaust, while, pouring with sweat, we tried furiously rushing between cottage, garden and fields in a desperate attempt to make the place into the vision we had o f it when we first saw it There were days when we fell into bed at eight o'clock and then couldn't bear to turn over for the terrible backache brought on by any movement, and when discomfort eventually forced us to change position our groans would have put any octogenarian sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis to shame. Our hands were as rough as the best quality industrial sandpaper anA our fingernails torn and split Our bruises, where we insisted on banging some part of ourselves with various hammers and sharp tools, rather than the things they were designed to hit, were really beautiful, gradually stippling through all the colours of the rainbow.

Sticking to organic p~inciples We didn't have time to dig the whole garden before the sowing season ended, but at the same time we were determined to eat our own vegetablesirhere were times when we would have given anything for a really effective weed-killer to devasfatelhose . ehastfv . weeds, but we stuck to

Sheep There are anxious, wonderful days of lambing when the sweet vulnerable little lambs are born. Watching them grow from tiny wobbly bundles of flee into fat, frisky playful lambs with wills of their own. Some are real little brats and are treated as such by their mothel Sadly and inevitably one or two will di and be left lying in the field. Then hob fully it is discovered and buried before the crows have made too much of a mf of it This year one of our ewes lost bo of her lambs and i t was very difficult ti bear the sound of her bereaved bleatin] ,

~ i g h t i foot n ~ rot in the flock carries its own exasperation with it, as month after month you fight it with all the aids of modern veterinary science. At last it seems to have been eradicated, only to reaooear when you next inspect the flock. Working with sheep can also be hilarious, especially when trying to turn a sheep onto its back for treatment. It rears up on its hindlegs while you are hanging onto the forelegs like grim death, then it only needs the strains of a Strong rumba beat to complete the picture of this bizarre meeting between man and beast

hay-mower, and all we could $0 to allay our deep sadness was to cry A d lay flowers on hisgrave under the hazel tree. But we have Bobbie rtoy, who is different to Sammie, but just as lovable and playful, and more clever with the sheep. There are times of great apprehension, bordering on fear. When the great gales were ripping over the land, and I couldn't sleep listening to the great trees falling , onto our fields with much creaking and groaning followed by a loud thump, and it felt as if the roof would be smashed in at any moment There are times of unmitigated horror,when the septic tank overflowed and the pungent smell of methane permeated into thecottage. Or when our precious spring was blocked by a clod of earth, thuseffectively cutting off our water supply for five days. Both happened when we had inlaws to stay and we were trying very hard to impress. There are times of utter dejection and disappointment, when the boys were unmercifully bullied at the village school and the reality of human cruelty is cold and staring you in the face. The countryside i s no Arcadia, peopled with gentle swains and cheerful shepherdesses.

Christmas

Before we had a proper footpath, we used an old bathtub for dipping the sheep, complete with hot and cold water taps, which stood in the fold at Z drunken angle, propped precariously UP with chucks of wood. We lifted each sheep bodily into the bath and then had to hold all 200 Ibs of energetically thrashing sheep in the lethal solution for one interminable minute. This i s definitely a time for holding on very tight and keeping the eyevfirmly closed so as to prevent the formalin from entering the eye. If this should happen the sensation of a burning hot coal in your eye gives a very painful but very clear idea of what the medieval punishment of putting out the eyes with coals must have been like. The sheep have brought us into contact with many people, all having their o w n particular characteristics. There were the sheep-shearers working deftly and in silence under the hawthorn all through a boiling summer afternoon, and the man who came to dip the sheep with his ingenious mobile sheep dip, with his great and marvellous plans to monopolise the sheep dipping industry in Saudi Arabia. We only realized that there was something straqge about him when he told us he was high on the fumes of the dip mixture.

Tragedy There are moments of tragedy, when Sammie our bumbling shaggy mongrel was killed because he not caught in the

But Christmas was a real joy. We decorated thecottage with our own holly and bay leaves. We all got bicycles, so i n the dead of night and with only the light from the stars and our bicycle tamps we rode up the lane and into the forest, just to try them o u t There was adark mysteri o u h s s about it ailand a feeling that there was no one on this planet beneath the stars but its. There are those times when our sheer ignorance in matters has also added its own particular flavour to our life here. The geese are a case in point. Mike fame on a surprise visit bearing two enormous, hissing birds as a gift. One was a goose and one a gander, he assured us, and of course we were thrilled. He told us that they were probably upset by the journey and the goose would not lay for a couple of days. So saying he jumped in his van and drove off. Half an hour later we plucked up courage to go and inspect the birds and found both sittine on beautiful

big eggs. For the next few days they laid no tess than 15 eggs, all of which we ate with great relish because we thought they couldn't be fertile as Mike's gander had turned out to be a goose. Then later we found out that the eggs were fertile, so we lost some valuable birds. We now have a ferocious gander. On the one occasion when\the boys and I were' left alone to look after the geese, we approached the goose house armed with a broom stick, and unashamedly skulking behind one another, we simply threw the barley in through the door and slammed it shut as fast as we could

Peace The moments of peace, calm beauty and wonderment are legion, nothing planned or spectacular. Perhaps just sitting together with a cup of tea and watching the garden grow, seeing the boys go off fishing and cooking and eating their catch for supper. The time a white owl flew slowly across our field of vision as we were driving home one dark night. Or when a local farmer takes the trouble to stop his landrover, get out and chat with you about your sheep and offers his valuable and very welcome advice. Or the time the vet looked at one of the ewes suspected of a foot abcess and didn't want any payment. Listening to an old local farmer telling his tales of how farming used to be, and of his old cronies who are now dead and gone, and he didn't go to their funerals because they won't be coming to his, will they? The marvellous satisfaction when the hay i s finally made and safely stacked, and suddenly the rain buckets down, but you've beaten it And that strange time when the boys and 1 went for a walk in the forest at dusk, and slowly became aware of an old brown owl sitting high up in the branches seriously watching us. As we stared back at it, a little unnerved at having been watched so intently and silently, it rose from its perch and glided into the dark of the forest without a sound. There are good moments and bad moments, and the odds are not necessar ily stacked in your favour in the countryside. Any Romantic views of Nature are quickly dispelled when orte becomes aware of the killing and dying and injury that goes hand in glove with budding, blossoming, fruiting, the rain and sunshine. Depression descends in the countryside as unexpectedly and with as much force as in town, only, i n the country it is accompanied by guilt and astonishment at feelings so low amid such overpowering natural beauty. Life is what you make it, wherever you are, and, without wanting to sound too pedantic or even patronising, living close to the seasons, so that they mean more than just a change of clothing, and experiencing closeness to Nature in all i t s aspects, sharpens and focusses an awareness of what life and living i s all about. And that's what we are all trying 'ultimately to comprehend. Barbara Girardct

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UncHrcttrrÃ‡ms..3Ã‡; . .;:. ,

for hot water, heating and cooking;,: . although a JQTULcooker in the kitchen was a great later additio and I'd never dispense with log fires. But then there's :wood. Wood for me is free. t live in a place which has unlimited quantities of wood for felling. All I need is a chain saw. You bÃcritical and say that chain sawsand motor cars arenvtselfsufficiency, but that criticism'cornes from sowode who hasn't tried it.There aren't enough hours in the day to saw '' logs by hand and do all the other things too. Speaking as a woman, chain saws ire great1 was frightened of mine at first a monster which roared - but now I've. . learned about its habits, it's the only way I could ever keep 3 fires burning allwinter. Bush saws arc muscle-biters!

In thebeginning I was fortunate, I

ad a hojJse with a cold water tap, a

. * , ~..> . ,: egree inAgriculture, which might sound . ... md, bu~fd&sn't mean much in practical Installing animals !rms, good friends,and a lot ofwoman- . .~~ I determination. Spring comes and Ibegan to think i n ', Idon't believe anyonecould be totally 2 terms of animals. The first thing to do was. to build a barn. The woodshed was a * !If-sufficient in,,.@is country and still masterpiece designed by a friend who had ~aintai'na~'$(~h'a.standard of living as . . . . sperit some time i*Canada, it consisted 4 , ley were used,*).;there's a great deal, . I phoned the electricity board ithe ' quote was Â£100jf I could persuade my wry simply of six trees with cross pieces.' i c a n produce a t h h and feel much -. two eleqtricityless neighbours to put up between;them and a tin roof. The barn eter for it -but wherea commune was a sophisticated enlargement. Withthe a further Â£1500each: couldn't, so'the light be more;self~sufficient, the hours ,help of friends Ierected it on the same ,. ivolved .with this scale of production . . quote went up to Â£2900The Board were :talking in terms of new transformers, and lines from hop poles, 1Qsh,eets of. asbestos mit a$ngle,personor acwple to the, and the old tin from the lean-to at the,. ., l o r e i n i p o ~ titems. ~ t It is possible to . , new power lines, and after I'd p u d for it lake'pip$(shred&d newspaper m a s h - all they had acl ie i n their a g r e e m e n t back of the house. The sides look somei andsie~ed~andpressed and dried. . . . which allowed th to takasupplies of - ' I thinglike a log cabin. Thewhole thing. :. enw&.writing paper) but.;-:Â¥< >mypower sourceto the other two cottag-: &t around Â£70 It's 10ftx 30ft, has lakes three bays, two of whichare divided again, . takes hours; likewise with soap, so.::.:? ,: . es without them paying their share., Sometime later a f r i y o f mine -. t o make smaller pens, a feed shed, anda nless you enjoy doing i:t,the finished:; i. , r+uct it not a patch on a 17pjotter: .~ '< mentioned 'Pole supplief. For any* : hay store. Recently 1read a similar pl.9. ad fr0mW.H. Smith's!

ater, s$ikaways are .-: who comewith JCB's!

iventies. . .

The fanners,no longer rip ows andsmall woodlands to increase irofit from theland, but where once oadside hedgerows were allowed to grow @maturitythey are now cut off a few nches &ove groundlevel and get little :hance to grow to areasonable size before

begin improving die quality .$y#as , the quantity of our trees, using our.. E imaxinxtfon wh6n ohtine. as forexam'm w6

ide-open &aces of the English WALKING TH few reflections on the relationship o f people and nature. The beacon memories are moments in the wilder country when one suddenly and yet again - perceives its unity: Here is a unique place with an identity and spirit all its own. I t s bones are the rocks which give it just this shape - and it's not deformed. The trees and plants growing on i t could grow nowhere else: that clump o f bracken is as inevitable as a head o f hair; that cavern of moss emanates as much mystery as the pubic region. Each tiny perfect area blends into ever Isrger areas; essential totality. Breathe it in and breathe in goodness.

into the space spontaneously, following inclination, bone along by the spirit of Itself an', presenteda of the

impressions which relate directly to the subconscious.. Here is a labyrinth, an . exwn#w#mof iQkmai sQk it ,--

discoverbnes,fad mwh th

ce,tm.

Footpath8 Them can't be too many footpaths. 'Even in intensively settled land where the underlyingfortn is obscured, everywhere' there are auafi~s(not necessarily actual footpaths) which d e r i ~ ~ f r ethe m form. So every feld has its essential passage and if the terraw-has any variation probably several nassaees. In men sheen country

"THERE IS no question .we'll simply have to." Malcolm Catdwell, in this tab he gave at the Land for the People mooting at the 1975 Comtek. argues that the liberation struggles of the Third World would force US back to the land in this couhtry, whether we want to go or not.

..aFor the last 200 years and more, the

mthis

;he Chineserev~lutiontoo,. a U U C "I rich, overdeveloped, mainly Western time to gain momentum and to unfold.. countrieswere able to first of all ct'eate ; f . i The Vietnamese revolution similarly. Bu and then maintain and secure an interST. each blow means that 9 next one is national economic system whereby we ' ? going to develop much more quickly. were able to make ourselves prosperous, s . ~ Look at what happened in Cambodia, well fed and reasonably well provided ' . which moved from being a non-commun generally, with exceptions of course ist, non-alignedcountry in 1970 to being poverty remains in our society. This was liberated from Western domination in done by and large at the expense of the 1975 and then deciding to completely poorer peoples of the *orld, mainly in isolate itself from the world economy, the Third World of Africa, Asia and to resurrect the agriculture and to create Latin America, thqugh not entirely. This a peasant revolution. Now, the Cambod. situation i s changing now, and very rapid ian revolution is in some ways a special ly. There is no case on record, to, my case and British exporters - in order toknowledge, of a country eer. succeeding.. earn the money t o buy our food from in achieving, maintaining and securing abroad - don't worry much if Cambodia living standards, such as those to which is gone; after all; lthas only got a small we have become accustomed in the last ,, population *#art fr& a tiny elite period of history, without imposing ,in Phnom ~ett"ihey,didn't buy Scotch unequal economic relations on other, less Whisky and @{si(^!e t& tn gnomes and fortunate countries. And there is no all the things that waflffne ueo~leare reason to suppose that such ap enterprise employed'fo produce. ~ u t iis'going t to is possible. be very important for Britain and all Now, what I am going to argue is that the other overdeveloped'countires if if what has happened iri China, Vietnam more and more countries in Asia, Africa and Cambodia continues to happen else. and Latin America decide to extract where, there is no question of whether themselves from our economic embrace. we choose for moral, personal or aesthetAnd then it will become apparent that ical reasons or whatever to provide'for ourselves and, ultimately, go backSo the parasitic way. we'll simply have to. Because land it will no longer be possible to havv &is power kind .of parasitic, dependent economy, which is overdeveloped to the extreme. tremely valuable, indeed absolutely essential, that people should get out and about and try all kinds of experiments Over- and Underdevelopntent in cornmunil cultivation. in occuoation of land, in testing and probing the law The in,teretting thing it that the poor the law has aJways got irrterstices, find countries don't need us. we need them! out what these are and make maximum It is a curious paradox:lf y ou were to use of them - all this is very important build.1 vast Hadrian's wall dividing off and i t will be tolerated for a while by the the rich overdevelopedcountries and oolitical ~owers.None of them. however. the ooor underdevelo~edcountries i t are fundamentally in agreement with us, ' would be us who'd be.in a very &sp&ate situation, as the Japanese discovered that goes without saying. None of them when they were completely cut off froip have put forward programmes which, to the international economy at the end o f me, realistically answer the demands of the second worldwtr. And we could , the present-day world or respond to the find ourselves in a similar predicament global shifts of economic and political perhaps not America for the timebeing, power between rich iind poor countries. although one can see that point a p p r d And I think we can discount the possiing as they destroy their basic resquree, bility that any o f them will put forward bank. But Britain is very vulnerable with realistic programmes. te highly industrialized urbanised life , There M l j come a point, inevitably,

Ă&#x201A;ÂĽ ;'

.. .

" .- again@the question of political power ahd we haye to be prepared for this. I t is not goo& enough saying: We can take over this airfield and perhaps we'll get permission to do it, and build a settle merit on it and grow food on the-sur- , rounding land. Alright, that would be astart. But ultimately it is very clear to me that it will be of vital importance to change the property relations in the countryside which have tenacioutry " withstood so much pressure, including - incidentally thebourgeois revolution. When we starttouching this crucial element iri the class structure of, soclew, then, belteve mq, &e oppe sition Will change its nature and the k i d o f snide smiles and.patronising sneers will turn into ooen hostility.. , Themhas never been case in history when a ruling class has een transcerided and supersededw' out it using physical power to try and cftlsh the -> forces 'fiat face it. So, while I am" totafly in favour of all the efforts that." 'I are made by people to learn again how to grow food and liberate land, tapi'o" , tect and to develop land'sensiB$ %nd to produce, we also, as a movement, unless we aim to be ultimately 'mpotent, have to start talking about the question of political power and i t s ' transfer.

