UC34 June-July 1979 by Christopher Squire

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Undercurrents 34 June - July 1979 Contents 1 Eddies : News from everywhere 7 What’s When & What’s What 9 Crabapple Revisited - Pam Dawling Commune sense and sensibility 11 Romance and Reality - Ann Pettit: Self-sufficiency as she is lived 13 The Co - op Lesson: Learning the Hard Way - lago Mephistopheles: ‘An interview with a would-be socialist entrepreneur 16 Hanging Separately - Jenny Thornley : Two co - ops that failed 18 Green Danube - George Wood : An alternative to the Vienna UNCSTD conference 20 Doing without the State - Ghulam Kibria: How the feudal socialists squashed AT in Pakistan 21 A Collective of Shopkeepers - George English: A year in the life of Earthcare Retail Co-op 24 CounterRevolution Quarterly - Alan Campbell & Godfrey Boyle : The Brand X of ecojournalism 60,000 Americans prefer 26 Off the Peg Piracy - David Gardiner: A ready-to-broadcast radio transmitter 27 Pricking the Nuclear Balloon - Sheryl Crown : What feminists can bring to the anti-atom struggle 28 Atom Scandal - Eddie O’Rio : Monkey business among Brazil’s nukes 30 Looking Forward to 1984 - Geoff Wright : An interview with lan Lloyd MP 32 Recollections - John Michell : As we think we are, so we become 33 Whale Talk - Bill Hall : Make jaw, not war, on our cetacean cousins 34 Engineering on the Dole - Martin Ince : A bleak look at the future of Britain’s industry 36 Letting It All Hang Out - Chris Hutton Squire : A profit & loss account 37 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 ECl R OAT. Full details of editorial meetings, distribution etc. are on page 48. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Cover design by Peter Bonnici ISSN 0306 2392 _______________________________________________________________________________________

Three million in nuclear shadow . Â

cover-up 'P, The main nuclear sites in Great Britain with 30 mile circles

W R Y O N E HAS HEAR0 about

t h e mor-meltdown at the Three

Mita istand plant near Hamburg,

EXISTING NUCLEAR SITES PROPOSED NUCLEAR SITES

Panncvhrani*. For once a nuclear

tochnid f u l t o f the ~ i e u u r & e d W f Ractor4PWRI. the incident has Â¥Is brought t o the surface a number of mcml/politi&l questions. For instance, who decided what to tdl the public, and when7 Why did they lie7 Why were there 3 conflicting reports on radiation levels and the area affected? Why ' did the utility try to minimise the risks of the accident by staging a PR campaign? Some facts..Metropolitan Edison dumped radioactive water into the Susquehanna river (which empties into Chesapeake Bay which i n turn provides food and water for a large number of people) without tellinganyone, at the same time as they were publicising figures of dubiously lowradiation levels which were emanating from the plant, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 5 were the ones who first brought up the possibility of a meltqbwn, then tried to backtrack from the scenario; the Governor of Pennsylvanieandhis wife set.up a 'rumour hot-line' to appease the local people, and Jimmy Carter was also brought on the scene as part of a PR campaign. Another less-publicised consequence of the accident was. curfew which was instilled on the remaining local inhabitants, from Bbm to 7am, to 'stop the looting of all the empty houses'. At least the facts about Three Mile Island may ev~ntuallycome out, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act in the US. But. i Britain had a reactor of the same design and a similar accident had occurred, would he have ever heardabout it?Or would it have been an 'official secret'? i f * an alarming thought..

ABERDEEN

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DRURIDGE BAY

BER YSTWYTH

SIZEWELL

BIRMINGHAM

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AfW that nuclear nar-dinfr, bt* comedy T-shirts abound in P l ~ u y h n n b" . I survived Three

Mih Idand" m tha announcanant o n h e chut. Walking away, the -a d k l o a~smaller-print PA-"1 think". Daily Mail

I f there was a nuclear accident in Britain, would you be affected7 It would mainly depend on how far vou lived from the site and which wav the winds were blowina. Here isa map of ~ r i & i nshowing where the existing and proposed nuclear installations are sited on in relation to the maior cities. A circle with a 30 mile radius has been suoerim~osed . each site; if you count the number of people living within such a radius it would propbly come to about 3 million. Unfortunately we haven't been able'tri put the prevailing winds onto this map. Most winds come from the north-west; which means that people east of a plant would be affected. The winds are Quitecrucial-they determine the way that radioactive steam travels, ie out to see or across the mainland.

Election Latest :

Secrets leak

..,,

V- is.a @

1-5%swing t o ~ c o l o Party g~ I N THE MAY 3rd General Election the Ecology Party (EP) fielded 53 candidates 1 i n Scotland. 2 i n Walasand the rest i n ~ngiand.The Oxford Emloav Movement also stood i n Oxford. . The exercise was intended mostly for its publicity value (Â£8.00 worth in lost deposits). They got their 5 minutes of T V party political broadcast, a cursory mention in one or two papers and their name on the ballot papers put before 2.7 million actual voters, a similar tactic it shouldbe noted t o the unmentionable National Front. The total number of people that cast their vote for the Ecology Party was a handful under 40,000, if my trusty abacus is to be believed, which is 1.46% of votes cast in those 53 constituencies. The Oxford Ecology Movement scored, b y coincidence. 1.46% in Oxford. The best results with over 2 5% of thevote were in order Worcestershire(S),St Marylebone,

Bristol (W), Taunton and Barkston Ash, as unliklier a collection as you could imagine. The worst was Leeds (El, Dennis Healey's seat, with less than %%-anti-growth economists take notel I t must be stressedthat the 53 seats were not evenly spread about the country, they were predominantly in the South and South West (181, London (81, Leedsl Yorks (9) and a scatter across the Midlands and South East. Even so, is there any significance to this vote, assuming such things as voting matters, since fringe parties will always pick up a handful of votes. Perhaps it is worth making a comparison with other fringe parties. The most notorious and one whose existence received much publicity (unlike the ecology party) during the campaign is the NF. In 24 constituencies where there was both an EP and NF candidate, the total votes for the EP were 15,360 and for the NF, 11,478, with the

EP more than doubling the NF ' the rural SW (but only matchin in London). A comparison with the Nationalist parties would be interesting with a reasonable sample, nevertheless for every 1 votes cast for the Ecology Party, 670 went t o the SNP in (S), 225 went t o Plaid C Pembroke, i n two consti Cornwall 280 went t o M Kernow, and i n three er in D w o n and Wilts, 105 the Wessex Regionalists. The world has not been sha and although the major parties unlikely to be unduly worried, Cryer (Labour) who was return for Keighley with a majority of 7 will have bitten his nails o v q j h e Ecology Party's worst but one vot of 208. Perhaos in the election of 19 the BBC will have to design . themselves a four dimensiona~ "swingometer".

Sperm oil battle EVEN A sperm oil refiner can turn, it seems. The directors of Hiahgate &Job, a Liverpool firm, recently agreed t o meet a delegation from FOE, who had lobbied them with a mass mailing of Christmas cards. In discussion they admitted, for the first time, that apan o n sperm oil would not cause any loss of jobs at H & J, as other parts of their business would take UP the slack. They buy their oil direct from whalers; i t costs about Â£25 a tonne; they refine it and sell it in. small (less than 20 tonnes) lots. Since 1972 they have done considerable research into sperm oil substitute; they say that many customers switch back t o i t after trying substitutes. FoEalso report that a director of Clar ks. the shoe makers. tells them that analysis has shown that 30%of leathers supplied to them as sperm oil free in fact contain the oil. This appears t o be theresult of ignorancerather than deception: the labelling of the fat liquors used by tanners doesn't make i t clear i f they contain sperm oil, a remarkably convenient lapse for manufacturers who wish t o keep both a profitable material and e clear conscience.

THE SWEDISH Fonbn Minotry has p r o f i t e d sharply t o tho United States over the involvement of several officials from the Amuican embassy i n Stockholm with a ntendent who hea ' leaking ncrrt ion about rrfugwi i n

The American officials involved no longer stationed i n ckholm. The Swedish foreign istry has told the American bassy that it expects the

President Walter Mondale's pending 'visit in the coming summer. Some two years ago a second secretary at the American embassy i n Sweden, Bruce Hutchins, was also forced t o leave the country h e n a Kenyan journalist revealed h a t Hutchins had recruited him :o work for the CIA in Sweden.

Police raid &SO STOCKHOLM p o l i o

ill.

stormed theSwedish captal'sonly major housing occupation o n March 6. Some SO occupants were taken out of the occupied building, known as "Jarmt". More than 100 people had occupied the building a month earlier t6protait the owner's plan t o tear it down and build high cost high r i m apartments o n the site. Most of the squatters were carried peacefully b y police from the house. However, after a crowd of several hundred supporters gathered outside police barricades, making it impossible for police cars to remove thearrested squatters, police on horses were sent i n to clear the crowd. There were sweral reports of demonstrators injured by the police horses. Jarnet was the second major Swedish housing occupation. The first occupation, the Mole Free Zone, wasalso i n Stockholm's worker "Soder" district. The Mole squat, totalling four buildings, cam1 t o an end after 11 months last October with a police raid.

nuclear whitewash THE MOST serious'incident' i n the hittory of the Swedish nuclear program occurred on February 2 at a uranium fuel plant i n Vuteru, west of Stockholm. But the incident, which tha ASEA-ATOM company managed to keep secret from the public for a full month, and itsaftermath havb led tomme interestingquestions about a possible M c r f d u l being negothted i n Sweden for the purchase of Australian uranium. The accident occurred when an enriched uranium solution was pumped into the wrong container. Altogether 550 litres o f uranium solution were pumped into the container, with the level of radioactivity reaching 8 to 10 times the permitted level. If the morning shift at the plant had not discovered the mistake, a serious accident could have happened. According to ASEA-ATOM'Ssecurity section. the uranium that accumuited in the container had reached 83 oer cent of critical mass. If critical mass had been reacheda chain reaction would have begun, which could have led to a melt-down Or even a nuclear explosion. Followingthe discovery of the mistake, ASEA-ATOM instructed their personnel to keep all information about i t secret. According fo%hedirectivea'lt could be easily misinterpreted.' The company did filea required report with the Swedish Atomic Energy Board, a report the newspaper Dagens Nyheter firm lly gained access to and published on March 2, a monthafter the incident. ' The incident is not theonlv mistake at the Vasteras plant. According - to Ulle Eksirand. the head of the facility, uranium recently leaked through the plant chimney and personnel were Forced to~coopapradioactivesnow from the plant roof and backyard. Even more bizarre than the iccident itself i s the steps ASEAATOM has taken to play down its importance~noti n Sweden, byt in Australia. Follow~ngthe afoadcast of a report o n the incident b y the Australian Broadcasting CBmmission, ASEAATOM'S Australian Office Sent an drgent message back to Stockholm that led to the company's information office contacting the ÃˆB Stockholm correspondent, Rqer Wallis. The company claimed the Ãˆustralia report vat untrue, but a ampany reprwentativewent over

v bookshop -

Police infiltration.

ONE PLACE you can't buy Undercurrents in London, despite its name, is the new ~ l t w n e i v m Bookshop i n Covent Garden (40 Floral It ha, been set UP bÃ the'Freedom Association' (formerly the NationalAssociation for Freedom) and wasopened on March 1 by Paul Johnson, court jester to the Blessed M-ret. The 'alternÃ§tive'o offer if,t o be fair, a i mo nh t but riahtist individualism --- . importedf rok the States. Ida goodplace to pick UP rÃ§maindara

RUMOURS ABOUND about it, but in Germany it has actually happened. A n anti-nuclear group there hasdiscovered two p o l i o vies amongst its members, both , of them working for the Federal in Hamburg. intelligence -ice The police admitted that a special department had been started. within the intelligence network which had the andfie task o f infiltrating the anti-nudmr movement. The task of the two spies was to attend the weekly group meetings, monitor activities and Pass on information about planned actions and also certain well-known individuals. Their aim seemed to be to prepare the police for the forthcoming demonstrationsabout Gorleben, the German Windscale. Interestingly, one of the tasks of the two police spies was to act as 'agents provocateurs'. A tear-ggs grenade was found in the car of one of the spies, which apparently was intended to be used against the police at demonstrations in Gorleben. The German anti-nuke movement has responded by Publishing posters with photos and addresses of police spies all over Germany in order to preventthem From infiltrating other groups. --,

hppingscould

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for

why,

to supply a whole village or m a l l Could this be a direction for AT? fit a pity the April

Nutleap steam

Mice power

for the Swedish companv's concern about its reputation in Australia: "Negotiations belwean Sweden and Australia for the purchase and enrichment of Australian uranium must havecomea lot further than any of the politi~ians are willing to i admit." w e n s Nyheter report in Sweden, a few days later a pro-nuclear group i n Australia released a press statement describing the report of the Vasteras incident as false. In the lightof such standsand the clearly unpopular stateof the nuclear lobby in both countries, ASEA-ATOM'Sattempts to whitewash its image in Australia i s interesting. Correspondent Ro$er Wallis can see only one explanation the story word for word with Wallis and was forcad to admit that not only m s it a straight forward translation of the Dagens Nyheter account, but that it was true in all particulars. Although ASEA-ATOM has never attempted to deny the

uplort the natural instinctsof mice who. hiving men, mad to keep fit ThÃ WPIJ~Y of mice labour isvirtuallv i n a i M u ~ U & since a single pair of mice ean reproduu t o the power of six within one year. Further-a, the micÃ§coulbefed on EEC wrpliu dairy produce and their w s t Ã

A couple of ingenious European inventors have ubmitted an unusual proposal for a new alternative lource of energy to the European Commission The ' inventors maintainthat a mica power generator consists of a modification of a tread-mill {found in the cages of pet mice) which can be linked t o a dynamo. The treadmill itself is rotated by mice. Each mom* has a power output of 0.03 vatt4 which is Ã§quivalmn to a single solar cell, There are many advantages to this system. Mica power generators

DON'T TELL the Ruffians, but security seams a bit lax at the Shoeburyne~ weapons range. A 16 year old boy took to heart those army recruitment ids allowing what fun it is to drive a tank and decided to try it. Only he failed his army Beams so ha borrowed a Â£20,00 Conqueror t&pk from the range and kept it for t h r u dan: whÃ§the b&wy went f l i t hma b l n d o d it. ShoebuwnÃ Magistrates put him under a upwteimn order for two yaws and endorsed his driving licence.

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, ,

Swedish volte-fee

: , On April 28th. this ynar the THE BRITISH gmvmnment isibout World Council of Churches, issued t o ptovIUeSouthKorea with up to a blistering attack on the Park Â£24 million of export fimnce-v, that H u n p r o a d with the regime for its denial of human rights, and its neglect Of the rural buadim of nuclear reactors. ) In particular, thb British firm poor thinks to a "growth at all QEC is expected to win a contract costs approach." Said the report's author, Ninan Koshy, "if President to provide steam turbinesfor south Carter goes to South Korea (after Korea's wenth and eight nuclear an economic summit in June1 power stations, with reactors b supplied by Westinghouseof the 1 people should know that the USA. Last year, GEC landed a American administrationis legitimisinga regime that is contract to supply turbines for the consisting violating human right*." f i f t h and W h reactors. 6 South Wrea currently has one But so far, no British public reactor operating, providing about figure has raised a murmur about !500 m v t * of eiectT.dty a year. British a d to south Korea's nuclear Four more stations are under indusVv.and its potential constructiofi, and the government contribution to making the country dms to provid615% of the a nuclear weapons power. &ntry's d@ricl'ty from nuclear R-"power by I&<. This iscertainly ,thirld itan-ldSTOP URENCO'sdernonstTation tfu most ambitious d i n gI a na te w r now Capsnhurst e&.@ment plant wilL be the Brazil and Iran nuclear on the weekend of July 14/15th. A i programmis ark in jeopardy. co-ordlnatinga& planning meeting Whin south K~~ has stwed a scheduled for Chester on .Iwe the Nuclear No piflliferbtion gth- For detaits-andsupwrtTreaty (NPT) Titlead* tontinue contact: STOP URENCO to imply i t would use nuder wapons inany new war with ~~~h ALLIANCE, c/o FOE, 95 Oxford Koreb, especially after all US troops ^d, Mancheater t . Or 'phone: 061-273 or 01-226 3479. hove been withdrawn i n 1982. Last year, the newspaper Kyuffghyang ~ h i n n w feditorialised' ) "There i s no j; gain saying that modern warsare decided by guided misfiles. All we have to do to turn them into a new weapon is to put nuclear darheads 6n the missiles 'we have. . ." President Park, at a recent army day parade, promised that the ON APRIL 21 therewÃ§a wemen country would "join the ranks of the world powers in every respect" . andxiancaconference i n Birmingham, orgenlud by Ã§om if it continued to make "vigorous o w I o s t io n in h e i c i SOC~RIResponsibility i h ~ c i e n w \

T .

USE OF

Women

and

science

was forced to abandon the idea

Other issues which were effect of new techfiotqy ~H<Ã

WEAPONS

Die-in

VIS'TORSTo A 'wewas

THE SWEDISH Social Dinocnrti have uÃˆ Harrnburg as an excur t o do anabout-fwe on n w h r powr. Having tmditiodly h w h o the prcarmive side of i n u sthe party found Wf on the wrong aide of the nudear question. As n u d m powfr, the SocM Dinocntt ridnd a t r i ~ n d o u s lor of bca I f they rmenad their

amd

But a constant drop in the opinion polls, even before Hafrisbutg. forced the party to WniMdby theOIIW.g-"-qhange its stand, and party leaders TrMe ,wT, jumped at the chance after the a d * U n * d W o f S u d ~ Amrian&wster. Aaion Tb --bn The Social Democrats have to .y*fH.ttr decided to grab onto current antidm*hd-wabnd nuclear feelings and are calling for wnpo mill; On bi ThT'ditin' took plam at the held in 1980, after the Autumn M e n w Campomms ExW'7a, a dectionc, A swcial commision wi three day conferenceand exhibition to p r o w t a the saleof ~ ~ ~ ~ British weapons and ~ m P O n e n t ~ T~~ already built an,j Itws pan Of a CAAT wok Of due to be fueledup. will be kept action against the arms trade. to dosed pending tile referendum, ,draw public attention to Primre had been contlngen These reactors and #w=nment;spon~red arms on finding a to store sales exhibitions in Britain. radioactive waste in theSwedish Sandy M=rit. national M A T mijnmins.nesp,te the coordinator, said that She hoped recommendationof seven of eight lh 'die-in' eT I d make geologists who studied burial piara the public aware of the end for theSwedish Nuclear Board, thi result of arms trade fairs. "Thee a*nted b r d had exhibitions save only to promote approved the fueling a coupleof the sate pf equipment for killing ,jay before s narriwm. ~h~ and repression" she said. "British -. ~~~~i~~ disaster has forced ndustry should concentrate on niycaaon of that *,ision equipment for life. not equipment ~ i another ~ l reactor, ~ ~ the, for dmth." only Swedish reactor virtually identical to the one a t Three Mile Island, has wen s~oseddown. ~ h d we dish town h a r d was quick to say the decision was nothing to do exhibition i n Brighton were Â¥uw Ã lr‘ dem0ntr8tlBn

Bury,goes

Spain: nuclear dump /

Energy researc

of i n d e n t # at

small

sirno hn &, JUIY the 1977, N~~~~~~ FOE, c*ntrafor along with

werealso leaiwes of.radioactivit~, two fires and but some there

Alternative Technology, th* Internatioiul Inttitute for Environnrnt and Dev@pmÂ¥n (IIEDI and tho Open University's E~~ R-& G ~ have~b-n~ coll.&ntino with tbD~~~ of Energy's Energy Technology

workers were exposed t o higherthan-usual radiation levels. Half the incidents occurred a t Windscale The quarterly report can be obtamed ~ , free of charge from Inquiry Point, Health and Safety Executive. Baynards House, 1 Chepstow Place, London W2 4TF.

O N MARCH 11 man than 40,000 d a t e d i n Barcatom and between 4 and 5 thousand i n Valencia, agaimt nudear Mid for a &year moratorium o n nuctoar comtruction. Spain h n o(Mming nudmr plant*, 8 are under construction, and t h e p a d National E n u w Plan gives priority t o the development of nuclear energy w e r the next several yearb Nuclear power plans now i n verbally abused b y other march operation are near heavily urban centres, from them at one point. Their dumped with little regard t o already low safety standards, a ^radioactive train" passes Barcelona every day, loaded wi atomic waste from a plant in Tanagona (south of Barcelona) be processed in France. Genera Electric and Westinghouse caroonttions pian operate thf left parties, the Socialists and the Spanish nuclear facilities with th$ ;",~Ommunists,for their ambiguous stands of nuclear issues. Neither domestic affiliates. spain, along : has a clear anti-nuclear line. and i n with other "less-developed" fact c ~ ~ m u npatty i a leader, European-and third world nation Santiago CarnHo, has come out is destined to bea "nuclear with statement! i n support of storehouse" as the US and G~~~~~ (that is, allthe nuclear nuclear mern dwelopmentl The Socialists want nuclear energy initiators) withdraw plansfor development with stricter safety tnstallations at home. standards. and although the Valencians clash with Gommunnts have aiticised right-winger~and the "flpecific installations such as the ultra left plant at Lemoniz near-~i~bao, this has beanbased On viO'etmm Of The Valenaan demonstrators had construction codes and other illegal a run-in with Vice President Abril 8ctivities' Martorell of the Suarei government (Suarez and the UCD rightest party i n power since Franm's death have just won the second parliamentary elections and Suar awaits his investitutel as he left t Palace of Justice in that city Arrogantly attempting t o cross t line of marchers, he was rained with dirt, clods of grass, and flowers as well as the abuse of anti-nuclear demonstrators. Far ri t wing Valencian nationalists eked the demonstration at several points. During the Barcelona march, replete with ws-rnasks, thoussnds of black umbrellas and c o m m a representing different aspects of the ecological disaster, the most popular chant wai "Nuclnr rmctors t o Suarez's ranchl" There wsi one flare-up within the r a n k Communist Party of Catalonia (PSUC, Partit So&lists Unifimt de Cetalunya) mem+rs w a n ~mVMOotuaovn

M E Health and Salty E x a u t ~ a

Since they were doing the work largely on a voluntary basis. the work h a t p r o g r e s s as r a p i d ntheorganisations would have e d . S o t o w a r d the end of s t r ETSU asked whether a ntract with the Department Id speed u p w k , and detailed ~ated for the completion of the projects.

their funding is so far limitedto the production b y them of resp&ses to critiques of their study. In the case of ERR the willbe for the of two energy scenarios. The -d phase of theresearch w,ll then involve an examination of the economic, political and institutional feasibility of the scenarios, and will be carried out in conjunction with Professor David Pearce and colleagdes at Aberdeen University. Friendsof the

t o town AT A RECENT conference on Combined Heat and Power (CHP) Omnm

flowing from CHP are not just that it could create work for power engineers and construction workers, but also that i t would make cheap distnct h~atingwailebleforhousing estates. St CuthbertsViLlage estate imtamsr Isat In Nemast'e' present equipped with electric ceiling heating-leading t o quarterly bills of u p to Â£300 I f CHP is t o win friends and influence people in government (and i n the treasury), local authorities must be persuaded t o support the idea-perhaps local pressure groups can help out here. But as one of the stewards put it, 'if they (the Government) want to keep the fast,breeder option open, why can't we also explore CHP?' For further details of the CHP campaign, contact SERA at 9 Poland Street, London W1.

WS FROM C.A.I.T.S. Dave Elliott's article 'The End of the Nuclear Road' in Undercurrents33 was 1 drawn from a CAITS publication Energy Options and Emplo ymenr. This publication i s now available from CAITS, price Â£1.5 (p&p inel.).

