UC15 April-May 1976

chnology Uncaged lJob CreATione Wholefoods for Half PriceaDC--AC?-Step Right Up!@ New Charge for Light Brigade* News, Reviews & Much more..

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A NON NUCLEAR FUTURE

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Undercurrents 1

THE FEDERATION OF ALTERNATIVE BOOKSHOPS

aims to promote and support a network of autonomous workercontrolled radical bookshops making available a wide range of constructive radical literature, acting as agit-prop centres in their areas, and providing solidarity and support to other community groups and projects.

Anamus, 1-3 Market Street Lane, Blackburn 0 Bogus Books, 21 Prices Avenue, Hull 0 East Oxford Advertiser, 34 Cowley Road, Oxford 0 Fourth Idea, 14 Southgate, Bradford 0 Grass Roots, 109 Oxford Road, Manchester 0 Mushroom, 1 5 Heathcote Street, Nottingham **News from Nowhere, 48 Manchester Street, Liverpool 0 One-o-Eight, 1 08 Salisbury Road, Cardiff 0 Other Branch, 42 Bath Street, Leamington Spa 0 *Partisan, Earth Exchange, 21 3 Archway Road, London N 6 0 Peace Centre, 18 Moor Street, Birmingham 0 Prometheus, 134 Alcester Road, Birmingham 13 0 Public House, 2 1 Little Preston Street, Brighton 0 Rising Free, 197 Kings Cross Road, London WC1 0 Single Step, 86 King Street, Lancaster 0 Third World Publications, 138 Stratford Road, Birmingham 1 1

C E N T R E FOR A L T E R N A T I V E S IN U R B A N D E V E L O P M E N T SUMMER SCHOOL A U G U S T 2-14TH 1 9 7 6 LOWER SHAW FARM. SWINDON

Alternative Society is organising a twelve-day residential summer school t o explore the social, economic and environmental implications of existing and future possible developments in the fields of Energy David Elliott Food Colin Fisher Shelter John F. C. Turner Health Tom Heller Art

Brian Wicker

The school will be organised in tutored study groups. Fees: £3with accommodation indoors, £3 if you camp, with a 30%reduction for fulltime students. Low cost meals will be available.

Send for further details to:

Jean Hollis

21 Union Street Woodstock, Oxon Phone. 0993-811 674

*HvuOes external correspondence **Hand&s internal mail. Send 30 copies o f anything you may want circulated to federation shops.

Undercurrents back-issues are selling out fast - nos. 1 to 6 have already passed into history and are no longer available, but 7 to 14 can still be had for SOP each (including postage) from 11 Shadwell, Uley, Dursley, Gloucs. See the subscriptions form on page 48 for further details.

Undercurrents 7. Special Communications Issue

Telephone Tapping & Mail Opening: who does it & how / A Phone Phreak's Confessions / The Government's Doomsday Communications Systems / TV Cameras Spy on City Streets / The People's Radio Primer / Switched-on Uses of Ham Radio & TV / Cable TV: What's in it for the Media Moguls / AT in the Shade / Did a Stray Missile!,+., Shoot Down an Airliner? ,--& Yy:.,& . & "-, A*

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Lhdercurrents 8

Prince Philip Visits National AT Centre / Eddies' Paranoia Corner / COMTEK Festival Report & Pictures / BRAD Community / Organic Living Experiment / Sward Gardening Introduction / The Other London Underground Radio: Opening Up the Air Waves / Building with Rammed Earth / Multi-blade Windmill Design / Wind Generator Theory / Hermeticism: Technology Needs Transcendence / Plus: a look at Undercurrents finances . . . . .

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Undercurrents 9 Special Feature on Nuclear Power Dangers. Kiddies' Guide to Nuclear Power / Waste Disposal Dangers / The Breeder - Fast & Deadly / End of the US Nuclear Dream / The International Protesters / Energy Analysis of Nuclear Power / Nuclear Proliferation Perils / The Terrorists' DIY A-Bomb / Uranium Supply Shortages. . .

PLUS: Nuclear Blackmail - has it already been tried? / Bunker Secrets de-bunked / Solar Collectors : product review / Nature et Progress Conference in Paris: full report & pnotos / Hudson Institute Critique / Can Home-Grown Food make a Significant Contribution?

Undercurrents 1 0 Joint Issue with Resurgence Ma Solar collectors: Complete b c & i r i d Theory and low-cost IIW Design / Towards An Alternative Culture: Part I /.Land for the People / New Villages Now / Sward Gardening in Practice / Anarchist Cities / General Systems / Future of Alternative-Technolo / Schumacher: A Conscious Culture of Poverty / Living theRevolution:i Milovan Djilas / Industrial Slavery Can Now End / Nuclear Protest s Builds up Steam ..

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Undercurrents 11 Nuclear Nightmares Come True / Bee Keeping / Back to the Land : What happened in the '30s / Mysterious Energies: the Hidden Secrets of Ancient Britain / Building with Compressed Subsoil Blocks / Wind Power Special Feature: Background Theory & Part I of the Undercurrents-LID Wind Generator Design / New Methane Digester Design / The House That Jaap Built - an Autonomous Dome in Holland / Mind Expansion: An Evaluation of Psychocybernetics and Silva Mind Control / Getting Your Goat: Goat-keeping Demystified / Towards An Alternative Culture - part I1 . . .

Undercurrents 12 AT and Lucas Aerospace / Comtek 75 / DIY Biofeedback / Alternative Medical Care / The Crabapple Community / Half Life against Nuclear Power / The Granada Tele-eco-house / Planning for War / The Brighton Envirofair / CEGB Energy down the Drain / Community Technology in Washington DC / Class War Comix / World Energy Strategies / Transcendental Meditation / Freedom for Scotland . . . . .

Undercurrents 1 3 Diggers Ancient and Modern / Energy and Food Production / Lucas' Alternatives / Planning / National Centre / Transcendental Meditation / Methane . . .

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Number 15 April-May 1976 EDDIES. The usual brew of News, Scandal, Gossip, Horror and Happiness.

LETTERS. Your chance to get your own back on us.