;

Root Socialism I am notgoing to p u t forward traditional Marxist fioifftafvi I think, i n the world situation developing, would be inadequ evidence before us leads me that there i s much more likely to bb, if ' s o d point, social breakdown t h a h m haps aclassical civil war af a patterqyvith which.we are familiar. Ihave come tq ?, the conclusi6n that what the Guild ,~, Socialists, the SyndicAlisB and tht; Anaft, thists were talking about i n the late 1% awfearly 20th century willvery , probibfy be the case, i.e.,.that coipv , .-.# qurtities, driven by necessity, because , o f ~ q breakdown e of the urban culture based Qnall-theseextensive domestic and international trade connections, , will tie forced to take drastic action to maintain their own supplies o f food, and of the necessities of life. And it may, well be that from their initiatives,,which we cannot yet foresee in detail, there will arise from the grassroots the be&-, nings o f a different kind of national political structure which will owe nothing to the cenfl-alised decisions>ofthe bweaycrats with their telephonesand their ' typewriters. Such a movement will come out of the gpowirtg demand for fundamental change which will be iincreasingly seen t o be necessary. In Undercurrents32 we reported ~aicolm Caldweli's tragic death on a visit to Cambodia at the end 6f last year. Further reading: Malcolm CaldwtU, The Wealth o & , a nations. Zed Frets. London 1977. I" , ' Malcolm ~ a l d w e'PO& i resources: :,,- . The International tontext', hH. .

,. .

. f,

IOUGHT, perhaps, t o begin by explainMy new enthusiasm for the earth can ing that W.W.O.O.F. i s shorthand for 'Work- perhaps be explained by the fact that I ing Weekends On Organic Farms', an organ- am of the sixties generation that race of flower children who seemed for a isation which exists t o bring together organic fanners who nmdextra help wcawhile tohave gone to ground, only to resionally, and people who want to learn emerge in the new growth o f alternative about farming or whosimply need to get lifestyles, communes, smallholdings, coout into the country once in a while. The operatives, wholefoods and back-to-thefarmer supplies bed, board, ~ n biology d land. This suggests that my interest is lessons, and the 'Whoofer' tries his best merely fashionable, it isn't. If you check to be useful. with my mother you'll find that, age three, my sole ambition in life was to You may, of course,Jwow all this already, but i t is as well t~avoid the mi+ mary a farmer. I've been liberated since take of the gentleman who introduced wen - I now want to be the farme'r. Which takes me back to the hoe.. . I himself by saying that he was, 'Woofing on a local farm' - people have been felt very apologetic towards my hosts hospitalized for less. that first weekend. When they ask if I did know what a hoe was before my you've been on a WWOOF weekend first WWOOF weekend, but I had never before and you say no, and then they actually used one. My embarrassmentover hopefully enquire as to whether you've this deficiency in my experience was done any gardening, and you confess somewhat mitigated by the discovery that, your ignorance, then surely their hearts not a single child in the class of primary must sink - and yet, bless them, the school children I was teaching either "'WWOOF farmers I've met seem very little recognised the picture or the name of pertur'wt by lack of experience. the im~letrent,or had fhe remotest idea Perhaps the secret lies in the fact that of what it was used for. many of them have themselves until ' Such is our present alienation from recently been living 'in a house'. n e y the land. During my own suburban up. too are relative novices aware of their bringing my orlty brush with nature had own mistakes, and their shelves are full been an occasional reluctant outing with of the familiar teach-yourself-self-sufficthe lawnmower, sophisticated equipment iency books that you've just left at home. such as a hoe was reserved for my father's Ifelt much more at ease with my first superior skill. hosts when t h y told me about lambing

Details of the ~ W O Osystem F and the contact

one of their ewes the previous winter. He was on his knees in a freez.ing field with his arm inside the sheep, while she stood with a torch reading instructions to him from John Seymour's 'Complete Book o f Self-sufficiency '. I somehow felt that was exactly how I'd do it. WWOOF farms and farmers yary enorpiously and it's a good idea to sample a few a&ou team different things from differentpeople, even if they have roughly the same type of farm. Smallholdings Are good places to learn a variety of basic skills as they necessarily tend t o include a little of everything, from general gardening taks such as digging, sowing and hoeing, to animal husbandry and the more farm-like tasks of fencing, ploughing and harvesting. 1have rarely been bored by an extended task, and this I think is the delight o f small-scale farming. Agribiz introduces the monotony of the production line into the countryside' whereas there is more scope for changing the task with the mood in smallholding. After hoeing delicately around the vegetables i t is a refreshing change to have a hilarious gallop after a wayward pig. @spite the urge to learn new skills , it is often very hard to tear yourself away from the first farm where you met those congenial people who plied you with all that marvellous food -freshpicked fruit awash with cream, huge home-made cheeses, bread baked with their own wheat - n o t i o mention the home-brewed beer and kine. You do, of course, earn your keep. Nobody cracks the whip, but there's always plenty of work available and it's physically tiring. With my first two farmers I had to keep asking, 'What's next?'but the third was rather a shoek. It wasn't that he demanded a lot o f ' work, it was just that heseemed t o assume thatmy fellow Wwoofer and I were equal to thet asks which he' could accomplish. He was at least 6'6" and we females 5'2". Okay, I'm as tough a the next girl (and boy too very often) but driving ih a 6"fence post with a mallet just isn'tpossible at my height. After we'd herded sheep, sawn wood, made a new pig-sty and mucked out ' the old one, and were on our knees in a screaming gale trying to fasten two sections of fencing together,*he poor girl with me suddenly cried out, 'Ooh I'm so weak'. I was moved. It does make you feel good though. Not just because it's nice when it stops, but because it's exhilarating to be out in all weathers doing physical work * especially if you belong to the central, ly-heated academic section of society!' By the'way, you score ten points if y'ou don't fill rsteep after your evening meal - unless you've had a lot of hoftie brew. 3, . Every now and then I present my friends with the latest modification B f the plan for 'My Smallholding' - thb one I'm going to buy if I win the Pools or if they start employing teachers again. Anyone want to marry a farmer?

Sue Fenton %

Ă&#x201A;ÂĽ

Setting up a workshop is one way of getting around the isolation and technical povery'of private AT experiments. B o b Perrin, Henry Robinson and Greg Shoop started one; here they tell us h o w it went and invite more participation.

I The Hanring Collector I

can be difficult ~ ~ t i technology v e

Â¥ao f us,given the limited range of

for

rols kept i n most~ouseholdsand the

act that we often pursue interests alone. ' 'his is nowhere more true than in the .ondon suburb of Havering. Happily, ver the last thr years a mechanical &neerins wo&op at "yering 'cchnical College has-beenopen t o local nthusiasts one evening a week. The idea mergedduringa series ofA.T. lectures d d at the College.ThW participating didther i mutual interest, and, seeing d i t i e s lying i d e every evening, at Ã kshop' seemed a logical follow-up. k c e adem&d was proven through ~oster&displayedat local libraries, llotments and the like, there was little lifficulty in Â¥convincinthe Principal hat an evening class was justified-and hat the technicalcollege, ratherthan he adult education centre, was the dace for it because of the facilities wailable. i t was advertised as being for those h'o wished to take steps towards realisng some responsibility in matters such senergy conservation. Initially, thirty eople enrolled but, as is normally xperienced in evening classes, attendnke fell quickly andlevelled off i t bout twenty regulars. Who was attractS> Well, men and women with many edls of skill and from many back-

and some local govemnelfit officers. This variety greatly influ-

: A d the nature of the sessions and led lirectly to an extensive trading of &als andsthe very real co-operative laare of most ventures. One fellow for' fistance has been able to provide scrapled lithographic printing plates made

Architectural Association and last year' Equally varied were the projects themwe displayed our wares at the Strawsevles. These ranged from simple grain berry Fayre in Cambridge. I n turn we'i hoppers for feeding small livestock, been able to assist others. For instance throu* a couple of bicycle trolleys, to wind generators and solar collectors. , one of us gave ademonstration at a ' ..,weekend-workshop held at Ipswich Details are given below of one of the more ambitious items designed and built last October. by group members. In addition to what- Whether we actually have a fourth * year at Havering Technical depends on ever one was building, a great deal has been learned about othr devices just the 'overtime' budget. Sadly and someby watching what is going on around. what ironically, educational innovations Another thing that many of us soon beare most manifest during periods of came convinG3dfif was that there are economic boom rather,than contraction very teal difficulties in getting satisfacand it's been difficult to underpin the tory results from highly engineered 'scrap' 'workshop' securely, in theshort time items such as car generatore wlien used it has existed. Things might change if for purposes other than thfc ones for Wedgie were to abandon the nukes and which they weredesigned. encourage technical colleges to enrol AT This and similar realizations meant apprentice's! We're not discouraged, that the initial idea of completing a prohowever, and are interested in extending ject a term had to be abandoned and the experiment in a different direction much longer schedules adopted for namely towards forming 'co-operative' the solar collector shown major undertakings. One Savonius type , below. This would necessitate finding wind generator i s still not complete other facilities, but being more specialis-" after two years! But a rather fine sailed and having tooled-up', less equipwing affair was begun and completed in ment would be needed than has been the first year and in the second year everyone had the opportunity of followto date. This idea would appeal to several ing the Progress of the application Inade of US, none of whom has relevant organby the builders to erect it in their back isational experience, so ariy suggestions garden. I t was a novelty t o the local from readers would be welcomed. Now authority which had no definite policy for some background and details on the towards AT other,than the rather nebuHaveringcollector. The first one was lous one of encouraging the 'Save It' made in 1976177. Several more are in campaign, and an initial permit was various stages o f completion, the latesi granted for six months. This has now of which incorporates a moulded been &tended to two years. Another polyeurethane foam inner-box. group member was also successful in gaining permission to install a solar ' The Collector colJector he had built By the second year we had a fair idea I n addition to providing an opportun. of the skills of the individuals in our ity for not a little \ hatic communion group so we pitched our collector design amongst the Undercurrents types in Havering, the 'workshop' has also to make the best use of these. A5 one chap, a printer, could obtain used alum- ' brought us into contact with likeminded folk throughout London and inium titho plates (0.5mm thick) for 25p,-

. . >

To sfart, weexperimented with wious methods of fixing copper and was$ tubes to the aluminium plate. Ourflrtt thought was to flatten 22 Brass Tube to reduce the volume of Water and then fix it by solderingwith Alusol 45D, a soft solder especially made for aluminium. This was rejected because: (a) it was only possible to flatten straight tubes evenly, therefore the tube grid had to be joined to supply and drain lines by a multitude o f solder joints; b) the flux required for the special solder lave off toxic fumes; and (c) the thin iluminium sheet distorted when heat was applied from a g a torch. When this pproach was abandoned, a polypropyene extrusion was obtained. This conisted of a multitude (>fchannels formed letween two thin sheets. All that was x equired Was t o fit a supply anddrain : ine but this could net be done satfefac.only by any method available to U% . Ne tried all types' o f adhesives, Including ipoxy cyanoacrylate, polyester resin, atex, woodglue and even hot melted plastic. Then we tried h o i air and hot, )late welding but t o nbwail. Wehave ,ince discovered tKÃˆ several firms use his material forcollectors, but joins ire made by a special welding process, ktaib of which the suppliers (ICt) w i l l not divulge. All we know I s that it would be *. iifficn'lt and expensive for DIY types o do it. Our next attempt was to use- , ,mall amoUntsof coptier plated a(u- > * niniym. One e f us managed to soldein ;opper tube to this with conventiona oftsolderandalthoughalotof 'Ã listortion was experienced, he man$' id t o produce several cotlecto~sby his method. These experimen&occupied us f a '-everal weeks but we concluded that ;one o f them would permit us to u t i - ~ ize tfie cheap aluminium lithe platestnd still produce a collector which was reliable, presentable and practical o r the likes of u$, However, we finally ;ame up with the idea of wrapping he litho plate around the copper pi is this would give a good area of conact for heat exchange and avoid the

ivoided the use o f a wooden frame iecause one chap in the group had used mod frames on earlier collectors, put hem on the roof of his house, set up he system and then discovered that tile xtremes in temperature and humidity listorted the wood and cracked the lass. Instead we used 1.5mm aluminium or the collector box. Each of the four ides was made separately and, if bought o f as a channel-section, was 00mm across with the edges turned ip at 90Â¡The top edges were narrower ban the bottom ones. The sides were iveted at the corners and a second heet was fixed inside to form the

.---*

back. Strips of aburniniurrt-werebent channel, mild steel s t u d d ~ i n u t si d ' at90" and-riveted on the inside walls bolts. It is designed to make full use of of the box to form a continuous ledge standard materials and can be produced a b o u t W from the back. The strips with a minimum of machining. Its had to be w'de enough to protrude operation is as follows:- well into the box, thus pfovidhig a The length of rolled steel-channel. secure mounting for the collector plate 'at the rear o f the tool is removed, a which was so wide as just to slip within sheet o f aluminium is inserted underthe top edges. A 2" layer o f fibre glass neath the punch at the front of the tool, was placed in position before the collector plate, and the latter was itself held ft in place by polystyrene blocks wedged '%- ' under the top edges. Two holes were drilled in one side of the box t o prodown to secure sheet firmare vide clearance for the inlet and outlet ly i n positi n. The two handles at the tubes and allow for fixing a rubber front of the machine, which screw down grommet or sleeve. Short lengths of the punch, are then operated either by 3mm thick aluminium are used for two people making sim&ltarteous move mounting brackets and riveted to the rnents or by one person making one turn on one and then movihg across and repeating the action on the second . .The punch is screwed into a stop and then released. ,The ql.qmp at thy @so.reka$d and the first chantiel'ir is? rtmoved'fmd the d k i!A(h>ushed baifkwards until it droptfdw the fed&-at ' the back of the tool. Theclasping channel is reassembled and locked into positjec,and ttw'prcices$ repeated . throughout the length of the sheet., The second stage consists of laying the copper pipe along ftip channet,afteq,. applyinga thin coatof silicone grease to the s i r f w w d crimping the plate firpund the tu^fe.the. $4fffpfffprming di& , oper#iqvqonsistsof two pieces of mild steel with cylindrical groves machined ., in the face. These ah secured i i R~e place of the jaws of'a heavy bench vice. particular set up is best pptirated $y,,two people. The copper pipe is rolled from the coil straight along the groove and bent around a semi-crrcujqr wooden f o r y , and then laid along.thp qext groove peating the process throughout the lengqof the sheet. A To prevent the ajudtiium being (Jetiiched from its close contact with the tube, a hole ispunched through i t at the narrow pqint of the sectionunderneath the p b e and a short length of plytic coveredgarden wire was looped around Aid twisted underneath. This should be repeated t bothendf of tach pipe run. The fronfface of the collector can be given a coat of blackboard paint which we have found cheap and effective. The electronic control box or thqkistor was made by a television erigineer within the group, for a price of Â£8He based it on a design obtained from BRAD; it water. A further two holes are drilled works off the 240V mains and incorporin the side to take coaxial sockets for ates a transformer and rectifier di+s to the thermistor sensor. Finally, the glass, produce 12V D.C. for the circuit -with rubber section beneath it, was one with a 12" battery supply c o q f u n placed In the frame and held i d posithe collector straight from it. The pyifflp tion with an aluminium frame, conused is a micro-bore type used in central sifting of 90Â angle section riveted in htftting (retail price about Â£20).,Thy/tota position. cost including aluminium for the b ~ & To go back to our idea of wrapping (Â£12and plate (SOP); copper tubing the lithe plate around the copper tube, and (Â£5),'holtticultura glass (Â£3 this required the building of two simple glass (Â£1 was about Â£50Tooling up tools. The tint tool was to mate the involved an additional Â£5 :, 8 channels in the plate and can be likened ' to a Caxton Printing Press. It.was eon- , 1 '. Bobl'fiTHenry Robins structed from easilyobtainable materials:, ., andj Gregg Shoo,,. B r i g h t ~ i l dsteel section, rolled

,,,

"fto

fie, .