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Three jobs are currently available at GAITS: &-operative Development Officer Publicity Officer Administrative Assistant For more details contact Mike George, CAITS, NELP, Longbridge Road, Dwanhap, Enex RM8 2AS

Ine season of summer fain opens with two on Saturday June 9; the , SIXTH STRAWBERRY FAIR on Cambridge's Midsummer Common and the KID'S CARNIVAL AND ENVIROFAIR at Sussex Universitv. .. Falmer, Brighton (12 noon start). Details from the Cambridge Mayday Group, c/o 22 Sleaford St, Cambridge, tel0223 64846 end Link-up, Falmer House, Sussex , Also on the 23rd is the firit Unfverxitv. Sussex.. . .Briahton - " East --. SELF-SUFFICIENCY SHOW at td. 0273 680380. R , near Peterrfield. Hants, \ Sunday June 10 sees the first organised by the East Hants NATIONAL BIKE RALLY in Self-sufficiency Group. It offers Trafalgar Square, a chance to show a continuous programme of talks our rulers the strength of the by John Seymour and other bicycle lobby and to persuade worthies, displays and thmn to take it seriously at last demonstrations of livestock end as well as to meet fellow cyclists crafts, a wi-de range of wade from en over Britain. Start is stands, and a Brains Trust to 2.30 pmlother details from Zea finish. Starting lime is 11 am and Katzeff at London FOE(01 admission Â£ a head. The show 434 16841. is near Rogne Viage Hall, just The MALVERN HILLS ff the A272 between Petersfidd dnd Midhurst (follow the signs INTERNATIONAL ORGANIC ASSEMBLE is on June 16 and 17 from the A3). Further details of at the Wvern Hills College. Albert what will obviously become a Rd North, Gt Malvern, work. popular annual went from the T h e will be lectures, stalls; Show Secretary, Atec Fry, on displays, farm visits, films, 073 082 3832concers etc. Admission to the show is free, the lki<res.and concert Back in the smoke. Hounslow cost is Â£1.80 Details fron Dennis Oxfam and other local groups are ' Nightingale Smith, Greennays, oroanisinaa GOO0 LIFE CAFE for Malwn Wells, W?r$S.~ one day Hounslow Town HG on Sat July 7 to show that "good" (responsible]living may be 'good' (fun), with craft stalls, entertainment and steel bend.

.-..

The next day, Sunday July 8, FOE ere holding a SAVE THE WHALE Rally in Trafalgar Square to mark the startaf the International Whaling Commission meeting (July 9 t o 131. Other Whale events ' will includea f i i show (Saturday pml, a concert (Sunday evening) and a service in Westminster Abbey GLASTONBIJRY FAYRE m e (late Sunday night). It all sounds Ã‘illb from 21 to 23 June at , Worthy Farm. Pilton, Somerset (the much more fun then boring old nukes. For final details contact erne site as in '71 r. It wiN e i f i to London FOEnearer the day. create 'a beneficial vibration#for all those present endconsequently If all this is a bit too much like 'for the planetas a whole. The good fun for your taste, n w w f w : organisers say there will be a BSSRS are organising what sounds minimum of four bands wach , like a really heavy conference on uening:thoughthe event will be SCIENCE UNDER CAPITALISM , properly run with quality sound for a Friday end Saturday in early and lighting, i t is not their June. It win address 'central intention to create a mammouth ,. theoretical problems of the 'rock event' butto recapture the $pirit of the legendary Fayre of .. , relationship between science and capitalism that hwe been avoided *: '71 and reprogramme it for the in BSSRS in recent years' Mainly ' 8WThey are also organising intended for those who are worried 'theatre, dance, kids events, lectures that much radical action, though and workshops. Admission will be fine in practice, doesn't work out by ticket: E3for one day + Â£a . in theory. Later in the year there day for the second and thirddays; will be a Tenth (gosh!) Anniversary any surplus will go to the UN Year Celebration. For details of these of the Child Fund. Tickets from two events try ringing 01-437 2728. 5 7 Elgin Oescent, London W l l td 01-727 4110; cheques nude DEAR LOVE OF COMRADES 11a out to Glenonbury Fayre 1979.. new play by the Gay Sweetshop Overlapping with i t it the' HUD Company; its on in Edinburgh's FAIR,Eat Hood Field near Adim House Theatre from June Dtttington, South Duon onJune 28 to 30; ticket! from the Firm of 20 to 22: 'medieval d w end fun May Bookshop Itel 031 666 69631. ancient and modern' according to (the author evidently has never been organiser Guy Gauricey, tel. to a UC meeting11 0364,62419.

London readers may like to know of a newantinuke play at the Soho Poly T h d r e Club. SLEEPING @EAUT&S 116 Riding House St, W1; 1.15pml by John Petharidge, which runs until June 16. SOFT ENERGY SUNDAY is-& July this VW; the idn is that anyone who hm a soft tech installationihould open it to the public for a small fee. all proceeds to go to FOE. So If m u fancy showing off your Undsreurrana windcham to the neighboun contact Country Coltme for an information pack (11 l&rmer Green Lane, Digwell, Wdwyn, Herts AL6 OAY td Welwyn 63671. At the very leqst it's e good reason 'to get the damn thing working at last! CC hope t o nuke 'it coincide with some bthw day in the environmental calendar in future years, such as World Environment DBv (June 51 or Sun Dav (June 231. The regional list! o f homes open will be available from them after July 14 for 25p + 9 x 4 ffla Looking ahead to August the EAST ANGLIA CYCLE ROADSHOW will beon tour round Norfolk from the4th to the 18th (details from 0603 610993), the THIRD POLQOOTH FAVRE rum from the 10th to the 12th near St Austell, Mid Cornwall (details from 072 684 37281;

summer events at the NEW MILLS Study Centre (Luxborough, Watchet, Somerset TA23 OLF tel09844 2811 include: Positive . Hmltti (June 22 to 24l:Aturnstivs Forestry (June 29 to July 11; Ai'rships (July 6 to 81: Drama w01*&op (August 3 to 51 and Yoga (September 7 to 91.

The FACHOMGLE FARM CO-OPERATIVE (John Seymour prop.) invite you to join with them this summer and learn the coolly important skills of the self-sufficient life: fencing, draining, digging out bSggd down tracton, scaring vermin off the brassicas, etc. as well as more romantic Activities like working with horses, malting and blackamithino. They have40 acres (including5 of market gwdaningl in the hills between Fishguardand Cirdigm in Dyfed. Con I! from â‚¬ per week. Details from them at Fachongle Isaf, Trafdraeth, Sir Benfro, Dyfed. The recent WOODSTOVE course at Laurieston had to be cancelled because there were too few early bookings, which is surprising as they have accumulated much poetical experience about how t o make stovesend instti them and how to get woodcheaply (uemin the conurbations it is surprising how much wood there is to be hM)for free i f you have time end transport). They plan to run the course again under the title Stovemeking and to show you how to build your own foldingpress so you m n hake your own stove from sheet metal in a household workshop. Materials for a stove selling at Â£10cost only Â£5 so there are large savings to be made. If you're interested w i t e to ihem with caw.

And at +AURIESTON (Castle

MAAM !Movement Against A Monarchy. Box M. 5 Caledonian

The COMMONWORK Centre hive a summer long progr~rnmeof worlfhnna on wlom atr>Ã§cof co-opuative working, liclbding one for membm of thet nnn growth indugtry, givingadv~c<to mop#ISeoumber 5 to 7). Owsila from k n n i f u Warn on 073 277 266 or Paul Chaplin on 0908 63303.

begun, opened not completed in Jubilee Year (thought to be 1977). They w i n t out thÃ§attommi by tha Paris authoritin to ramma their Etolla iutlon 'Charim Da Qnilla' h u e lid to 1cunpiign of ~ublkdlKibedlarnÃˆ:en in Ancrla the remming of Cape Caiwwal after John Kennedy was alto a . failure.

Undercurrents3-

SOUTH OF SCOTLAND ELECTRICITY r&& THIS ACCOUNT IS NOW DUE ,

. O R

PLACE,

E D I H B U R L ~

ACCOUNT ISSUED

The Undercurrents INDEX is complete but no decision has been taken on how t o publish it. For the time being the only published index t o UC is that i n Horace Herring's Alternative Technology Directory (El .25 from POC outlets); unfortunately this only runs up to UC 27 and is in any case incomplete, whether b y intention or. by carelessness we can't tell. It does however provide a handy list of books and organisations to do with A T so i t is better than nothing.

The American reprint of Cliff Harper's brilliant i f idiosyncratic CLASS WAR COMIX No 1 will be available from PDC outlets or from Hassle Free Press (BCM BOX 31 1 London WC1) at 65p post free. As we said in Undercurrents 12: "a carefully crafted visual analogue of the utopian novel, helping to maintain suppliesof that essential vitamin of the Left-the one thing that keeps the juices of the imagination flowing and stops us looking mangy and losing our teeth-critical but generousvisions of how i t could be." What's more, it makesa really great colouring book! Our friends at EGIS, the Newcastle environmental group, have produceda set of slides The Story o f a River which follows the Tyne from source t o sea, taking in a sewage farm, power station etc. en mute. Twelve slides plus descriptive booklet are Â£1.8 post free from North Lodge, Elswick Cemetery, Newcastle on Tyne NE4 B D L MATERIAL GAINS i s a useful account by Chris Thomasof the practical possibilities for reclaiming and recycling the 160 million tonnes of waste we throw away each year, with details of successful schemes now being worked by forward looking local councils. I t would be handy background reading for dustmen's co-ops bidding for local authority contracts: there's gold them thar rubbish dumps! (Published b y Earth Resources Research; Â£2.5 from London FOE). Also from them is ECONOMIC GROWTH by Pete Riley (Â£1.301a well designed and byitten account guide t o the history of allotments, their present value, and a detailed plan for a campaign to persuade your own council t o stir itself and find land forallotments. Two good examples of theverv solid work that's coming out of Poland St these days: k ~ It p up1

: .

From the same stable comes the latest WHOLE EARTH (no. 15; 30p from PDC outlets) which is a good example of one way o f filling a mag: be rude about as many people as possible and thenprint all , their indignant letters (from various communities in this case) in your next issue. Horace Herring has gone to the US;on this showing he is sorely missed at WE. ATOM is a glossy freesheet published by the UKAEA; it is available on request from Information Services Branch, 11 Charles I 1 St, London SWlY 4QP. Serious students of energy policy will find i t a useful i n s i ~ hinto t the other side's thinking; recent issues have contained Rothschild's notorious Dimblebv Lecture, a neat demolition Job on the CIS Antireport, and a detailed critique o f the 11ED Low Energy Strategy: 'deficient in understanding of macroeconomics -" andoverambitious'. Ah well, looks like we'll just have t o stop worrying and love the nuke after all! If the horror stories elsewhere in this Undercurrents don't succeed i n putting you off, take a lookat the new VOICE of the UNIONS special on Workers' Cooperatives, yours for a 7p stamp from CAITS, NE London Polytechnic. Longbndge Road, Dagenham, Essex The supplement (four A3 pages) was put together b y CAITS the London Co-op Political Committee, and the Royal Arsenal Cooperative Society Political Purposes Committee. I t provides a good look at the law o n co-ops, co-op development agencies, the trade union role, how t o start a co-op and so on. Although the whole effort reflects nothing of the somewhat disillusioned view of coopeiation which has,pro tern taken over this issueof our mighty organ, i t is a fair look at what co-ops are about. The TRANSLATING COOPERATIVE NURNBURG is a newly founded group interested in tranilatifq Ã§ltwnÃ§tiliterature Ã

into German; they would like t o make contact with sinittar groups in this country (if thereareany, \ ' we'd like to hear about them as well); their aim is mutual aid,+y . providing each other with the SCRAM'S latest Energy' Bulletin newest foreign material worth (Â£ for six issues from 2a Ainslie translating; their address: c/o Dita Place, Edinburgh EH3 6 A R l is as Stafski, Bucher Str, 20,8500 usual a bumper bundle of antinuka Nurnberg, West Germany. bits and pieces, including a useful leak from a friend in the South o f Kite freaks may like t o know that Scotland Electricity Board: WISE, the International clearing campaigning consumers who send house for the antinu ke struggle, the nuke part of their b i l l t o the have some Smiling Sun dragon Scottish Secretary may like to kites with 15 metre tails, imported know that they won't be cut off if from California. E 5 f r o m them at their "debt" is less than Â£10Does 13 rue Hobbema, Bruxelfes, anyone know what the Belgium 1040. corresponding figure is south of t h l Border? Three useful goodies for bike MAGGIES'S FARM, the Durham freaks from CHISWICK FOE: Easy wholefood shop, are diversifying Rider Child Seat plans, for into food processing: they are temporary occasional fitting t o the starting a new co-op t o make carrier of an adult bike, plus peanut butter for sale t o other photos and construction details, wholefood shops land possiblyto Â£2T-shirts, white with Bike I t the High St Co-ops). This will be and My Machine Is Quiet and Clean the first food processing co-op i n printed in red, Â£2and sweatshirts the land; i t has ICOF and MSC with the same messages. fleecy support and is looking for three lined, Â£4.50 A l l from c/o Brian workers, who are promised all the Alford, 44 Kew Bridge Court. peanut butter they can eat (ugh) London W4 3AF. and a living wage. Sympathy with

the wholefood movement and a commitment t o co-operative working are essential; a driving licence would be useful. They are at l a Allergate Terrace, Durham; tel 0385 45013. Just reprinted by PEACE NEWS (8 Elm Avenue, Nottingham) are two useful pamphlets: Phil Reardon's Pedal Power Pocket Book op + sae) and the Street ,~ Farmers' Wlndworkers' Manual ( 2 0+ ~ sae), a pleasing memento of the heady days of '73 when A T was young and innocent. LUU. wtfRfn HAVINGFOR AN AUfONOUOUS ORUNEY SnsSD ON X U - u A N ~ G C O C O L

~ U C WAV .

tc~l<#sr*,IMDIvICI'Ht ~utUXItt, SOLlDSRlTY AND . - . FUN 1 \

FREE-WINGED EAGLE is a new community paper from Orkney (30p from FWE, Over The Water, Orkney KW17 2BU; No. 1 leads on the Anti-nuclear movement. the oppression of women b y the Calvinist church of Scotland, and organic farming. The NORTH ENGLAND RADIO CLUB caters for short and medium wave listeners; they publish a monthly bulletin, Spectrum, containing DX news, Free Radio News, short wave leggings, as well as news and features. Membership i s Â £ a yaar;for a sample copy of Spectrum send two 9p stamps t o Norman Monti, 66 Chesnut Grov Birkenhwd, Meripyside U 2 OM2

CAPTAIN PLUGGIT and his Combat Crew (Lofty Lil, Phil McCawitv s t a l l area comic strip for schools published by Cheshire County Council. Their arch enemie are Wilful Waster, Dora Jar and Ivoi Leak. Details from County Hall, Chester.

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sheets. To replace this we allocated a set time to each job, and the person assigning work gave approximately equal hours of work over the week t o each member. Using labour credit systems made us conscious of a lot of things about working collectively that need consideration. First it was necessary to agree on what the important and urgent jobs were, and to see they got done. I t was important to see that each person pulled their weight , and didn't suspect others of not doing so. It was good to be able to get more of the work you preferred (which doesn't happen with a strict rota for each job) without getting trapped in one job (as in nuclear families). I t meant we could encourage each other to try new things, we made our expectations and commitments clear to each other, we avoided throwingguilt and suspicion around, we avoidea the sorts of roles that can pop in when everyone plays thegame of waiting t o see who cracks first; I n which mothers cook dinners because their children are hungry and it would be thought mean to cook only for some people; in which the car owner mends the communally used car before it grinds itself t o bits; in which everyone slides back into old culture ideas on ownership, and collective responsibility becomes just a theory. There are other whys of achieving these aims, such as weekly work distribution meeting and discussion. What we do now is to use a weekly chart o f regular jobs that need doing, which people sign up for (we expect roughly equal amounts from each person) and about once a week we discuss once-off jobs and agree on who will deal with which. For example, the chart covers housework, milking and feeding animals, working at the shop, and so on,.The lobs allocated at meetings could be mending-afence, typing stencils for Communes Network, or replumbing the cowshed, to be done if possible in the week following the meeting. Longer lasting jobs, like the year before last's accounts, are usually taken on for the duration of the job, by one or two people. Other odd jobs are picked up by whoever feels moved to do them. Using meetings to distribute jobs works well for a small neople, but from my experience, group if in a largergroup, it is difficult to find enough discussion time before it's too much discussion time.

Behaviour Mod One o f the other two habits I know we were notorious for was behaviour modification. Twin Oaks had used a behaviourist approach i n bringing up their children, but they, like us, no longer mention it unless asked. We had two children, a three year old and an 8 year old when we started out and used behaviourism for about a year anda half, by which time the 3 year old had left the community and the 8 year old was growing up, and behaviour' ism was going out o f fashion. I n essence the idea is to be very clear and specific about what you want the

of one person on another.

Negative Feedback In our founding stages we were only asmall group and most o f our mental energy went in planning, in policy-making decisions. Our goals were clear and we had lots o f energy to work towards them. Our public image must have been too dull or too extreme, because no-one l e w joined for quite a time. After a fear, two of our founder members left. iVe were shocked and stopped to reconsider what we were doing and why, and what we wanted to change about the community. We moved towards m6re 'liysical affection between people, more warmth, a deliberate move to express positive feelings. We realised that our feedback sessions had come to concentrate mainly on putting across as constructively as possible, the things we Idn't like about each other and we had forgotten what can be harder - to say what you do like about others. More people joined. We moved away r o m couples to less exclusive relationships, moving very carefully on almost uncharted (round. Our energy was used in caring foeeach other's feelings while k s broke down the couple barriers and tried t o be more open with each other. This was the time o f our third notorious habit - the sleeping cards. Many exaggrated rumours abounded. And still do, although the cardshaven't been used for a year or more. While our energies went towards being open and caring for each other, we gave little thought to formal policy making, quietly imagining we'd got i t all sorted out, set up forever. Living communally requires initial agreement on the group's goals, on how t o work towards them, how to find new ways to work-towards them, and how and when to reconsider, review and revise the goals themselves. This involves uncovering hidden disagreements, differewes of attitude, and dealing with them, either by further group discussion and action, or b y evaluation of the group by a respected and experienced outsider, or finally by considering splitting the group. We didn't act in time. One member left, and our sitting tenants, the previous owners of Berrington Hall, moved out and suddenly we found ourselves with more space but now no new members were applying (ironic ' because we'd turned down several in the 6 months previously). Some disagreement was evident in what we each thought we were looking for in new members. Ip January 78 two adults and a child moved in for 3 months while they looked for somewhere else to live. During that time splits became apparent among the group. One member had left just before these visitors arrived. Although they were like members in some ways, they didn't take part in the decisionmaking or responsibility for the place, and disagreements with them didn't get sorted out. They were close to some members but not all and when they left,

child to do, and to be sure to reward her (not necessarily materiallv) if she does what you've asked, and to avoid i f she doesn't. About the only form of punishment allowed is to send the child out of the room or into a different room, for a short time (up to 5 minutes, less for young ones). We believed strongly i n communal childcare and it seemed important to be agreed on how we wanted to bring up the children and to be clear to them and consistent in what we asked. We never used behaviour modification with adults, partly because adults are a bit too subtle and devious for such an approach and partly because o course we were all equally responI e beings, and who would make the rules? We did consider using behaviouri s t approaches to cure agreed bad habits, but never got round to it, preferring instead simply to talk about such things along with any more important problems at a weekly feedback meeting. We have no children here now, but we would want anyone joining to work towards communal childcare of any children joining, although we wouldn't expect overnight transformation and we wouldn't be using behaviourism, which has disappeared from our claims t u fame. Our feedback meetings have changed over time, from a fairly formal sequence called, with tongue in cheek, confessions, criticisms and praise, through a variety of therapy techniques and games, and informal chat sessions. sometimes with equal time for each person, sometimes concentratine iust on one Derson. At the moment. with only five of us we haven't been holding any formal feedback sessions, but given more people and more time, we would expect to do something of the sort. With just five, it's fairly easy to be close to each person, to know how they're feeling and what's. happening to them, but with more people this becomes increasingly difficult The feeling bf closeness i s something that is important t o us and we will try hard to maintain it while increasing our numbers. This is why our advertisements for members say we are non-couple oriented, We want to stay away from exclusive relationships and any suspicion of ownership of people or dependency

three members left too. We had all been changing i n different directions and failed to be close enough to resolve our differences or even to know what they were. After this large exodus we who remained were a motley crew, no longer very close emotionally or ideologically. We gained one member and made various efforts t o reunite with more or less success and struggled on over the summer. Energy was no longer going i n t o either policymaking or creative caring relationships, but into exhausting hassles and arguments.

New bednnings

Monev, work and interpersonal incorn-

. .

~atiMi&',are generally held to be the causes of the problems cdmmunes face, but the folklore doesn't contain any proven cures or preventions for these problems. Perhaps this is because these are not the original problems, which are to be found i n people's attftudes to other ~eople,money andwork. So the solution will' never be found ehtirely i n technical rwe5n but in a chan*of attitude in everyone concerned. A lot of communication is needed, and it doesn't stop at words - it involves experimenting together, learning to care for each other, building trust among those you live with, which won't always work even when you want i t to, not being entirely governed by rationality.

No-pne ever said communal living easy, but lots o f people find it very rewarding. We're looking for m o r ~ ~ e o p l t s who feel inspired to try. Over the winter. there have been five of us. We've been getting down once more to talk about why we're here and what we want t o make of the group. We've got a leaflet about u s for people who send an s.a.e. and if you think you mightwant to join, or visit US, then write a b i t about yourself, what you're looking for, and what you haw t o offer. Please don't just turn UP.

Pan) Dawling cram@e-saddress ~~~~i~~~~ H~H, Berrinaton. Shrewsbuw. Salw.

moving from city t o country t o attempt various forms o f self-sufficiency, there seems t o be tittle-nothing i n fact, about the everyday lives and practical problems facing urban nincompoops like us who've gone and done it. Wh to write this letter.

Nuclear Bliss 'TO read 4JC you'd

"REALITY is not quite what one would assume from reding Undercurrants." Ann Pettit 'takes a sideways look at the simple life and finds that it lives somewhat different from how it reads. Next month, you'll find us where we belong, down among the romantic fiction. EIGHTEEN MONTHS ago we came to live here, to a neglected farmhouse and one acre o f land. Before that, we lived in London and planned t o move to the country; because we liked it; because wZwanted t o grow more of our own food; because it seemed t o make political sense to be part of a vote-with-your-feet, movement to reverse the counrry-tot r e n d that has dominated life since industrial revolution. Icould go on, but11 take it most readers of UC will ,know what I mean and can fill in the gaps for themselves. so we started trying tolearn how to

and trying t o work out what sort of work would be both useful and possible. I n a non-sexist way which makes it all much more complicated. And (he politics? I have decided it is a case of looking after the pennies; the only trouble is that it's a foreign currency and I haven't yet learnt how t o count in it. hi^ sounds like the prelude to a tale of disillusion and woe, but it is not. What 1 have found however isthat reality, for many who have moved here for similar reasons to us, i s not quite'what one would assume from reading UC. Although much of the magazine is devoted to that as which is @e theory of

defectors live i n communes and collectives of various sorts. Perhaps it is just that these are the people who get written about but it hardly seems typical. We are a nuclear two-child family, and this is the commonest social unit I've come acrbss. among the immigrant population. There's a three some over the hilt and a guru-led sect in the next valley, but that doesn't seem t o be how mbst people live. No. Most people are living in smallish, isolated farmhouses and cottages, places long since abandoned by the native Welsh in their stampede after new bungalows; living often in appalling conditions because having struggled tcfsave the money to buy some ruin o f a stone shack with no water or electricity, there's no money left to render it habitable or comfortable (let no-one who has wintered in the cointryside pour scorn on the notion of comfort), let alone install a Winco windmill or a Cliyus loo - o r a woodburning stove either, though I do know o f a commendable effort using a milk-churn. And therets no jobs to bring you in an income you can save on either.(This is beginning to sound like the Lady Mangold Wurzel Appeal.) Those who rent are w o r k off, for the self-sufficiency idea is to gradualIv imorove the fertility etc. o f the land you'have tol ' ( to improvements to the hOuseYOulive and us fee' that benevo'enttowards landlords. Whether it's moving to the country makes want to have children, or whether having them makes you want to move t o the country, most of the Young immigrants seem to have kids, and that for most seems to fm.an that demode institution, the family. Apologetically, for we have hitherto considered it as an efficient ahd ruthless means of oppression of every child, woman and then haves@ man within it. Yet many chosen this as an escape fr

Undercurrents 34 .

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Undercurrents 34

----

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"/ must admit i t fairly, as every business man should: 1have had no end o f a lesson, i t has done me no end o f good." The co-op ~esson

R Kinglip

b I

1ago:Surely your conception o f a sociali s t entrepreneur is a contradiction i n terms? How ever did you come to arrive at this? Simon Watt: Well, I was trying to find some way around the commonplace observation that what passes as socialism everywhere seems to end up tied up in committees and bureaucracy. I have worked in both the private and public sectors for 14 years and i t is clear to me that innovation and risktaking are anarchic activities that have to be given room to survive albeit under social controls. With a few notable exceptions the public sector as ye know i t just jogs along leaving the'p'rivate side to make the running Even the harshest critics of private enterprise have to admit that it works These may be of the wrong sort, wasteful i n resources with heavy social costs, or aimed only at the filthy rich -but if there is a market and money to be made then private enterprise will deliver. The competitive struggle for success in private firms makes them disgusting to work in but this i s really no different to the fights in public sector enterprises where incompetence is hidden by bureaucrats who become an elite with an index linked pension answerable to no-one. There has to be some energy for decision making, some,one to carry the can - and take the responsibility for failure.

hard way SIMON WATT set out to be a socialist entrepreneur; he started Caban Co-op to bring new work to Bethesda, North Wales; his baby was stillborn, strangled at birth by bureaucracy and indifference. Who better to interview him than lago Mephistopheles, our cynical City Editor?