RADICAL TECHNOLOGY. Peter Harper has another stab at re-defininga strategy for what's Left of Alternative Technology movement, in this extract from our book Radical Technology. , HOW TO GROW MORE VEGETABLES THAN YOU EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE ON LESS LAND THAN YOU CAN IMAGINE. John Jeavons describes the BiodynamiciFrench Intensive method of horticulture, which he says could make possible an ecologically-sound system of organic 'minifarming', with yields up to 16 times those of Agribusiness.

NEW CHARGER FOR LIGHTBRIGADE. Gerry Metcalf, John Willoughby and Godfrey Boyle give the lowdown on the latest 'Mark 11' version of the Undercurrents-LIDWind Generator described in UC 12 and 13.

WHOLE FOODS FOR HALF PRICE. Get together with friends and start a food co-op. You'll eat better and save yourselves a@t of money.

Robin Roy explains one way to do it.

Dc-AC? STEP RIGHT UP! With this do-it-yourself transistorised Invertor, a 12-volt DC supply from batteries can be stepped up to the normal 250 mains voltage, and turned into AC. Dave Graham tells you how. '

WHO NEEDS NUKES? - SPECIAL FEATURE LET'S HAVE SOME MORE RADIOACTIVITY. The anti-nuclear protest movement hassucceeded in putting the nuclear power industry o n the defensive. Now's the time for us to throw open the door to a full public debateon the Nation's energy options, says Godfrey Boyle. For a start, we could point out that a national domestic Insulation campaign would make more energy available, create more jobs and cost less than the CEGB's new reactor programme.

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TOWARDS A NON-NUCLEAR FUTURE. Amory Lovins argues that nuclear fission, a dangerous, unforgivingtechnology, i s not needed to 'tide us over' until fusion-power, or solar energy, can take over in 50 years. A far better, cheaper, safer stop-gap is energy conservation. Solar power could meet virtually all our energy needs and could be developed much more quickly than many 'experts' predict.

JOB CREATION. Dave Elliott urges an alliance between the Alternative Technology advocates and workers claiming the right to work on sociallydesirable products. Specifically, we should push for a national alternative energy technology campaign, and for conversion of the armaments industry to socially valuable production.

PROBLEMS OF PRODUCTION FOR NEED. Tony Emerson points out some of the pitfalls involved in attempts to make industry responsive to the needs of ordinary people, and suggests some possible remedies.

IF YOU DON'T DIG IT, SHARE IT. Details of Friends of the Earth's new share-a-gardenscheme, which aims to put unused gardens back into production.

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REVIEWS. Supership, b y ~ o eMostert. l The World Turned Upside-Down and Winstanley'sLaws of Freedom, edited by Christopher Hill. Health is for People, by Michael Wilson. Vegetarian Passion, by Janet Bakis.

Fertility Without Fertilisers, by Lawrence D. ilk! The Dome Builders' Handbook, by John Prenis. Fuel's Paradise, by Peter Chapman. Follies of Conservation, by George Edwards. Pontifex, by Theodore Roszak.

Plus books on Workers' self-management.

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Good prices Natural cosmetim Apple juice & cider (organically grown) Undercurrents, books on A T & v q . cooking &organic gardening & psychic subjects etc.

Crafts from Rajastha" & Africa & Guatemala & "on-exploitative sources.

Traditional clothes & folk jewellary Handwoven & handprinted fabrics & clothes Laundry bags & bed covers Local crafts pottery & handblown glass Children's clothes, toys Knitting & crochet Weaving lessons Photographic workshop f o

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Jumble sale on Sat"

CONSERVATION BOOKS Â Radical Technology G BoyleIP Harper

(Eds) 3 25 Alternative England & Wales N Saunders 2 50 Why Soft Technology? A Mackillop 0 65 Non-Nuclear Futures The case for an ethical energy strategy A B Lovins/ J H Price District Heating A E Haseler The Autonomous House B & R Vale Transport & Society M Hamer Forest Farmino J S Douqlas/R A de Hart

7.15 2.00 2.50 0 35

3.85

Half the Loaf: World food crisis

Food For Thought: A fresh food cook book M KingIWScott Families of Eden: Communes new anarchism J Jerome Notesfor the Future R Clarke

IN ISSUE N0.30:-

Inventing Tomorrow M AIIabY Battle for Planet Earth (for kids1

ISSUE N0.31:SUB.RATES ON APPLICATION

2.95 4.25

1.95

SPECIAL GIFT OFFER - .

6 BOOKS REDUCED FROM £2.9 to £1.00 Consumers Guide t o the Protection of the E i m e r i t : Population Bomb; H o w t o Be q. Survivor: The Environmental Handbook: The Diseconomies of Growth; Changing Directions.

400 titles stocked; any supplied.

Books from stock sent by

sewation Books (U).

e o f the s i t e for the

sign rethink' by the Nuclear Power

stone blocks needed for the sea wail for the plant.

There will be music (apipe band and folk groups) in the

info

7

who would be taking fallout sneltcr there T\e most, significant

in each community

The circular is intended

the waste bin.

The Home Office, the> complain, i s perpetually plannine for wa? and the survival ofgovernment As a result, their plans for the population at large are ill thought out If you're a t home, stay at more probable emergencies such as a malor air crash, another Flixborough . . .

These emergencies they can do something about. Besides, there isn't any money. But, even i f c o u n c i l coffers were full, many councils,

to local demands, have nominated and briefed wartime community leaders or advisers for this purpose in normal peacetime and in some cases vested in them some semblance of wartime authority.' I n other words, the local councils habe appointed, secretly or openl y individuals who in war would have power under emergency regulations to run their districts. Although some o f these 'leaders' are i k e l v to be district or parish councillors, the process i s distinctly antidemocratic.

I t also smells o f the private Army elite of General Walker and his kind. But such an inference would probably be wrong, as the circular says earlier that 'purpose-designed volun-

community organisations.'

This is understood to be a deliberate attempt to exclude

DEBATED The first Green Ban movement in Britain - modelled on many successful actions in Australia - has got off to

has already had effe start of March, West county council voted to ask Environment Minister

the support of Birmingham Trades Council i n the! attempt t o prevent de

The City Council has no

in Brum's Victoria Squar and its replacement with Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ1million office develo ment.