'Â

Undercurrents 3:

[

UNITEDKINGDOMATOMIC

ENEKGT

AUTHORITY

the

I F THE Atomic Energy Authority is disbanded, what will become of ,maple-who work there? D^ve Elliott outlines an Alternative Energy Programme and looks at its implicationsforthe jobs. of those who now look +D the discredited nuke for a meal ticket. . . . . . . ..

SOME 25,000 people are employed by ~ i i 1. . . he UKAEA and BNFL, while.another '.,:),, UKAEA..tiff . . . ,. and so on of the type already underway -10,000 or so rely indirectly on nuclear -, , au;ified 6 engineers 2,640 at Harwell, which could help take up : t h e slack. Finally there will be work work for employment - for example i n ; :Technical staff 2,660 Â¥h Power Engineering Industry and con- ; .:Administrative and ancillary staff . . . 3 , 5 4 0 5 devising techniques for decommissioning . . ;.3.:::~r'existingnuclear,planp when they , Skilled craftsmen Wuction consort@. ... . - . . ;;:1, Apprentices come tti the end of their useful life. Of it is premature Â¥Â¥kilIed/unskilledunrke. <: :: "2,539 . . ' ., But the major future employment winding up' of Britain's nuclear pro. . ,. . ~. . . . ~. -. .. . : ..opportunitiescould well be in R & D o n gramme; the pro-nuclear lobby is still very . , . . ~ , g % e various alternativeenergy technolopowerful and is backed by a wide range . . ,.a ;gies'- ne,w,consefiation techniques, the of vested interests. But one of. the key that the~roposednuclear programme;; ?:;:Â¥.adevelopmenof the renewable sources >ointsin the pro-nuclear case is that the constructionof nuclear willprovide would require more skilled staffthan y;,:'f::i+$(diveloping &dtbe,wi;kstar&ed in ETSU) parti$~lar~:+$~gy>to~age techwere likely to be available. In which,:ca~,,'~P&~~,iri ;mployment for these and other workers. a Programme of redeployment and . : ' + -z!n "~Tques (alrea'dyithesubjectofconsiderabli \nd Obviouslyifyou do invest thousands diversification might not cause too many; %:.;interest a t Harwell). obviously not every)f millions of in a nuclear proproblems. one will be happy t o see AT research co. ;ramme, @is will create jobs. To be conIt's worth noting that Harwell has opted by the UKAEA - even if it is ,istent, the anti-nuclear movement has to over the P a t decade diversified away radically restructured and rechristened as lemonstrate not only that there would from Purely nuclear Power plant research, . some sort of UK Energy Research and >emore jobs generally available ifalterniand development. About 50% of its Development Agency. As'l'disebssed in' h e energyoptions were pursued (which ,activities are now directed to applying UC31, there would, at the very least, eems nowto be fairly widely accepted) also have to be provisionsfor support fi )ut alsoto indicate the specificTffiplica- . nuclear know-how to industrial i o n i f o r workers in the existing nucleat . problems, and developing new non. more decentralised~community'oriente AT research projects. But it would be a industry. ~h~~ are not likely to welcome nuclear areas of R & D. Of particular interest is the work of the Energy Tech- . . waste of public resources to break up tl the idea of.abandoning nuclear power nol lo^ Support Unit (ETSU) funded by various design and research teams that unless, that is, a viable programme of rehave been created by the nuclear prothe Department of Energy to review . , deploymentandd,ive.rsific'ationcan be 'Iternative energy gramme - rather, they have.to:be.reoutlined.,An$ perhap not even then. For, Given a major commitment to diversi- . organis4 andredifected;, .t .-: ,,,,:, : at first glance, it wciulkeem that a shift fication (with for examplea A move away fromnuclear technology from nuclear power would lead to serious emphasis on R 81 D intoalternative might be oppoiedbyjengineers and sciencareer dislocitions and employment Â¥^stemsit would not seem i'? tists who have dedicated their careers to losses. ""*if you look a little closer the possible to redeploy most of the existing nuclear power, on the grounds e a t the . picture changes. 9 . employees - including the bulk of the 'alternative' ootions areless technically -~~~ UKAEA's scientists, engineers, technicexciting. ~ u t t h i hardly s seemstenable. No Boys for the Nuclear Jobs ians and skilled craftsmen whose skills The professional challenges posedby wind, . . . . , .. are not specifically linked to nuclear ,.~L. ' wave, solar; bibsynthesis andso on, are work (see Figure 1). r recent Energy om mission Paper surely equal t o i f .not greater,than.that The situation at BNFL is somewhat ' M a n p k r Requirements o f the Energy posed by the nuclear option. AsGerry different. Even if the nuclear programme industriesp-18 1978) reported that a Leach h i s put it, AT:presepts'one of is halted there will be a continuing need large number of the UKAEA'sprofessiopthe most exciting - and,as fet-underfor waste management activities, and al engineersand technicians would be. ' explored and under-financed - technolreichingptirement agebetween 1985research into improved storage facilities' ogicalchallenges of our time.' 1995: 70% of the Authority's chemical . .~,. ., . !. ,. .,, ~. . . . which could employ most O ~ B N F L ' S 13,000 workers at Windscale and elseind electricial engineers are now aged The poker engineering industry =tween 45 and 60. In addition the report where. But no further expansion would he abandonment of the proposed be necessary. toted that BNFL were finding it difficult ' nuclear programme would, of course, not o recruit sufficient technical staff And there will be a need for continonly affect workers in the UKAEA and ued work on the socially useful aspects effecting a worry expressed earlier, in BNFL; it would also have asignificant of nuclear science-industry and medical he Watt Committee report (see UC26), ,

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impact'fln the 30,000 workers in the ~owerengineeringIndustry, in firms like SEC,Parsons, Babcock and Wilcox and 'Gatke Chapman who build nuclear plants, , turbogenerators and boilers for nuclear and other plants. Obviously-if the nuclear programme was abandoned and nothing else replaced it,there would be further widespread unemployment But alternative options exist and indeed would be necessary to provide energy as well as jobs. Fore~ampie according to a recent CAlTS qtudy (energy Options and Emplo mwt) combined heat and power (~Pfp~arit'develop' ment could, by the year 2000, create some 400,000person years of work for power plant engineers and construction workers: refurbishingexisting small city-bawd fossil fuel plants, building some new ones and linking them to industrial plants and district heating networks. According to Energy Paper 20, such a programme could provide heat for up to 25% of our buildings and would save up to 30 milJion tons of coal per year, because the - win* erfctuniif HMW~I:mmibm of the wind eWgyR 6, D ~~niorti. .tÃ n c ~ Ht -11 energy i n the fuel supplied to CHP plants s m n w ~including , npmanmtni from Taylow Woodrow and Britiih amp^. would be used more efficiently, providAn ~lternative~nergy Programme ing both electricity and heat sector. -errnore, it i s not necessarily Shop stewards at C.A. Parsons have the case. that increased availability and The pro-nuclear camp is fond o f argu' already seen the logic of this proposal and use of energy leads to increased e w o y ing that without nuclear power industry (see Eddies UC 32) are currently cammerit energy tends to be substituted would grind to & halt and that given if fsrlabour. paigning for small CHP units i n urban areas nuclear'technology doesn't create many 'which they point out 'wouldnot only Q b v i d y we need energy but, as jobs directly,'it d q un<terpm employIncrease the stations overall efficiency, but ment in other industrids Gerry Leach has pointed put, we can would revitaiise derelict city areas with The truth is very differ meetour material needs without increasindustry and housing. (and). bring - pouter is extremely cap ing our energy consumption if we valuable, alternative, useful work into (Â£50,00 per job yeaq develop more efficient technology. This both the construction andpower induscapital that might otherwise be invested process is already underway. in other arbas of industry i n d the pubfic On the supply side, we need t o irqtries'. , prove efficiency and match energy production to and use requirements, most of which (49%) are for low gradp Fig. 2 CAtTSstudy prelimin heat, rather than electricity. CHP pro, vides us with a wag of nuking more Technology. Contribution to efficient use o f our remaining fossil fuel reservesand, as we have seen, also creates , jobs. So too could the widespread use ofheat pumps for space heating. A .Â£1.000 European market is estimated by 1985 likely to create up to 100,000person years of work in the manufacturing industries. A t the same time we should be investing other types of energy conservation, particularly building insulation. According to the CAITS study, a Â£1,200r investment programme could, over the solar, next decade, save 3% of our energy boli8CtOre1.6 Â£5. i 500 %?10,000 , ' annually and create 240,000 person years of work in the building construction and wind materials manufacturing industries. power 2.0 . Â£3. 160 Â£20,00 The job creation implications of cdnsewation have not gone unnoticed wave 4 Â£3. 60 Â£50.00 even by politicians. A t a recent Energy 3 ' ,Â£4.0 80 Â£50,00 tidal Commission meeting Tony Benh cornmerited: TOTALS 26 Â£21. 1,500 Â£14.00 'hmay be that you get a better return TOTAL (26 to W to Â£35. 660 Â£53.00 in terms o fjobs and energy from a/i NUCLEAR 4 0 W W acceleratedconservation programm , than you do from some o f the Note that thew tomis obscure the question of 'end i ~ and'do notinclude dl high technologies which are not I+ur the 'altomatin' option*. Aim that some of U official ntinmtmn* in term of intensive. ' 'energy contributions' and 0th- are 'energv swings' due to the (assumed1 d i i l e n t of c o n w n t i d foÃ§tillnuclÃ§lourcu.SM UNCAI~Sreport for a full dilcuuon Building insulation work i s i n fact the of the comoltxitiw of errw analysis. least capital intensive ener option open ,. to u; '- with acapital tola our ratio of

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nin on& so trenchantly rernarked,maybe stubborn but bborn as all that: Pat Coyne looks at the recent 11ED 'fact* that increase in wealth means increase in is shown UP for the hoary old myth we all supposed

Where do we go h'e,obviously a need for 4 wide ranging challenge to existing industrial pri The fight against nuclear power is part o f this. But it is an importan While official policy continues to port nuclear power it will be difficult t o get sufficient funding for the and urgent development of AT. not just a question o f the gross imbalance in fa dins (fl55m on nuclear ,R & D ., ann$lly, versus Â£16 over several years for AT); it's also a question of manpower. Not many engineers and scientists are likely to want to risk their professional capers on AT while the bulk of the funding (and prestige) goes to nuclear Fchnology. ~ ufortunately t things are changing. The usual excuse f inaction from the Department of ~ n e iskthat they 'cant find enough.people wanting to do AT research'. But a recent callfor project proposals by the EEC resulted in the . EEC officials being swamped by more than 500 detailed requests for funding. "the EEC's Â£30 alternative energy programme for 1978-9 is consequently likely to be. superseded by aÂ£200 programme. Nevertheless, it's going to be a l o n g hard slog - on all fronts. As I-have tried , to argue in this article, the campaign against nuclear power must be seen as a necessary adjunct to the development of AT. ~t the same time, the fi&t for AT must be seen as a necessary part of . the process of providing a convincing dterhative employment programme for workers currently involved directly or indirectly with the nuclear industry. ~

1973 the world 'expo1953-1973 when energy and economic rybody's l i s . Whether growth did indeed go hand in hand. But it 9~opulation&food, pollution or that era saw anumber o f exceptional WiourceSall the'graphs seemed to be disdevelopmentsinenergy.First, the real appearing in the direction o f positive, price of energy declined'over the whole infinity. period and oil, which was not only cheapPractically the only people taking er but more convenient and flexible t o ' comfort from the prospect were the fuel :: use, substituted for coal:Second, over two I'lirms of the total, growth in energy . supply.industries, since come what may consurn~tionwas in road transport as , it seemed that we would heed every last car traffic multiplied six fold. Furtherwatt, erg and Btu in our efforts to avoid more the number o f housefholds increasfreezing to death in the guttering light . . of the last candle. . ed rapidly, as household size decreased, ': the trend to central heating began and But after hubris comes the inevitable energy consumption was further increa* nemesis. The idea of an all-consuming ed by massive growth i n consu er goods future is kginning to prove about as such as washingmachines, refr$erators susceptible to suitainedanalysis as the . Shah of Iran to the imprecations of the and televisions. . , .,. Ayatollah. . .... , . . . . .. . . Forecasts of futureenergy demand are Increasing prices . ; ,; beginning to come d o h rapidly. As late as 1976 official forecasts were looking I n 1973 of course oilprices'@intupforward to a U K consuming 760 million led and other energyprices followed suit. tons of coal equivalent (mw), in 2000 True. since then real prices have declined more than double the present 340 mtee. through inflation but this decline i s * Last April the Departme t of Energy. expected to reverse itself during the WS f0recasting.a range 40-560 mtce. . 1980's and official estimates are that, , Nowthe International Institute for prices Will probably have doubled in real -environment and Development, led by terms by 2000. Higher prices will encourGerald Leach have published the results ag conservation and energy growth is of acom~rehensive?-year study which lik Y to be further curbed since populasuggests that consumption in 2 0 0 0 m a ~ tion is stabilising, the growth i n the be no higher than 330-360mtce - about number of households has slowed do; the same as now. .r' . ," The HED study casts yet further doubt Â¥ LOW Em* smmy forflu UK by Gerald i-fKh witti Christopher Lewis, on the welfare =economic &wth = energy growth theories ~ i c uh ~ ttecendy i ~ were ; ~ ~ ~ ; ~ ~ ~ ~ & d ~ , the conventional wisdom. This belief 0.60 ( a m w e from UED, 10 Percy became firmly'established m th@period a,London WIP ODR, Ã§ri01-580 7-1. . '

Dave Elliott The CAITS report ~ m optima w mi ' , ~rnp10y-t cw o t m i d (EI J f r h . Centre for Alternative Indumiai mdTect>no'*cd*sm** (CAITS), NELP; &~na^~* Road, Oag~nh&m,Enex.