Yes, what you say is i n some respects true but it seems you have little confidence in democratic decision making such as we would see in the socialist people's republic of the future. And how can even a well intentioned entrepreneur affect the unjust distribution of income that effectively controls . the market place? But we.are not near that yet, with power organised from the grass roots. And questions on these things are not being asked. In fact, on the Left, talking about bread and butter production and how it i s to be done is heresy. The comrades in the snug bar count the marks on the head of their dialectical pins over their pints but effectively they have been deindustrialised like most of the other middle classes. I started thinking hard about this after talking with the Minister of Development in Sudan whom I met at a meeting on development, a man who was responsible for the nationalisation of 39 British companies. He told me that after nationalisation the Sudanese bureaucratic classes who took over just

Undercurrents34

Undercurrents 3 important These may involve fiscalan ing small nursery factories but these are tax measures to support local-production ,. the wrong size; and Caernarvon Council and encourage the breakdown of.large .. rent land on which to build, provided scale enterprises, selective local buying ,' the building comes up to WDA standards by local councils, or even selective import ; (which costs up t o Â£1 a square foot). ' With no capital behind us we could not controlson the border to limit the entry ; o f certain goods. ... afford to take the risk of failure and an , Theeconomy of Gwynedd is indeed.: empty building and ~ ~ c o u l d ' n in o tany as open and vulnerable as the economies ' .' case wait the four months for the plans o f many third world countries. T o begin.>; to go through the planners hoops. So to choose this economy, at least i n goals'~.~: we dosed down operations. that by their nature are not exported from Ihope you have learnt your lesson, orimported into Britain, will +an that a lesson that even the de-industrlalised the State mustplay a much more active comrades i n the snug bar could have told role through intervention and ownership you about. But Isuppose you have learnt because the present crisis o f deindustrial- , something,useful from the sorry business? isation is a direct result of open market , Like adding value locally? ' forces. This will not solve dl, problems Wealth creation must of course be which have to be looked at. i n their intermeasured i n many more ways than indusnational perspective. But it would provide trial production but adding value locally a focus for local action and pressure, and will provide a diverse range o f jobs that will both ease traditionally high unemploy- the promise of a more rational order that allows people to earn their living i n gainment and keep the most talented young ful employment rather than take dotes. people in Gwynedd. The regional economy of-Gwynedd must Th'sre are a whole range of simple not only be protected but vigorously products with few linkages that can be supported by aggressive local agencies. made locally oh a semi-craft basis from perishable foodstuffs to consumer durables, Localhitiatives must have access to buildings, credit and advice to allow the that can even compete for price and qualdominant factors of production t o shift ity in the market place, and are cheap per back from capital t o labour. M e h r e s work place to construct, But technical of t h i s sort may also be attractive for strategies for the breakdown o f producthe depressed inner city areas. tion have not been worked out despite , . all the talk over the years; there ha$ been your confessions aie a bathetic onanisin, little work done, in comparison with the 1' your socialist entrepreneur is both pollticall ~.. high technology products listed by the naive JMJ a rotton business man. You have Lucas Aerospace SSC. It i s sad fact that clearly wasted your time. Isuppose now few technically competent people who y o u will be complaining you have lost . a tot . . understand the physical problems of proof momy?; . . ' ~ . ,. duction have become involved in the Notreally, pal. I have be& paid t o w r i p radical technology movement. handbookon the subject of fernxemenl The technical strategies are only part septic water tanksand I wiltsell the hsine of the problem. Our experience has shown to a local Tory. These tanks can handle' how difficult it is to get started with all anything, even the analysis o f the Trots. ''. the barriers to entry in the way and with O~,,YOU are =saucy boy, losing your GO' few resources. The economic strategies operative soul and finding aprivate buyer! to support local production are even more . .. .

the,

rubble. lixullltion ukM IÃthm 8 dw.

the Â£30 of the cheapest fibmiglass equivalent with a capacity o f only 6 . ,. people.. . Our aim was not only't o actually add value t o rawmaterials i n Gwynedd, in this case sand,ce@ent and wire mesh, but also to strengthen our position i n the market place by offering the services of free advice on installation or even doing i t ourselves. W w o u l d thus be making a regional import sub stitution for G w y ~ d and d providing jobs locally. The, drainage boards were enthusiastic as it takes work o f f their shoulders, although one. area representative has insistedon long term tests which effectively cuts $is target market. And again we got little support from the ~ationalistcomrades who would rather buy from an English company: I t takes awhile f o r a business to get established, however,:and to gain the confidence of local people.that we would not go bust the next day. Bymid-Septemb e r wehad sold over Â£200 worth of goods; with another:Â£300 of work coming in, however we were obliged togive up our cuhstruction site because o f the weather and the owner who wanted it back. We just couldn't find another suitable building. The Welsh Development Agency offered us a mortgage provided We found the land - but. thisis almost impossible i n Gwynedd unless one is : +per id the know locally or have the :lnii(e resources of a large company. Ewynedd County Council are hiiild'

ercurrents 34

COOPERATIVE BUILD was set up in July 197Sat Connah's Ouav North Wales, and WM registered as a iiwbrrsi =~-operative under 1COM Model Rules. Five of theseven .::~ ., membkwere trade unionisti activein the; picketing during a strike atPontinls holiday''': camp during 1977; same hadbeen among-: ? . ,. the flying pickets atShrewtbury in 1 9 7 ~ ~ ::,: '..' . . Barry Scragg andBerwyn Jones, the only two full-time workers in the co-op, . . were blacklisted in the building tradein . . . NorthWales for their involvement in these protests against low pay, qrfpoor working conditions in the industry. The workers' co-op was to provide themwith jobs they were denied by any other employer, and subsequently wasto open up job oppor(unities forother unemployed building workers in thearea.The ex~eriment ~-

. y:~::.:;

unable even to ask.

trickle down automatkally to the whole

(DRESSES The Lund Letter is free. To get on the mailing list, write to: Research Policy Institute, University of Lund, Magisratwagen 55N. S-222 44 Lund, Sweden. TRANET, on the other hand, costs 215 a year for a subscription to: Box 567, Rangely, Maine 04970, USA. Karen Paulsell has compiled a directory of people and groups interested in discussing communications alternatives at UNCSTD. For more information write to her at: 2768 22nd Street, San Francisco CA 94110, USA. To keep track of the European alternative activities you can write to either: Community Action in Europe, Dronningesgade 14, DK-1420 Cooenhen, Denmark, or to: Forum Alternative, Postfach 45, A-1231 Vienna, Austria. i

of the 'Lund Letter on Science, Technology and Basic Human Needs,' a newsletter that has earned much respect for i t s comprehensive monitoring of UNCSTD activities. Calling the draft outline for an UNCSTD program of action 'a smorgasbord instead of a plan', the outline was descrioeo by a recent 'Lund Letter' as "written in UN style with 201 ,numbered paragraphs and carefully avoiding naming any country by name,"and "Most definitely not a basis for action. The points o f controversy are not singled out, the realistic proposals are not distinguished from the utopian ones, the amount o f backing behind the various proposals is nowhere indicated. Instead we are told that 'many countries' in their national reportspropose this or that, that 'some countries' emphaslse some thing else. No attempt is made to group countries t o see where political alliances are forming, and to identify the main areas o f potential conflict."

the UN conference has been organised and the way they 're sidestepping some o f the more profound questions about science and technology and development", says John Renshaur of the Copenhagen office of Community Action, describing the Alternative Forum. "We're also encouraging travelling theatre groups, New Age gypsies if you want t o call them that, to come t o Vienna, not just as tourists, but t o make some kind o f declaration. " In North America, the ~ p ~ r o ~ r i a t e Technology workshop of the NGO Forum at the 1976 UN Conference on Human Settlements in Vancouver resulted in TRANET, a publication for a Transnational Network for Appropriate/Alternative Technologies." TRANET has been following the alternative plans for UNCSTD closely. Ideas appearing in TRANET have included a Cross America/Cross Europe Bikeathon t o end in Vienna, and a daily UNCSTD newsletter planned by Friends of the Earth. San Francisco broadcasting student Karen Paulsell has sent out a letter t o alternative groups seeking t o use the alternative forum in Vienna t o discuss means of developing, strengthening, and expanding communications alternatives. An alternative group in Italy is calling for a radio transmitter (presumably illegal) t o carry news in Vienna of UNCSTD activities.

'A Real Hell'

The question is how much of this alternative activity will affect the government leaders and development experts attending the main conference, and how much North American and European alternative groups have t o teach the Third World, John ~lternativeForum Renshaur thinks they have quite a lot t o offer: If some people are afraid that the main "Maybe we have the credibility t o be event in Vienna may fail t o supply answers to the real needs of the Third World, others able to point out all the negative aspects o f western technological development. We are planning to step in to fill the vacuum. can say, 'Look we've been through a real Various coalitions of alternative groups hell. ' This development that so many from North America and Europe are planpeople in the Third World, especially the ning t o hold their own Alternative Forum elite, want to go into now; we can say at a site alongside the main UNCSTD site Y o u should think twice'. It may not do during the conference. The Alternative Forum is being organis- a l o t t o say that t o the elites, but if we can get that message across t o the grassed by Community Action in Europe, a roots, to the people of the Third World, contact network of collectives, housing maybe they'll believe us because we're groups, environmental organisations, and using iurlives to fight against this very women's groups. In Scandinavia, Nordic Comm'inity Action was formed in January progress that they 're striving after". to unify alternative groups in Denmark, But when it comes down t o it, it will Norway and Sweden. be the elites who decide what happens It concentrated first on housing conat UNCSTD. Stefan Dedijer of the Univercerns: the 17th century Haga worker sity of Lund's Research Policy Institute district of Gothenburg battling t o defend pointed out in a recent issue of Science itself from demolition; the ill-fated Stockthat it i s holm major squatting actions at Mullvaden "the heads of state and other holders and Jarnet; and Christiania, the 1000 of power in the 1 70 less developed nations member anarchist collective on an abanwho have tocombine this knowledge doned military base in the heart of in the form o f science, technology, developCopenhagen. The Nordic groups are Prement menus and recipes with the political paying a Starting (a parliament of alterpower andintelligence available t o cook ndive groups) in the Danish town Thy them into dishes suited to their national in May, specifically to Prepare for UNCSTD. pocketbooks, appetites andpalates. So "We're contacting scientists and other far these cooks have not participated in people who are very critical about the way the VNCSTDpreparation efforts."

...

For those who wonder where all of America' foreign aid goes to, the answer is that the United States contributes less foreign aid per ita than any other western country. I n 1968 a United Nations conference recommended that the industrialised nations contribute 0.7% of their Gross National Product (GbJP) a year in foreign aid. Only three countries have ever met this level, Sweden (0.99%). the Netherlands 10.85%). and Norway (0.82%). The United States contributesa dismal 0.22% of its GNP in foreign aid, with Britain supplying 0.38%.

The chance that these national leaders will have the desire t o listen t o the alternative voices from the West and implemen the ncessary policies for their countries is also slim. Few of them are willing t o permit the social changes necessary t o make the transfer of appropriate technology relevant t o the needs of oppressed people, for it would also mean a loss of power for themselves and local elites. As Lennart Bage of the Swedish Foreigi Ministry told me: "Many people are concentrating on technology, they're just looking for the proper appropriate technology. But what I really 'rftfded in the developing countries is political and social change. Only you can't tell a developing country that i t needs a revolution, no matter how many o f them do need a revolution. What you can do is stress the need for social change. The choices facing the Third World at UNCSTD and after will be a crucial one for the future of the majority of world's inhabitants. Throughout the developing countries there are millions of people without food, without shelter, and without work. The right choice of technology can mean a future in which these people or their children will have the same oppor(unities that we take for granted. A wrong choice can mean evert more misery. But to choose a technological path you have to know what kind of society you want t o create. As Sweden's Undersecretary of Education Kerstin Aner told a recent UNCSTD preparatory meeting in Stockholm: 'To choose a lifestyle is t o choose a technology. ' George Woo FOLK that should know better keep nkfmi us what w are doing about UNCSTD, will they <Ã in in Vienna, and so on. Though

w haw always h i d a soft mot for these bunfihts since Undercurrents WÃ cffeclively launched at the Stockholm Environmental Conference in '72, i t seems likely that this time we'll stay at home and cultivate our gardens. For one thing, i t dashes with this year's Comtek in the Milton Kaynes Ã‘trodome For another, the Undercurrents executive aiwhip is out of commission and our tfvl budget is hardly enough for bus firm and cycle patchm. SO. ifany of our better heeled readen, whose expenses are being met by someone else, would like to represent us at this a W s t l a t h h n g Of'Naos, Quangoi. and Dwiopmont Jet Stters, will they p w Contact us as w o n as posribla t o pick up thtir crxtentmls?

GHULAM KIBRIA tells how the magic AT wand of that well-known 'British Socialist' Dr Schumacher gave him the chance to try out his 'lunatic ideas' of development by self-help in the villages of Pakistan.

les.

into more and more advanced stages i n Qe course of time. Now a foolish man, Ghulam Neither Civil Nor Servant Kibria by name, has been saying so for a The main concern o f British Raj, in theit very long time and fools and lunatics are colony, was keeping law and order, t o main- never given serious attention. But now when a white man, and a white man known rain the Raj, and collect the land revenue all over the world, says what the lunatic to keep the administration going. The elite said, something had to be done. of the service was the Indian Civil Service, There were two schools of thought on (ICS) which had a monopoly i n law and this issue. One of them said that surely order, administration and collection of what Schumacher says i s idiotic for that revenue, but in matters of spending the known idiot Ghulam Kibria also says it. But since Schumacher was sent by the British government his recommendations have t o be implemented. And the obvious choice was the idiot Ghulam KSbria. This was killing two birds with the same stone shutting Ghulam Kibria's foolish mouth and satisfying the'British Government. The other school of thought was of the financial service cadres. So the revenue opinion that a white socialist cduld not be that wrong and after all it was useful gimmick. However, for their own reasons ,both agreed on Ghulam Kibrla.

ocidit' Feudalism

have allowed a free hand t o the bureaucracy; bureaucrats i n their turn Help politicians keep hold of their seats, or assist those who have taken to business. They also accommodate politicians' nominees in service jobs. Politicians regularly extend bureaucrats' service tenures and bureaucrats ensure the politicians' return 'y in elections. So this cycle goes on. Ordinary people do not appear i n the pattern of things as they are now and no-one, neither bureaucrats nor politicians, therefore have to bother about them.

!3dl~mach=r's Magic Wand

When I was dragged into the service

al government that a British Socialist Dr. Schumacher had a magic wand - a. socialist magic wand at'that - which could convert the country into a fully developed The British Government

Dr. Schumacher met the functionaries,

' ATDO vs. the AAS When Itook over the assignment a sum

pf 3 5 0 , m was allocate^ to enable me t o sprt the 'Appropriate Technology Develo mentOrganisation'. Ifelt mighty happy because it was a big amount. But my pleasure was short lived, for within a week Idiscovered that I could not spend even a cent wiltout the permission of the accounts-clerk. To show his authority he ensured that I could not even draw my wages. It was the beginning o f war of wills between the accounts wen and me. 1 I immediately realised that showing weakness will embolden the enemy. I approached the 'Banks and succeeded in convincing them that the 'Appropriate Technology' concept means creation of capital. I really sold them the idea and from then onwards I had their financial support. The first thing I did was to hold a practical exhibition to demonstrate the vitality of the concept, which was a grand success. 8

D o h Without The State Ip the meantime 1 approached the people in isolated areas - people like small farmers, carpenters and blacksmiths With their help I succeeded in having some villages electrified with home-made water wheels, established a hand-made match manufacturing industry, initiated biogas utilisation, ek. The ftain lesson I ~earhtwas that development is possible only when people do it themselves, from planning to execution. That way it is not only effective, it is much cheaper. As just one example I would like t o mention village electrification through small hydro power. When the bureaucracy does it the cost of installatior comas to Â£750 per kW, but when the people do it co-operatively it came t o only Â£6 per kW. The reason is simple: the people constructed the civil works, like the power channel, tail race a and head race works, power house, op a self-help basis and it cost them nothing except labour. The village carpenter made the wooden penstock from free timber and the blacksmith the Banks Wheel. Only a generator was contributed bfthe State. Small match manufacturing plant could also be locally fabricated. The only machines needed are a peeling lathe to obtain timber sheets and a shearing machine to obtain splints from the timber sheets. The rest of the operations, waxing the splint lips, dipping them into chemicals and making match boxes from cardboard blanks and applying friction compound are all manual. , This does not suit the bureaucracy - because if people learn to do all this, they will not need the bureaucracy - at least for developing purposes -and this will challenge vested interest and the status quo. Ghulam Kibri

Ayear ago Ghulam Kibria was edged out of his

job;he is now unemployed. There is no dale

-Pakistan.

D \ EARTHCARE are a retail co-op selling 'environmentally acceptable' consumer goods in Durham City. George English fells what a year of grubbing in the market place has taught them. FOR ALLenhronmental groups the prablem is the same: how t o convince the public e f f q t i v e l ~of the i m m d f a w and central importance o f an ecologically ~y effectively 1 mean, rational fiel of course insuch a way as tostimulate into changing its attitude and the

to consume while salving theirfon-

sci~t:ptemkr 9,7& .,e,

project began

, fn hham funded by Msc under the ~ w i d e n t i aearly l JCP regulations. We k g a n with a V W strollg idea of what we wanted but soon f w d problem even i n simplest ends. Our firstprotilem was of one. We establish~ d ~ ~ ~ , course ' a nrethoddogical ; ~ ed a set o f criteria for the evaluation of and wild-life conservationeach object but soon found this framework Unfortunately for a number o f years i n itself difficult to use* Our criteria were: the environmen~lmovement has existed a) manufacture should use as little largely as averbal lobbying and propaenergy as possible; gandising machine. Valuable practical b) electrical manufacturers should be work has of course been done bv the AT avoided; movements and the organic gardening/ c) manufacture should be low-polluting; self-sufficiency movements but their d) a rational use of resources and , impact in urban centres has been small. materials; It was this thought that prompted e) recycled raw materials; F.0.E. Durham to try to change things. f) a low envimnmentaf impact in use; For two years, we had run an extremely successful MSC-funded Insulation Project. g) 'local manufacture; h) rail transport preferred to road; When this became independent o f F.0.E. i competitive price*; we planned a new venture which would help people change the environmental j products which made an environimpact of their everyday lives. merit point. .

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Ecoblasphemy

Hardchoices

= ,

A new MSC project was formulated under the tide 'Earthcare' and the descriplive brief was 'to research and find environmentally acceptable consumer goods gtid to establish a reta/iing outlet forsuch goods' By effectively entering the world of the consumer we hoped to begin chanting their patterns o f consumption and use and then finally the patterns of production. To the ascetics i n the movement whether self-providers or socialists, the whole idea must seem quite blasphemous. We thought about the ideological implications and decided that there was no other option. People working and living in an urban situation have neither the time nor often the facilities to reduce their environmental impact but they are among the prime consumers of all kinds of hard and soft-ware. This was our poiht o f contact. O f course it did beg t h question ~ as t o whether we could do more than simply encourage people

There were difficulties even in the earliest stages of the project. The inforrnation available on most of these issues was scant, especially?when referring to specific 'items: try applying these criteria to recycled paper toilet roll?! This is slowly changing but there still isn't enough accessible information on environmental

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but with'problems attached to them. Glass , m e n d m i p^, Jonathan Holliman inhis containers of an kinds were, we knew, '~dnsumers'Guide to the Protection of readily available as post-consumer was@:i &nvimnment' (now out of print) jam, fruit juice and coffee jars, wine, suggests that cast-iron is less energy intensquash, and mineral water bottles. All of the amount of energy used t o smel .!ve these containers could be made airtight c a t iron is inss thin that to manufacture an important point i n storing food :They @umlnium, m h requires electrical were therefore efficient and abundantly energy making it more expensive in available. All we needed was t o encourage environmental costs. Whether t h i s is true people t o re-use thepn. Simple! or not still remains debatable. The only Well balanced, sharp. long lasting steel cast iron products we could find initially knives we decided were all that was neCeS- -.came from Taiwan. We did eventually <arv to perform chopping and paring find an English cast Ironware manufacturfunctions i n the kitchen, the only thing er but their prices were much higher; to maintain them being a sharpening steel. however better made and ihm, With care they would last potentially a better-looking. It still remains an open lifetime, and providing they were used question however as to whether pan for wjth a little knowledge beforehand they pan, Ã£.t-iro products require less were easy to use and relatively safe. AS energy to make than aluminium. with cast iron pans we hoped to provide this knowledgeEarthenware bowls were decided upon Soap I As an alternative to modem detergents for mixing. They represented a clear alternative to plastics,-materials which w e w e chose 'soap flakes'. These represented, one of our clearest alte'matives t o a manuavoided. Research into plastics showed factured product; they had a simple increasingly that they were carcinogenic chemical structure, were entirely biogradin manufacture, that they abused able and were completely non-polluting. scarce resources, and that they did not withstend the stresses of use very Â¥well Our advertistme~t4f these facts i n local Plastic of course could have very important newspaper articles has drawn 'flak' from uses, for instance in certain kinds of surgery. the Soap Manufactures Association, but here that the impact qf clay our position i s quite strong. Even if We might extraction and firing on the environment modern detergents are ihcieasingiy eco, logically acceptable te'our river systems was never researched. For mixing and sundry implements they cannot be proved entirely safe. Organic Paradoxes , the material we decided upon was wood. They are also the p d u c t of a vast Gardening, through the organic method, ~ o o forestry d could produce enough chemical industry. Soapflabare not. n i aga seemed obviously eflviron~entdly 4 for kitchen utensils without a The secondary categories we investigaacceptable. Organic gardenins has a twomajor impact on the forest ecology led were recycled paper and cosmetics. , fold beauty: one can be sure 072 reduction spoons for instance could be made from There has of course been an enormous ,in the use of harmful chemicalswhiflh amount o f research done into the former, pruned waste i n well maintained wood: affect the soil, garden produce and wildwhich we did not wish t o duplicate. We r,t,d, without destroying the trees which life; and it also does away wifll the SYn.occupy it;this is called coppicing. Whether did, at the suggestion of tht F.Q.E, paper thesis of fertilizers, weed killers, child sellers group, try t o publish a cornpreany o f the commercially available spoons killersit at. Waste is also handled well hensive report on the availability and were manufactured i n this way was under the organic prescriptiotl'ai all vegetypes of all recycled papers published questionable. tableresidues can be composted. One or on samples o f each. mecwt Beauty Without Cruelty two h a l l 'trade-offs' were needed in we acceptance of the organic me@od:qst Cosmetics represent a curious category Themost vexing questions revolved organic fertilisers are produced as a byof product. They are luxury goods around the use of metals in kitchenware product o f slaughtering, which mtght give argusold to women. There were endless especially in those implements which are vegetarians q u a l r ~ ~ simiidy ; thedigging de ments Over whether , heated. Which metal usable as a material of peat, whose use is advocated as soil reinforced sexism. The arguments against for pots and pans had the lowest environimprover, destroys the local ecosystem for example i n the Somerset Levels. Unlike organic gardening other domestic areas presented enormout problems. Here researchhad been minimal and often contradictory. Using a^common sense' approach vkyxaminedpe uselneeds o f the kftcher basinglt for a number of reasons on a vegetarian diet. a

fWtt?fs.What we eventually found was that everything we chose had some adverse environmental impact, SO we decided on -a system of 'trade-offs'. To return to the exampleof the toilet roll: a recycled paper toilet roll from Soy$kalls involves i n its manufacture a substantial amount o f pollution and uses acertain amount of energy. On the other hand, avirgin pulp roll generate* even more waste products to be disposed into rivers. Pink toilet r o l l ~ a r echemically dyed while off-white ones are not. So a recycled off-white roll is less damaging but it still has some deleterious impact In this case we felt the function of the project was, to encourage rational use even of recycled products. The criteria workedbetter with a system of trade-offs but we still found enormous paradoxes which more than once threatened the whole future of the project, The actual products research was split into six categories. The first three of these categories, gardening, kitchenware and deaning, were regarded as the central needs in the average household. The other three categories researched were more peripheral: recycled paper products, cosmetics and bicycle parts. We were more interested i n finding a supplier for bicycle parts as bicycles are in themselves self-evidently desirable low-environmental-impactgoods.