Green Bans were desc ed in the last issue o f Undercurrents (14) in an leader Jack Mundey.

Mundey has been giving lectures in many parts o Britain during his SB i f demolition is a 2 , it is now certain that ~ n i o nmembers will not work on the site and the site could be picketed. But the movement against the develo~ment

of revoking a plannin

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rkiness. The Po

mayor Sir Frank Price. result, apparently, plan ocedures have been N get permission throue w'<h ailack of suutorypublic planning consultation which is now being inbcstigated by the government ombudsman.

The future of nuclear pow

state. The statute 'Land Use and Nuclear Power Liability and Safeguards Act'

The attempts of the Austral ian government and min interests to start exploit of a uranium mine i n Aboriginal lands is mee with difficulty, according to Marg Smith in the Australian National Review recently (6th February). An inquiry

existing three nucl and a moratorium

Groups in Britain and France are multi.media , distribution networks, ~h~~ means texts, tapes, video recordings and slides which would be gathered and circu. lated by a central organisation.

In London, Sieve Herman of International Times has proposed the reestablishment of the Electric Newspaper, a 'people's newsreel' which was started by an early video co-operative, about 1972. But the price o f suitable equipment, and thc conseq~cnt lack of iniets and o-itlets then from anyone with offers suggestions as to origina of material, possible location for regular showings or views on organisation and use o f the recycled Electric Newspaper, A similar request i s made

by Connexite-Mediadrome als for classification and organisation o f radical material on audio visual of

to the development of t h oposed Ranger mine at biru i n Northern Territ -opened late in Februa Commissioner Judge has chosen to hear very rangingevidence about environmental effects o mine - such as the effect o Australian uranium exuorts on the proliferation o f nuclear weapons. Australia's new conservative governm has told journalists that Japan will be supplied fro Australian sources. Japan has not signed the nuclea non-proliferation treaty.

Yet the government hasp ricated on a request fro ommissioner Fox for a rification of the sover n t position on urani The commission sviewing the proposa terms of environment pact - has reportedly h asked to report by June 30th. Witnesses to the hearing, which has travelled round Australia taking dence, have also stress the impact on the whose land the uranium h heedfound. Opencast techniques were planned, brin n g considerable hazard t the surrounding area a5 well as miners, through the of radon gas and particular radioactive material.

Further information on the conlpaiF,: QI,D PO Box 59, Toowong, 4066 Auftruliu, Interferences, an amazing French magazine, with an 1'nJt.-fi-urrt.'-nu s t y l e , looks at the technology of com-

om Antoine Lefebure,

has a few copies o f the previous edition, No 3

eoples Habitat

ockland Peter's farm is in the Surrey

Windmill School The winnmg project in the BBC's 'Young Scientist' corn petition, to be screened during April and May. i s anms~illating windmill devised by a York school.

The main component o f the device is a solid aerofoil

Small workshops are beginning in the old warehouses next to the river - - there are ready violin makers, weavers

The urban farm at Surrey docks, featuring the goat. The farm i s run by Hilary Peters. from page 3

respond to another war circular are the 'shire' rural counties and others in the south. The 'wartime leade suggestion probably refer to arraneements made

There will be buske and street theatres - tl Waterside Theatre i s al there - music will range from African to chambe music - people can brin their own musical instru A camp site for approximateIv 100 tents will be available.

wall, one source suggested.

Councils are now SUDDOSunities',possible suitable ganisations within them, d then t o encourage selfIp schemes. Many councils won't have the money, time, or interest. Why should they, if the communities can help themselves. The Home Office's attempts t o organise central control will be

Tel 240 2106.

Sponsored by Comtek, Intermediate Technolozv Publica-

section pivoted at i t s lower end. As i t reaches full travel on one swing, the pitch o f the foil changes and i t is driven in the opposite direction.

The team at Pocklington school deliberately went for intermediate productive technology rather than the more typical aping o f consumer high technology.

The device has two advantages over conventional rotors - the normal tower is not needed; an eating action c pump or simila directly

erhaps to contributi the regions outlining activities for publicati

POST OFFICE PARCEL SPlEi The Post Office, despite public reports, is not allowing the parcel service to die without a fight. This includes spying on their competitors and circulating the contents of business letters sent out by the firms.

According to 'Intelligence Exchange*a confidential Post Office publication recently sent to Undercurrents. Post Office parcels service representatives are in the habit examining their client' correspondence. 'While customer's premises in Bolton Area 'one item r the PO'S rep k o t e d a CU memo from Huddersfield Parcels L t d ' pointing OU their rates were 3p less p pound. The item appeare under the heading 'Blata

A major report on the impact of oil development on the Aberdeen area, Oilon Troubled Wafers, was published in March hv Aberdeen Peoule's

the peak of forseeable Scotfish employment in the North Sea oil boom has already pa%ed with the finishing of the first batch of vlatforms late

have fa' the cost. develonments at

P

community now threat the oil boom has nothi

ous salaries we're led

nadian Arctic, or G

berdeen. Aberdeen has n the forefront of oil develo

tructure. Improvements al facilities are paid for herally raised rates where

rdeen People's Press, 16 7 King Street, Aherde

S Voe is now complete, an work on the Brent line h stopped temporarily with 66km of the length laid. Sut tial information about a competitor, BRS Parcels, i euphemistically terme ranging discussion' no following a little gent1 persuasion. ting up competitor's drivers.

And, somehow, letters sent

all the way.