a i d ~i.,~. .,air me UK's.hyses,.now~ central heatin& compared with in 1964. Ownership o f cars, was machines, refrigerators and televisions ;. services and leisure. Industrial produc- public lighting. ,, Is at evenhigher level and the rates of lion's sh& of GDP is expected to fall '. The major savings envisaged are . . in introducing new building standards from 36% of GDP to 27-30% although growth must slow down i s thesemarkets . . . .. become saturated. ;. .. in absolute terms it will rise.from the and upgrading existingbuildlngs. Energy intensities in new buildings I t is the e x ~ i n a tofwhat i~ is happen- present Â£39. billion to Â£66-8 ing toiibtugl energy consumptiop-disbillion. , are postulated tobe 40% of those , currently for offices, 50% in edu~a-. The pattern of industry is a1 iggregatior in @e jargon - rather than a . lion, 60% in health, and themiscelsimple projection o f past tfendsiyhich. \ " t e d to change somewhat althou lanews categories ancj55%:in shops. . . dieting future industrial trends distinguishes the latest studiesfrom4extremely difficulLThe study a n d catering. - - :,,. . .. br fore&istsandleads towhatlook like that engineering+,&emJds Other assumptions include: . .. S f l y t o w..,~ o. i e c. ~ o n s ;' .-+.I- .a increase their share of total ind ~ l e q r i cheat pumpsareintroduced , ' , Thkfutuk:envisaged by the 1.1. EO. teatii production whileother sectors during (he 1980's with anticipatedCe-,',. iron and steel will decrease in efficient Performance (C0P)for space' is hardly the hairshirt,brow$.@ d . n i i s t e c e sq M4:&-1 >, . . . ., . .. and water heating of 2.5; rising to 3.0. the Ã§c6-doomstersOn d w i c d n i r u y Tlie migr'66nxqwt& ashoip$ons by 2000. manyUndeccumnfareaderswillfind it . : : ~built into e &at! .; heat pumps are introd"&. . ' , positive! decadent. The t e , ~~s the. e .., A 5Wetie'rgy saving for.space and . , ed in all sectoral .buildingwt&orles. . . official &nd highly optimi+c) prdÃ§ . . water beating usingsimple measures in the eady 1990's and supply a q w d . . of the Dept. of Energy set sucll~increasing<he pffisently poor . 5% of spdce and waterheating i n 2000,. Energy Paper 29' For lht.*xtlO.l$ . levels:of thermal insulation, fitting heat5 ' rising to 12-14%in2010 and beyond. . yearsyowth is expected.to be r a d w . , . ing and.ventilation controls, and em- , faster than the 1960's average. Two . Coioined Heat and Po,*(CHP) ., @ M n gpP"^ss heat scenarios haw bee" adopted-in the 'low'. like the thermal wheel, he c GDP b c d b e by 2 5 .and heat regenerators. and in the 'high' c&e t o treble; . A 15% overall saving i As a resultofl"crWa wealth h e . stationary electric motor IIED teamassume that many more will : powerwpp~ enjoythe lwingstandards available only y': , drives and tmtrols. . to the bet&r~off.toiiay'Hhsbs will be- '.; . ... A ,5% enerw savi"g in come ~ ~ ~ ~ e r , ' r f t - ~ ~ ~ f & l ,own i k < ?: ~,!Âi¥f.l',l . - industry u g o f highe fve?acs, ~ i * w & ~ ~ s ; ~ I ? ~ r $ r i ~ r $:,,..: -:,ahp wks:by the Modern fluore coiour~W~nd~other~heavy users,of~ele&j ..,cm ,imbrwe on this rFtio 7tricity.Car ownership grows from 58% . halide lights &fold, and household t b 7 7 5 %by W by 9-fold. . and air traffic ahws 2.4-3.0 times bv . .. . , 1 . 2025. Total industrial,&r&$hcy&s A range.of ? p e w Wings, froii) 25Tkport , , . by a factor of &7-22 + I ~ . & B , 35%,doping&&i0duttry Q ~ forproSince 1958 transport hasaccounte schools, offices, hospitals, shop4 and cess &{&plant through insulation, for over half the total growth i n UK restaurants increasebyanything . . from, . c o n w + e m n t of old bogen, . energy and road transport, mainly cai 36-80%. .. ..:. .,: . con return and heat recovery. h a s been responsible.for over 70%01 increase. The pattern,ascan be see?... . from Figure 1 is of rapidlfinireasing . . ~ , carpavel and declining Use ofheavily subsidised bukand rail transport. 'From 1953+76distance travelled p t ~ capitadoubledfrom 4200 to 8300 km/ yearbutcar travel increased 6-foldas ,

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found. Self sufficiency in oil and gas is likely to be prdonged until after 2000 evenif total reserves turn out to be at thelow end of current estimates, ' With reserve^,at (he upper estimates: .'.: only asmall gap appearsin the high , ' , case after 2025 and i n the low case-self sufficiency extends well beyond 2025. ' The most serious consequences are . for electricity and in particular,for coal and nuclear power. In the period : , 1976-2000 IIED calculate that only . '. :; , . 26-30 GW,(IGW = 1000 MW) of generating plant will need to be built -compared to 83 GW currently estimated by the Department of Energy. They: assume only 4.5-6.5 GW of this will be'

machines and colour TVs through more thermal insulation, better heat pumps and heat exchanger;, internal heat

Energy projections are shown in '

housing market are at present being : developed 'and both water and space Heating models are expected to be oh sale i n the early 1980's. CHP and

&re. vzther, as his b d pointed out, ley are part of a trend over the last w years when yesterday's heresy scomes today's conventional wisdom. same trend is evident in other 1 strialipd countries. For instance, I the USA six years ago the range of msumption in 2000 was 124-190 , , uads (1 Quad = 1Om Btu). Now the .age is 63-124 the ultra low has become today's record high and forecasts in preparation are indicating msumption well below 63 Quads.

Secondly, Die parameters of the udy would tend to lead to conm conclusions. The GDP andin+* la) production growth rates are ficial government estimates, which storically have proved somewhat optimistic. Clearly white the direct link b e t w GDP and energy growth is -mbably invalid there issome cond o n . Cutting GDP grow* is likely ) depress energy demand. .. . . a

servatim measures envisaged. . . Quite what HMG will make of all this remains pnclear. Recent forecasts form the Dept, of Energy have been coming down at a rate o f 25 mtce per a n y m per annum, which means should be projecting zero energy g o* sometime b t h e early eighties. Perhaps the 11ED report will give an extra fillip *~ . to the trend. However, the report also highlights . the fact that the government's avowed long-term strategy of relying for energy , . on coal, nuclear power and consewatio . issomething o f a contradiction in Cost therms - a t least in the medium term. There remain the questions of cost : 'Success inconservation will squeeze thi and ofgovernniknt policy. The report;:, electricity sector d leaveboth cod is not in Ã§n sense an economic study;. . . and nuclear scrabffipg for.asha@.ofa .. very tight market, leaving the gwe'rnhowever the authors point out that reducing the amount o f new electric <?;;&a ment todecide whetherto risk the plant constructed by 2000 from 83 G@!%& wrathof the NUM by closing the older in the Department of Energy forecast$?.,.$? (and much more labour intensive) pits down to 26-30 GW would save at least;& o r reducing the nuclear industry to a Â£25-3billion, werÂ£ billion a year-5''Y . . tiny, non-viable rump. . . Pat Coym . -I .

con&rvai& and therate at which . ' energy efficient techniques and technologies will disseminate appear to be ,:, underestimated. For example the fuel consumption per pound sterling of industrial output falls by only 0.60.9%a year, rather slower than past trends, while the estimates for improve- , ments in fuel consumption by 2000 of. cars and light vans, 34%and 26% respectively, in less than the 40% predicted by the Department of Transport.

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that a more militant party was needed to ~ u d amp&n.fi y PIWM k w p yOW l e t t f i ShfJrt. the post-industrial society. However, wegot off to a bad ThQMlomaa that 300 word* start and theresultsare stillwith us, despite our attempts to redif the litimtfan. The firs mistake v the adoption of the IS' emblem. for Survival ninounded by a o r e theoutb. It u a s o d after w ha committed ournelve quite hmvfly to the symbol that realized its d a u a i . We tried to cover ourdves by e y i that ~ it muchat all. As to avildjwbcdience, the wrts to say in Wdercurrents Ã§a shock lactic to encourage it if a matter of icole. Judging from of all places, that it would be enquire* from the public, but ' r e a l i c to accept the next belt the Half Moon Cottage and obvbmly it did not work. Ate v thing'! What do youget when you did m t Iike the Idea of be& Hey& incidents it isquite called Nazis, as one of our main accept the next best thing? You mbvlou*what will happen at mmpalgiu mi igiinit the Natbi get glint concerns trampling over i ? o m c when ~ the at-irewnt good the r w l s o f man, b a s t and Mother Front on t h e t ' o u d that w we v i k between the Poke and Nazis.Inddemilly, during that Earth. Everyone In this society Fmteters arc wwkcned lomewhat n 1 was physically attack l u n c a p t e d the next best thing by orden from on high. The by t e itionai From for oyiiÃ since Adam screwed Eve, and heivies and the bulldozers will just that. They are Nazis, but we mom ill en nu-. tided if neceuuy where h u it got us? I could were certainly not. by you-km~-who.Â¥11thoroughi understand (nil-kind of attitude in Regudina 'pus-nuUtuy the d d y ZW. but ( / f i d l ~ C ~ r ~ ~ t S ?mlifor&Ã§ ].Ã‡itmuse bv "the law" (i.e. -...- thiÃ§mfnrto a I . the . . ~ncidentally,if DP reany wants thanaccuratearticle i n a bca16n law of the objective). calling i t ~ l f a'newspaper'. Tfe to reach the Great British Public, It matters littlethat Pika Tailed in hit legal duties as an why doesn't he write to the difly beddm mi*)noting me tip. daily Tit'n'Bum, daily boring ' Inwedor'. He mkht as well have .-.%- and ..->.-, antre, -.-.deaded . thi fv in me aurvivu rariy wore doctrinaire rag etc? But be sure, b&n judging a b&y iontot u it boame I ptn-military uniforms happens. It b the whole procÃ§dm when you do, to get it printed waonaUy like wearing shirts wit opposite the TV page. backed up by entrowhod two breast pocketsand a Dirty (In spite of all this I'm a happy aMBinptions which, because it %a badge. enough bloke, and optimistic, too.) The other point not directly not the "job' of an Inquiry to go mentioned in your article &,the Michael Poxen into, made it a foregone Ecological salute 01 gesture whid (Breydon FOE) conctoiion. W~.Theide.behinditis 10 Tyrrdb Road &JUE o t h a pointt-. fkttly,the We decided that t k e the =eft% Gt Yarmouth ,whole a t t n i c t h w o f FBRs1Ãthat R * t wings we would have our Norfolk they D i o d u ~ . a f tE~period of own dutindive getme. The right w s the well-knownNazi falute and the Left UK!the clenched jmllfythtbultdingoffmthe . A Fuhrer writes.. flit. We UMd a cknched flit with which In t- produce As Icdeiof the now disbanded the first wo f w u s extended, to ~fud<,..n~ndly.uto show that we wen members of S& (tety I kdthtt 1 ought to 'lolicUw WonmtiaB', fi MY the '3rd direction'. I thoixht it w write to you to-put the record axood idea thenandIAlldo be dl nry wcU ladmaybe Ã§v s h l f h t r d i n f the Party. today. Dmn C Waylud

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venaible OH C-K with MI Pmce h (fanfare of tmmoeta1 nmd orobjectivity! , J u s sit bade and let the techmaÃ§tseurocrat!, wmpocrtti (lorry. Geoff Wright) and all the other crab eontink to d o the& appointed jobs (who appointed them?) With a bit of S s h Intellect on their put they might end up m a k k out Aindmilli and m e t h u i e d ~ i t e .,. n . I agreewithhim to bivcottlni the ~naidnrun)

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undercurrent sufficient popular action qiouty enough' (it makes a change from, the moment' or, te4 t o whether we should 'It's 'adventwism'l). The anarchists are port an Ecology Party, or a the only people who have a total Green ~ a b o u Party, r or whatever, critique of society in relation to (UC32)it came as no surprise to the class struggle, and are the only me that there should be little people who f q B y understand what mention at all of the condition of * -the&@ Ã‡trm is anyway. human freedam. Let we forget AlBrshian therefore is the natural what we are .strugglingtowards, i'nherftor of the 'ecological there is M point in having a world struggle*, which is but one liege where peoplegrow their food part of the struggle for human organicaBy, or take their e n a y liberty. There is no point at all in rcquireroent from renewable, 01 an ecologica&;sane:,. 'free' resources, when it Is b&%w16~ ' enxitonmentally 'pure' society, they are forced to do soby ad WhiB exploitkm and repression authoritarian state- Even such. leave a trailof misery and suffering apparently 'gentle' phBosophk$as Ecology, or Pacifism, Ã§rimp@itly . across the fact of this earth we authoritarian in n atw tf ;peopteare love so ffluch. Anardifem may not to do something (~.aflt da -' be 'quicktmiigh' f o w m e , b u t for thosewi@hat'feauthority and something), they should want tb love freedom, thpk who reilisa to it because $iself-will, ~ n not d *hat oam~mm~isemd reform brag because they have been told to do O ~ short-term X victories (Ãˆ they it. AnEcological State, impodng fan be call&-such), revolutionary strict environmental restraints and anarchism Is the only way-not as rules on meiety, will n e w .the way towards some hazy contribute anythingto fleople's utopian future, but as something freedom, because it will only want people's obedience, an$ cannot , practical and achievable that can only be wornfrom the b a y faflto reject their ownyeafyity,, trenches of principled struggle. their own desire to tot-opefab ~ucAfim@iatetask therefore is freely with one another.. It i~cm not toreform, but to inform, and surprise to&n of the eme2genh imaginative, of a right wing ~wvjdl.l'art$, Sueh $0find ax-y practicaLand direct ways of doing a movement iaw& established in this as jpdssible. <he US, epitomHed%$ curt.S a m and hiselitist, vigilunfsphiloSOphy, ' Ross Macgilchrist dantiek He& Lighthouse that in the Ã§haoto (fcmebiily the Longhope strong and well prepared ifill Stmnmesi survive, while the weak and stupid willdie, and this apocal?p&je Orkney Wl&, view i ~ a l m Aared by the American Nazi Movement, who cpuld make the National Front took like *. THE BRITISH ROAD Sunday School picnic. SelfÂ¥StepheJoseph (UC321 may be reliance in Miftirable when % goes tight in thinking that the major hand in hand w i t h m u 6 1 aid, but' political parties will eventually these Suiwaliits' vasioni of -, endorse @nÃˆm)amettaUsound self-relianceis v&cious, and, and policies. Bath? islieitainty wrong built upon deathand destru<ition.. ., in mggestikthat the Ecology An ecological society omt least' Salty is based in fly way upon a the only one yorthhaving, is the -kverse'asmmption. one where peojafe adopt selfGovernments formed from restraint and discipline them&* the major parties will, of course, because they want to, nut ok# as 'good potiticifln&', heed various sense of social responsibility that pressure groups both emironis generated fromwithin the . mental and otherwise. In such community, and can never be Â¥easeit is uiually a matter of imposed &om irithiyit. Through an expediency. Expediency, however, appreciationof the above, one is no substitute for philosophy. comes to understand the When an Ecology Govenunent importance of the class struggle in i t faced by those issues on which relation to the 'ecological Stephen Joseph Says there is no struggle'. One cannot be won '' coherent environmental view, we without theother, they are shall be, by his definition, in the ?~andsof good politicians. Such a intimately entwined. WouM an.' autonomous agrarian collective be government, in responding to the more likely to use chemical or ,. pressure of various special organic methods of farming? Would interest efwps, will be guided by e philosophy which unites the a self-managed workshop be likely to use a.machine that many envimomntal groups poisoned the air the workers had If government by consent is to to breathe? Would a consumer remain this country's tradition, cooperative be moreinclined than envitonmentalistt of every the supermarket variety to reflect description mould join in the whÃ§quality of life people really sealch for this philosophy. The want? Whatever the answers, it is Ecology Party is on the main the iiullenable right of the peopk hbk way! Where, I woad&, is Stephen Joseph? themselves to choose, but it would David Merryweather not be unfair to assume the Earth Exchange, It is Withgreat dismay, 213 Archway Road, therefore, that I read of anarchism London N6. being "written off in a couple of DM~grapha-'cannot stimulate

PURITY Havine iust read most of the articlesin UC311 am a litth maddened bv vow attitude towards drug-taking; HOW can you preach the gospel of good, pure, unadulterated organic food on the one hand, and then encourage people to experiment with hallucinogenic fungi on the other? Alcohol and tobacco may be 'socially acceptable'drugs, but do we really want afuture where more and more people are ?looked3on a wider range of drug crutches? UC 31 also carries an advertisement to legalis cannabis. Heaven help future generationsif we do net strive to improve the healthof man. Normal, healthy, socially-re$ponAk people should find all the stimulationthey need in human , contact.