Kitchen Tech * First we eliminated from our study all electrical gadgets. Hand-operatedmachines Were capable of ~krformin&allkitchen tasks as efficiently as electrical ones. We found that they were a l h harder wearing than electrical ones and as cheap. . Having decided on hand tools we then examined the preparation, cooking and disposal o f food i n the kitchen. We looked at storage, cutting and grinding'mixing, heating and preserving as activities. We formed a list o f materials ideal for the manufacture of these goods: glass, wood. day. iron and steel - all basic materials '

-,,

working. We were all paid the same wage, all joined in the decision-makingpro- cesses and all held equal responsibility, at least in theory. However the tasks of administration and co-ordinatjon were handled by individuals which meant that jobs felt into two categories: the exciting research and the boring maintenance. No attempt was made t o relieve the workers from the onerous jobs, despite the much vaunted spirit of co-operation,

re-feat this mufti-million pound industry as a threefold environmental impact: ?any cosmetics use whale oil extracts as base; many other extracts musk from ivet cats for instance are obtained in a arbarous fashion; and thirdly many nimals undergo unnecessary suffering luring cosmetic research. These three recepts gave us soh'd enough environw n a ground upon which t o base our esexch.The pointabout sexism contines to be argued heatedly and not always y women. Overpackaging and inapproriate use o f materials are of course omtnon to the cosmetic industry, 4s is he us' of petrochemically derived Iternatives to animal products. In the alternative cosmetic ranges hosen, we examined both of these asects using 'trade-offs' where necessary. Tley were all small firms who dealt with hese products so our access to them m fairly easy, and we eventually found number of them who made acceptable twbal cosmetics. They were also very ' elpful and responded to criticism i n a lmitive manner. Beauty without Cruelty or instance are reassessing their plastic lackaging and investigating the use of ecycled paper for invoices, letters, order orms etc. Our prompt criticism and dvice on these matters did, we are sure, ncourage them to do this, one of (he mall benefits of working In the market3% ilace.

Earthcamco-op

stock ordering system. he^ both Akise the 'Simblex D' system. We have found that it works and is quite efficient A t first the whole book-keeping system seemed ponderous and complicated but we spread various jobs around,and after a few months it became easier. More importantly during difficult financial ' periods we were able to predict cash-fl-problemshnd see solutions. This heipe enormously when negotiating loans, overdrafts, etc., an important consideration for persons with as little financial experience as we hadThe day came when we opened the hop, which was fitted out with furnitur and wood that we had scrounged. Our stock was small, many of the things we ordered took months to arrive and the shelves seeme.d full of bog rolls and .duplicating paper. We opened our doors and

As the project came t o a close it wad evident that if we were to begin trading we should form aco-op. we feltthat as well as guaranteeing limited liability to individuals i n the event of a financial 'crashqt would also strengthen the cooperative spirit o f the venture. T~~~ was some talk of F ~ nuham E becoming a c~operativei n the same way Media Hype as FOE Birmi gham, but this foundered. Members not nvolved in Earthcare were Among the first customers were two wary of taking on any responsibility for rival TV crews both prompted by a us and so me whole idea was dropped friendly newspaper article. In the tiny after a series of lengthy discussions. We shoebox sized shop chaosreigned. The have, however, continued to support BBC man was hostile and unfriendly whi each other throughout the year. Having l W 3 e r e just the opposite. The Beeb decided to set u p on our own we took introduced uswith the old recycled bvg the easy path through the murk of coroll line (quote 'yuk') while ITV gave a operative tegisration by choosing the setious and sympathetic repott. Howeve~ ICOM 'package'. The Industrial . regardless of their attitudes the two Common Ownership Movement provide a w o r t s prompted hundreds of people wonderful service to all wdd-beto visit us which ptowd very lucrative. co-operators and guarantee immediate Three members of the co-op worked 1 .acceptance o f co-operative status iard bran - -^'.*\ in the shop while the four others, who ~ L F+ 1 % %through the Friendly Societies. We were already in jobs put in a great deal As we researched &â scraped together the required seven . of work in their spare time, miraculously t was of course necessary t o find actual . eeop memkrs and ~ ~co-opera ~ t h ~ though~with a great ~ without resentment nanufacturers of the products we needed. Ltd. was launched. deal o f energy. Weekly co-op meetings facton )ays were spent i n libraries combingtra?el. , Two were long and explosive at first but after pmica, %ideof organising the settingsix months and a few changes in personn iirectories for the addresses o f manufa- bra urersaInformation about the quality Of -up OFthe &op. Om was finance, the other we lmatured3. webegan to genuinely particular was scant therefore We were fortunate that at that co-opera&, though even-now heated nany as twenty manufacturers of that time FOEDurham were running asmall arguments occasionally take place. Much the tern had be contacted. trading business selling ' T shirts, recycled few eager months passedan. The fimrst iterature we were sentas a result of Our paper and books. It was decided that the now free from MSC we settled down, by the 'quiries was uninformative existing W m J d be handed over to restrictions, t o earn our crusts. Eventual,, nd of five months our files were bulging ~ ~and that~ FOE would t stoph ~ we became ~ ~ ~ reasonably astute at predicting catalogues of junk' vith glossy but trading. We had, therefore, about Â£30 cash flow 2nd buying the kind of stock &a The search for soap-ftakes alone beworth of stock. The founding members we had our first birthneeded. Recently athe a fifty-letter-twenty-phone-calldonated Â£2 each, so that our startine day. Hundreds of people have passed aga. The fact that there was so much capital came to about Â£500 through our doors, argued, chatted, beef ubbish being offloaded onto the consumenthusiastic and challenged'us. Our most r market did however reassure us of the immediate source of satisfaction is that ~dcks and ~ o o k s isefulness of our work as we slogged our customers have spanned alt age groq hrough the uncertain months of the By the time we had found suitable classes and cultures. We are still s ecowoject. Manufacturers were predictably premises we had already decided to logically committed as we were though oath to help with our job of Assessing extend the MSC project for three each day brings new paradoxes. Already heir products which made our appraisal month;.. This proved very useful in we have plans to expand, not the retail ~fgoods very difficult. The firm who helping to Pay rent, wages and everyday side of things particularly, but the infornanufac~re'simple soap' expenses, but it could net be used to buy T& bike work*c mation and 3kills iromised us a l i s t of ingredients but stock. We, therefore, took our Â£20cash. is flourishing an MSC project and h e n after six months these were not opened a bank account and ordered stock wy like to see more AT projects relate, orthcoming we decided not to sell it. om the assumption that we would gross to urban dwellers. on lst we ifteranumber of months we did form Â£20 per week which we would immedp,eted one year of independent trading i list of suppliers whose products we lately plough back. It worked. Most free from MSC or any other funding. We ccepted and whose trade terms were manufaCtufer~Were friendly and W e still &op-kepers & ~ b b i n arwnd g in avourable. These formed the basic a month's credit, whilst others asked for the market where the lock for the shop. cash with our first order and gave credit people are, Do it! During the term of the project we thereafter. We opened the shop with a George Endis $qbiished a kind of co-operative meagre stock, but with stacks o f informad tion and publicity. This article is a translation by me of the v Before we did^so, however, we talked artheare are at 33 Saddler St, Durham, County of carol, Jon, Tony, ~ . i l , ~ = t t torham, Tel. 0385 45837. For a list of 'approved to-the other'two retailing co-ops in Richard. Adrian, Caroline &d last but not Ã ~ppllers'send them a large s.a.8. Tom. Carol typed it. Durham about thek book-keeping and

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Because of its increasing triviality, everyday life has gradually become our central oreoccuoation (1). No Illusion, sacred or decons&ted 12). mllective or individual, can hide the povertyof our dailyactionsanv Inrwipr of life calls =-. 131. The ...-enrichment ~~.~~ -~ inexorably for the halysis of the new forms taken by poverty, and theperfection of the old weapons of refusal. ~~

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The Negativeand Its Use P.O. Box 6025 Berkeley, Ca 94705 I n the nihilist moment, all miseries previously experienced as separate (jobs, housing, sex-life, etc.) fuse into a slippery-yet-distinctunity Nothing satisfies; there's nothing tacto. nowhere togo. Every day bringsanother round of empty exchanges with people-objects HI which essentially nothing i s said. Sexual poverty casts its bruising shadow over all activity, in both itsquantitative aspect (horniness)and qualitative aspect (the sensations of watching yourself fucking, of who-is-this-stranger,of something-is-missing^of not really getting Off ). The landscape is full of ,/jar, ina general sense: billboards, churches, package labels, wrking meters. Evervthingi n sight Kerns stupid and pointless; people werywhere all act and look like jerks. There seems to be a new insult on every block, on averv TV show. And all of the above limitations are situated in the mrttext of enforced economic survival, of uworkingto live land with the accelerating rate of economic decomposition, it gets harder and lmrdu to find a vacancy on the treadmill). The 6lhilist fwf both the imootmio imposed bv the (toily humiliwimmand wnstreintsof the tpectadeof commoditiesand also the violent desire to strike back at this world of nonsense und bad noise.

Goodtime Publnations P.O. Box 3432 World WheelIRandom House 457 Hahn Rd. Westminster. Md 21157 or Whole Earth Since the rapprochement ten yearsago China has becomea surer and surer bet for the second-timeentreprerwur. Not a place to start, and not a place to move without expert advice and assistancefrom Chase Manhattan's Investment Services or other consultantsjust as good. With the right approach, facilities can be agreed upon with Peking managers covered by 86%investment grants, no taxation for the first seven years, and a regimented and ultrachmp workforce (40tlhour for men, 60d for women, 1% for children) that's likely t o stay that way for a long time. The fear of the Enemy (Russia) and worship of t dead God (Ma01 have kept the population relatively quiet over the last decade. I n my life there have been many ways in which I discovered that the Universe contains both

cats for mice) A other sentient belw and this has made me think. Peter White-Ears

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A prince being thusobligedto know well how to act as a b m n mult imitate the foxand4the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from , traps. and the fox cannot defend hire*" +""" " wolves. One must therefore bea fox t" recognise traps, and a lion to frighten Wolves. to onlv lions -~~ -~ ~- be .~ - do w* a . understand this~herefore,a prudent ruler ought not to keep faith when by doing so It would be agninst his interest, and when. tha reasons which made him bind himself no longer exist. If men wereall good, this orecer" -*old not be a good one; but as they are bad, end w u l d not observe their faith with you, w you are bound not t o keepfaith with them. Nor have legitimate groundt-evor failed a prince who writhed to show mlourable excuse for the non-fulfilment of his promise.

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PIRATE radio transmitters can be bought off the shelf like any other comurner good. David Gardiner reports on the Osbom 'Superbug', a low power FM transmitter. YOU nuy have noticed numerous small Kb in the Radio Equipment section of E~tchmgeand Mart offering various types of radio 'bugs', unlicencable transmitters, and books about how to build them. One of the best known, London purveyors of off-the-peg piracy equipment is Osborn Electronics 9-1,l Kemington High St, W8 5NP null order) and 5 Vicarage Parade, West Green Rd, N15 3BL (counter sales) tet 01-889 7858). Among the items this company markets are a 4.0 K 2.5 x 1.5 cm FM 'bug' with a 300 mW output (Â£16.50) a 15 w (12v) FM broadcast transmitter (Â£42.50 and a 10 w transistor MW transmitter (Â£22.5 - requires a 24v supply).

Superbug AS Iwas recently asked to kt up ope of their products for someone (the 'Superbug' 1.8 W FM transmitter costing Â£14.50 Ithought I would take the opportunity to examine it and report to Unde-fits readers on its virtues and shortcomings. The 'Superbug' is a three transjstor unit built a printed circuit board 9,3 x 3.7 cm. (Fig 1) and housed in a metal box 10 x'6 A 4cm, with sockets for aerial fco-ax). audio (min. iackl and battery leads ( P P type ~ studs). he circuit actually traced out by examining the unit (below) differs considerably from the diagram supplied with it (which omits VR1 and gives different values for many of the components as well as listing different transistor types: BC107 (Tr I), 2N3866 (Tr2) and 2N3553 (Tr 3). This suggests fairly wide prodyction tolerances, and use of surplus components as available, so large vauadons between individual specimens would not be surprising. The unit as supplied had one unsoldered joint (in die audio socket, rendering it mute!) but was generally well constructed and sturdy, and bearing in mind the economics of small-scale electronics . production the purchase price does not seem excessive.

~ o o Points d Readings with a thermocouple meter indicatedan RF output of slightly more

than 1 W, when drawing 190 mA at 12V, which was judged quite satisfactory. Modulation qualit) was good, with sufficient gain fortdirtct connection of a , , dynamic microphone. Use from a cassette recorder 'monitor' or 'output' socket required a 500 k-1M series resistor to prevent overload! Convenience must rate as one of the unit's biggest advantt ages. for it comes ready-built and needs only power, aerial andmicrophone, plus a little care in setting up, as explained below.

Difficulties The unit is rather more difficult to set up correctly than Osborn's brochure , implies. Tr 2 operates on a frequency of , about 47 MHz as oscillator/driver, with Tr 3 as doubler/PA. While it is severely out of adjustment (which is the condition in which it was supplied) a large number of harmonics are radiated up and down the FM band and great care is needed in selecting the correct one for amplification

"'false' carriers can still be heard, 5. Connect the aerial instead of the bulb and readjust C72 slightly for peak RF output, as measured on a small RF wave meter. If the wave meter if hot available the supply current to the unit may be monitored and asmall dip noted when f32 is brought to resonance. Although the unit is potentially more stable than those published in Undercurrents 7, 23 and 24itjs unusually sensitive to changes in supply voltage. A three volt increase (from 9 to 12V) altered the radbted frequency almost 1.5 MHz. Thismight not matter if the unit is used at a fixed location from a mains power unit, but when operated (for example) in a car, where the supply voltage normally varies between about 11 , and 16V. it becomes a major problem. The absolute minimum voltage stabilisation which can be used in this situation ,.is a 1000 mF capacitor across the supply rails and a 10 ohm resistor in $vies with the positive supply lead. As a rough guide to range, with the 'unit loaded into an efficient groundplane aerial (see UC32), the signal was weak but cle'ar On a domestic receiver two miles away in line of vision. It is hoped to review some of the other Osborn units in future editions of Undercurrents. David G a r d i i

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material and to work colletively,ft$m a dece'ntralised.base, is f i n d e d , ~ ,. .,. . ' ' principles that toall appearances ';'; compatible-with.anyantl-nuclearand . alternative m a v e ~ n t s ; . ~ o ~ r . t h ~ ' :principles upheld by wonwin specifitally implya second set of commltmebts,~~::. . from men. We demand profound changes of individual men as well as patriarchal institutions. We are. working to undermine male power in all i t s forms.. Some f ts of women's oppression are made clear% our relationship to nuclear '

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optn~$is.,anath&4a in the kie'ntific ~ f l Identered, where emotional , dishonestyis blatant under guises o f . regon, objectivity indabstractions, : andwhere the social reasons for doing science are lost among the emotional .needs.of.westernmen t o achieve, perform andacquire status in the ayes of .:their,own. six." (2) , . Feminists in the anti-nuclear move ment who are accused o f being divisive . 'inOur efforts to organise autonomously ,a d Wm,&.we 'alienate',men and hurt mbh, would like t o point out that women are ritually hurt and alienated ! bypatriarchalsociety and that men can &ekt+ely divisive &.they manipulate, ' 'dominate and interrupt meetings. No, we arenot divisive but yes,we are a. ' t h r e a t ! We cannot work alongside men 'whbqe not willing t o make the second &t ofeommiqeftts. men who will not , >:attempt t o r i d themselves of their sexism, ',' Inherited from* Patriarchy and enforc''. d by Capitalism. How can Feminists . believe thatmen tn the anti-nuclear and alternative movements are fighting with the same vision forth? future when their outrage at the loss of civil liberties nuclear state brings, reflects , 'thatthe . , groa'unawaten@ss and insensitivity to womenas'many of those lost rights >"'hfaÃˆ belonged to women: >~ ~ . .. 1 . '!Fraser (Australian MP) has just called out the armv for security to safe- guard the r i g h t safely ~ w i k the streets! He.is protecting politiciarig ;When hasit ever been safe for women t o walk the streets,to stay at home .WUhout k i n g attackedby a stranger . or a husband?' (3) <. -. , ~btibertiesthatmen enjoy everyday shouldbegiyen to all people. Perhaps. the threatof nuclear power is the first "PTIOOalaffront that white middle class &have. ~ We ' demand i that they take ' intoaccount.women's and their role i n it; 10 that they might f u H ~ . u*mtand the iwJimtiO"s WOW' ' feeling personally threatened allthe time. .:, ,,.,,,,4. ,,<.. <.. . ,. 6 .

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.,.. A T x m restore therelatiohship ' 7 between H o e and Production and , reduce the sexual division o f labour to a minimum. Butthese,changes and t'eadjustments won'tjust happen naturally after ' P e Melt-Qown'. It is the way weorganise now fif the future that will determine our relationships i n the future. It is not the structural form of an Affinity. Group (the organisational unit being chosen by many i n the antinuclear movement who are committed Nonviolent Direct Action) that Pro.Mdes a greater democrwy than chical structures. It is the personal ENVY, ambition and greed have led f commitment made by each person in Brazilian junta to build their first mke 6 ~ ~ r ~ ~ ~ L ~ & ~ ~ ! $ bog ~ i ~n an~earthquake ~ $ e zone; s sthe concrete trusses that keep it from sliding into the oppressive method of organisation: are crumbling even before it oes into sei How very different (we hope) from the tl "Before there can be democratic life of our own dear UKAEA! A report f organisation there must first be a our man in Rio. . democratic mentality - a way of thinking about the relations among men which stressesequality o f THE COMING of a freer press in Bm being and which strives incessantly uncovered a series of scandals about the toward the widestpossible sharing nuclear reactors and power station bein o f responsibility and participation built near Angra. Angra, for a start, is in the common life." (4) midway between the three great popula.. tion centres; Rio, Sao Paulo and Belo A totally liberated non-nuclear society Horizonte. From the safety paint o f vie) depends on the willingness to support this is putting all your hens within reach oppressed peoples' liberation now, as of one expensive basket. Angra is also or much as upon the efforts we are makor near (there is dispute) a geological ing to wield the power o f a broad based fault, and is i n an area'liable to earth movement against the state. tremors. The terrain is unsuitable for Men working towards a non-nuclear building, and caused the power station, society need tolisten to women, t o at an early stage, to start sliding towards work on their own sexism and to'offer the sea. The company building the cornpractical support to women. I t is.crucia1 plex is inexperienced and incompetent that women'sattempts to develop a (it is alleged that bribes and favourtism S~ecificallyfeminist analysis is of ~. controlled (he giving o f the contracts); tl nuclear power,. that our organisations - . protective walls, once built, are not, and our actions are considered fu according t o German standards, proof mental in the struggle agains against aircraft shock. Finally, 71fires nuclear nightmare, because ' were registered in 5 months, and this is nuclearsoc~etywould not on an oppresion of before the thing starts operating. experience, but it &&/ow the p&ibi//ty, of any A Congress committee began investiga ing these choice problems, along with De smial ^y, would uccompany qttainp.nt of the feminist . .Spiegel's allegations of embezzlement ant fraud, but Congress has now gone on hol goals of self-determldattoq and liberaday, and it looks more and more as if, tion for all. " (6) behind the scenes, whitewash brushes ait , Sheryl Crown being handed around. A new President has just been what the Brazilians delight*: fully call 'indirectly elected' (he wascha ~ " H E F ~ R E N C E,'~ by the outgoing President, and the party 1. ~ & m a r y Redford Ruether. New Woman, whtch opposes him received the mostvoi . ~ e Ewa d am communications ~ t y . in the actual election) and anxiety is ~ t d 1975 . ,centred on his ministers who, beingthe 2. Ms. J. Grow: Why a Woman left Science; same people as have held jobs for the pas Mw Scientist 26 Jan 1978. 15 years, may or may not fulfil promises 3. Roslvn Livingston;Chain Rfaction of 'redemocratisation', 'fairer sharingof Vol. 3 No. 4. , the cake' and so on. 4. John H. Scharr. Equality of Opportunity So, while the cast is having its breathe and Bwond; Contenwofwy Political the story to date i s as follows. 77ÃˆOrV eds Crespiany and Wertheimer ,

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Crucial t o a Feminist perspectiveif the ideathat the way wework, our +MS, not d i y reflect but determine our end, In our efforts at social change wehbed toincorporate new systems of 'Organisation thatclosely approxiinate nir desired society: The Women's M&ment overthe' past few years has led the way in-creatingdemocratic, flexible methods o f organisatton: work< ing in m a l l groups; the rotation o f the &s<*f.chair, treasurer etc; taking into &?m!ntthe Vital rolethat teelings play 'in.@fluencihg our decisions and actions; the concepts of self-help and education groups and.of collective childcare and income sharing. The Alternative and anti-nuclear movements are also using of t h e methods now but I k'tend that ft is not new structures alone 'Wt will eliminate ,,old oppressive rela. . .?,?"*ifi. . ,. '

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5. Z w Sofulis; Progress, Patr;archs and Nuclearpower; In Chain Reaction Vol. 3 No. 4. .

This article could not have been written without the previous work of the women writers of Chein Rextion Vol. 3 No. 4 (Australia), Undercwrentt 29, Shrew and Feminism and Nonviolence Summer '78: Many thank. ,

Planning Planning was done by government departments: there was no consultation c the national scientific community, q d ni or political discussion o f theissue! !Ipublic involved. Motives seem to have been thre~ fold: one, the perennial Brazilian desire t Iget anything novel that Big Western brotl Ihave (so the country is littered with corn-

Undercurrents34 !

report found not only that the fault ran under the nuclear building but that Weston's report was grossly inaccurate and shoddy even to the extent o f using an incorrect basic formula (coefficient o f Poisson) for the calculation of Angra 1's foundations, f t was now stated that Weston had called the Angra area's* mically stable' (wrongly). Moreover it was Weston's report that had led t o the supports being driven into two varied types o f terrain, and even into the fault sao Luis do Paraitmuitself. Angra's subsoil is'very heterogeneou! yet 2 tests by Weston are supposed to, have given similar results - which would be impossible i n this area. A comparison was drawn by the reporter with Indian Point, a nuclear station built near New York and less than a mile from ageological fault. This fault was. . said t o be 'inactive', but two seismologists at Columbia University showed that 12 The NatiÃ§idadoan Bairro Alto fault zones both run near the Angm dqs RÃ§inuclear (if,which movements had occurred i n the last 16 is clow to Bruil's b i g o t cltim, SK> Paulo and Rio de ~aheiro. years: they added that, in its 40 years of puters, while millions are unemployed and While Angra 1, the first nuclearstation, life, the station had a 5 to 11 permtehani was actually being built, cracks were suhemployed and are available as cheap o f being affected by tremorsgreater than observed in it. It was found that the ground it was planned to withstand. labour); two,t he sheer greed 6f several under the reactor is sliding towards the ministers, whose families are involved i n sea. The whole complex had been built on the contracts; and three, the ambitions of N ~ & ~ ~ this (as any) military government, which unstable rock whose base was sand and bog. Evil-id the smallest details, incnnpelikes the sound of atomic power. A huge concrete wall had to be sunk, tence i s seen. The proximity Ã the seaThere is, of course, no way, of preventing and vast supports of concrete driven down t03ave been intended to offer easy water 'peaceful uses' becoming warlike producto try and keep the nudear station in access for cooling by the genius who &ted tion, and the Brazilian goverDment has position. But even t h i s hasty, and costly, the complex; yet the sea is the wrong already stated-that it'regards itself as adjustment was bungled. sovereign to decid6about having nuclear Hochtief, the German cons~ltants,were temperature, and its use has caused rust All the cooling pipes have had to be weapois. Details and options of-the nuclear found by nosy newspapermen t o have programme being (abetted Secret were , stated that 15 of the 100 necessary supports replaced because'of this, a ~ I driver.water brought in. This rust may also have never given to the press. English readers t o Angra 2 were not up to specifications; wilt rqcognise this government method, x& a mane detailed report by the American been due to other pollution: according to the president of the Nuclear C O U W ~ ~ which avoids discussion of dubious and - blAppolonia Consulting Engineers (again Angra 1 will haw to be 'washed' before far-reaching decision upti! It iS'to0 la* to leaked to the press)condemned 46 of the it begins operation, as worker (from change them. English readers, ho&v~,' 372 supports put in as unsafe. the backward and poor North) urinate cannot imagine the casual ignorance i n ~rt~,q,,rfeec here and there over it. which such decisions may be taken i n this Worse was to come. Folha de Sao Paulo, professor ~~i~ pjnzuej[i R~ of the country.^ with Esrado de Sao Paulo, the most active h a dsOp^nted Brailia,, p(,y,;cs newspaper in digging up these facts, unearth- out that the thickness of the scandal 1: CanFacts ed reports which yielded evenmore basic - 60cfintrimetres is containing insecurity. First, it was found that Angra This scandal emcerned thÃ -.^rding of reactnri, while haif that of the nuclear station sonifact $0Norberto ; . i s in an area subject to earthquakes, has mis Q~~~~~ insists on 1.8 two geological faults nearby, and had alOdebrechtCo., withoutapy other firm = on mans that an aeroplane having tendered, or been iBvltsd to tender,' %:ready had four quakes, the last two in 1962 the fAnera ison aflightpath 'and 1967, centred less than 25 kilometres Odebrecht's profits rose from T-5 million airpor+woultfcadse a nuclear cruzeiros in 1973 to 330 million in T977 - from the site o f the reactors. Weston Geozcident. physical Inc. had included this liability to a 1,200% increase, due to the nuclear conearthquake in a report to the Brazilian tract. They had no previous nuclear experFires government, but the Brazilian government ience, and i n fact the Chief of Works at There appears t o be no security at had taken no notice. Earthquakes (it is Angra wrote in 1976 that they had shown Angra, either; 71 fires were registered pointed out by independent scientists) neither technical nor financial capacity, between 13 June and 7 November,. , have become even more likely since the and proposed the contract, had shown 1977, and i n fighting one, 30 B r a z l l l ~ s construction.nearby of hydroelectric cornneither technical nor financial capacity, Were contaminated with radioactive plexes (Paraitinga and Paraibuna) whose and proposed the Contract, even at that material. This is beforeithe pfant starts dams have already caused tremors ('76, stage, should be'resfcIn,&d. There was a to work. '77, and '78) news of which was suppressprocession of Q d e h ~ c hmanagers t All this adds up to a mass of risksed by the Brazilian government. , *e unable to cope, and dCerman firm was blithely ignored. Readersshould rememcontracted to help. Even so - and this is :+,,2 $>>\ + . her that Brazil is a military dictatorship ^ the most extraordinary thing - they 'won' - Scientific Fraud Then, most incredibleof all, it was with liberal trimmings, and that elections the contracts for Angra 2 and 3 by 'extenand liberalizations commonly occur to realised, through detailed corr,parison, that sion' - a legal device used to add small - the national Electricity Corporation had coincide with the changing of the PWiitems to an existing contract - again (of dent who, once i n office, invokes rhe deliberately rubbed out the end o f one course) without public competition.. It appalling economic situation (over geological fault from the local map given goes without saying that Odebrecht is 50% inflation per year), avast national t o Weston to comment on. This fault i n run by the family of the Minister of debt) and the 'abuses' o f his opponents fact carries on into the sea next to the Industry and Commerce. to crack down again, and use the police actual power station. This gives the reader an idea o f the and the army police with their routine A committee o f Brazilian geologists seriousness with which nuclear contracts of torture and censorship. and geonhysicists examining the Weston i r e reearded in Brazil.