Although the testing spill-collecting equipm obviously vital, in July Department of Trade an Industry decided to spill several lots of oil off no east Shetland tosee if the

operate in competition to the Post Office parcels service will be interested to kno that Intelligence Exchan published several times

fter the times and for the experiments been fixed. Luckily ice was taken of the many mplaints thdt were made ationally and locally, and i l i e si.31iini; ~ c - ivk:i'i l ~ CLI n:i-k coiiiid~r:~oly.

mysteriously rose surface o f Yell Sou

1i.ivc hcen .ind me cc~iicrclr ci-)titiiy u'l. 011 in< pipe %lien rrently under way, ell themselves have used to give any public explanation of the rising p

where i t would have settled o the bottom, but left to low over grassland on the eighbouring island of

ould have been environ-

was that the Nature Conins 50 detailed pa ential informat What an enter

hit b

the local fishermen's associ tiomover compensation t

NUCLEAR DEMOShow to get there

sponsibility in Science worked as a 'pressure group* to publicise the abuse of science. During those years i t campaigned against chemical and biological warfare, the in Northern use of land, nuclear testing, and llution. A series of conrences were held on topics ch as Science Education d The Social Impact of odern Biology. These nferences were 'talk shops' ncerned with abuses of

seas -

political position and its constituency, including *the need for BSSRS to serve as an 'umbrella' group for individuals of varying political positions. * BSSRS's task is not so much to radicalise scientists and technicians as to provide a focus for the activity of radicalised scientists and technicians. * BSSRS's present structure with a National Committee and central office combined with autonomous local groups should be maintained. * BSSRS must increase its membership amongst industrial scientific workers, ie our membership i s still too college-based. *We must avoid becoming

WINDSCALE Windscale is eleven miles south o f Whitehaven, Cumbria due west o f Wasdale and the Scafell Pikes (from which it can easily be seen in clear weather). Get to it via the A595, turning off at Gosforth (from the north) or Holmrook (from the south), The meeting will probably be in the car park outside the main sate (British Nuclear ~uelspermitting)starting about 1 om.

The Nuclear Excursion leaves London at 7.30 am It

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route to put you down or pick you up.

Edinburgh FOE will probably be running some coaches. Contact Marv Mclintnck for details (031 225 7752 office or 031 557 2516 home1 Assemble at the campsite at Thorntonloch. Coming from Dunbar, get to i t vid the road runnine east from the second o f the two road junctions signposted to Crowhill and Thornton.

SIZEWELL Sizewell i s on the Suffol k coast six miles east o f Saxmundham. Get to it via the

specific issues.

Times have changed hazards in industry ha brought i t into contac the shop floor and left groups Its interpretation of the role of science and technology in society has shifted away from a use abuse model towards a marx. st-based analysis.

Some o f the work t BSSRS has done over past year includes *Talks to trade union groups on health hazards issues *The reprinting o f The New Technology o f Repression Lessons from Ireland -The publication of an internal bulletin to inform members of BSSRS activities and to be a forum for nolitical debate on i t s work

There's plenty of work to be done LASH OUT The Open University's course on Man-Made Futures i s going public from the start o f

Seen on the beach at Sizewell, Essex In the bacl-,ground i s the Sizewell nuclear reactor complex. will stop at Watford, Birmingham, C r e w Warrington, and Preston, and arrive at Sea scale at about pm Return fare from London will be t5 There may s t i l l be a few seats e f t Contact Czech Conro} a t the F O t London office for details (9, Poland St. W1, phone 01 434 1684). Coaches will run to Windscale from other parts of the country.

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OU degre course is the project Poten-

in-,don to ~~~~~~~f~ Road, turning off ai saxmundham (01 19) from the south and Blvthburgh (01125) or Yoxforcl ( E l 122) from the north Coiiches \wil run rrom Cambridge, from the South Coast, and probabl~,from Milton Keynes Groups from other parts o f East Anglia may run their own coaches

National Healt With the National Health Service gasping for funds, it might have been thought that the government's Consultative Document Prevention and

Health: Everybody's Business might have come up w i t h one or t w o positive ideas on how people might take their health into their o w n hands and reduce the burdensome queUL-s in the GP's surgery and at the Hospital gates.

But apart from regurgitating the arguments f o r and again51 screening ( w i t h minima1 cost benefit analysis), and identifying the effects on health o f people's life styles from smoking, drinking, and doping to 'the sexual revolution and the changing environment' the document has l i t t l e t o offer in the way o f ideas for stimulating the physical and mental well-being o f the community.

The report devolves responsibility for preventive medicine on the individual himself. 'There is a danger that people are led t o think they have discharged their rcsponsibility fur their o w n health i f they have taken this test or dcccpted that procedure.

Important though these are, there i s more l o i t than that.

Much of the responsibili~yf u r ensuring his own good health lies with the individual. We can all influence others by our own action$.'

A b i t o f a cop o u t considering the continuing official embarrassment and blind eye turned towards the first comprehensive experiment in community preventive medicine, the Peckham Health Centre. When this was started just before the war i t was equipped with gym, swimming pool, theatre and recrealion

The lNTI;l<NATIONA1. SOLAR 1.NLRG1 SOCIETY arc having their 811, ~echnicalMeexins and AG-M on April 22. from 9.45 - 17.30, ',,his will lake place at the Main Hall i d N . I .

London Polytechnic, Forest Rti~d.London E l l . and the theme i s European Solar Houses. e l u d e d will be talks on the Philips House, in Aachen, the Enroc House, Sweden, and the Milton Keynes Solar House. Tickets are ivailab~c from Hie Secretary, uK-ISES, The Royal Institution. 21 Albemarle Street.

London WIX 4BS. There i s to be an EASTER CONFERENCE ON LAND a t Laurieston Hall. April 16-23.

The object of the confe~encei s to survey the work people have done relating to #he politics,of land, to exchznge experiences and question our aims. The weekend will be devoted mainly to discussion on the politics of land tenure, followed by a greater emphaxis on the practical side of livinz off the land.

Some suggestions for workshop discussions a :h to make a small plot of land viable. and also the production of a manifesto of agricultural policy. You can also visit some of the local groups. For more details, write to Land Conference, Laurieston Hail, Castle Douglas, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. I t will cost  £ 1 . 7 5per day and you will be welcome for a l l or part of the week. Book now, as numbers will be limited.