GRENDLY RULES O.K. It was nice to see Edear Locke's praiseful letter ( ~ ~ 3about 2 ) the ms and outs of FOE politics and poUU&ing.It's a then that I ham to foist out one factual error he made. Friends of the Earth (Birmingham) Limited is not,despiti the m e , a limited company. We are registered as a 'Society for the Benefit of the Copmiiaity' (and who round deny that?) with the Regktrai of Friendly SocietiesThemerits of registration are I. Democracy/Accountabilityallout 'memBets' are real memlwra, each having one vote at meetings, 1.Simplicity-thde Qe just 22 rllies, ' 3. Cheapnewno annual ' return fee; 4. Corporate Status/Limited Liability -the advantages of a legs?framework with none of the disadvantages (implied abovh of other forms of registiation. A 'Society for the Benefit o& theCommunityt is registered under the same legislation as

52 BeU St Shaftesbwy Dorset

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% ' eco>apsraftive B OftheCdifferaftoma societies. The S for co-op in that the "benefits' of its' activitiesd o not solely accruet! the members. It cannot distribute any profits it makes to NO SURVIVORS Hi Wastt. It may get the Thank you for printing my mi& d w o n s a y 513%rent rebate on the Ecology Party. I hate to dven to Aaritiea and it maybe Ã§ie chMiA, but ft &d -<hat treated more sympathetically by the space you gait to the survival the Tax Inspector (it is liable for Party's eyfrcatch* symbol was Profits Tax like a limited ever so slightly out of proportion ~mpany). to thab importance: I haveyet to Any Other group (FOEof hear of any surviving supporters othwrae? can have a look a t o w other than the thwe who voted rules, a i d a copy of all of them, for if representative i t the ECQ o i bits of them as they see fit. Conferencelast September. give advice to groups Perhaps yoltcould redreis the visual ' We going through the process of balanceby printing the ECO logo registrationwiththe Registry of with this letter. J o b peas~y Friendly Societies. All we ask is that you send a large SAE (for 4/48 S o m s Road the rules) and are patient (for a n t Malvem other enauiw). . . , WorcsMichael Hughes BUSTED Friendsof the Earth - 54-57 Allison Street My ex-husband has just been Dkbeth sentenced to a term of ten years impruonment for being a 'murim' Birmingham 5 and carrying 37% Ibs of Cannabis and a small amount of cocaine from London to W i w g h with the intent to supply it. The sentence was passed at the High Court in Ediriburgh. The length of time puts him alongside Long Termprisonersof extremely nasty ' and violent crimes. As the purpose of prison is to 'rehabiiate' a prisoner and help him lead a goal and useful tifel would like somebody to explain to me how this length of time in prison with mostly violent prisoners is going to do that. His daughter who is six suffers most next to him, also his baby son. Are we really a humane and intellfeent society? Michde Rod Flat B 23 Madeira Park Tunbriitge Wells +

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Convinced though I am of the I was interested tb see David Gardner's VHF transmitter d e e n importanceof free (though not in UC32. as I have mmeexperience necessarily pirate) radio inthisffeidmyaelf. . . .. comm&&tion, I'm doubtful of to be .:;--'the real value of David Gdnei'i ~ i r s t l yin , what appeared. an article aimed at the .I shoddy and hannful article Free t6 VHP broadcaaing, very littie : .,Speech/sic/ in uC32. advice wai,given on the : 6 David, to. be f a t goes some mn<ntctioni>ltpdi)rinueÃ . " way toward explainingthe neceÃ‘iy At these frequencies t h e ' ~ ' , ~ o r t , & I h l i l4 g shis hoeitring circuit diwram tells only half t h e : approach; but because I still feel that the style of the article Is story; construction is v& . such that it will appeal to those important. As the Â¥kitsan

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y o u , producing all manner t r u t onthe profit! he mikm l&e the uineutralimd 6146PA. %i&c of tuned circuits and s from his w n w n y Direct Foods !distractions to help m whtfe It is likely to be difTlcult to keep effective low-pass filter ue my the long cold winters of the ,Ltd. Which certainly mikes a liable and the more usual minimum requirements if you're U e ! Diict Foods' policy of &ties. But I doubt very much intenully ncutralncd double mlkinc about 40-60W i n ~ u t . -ma& wya a meat subititute is te$rodes~(QQ~03-20~ and .. ( ~ j ~ d j i i t m e navid's t. $11 besuccessful . -. itrepreneur~fcooperative or; commons^ and appeals -640A) are a better bet. , - .. : luggestton of ' t u r n i ~ ~ the@ up hen~iae.I just think it's a ,~: . . . obviously much more meat . . !. . Maim voltage bulbs are . '. in the p i n t of s l i i t distortion ti&?ambitious to expect t o . . i eatenwho wantto go vegetarian . virtmlly ~ a e l e s s a ~ V Hdummy F : then backing off 15%. would be irvfac in a highly 'competitive : . and yet eat in a ilmilar pattern. load! because of the high .. treasonable if bi@dica$t reCuVtiIs iiketplfice selling alternative .,,. , " .surely preferable t o eatinithe h i t , . indu-ceof the filament. 2 1 :-: ~ . had perfect IF f(t~:.They #on' l y w i E i t h e r you (0where y, ' pumped into "food'animits. car flasherbulbs'are far better. : 2; it'svery any t&getbad sidesplij g with a wries s big money,is niryhe as V P T O t o v e g ' and 'Sosmix' has all t h e especially if u ; eÃˆ?nyhe the original signal, , wrpriw, or you make your . . ~pretehmndvitaminsof meat but Ã ˆ p trimmer totuneout the .Ã .nimitt @e:&;qn a tuner. Shni@l ternative software and get your ~'.. m fat and a fraction of tlÃ price indu.ctanc6. Be warned that such . , ;there:; ariskof netting to the oney h e w h e r e else. Good : of the cheapest animal meat; 'dummy loads' radiate -'.- .,: , .wr,o~g,li~monic during iettipgn i d doing both. '. Eric weon's justlfication auiprbiey well. .. , ; .:r:and$nintentbm~yrqwting-on : AS to John'! comments eatingdead animals is ~ u l l o fthe the modulator circuit a s . . ;:i:~,S!band; interference. . ixibility-ujh! lf 1 w w , t o . usual mystical guff. Utopian dmfbs '..'publishedhat no ere-emphasis-.. i;!fl$$id~go on- M e w arom, iiign wrnethlng,for fiexiMBty, ' of something being t u p i i o d b . and win mund rather dull -' 1;:. with BClO9sBn medium wave would probably think But of Â¥natural in unne~eiiarilykilling especially 6n music. The s i m ~ k $ ' ~ ; : ~ f c be h t good fun. A 6146 vain &als and skinning them. Web ,way of overcoming thisis to .: a k e it. as ample as was 450V irr u n be lethal. . , , : . consbtent with the rangeof . Eric nute.wheredo 1k m ) my chtiige the valw of C23to 15nF.6-f, No-one should build this design potdbflitiei I wanted to c 0 W . h p^, then?In the toft? la the absence of a modulation :. unless they're toiper@nced &I wftwwe controlled embroidering coupk of year, a -, , meter the best way.of%tt@g UP.,: ,. transmitt?r theow.md.opratiot & , , tk machine?Complexity is fine. If the deviation is byco:+parison : :: when they wouldn't need the whole new concept of animals with'the BBC or.IBA-Mr.:.: , ' circuit anyway. Overall the It's rncwarf for other r e u d fides profit. ~ ' mnot convinced ' poMeBiq rtnpte basic hll - Gatdiner's method is no$*ely article smac#sof iparticularly &?ftware.&trolled sewing b b u ~ m e d .Arebooks Uke Peter . to b con&nt or. creeping form.of 'Power-to-theSi~er'iA*mal"beration falling machine is the bet way (most People' hollow sloganeering that reptable.. I,!,, :,.: ,; :?;. m n ground? ~ Surely we as on creative) to enjoyable, As 8 final cAv&t, much audio doesn't recogni* pollution of th -**& be living Ithe :. Ã § l ~ l > r1% ~ i iiot d ~ COW; equipment, particularly tape. h a v e s asthe nether equivalent concept a fair hearing?The either that toftware controlled recorders, isliable to miabehave , of houti* down a "rival Leftlii conctpthasbeenbobbtinguound fad &jectionnyttemi we.,@ -. in the prelaw of a few wattsof speakerof putting the boot in 11 ShtUcy'' time so it Is about) : RF, F.p f a * & b ~ ~ t ~ d typically manifested as a hum on Undercurrents,1 had always the itahisduo u cluhriatd In . ' So, Undercurrents, how about the traluiltuiion. EX~KÃ d ~ u p l i n g believed, wkalerted against aicl m articleqn aninul liberation and d p i t d equipment, patent may be @ed in*e iapr entropy-dtating strategies. <w-ip. wiic.nÃ§na *nd '. the,&b qew&",? recoBtei,ÃˆiÃIt h e l p tom P M D~wron . , the blind conrcntional m o m . phm~ w n t t- the trammitting h b l Ã ˆ t t t w a The Old Priory from allthe other equipment. IR Burwell Ã

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profession over such issues.' Would it bf morally defensable for a professionas 6 &&to takeaction when controversv s d l raged? Although dl the facts pre-' sented; by Dr. Bradshaw about such isst as stress and dietary fibre are i n themselves correct. there is a substantial caul us of opinionwho put a different interpreQtkw os them. Until such argumen it is surely not acceptable ion to throw i t s corporate weight behind the new idea; after all, this is precisely what happened ifl the last century and what Dr. Sradshaw an other critics have complained about in the past. Doctors On Trial John Bradshaw; Wildwood House 320pp. Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ5.95 Thirdly the author produces the rev( 'GIVE ME some facts and I will weave a marvellous tale of wonder and majesty.' lutionary argument In this instance, thi Thus spake the storytellers of old, and through their art proved that the association would hold that since the medics, proand interpretation of facts i s far greater, far more stimulating, and much more fession patches up the fauks caused entertaining than the bald truth. I n putting Doctors On Trial in a fictional setting by the system, the pr~fessfdnitself is a of a court of enquiry, Dr. Bradshaw has acted likewise. His book is compelling read barrier to fundamental change in the fi and a superb piece of storytelling. system. Revolution can -start hv aftark-,- .. the, ig ' system Or the stahchibns The facts are put together in a familiar notion of causality; not me rtnal cause system. Personally I do not believe in story. Western society has developed a as was propounded before the age of revolution^ SoIam hardly likely mode of living which produces environtechnology but first cause. It is only in agree with this particular thesis. 1 do n& mental and life-style disease. It has 2 or 3 y e s that s e s a v e demanded a particular form of adminis. been examined from the point of view think a doctor re'foluti~. of theirfirst cause. hi^ change has been w in the-broadest sense whilst remaimiq (ration to which the populace has abroslow and painful; not all the medical in his profession. T h mentions of Dr. gated its responsibility for many social Guevara and Dr. Altenk are SCNlriws and health decisions. State, professional profession are ready for it, and many of in w view. Neither of these were prim&af~dlay person alike have colluded to the scientific forms of investigation are medical Practitioners-'niq produce an atmosphere in which medic$ M-wited. The net result i s that there iq would be iftheywere still alive, revoludiagnosis and crisis intervention are tionaries in a fundamental and political emphasized to the detriment of preven. sense. Most doctors are not in the same tion and societal education. It is at this class and i t i s not fair to castigate their point that I depart from Dr. Bradshaw's deficiencies even if they are a barrier to thesis. your own political will. There are three main criticisms of the By and large the PoBk is well-reiearcH medical profession in this book. The first ed and stimulating. Ithin& that it was a is that medicine has been dominated by ' mistake todiscuss the Ameriism and the*, science to the exclusion of such subjecBritish medical professions side-by-side tive issues as emotion, preference, or since their differences are far more im- ,, stress in the patient. This i s now accept portant politically than their similarities., ed by many doctors. Whilst milch of I was not impressed by the section on medicine is based on science medicine Self-care. This subject is one of primary , itself i s not, nor cannot be, a science. importance and also Of particular interest.' know so little about health or normal t o me; the scope of discussion was narrow , functioning that the taskef the doctor and ignored much r y n t literature i n thb is to interpret the patient's complaints country, whilst the philosophy on which, against the wider perspective of his the books discussion is based was only knowledge. Medical knowledge i s culled one of several possibilities. These criticifrom all sorts of areas; academic doctor, cisms apart, the book passes muster as , are only academic in the sense that they legitimate criticism given three riders: work to apply such science to the art and practise of medicine. In any case I 1. That the reader understands that cannot agree with Dr. Bradshaw's conthe author is generalising the attitude tentioi thzt 'the objectives o f science, of his individual witnesses t o a large medical audit, o f trials and testing are segment of the medical professionand necessarily incompatible with the subthis may not be appropriate (as in jectivity o f person-to-person medicine' the attitude of the medical witness i n Second the medical profession i s ca discussing stress, most o f which would gated for i t s lack of effect in the preve be disputed by the majority of doctors) tative field. 'Doctors neither condemn 2. That the discussion of pafticuiar our life-style vehemently nor show us a facts gives them undue importance wit' alternative'. I think there are two reaso the attendant dangers of generatising for this undeniable fact. The first is tha from the particular (asin the discusit is only very recently since medicine $07 of Hemicorporectomy, an unchanged it3 entire model of scientific common operation which has been investigation. Medicine, like most o f t condemned by the profession); scientific community, was dominated 3. That the author's interpretation ma in the last century by the question 'ho not in fact be correct (as i n the spurand when this could be answered it was ious correlation between the develop possible to intervene in the process to m n t automobile engineering and tran change the course of the disease. Only bhnt sureerv) or the onlv oossible nnt auite recently have we returned to the

Doctors in the Dock

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The Court o f Enquiry is a very apposite environment for the sort o f discussion Dr. Bradshaw is holding. It is, however, based entirely upon the interpretation o f the presented facts. I f facts are not presented, and if the interpretations are incorrect, then the court is no more able to determine truth than a gossip columi ist This is why courts have counsel for the Defence and Prosecution arguing over the interpretation of the evidence. The book lacks the thrust and parry of the normal Courtroom in which interpretation and counter-interpretationvie for the Judge's attention. Indeed, no defence is presented despite the fact that many doctors will be able to find seriousloopholes in some of the interpretations put forward .- . ..- -. A good example of interpretative difficulty is the Coronary Care Unit. Dr. ~radshawrightly points to these expensive units as an example of medical inconsequmtiality. Another view might be , that they tave tremendous benefit in preventing heart attacks in such cases as accelerated angina or i n stroke; with them physicians will learn more about the acute management of the coronary. There is also some inconsistency in Ole prosecution's arguments. I n discussing dietary fibre Dr. Bradshaw makes the point that the absence of fibre, which is responsible for much disease (apparently), results in slowing o f the passage of waste material - a sort of chronic constipation. Yet in an earlier chapter a surgeon who believed that there was a link between chronic constipation and disease was chided for having a ridiculous theory. His hypothesis was correct but the underlying explanation of i t was not. Nowhere in the book are outcome measures invoked to explain why procedures we now knowto be ridiculous were once used. Dietary fibre is a good example here too. For years physicians have been treating people with diverticulosis by potting them on a low fibre diet. Since we ndw know that it is precisely the diet which leads to the developdent of disease the prosecution knocked this management. The fundamental question is: did low residue diet work? If it did, and there issome evidence to that effect, why !not use it?Even homeopathy believes in producinglife's symptoms to treat disease, and most patients on such treatments get worse before they get better. We do not understand it but it works. So much of a modern medicine is like that I The scope of this book is so vast that to do it justice and a full review would fill this journal. I do not have the same philosophy of politics or medical practice as does Dr. Bradshaw, and I dispute most of the interpretations in the ouok, but Ienjoyed reading it. You can <av nothini better than thatExcept that if morelay people read it. they would not'be so woefully ignorant of some of the problems of medical practice as they now are. And that cannot be a bad thing.