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iU#gal.3ill, now that the Tory Radicals have.ousted th'e Labour Conservatives, there are bound to be differences in style. To find what our now masters have in store, Geoff Wright talked to a Tory backbanchtr, Ian Lloyd. He's wen the future, and it's workerless.

. . . . They a villqe'which has been IAN~LLOYD MP w s the Vice Chairman of fe~people.on ~tit al.1. A couple o+chaps the &mmons8Select Committee on Science bui!t e v e ~ i a to l l ~See what effect fibre. inwhiw coats went around when a W C w h e 0 the a and o m wid Technology in the last ParTHlment. light had gone from green to red, and munications life of a small urban centre. You'veprobably never heard of him. I made adjustments or reloaded the casThey are spending very large sums o f certainly hadn't until I heard him speak settes or whatever it was, and went awa~ putting in the sYs@ms* pulling . . - md satdown at their desks. ?t *e Phntting for Automation conference them Out if they and testing at the Sbuth Bank Poly~injanuay. There AI~ the employment inthat factory reaction he -one o f the fewpeople to say a n y public them. As far as IknOw was on the top twofloors where the thingpositive about the Second Industrial this is hw~enine anvwhere in designers were busy working. T ~ wem ~ R the worldRevolution; he went beyond the usual plenty of them. Software operators, Every time one visits Japan one appre- production designers of one sort or , evasion and rhetoric we've come to exciates that they are very well advised in oect from politicians of all parties. another There wereabout two or three these things. They we just 1 weqt to see him in his office In the . hundr?d of them. onhe floors where Ă&#x201A;ÂĽ3ty He has travelledextensively andis Europe or the United States but are doing the sM wz actually made, three or four a lot of original thihking and are becomhewn as being almost an expert on ing quite imovative in their approach to . floors below only half a dozen wople h a t thejap~eseare doing. We began ,on each +o ,os; And the way information technology. . iy talking about the japanese approach are going. 0 Information technology: &off Wright: I saw an article which showentire social class is c o. ..~ n g ed that the Japanese Ministry of Industry . k,-,in t~ i y d : will prove to be redundant? is designing a metal working factory. he industrial strength o f Japan,, justas Absolutely in the production tee1 was to the major economies of the Yes. I find this less disturbing than some section at all. :9th Century. This most significant people because I have always thought, udgement was made in 1971 by the' Well, one of the fa'ctories we visited in ;. 'from the earliest times I have been making apanese. Iwent back there about 18 1977 was called Fujitsu Fanuc. They judgements in this field, that it is nota,, nonths ago, with the Select Committee, were producing highly automated machine natural thing for a human being to have. wking at high technology industries, to spend 40 hours a week i n an uncontools by highly automateri machine tools. lot specifically information technology, genial environment on a concrete floor, . This was a seven storey factory, a very n d i t was evident that they were moving modern building, just outside Tokyo. i n front of a hot piece o f metat, or a ipidly. right across this front and were What was evident when you went round whirling piece o f metal, cutting o r m d t ; pending a greatdeal o f money. pulating it ,, . it was that theproduction floor had very . . . . .~ .. . . . fv. . .', . . '1 ', . . ~. IB.,''.;.: :.: .,., ^.;',',.:,;,'./. .' . i.. . '

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Speakingas a factory worker, 'with you# ,'

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netic thing will not be changed at all. If you predict that something i s going t o happen, and this has economic and political consequences, all those who are affected will react. So the situation that was predicted will have changed by the time you get there. The outcome will not be what anybody predicted. Ican't really see this being changed in the foreseeable future.

1 visited several automobile factories in Europe. One of our lines of enquiry at the moment is small engine technology. \ The thing that struck me when I went round the Volkswagen and Mercedes plants, was that although there was a lot of labour still employed, most of that labour was fairly obviously on the last What is your position on alternative indusstages o f non-automation. For whatever tries? I'm thinking especially of Winchester reason, whether it was the economics o f Mews, i n North London. There a printdesigning a machine that would do a ing, carpentry, and recording businesses rather difficult and complicated thing were set up by personal initiative. The simply didn't justify replacing labour at whole thing was squashed by Camden that point or not, it was nonetheless council. evident @at this was the next stage. All human beings were doing was feedThe Winchester Mews case is very interesting material into a machine which cut, ing. I'm all for the encouragement of welded, or shaped it. All that which 15 grodth points: you can encourage indivor 20 years agao was being done by human iduals who see market and technological beings is now being done by machine. This opportunities the better.. and ifi t is an inevitable process, there i s nothing means starting in a shed or warehouse one can do to stop it, as automation makes out the back of the house by all means each more complex phase of manipulation do it. We've got to stop the extent to something which a machine can do better which our vast superstructure of planthan a human being. Setting aside all the ning inhibitions prevents people getting political and economic problems of making things off the ground. I want to see the transition, which are enormous, the several Route 128s developing in human race really ought to be rather grate- Eurbpe where imaginative people can ful to itself for eliminating this ghastly do what they want t o do with as much drudgery. encouragement and support as possible. Do you think governments have attempted to control too much i n recent years?

Iwish that point o f view was shared by councils like Camden.

Yes, undoubtedly. Human beings are al.ways underestimating the complexity of human life and the complexity o f government. If you look at the economic system that human beings operate then you'retalking about the possible interactions of several million decision makers every day, all reacting i n a cybernetic way. Although you do get perceptible trends and certain causes do result in predictable sets of effects, within limits, my own view is that man will never escape from the dilemma that he lives i m the nozzle o f a sort of venturi of knowledge and experience. Looking backwards, the further you go, the greater uncertainty. Looking forwards, trying to predict, you always have the fact that humans are reacting to what others are predicting. The idea of getting on top of this by what people call planning, and so controlling human life so you can predict exactly who is going to buy what, invest what, in any society, I've always regarded as inherently impossible. Therefore you are always dealing with probability, uncertainty, and risk. What I think the computer and information techhology will do i s t o enable us to narrow that venturi in the short run. I t may also enable us to narrow i t over @me speptra of uncertainty in the longer run. We can put more information in, we can procpcs it more effectively, we can do more complex analyses. . . We have virtual memory, zero cost computing, which we didn't have 10 or 15 years ago. ~ v e r y b o dwill ~ have the no-cost memory, everybody also knows how it will be a Ie to do the analyst< Therefore, t h e c y b i -

Well, councils like Camden have themselves got to realise the sort of world into which we are moving. If they have the interests of the population of their areas at heart they will encourage and not discourage this sort of thing. It is the only way if there i s no conventional factory employment i n 15 years time large numbers of human beings will be actively, profitably, (and to themselves) psychologically satisfactorily occupied. I don't really see a satisfactory future if we say to everybody who would have been a factory worker, 'we haven't got a job for you, here's Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ10a week to go off and play golf or sail a boat.' I don't think human beings are made that way. Professor Stonier, of Bradford University, has said that in the 1990's only 10% of the present workforce will be able to supply all agricultural and industrial goods and services. He thinks that people should have their own robots to produce goods for themselves and to sell. What do you think?

If I am not mistaken, those figures have already been reached in the United States. The actual hardware oriental employment in the States is now less than 10%. It has fallen dramatically i n the last 10-15 years. (Mr Lloyd's reply does not take into account forthcoming office automation. Idon1* think he fully appreciates Prof. Stonier's analysis. G.W.) Do you think that every citizen should have the right t o social, political, and

economic informatiw .rough a National Informsf Grid?

A National 1r:ormation Grid? I think that will develop anyway. It will be national, not in the sense of being nationalised, but in the sense that any intelligent person, student, journalist, or whatever, who needs t o acquire specific information, will very soon be able to go to a telephone in their own house and dial and say 'I want.. .'. They will then be presented with a branching system down which they can go to find it. I think this is going to have an immense effect on the distribution of power in the community, a point which I think very fet political people appreciate at the moment A recent experiment i n television voting was carried out in the USA. People were asked t o vote on public issues via a hook-u through their television sets. What do you think of this idea? Do you think it could become a political issue? Could democracy be improved and extended by electronic means? When you arc talking about the process of consultation to take over a typically difficult and politically controversial technology such as the decision to process plutonium and to have a nuclear energy based society, I would say, at the moment there are probably 2 or 3% at the moskof the people i n this country obviously takin an active interest That 2 or 3% i s probablt led by several hundred intellectuals, not more, who read the material, who make judgements about it, and develop strong views, which they then propagate through the media. If you say we are going to recreate the Agora of Athens on the question of wheth er Britain should be a nuclear society riprocessing for fast breeder reactors and W( say Parliament is notgoing todecide it, we shall have a specific referendum after a 4 weeks campaign on television. Possible Would it produce the right decision? I don't know. We've got to look at these problems realistically. It's easy to get carried away by 'one-man, one-votism' where you confuse a mechanism with the desired result, which is good government by consent. The mechanism is occasionally a voting process, b r something else. Will the recreation of the Agora achieve this? The answe ismaybe yes, yes butslowly, or yes in certain areas consulting certain people. Tony $enn has come out in favour of instant referenda. Yes, well the populists, and Tony Benn i s a populist, I believe he's a convinced popu list and I don't denigrate him for that, populism has always been a very tempting political philosophy, it tends to appeal to the largest number o f people. If you are a populist you say i f it can be done, do it.. You then justify i t by saying 'Of course I trust the people, the people are wiser than the experts and will always show shrewd instinctive judgement when the experts ge i t wrong If you believe that on all issues, at all times, then you must be a populist. I don'

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belie* it all issviesat times. although fl , , . essentially a de. "icrat, and i believeon some issues, on some occasions, the people arc wiser than those who govern ' them. ' . . . < , We then w + i o ~ t o ' & c u s ~ p & t i c s ~ n the . . . . , ~. .~... .., .. ... ,... .. . . , . a, .r:. ~ . , USA. Mr Lloyd felt-thaf,+e~ocmcy in . .. .~ : - :. . . . . ,.. .. - ~.. . .., 1.. . California had advanced beyond 'our limit. . . " . . . , , . .-. &once every3 years democracy ': Voters 'EVERYWHERE I 1ookad.lfound evid&ceto&nfi~myth6ory":a . in Caiifornia can, vote on'p~positions' common'experience for anyone who.takesu~.an~idea;.howeverwiM. which jfpafsed are bin&gon the/eg/staWhy? The answer, according toJc&l f@cfiell, i s quipgimple: y ~ y s t ture. ~ rLloyd . c ~ v i f bea f pqJB/b/e back what we project; we are all,individually and-&llectiiely, misppuble future devel+flt~/p;8r/.tain. :', ;:':: .' . ... . . . ~ . .: .' .'<..>~<..:\*$.-. ,. ,. for the world a* it really is. \~ : ,.,-:. .. . ,?Yj~ ..y,, . I think ~~ie;~o(ii6jg,tflwards a state , .,. . :;, .:: ,!?. .., . :< , '. . . . . ., ,. where, w i t h ~ 6 g & t t i o f information tech. ,. ...~. . . . *,.. .. . ,,... -.. THE aspect 6f t h e ' (asignificanttih m th&.&ntext)writes~ n.ology,, i f it~asifclt'd.csirable, there is no universe of H c h We are part is i t s h a b i t . :,. K p y .dimrig.his researches 'Ifttp of, reason why we-shouldn't do it on many o f reflectingback ideas projected ontoit, , itsfgreffhfor~toti~aveturned up issues onmany occasions. If you feel it . 'ofseemingt o prwide positive evidence ,:i;L?WÂ¥t apibmptitude that makes me feet would'imprbve the quatity of human life" . - ,&occasion, d e n I and government, then you do it. M y own , fok any theory that can pofsibly be formti- ~ ' $ ~ k ~ u s . ,On lated. This feedback effect, is something ' ., :y~sea&ngfor.apiece o f ttrfonivition, approach wouldbe cautious, but positive. which everyone can test. for themselves. ,;, a , ~ & . & e r a l / ~ f e / f o fthe f shelf dnd if yro got a very important national dwi-: Take the wildest idea Imaginable, commit , sionwrong, and produced adisaster, i t , f e l l . o j x ~ f ' @ ' ~ , r i g h t ~ a g.,: e.' yourself to believingit; become obsessed . 'Anotherexcellentexample comes.. , would set thecause back a long way, and with it, and you'll i c o n fihd all kindsof i n the first ~ o l u m eo f Solzhefiitzln's w e don'twant, todo that.,:,, :-,.r..:,y.:.,!;., ,. . evidence turning upas confirmation of it. Gulag 'A@./fif/ago, :The astronomer M ~uoyd . f&&ees,a futurein .which. . ;' John Keel in his most interesting book, Kozayev whflyaf'irflprisbned with him information technology will be ofover~ p eTroja~n Horse, ~ ~shows i with ~ ~ in t h ~ ~ ~ ' i t desperately ~ ~ f i ~, , ' 'whelming importance. There is a potential- .mny examples writers on a nee f&m ed some'~c+p[6al of phy$(s-\ntiicb information he was workfor ly vast market for selling @forma tlon. including himself, and those who develop Sincethe most a.@v@cedinformationi s i n ^ a mi,.d or in the, ing out i n his h$a&;~$&doks were theE ' ngsil h,.?@eakn ig Gbj&.t,may get led into experiences with available except the ,ip.ps of have anadvamsgerHe.cited strangecreatures andrbmarkable,reveQparty propaganda in @e.:p.cy@@j,l-ibrafy. of Hang K+gfirovWftga gmmunlcauons t i o n ~ , ~ f t eending n up in delusion or mad. Kozay+v prayed intensely for$dp.~ ~ l f interface When the . .ess.This same risk is notoriouslyinherent . an hour later the library came rqbmnd to barriers c a ~ . . d o wHong i K w g Wld in all occult studies. I f o n e i s studying a /changethe books and the volume they issued him wasThe :Thewy.ofAstro-phy,become . the :of subject intensely, partidularly if writing . C . , h. .i . ,n . a : . . sicscontaining thewry ,tablÃ‡slf&:fleedori about it, ideason that subject from u+ we $;h?e;ot. sell;to~,&g<e~not . ..,.,~ Pen or paper was #lowed, so hi known sources flood into the mind, and , .'thought,~ecessarybef~~, a m of change ' memorized them before the :"whichwe have.ne$er.expeiienced before, , Phenomena connected with it m y even : " , quickly mistakewas discovered arid the book. . intrude into as . , . ~ h ~ j ~ a ~. ~ ~ one'slife, ~ ~ the.,Rayen'qf ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ l ~ :<~; ';,,+,, , :- ~ Edgar Alien Pm intruded uponthe , . mid- ' . confiscated, ";: : .oilmy decision thatthey won't be build..:ing&ipSby the endofthe century. That night.sch*ar.. ... Anodd story,~alm@t.i#kr~dibli' yet of thefeedback effect . read Strindberg's Infern0 for a recordof noth her . takeisome reactingt0.A very. intelligent Cfeative coincidenceshe invoked during is the , .de~sion,,i~~my view. ~ h ~ ~ l-what ~ & ~ ~ i dtendency of scientificexperi&rtts t o b n t 3 m the theorybeing tested. The ' : -.h,nsubterranean$eti.~das a lonely, imshoirtd'hoa"be doing at the end, ofthe Peat Charles Fort gave several hunjorous,, ..poverishe$$khemistin Paris -- during the ., . t w , t u w y ~ e answeris japan be . , instances of the same experiment yielding'. ,1800s;:::;-:; ..~ : . -r--. - ..-. 'i#ing.irifqrmaticy: .. .. .. . ,,.': ,: '.i,: . -.$ . .: twodifferent results, each one gratifying b@..itis t f m to sum:up:or to tell . .'+hintof .,. t h i s ~ o ~ s o u t o f current th~ ' y.ou.VhitI w a s tal)(mg about.It was abou theexperimenter; and he declared that :. . y i ? ~political l debate. ,, anyone who climbs a mountain, be it Moon* the herojetic;quality ??the universe,the . . . , . . :. .!.. -;~ . , . ... : ~ . . . s .' Ararat or.Flke's Peak, in search o f no ah"^: w a y k w i l l respon$.to.desir$s implanted ~ o , . w k l t A ~ d ~ n 1 t . : ta?bl~~u~i ~c uh ~e r & & Ark, is bound.mqnd som+fiing whih,, .,,: . i n i t and rkfl,wt ,back images projected national politic?),debate, l"mver$.di~ncan be said to be a relic of the Ark, petriit. Thjs impliftfthatwe are all, M i v :Banted,ui,th it; IImi.stn'th too scathing fied-pjsrhaps. The universe is so generous,:;;. .; ~aully.an@eolleclivel responsible for '^tit mypoiiticat'cOileaguesr'on ithat it gives to anyone, crank, scientistor worl d as itreally.ib, which i s how wf sides, not i,~stmyparty..But they are.con- ei,gious believer, me which ,. .egpe~ignce .icIn-terms ofobjective fact c e r p d iyi.~.theiminediate perceptions p^alar belief or there' is little t o ctioo,~ between any c w , of t h e ~ m m ~ d i a @ ; ~ r ~ t ) ~ ~power, ,msof The reference G f a f has beentoth<, . . .mology,;pai$j~nal fif.sgefitific. Yetwe . with the,+x:fisp.tian .@'the long-range tendencies inthe universal fed-. getback what weproject. Evidently there .'Â¥problemsofanew-distribution o f power: delusory eff,fl come to interesting; fore it i$,to ourad&tage,to.regard this 'L5ave~that-to.the.{textlotofpoliticians. part, the way in, the effect can be . . best o f ~ l p ~ s s i b l ~ ~ ~ ~ e w fascinat;this , A l l I'm.<oic~-nedwith Is acquiring p o w e r used creatively. study a subject, allow it . . ingorganism of wh~hj$je ,af<part, with andboldhq o n t o ' i t - ~ wAnd i what to obsess you, askquestions O f it, M d n e x t a t h e.most highmiffidgd..expectation*i n the happens toddy,..yhom /Â canpersuade time you visit a library, a bookstore or.a, '~?kno~ledge,thata$~<i'magine thisv.'orld ,..tomorrow,what.the. voters.@// think the' friend'$ house, yo,u may pick up the one 5 ; .andour il;Ãˆo'iwill day offerto&o@owi Â¥That:s.a/that r e a l t y ^ k . i " th w , , ~ J ~ , ~ wgives be uw . . becorn+,., . , :, . ,., . ~,: concerns me because I'm.o&rwfj~a/, . you were,,ook.ing for, Coincidences canb e ~,!: .: . ., .. JohnMiche ,. ' .; ~ ~ t ' i c i a n ~ ~ ~ ~ra<;Q,oB ' i s -. t h.6fe the ., .. . .,. - .. ...~. .- . ... invoked., :.. politician today:. ,. '.;; ; . : . , .' : ~ : 1have asked many writers about this,, &as John ~ i c h e Five ~ s Minute Addm If weare t o m thevastpotential and nearlyatl of then) were able t o give . . to last summer's Whole EarthJn-nborwin the human race is c~ating:foritself, then striking personal examplesof being help; . . qifocni! organid by the C+v~lu.tion.falk.. we shall have tobecome more of an Cd by this useful aspect of the feedback 30,' It cQ, ^?r'nmd as we should had pid InQIMnwfyHoi 06 32$1 'initiating system, and less of a reacting effect which Arthur Kmstler attributes & HwK Free &@ distributed in thiscountry svkteig. , to 'libraryangels'.-Colin Wilson i n the .' BCM Box 311, London WC1; tolo1969 Geoff Wright A singb copy is Â£from ComptndkimBook~ introduction tohis book The Occult, -

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ALES wuld talk, would wewndwstand them?' Not only are they n us, they may be brighter as well; they are certainly better Maved. Bill Hall argues it's time we stopped killing our cetacean cousins and started talking to them, by Dr. K. Morris studying wild dolphins in ~ a w a i i t h athey t are capable of a sort of 'mind-reading' in that dolphins are the third of this planet that is dry l a d . capable of reading emotions in the air Certainly in terms of numbers they are pretty successful and possibly in intelligence spaces inside each other's heads. So will whale and Man ever talk t o andaocial concern. But what of the two each other? the prospect'would appear to thirds that is covered by water? For some thirty million years cetaceans - be bizarre not t o say impossible. But Dr. John Lilly, author o f Mind of the Dolphin whales anddolphins - since descending - a nonhuman Intelligence, firemly from ancestral land mammals, have been believes that research into communication the most successful areatures in their with cetaceans is no longer simply a environment a*fegirds size, intelligence, scientific pursuit but a necessity in order communication, social awareness and for humans toexchange information at altruism. And because of the totally differhigh level with them and to learn about ent environments cetaceans and homo their way o f We, ethics and 'philosophy'. has sopiens live in, mutual up until now been negligible. Meed,e e t , The use of computers to decode dolphinOr human speech Into a since Man arrived on the scene and d i w v - ired the commercial rewards i n killing whalas his only interest has been in how to yrh them into cash the most efficient d Y Now that the legacy of a hundred yea@of remorseless,over-huntinghas pushed the whales to the very brink of extinction,a large number of people around the world are wondering whether we shall ever have the opportunity to know and possibly communiqte directly 4ith them.

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and pass on information to other dolphins. Using a language o f whistles and squeaks it is thought that they cawtransfer inforrnation as three-dimension pictures. As we see a room in three dimensions as a result of light bouncing off objects, a cetacean 'sees' objects using an echo-location system of sound emanating from themselves or elsewhere, bouncing off obstacles and then back to them. It has even been suggested

ThqCobb cartoon is taken from his original collection Cobb, now out of print but to be n>~ubtnhedby Wildwood House later this year; Jilt mcond book. Cobb W n , is available at 'Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ3.6 from PDC outlets.

thought t o be in the realms of feasibility. But it would certainly need asophisticated equipment to cope with the sonic and ultra-sonic vocalisation which occurs at ten times the speed and ten times the frequency o f human speech. In the meantime, the priority is viously t o stop killing cetaceans. T have always demonstrated their de to show hostility towards humans. dolphins seem to h ~ v e a fondness f Man and will not attack (asthey shark) even when he is engaged i n killing the dolphin.

w h!t k ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ mammatand unless we stop the slaughter

of them for pet food, co9metics and a leather softener, our opportunities for finding out will have gone, The Blue Whale, the largest creature to have live on the Earth -,larger than any dinosau is thought by many authorities to be s rare now that recovery is impossible. The sperm whale, the animal with the largest brain on earth and one of the m mysterious, is no* the target fbr the harpoon. While there is still a quick yen a~Qouble to be had, the fate of Leviathan the supreme master iff his environment - is i n the balance.