MUSTARD SEED - a Festival of Alternative Living in Ireland will happen from 8 pm April 23-25 at the Glencree Peace Centre. Co. Wicklow, which i s 12 miles from There will be the centre of Dublin. workshops, demonstrations of self-sufficiency skills, intermediate technology, celebrations, music and a market. Accommodation will be rough, as this i s mountain country. For more information write to Michael Walsh, Fieldside, Knocklyon Road, Firhouse, Dublin 14. Telephone: Dublin 977741.

tives to the Dole Queue r k ' o n May 8'inGreenwich.

rooms. Consulting surgeries were conspicuously unfeatured. Tile idea behind the project was that health was just as poweriu! and infectiuui 'd^ disease. Children would encourage their parents t o come along, and the health of the whole family would benefit.

But b\ 1951 the Centre was cioscd and one o f ib founder, Scot Wiliiamsoii was writing, 'The-sequence o f events which have led up t o the ending o f the Peckham Experiment makes i t impossible to escape the observation that a 'Welfare State' must be the sole arbiter of its nation's destiny. T o maintain its integrity i t can brook no

and vice. I t is n o t ready t o consider the possibility that the cultivation of order, easi and virtue i n w c i e t y might prove an even greater power for the welfare of the peoplt than the abiding 'care'uf t h ~ administrator.'

Since the closure of the Centre a small group of med under the name Pioneer Hedlth Centre L i d . have bee trying t o keep its ethos alive Currently the Universitv o f S t Andrews is tiilkiiig o f ruin ning J Peckliam-style projec i n the new town o f Glenrott

in r i f e Br.. t l i f Peckli;i concept hA never been hap[ ily dcco~iinioddlcdb') the administrdior-i who hold the Purse strings. Current financ difficulties in the Health Service only exacerbate thei disinclination to investigate

influence that comes from outside its own programme of compelling 'care.' I t stands upon the ground of cure and

new departures in medicine.

But the savings, n o t to menl i o n the intrinsic gains o f Peckham type experiments are n o t the sort that can be calculated b y the economist

prevention of disease, disorder

o f the DHSS.

tai-niing, nutrition arid c1:<:1noniics.1.ectiirer'i The TFILHARD CENTRE FOR THE ~ o n f e r ~ n c e include Dr. I!. Scliumueln-r, Dr. B. I ~ a t 1 0 .2nd F L T ~ R EOF MAN prrsents a Mr. Sam Mayall, whine oreanic tarn?\$illbe on june19. ,,,he theme is xcdical rthicj, one visitci!. Course rcc is£2. or £ per day al! far bein^ 'llalf *live. ~ ~ ~e a ldin the f title inclutiw. Writc for $1 programmi- and form l o Tcchnologiral Ap', lrom Dr. lohn Bickford Don I'xmcr. a1 the colicgt.

Details from the TCI-'M, St. Marks Chambers.

Kennineton Park Road. SI11 4I'W. l ' l 4 l t a i e Society is lioldinp; i E W BSSRS are holdine. meetings every forlnigllt COMM~NI~IESEXCHANGE at Adam's Arms. C O ~ S VStreet ~ ? (opposite tile J,,,,~ lg.m -, ., w,y,,, Meri,,nc Post Office tower) at 6.30 pm. The next few Tm wckend is act as ali c,ch where titles in tl,esc Science and Socialisn~discu?sions ,h ,>sc n,c,e,te nc,, c,,,,,n,un r e : April 6-Iicailhand Safety. April20 The endeavours be to link with tl,osc Politics of Ideology; May 4Ideoiogy in x ' l ~ uarc alrcadv taking part in such wovk, and Physics: May 58-The Prolelariamsm of will cain i r t > ~ ltlie > wde range o r c~pcricncc Scientific Workers: June I-Stience, Ideology they have accumulated, ?<, orK,n and the Real World. More inform3lion 1r<>m :\ve.. Kidlingtnn, O\ford~fur <lclail5.

Dot Griffiths, 01-452 6249.

MEGALITHIC SITES i s ;in c ~ l ~ i b i l i n ~ ~ i t the ICA, Nash Iluusc. the Mall. I'roni April 7 to May 2. I t i s about astronomical and geometriciil indications in standing stnncs, circles and avenues in the British I s l e s and 1-rancu. with Prof. A. Thorn's drawings and plans. and photographs by others. Also included in t l t i s exhibition will be the results of the computer study of the megalithic alignments of Lands There will be an ALTERNATIVE TECHNOEnd by Pat Gadshy and Chns Hutton-Squire 01 LOGY WEEK at Merton Technical College, Undercurrents sometime in May. They hope to have outdoor exhibits and demonstrations of various Concurrently with it is\Vind and Watet, an machines as well as many interesting talks and exhibition of aspects o f Geomancy. This was

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r's compass in assessing the landscape topography for architecture and engineerand Science, 01-640 3001.

Go on a NUCLEAR EXCURSION RALLY to Windscale organised b y Eddie s.

DESIGN FOR NEED

NVIRONMENTAL HUSBA

don't miss them! be at Surrey Docks from

nology' is also the name we've given to an eclectic collection of

for its assault on the consumerist

a romantic, even mystical, reconstruction, that drew inspiration from pre-industrial technologies and 'primitive' culture. Well, some o f us fell for this and some of us didn't, but it certainly made us think about technology and 'modern consciousness' and what being human was all

t to resume the hunt: t cal' literally means 'goi

ous that there were no tech

local skills and resources - 'intermediate technology' -would allow more even

^ght from the begin socialists of one kind o elements: A theory of technology and society which insists that we can control technology, but if we don't it will control us;

materials and waste-pro

levels. O f course, rotation of work, adjustt s of money and other rewards, ultation with consumers, variable rs, and so on, all have to be conally debated. The aim is an optimum nce of public, communit~,and private

allotments.

Rural communities: conversion of conventional farms and derelict land to intensive husbandry; new rural villages (see No 3); clearing for information on available land; small

Legal and economic changes: ampaign for guaranteed annual income; exible work times; new laws concerning ommunal groups and collective ownerhip; alternative finance, credit unions, ommunity levies.

for scientists and rk of 'free range' t in community wo

roots to properly penetrate the soil. T of the landslide bed provides mar area for the penetration and inter o f the natural elements than a fla surface. The simulated landslides o raised beds used by biodynamic ga usually made by gardeners and farmers today are only'a few inches wide. Th plants have difficulty growing in the rows due to the extreme penetration o air and the greater fluctuations in temperature and moisture content. ~ u h irrigation, n ~ water floods the row immerses the roots in water and washe soil away from the rows and upper roo Consequently, much of the beneficia

energy, per pound of food produced.