though& onto paper', now being develop ed by Hambm Life Assurance. Anyone, it seems, can learn to use it in 30 minutes J I w Sceotics sav that i t will be vears Before such devices come into general use. I don't believe it.Office workers are unorOffice Life Keith Watertiouse. Michael wised, unmilitant and complacent, Joseph 236pp. Â£4.95 -. easy meat for rationalisationand redundancy. the Fifties TO EACH decade its The publisher describes Office Life as had the Bomb, the Sixtiethes &emon Dope, and the Seventies (he Energy Crisis. a wage laqpoon: Iwould regard it as horrid warning of what life will be likein Today sweet makets use the Atom Bomb to promote a candy bar, the kids have the Idle Eighties. Of course it may never turned to alcohol like their parents and happen: like the other bogeys Mr. Chip may fade away or be replaced by someonly a starveling remiwnt o f Underthing even more terrifying, a Blob from c,urrents readers on their Welsh hillsides are still waiting for the Ecocatotrephe. Outer Space perhaps. Some would say that nothing could be more terrifying For everyone else the Eightits wjll be than having no nice warm office to esthe decade o f the Microchip, nuns unemployment and social upheaval., cape to; they should read this book: it How will it be managed, this terrible may cheer them up. threat to the freeborn Englishman's Chris Hutton SqUin inalienable right to work long hours with obsolete tools for the lowest wage in Europe?One ploy, already being tried halfheartedly, is the creation of countless non-jobs, busy-work of all kinds, to fill the empty hours between nine and five. I n this novel Keith WaterA fttr Industrial Society - The Efnerp house, whose twice-weekly column in Ing Self Service Economy by Jonathan the Daily Mirror is a rare bright spot of' Gershuny. Macmillan Â£3.25 radical common sense in the dull waste of the yellow press, describes one such , A RATHER dry book and packed with statistics. However, i t is well worth haven for the unemployable, British reading if you are interested i n the way Albion, a conglomerate with hazy origins the economy is really going. in the printing industry, and the advenJonathanGershuny, of the Sussex tures o f Cleftient Gryce, a clerk freshly University Science Policy Research Unit, recruited to its Stationery Department, challenges accepted theories that as when he tries to discover whrt, if anything his company makes or sells. His industry automates service employment grows. Instead he maintains that most enquiries lead him to join the Albion 'service' employment is concerned with Players, the company amateur theatrical club, who seem to be rehearsing The, the production of goods. Modern proI~opartanceo f Being Earnest. What they duction requires less blue collar workare actually doing is collatifi informaers and more white collar workers. He. tion about the (non-existent) commeralso identifies a trend in households cial activities of their employer. When to invest in goods to provide services they finally stumble on the truth, they e.g. buying washing machines instead of sending out to layndries. He presents are neatly muzzled by our old friend the a convincing case to show that real ser- Official Secrets A c t The Government cannot give them work to keep them in vice employment (that not directed to producinggoods) has not increased jobs: what it can offer is jobs to keep proportionately as the whole economy them in work, but the price of job is silence. Calm is restored, on the surface, has rown. He takes on Bell, Dahren- , ~albraith,and Schumacher and but underneath Gryce and-hismads have effectively, demolishes them. discovered the old Albion Printeries and His suggestions at the end o f the book set up a covert print shop using the old is even more interesting. He predicts the ' plant and paper purloined from the emergence of a dual economy. At one Stationery Stores. Work, and therefore level there would be automated mask life, begins anew. industry, at another level a self-service What has t h i s to say to Radical Techeconomy based upon households. He nologists?What have they to say to suggests a strategy of households Clement Gcyce and his hapless fellows? investing in machines to produce goods Problem and answer pass 6ne another by. for themselves. He doesn't KO into detail It's one thing to dream up alternative but Undercurrents readers should be products (though not alternative markets) for the skilled workers o f Lucas: it's a interested in such suggestions. I would recommend this book (for lot harder to imagine what socially useful work the clerks and typists of British those who can take statistics) as a good Albion might be set to. We hear that the1 starting point for further speculation. pension funds, the faceless arbiters of Undercurrents tends to lack realistic , much new investment in Britain today, economic analysis and this weakens have quietly decided not to invest in radical technology argument!.

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What does Professor Saunders cew clude?'That economic performance depends less on the volume of resources available than on the effectiveness with . . . . which these resources- manpower. management, capital equipment, technology Engineeringin Britain, West Germany are in fact used. 'X efficiency' the term and France: some statistical comparisons, given to those elements in economic pe By Christopher Saunders 1978 109pp formance which the statistics leave out.' Â£2.0 Sussex European Papers No. 3. is pet'hh Vhe most important factor underlying our comp&sonsl. IFOUR PRESENT 'occupational Advocates of socially useful work may. tribal warfare' of strikes and disputes is ponder the problems of democratising the dawning o f realisation that slices of the national economiccake are becoming the workplace and improving conditions, in the market place, and may succeed in harnessingthe powerhouse of the ordinary industrial worker. They may however I ask themselves how, with 1%o f the world's population, we can still handle d 9% of OECD trade., . . S.B. ,watt

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,.s,.. md members o f the 6-612 rGWU, . Price 50p 48pp 11 Secretary, 6-612Branch, T I' IS Caldwell Road. Allerton. L ~ V .~ ~ D19 O ~ . I market place. Within national boundaries . i LIVER&,L " A radical kchnologists have little room . Ã§ede i g&ni for manoeuvre. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~. :.:f~ iT hd i s publication ~ ~ ~ compares d : statistics Jverpos 1 rrom poor but familiar and improvable ... :of mechanical, electrical and instrument Where were you, brother? A n account mineering in Bri t ai n , France and West lousing stock the folk of central Livero f Trade Union imperiofism by Don !, Germany Industrial sectors that lool have been rehoused i n desolate Thomson <Â Rodney Larson (Published by . account for 2"-25% manufacturing mtes and concrete towers such as War o n Want, 467 Caledonian Road,, and employm?nt in the highly ~fNetherly Edge and Speke correspond, . London, N7, price Â£1.20 138pp.) , industri#iid countries. Britain's comng exactly to Alcatraz and but no petitive position is cruelly revealed. THIS REPORT guides you through osessmell sweet here pal, hatever the German engineering industry is 50% the morassthat is international unionism, lame. What better way of demoralising larger Britain's i n terms of employdescribing themany obscure andsorne,! work force thanto take away family ment yet output and exports are double times downright unsavoue organisatiohs, upport? omparable French industry . a n d personalitiesthat inhabit this impdrtThey call i t Merseyslide, as the big . . wer employees lhan Britain : '. a-.. n t area of trade union activity. ompanies such as Plessey, General Elec d exports nearly as much . I t describes how the movement is &idrlc, Courtaulds, Cammel Laird, British ed politically into theeastern bloc and" .eyland and now Dunlop cut back on er compares a wide variety the western bloc. The latter isdominated heir workforce to push unemployme ristics and makes some surby anti-socialist and crudely manipulative n the Merseyside SDA up to 100,000. ations. No association U.S. labour organisations, who are fundThis report describes the closure in ween profits and investment in Gered by, amongst others, those well-known day 1978 of the BL Speke No. 2 Plant' , Britain; and no association in mmy international bogies, the CIA, ITT and lroducing the TR 7, - a car designed on BriMn degree of conc,entration, ThdUnited Fruit Co. he basis of major motofing needs for the i g of enterprise, and profits, pay, Our own TUC, though not corrupt$; ext 20 years'. Built for the American A strong productivity, or investment. thisway, does not come out with flying larket the wedge shape without a sun performance isnot related to hig,, colours. A t best i t is shown to be apathoof proved a poor choiceand didn't investment indeed the oppositeis the etic to the needs of the 3rd World. The ill well. The report gives a short answer for ~ ~ i ~ ~ i ~ . basis of its overseas policy is tobe 'nori3 the question of how the workers got : E~~~~~~ from ~ ~ i tand a G~~~~~~ i ~ political', but as the authors point'out~ axed from each other and how the have increased proportionally but im'thepoor don't have the luxury of drawlanagement were able to close down the' ports into~ ~ i tare a leaking i ~ in like a ing rm%tdistinctions between'economic lant without a struggle to shift producsieve fiereas G ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ are ~ ~holding , , , , ~ and political struggles. Too often when 'on to Coventry. their own despite the high price of the they try to organise, it's a state prison,,^ If you want to get a good picture D.Mark. For Britain imports are highest bullet or bayonet that greets them. They ie cockups and belch of confusion in . inindustries where exports are highest; know they're in a political fight'. 1e cockpit that is British industry then import controls across the board would The TUC, through the intermediary iis report is a good starter. 'What happenof the International Confederation of i at Speke' gives a shop floor view of Free Trade Unions, limits itself t o giving ie events leading up to closure and the financial support to 'official' union Fforts made too late in the day to conorganisaticns in the 3rd World, whentoo ruct an alternative plan on the Lucas often these official orginisations are It little more than fronts for the govern- : ,. :cepted redundancy pay easily now re- . isthe host universal dominanceof ments and the employers. Â¥e their decision as the doles sink in German over whole branches of Though the book does not spell this , ld regret the loss Of even track productinr. French and German products out, the implication is that the TUC on work. The New Jerusalem of liberamoving upmarket in comparison with has become assimilated into the Estab try technological dreams whimpers in Bfitain whilst our share of world trade lishrnent, and as such finds itself unable ie face of the harshrealities of big is falling: increasingly British produck to operateoutside Establishment frames ~siness. and British workers are in competition of reference. It is unable to help the Graham Billie with low wage countries. workers of the 3rd World when these

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teveloped, suppressed or taken over by he State. Moreover it is unwilling to hink about these problems, or to enourage its members to think about hem. Lack of information i s a constant heme of Thomson & Larson's , nd they see t h i s as a major reas n for he apathy of individual member inions. There are of course exceptions o this apathy, such as the recent NUM lelegation to the mineworkers of Chile nd Bolivia, but these are isolated acts nd are rarely supported by the bulk of he union movement. The traditional concern of unions is vith wages and conditions of work, a ery basic concern. But they have failed o come to terms with developments in nodern capitalism, notably with the lower of the multinationals, characterizd by &,-ability to manipulate labour in S'glibal scale and a willingness to join orees with repressive political regimes o ensure a disciplined, unprotected rotkforce in countries on the 'periphery if capitalism'. Similarly, there is as yet little official inion response to the growing need to hink of new ways out of the problems )f mass -unemployment in the developed .ountries. Little response to shopfloor nitiativ- such as those of the Lucas , workers, to the arguments of alternative ethnology and the environmental movenent, and as far as I can see, very little bought as to how these should relate o each other, or how they must relate o world-wide workers' solidarity. 'Where were you, brothers?' is availble from War On Want, and will hopeully be read by all in the trade union novement who might claim that they lidn't know what was going on!

Bob Black

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The SIPRI books, like the few menHoned above which have all come out I the last year or so, contain very details analysis of articular areas of interest They arewritten bv experts working at SIPRI for a spell, or by SIPRI staffOuter Space - Battlefield o f the Future? members. The topics are usually well Â£8Arms Control, A Somy and Appraisal chosen and the work exhaustive. But o f Multllateral Agreements, Â£0.50, the best feature about the analysis is Tactical Nuclear Weapons:. European simply that it i s the most dispassionate Perspectives, Â£10.50 and Anti-Personnel - - available, neither enthusing about the Weapons, Â£9All published In the UK by possibilities for destruction offered by Tavlor and Francis Ltd. for the Stockholm new technologies (and old) or moralisi~ lnkrnational Peace Research Institute. about the evils of them. In most fields of activity, that would not be much to 'When a spinningprojectile hits a.denser ask (set down like that, it sounds absur medium, such as human tissue, the ly liberal), but it i s virtually unique in 'wobble' is greatly magnified, but It con- military analysis. tinues to spin. So if a bullet passes SIPRI is one of the world's main through a sufficient depth of tissue, it centres producing expert assessments o may leave only a small exit hole, b u t military developments, and one of the because o f the wobbling effect in the very few which are separate from the wound, internal damage is much more influence of armed forces, weapons severe than is apparent from the surface manufacturers, and the rest of the perv appearance'. sive lobby which exists to increase the amount o f everything military. For tha That is an example, from Anti-personreason, SIPRI's work is well worth kno net Weapons, of the deadpan style which ing about if you are at all likely to have SIPRI brings to its analyses of military to research any military topics. This developments. Like all SIPRl's work, review is not going to sell many books Anti-Personnel, Weapons is a nearly uniqite collection o f numbers and facts about for SIPRI, but I suspect they'won't mil too much, provided people are encoura an importantarea of military activity. ed to refer to their material, which is t c The aim o f this review is simply to tell people that SIPRI exists, and that its work be found in many major archives like University libraries. is probably the most useful stuff available One reason why they might not wor on world military goings-on, indispensable too much is that SIPRI is funded large1 for most research on military topics. by the Swedish government, which set SWRI's main publication i s its Yearup in 1966 to celebrate Sweden's 150 book, which is the best source for statisyears (since Napoleon was seen off) tics on military spending, the arms trade, witho'lt being in a war. It would be . and the like, as well as an overview of interesting to know the last time Britain military developments, which are treated wentfor 150days without i t s armed in separate features each year; nuclear forces being in some kind of scrap some proliferation, outer space, geophysical where. warfare, chemical warfare, or whatever. Martin In

Plumbing the Sun Solar Energy for the heating o f domestic hot water, R.I. Norris, The Institute of Plumbing. Technical Pacer No. 1. Scottish Mutual House. North Street. Hornchurch. Essex. Â£3.0(non-members), 14pp. WHILE 'GOING SOLAR' is a'guide for the consumer, the Institute of Plumbing paper is for the installer, giving the workingplumber some background information which of course is useful to someone designing a DIY system. Most useful are the 13 alternative system layouts and their pipework which vary from the simplest direct loop 'thermosyphon' t o complex systems integrating with central heating boiler and multiple tanks for separate solar preheating, hot water, water storage etc. Some of the necessary valves are specified too, unlike 'Going Solar'. The cost of a solar water heater is high- pects like Planning Permission, Building Regulations and Water Byelaws - it is ly dependenton the method of financing amazing how naughty you can be if you it, being very sensitive to interest rates, don't know! For installers there are and also both the absolute level of inflaBritish Standards codes of practice to tipn a.m tke relative inflation of energy comply with, which make excellent prices, which i s anyone's guess. Here the checklists of things to think of if you are l o p paper is probably a little pessimistic designing a system yourself. Some tips on and 'Going Solar' rather overoptimistic. materials for protection against frost and This is for a standard 4 ma commt!rcial system. However, Norrls predicts some corrosion will be useful. Like the Solar Age Catalogue, don't buy this to fill out reduction In prices, to Â£4per m* for solar panels, although they will become your AT bookshelf (at 20p per page) but do if you need it. much cheaper in the US, perhaps Â£20 because of the much larger market! Pete Glass This paper also covers some legal as/

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Some things about the book are rather dated, the prices o f course, ministry regulations, and the difficulties presented by the last war, all of which are hard for this generation to relate to, but nevertheless are interesting in that they +ow how the Henderson's coped with obstacles and emphasise flexibility and a positive ~ttitudetowards any problem. The book is divided into chapters which make foreasy reference, i.e. 'oultry, Cattle Pigs etc. with one rather .diosyncratic chapter on 'Holidays'. It is , typical of the man that heshould devote , a chapter to informing the reader as to the best way of mtoihising time during holidays. One begins t o have an affection or him.