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Fauna Reyrvation Society, c/o the Zoological Sooaf. Regent's Park, London NW1.

GOVERNMENTS come and go, but the central problem of British political economy remains the same: our factories are out of date and uncompetitive, and modernising them will push millions ontoathedole queues never to work again. And now there is another slump coming. A bear's eye view of the near future by Martin Ince. THE DRAMATIC END of the Callaghn government and the Labour defeat are evidence of the failure of the post-war political settlement, ~~b~~~must now reconsider the pattern of ainwrt which the prwiously it success. In early 97te there were two when the Tories came within a hair's breadth of separating Labour from its politically and financially vital Trade Union support. Now, despite years of phase 1t o whatever it is now, all that

in the nature of industry in the UK and -elsewhere. As Lord Robens said as he shu down a factory in Newcastle, 'Heavy argument, central to Britain's industrial future, runs- 'In good times, Strong Tory engineering in Britain is finished.' He exaggerates, but not by mu&.Thatman government with low taxes and the civil service put in itsplace will do nicely. ~ u t that a lot of what Vickersland its kin get up to is getting less attractive year by yea d m hgoing ;s mfi ^,& ,t will JO,,~, h u ehy are as stockmarket ratings of Vickers, NE1, ., Babcock and others show. fg^y on ^,e draw wjfh handouts to the This wouldn't matter a bit if i t were weak. ' simplistic, but correct. many of the more perceptive corporations

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fe& too few of the skills whicfc modem capital demands. We should not yoke too m&t+ of this;.Taiww b scarcely a skilMntenshae#aeei what makes , itattractive is Ifs cheap andpblitiyallk " e aved workforce. %e problem is that British institution3 are completely unsuited to doing what i s needed in the last bit of the 20th century, The Department of Industry, for instance, sees itself mainty as an agency for helping the needy, not ass body for finding out what i n d u r n should do and pointing them towards it. Have a look at its house mag, Trade and Industry, ifyou don't betieve me. One example which seems minor but isn't is that in Japana whole city is'beingset up with fibreoptics asa mas communication medium, Carrying telephone traffic, data transmkion, and everything else. That one project will cost morelthan the DOl's entire budget for"*orting new technology, and wtil , -' have more effect. institutional problem, again linked intimately tar telecommunications, is the risible Post Qffice monopoly; The GPO's inability toorganise any sensible data networkjiwfw Hie UK will mean that Japan, the USA, some other count@d Third Wwtd anrfiEuropean countries Will develbp$ata networks a lot faster and better than Britain. That B the sort of thing which WrWrationsare looking ataiore and mar6 when they decide where todo things next. The real bright spots in the UK k6o m y are ail thingswichhave happened . despite the worst the gotrtsrnhientcan do. firmsdoing tflfng~ . T t i ' ~tend tobe like supplying scientific equlP*nk corn; puter software, management consultancy, hTgh-priced cars, and the like. None of these thins can be used as a model for rejigging the whole UK economy. That sort of industry will go on expanding in all the develeped countries, but it seems unlikely (especially given the increasing unsuitability of the UK a place t o do anythingl'that it ean ou weigh the dedine of the traditional wctor-

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Traditional'~ngint%&~ they say, That traditional sector is &horse of another c~lour.And it o n be divided into two bits.The first cars, big shipping, cables - tends to involve plant which no Undercurrents reader, I'm willing to bet, can think Of away using sensibly aid which is kept going byLoneor another form of state aid, or allowed to close. The much larger sector consjtte of turbirie builders. light engineering firms, toolmakers, aQd a whole panoply of organisations Jibthat where the political interest

plane wings) could probably have a crack afanoflw (e.g. aerogenerators). the ins and outs at not vely vital. Whit i t conies down ta i$ that~ritish.fiimbare - too littfe and too late starting to'make and do some of the things Undercurrents, arndngst others, wzteIlingthem they should in 1973. (For the magazine, the unanswered question is what do next special tssues on the wonden of big

*many useful possibilities. The only doubt t have heard expre^ed about the Cambridgecrowd's unp,mplwment forecasts among industriafits is that, if things go OKsthey may be on the low side. If*', they don't, the figures don't bear thin%. about. So what is British industry going to look like a few years from now? I don't know, and nor do you. But the obvious thing to think is that there will be large b u s i ~ s ptthaps?). , 1 Firms are naturally going to go where depressed areas,alleviated by a few much smaller bright spots. the cash is and not where political Does this matter?Of course it does, righ'teousness of the sort their critics would favour might lead them. This is because it will feed back directly into the going to make it harder rather than rate at which progress can be made in easier f6r private, small-scale initiatives every other part of society which requires to get anywhere. tf the demand for money. Among these might be counted pollution control gear, home insulation, the arts (althou& they seem t o s-r by without too much funding if they have or solar water heating can be met by to, in some cases to advantage), environmass-producedprofitable goods, it offers that much less scope for cosy co-ops to mental improvement, and a whole l o t o f do the same thing, especially as enlighteninvestment opportunities, from combined ed companies tend to be more rather heat and power to trees, which would than less flexiblethan organisations which have a gigantic beneficial effect in the do things for political reasons long run but which the poor are not likely to be able to afford. The UK now has no frontiers; AMSS migration i s not a padAT and the Real W d d toility,tertainly not on the sort of scale. which might make any difference to the So-the co-operatives/AT/union movement in favour of using new technol- problems we are discussing. In any case, ogy redfsfrf@ute decision-takingpower the people you most need always'emigrate h t ; so we have to Fwd real options right everything which flows from itis a , here and with the people and resoutces mess. Don't worry - it was alwaysys we haveobvio-is that it would be when i t collided These have been plentifully charted in with thÂ world of investment intentions, pr8((ucfive capacityand marketing plans, terms of the number of tonnes of coal under Yorkshire, thq number of mechani-' general, it is (at least to me) cal engineers on Tyneside, and so on. What *e tradeunion end ismakbggood nobody has done, perhaps because it simply. seftse in terms of thinking of sensible can't be done, is to think of a politically Mngs for British industry to do. ' possible way of putting them together for There is no future in the world, of the benefit of any but the smallest cmrse, fop a co.operative Eke the kottish Wp&ws, producing newspaper nonumber. ' Several things can [y saitfwith some useless technology and body wants confidence; For instance, the British state no advertising,-rhe same goes for a radiais ""> strang and POW5seS the political tor factory with more debts than -hinand technical.ability to implement rapidly at Kirkby) or any of a large numcry a strong state on German lines. Ifyou ber of other which may be formed want armed struggle, try Africa. What we by force mu/eure. Much more interesting m-stuck with is acentral government is the sort of experiment, just started on structure which is better at reacting to a three year basis by the DOI, of accevents than precipitatingthem. For h operative Development Agency which aims toprovide's management consunancy stance, the National Entewriw Board has helped fast-growing firms to make an service to would-be and existingco-ops,impact in critical areas of technology, to get them off the ground and in the but mainly it is a lame duck^ home and right direction on their own terms. Of will become more of one under a Tory course, it i s too early to tell how the government i f manifestoes can be believed. idea wilt w r k out and the possibility K (as I write) of a change of government bodes ill. But at least it i s a real attempt A People's NED0 *eÃ ,Ã a neÃ£British institution which So what Is needed, I guess, is hard-headis actualfy adapted properly to the exiged peoplets rational E~~~~~~ Dewlopencies of the late 1970s. ment Office. That example, of course, is full of cautionary messages, since N E W a .

But an unofficial version would at least be wanted than the Millbank warriors, not ant (but probably not aeror5) while a factory s d to one sorb of aerofoilf<.E !ghter.

rnpb of

Undercurrents3

Letting i

hang out

PROFITS for the three years '76 to '78 for Undercurrents Ltd. total ome Â£4000Nonetheless we propose to increase our subscription rates by up to 20% this autumn. This may be thought to require some justification, so what follows i s an essay in low finance as it applies to the small magazine business. It shows how much can be done with little, given hard work atid good luck. Undercurrents was launched on a wing ind a prayer and Â£4 in Janua; / '72. Two years and five issues later i t WJS relaunched as a commercial venture as Undercurrents Limited (by guarantee, which means that we are not allowed t o distribute any profits but we do have to pay Profit Tax). The main asset o f the company was a contract t o commission and edit the book Radical Technology for Wildwood House, a London publisher at that time a subsidiary of RCA Inc. and therefore stuffed with dollars (they are now independent and tliough just as nice, not nearly so rich. The advances totilled Â£2900We used them t o finance the mii$ii~itielor two difficult years while we wol kcd on the book. A t the end of '75 the book W J ~

-----

ready to be published (which meant that we had to pay the contributors) and we had run up a loss of Â£5800We were certainly insolvent, if not actually bankrupt. I n fact we missed an issue in the summer of '75 because w couldn't pay the printer. Luckily for us, our main creditors were our subscribers and the book contributors, who were willing l o wait for their money. So we resolved to cut our costs t o the bone and carry on, in the hope that we could pay o f f our debts bit by bit. We were pleasantly surprised to make a modest Â£63 profit in '76, which was enough to pay o f f half of the contributors. I t was the followint; year we h i t the jackpot: we sold the I iglit-, to Radical Technology t o

Profit & Loss Statement for the year ending December 3 1 1977 Isublect to audit)

I I

Net Sales Advertisinq Revenue

less:

Magazine Costs: Printing & Packing & Carna POST Materials & Production Wages Typesetting Travel & Subsistence Office Expenses Promotion Sundnc", Bank Charqps & I n ) Audit Depreciation Total Maqa,me

COSTS

equals: Loss on the magazine: plus:

Income from Radical Techn Advance on Japanese Royal British Royalties Profit on Sales

SUBSCRIPTION PRICE INCREASE From September 1 our one year subscription rates (except Airfreight) w i l l all be increased by Â£0.60 The new rates will be:

Total Income f r o m Radical Technology equals:

Profit for Undercurrents L t d

2355

,.,:. ,, ,

,,I,,e

carried forward a t January 1, 1977: Forward at December 31, 1977:

a Japanese publisher for Â£380 and we received another Â£100 in royalties and profit on mail order sales. The magazine itself made a small loss (Â£9). Preliminary figures for '78 (our distributors pay us 5 t o 12 months in arrears; some never pay) show that th thanks t o a very good autumn, we have made some Â£35 on the mag and Â£70 on the book, including an advance from German publisher. So out of the Â£407 we have made over the three years, Â£337 has come fr( the book (advances Â£1714royalties Â£7 and sales Â£824)Only Â£75 has come frc the magazine; by itself i t would n o t have been enough t o finance the increase in tt credit we have t o give t o our distributors and advertiser~(Â£1320) So without the book nrofits we would have t o have borrowed another Â£57 just t o keep trading without paying off any o f the debts w e t run up. Apart from paying off our book debt: and financing our distributors, we used the balance o f the Â£400 t o reduce our trade creditors and pay o f f the overdraft A t the end o f '78 we had a cash balance Â£60 odd, a novel experience for us. Ass1 amount to Â£255 and liabilities, includin subs to Â£4300 so if we went broke now our creditors would get 60p in the Â£ three years ago they would only have got 15p; that's progress! Looking ahead to 1980 and '81, we have to face the fact that our golden goo' Radical Technology, is getting old and cannot be expected t o lay many more eg; The magazine is going t o have to stand or its own feet at last. Now that i t is free o f the burden o f its past losses, this shouldn be too hard, provided we don't suffer another bout of '75-type hyperinflation. think that an extra60p per sub will be enough to see us through t o '81 and perh to '82, and that i t is better to ask for the money in good time rather than run,up o overdraft and trade debts in a desperate attempt t o hold our price down.

15174)

128191

minus &'; what weare "Deficiency' i s theopposite o f 'Net Worth'. what wi;'&{/&' owed or have in the bank. A s t h e company has no Share Capital, the Deficiency at the start of '77 is the sum o f the Losses made in '74 and '75 IÂ£5807less the P r 0 f ~made in ' 7 6 (Â£633)

British Isles Overseas Surface Mail Airmail Europe Airmail Rest of the World

Â£3.6 Â£4.2 Â£6.0 Â£7.5

The extra cost of a t w o or three year subscription will nor be increased for the time being. So a t w o year Inland subscription, for example, w i l l cost Â£6.60 Following our normal practice, remittances received before September 1 i n respect of renewals of subs. expiring with No. 3 6 and later issues will be credited at the o l d rate. -.

Undercurrents34 Send letters for publication to' Undercurrents 27 Clerkenwell Close London EC1 R OAT

tuff ^,

Vote et

operated by the Labour Government even though it is not stated a* wch. ThU policy is neither left or r m t . If we look at the Green alliance'k'ststrict controls for inunfgmtion', a good bogeyman t o present to readers, it has escaped Dave Elliott that while ,thfatt~obviouslyracist policy is applied to selected groups, ff &lied m o s s the board to all who might seek to live here it can assist

committed to centralised power ao^growth. t h e appropriate interpretation "of ecology is muchbtoadq that that used by Mr Joseph. The Ecology Party produced its first Manifesto in 1975, and this induded policies bn Employment, Housing,Transport, Education, konomics, IBdMtly, Energy, Pollution and Waste, Law and Otder; in fact, the whole range of Issues which Mr J ~ s e p hclaimed

h environmental and otherwise, continue to work ro affect national policy, but I also believe that there isa need for a Political party which invited and welcomes their views rather than merely paying l l p service to them whefi it becomes polltially expedient to do so. Sfewirt

Biffin

22 Montague St Newington Edinburgh

HUMANE AND.

yÃˆ get aver youl initial fright

growth itself which has created

It has been laid that placing technology in the h b o f savages ' does.not make them civilised; ft

StephenJoseph's article on the Ecology Pafly (ud*aatent$32) completely misrepresentsthe pitbmphy, aims and rationale of the Fatty. By coiiteentrating purely

to the lowest practicable level rather than allow Increasing centralisation It it therefore quite untrue to suggest a s k t ~oseph does that these is "no coherent environmental view" on issues of wealth, ownership and pwer.

cultivated in us during our childhood; it is basic to o w democratic system. Of course, It could be claimed that the 'welfare stat& isb denial of this, that the fact thaf we ape prepared to support the elderly and the handicapped, the

ihould concerned

eves have done before on

at least fhme interpretations of

Many of us. have done, and still do,

amount of money weÃ§nsi on

Undercurrents 34

Council o n t h e Misuse of Drugs recently reiterated t h e conclusion of many such bodies before it, that short-term moderate use of cannabis is not dangerous, and that there is no evidence of liarniful effects from long continued heavy use. Gcoff Read is doing Time for no reason other than that, way back in 1925, a lot o f ignorant men couldn't be botliered t o examine the truth of the claim, made by t h e Egyptian government of the day, that hashish isa dangerous substance. l i e is, indeed, a martyr t o apathy. Not, of course, that I cannot dount his innocence, in spirit if not in action. One is compelled t o ask, what was he doing, going to Edinburgh with a suitcase full of ganja'? I doubt that his motive was of t h e noblest, very likely including a degreeof self-interest not at all dissimilar from t h e state o f consciousness owned by the drug squad officers who busted him, t h e grass who doubtless fitted him up. t h e judge who sent him down, and you and me who, with our soa i l e d freedom intact, sigh with relief and say: 'Phew. Glad it wasn't me!' No, Michele Read, we d o no! live in a humane and intelligent society. Quite the reverse. Nick Godwin 2 Mill Cottages Kyemou tb Bcrwicksliire.

PS. But it's not t o o late t o change.

RIG OVER TROUBLED WATER I w a s o n t h e Clayniore A oil production platform o n t h e occasion of t h e second bomb scare. My immediate bossgot a shock when, in t h e Occidental office for some reason, he accidentally caught sight of a telex message. Unable to keep it to himself, he confided in the crade o p , who was a good friend and so passed the information o n to two of us(each time 'in confidence'). By n i n e o r t e n that evening at l a s t hall' t h e drilling personnel knew something was amiss, and rumours were rife. Radios had been recalled, and a n emergency cap for rhedrill spring appeared o n t h e drill floor. But no-one saw fit to let us in o n the secret. A human, lower echelon Ocy employee eventually gave self and friend the (true??) story-a tape received by Oxy, claiming explosive devices o n the Claymore, money demanded, with a deadline, and a threat to detonate aforesaid devices should a n y attempt b e made t o evacuate. That night, our happy band of North Sea Tigers went t o sleep wondering if we'd wake u p . . .

Well, we did. And such things ire easily laughed off in the bracing machismo excitemiit of the North Sea, forgotten in tlic thrill of bringing tlic stuff a s h o r e . . . but it does appear t l u t Occidental saw no reason t o inform us-Good God, we miglit have stopped working!and apparently valued our lives at something less than Â£0 0 each. Other interesting incidents o n the Claynore A included the killing o f fish by dumping liberal quantitiesof oil-based mud through the drains (we were assured this would never happen when we started using t h e stuff) and the crane o p being ordered t o lift 1' load 4 tonsover t h e safe workiny load-and a host of minor idiocies threateninglife, limb and tlie environment. All taken for granted in the 'A man's p t t a d o . . philosophy o f the industry. Many seekers of a n alternative lifestyle arrive in Aberdecn hoping to finance it with a spell o n tlie iigs-and get into drink, fast curs. divorce and separation. alienation and the oilman's two weeks on. two weeksoff scliizopluenia. It's a n unhealthy way to start a healthy lil'estylc-altlioiigli a few have made it, and even kept all their fingers! Well. I gavc it up, and live in a concrete jungle no\\. I still hope to escape, but not that way. Good luck t o those who try-does the end justify the means? NB

hear expert advice from t h e CEGB and opposing groups-including Portskewett Action Committee and friends of t h e I':arth. T h e CEGB were notably disinclined to inform councillors what alternatives t o nuclear power were being considered: when asked if thev had a long-term commitnlent to a new coal-fired power station in South Wales, for example, they appeared nonplussed. We still have a large task in convincing trade unionists that you can't have c o a l a n d nuclear. l'ortskewett would, if built, deny a market for coal, since they would be in direct competition for shares in the energy market and t h e available investment capital. An AGR o n Severnside would also danlase proposals for a tidal barrage across the Severn Lstuary. which a number of trade unions have supported. A commitment by the Welsh TUG to a full debate in t h e trade union movement, o n the vtiriety of future energy scenarios and our requirements for energy and einployment, would be a start. Ken Barker (Secretary) Soutli \Val= I ncryy 2000 2 Manor Street Gatlia) s Cardiff

NEATER METERS

Re 'Meter Madness', Undercurrents I read with interest how the I rench 'aiitonomes' used acid SAVING WALES c ~ i i t e dfive centime pieces o n I would like to add to Tony Webb's [>:irking meters. article 1 Undercurrents 3 3 o n In m y view a coin would be an nuclear power and the Scottish inefficient and inadequate vehicle trade union movement, by for conveying acid into a meter. 1 describing the situation in Wales. estimate that more acid would be A resolution calling for the requircd to immobilise t h e device. I lult to the further development of rec:all a n old friend whose favourite nuclear power in Wales is due t o be debated at the Welsh Trade Union pastime was t o inject Araldite into Congressat Tenby (4-6 \I;iy). Our the clockviork mechanisms of parking meters-with devastating organisation has been instrumental in yetting it there. effect. He even captured a n entire meter, rootsand all-triumphantly We are in a similar position to p h c e d in the bviitory alongside Scotland, in that the Cl:,tiB other roadside trophies like cones promotes nuclear power at the n d fkishing li$hts. expense of tlie continued use of l'aul Newrnan, in the film Coo! coal-fired electricity genuiitors. thus threatening the future of ~n~;tii\ Hand L u k e had the ultimate coal mines in South Wales. Indeed. weapon asiinst parking meters-a ~ i a i i tbolt-cutting wrench. Perhaps the economic viability of sevcnil he iiispird the studcntsof Berkley, Welsh mining valleys is beins California. where folklore has it threatened by t h e CEGB bias that during the late sixtiesand towards nuclear power at nhatcver early seventies not a single parking cost. This has been clearly sho\\n in meter functioned. their attempt to slip through Let us hope that no o n e suffers approval for a 1 3 0 0 Megawatt AGR the same sticky end a s the film at Portskewett in Gwent. plannina star for their participation in such permission for t h e site having hpscd stunts! since being orkinallv in . . ^ranted Your humble anarchist servant, 1972. Thomas H Huxley O n March 1 2 G u e n t Countv c/o Oueens Arms Councillors laid o n a seminar for London SW7 county and district councillors to 3.q.

NETWORI NOT WORKING A year has now passed since the publication in Undercurrents 26 of t h e list of correspondents. I thought you might like to know that no-one has contacted mi in that time. This in fact disappointed m e because. though not deeply involved in AT. 1 would have liked to have met others with similar interests. I am a keen gardener (and have what I suppose is a big garden by semi det. bungalow standards), keep beesant have a lot of equipment for the hobby. Over the years I've gathered together many things (likt electric welders, with which I'm rea nably proficient) and 1 would haveliked to share my knowledge and expertise with others. But it looks like nobody up here is interested.. . Stewart F Pirie 15 Straik Road. Broadstraik Skene Aberdeenshire

EARTHY EXCHANGE In reply to Jeff Robinson's letter (Undercurrents 32). kart11 Lxchang Collective isa wholefood shop that sells oats. wheat, rice. cereals. sixteen typesof beans, nine types of lentile, nuts, orpanically erown sundried fruit and mii-n? other staple foods-most of it packed by our o w n workers. Jeff obviously requires that every food shop also b e a greengrocer, With c\tra resources \ve intend to extend our service to this area-quite a time-consuming specialist one. We d o sell s q a r i e s s aniseed pastilles, honey from all over t h e world (do you truly wi5h to rely o n English sources','), carob powder o r St John's Bread (made from a bean pod, used instead o f chocolati flavouriiig). These variations are a beginning in a change of attitude tc nutrition for some of our customers. Our profit margin is no higher o n 'Â¥fancyfoodstuff than basic food. And t h e buying of food othc that staples is literally a service for our customers. Jeff R o b i n s o n s statement 'it's more pleasurable t o make pottery than t o crow vegetables' must be totally dismissed-apart from confusion, where is this man coming from? With respect for those practise what they preach, Earth Exchange Collective 2 1 3 Archway Road London N 6

Undercr

M i l t o n & the Er~glishRevolution. Christopher Hill. Faber. 541 pp.

I F T H E IMAGE of Milton as an austere, intellectual Puritan still exists, this book should finally dispose of it. Dr Hill does not deny Milton his intellectual eminence, nor his Puritanism, but by fitting Milton into the jigsaw of his times he shows that the poet cannot be so easily categorised, and that the categories themselves cannot be so glibly drawn. T o his contemporaries M i l t o n was a libertine, regicide and revolutionary. During the Interregnum he achieved fame throughout Europe by his defence o f the Republic. A f t e r the return o f Charles I I he was i n danger of being exe

DOCTRINE AND DISCIPLINE 0 f

DIVORCE: RESTOR'D T O THE G O O D OF B O T H S E X E S , From the bondage of C a n o n Law, and orhcr m~ltakes,10 Chnflian freedom, u i d e d by the R u k of Chanry.

Wherein alfo many places of Scripture, have rccovcc'd t h c ~l o n g l o t me>ning,

Scafonablc to be now thought on in ihc Rcformaiion intended.

T T H.

11.

51.