You still don't believe it?See if joh

beneath, roots which eat, drink a breathe - a difficult task with som or something standing on the equiv o f your mouth and nose! These dif culties are also often experienced a edges o f biodynamic/French intensiv method raised beds prepared in clay

THE BIODYNAMIC/French intensive method of horticulture is a quiet, vital

become gentle shepherds providi conditions for plant growth.

The method is a combination of forms of horticulture begun in Eu

other that when the plants were their leaves would barely touch. spacing provided a mini-climate

entually, trace minerals were add e chemical larder to round out th ants' diet. After breaking down

s of the beds and the wate the inside of the bed Drovide

79Calorie a day diet used i ulations is vegetarian with ntal goat milk and represent

ould initially use only a6-month growg season and no miniature greenhouses. nder these conditions, 2,500 square feet

touch or almost touch. Such spaci would not normally be successful

United States includes Cal. eat) Veg.

21,649

US. Average

10,114

(includes Cal. meat) Vea.

7.260

4,842

,

Cal. Veg. 2,500

BiodynamicIFrench Intensive Method

plants as usual can be planted , area. Such fourfold increases c have been obtained with veget in the first year of planting.

has indicated that the overall root heal

among field crops. This conclusion

method's soil preparation makes such an improvement nossible by optimal!

arithmetic spacing and root could make asixteenfold y' Such a yield has already be in 1974 with zucchini. The

critical in the United States.

pounds per acre. this raw material. plant health. Whenever one variables has been lowered s and plant health. In 1976 E

working a 6-hour day. 7 days per we should eventually be able to grow en food for 24 people on about % of an

Sustainability

ing using only fertiliz duced on the farmste John Ieavons piration of water through the plant can be reduced as much as 10.75% i n soils

which providessuch a high level o fertilizer types and levels is necess will require many years. Fertilize availability is a question vital to soil to be properly prepared.

It is estimated that a mini-farme

l e d States could earn as much ,000 i n a 12-month growing sea

ced water-consumption that ogy Action to believe that th hod will perform well under natur

ncome earned with the sam

during a 12-month season, using inexpensive miniature greenhouses. The food grown in this manner worth $9,600 at wholesale price sale prices are about 50% retail in a 6-month growing season, a mini-farming family would grow the same amount of food and income on twice the area, a little less tha 2 acres, without mini-green individual would have to work o hours per week.

The figures for both these kind mini-farmer assume that the prod would be grown by skilled farme ing in good soil and market locally and directly. I t wou take three to five years for a mini-farm to be operative at peak effectiveness, although more research needs to be done in this area. Both income figures are for gross income. However, the expenses small-scale mini-farming are very low. much in the way of land, tools, water fertilizer, energy and other materials i required. The method is not capital Ă&#x201A;ÂĽintensive The homeowner mini-farmer may be able to grow the $600 worth of vegetables, grains, fruit and milk required f o r a complete diet for one person on as little as 1,250 or 2,500 square feet in 15

1

following limitati

properly. Root crops such as car beets exhibit this most clearly. T

to 225% o f the national average and is expectedto go much higher on a repeatable basis. (This very high soybean yield of 57.3 bushels or 3,439 pounds per acre was obtained in only partially improved soil. In comparison, 50 bushel soybean yields are among the highest normally obtained by a good US farmer, 60 bushel yields sometimes occur and 70 bushel yields are very rare.) Other examples of

nece life to balanced soil system exists. Work h

oblems can usually be traced t advertent errors in soil prepar pesticides and chemicals by ntrol insect and disease ty techniques and pro ystem from developing to a poin re disease and insect difficulties ar igible. Much of Ecology Actio ntion to date has been focused etermining the origin of these pro nd the identification o f t reventive measures. Currently, 2-3 re needed for an individual to devel level of understanding necessary to provide for good plant th. Ecology Action plans to develop a manual of intermediate skills, perhaps in 1977, which may enable a mini-farmer to reduce the learning time to one year.

Compost. Limited time and funds have prevented the research project from preparing or purchasing sufficient amounts of compost. Often it has been of poor quality, sometimes there has been none. Compost is essential to the proper functioning of the biodynamic/French intensive method. Only during the fall of 1975 was the first properly composted test bed prepared. The improved health, vigour and yields of the plants in this bed has further demonstrated the importance of aualitv c o m ~ o s use. t Grain spacing information. When testcing for grains and other high-pro1 ' n t sources was available. Therefore ch time has been spent determinin ma1 spacing patterns. For exampl , eat yields increased from -9 to 1.9 mes the national average when spacing

would be about $6.50 per hour. These figures also assume a skilled individu a n d good soil. All the figures used h are based on current food prices.

1

one test. Much more work remains to be performed in this area.

BASIC TECHNIQUES Some basic techniques of the

*Scarce Information. Little information on the method's techniques and

soil is dug thoroughly the first 12 inche and loosened an additional 12 inches b a simple manual method using a shovel This loose soil enables roots to penetra easily and allows a steady stream of nutrients to flow into stems and leaves.

Moisture is retained well, erosion is inimized and weeding is simplified

watered and weeded for a given yield.

Intensive planting. Seeds or seedlings are planted in raised, 3-5 foot wide beds of varying length using a hexagonal

less water, fertilizer and fuels

many new mini-farmers have d' with the relearning process. Th

'

The price of food has risen alarmingly in the last year. Yet much of the increase in price has nothing to do with the production cost of the food itself. Import costs, packaging costs and distribution costs all get passed on to the consumer. cheaply: a food co-op is But there are ways of buying and eati just one, as Robin Roy explains

subscriptions on a regularbasis, but this of course would require accounts.

Being co-ordinator is undoubtedly hari work and qum tlme.consuming, Rut, if the co-op is working properly, i t should be at least another year before our housi

OUR FOOD CO-OP Milton Keynes, i s corn households, representi and children.