The Home Da/ty/ngHandbook. THE PRACTICALSELFSUFFICIEN-' CY magazine people have produced a very useful and practical handbook. Infor(nation is extremely clearly and logically laid out under sections and headings. No index but a detailed contents pages at the beginning. The whole book is libendly sprinkled with additional references t o o h books and leaflets. The animal section briefly and neatly covers cows, goats and milk sheep (and you won't find.them anywhere else), milking routines, common diseases, sleeping areas, feeding (very brief for a complicated subject) and keeping milk clean. The dairy is described and drawn out, good information on separating milk products for goats and sheep though the system of siphoning the milk out from under the floating cream isn't mentioned. By far the best section is that on us- I ing all t*-e milk. Them are dearly laid,out step by step instructions for everything, from usingcream in different ways, butter and buttermilk and lots of recipes on top of the basics for cheesemaking. There are pleqty of useful drawings andreferences to suppliers of the necessary ,... , equipment ' F and ~ materials. ~ ~ I'm~sorry~thpy onlv refer to themselves as the mabr .: supplier. because Self Sufficiency upp plies inWells; Somerset is good, and sometimes local county farmers warehouses supply. lt'Ã good to encourage local suppliers any-

rs, working farmers ahd agriculhThe Farming Ladder. George Henderwho have read it The proof o f t$e son. Faber. Â£2.50 :. ,. ... . is i n the new editions. THE FIRSTTHING that will s ~ ~ off this book is the cover, which terribly dated and won't sell a single , . copy, the Second is the author. It is, 'V haps, a pqticularly British character leEga?"duction by to be irritated by; tho*. who have a hig .,=" winion of themselves. Geoke Hendek . son ap~ars,po~pous,'self-o~i~ion~ted,:< CAROL "WINCH'S little book, Plain It's one of 'the best books with cheese- ., intolerant, self-satisfied ;and unerring- ;'and Simple Egg production contains a information inpat I have ly successful in everything he does . : . lot of Up to date information for today from Broad Leys Publishing C+including writing this book (first publish- ,. .{ gardenw smallholder who wishes to k Widdington, Saffron Walden, Essex. 6 in 1943)of..which there have been , ::afwhens.. . &ah from ~ a u r i ~ s t ~ n~:~ a l l ,' " ~ ,,. . .,The book has q easy style, punctuaseveral reprints dnd two editions i n .~. . . hardback, and whichis now being issued -.;:';' tedwith delightful snippets o f oddities ' f r o m herexperience. It is attractively in a new paperback edition. ~.. , . . Despite ,all this Iwould recomm~ndr';.:' printed but Iwould have liked more Weather Lore For Gardeners, David : anyone to read the book. ~hose:$&t' . ,,>'.--drawingsbecause they can get across Bowen, Thorsons Publishers Ltd. 89 especially interested in farming will .-.. . . Ãm o r e information more clearly than . . . nates.illintrated. -. . , ...-- -.-.- -,index. ...- . ... , probably be hooked by:thi sh~er.force.,, words. Even though 1have read large . A SHORT and useful book (printed of thecharacter of theman and B e ,, ;::-.a numbers of poultry books Istill learnt oti recycled paper) which covers under'labourer to-landlord! success story which. ;some new facts; and I was especially standing the weather, meteorological alwaysmakes for coepo,&iv&reading. . :',Â¥pleased with little details no-one else terms, doud formations, traditional Those,who are either-fatthing or hoping :, ,- ever mentions, like creosote gives off weathersayings, and making your own to farmwill find, i t aninvaluable source. , . . ."sty fumes, so don't put chickens in weather station. Well set out and illus:.. newly dohe houses. Those things I learnt of information and.en:couragement T h e (rated; with a reasonable set of cloud^ , pricesquoted~~roughout are, of course, ; through not-so-good experiences. photographs. , . No one poultry book ever covers absodifficult t o translateinto modern terms, , . David Bowen rightly emphasises t h e but the principles behind them remain . . , lutely everything. This one deals with a importance of your own obkrvations, the same. :.. . , 'wide range of general information o n as local weather conditions vary conof supply for hens, eggs and The Farming Ladder is less for the . . : sources , siderably from national or regional pre . -storage of, keeping simple records, housself-sufficient family on a couple of dictions. There's a chapter on guidance ing, feeding, breeding and health. I'd acres than for the small farmer, the , .. from plants and animals, covering ...-. , . want-to refer t o some other books for brothers Henderson were out to maxiquite a range of indications- squirrels more helpful specific measurements for mise the profit from their eighty five and moles have their uses, and spider use space and nest space per bird, feed acres without, I might add, using art reliable forecasters - but woodlice ntities and a clear l i s t of diseases. 'bad' farming methods. The fact are ambiguous. . . . . .. , . . . . r chapter on health in general savs brother learnt farmino while ...... the -..- - . . Janet S. Payne , learnt business will tell you much about , the kind offarm they ran. . Wood Jtie Alternative Fuel by h d n w Th~info?mationgiven in the book is Porteous was reviewed i n the last Issue o f very specific; i t relates to George Undercurrents, and readers may have Henderson's particular experience, the experienced tome difficulty obtaining a kind of problems he had, and the farm copy o f this rare work. that he built up. This Is not a basic textIntroduction to the whole subject. It's It Is available for Â£1.7 post paid direct book on farming but It Is packed with available from Carol Twlnch, Glentodge Information, and anyone interested can- , from: ' '46 Hardwick Road Farm, Barnburgh, Norivkh, Norfolk, not but learn from such a thorough Wellingborpugh ... . iflcl*. p~p. , farmer. as this,m,an. \, 6% Northinti., ,

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~ o n k n ~ s ~ o t h Sheila e ~ s :Kitzinger: ,fopha, 285pp, Â£1.50 1 HAD VISIONS of writing an idyllic r~wiew about ~ . - how lovelv it is to bea , . mother but th& visions are shattered

completely. Realising I'd lost the rubber ~~~

wheel ff my child's pushchair I wearily retnce? my many steps to the spot where I'd pulledinstead ofpushed. And all the while my child is sleeping instead of eating. So when we get home such . , hunger causes such crying as if nothing will be right again.And the only way it's right Is for her to have tea, clutching her coat and a whole tomato, and the.dic. tator In me cries 'No' but her cries are stronger.'And now she i s in bed as if the world is golden; leaving me with Kitzinger and 'Women As Mothers'. ' Last k u t u m n ~ i t z i r i ~ eone r , of that rare breed; a BBC 'Woman of Action', said in the broadcast that her mother and grandmother both believed that women should change society; and she has carriedon, doing Much good work to make childbirth a more human experlen&. I had a high technology birth but Ialso had a National Childbirth TcdM',,, midwife with me, who made sure ev&the tectinothingwas tine - and you the m rkcle of birth. aid, we both would be we who romantlcally believein pre-industrial apd peasant societies. Kitzinger, the anthropologist, throws light on how things really are in those societies; some are bad, some good. In

one African tribe the illegitimate child is killed and the mother cast out of e tribe: in a West African village women are expected to have their babies without uttering a sound. In Jamaica the unoffiiial midwife, the nana, anoints the pregnant woman with oil from the 4th month of pregnancy onwards. She mothers the mother when the baby arrives; note, it is not her mother! Kitzinger appeared in a National Childbirth Trust film with so many different women all speaking eloquently about their births. Kitzinger spoke about the uterus being the strongest muscle in the human body, and she enjoyed saying it. Kitzinger, the mother, writes: 'Being a mother, and for that matter being a father, is depreciated in our society. It is something intelligent women who have education and jobs are supposed to fit in to a very limited part of their lives or to do almost in their spare time. This is fine if this is how they really want to do it But it does net have to be done like that Being a mother is an exciting occupati01 which demands all one's intelligence, all one's emotional resources and all one's capacity for speedy adjustment to new challenges.' And now I begin again to feel part o f my golden world. Fiona Cantell

Women and the Crisis in Sex Hormones, Barbara and Gideon Seaman (1978) Harvester Press, 502 pp. Â£10.50 ' =.. There is akind o f Catch-22 in the tes sumption: and application no matter of drugs howfor many human test performed on however many differel cies of animal, the final tests have t o on humans i n clinical trials. Even when-all of the preliminary test indicate a safe and beneficial product tt rare or long-term side effects only come to light after widespread use overa num her of years. Then, and often too late f o many people, the drug has to he recalled Was this then the case with me hor,tnqne diethylrtilboestrol (OES)? Did animal, tests ana early clinical trials indicatethai this dmq would pievent miscarriage in pregnant women and that it would be sa for both the mother indchild? The ansv from reading Women and thecrisis In Sex Hormones, has to be an unequivocal 'No'. In fact it is hard not to suspect a sinister connivance between research wo ers and the companies marketing the dm with the unborn child as theill-fated vi~tiÃ£ The story of DES i s given below as an e x q p l e of the investigative journalism that the t k o authors have so admirably undertaken. DES was the first hormone ever to be synthesised, and $is was no mean feat i n 1938in England. A clinical use for it then had to be found, and this opportunity appeared to presentitself when it was observed that women who frequently miscarried excreted lower levels of oestrogen. Thus trials on this synthetic oestrogen took place initially in Harvard and later in Boston and. Chicago; but, whereas the first, but ala& uncontrolled trial indicated benefits from DES, thetwo subsequent trials, which were properly controlled, indica: ted the reverse. Indeedthe drug proved to actually increase the rate of miscarriage. This latter-result could not have come as a total surprise to the clinicians' since experiments performed in the, meantime with pregnant rabbits showed that th'w given DES had higher rates of spontaneous abortions. Also further animal experiments were showing DES to cause and to increase the frequency of tumours in mice., In other words DES looked as though i t was not only detrimental o pregnancy but that it might also be humancarcinogen. Yet, despite all this knowledge, doctors continued to prescribe DES for another two decades to pregnant women in the USA. It was not until the late 1960's that the association betweena previously rare form of vaginal cancer in adolescent girls and DES taken in pregnancy by their mother was recognised, and even then the FDA was slow in issuing a-warning its - against use in pregnant women.

This then is the message of the book * by Barbara and Gideon Seaman. Women have learnt the hard way with DES. The 'Crisis' i s that we must act now. DES is itself still being used as a morning-after contraceptive, and i s still included in cattle feed in the USA. Despite the seriousness of the subject matter, this book is extremely readable and even, in parts, entertaining. It is good to see methods of contraception other than the Pill discussed So explicitly and to have reiterated that pregnancy is not the only alternative to the Pill and that many other methods are safer from both the point of view of the woman's health h d frequently just w a f e as contracePlives, a fact which is often underplayed. It is also good to see many o f the myths, about a womarr's role in society and afl the assumptions that go with this, such as the desire for eternal youth, so readil debunked. Many women may come upon this book after years of hormone use, and may well recognise many of the side effects in themselves and their fellow hormone users. The Seamans have conscientiously taken every possible situation and for each recommended simple alternatives coupled with dietary suppleinents to alleviate a number of the problems. TOO often hormones have been given in the first instance and alternatives tried later. Any woman reading this book would Woubtedly try the alternatives

Evolution- Colin Patterson; Routledge 17pp Â£2.9 THERF ARE few lucidand well-knit ounts of evolutionary theory such as =., find in Colin Pattersop's book. I t is presented as being simple enough to be enjoyed by those of us who missed train" ing i n the biological sciences, a subject which concerns us all. The first half of the book dealsgenerally with the basisof spBdes, the variations within them, Mendelian theory and the chromosome theory of'heredity. There is a very nicety potted description of the workings of DNA, the double helix, in Chapter 4. No easy study for the uninformed. I ind, however, that the author took me the hand and led me through the back eets of Polyploidy. We met the amazpeppered moth and dropped in on

first and use hormones only as slag 9 sort Although designed largely for the American woman consumer, who frequently has to consider the cost o f different procedures as well as their effectiveness and safety, the information i s edually valid for women in t h i s country. The experts ha& proven again and again that they cannot always be trusted. Armed with the infomation in this book, women can choose their own medication and contraception and decide for themselves what risks they wish to take. I would recommend that this book should form part of the library of any women's setf-help health group, family planning clipics and the waiting rooms of pro, vssive ~ p ' ~ . FOEd

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Women - A PsychologicalPerspect/ve. ~ d i ~ ,by . ~ ~ l ~~~~l~~~ ~ * jeme E. Gullahorn, John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 342pp. bibliography, indices, Â£7.0 (paperback), VERY READABLE book the field of physical and psychological sex differences, with frequent references to actual studies as well as to various theorists. I t also includes a glossary explaining the not excessive amount of , ps~chologicaljargon used.

Drosophila, so often ready with the latest tit-bit of evidence. Biffen's wheat and Queen Victoria's 'bleeders' helped show us the way. \ Having toured the area we moved on through prokaryotes and globins, with a passing glance at the Lamarkians and Macromutationists. We are told that no-one has actually observed the origin of even one new species in Nature. Two models of 'speciation' y e offered, Darwin's (with examples from Galapagos) and the more dramatic t q ~ i n t ~speciation' m where a new species originate i n a few generations. Darwin never mentioned 'evolution' in his Origin o f Species. The word first appeared i n The Descent o f Man written two years later. He knew nothing of Mendelian inheritance, or of chromosomes. Indeed, he dismissed sudden and

The editors say that they, gin* * ' encourage the development of "person- " hood '- and that means development of both so-called 'feminine' and 'ma+cutine' traits in everyone. The reason for making this book a b q t women instead o f 'persons' is that most psychological research is done with men, and so the con-. clusions drawn and used by later writers frequently apply to less than half the human-face. The balance must first be ' redressed. f o r example, male and female are usually seen as opposites, rather than an assortment of many types of differences, which may be ' culturally determined. ' This book i s intended as,a textbook. for college courses in the 'Psychology. of Womert'. I hope it is used in such , w r s e s it might act as an antidote to the views the students have already! acquired. It deserves a wider readership - the material presented and the vie& stated are balanced, and although written by Americans about American women,. almqt all of it is also applicable to this, It's a book which exists because cwnt% of the omen's movement it has helped therecognition that there are two : sexes, &one isn't a poor copy o f the"

Pity the book's a bit expensive see if your library win get it. Yo6 should be ^ read it before they want it back, Janet S. h y p e large variations as 'sports' and of no tignificance. In the chapter 'Evolution and Man' Patterson uses the evidence of fossils and molecular biology to estimate the 'genetic distance' between h u m w , and chimps; the difference i s less than, that between subspecies in other groups. Hopes are, however, expressed that the difference in the number of chromo-. somes (46 human, 48 apes) is enough to frustrate anyone wfho is, 'brave or in- , a sensitive enough to persevere with. the ultimate experiment' - trying to hybriiize the two species. 9 On the whole non-committal on choice of working hypotheses his discussion on the metaphysics of scientific investigation and observation is well balanced and, I found, enlightening. , This is2 well packed and nicely assembled dossier on the current state of evolutionary theory/There is a'useful bibliography and an essential glossary. The text is well illustrated, showing the influence of the British Museum (Natural History), where Patterson works. A hard read, but well worth the effort. Robin Halsall

Undercurrents 33

piease send CODY and replies t o ~ o Numbers x to our London off ice

Price Increaseq From May 1st price of Undercurrents Small Ads will be increased to 4p per word and of Box numbers t o Â£1Following our normal practice, however, advance remittances for Small ads to appear in UC 35 and sebsequent issues will be credited at the old rate if they are received by April 30th. Display advertising rates are unchangedfor the time being: cover Â£6 per page; other sizes pro rata; inside: from. 50p per col. cm. For a full rate card, write to our London Office.

COMMUNITY --

VILLAGE of Coopera1,ion. Contacts information, ideas wanted with view to ultimate creation of self-sufficiency orientated village type cornmunity. Martin Brown, Old Hall Community. East Bergholt. Suffolk.

FORMBY HALL is an old house with a lot of space around it where kids from Liverpool City come t o stay, at weekends and school hol-Idays t o play learn, and work with us. weneed some more : people, preferably aged 2 3 t t o live and work here. Further details: Phone Fprmby 71275. SMALL rural group looking lor new members to loin them in partially converted coach house which is our dwelling We are sharing cooking. demng. maintenance a n y . imorovement of buildinas. care of chicken, goats a i d each other. Common room and meditation room in the making; all situated on the end of the Malvern Hills in 6 acres of arounds shared with larger community. Contact K, Abraham. Birchwood Hall Nr. Malvern, Worcs. Tel Suckley 493.