Â£",, Scab< ir,%"fff.l,? ,A; A tMiiwiic,Hfa..'f s, ,,t..,h< ,\t,.,jl,, ~f .ha"$ml..b o?;"<>,b C", ~ f l . ' , ~ ~ , / " ~ , , , ~ > , " ~ ' ~ I ~ ~ " d " < " .

cuted for his principles, especially as he was the only Parlianicmarian who was foolish enough, or principled enough, t o publish, on the eve o f the Restoration, a tract attacking monarchy. I f the full extent of his heresies had been known, he would probcibl\ have suffered the execution which lie narrowly escaped. His espousal o f divorce on the grounds o f incompatibility w.is well k n o w n (and his reputation suffc-ic-d 1 's a consequence) b u t his anti-lriniiariitriism and mortalism (the belief that the soul dies with the b o d y l would have iintagonised a majority of the revolutionary government, let alone the royalists. H e prudently l e f t D e Doctriria Christians, the exposition o f his personal theology, unpublished. That Milton's most radical ideas should be founu i n a theological b u c k , writtcn i n Latin and n o t published u n t i l the nineteenth century, indicates m.itiy o f the contradictions within Milton's thought and the shortcomings of the tnglish revolution. Although Dr. Hill describes M i l t o n holding a continuous dialogue with the third culture - the Levellers, Ranters, i t is unly i n the Muggletonians etc. field of religious theory that lie adopts

With a terrific bang World War 3, Ed Brigadier Shelford Biciwell, Hamlyn, Â£5.95 T H E E N D o f the w o r l d is becoming positively fashionable; coming just a few months after Sidgwick and Jackson's opus on the matter, a pop-terror opus by British arm" maverick General Sir l o h n Hackett sic), Bidwell's e f f o r t is a coffee table version o f the same saga. I t is interesting mainly because i t has been p u t together o u t o f the efforts o f the same bunch o f defence hacks w h o produce glossy masturbation aids like

Soviet A i r Power and T!ic 5oviet War Machine, a l o n g w i t h some backup from academics f r o m places like the Aberdeen University politics Department, virtually o f the MOD. World W a r 3 is their attempt at going responsible, with solemn warnings about the evils o f the arms trade and about h o w unsafe the w o r l d is getting. There is even a serious essay on international crisis management, the chess game whereby the superpowers t r y t o avoid unplanned and (for them) u n n c c e ~ s ~ i conflict. ry B i l l the b o o k really lets the side clown

ideas f r o m them, 'ind lie fails t o admit the political consequences of his religious beliefs. S o M i l t o n can a f f i r m liberty o f conscience and deny liberty o f action; he can desire the abolition d the monarchy and support a strong centralised authori t y ; he can believe that dl1 men ( o r at least all Protestant men) are sons of gc. and believe i n the necessity ot a hierarchicill society, for allhough M i l t n n was a revolutionary, he was n o democrat. Many of his shortcomings are, as Dr. Hill points out, the shortcomings of his time: 'He denied the cqudlity of the Irish, proclaimed by some Levellers, and ihe c ~ ~ t i ~ i of l i t ywomen, proclaimed by very few indeed.' But, again as Dr. Hill admits, this only makes us admire his more libcrtaridn such as Gerard Winstanley Despite this, Dr. Hill obviously admires Miltori a great deal and does an excellent lib o f showing h o w gredt, w i t h i n ihe context o f his times, his achievement actually was. Dr. Hill also has a sensitive appreciation o f the poctry i n which he sees Milton's feelings bursting through despite vilitical considerations. I n sum Milton's sh'oitcoming was that I any member o f the privileged class who becomes involved i n a revoluiionary movement: he desired political liberty u p t o a point, the p o i n t at which his security was jeopardised. There's a lesson here for US 'ill. Wilf Wilburn when i t rei.iclics its scenario tor the war. Part o f the problem, w r u l d y o u believ.~, is the West's over-reaction t o resurgent German fascism, and the d i l f i c u l t y is precipitated by the USSR's unreasonable fears about the German nuclear weapon. Fhe West's - and i n particular Britain's years o f stupid miserliness on defence spending add t o the problems, so that nuclear holocaust is the only way out. Bidwell has p u t the book together cleverly - apart f t o m the last chapter, on the holocaust itself, which is completely o u t o f sync w i t h the rest o f the book. I n the end, though, the book is just a reasoned and expensively produc ed version o f the case f o r more defence spending.

Martin Ince

' 19

There are a few pages on tools an( principles of construction, then the r of the book consists of descriptions ( projects that the authors have (mostly) undertaken themselves, e.g. a log garage, tractor cart (don't take the instructions for building this too literally - the wheels won't go round), barn, shelters and pens for livestock, manger, feedbin, rake, gates, sheds, etc.; all relevant stuff if you're an absolutely clueless apprentice smallholder, but probably not much use to anyorte else. THE SECOND book, Country Woodcraft, deals with areas that Working Wood leaves untouched, and i n general is much more complete and informative. Starting with an introduction to tools and materials, the author leads the way through from the art of tree-fellingand. splitting up the timber - what type of wood to look for for particular functions and where you are most likely to find it to an inviting selection of finished products, bringing in the use and care of the tools requiredalong the way; frequently the tools reauired for one proiect are the finished products of anothe Fascinating stuff. Useful too. Val Robinson

ery', i.e. the sort o f utilitarian woodwork that no self-respecting cabinet-maker would wish t o own up to. The emphasis is on the recycling of lumber from old buildings, crates, railway sleepers, telephone poles, etc. Since this approach, or necessity, requires the accumulation of considerable quantities of wobd, at least some o f which is likely to be exce~tionallvheavy. a lareish section of this book is devoid to how to . . remove nails from, store, and shift timber without injury to either wood or persons.

, Working Wood A Guide for the Country Carpenter by Mike and Nancy Buhcl Rodale Press, Â£2.2 paperback 190pp. approx. C o r n t r ~Woodcraft by Drew Langsner Rodalef'ress. Â£4.9 paperback, 300pp (inc. appendices & Bibliography). THE FIRST of.these books, Working Wood, is concerned with what the authors appropriately term 'woodbutch-

H e Can't G o Wrong Grow Your Own Fruit and Vegetables. Lawrence D. Hills. Faber. Â£2.75 LAWRENCE D. Hills i s a wonderful man; he tells you everything you want to know without condescension or pretension and with abundant humour. His style is so absorbing that I've several times come near to missing my stop on the train, so engrossed was I. When one considers that this is a purely factual book, his transforming style seems almost magical, many an academic could learn from Hill; the mbn not only. knows his subject inside

out, he excels in the art of communication, he is a superb teacher, having an instinctive empathy with the complete beginner. The bock is expensive for a paperback, but it contains such an enormous amount of information that i t precludes the need to buy lesser books. A point to note i s that the information contained in Organic Gardening, also by Hills, is largely duplicated in this book with more besides, the choice between them probably depends

upon your pocket, but I would suggest that this one is the better investment. Grow Your Own Fruit and Vegetables is also about gardening organically and contains useful recipes for safe pesticides, diet supplements for soil and plant, and good old muck. The book is pretty comprehensive with details on constructing sheds, advice on gardening tools, aids and machinery, and information on storing. It i s sensibly laid out with general chapters accompanying specifiMnformation on each vegetable and fruit. As Hills says: 'the beginner does not start by looking up 'Fleabeetle' -he looks up radishes, for something i s eating holes in his radish leaves'. This typifies Hills' practical approach. Very sensibly Hills has included information on food values. Some may regard this as unnecessary, but most of us who are concerned with growing food organically are also interested in healthy eating, and i t is often difficult to get hold of this information, or to relate i t to our gardening. Faced with a bewildering variety of fruit and veg. to choose from, it i s useful to know what returns you are likely to get in terms of food value. To complement this, Cherry Hills has contributed a chapter on the preparing and cooking of garden produce without destorying those carefully nurtured vitamins and minerals. For the complete beginner I would recommend this as a 'bible' for the organic gardener. Old hands will probably kick themselves for having bought several books where this one would do. I would recommend anyone interested in gardening, organic or otherwise, to have a look at this book - I warn you, it's addictive!

Sue Fenton

Pressurised The Complete Book o f Pressure Cooking. L.D. Michaels. Mayflower. pp322. 95p. COOKING is part science, part intuitic and part imagination. I know I lean to the first so I like Michael's explicit approach 'this is exactly what happens when you do this.' I personally find 'take 3 large onions' a thousand times more helpful than just '3 onions' - it saves unnecessary thought.. 'will 3 big ones be overpowering? . . . 'Will 3 little ones give it any taste?' (Sure I adapt and evolve recipt but at least they should start exact.) What about the pressure cooking b i t . . well, this is the very last word on pressure cooking, indeed there is probably rather more than you would ever want to know about it. Actually I've picked up a few very useful nutritional titbits, for example, Vitamin Cis destroyed by heating in air, prolonged heating and being washed out; so since pressure cooking i s quick ahd in steam, Vitamin C survives quite well. However the main point of the book are the 'Secrets of pressure cooking meat which are not usually divulged in the instruction manuals nor in this review..

Â¥""Â¥'Â¥7%-9r',"--

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mortal, the problem is access to the information with the minimum number of

h a l l Scale Water P o w . Dermot benefiting the national economy -everyMcGuigan. Prism Press. Hbk. 113pp. Â£3.95 where else in the world is very sensible. Even small Water-Power systems use L E is Y allbranchesof engineering: civil, , aconsumers guide to the water power . mechanical, electrical and and systems on market, It does have to while much is not beyond the ordinary be admitted that turbines themselves are not really in the DIY area, except for waterwheels and perhaps crossflow turbines. McGuigan encourages you to Do-it-YourÂ¥HÃ self, but is reticentabout giving hard information for actually doing it, although ZW HP6 MIS (here is plenty of $&opefor DJY in waterpower systems. Starting with waterflow measurement, 1% (on the block diagram of a water power system) he describes the standard m t h . ods, but does not dwell on surveying the local tcpography. There is only a brief mention o f small dams, the reader is referred toother texts, but when it / Building Your Own Home' Murray Armor comes to leats (or channels) no referenc Prism Press 144pp Â£2.95 even is given and you are advised to o t o a civil engineer. The Energy Prime! THIS IS an odd book, it is heavily new edition; distributed by Prism geared towards modern speculative housPress) 4s pretty thorough on t h i s Point, ing and package-deal design and build comso you won't have to run to the profespanics. Not sur-prising as the author is sionals immediately, and i t i s also rathe chairman of such a company, and indeed better on head loss in pipes. parts o f the textseem little more than Small Scale Wafer Power i s at its an advert. Nevertheless the book contains best on the waterwheels and turbines some very useful information ofinterest themselves. He works through each wheel to readers of Undercurrents. and-turbine type describing the installaChapter 2 contains good sound advice tions he hadvisited and discwssirtg each as to Planning and Building Regulations manufacturers range. Sometimes kits procedures. It covers most of what is and plans are available - particularly for required, though not in detail, and does waterwheels and many manufacturers not take account of local variations in can supply the rest of the system too. council policies. It is worthwhile reading gears, generator and governor. However, this it where you start to -, run up enormous bills, say Â£1 20,000 for a 10-1SkW installation. This end of the system needs8 DIY textbook of its own: for hard advice on secondhand vehicle axles (McGuigan only warns); the ins and outs of alternator rewinding;circuit theory; and examples Of electronic load governors; etc. etc. McGuigan finishes with a moan about the stupid wateruse legislation in England and Wales which can charge ybu for

Self-Build

well, there's always the tomatoes to

Fig, 7. Turgo and Pelton turbines contrasted.

Allotmentgardening covers growing and storing fruit, vegetables and herbs; protecting them from the weather and pests; and types of soil and digging techniques. I t would also be useful to people who have a greenhouse, or even just a vegetable plot of fruit trees in the garden. It's worth ,buying. Lowana Veal

for information from an engineer in Corsica. Unable to browse around University libraries on his remote mountain, how far would this book take him? Right into the middle of the design problems, which is where I think i t woulrl leave him, stuck. Pete Glass

PoweK

for someone without experience in this Â¥field and offers good advice as td one's relationship with the planning officer and the building inspector. Chapter 3 offers sound real istic advice on arranging a mortgage, bridging finance, insurant*, VAT, and provides a generalised cost guide. The appendix contains useful information on VAT Notice 719. Chapter 6 is also good. i t suggests the personal qualities required of a self-builder and provides useful information on materials suppliers, the employment of ' sub-contract labour, and the management of the building operation. I doubt whether the Underuurrents reader would find very much of interest in the rest of the book. That i s unless you intend to build an estate of modern houses in a Self-help Housing Association. This i s not to deny that co-operative building ventures are laudable and provide tangible means for selfcexpressiun and individuality. I t is simply that the book is intended for a particular type of person. To the author "The self-builder . is an individual trying to do his thing within the system, not t t y q to escape from it. His boast is o f what his house is worth on the open market and he virtually always builds a marketable house o f convi?ntionalappearance and layout. " . A further quote may elicit further insight into the Author's philosophy "Invariably the aim is to build as lqrge q building as possible within the budget, and this boils down to the lowest possible cost per sg. ft. that can be achieved using conventionalmethods o f construction to give a house o f conventional appearance. " One has only to glimpse the many photographs and drawings in the book to decide ' whether i t i s really the one for you. A more useful book as far as Undercurrents readers are concerned, would be one which dealt with renovation and conversion as well as new buildings, with the use of second-hand materials, with energysaving design, and with local vernacular building styles. Though undoubtedly worth its cost for the useful information provided, it really requires a companion volume. Gary Burtc-

The Network Nation - Human Cornrnunication by Computer. Starr Roxanne Hiltz and Murray Turoff. Addison-Wesley

about computer conferencing and some cts. Computer con-

COi-WSlUCHCt, lÃˆBaÃˆlE6 hW OF (SueSrIWinb S W Â £ C T

The Law i n Action

Trouble with the Law. Release. Pluto Press. Â£1.25 J 51 pp. 'TROUBLE WITH THE LAW is about what actually happens with law enforcement in England and Wales, and not so much about formal or textbook civil liberties'. The above quote, taken from the introduction, is a fairly accurate assessment of this book. I t is more a book about how the law works (c.g, The police are supposed t o . . . They donlt.).than a self-help book, though the section on criminal courts would be very helpful to anyone who intends fighting a case without a lawyer. The book covers political pickets, occupations, demonstrations; street hassles; squatting and police raids on private homes; police stations; the criminal , courts, lawyers and prisons. I often go to pickets and demonstrations, so I found the first chapters very interesting. How-' ever, as I read further, I found the rest of the btfok became increasingly irrelevan to me. I started wondering for whom the book is meant. I s it for political activists or normal 'criminals'? For the latter are not usually interested in squatting or political activities, any mo people on pickets are interested i r prisons. One annoying point in particu their refusal to cover the trials of people appearing as a group in the courts. Yet this is probably the most important type

of trial for political activists. Branch, and they only just touch on the Prevention of Terrorism Act. I would also have liked to have seen some mention of Scottish law and where it differs from English law. For instance, the laws on criminal tresspass are differ-

ent to these in England. A knowledge of Scottish law would be particularly useful for those involved in the current Torness struggle. There are some good points to this book, though. I t is very easy to read, being written in everyday English, and it is clearly set out. It is also well-dwurnented; the Acts and cases referred to in each chapter are written i n full at the end. Overall, I suppose this i s quite a useful book, especially for people who haven't had much con

work. Contributions are printed out on computer to a terminal terminals. can useAnybody the system. with y oaccess u don't need to be a expert'. The network can handle many conver-

~ ~ ~ ~ i~ i { m ' of, ~$ ~~ ~~

miles. People don't need to be at their terminals all the time. They can visit the terminal periodically and read the printOUtr and then'enter their CC systems are presently being used by business, government, the hilitary, and scientists. Not many of the general public have got into the act, although the .computer if)the US are reasons interested for their own unofficial As well as describing the present uses * of the system, the authors speculate on wana Veal the future. While much of this speculation is distinctly reforpist, much of it is of interest t o radical technologists. They deal with such subjects as decentralisation education, greater public information

Geoff Wright

The wise virgin - The ~ ~ i,ik ~ Between Men and Women. Annie Wilson. Turnstone B O O ~ S .192pp. Â£2.60

l STARTED to read this book with interest - if, to quote the blurb, it was about 'the changing relationship between the sexes', then I wanted to find out what the writer had to say about it. Unfortunately, she had very little to say about it. She takes five women, describes their life stories in terms of significant events and all seem to include one form or another of spiritual' or mystical enlightenment - and then in the last three chapters, introduced by this startling conclusion (p.149) 'What i s missing in our society i s the feminine, proceeds t o waffle on about balance, Freud, the subconscious and the continuum concept. Remember the continuum concept?

(See the jbook of ~ ~ that title, ~ reviewed in the Women'sissue, Undercurrents 29) that was about how all themodern ills of society were due to our mothers not holding us enough when we Were babies. The five women - what do they do? Well, one teaches, two are healers (one psychological), one is an astrologer, one an artist. Not too challenging to Annie 'Wilson's thesis of the missing feminine. And the changing relationship between the sexes? Oh, yes, each of the women has a man in her life who triggers off a growth stage, and must then leave either temporarily or for good. Valid observation, for the five chosen women. Annie Wilson then reaches the conclusion that this is only an interim stage, and will come right, when women have looked deep inside themselves and become their natural selves, providing the inspiration for men. After all, isn't

NO Future in This Britain - a future that works. Bernard Nossiter. Andre Deutsche. 2 4 4 ~ Hbk. ~. Â£5.95 I N THE first half of this book Bernard Nossiter, London correspondent of the Washington Post, examines and dismisses the arguments o f Milton Freidman, the Hudson Institute, Baconand EItis et al who say that the skids are under the motherland - that we are slipping into Communism or a morass of welfare. On the contrary, he suggests, our history has been easy on us (the English, that is) and instead of sweating to make more money we are content to s i t back and enjoy what we've got. This i s so plausible that even the most jaded alternative technology geriatric case will feel sunny and chirpy. But the second half of the book casts shadows once again. Our ruling classes are elitist, obsessively secretive with their official acts, undemocratic and unable t o get up to date; our business classes are incompetent - being drawn from the inferior classes; Ulster is a running wound that is infecting the Army with desires for civil power; and racial problems are a time bomb. In spite of this, the final chapter describes Britain's slouch into the postindu~trial~society with some optimism. We have given up the desire for dirty production and have taken to the enjoyable services, arts, writing, BBC - and it seems a workable enough future. However, Nossiter i s completely wrong here, as even a journalist should know. The service sector can never absorb the mass of unskilled, young, women, blacks, or

it just as creative to do thecooking t and housework? Ihadn't realised till I read this book that'the Women's Liberation Movement was misguidedly making women more masculine - I thought we were trying to find out what women are really like. But then, I hadn't realised either that 'woman's natural place is in the darkness of the subconscious'. (One wonders how the writer surfaced to produce her book.) And the wise virgin of the title? A reference to the biblical story of the wise virgins who kept enough oil in their lamps t o light their bridegrooms in. Apparently all women really need to do i s to be content in their necessary role of supporting the men and providing their inspiration. What 'changing relationship between the sexes'? There's an afterword to the book where the writer described how the book came to be written and how she felt it had to be written. I disagree with her this book should not have been written, it adds nothing to the discussion, merely clouding the issues with stale mud. Janet S. Payne

people in the regions away from the South East, whose jobs are likely to be swept away by industrial decline. Nossiter is writing to comfort his friends in his SE commuter belt laager. Indeed, his description of Britain as a

model of sorts has been blown up further by the publisher into a glossy book with a picture of a clean plumbers' bag containing theatre beat-up programmes, machine a vase scrap, andahi-fi violin, gear piled happily together. For them the future will work come what may and they will see to that; but it won't b e i o easy for the rest. A coffee table thesis, his. Simon Watt

I s It Worth The Risk? The Acceptability o f Risks. Published by Barry Rose (Publishers) Ltd. i n association with the Council for Science and Society. Â£5.0 104pp. THIS CONCISE REPORT of a CSS working party is the product of sharp minds given time to think. I believe that

Gang of One Chinese Shadows (Penguin 80p) by Simon Leys I F you are at all interested in China; communism; Maoism; the 1984-like effects or totalitarianism; politics; world affairs; or anything at all beyond the end of your own Vegetable patch read this book. It's short, intelligent, well-written, very readable, and important. Simon Leys is a Belgian who knows and loves China, and lived there for some years. In his book he describes the official tour given to overseas writers, so that they see only the 'shop Window' and then from his own knowledge he builds up the substance behind the shadow play -hence the title. He shows very convincingly how a totalitarian regime like that of Maoist China can distort and hide'the truth about itself censorship can occur in many forms. Although Mao is dead now, Simon Leys thinks that China will not change immediately the effects of Maoism went too deep. This book is likely to be relevant for some time to come.

Janet S. Payne

a couple of News o f the World reporters could have knocked the same material into quite shocker, under some such title as 'Unknown Horrors which Stalk us AH'. Instead, be ready for a Whitehallstyle report: measured phrases, numbered paragraphs and copious appendices. The working party romp through the technical foothills and then bravely tackle the ethical Eiger beyond. Having climbed a short distance up the mountain itself they reach2 number of relevant insights. Human lives must sometimes be weighed. against sums o f money, but lives and money should be in separate scale pens. Levels of risk should not be described as 'safe', rather as 'temporarily tolerable'. I t is better to seek 'fair decisions' about risks than merely to aim for risks which are 'acceptable'. All these observations are excellent and to the point. But sadly, these alpine finds don't really stand the trip back through the foothills. The party's recommendations are mostly of the 'more research' or 'change your attitudes' varieties. The most interesting suggestion is the creation of 'Risk Advisors'. These would be something like the new Safety Represenatives, but they would have a more explicit responsibility to inform people about risks to which they are exposed; and they would deal not only with workplace hazards but with other dangers in the home, on the roads a d elsewhere. Finally, Undercurrents readers should be warned that for the working party, 'action' generally means Government action. You will not find many suggestions here for ordinary people who feel a particular risk is 'unacceptable'. Tony Durham

More than Good Friends Some companions. The Soil Association. Sop. A BOOKLET which describes and illustrates some useful herbs which fit particularly well into a garden, often with insect repellent properties, and beneficent effects on certain other plants.

Nuclear Ncyclopedia -

No Nukes: Everyone's Guide t o Nuclear Power. Anna Gyorgy and friends. South End Press (Box 68 Astor Station, ~. Boston.MA 02T23 USA.) 4 7 8 ~ $8. THOSE friendly folk at the Clamshell Nliance have produced what is eviden~y meant to be the definitive book on nuclear power: a giant tome packed full of information, analysis and campaigning tips, together with some excellent cartoons and illustrations. Anna Gyorgy lives on a farm hear Montague, Massachusetts which is also the home of the legendary Sam Lovejoy.

. .

... : . .

. . . .

Stress and the A r t o f ~iofeedback Barbara B. Brown Bantem Books, 245pp Â£1.2 DR BROWN goes into biofeedback in some detail the technique of bringing under conscious control the normally involuntary functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension and brain wave activity. However, some o f the claims'made for 'miracle cures' using these techniques seem a little farfetched. Biofeedback is of course wonderful for that modern American disease - stress. However I don't think being able to play games with your blood pressure will have much effect on the wav most of us live - in large cities working in boring jobs etc - which actually causes the stress in the first place. Janet s.'payne

Over the past few years apart from being very involved with the Clamshell Alliance, she has toured the world con(acting anti-nuclear activists. This compilation draws on her experiences, and includes contributions from dozens of anti-nuclear activists in the US and overseas. There are detailed reviews of the antinuclear ^^ ^ organisations in the US, Canada, France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Japan, Australia and the UK, plus reviews of the situation in the USSR, Brazil, the PhiliDDineS and South Africa. There's a useful', well illustrated outline of nuclear .physics , and technology, and analysis of the economics of nuclear power including a good account of the employment implications. And there are 70 pages of information on the alternatives to nuclear power, ranging from conservation to the exploitation of solar power. But it isn't an 'academic' treatise: the emphasis is on organisation and action, including tips on non-violent civil disobedience and related tactics. The only problem's with the book are i t s size - this i s not a book you can easily carry around in your backpack to-read . at the next occupation - and the inevitably heavy emphasis on US material. On the other hand it works well as a technical primer and sourcebook for agitational material:although, personally I would have welcomed a few articles which reflected on the broader political

Green Paper Torness: Keep I t Green. Michael Flood. FOE Energy Paper No. 1. 85p. Although Friends of the Earth have some way to go before they rival the Department of Energy as,a producer of papers, Mike Flood's analysis of the South of Scotland Electricity Board's plan to build an advanced gas-cooled" reactor at Torness is an auspicious start to the series. It covers the case against Torness (and, indeed, the case in favour) in terms of cost, the electricity supply/ demand equation in Scotland, local amentty, employment and environment, and the safety of the AGR and nuclear power in general. As Flood says, 'The case against Torness is clearcut. The nuclear Dower station would be an expensive liability. Furthermore, with 70 per cent more generating capacity than required to meetpeak winter load .*r'O 5/ilts growth in electricity demand just one sixth of that predicted by the Electricity Boards, Torness i s wholly unnecessary. Torness:

The China Syndrome

Unholy Alliance The Nuclear Axis, Zdenek Cervenka and Barbara Rogers. Julian Friedman. Â£7.95 The Nuclear Axis gets a lot of action into its 450 pages. It is mainly an account of the relationship between South Africa and its biggest trading partner, West Germany, with reference to how the Germans have provided the yarpies with nuclear weapons making potential. Like Israel, another country with which the Germans are very pally these days, South Africa is widely thought to have nuclear weapons, not just the .potential to acquire them. Cervenka and Rogers show fairly clearly - mainly using open sources - that the expertise has largely come from West Germany. German firms mainly Metallgesellschaft - are heavily involved in uranium minin? anc other nuclear-related activities in South Africa and Namibia they have to be, they need a supply of fissile material for German reactors.