About once every tw two members of the co-op drive to a wholesaler in London and buy between £7 and £12 worth foods which they then divide distribute to the other househ according to written orders re during the previous week or two. this way we can expect to get at least some of our food at between two-thirds and a half of the shop or supermarket price. Belonging to the co-op also means that we can get a constant supply of foo that are not available locally and share the experience of working together wi others to provide ourselves with a basic necessity. We happen t o deal in wholefoods, (including nuts, wholemeal flour, rice, oats, dried fruits, beans, lentils and honey), because many of us are interested not only in cutting our food bills but also in eating food that i s economical and healthy. Wholefoods also are nonperishable and fairly easy to handle a distinct advantage when it comes to storing and dividing up. However, there are food co-ops which deal i n everything from fresh veeetables to wine. buying their suppliesnot only from wholesalers but also from local farmers, markets cashand-carry warehouses - indeed from any cheap supplier. So the first thing any group wanting to start a co-op has to decide is what foods they want to deal in and where thev will obtain them. In general, the gradient s3ving-i can be made on ~erishdblcs,especially fresh vegeublcs, r \ i on the more unusual tvoes of food.

the

acquaintances However, in an est community a more locally-based 'street' co-op i s possible, with obvious advantagi for easy communications and social co-operation.

wholesale

The chart helps the co-ordinator to decide what to buy and how the orders may have to be juggled to make up the total amounts i n which the food i s sold.

For example, rice is sold i n either 28tb.or 110lb sacks. I f the total order is. say, 941bs. the co-urdinator would have to decide whether to bump up a few orders to buy the 110lb. sack or reduce a few and buy three 281b. sacks. The adjusted orders are then entered onto the chart The co-ordinator can then make his or her

Not all co-ops depend on orders made in advance. Some with suitable premises for storing food operate more like a cooperativeshop, buying supplies from tht cheapest sources (wholesalers, markets. cash-and-carrywarehouses, farmers, eve1 supermarkets) and selling to members only.

Perhaps the main problem with any type of co-op i s keeping the level of membership right I f a co-op gets too bij (say more than 15 to 20 households). then a minority of members tend to fine themselves doing an unmanageable amount of work. If too small, (say belov 4 to 5 households), then the co-op can't take full advantage o f bulk-buying,

Some suppliers of wholefoods

Â¥ArjunWholefoods, 12 Mill Road, Cambridge (0223 64845)

originally in Undercur 'A group of Architecture students, without much knowledge o f the subject, were presented with the problem of making a wind generator in two weeks.

They were offered the Undercurrents-LID enerator (Mark I) as a prototype, but ere initially critical of its design. How-

braking system was improved by a length of car fan

, with Araldite,

en 300 and 500 have to gear the propel the effective number a conventional car alt

*The propeller, instead o f being c from a cedar plank, was built up wi laminations o f 2mm 3-ply wood, to

main member. Tension in the belt driv

e, as was done i n the origin used a standard scaffold tu ternal connector' which cla

sexhibit less inherent frie

---= --

weight, on the end of a rope passi over a pulley mounted on the mai member, for the original tail sprin wasn't fully developed, but migh prove worthwhile.

As an educational exercise, th I machine was very successful probably generated more interes electricity. Also it cost rather more we anticipated (see cost breakdown), mainly because we didn't have the to do enough scrounging.

Developing the mill to the Ma design has virtually doubled the c In the new prototype, the alte is driven by a toothed belt and pu which give an 8'3 gear ratio. The main propeller shaft i s located in two pillow block bearings, mounted on a rectangular angle iron frame, bolted underneath the main member, to which the alternator i s in the same way as the dynamo bolted in the earlier design. Most of the details are clear from the photographs.

The alternator i s a Lucas 17which, according to Lucas g the lowest 'cut-in' speed of a standard alternators made pany (theoretically 800 to 900 rpm This alternator is the one Lucas are grading (and rewinding to cut in a ) for their own small wind

would not start easil . rooellor .

View from above. Eventually, the mechanism 1 be enclosed bv a waterwoof cover

1

I

the new arrangement.'

Ă&#x201A;ÂĽtobeing bench-tested.

operate on D.C. Also, a high voltage distribution system is more efficient and simpler to implement than a low voltage system as a higher voltage V implies a lower current I for agiven load W (WzV.1) and hence thinner and cheaper cables (because the power dissipated in a cable is W=l!R, where R is the cable

The switch is unstable in either position

be situated next to the heavy dut)

The most probable uses of a 240v source are (1) Power for audio and communica-

for ease and cheapness of construe was decided to use a 24v input to inverter. This can easily be obtain connecting two 12v b.atteries in se

'

tructed readily by dismantling any sformer with a core area larger than square inch and rewinding it with urn primary and two 14-turn

to 240v transformer with the switching

The invertor has been tested to an output o f 500w, powering lighting, and will

running before a load is connected.

(2) The battery supply should not be connected or disconnected whilst the invertor i s running.

aw over 20A from the supply an h o u r battery would run it for

ent terminal voltage, the h

ithstanding at least the maximum chargg or discharging current. he oscillator may be constructed on ece of veroboard and mounted on top the transformer. After the circuit has

invertor to a record deck and checking he correct record speed. VR1 is then sted for minimum 'buzz' from the

Undercurrents IS

1

nal Domestic Insulation Campaign

a four-pwe written statement decrying dangers of nuclear power Six months la

tive device. I t works like this

Two people can cavity fill an average house in less than a day.

I t takes two of FOE Durham's volunteers half a day to insulate a rooof

1

the past couple o f y three times as much energy as we use now. Then source, one-by-one, and show (being careful not on itsown it could not hope to meet more than, you've just invented.

You then look at the present cost o f each alter could not possibly compete with nucl considerations as the enormous hidden subsidies given to nuclear energy by the atomic weapons programme, and the fact that with a fraction of the Research an Development money spent on atomic power, the cost per kilowatt of the alterna energy sources could be reduced enormously.