I AM planning purchasing a smallholding in Scotland or Ireland. Fair amount of cash but lack expertise and company. Anyone inter, ested in joining me7 Anthony Martin, 56 Heronswood Rd. Rednal, Birmingham.

CDMMITED people interested helping me set up Yoga, Growth, Healing centre in the centre in the country, preferabl1,S.W.. House* money, s ills needed. os Langdon, 3 Ravenna Rd, London SW15 6AW. Tel: 01-785 9867. CAN anybody help us et out of the city? ~ n y & e r e that we can share our lives with others, work and be ourselves. We are an An l o ~ u t c couole. h into w o o i . . clay, earth; people etc. Ian. 20 Kenilworth Ave. Normanton,Derby. TOMAS (31) is totally bored of the traditional way of life and es ecially of the male and female role in that way of life. I am looking for'people (female and male, but no couples, from worldwide) who are interested in exchange of views about possible starting a non-reli eous life cornrnunity with a17 attention t o mother nature (also vegetarian?) and a revision of the specified female or male role on basis of a

certain preference and proficiency after consideration: who how-where leg. western erint- and so on? Please send your extensive details to. tomas 95 westvest. 2611 Az, Delft, ~ederland.

WORKOFFERED BUILDER needed, short1 long term living communally at Lower Shaw Farmhouse. Swindon. Wilts, making various imorovements to property used as residential centre. Rural situation organic garden, livestock etc, ALSO energetic person to help run centre, catering, organising events etc, SAE fordetails. VIDEO. Anyone in Glasgowl West of Scotland area interested in froming a collective to buy equipment to produce videotape documentaries etc. on alternative themes; technology, community development, politics. ontact Dav rmstrong Xrningsha? Farm, ousto on, Renfrewshire. POTTER in SW Ireland with rations for self-sufficient festyle needs eneral help in pottery. garden etc. ~n return 1 can give food, a place to live and help with potterv and/or space for other craftwork. Please write MOD^ uraosiocn., uooiavoKig Pottery, Lissacreasig, Macroom, Co. Cork.Jreland. giving details of experience and any relevant information.

WORK WANTED YOUNG careers adviser, trained teacher, seeks position in cooperative project. Interests include vegetarian whole-food cooking, social reform movement (dance) dress design and graphology. Please phone Swindon 35952 (after 6 pm) or write to Miss E Coleman, 10 Ashford Rd. Swindon, Wiltishire.

SHELTER TWO feminists buying a house to raise children in need mpathetic male help as G ? on mortgage spacious houses to engaged lhetecosexual) couoles. Man must be under 30, on rising scale of pay (GLC conditions) and around next 6-9 mon ths. Â£5 reward if nice. London area.: Box No. 101 COUPLE in early 30's with young son would like to meet others interested in search for, and joint purchase of. cheao houselruin in southern ~ r a n i e i i t h adequate land to work towards self-sufficiencv. Richard Early, 10 Granville Park London SE13. Tel: 01>~62 6323.

NORTH Derbyshire Notts Coal region, male 31, divorced + Jeremv I21 seek people to fill bare space in our house + %acre (more availible to rent nearbvi or to sell and move into larger holding (pref. Bolsover constitiuencvl Local community involvementlpolitics essential Phone Chesterfield 811998 evening 9 3 0 17 MILES from Florence. Couple 130's) having rented orwertv with vines. olives. ~. Â¥fores and enormous possibilities are looking for ~ i r l l c w o l einterested in active life in countryside. Bee-keeping, animals, biological vegetable garden artisanal activities. isp posed to share fullv. Write to.

'AND we've got t o get ourselves back to the ar&n.' (Joni). Celebrate !he planet. 'head for the hills' walking1 camping expeditions all summer lona throuohout England an<Wales.'Small groups, unusual routes, natural foods. carrv no oacks. ~ e a for d the ~ i ' l l2.~1 Pembroke Ave, Hove, Sussex,(+stamp)

PUBLICATIONS WISE, (World Information Service on Energy) Bulletins are nowbeing imported regularly by South London Anti-nuclear Affini Group: news of anti-nuclearvand soft energy) activities worldwide. Also sections on repression, uranium mining, transport,reactors, waste and arms. No 4 out soon. Sae for price list, or 50p for three m p l e s to: SLANAG 4 Beacondale Rd. ~ o n d b nSE 19. PEACE NEWS for non-violent revolution. Reports, analysis, news of "on-violent action for social change, building alternatives and resisting the mega-machine. Covers anti-mitlarism.sexual politics, ecology, aecentralisation, etc. 1% fortnighl Â£ 50 for a years sub from 8 Eim Avenue. hottingham.

COURSES and CONFERENCES

REHEARSAL for the year 2000

by Alan Beam one person's exper-

WEEKLONG summer courses in Spinning Weaving and Natural ~veino. â‚¬ all inclusive. F o r furtherinformation send s.a.e to Barbara Girardet. Forest Cottage. ~ r e f i e c k Rd Tintern. Gwen1.S wales. or Phone: 02198.392. EVERYTHING keeps going oerfectlv Not everuona wov i f e this h a y . Sinietiainingi s needed. In our 6 day courses Dart of that trainina is offered to those who are " no longer willing to allow their hves to be dominated by problems. We a n a community of fifteen people living on organic smallholdhg in beautiful countryside. Write for details to: The Director. The Brackenber Trust, Bracken&, Appleby, Cumbria. T Appleby 52145. ~~

ZMD ANNUAL conterenci and exhibiton 'Organic Growning and Living' Satu~ day 31st March. Whitchurch Hamshire. Wholefood lunch. Jack Temple, Gardening, Dr A Deavin stucture of the soil. Further betails with sae to Flisher (ref Undercurrents), 1 Kingwwd Cottages, Ermin Street, Lambourn Woodland Lambourn, Newbury, Bucks. Tel: Lambourn 7 2291 .

HOLIDAYITRAVEL

ience of the ~iternativeSociety 1966-76:one of the most important biographies of our generation' (Gruner Zwieg review). Â£1.9 (+ 55p p&pl from Ravelaction Press 65 Edith Grove. London SW10.6r reserve a copy though your local library. THE COMING Age magazine o l matriarchal religion and spiritual values. 350. Lux Madnana (Ul. 40 St. John Strreet, Oxford, THE MDIRA Handbook: achallenging collage of matriarchal society based on reincarnation memories. The technique used is also described. 7513, 40 St. John Street, Oxford. DIRECTORY of Alternative Communities; lists many such groups, Â£1.5 (cash with order please) from The Teachers ( ~ a g ) 18 Garth Road, Bangor, N. wales. ALTERNATIVE Sources of Energy is the U.S. magazine devoted to practical and D1Y applications of AT. Overseas subscriptions (surface mail) &15 for 6 issues. From Route 2 Box 90a, Milaca, MN 56363, USA. A FAST reduction in the sizes of the populations of, firstly, the industrialized countries, will leave a rolling stock of production means whichare mooern enough for use by the people in productive ages some 50vears after BALANCING has begun. This will give them time to oood care of the then ~- take ~nigh proportionofe~der~ypeople. Read the details in BALANCE the BALL wnere- curves. diaorams. and -~ -~ discussions show how to make the world free from hunger and wars and oive evervbodv olentv of spice and clean air and water. Send E1.00via PO Giro to Swedish Postair0 6040257 or Â£1.3 any other to non-iommercial; Balance, Box 9121, S-102 72 Stockholm. ~

HOLIDAY caravan on Cornish farm. Alone in field. Countryside panorama. Port Isaac 339.

Small Ads continued on inside back cover.

Available from: 12 South Street, Uley, Dursley, Gloucestershire.

THE BOOKS listed b e l o w are available by m a i l order f r o m Undercurrents. Prices

include postage and packinq.

ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

MGNS

MILLIONS of Animals are being ALTERNATIVE HEALING; tortured in laboratories and facHerbs Homeopathy, Tissue salts, tbw farms in Britain today. Do pyramids, Pendulums, plant synYou Care? If so write for our leafthesisers. Send for catalogue & let. 'Guidelines for Action' Animal price list enclosing 30p (refundAid 111 Estridge Way, ~on'bridge, able on orders over Â£5to: Second ~ e n t . Sun Healing, 7 Terminus Road, ETCETERA Brighton, Sussex. REALIGNMENTtherapy; a ALTERNATIVE Communications. course of ten seasions of deep muscle massage using the techniques What are the alternatives? Present developed by Ida Rolf, together communications depend entirely with bodylmind integration work. on non-ferrous metals some of whix which are nearer exhaustion than Reasonable rates, Phone: 01-278 9172. oil. Few realise the dire implications for our industrial civilisation and its forces of law and order SPIRITUAL PATHS radio, telephone, cable end teleFESTIVALS, Alternatives, the vision netwoaks grindto a halt. New Age, leylines, earth magic, The onlv non-mechanicallelectrn Glastonbury, Stonehenga even a alternative is telmathv which .. ..-.. our --. free oenoal service. For free leafworld-wide group hasbeen scienlets send a stamped addressed entifically investigating for several velope to The Adam Trust 49 College Glen, Maidenhead, ~ e r k s . decades. We now reouire a few more members livingin but WE ARE of the Earth Mother, sired scattered throughout GB who are of the Sun. We enact the rights of ready t o accept a factual and the Green Lady & the Lord of the scientific approach. Box 102. Forest. Further details, 20p from Pagan Movement, Can Y Llmr, TWO PEOPLE wanted to join Ffarmers, Llanwrde, Dvfed. three others in iomt communal urchase of House in Finsbury ASTROLOGER offer accurate perPark. Active participation in sonal birth chart and character renovation. Approx. Â£3,50 analysis. Â£ t o include 12 month or- 5year future trends Â£10 Alternatively send for literature, John Wilmott, Knockan, Bunessan, Isle of Mull. ASTROLOGY interpretation of individual birth charts.Character THREE people (Jean. Richard, analysis. Future trends for the com- David) living in close communal ing year, comparison of charts, roup seek one or two others. from Â£6 For details write t o i i m s include joint house-purc,bse \ (N London), shared child-rearing, Nick Campion 6 Carol St. London NW~.' etc. Anarchist. -Ã§nm ...- craft - - - work .anti-sexist, non-violent, nonsmoking household. Shared space and incomes, non-couple-based. Phone: 01-348 51 18. RECHARGEABLE

NEWS FROM

ACATALOGUE OF NEW RADICAL PUBLICATIONS

BATTER1ES

AN ECO-DISCO?A proposed idea for people keen on music, dancing, real ale, room t o move, and unoolluted air. If vou would like to Full range available. SAE for assert your right t o breathe fresh lists. Â£1.2 for booklet Nickel air and moye about rhythmically1 Cadmium Power and catalogue. arvthmicailv and have ideas of how Write or call Sandwell Plant Ltd., toorganise it, contact Mary Jane 2 Union Drive, Boldmere, Sutton 01-946 6174 Coldfield, West Midlands; tel 021 354 9764. Or see them at TLC, BESHARA COURSES: a 32 Craven St., London WC2. foundation for self-knowledge based on the unity of existence. r For further details and dates of 10day courses throughout the ECOPRODUCTS summer and 8-month courses in the winter, write to: The Secretary, T-SHIRTS 'The Only Safe Fast Breeder is a Rabbit', 'Save the The Beshara School of Intensive Whale' Various colours (give Esoteric Education, Sherborne alternatives). 'Nuclear Power? House, Sherborne, Cheltenham, No Thanks', yellow, white. Sizes S M L Â£1.9 Friends of the Earth, Gloucestershire. 95 6x'ford Road, Manchester A N OPPORTUNITY existsfor a M I 7DT few people t o gain experience in FIRST HAND: ~ i nRate t 5dozen gardening this summer b v helping in a unique project at the Beshara recipes and ideas for sustainable livin on mainly home green food; School of Intensive Esoteric free f r o m BxplOitatiOn of man and Education in Scotland, where animals Reviled edition rundown estate is baing restored free. sociew, DW? post and work will mwr 47 Highlands Road, Leathefiead, flmw gardening, Surrey. work with trees and shrubs, fencing RECYCLED writing pads per~onal and meonstruction. Those stationary duplicating and rintaccepted willstay on the estateand ing Paper Supplies: S.a.e. eat together with the resident details to R nesis Colombo St Ontra, ~ $ 1 .014333 9557 i R A D E ENQUIRIES WELCOME

on%

for

RECYCLED papers and personal letterhead service. Domestic and

ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH AT THE OPEN UNIVERSITY

We hope t o have studentships for one or two.people starting in October. Projects in the hindpower and heat pump fields have been worked out but if you've got a good AT idea you would like t o research we would like t o know. It's very much easier for us (and therefore for you) if you've got a 'good' degree i.e. a 2(11 or better, a first. Physical or social scientists, engineers, environmentalists etc. welcome. Please write to Peter Reed, Alternative Technology Group, Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, b y April 20th.

A bimonthly bulletin on the police and the special branch, intelligence, surveillance, the military and other forms of state power.

Ã ‡ " f i ~ & ' ~ ~"If government ~ ~ ~ refuses ~ ~to enlighten ~ ~ the people, then

interested and can stay for at least one full month, please write to: Richard MacEwan, Chisholme House, Roberton, Hawick TD9 7PH or phone Borthwickbrae 264.

such private initiatives as State Research must supply that want"-E. P. Thompson

~ ~ O m ~ ~ I p ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ i ~ , $ ~ ~ Back issues 1-9 paper - Save Tree. envelope re. uselabels, oosters and Cornore.

hensive environmental book URGENT. ACCOMODATION service. For details of any of the above please lend a la S.0.e. to: required in London area-I've just moved up t o London t o work for ~ o n l e k a t i o nBooks ( ~ 8 , 2 2 8 London Road, Readin an anti-nuke movement. Phone: Berkshire, FIG6 1 ~ t f 01-439 3749 (day).

50p each Â£'per year for 6 issues from State Research, 9 Poland Street, London W1V 3DG

, 0

Communities There are thousands of people all over the world :., living in economically and socially successful communal groups. Learn about a highly viable alternative to bedsits and the nuclear family. Find out about communal childrearing, interpersonal relationships, income pooling, and how to integrate your life, work and interests. We invite you to take a step towards building a more sane future for yourself. Write for more information to Alternative Communities Movement (MA6), 18 [Garth Road, Bangor, Gwynedd, enclosing an s.a.e.

There will be an AT hardware diilw it the Gthering; to b r i m to this Â¥houl contact anvona who has anvthim . the Organiser, Mike Deligan, a* i c o n Ã possible, pleasa. (378 Chatsworth Road, Harrogate, North Yotel0423 57041).

HOW TO FIND THE GATHERING: Tornesa is 5 miles southeast of Dunbar and 25 miles northwest of Berwick o n the A1. Buses run every two hours and will stop anywhere en route t o put you down or pick you up. The nearest village is Thorntonloch.

'Hull College of Higher Education HULL COLLEGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION Faculty of D n q n Studies School of Arch'mcture, building 1, Civil Englnuiing The Faculty offers a unique combination of courm TOM t h e f i l c h o f Art, Oeiign, Construction, Engineeringand Architecture.

thc nine existing WorkteÃ

Â¥would like to hear fromvou. &bry Sol..

Lecturer II Â£4,101-Â£6,5 Senior Leclwlr Â£6,061-Â£7,0 I h r l Â£7.57

Further dfibandaooliation form* n f v be obtained from: The Pwtonrwl Dqnrtuwtt Hull Coltewof Higher Education Cottinghcm Road HULL HU67RT Tel: 10482141451