What is more, West German engineering firms have supplied South Africa with vital components for i t s nuclear enrichment plant and thereby given the So Africans the ability to fabricate nucl weapons. I t is entirely possible that the sto is not unique: Iran, Argentina, Brasi , Israel, and others would perhaps pr at least as terrifying case histories, even if they aren't as far advanced yet. The Nuclear Axis wasn't 1978's best-written book. It rambles badly, repeats itself, is boring when i t need not be, and contains long irrelevant chapters - a muchbetter book could have been written half as long. But if you want a depressing look at how nuclear weapons protiferation actually works - despite all the obstacles - because major economic interests sav it has to. this is an authori' tative case study. Martin Ince

Keep I t Green gives the facts behind Britain's greatest nuclear blunder.' Good stuff.

Beryl Bl-tn

Butter Side Up or the Delights o f Science. Magnus Pyke, Pan Books. 75p. BUTTER SIDE UP is a witty, breathless, informative, if ultimately useless, sideways look at the universe. Bill Hayes

PON a time you could hear North London. I used to t the 'Tally Ho' with a swing(Denny Ogden's) on a t. On a Sunday lunch just

just over a yeat ago, Tom Horton k over as landlord. Luckily he turned t to be a jazz-freak. Now there is really od music every night. I like Friday, a rn' night. Peter Mumford, a ng bass-player brings together e best 'main' and 'modern' Usually Andre Beeson ingsometimes reminds me of dges is on Alto. Andre shoulders hunched and eyes

a k

provided just the right foil for the alto. Nicely laid back and relaxed, often swapping the main melodic line, the trombone and alto produced a good musical texture. Tony drives the group along on drums but without eitfier overpowering the bass and guitar or underswinging the band. Tony is currendy at Buckhurst Hill with the renowned pianist Eddy Thompson. But perhaps the star of the evening was the guitarist who had been called in at the last minute to dep for someone who couldn't make it. Mitchell Dalton, is a remarkable player. Unusually, he uses his fingers as much as the plectrum. This is not surprising since he also plays classical guitar. His main thing is studio work (for example with Van Morrison and Herman Wilson). We got some really virtuoso performances from him both as backing and in solos. Finally, with just bass and drums, he performed a classic Django number: Nuajes. It's a long time since I've heard such brilliant guitar-jazz. If you are into this kind of jazz It's really worth making the Tally Ho, corner of Highgate Rd and Fortress Rd (Kentish Town tube) on a Friday night. John Southgate

uclear Rock and Roll clear Waste (b/w Digital Love). Fast er and the Radio Actors. Virgin rds (1978). Catalogue number Nuke

'-nuclear move-

Ik bands. But so eleased last year, Nuclear Waste confun lyric<like: 'do you find it ive to be radio-active'. The blurb leaflet with the record - under the title Thermo-nuclear Meltdown Rock and Roll -scampers through some of

the anti-nuclear arguments in a loose, knockabout way, ending up with 'come on gang - let's help spaceship earth we may yet have a future - it's over to you.' The overall feel is of 60s rock coupled with punk lyric slamming; 'Nuclea~waste -ultimate pollution Nuclear waste produces mutation', and given enough air time it might even creep into the singles charts. Digital Love, the flip side, i s softer, a Pink Floyd styled ballad concerning relations between people and machines: 'You beautiful machine - can I live without you?' Don't just pester Virgin for a Copy, try to get i t played on BBC1 and Capitol. Dave Ellioti

Yawn Yarn Private Police. Hilary Draper. Penguin. 950. I F YOU'RE an avid fan o f the weird and wonderful workings of the hachinery of power (a la Duncan Campbell, State Resear&, Machiavelli, Watergate, and Frans Kafka), don't bother with this book. It's a liberal yawn. Quite a good liberal yawn, mind you. Martin Incc

Graves Dug ~eedleso f Stone. Tom Graves. Turnstone. 213pp. Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ4.95 TOM GRAVES approaches the by How familiar theme of megalithic monuments and their purpose through the techniques of dowsing, so following in the path o f Guy Underwood and Tom Lethbridge. The main thesis of this book is the similarity between Chinese acupunctureand the earth energy system;.it also touches on ghosts, ghouls, UFOs and the elemen-* tal guardians of ley linqs and barrow^. Most important of all, it,streqesthe &' damage done to the earth energy by modern industrial activities. Chris Walker

Windscal Windscale Fallout. Ian Breach. Penguin. 90p. Ian Breach's Penguin Special Windscale Fallout i s one of the beft books t o come out so far on things nuclear; it contains general coverage about nuclear goings on as well as the version of the Windscale events themselves. Breach's coverage of , the inquiry, for the Financial Times and. the New Scientist, was the best, and what he has done in the book i s to put together that coverage with the background and the result. Not quite a complete 'Primer for the Age of Nuclear Controversy', but nearly so. Martin UK*

Sell your wampum here! Small Adsat special giveaway price: 4p per word; Box Numbers Â£1 Copydate for Number 35 i s June 27. Please send copy and replies to Box Numbers t o our London Office.

' P a y for nothing i n money, which you can pay f o r i n anything b u t monev." Cottage ~ c o n o m y97 William Cobbett R U R A L Co-ownership Housing Association. We will shortly be purchasing an attractive group of farm buildings with 12-20 acres in Herefordshire or South Shropshire. We are loo king for t w o more families pref. w i t h children & 1 or 2 single people w i t h capital to join us-convert the buildings into single nuclear family units, workshops, studios etc &various communal areas &facilities. Ring Gary & Sandy Burton, Mundersfield (Herefordshire) 617. I A M planning purchasing a smallholding i n Scotland or Ireland. Fair amount of cash b u t lack expertise and company. Anyone interested in joining me? Anthony Martin, 5 6 Heronswood Rd., Rednal, Birmingham.

V I L L A G E of Cooperation. Contacts, information, ideas wnated with view t o ultimate creation of self-sufficiency orientated village type community. Martin Brown. O l d Hall Community, East Bergholt, Suffolk. PEOPLE in Common, a living1 working co-operative w i t h o n going projects need people with either ideas, skills or energy to cultivateour %acre f i e l d People i n Common, 5 8 Clarence Street, Burnley, Lanes. Tel: 0 2 8 2 36932. WE A R E tired of city living and want to work and live i n a collective situation somewhere i n Europe. We want t o do this with other people as soon as possible. I f you are interested write or come and see us. Toby and Lyn, 2 3 Hessle Terrace, Leeds 6. PEOPLE in London area needed t o join group w i t h view t o set u p communal farm, possibly Wales. Minimum Â£1000 Send sae t o Jan Finkelstein, 26 Princess Rd., London NW6 USEFUL, flexible work i n a co-operativelyrun business. We're looking for people with an aptitude for electronicslmetalwork or just cheerful enthusiasm to join us making ecological research instruments. We share a small workshop, pay ourselves Â£ per hour, and organise our o w n working time. Some of us live in an adjacent commune, also looking f o r new people. Delta-T Devices, 128 L o w Road, Burwell, Cambridge. GANDHI MARG;a monthly journal o f the Gandhi Peace Foundation which seeks t o probe Gandhian perspectives on the various current national and international problems. S u b t o the U K : single copy 51.25, 1 year for S12.00. Available from "Gandhi Marg" Gandhi Peace Foundation, 221 I 2 2 3 Deen Dayal, Upadhyava Marg, New Delhi 110002. HOLIDAYIcraft courses in weaving, spinning and vegetable dyeing Small groups, home cooking B+B or self-catering in remote crofting township. Write T o m Kilbnde, Arinacfinachd, Strathearran, W Ross. Scotland.

REALIGNMENT THERAPY A course of ten sessions of deep tissue massage using the techniques developed b y Rolf and 'mindlbodv' techniques to facilitate regression, discharge and subsequent integration. Realistic rates Phone Chrison 01-278 9 1 7 2 or Mick on 01-903 6383. N A U G H T Y Prizes i n our essay competition' Just tell us, in 100 wordsor more, why you would like t o join our commune of nine adults and t w o children grooving, grumbling and giggling ina big o l d house w i t h three acreas of garden with goats, chickens and bees. Also n c l u d e what you'd do w i t h extensive workshoplutility space and a chance to join a scientific instrument business. N o entries returnable. ParsonageFarm Housing Cooperative, 128 L o w Road, Burwell, Cambridge. WE, Saskia 25 yrs, Hans 31 yrs, Rozemarin 2 yrs, Dutch, interested in having mutual aid within socialsufficiency integrated i n an Irish society, are looking forward t o living together with more children and adults and work o n 27 acrea o f agricultural land. Aghrafinigan, Knockvicar, Boyle, Co Roscommon, Eire. R U T H and Jan, recently arrived in Lincolnshire Wolds, would like contact w i t h other readers. Mount Pleasant, Hainton, Burgh-on-Bain 397. O L D watermill in need o f some renovation in the Spanish mountains, nearest village Grazalema, nearest t o w n Ronda, approx 50 miles Malaga, 6 0 miles Gibraltar. Drinking water f r o m mountain spring, grape vine, olive grove, walnut & a l m o n d trees, enough land for self-sufficiency. Â£4,500 Ring Loughborough 84321 4. 6.30-8pm. WEE <LONG Summer co irses n spin" ng. mcav ng din1 nat..irfl dyeing E5OrfI a.nc us v . For further information send sae to Barbara Girardet, Forest Cottage, Tintern, Gwent, S Wales or phone 0291 8 392. D A I R Y I N G for self-sufficiency. A week in the farm w i t h John and Sallv Sevmour Courses start June 1st 'Â£45 ncii.s i c ' ~ ~ b s i ~ ~ . . r ' n t C O S S! nc',.up s>tt ng "I-!3 , ,I sma. no oer, rnarKtit .larucninq-o o methods and new; home meat production. Send sae f o r details to Fachongle lsaf, Newport, Pembs. Tel. Newport 820469 PAPA STOUR: Four-berth holiday caravan t o let on unspoint island. Â£2 p.w. Writeor phone: Vicki Coleman, Papa Stour, Shetland. Tel: Papa Stour 234. WHY N O T takea t r i p with us this summer? Expanded consciousness guaranteed. Only a fiver a day for all meals (natural foods) and use o f excellent equipment. Camp conveyed b y vehicle-the small group simply walks. Many magical areas explored. Head for the Hills, 21 Pembroke Ave, Hove, Sussex +stamp).

PERSONS interested in helping to launch & develop unique youth & community project i n Caledonian

Road, North London. The emphasis will be o n a completely independent grass-roots approach and only thosecommitted t o this ideal need apply; paper qualifications a r e irrelevant. Once the show is o n the road, full-time salaried posts will be created (Â£4000-Â£500 h u t some initial spade work is necessary before this can be realised. We have premises and some initial capital, w i t h the promise o f more to Lome. Anyone interested please phone 01-837 5408, 8.30-9.30 am or after 11 .45 pm. R E A L B R E A D ! CAMREB, The Campaign for Real Wholemeal Bread. Promote the 'Staff of Life" with T-shirts, badges, envelope reusers. Send sac for lists. Camreb Promotions (U), c / o Homewood, Harp Hill, Cheltenham. A L T E R N A T I V E healing. Herbs, homeopathy, tissue salts. Pyramids, pendulums, plant synthesisers. Send for catalogue & price list enclosing 30p (refundable o n orders over Â£5to Second Sun Healing, 7 Terminus R o ~ d , Brighton, Susscx.

CHARACTER delineation plus advice o n any problems through astrological analysis for Â£ to Sally Maguire BA, 6 2 Bayswatei Road, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne 2 ASTROLOGY, interpretationof ndividual b i r t h charts, character analysis, future trends for the commg year, comparison of chart-, f r o m â‚¬ For details write to Nick Campion, 5 Carol St. London N W l ASTROLOGER offers ai.curate b i r t h chart and personal chaiacter analysis, Â£ including 12-month or 5 year future trendslpotentials Â£10Altprnativelv send foi t e r a t u r e : John W ~ l l m o t t ,MrIIhrae, Bunessan, Mull, Argyll. MYSTICISM or amusement? Either way use our tarot kit. 7 8 card pack, 5 colours, based on 1 4 t h centui y designs, plus full fortune telling nstructions. Â£3.0 post free. Dept 52, Hamilton House Productions, Staverton, Devon. HAS A N Y UC reader Itving in the countrysidegiven b i r t h usmg naiural methods at home or in hospital without hassles f r o m local GP, midwife etc? If you can recommend any area please write and let U S know. Whcn we movf'we want to find a n area where there won't be another long fight with a drugsand interventionorientated GP and hospital. Very grateful for all replies. Box AG.

RECHARGEABLE BATTER1ES T R A D E ENQUIRIES WELCC Full range available. SAE for lists. Â£1.2 for booklet Nickel Cadmium Power and catalogui Write or call Sandwell Plant Ll 2 Union Drive, Boldmere, Sutl Coldfield. West Midlands; tel ( 354 9764. Or see t h e m at TLC 32 Craven St., London WC2. THE MOIRA H a n d b o o k s challenging collage o f matriarc society, based o n reincarnatior memories. The technique used s also described. 75p. 4 0 St Ji Street, Oxford. FIRST HAND: First Rate 5 dc recipes and ideas for sustainabl living o n mainly home-grown f free f r o m exploitation of man animals. Revised edition 40p p free. Vegan Society, Dept F, 4 Highlands Road, Leatherhead, Surrey. M I L L I O N S o f animals are bein tortured in laboratoriesand fat farms in Britain today. D O YO CARE? I f so, write for our leaflet. 'Guidelines for Action', Animal Aid, 11 1 Eastridge Wa) Tonbndge, Kent. RECYCLED stationery. Detail samples from 'Recycler', Ebrin Bow, Crediton, Devon. Sae pie. PFACE \ E N S for non-violent c vo ,tion Reports, analysis, r o' nonv o ent action for social change, building alternatives ar resisting the megamachine. Cot anti-militarism. sexual oolitics. ~ c ogv, o d ~ c e t n r aisatmon ere 2 loriniqnt y Â £ lor \car sub, fr( 8 E m Abcn-c, Nottnqnam. RESEARCHER into Alternatib Press requires copies o f Undercurrents 1-7, Â£ each offered. Ring Max 0273 77498 or write t o 14 Connaught Rd, Hove, E. Sussex. A L T E R N A T I V E sources o f En 1s the US magazine devoted t o practical and D I Y applications AT. Overseas subscriptions (surface mail1 3 1 5 f o r 6 issues. From Route 2, Box 90a, Milac: M N 56353, USA. WESTERN ZEN Retreats offer t a r i n g in Zen m e d i a t i o n wori with Koans and modern Tantra Five days i n Welsh cottage. Ma\ 17-22nd. July % l o t h , 20-25 outstanding alternative holiday personal growth. Write WZR 51 Alma Rd, Bristol BS8 2DE. LET'S get cannabis legalised. A this pussyfooting around is get1 nowhere. What do you think? SAE t o Box NG.

SCOTTISH information. Recently established newsletter. Covers group work, massage, dance, selfhelo. . . vooa. . " . ineditation. counsellmci healing and more. Contents include calendar, directory, articles, news and ongoing events section. Subscriptions Â£ pa ( 3 issues) to The Sempervivum Trust, 1 3 Rankeillor St, Edinburgh.

Cover- Quarter Page Â£ 5; other sizes pro rata. Inside: 3-column layout 65p per col. cm.: 4-column lavout 500, o . col. cm.

T H E COMING Age: magazine of matriarchal religion and spiritual values. 35p; Lux Madriana (U), 4 0 St John Street, Oxford.

For f u l l details write t o our editorial office for a rate card or phone Chris Hutton Squire o n 0 261 6774.

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

THE BOOKS listed below are available by mail order from Undercurrents. prices include postage and packing which in many cases has been absorbed within the normal shop price. All orders must be prepaid.

AND FOR THE PEOPLE Herbert Girardet (ed) ,: , manual o f radical land reform: it covers: food ?sources, self-sufficiency, enclosures, learances and the Direers, Highland landlords.

'HE POLITICS O F NUCLEAR I'OWI-R Dave Elliott (ed). Pat Coync, MikcGeorge, Roy Lewis Â£1.9 H E NUCLEAR DISASTER Counter Information Service3 L0.85 lescribing a n industry in chaos, it 'concludes hat t h e UK'S nuclear power industry should e scrapped. CNERGY PRIMER Richard Merrill (Ed)

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RADICAL TECHNOLOGY Godfrey Boyle, Peter Harper Undercurrents Â£4.2 (Bulk discount for 1 0 or more copiesÂ£3.70 "For those who still think about the future in terms of mega-machines and all-powerful bureaucracies. Radical Technology will be an eye-opener. Therc is an alternative? -Alvin Toffler

PRACTICAL METHANE L John Fry Â£3.5 This isgenerally acknowledged t o b e one of the best books o n small-scale methane plants yet written. Anyone interested in the conversion of organic waste into a clean useful fuel will find Practical Methane invaluable.

Kcvin McCartncy

THI: BAREFOOT PSYCHOANALYST Â¥&kÃ Rosemary Randall, John Southgate, I-ranees Tonilinson Â£2.9 "It isabout t h e psychoanalysis which people Kin do for themselves . . . It is intended t o be of value. . . to people who are disturbed . . . for) to anyone who nevertheless wishes t o discover marc about thein.sclves." LCOTO I'I A Ernest Oillcnbach

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BACK ISSUES :UT PRICE BACK NUMBERS! 5 0 p for one, 7 5 p for two, Â£ for threeand so on, adding 25p for each extra copy. We like to think that

Undercurrents

s not so much a magazine as a growing collection of useful information which retains its value long after publication. So stock up with back issues now.

COMTEK/National AT 'entre/Organic Gardcning/Frec ladii/Building with Rammed krth/Windmill Theory/ lei meticism 3 D1Y A-Bomb design/Kiddies hide t o Nuclear PowerIWaste )isposal Dangers/Energy Analysis f Nuclear Power/Uranium Supply/ luclcar Proliferation Perils/Solar 'ollectors/Grow All Your Own legetables 10 Solar Collector theory & IIY Design/Sward Gardening/ inarchist CitiesIFuture o f AT/

Con~munity/Bypassingthe PlannersICitizens' Band Radio1 f r e e School

Computer Lev Huntllhwse-

AT/Terrestial Zodiacs

8 IT & the Third World/ Chinese Science/IT & Second Class Capital/Supermacker/Ley Hunting/ Hydroponics/Lucas/

'ultures Part 1

2 Lucas Aerospace/Biofccdick/Community Technology/ OMTEK/Windpower part 21 Iternative Medical Care/ Iternative Culture Part 3 3 Diggers/Energy & I'ood roduction/Industry and the o m m ~ ~ &t yATIAlternative ngland & Wales Supplement / hnning & Communes/Methane/ Iternative Culture part 4 14 Jack Mundey o n Australian reen Bans/AT Round the World1 uilding with Natural EnergyIDlY isulation/AT in India/BRAD ornmunity 5 Insulation vs Nuclear Power/ awards a non-nuclear future/AT & ,b Creation/Production for Need/ iodynamic GardeningIDClAC iverter Design

19 Limits t o Medicine/Politics of Self-Help/Babes in t h e Ward/ Guide to Alternative Medicinel Findhorn Community/National Centre for AT RevisitedIDanish Anti-Nuclear Campaign/Alternative History of England

Tony Benn on the Diggers/ Farmine: Chemicals or Organic?/

Report o n Broadcasting Assessed

Fascism and the Counterculture/Motorway MadnessINuclear Policy Chaos/Orgone Energy/Free Broadcasting/Good Squat Guide/ Iron Age Farming/Laurieston's Magic GadenIPrint-it-Yourself

Paranoia Power/Windscale Background/Crofting/I'ood Co-ops Stonehenge/17ishing Limits/Primal Therapy/Italian Free Radio/ MethaneIFish Farmine 23 Seabrook Anti-Nuclear Demo/Nuclear Power & Trade Unions/Herman Khan Interview/ DIY Woodstove/Fortesn Phenomcna/DlY Solar Collector Design/Small-scale Radio Transmitter Plans/Australian Citizens' Band 24 Nuclear Weapons Accidents/ Electronic Surveillance/Making Cheese & Cider/Cornpost & Cornmunism/Small-Scale Radio Transmitter Part 2/Magic Mushrooms/Ibestry/SWAPO/Medicinc/ Chisken's Lib 25 t:motionai ~ l a e u ein COOP

Dilemmas~ 26 AT Days that shook Portugal/Growing Dope at Home/ Crafting in the Orkneys/Community Ham Radio/Repairing BoatsINewcastle AT Group/Lucas Alternative Hardware/Russians Weaponry

27 Soft Energy:Hard Politics1 The I'ast BreederEnquiry/Not So Small Tools for Small FarmsIAnti Nuclear CountermeasuresIFree Wheelin'/Hull Docks Fish Farm/ Shaker Communities

Torncss Dcmo/After the Windscale I'nuuirvIThe Tvind

[cation

Women's & AT Movement linkes?/Windscalc Visit/AntiNuclear Dance/Ferninists Against NukesIWomen & Science/On Roles/Wornen, Work and the Trade Unions/Welfare Services & The CutsIATman Cartoon/Birth Control 30 Barefoot Socialism/Ahernative Nurseries/Solar CaliforniaIAT and State Money/Ecotopia Interview/Nl: Countermeasures/ Parish Politics/Ecology and .eminism/Windscale Scandal 31 Factory Farrning/Food Additives/Commodity Campaigns/ Wholefood Co-ops US & UK/ Common Agricultural Policy ExplainedIPotato Politics/ 1"eminism& rood/Organic I'arming

32 The British Road to Lcotopia/Larzac Struggle/ Scottish Anti-nuke Unions/ Workers' Plans/Cornmunal Blues/ Peanut I'ronomics/Aind-powered Council Housing/Atom Scientists Redundant/Save Your Steelworks 33

Resettling the Countryside/ City Wildernesses/Country Parks/ Living o n the L a n d s ecial Status' for British Islanders~fWorkingo n Organic Farms/Collector Design

Vole

Network for Alternative Technology and Technology Assessment

Alternative TechnologyInstitutional Co-option or local control

Unpredictable, Provocative, Amusing.

August 23/24 Milton Keynes Colege of Education Wolverton, Bucks.

Vole IS committed to conservation, alternative technology, self-sufficiency, gardening, museums and bicycles. Vole, edited by Richard Boston, combines all these with astringent wit and a keen sense of investigation, Recent issues have included The Green Alliance manifesto, Tony Benn on Science and Liberty, C.O. Jones on puking Civil Servants and the infamous Green and Groan List. Buy Vole. Published monthly. 60p per issue or Â£7.2 per year post free. Please fill in the form below

AT has arfGeT-both government and industry we showing increasing interest. But must AT inevitablebetakenfovw by conventional industry?Isn't therea role for decentralised smal scale community technology?How can we influence the development of AT? These are some of the questions that will be discussedat the two-day NATTA conference supported by the Open University and organind in conjunction with the OU's AT-Group, who arealso organising this year's COMTEK festival in Milton Keynes (August 25-27). So why not come for the whole show? Full board and Accommodation at MK Colege of Edue Â£9,5 Conference Fee only Â£1.0

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FIGHTTHE SPREAD OF NUCLEAR WITH A 'SMILINGSUN'*T-SHIRT. Nuce l ar power is ~ A ~ ~ ~ ~ el^^ ~ uet~gctuu~ ~ ~ ~ , =#tcrgy ~ ~ ~L O ~~ C ~ L W ~ O , = = ~ O L ~ = and reliable Friends oftheEarthare campaigningto haltthespread of nuce l ar power,increase the use of soa l r energy and reducethe wasteof resources By buyingoneof our Tor sweatshirts bearingtheinternationalantinuclear symbol,you notonly getan attractiveand unusualOO%coltonshirtbutalso contributeto thefight against nuclear power FriendsoftheEarthLtd,9 PolandSt.London WlV3DG. --A

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Â¥BRIN YOUR IDEAS - MAKE I T HAPPEN: Â A d m i s s i o n - A l m o s t F r e e Â¥N c a m p i n g o n site-sorr Â ¥ F o m o r e d e t a i l s c o n t a c t R o s e m a r y - R h o a d e s , COMTEK c / o R e d f i e l d Co-op, Winslow, B u c k i n g h a m s h i r e , , UK.