Rigged Est --

We must work to expose the rigged estimates of the prothat the alternatives we are proposing are meaningful in many of us, o f course, the ultimate context i s (to over-s decentralised, equitable, ecoloaicallv-conscious, libertar .. . mii;nl; by reneidnle energy sources and having an overall rate of nun-renewable resource Jsagc close to /era. But ihiit particuldr dream won't come true tomorrow and ma) be nut even thc ddy alter. So we've got to put forward 'traniiliondl strdifmcs' that will keep nuclear-powered lot-iliuridnism at bay while at the same m e slimulatnii oeuole into thinking more accolv about the kind of societv thev sources are most appropriate really want, h o w i t should be run, and what .A..".,.""

I.,* "mA m , , , c v , , , s+ &,,a. =,a".

In the articles which follow, Amory Lovins argues eloquently the case th indeed, a non-nuclear future for the world - a future a good deal brighte great deal safer than the nuclear one - i f only we can make our rulers grasp i Dave Elliott then looks at Britain's present position and examines i n detai case for a domestic insulation programme as an ideal means of creating jobs at a time when unemployment is at a scandalously high level. He also looks at th longer-term possibilities - such as the programme for 'converting' Britain's high technology armaments industry to socially-desirable production.

Tonv Emerson. of SERA. the Socialist Environment and Resources Associa thcn highl'glits the politicdl mplicalions u l suih '~unvcrsion'programmes and out. 'nes ,om? reformist strateg:cs for voiding some of the must obvious pitfdlls. (jut to hi.-gin with, here arc the results of m y own preliminary dnalysis of the I'kcl\ y:cld of l3ritd:n's planned SGIIWR programme, itsestimated cost, and the ~rnploymentit would be likely to create, compiircd with the energy savings, cost and 100 creation potential of a ndtion~ldomestic insulation programme. is,

APART FROM the programme o f Advanced Gas-Cooled Reactor construe tion, which started 10 years ago and only just begun t o feed a few megaw of un-needed power into the grid, ye late and hundreds of millions over budget, Britain i s planning to embark o yet another nuclear programme.

t last year gave the goahead to the CEGB to build one laree Steam Generating Heavy Water ~ e i t o r of 2640 Megawatts capacity at Sizewell.

Suffolk, andgranted the South Scotland Electricity Board pe to build one 1320 MW station at Torrness, not far from Edinburgh. T total planned capacity of these two stations is, therefore, about 4,000 MW. Let's be conventional and say that their lifetime would be about 30 years.

I f the stations operated at full output for all 8760 hours each year for all 30 years, their output would be 1.05 x 1012 kilowatt hours - but o f course station can operate flat out Let's be optimistic and assu tations achieve a 'load facto ' action of the potential ene ctually delivered) equal to y all the nuclear power static ngland and Wales during 1 namely 76.6%. Then they would produce, over their 30 year lifetime, about 0.8 K 1012 kilowatt hours o f energy (ignoring, for simplicity, transmission and distribution losses, which would i n practice reduce this figure by about 10%).

Costs What would the two stations at Sizewell

mental Concern's recent Waste-Not.

the total cost comes to just over

Well, according to CEGB statistics, the number of employees working i t s eight

here's no doubt about whic

s two o f their people about to install loft insulation - s vity fill and loft insulate uitable houses would re

The total effort required, then,

ears would create 12,000 di summary then, a mode

port estimates that ca

.-.- - - . ...- .-.- - .- .- ....-..-

THE ISSUES at stake i n the debate about nuclear power cannot be considered in isolation from a complex tangle o f broader issues of energy and social policy -any more than automobiles can be considered i n isolation from thew' patterns and values of human settlem and mobility. To do so would be a co mon but serious error. The most imp ant and difficult questions of energy policy are not primarily technical or economic but rather social and ethical, and cannot be properly framed by people whose vision i s purely technical.

Which energy policy makes sense f a given society depends on what so Society it is to be, what values are important in it, where people want live, what they want to eat, and wh they want to get out of their lives a leave behind for their children. All things can to a large extent be chos through the political and economic cess. But people cannot choose options

strategist is thus to present and assess some alternatives, as carefully and credibly as possible, with enough imagina-

society. The energy strategist ;only develop tools to help th Iprocess to explore such choi lalso encourage a fundamenta tion of the social role of ene 'difference between demand a

primary energy stock

tion, not causality.

that most people in the countries with the grossest national products find it hard to imagine what li5e would be like with more efficient use of energy but with the levels of primary energy use that prevailed a few years ago. For example, some sh economists say that a civilisation enmark using only half as much ricity as now would be impossible; u t one existed in 1965, when Danes were east half as civilised as now. What would 1965 have been like with greater efficiency and more equitable distribution for more rational ends? Surely i t d have been more agreeable than life enmark today. Likewise, what would

mportant but not very energy-inte menities such as modern medicine and telecommunications? These are the sor of question we should be asking now. N

kinds of social change we want. Low-

- ...o..

energy society work are all too apparent today. The values that could make a lower-energy society work are not new; they are in the societal attic, and could be dusted off and recycled. They include thrift, simplicity, diversity, neighbourli. ness, craftsmanship, and humility. They also include the clear thinking needed to avoid a prevalent confusion between growth and distribution (the 'let them eat growth' theory), between movement and progress, and between costs and benefits.

For example, many people today count personal mobility as a benefit even when mobility is reduced to the involuntary traffic made necessary by the existence of cars and by the settlement patterns

physical type, the very approxim

dustrial societies where

voting her resources to the ther than the latter.

There i s probably less scope

values and goals may seem fuz unscientific; but i t is the begin end of any energy policy, and explicitly considered i f policy what is expected o f it.

No matter what patterns o f e areconsidered desirable, the best ener

ce industry, with some existi ly all future heavy industry b orted t o countries that want i

usual ways tends to be slow, cost! and of temporary benefit, wherea decreasing demand tends to be co paratively fast. cheap, safe, and o

that the US could afford to 'technical fixes* to save ener $200,000 million initially p

projected. What i s more, one would s have the fuel but not the environmenta

ies take much time and m

GNP-years on reactors -

he same is true on a national

pplement conventional s th surprising speed and

ment, nuclear power in the US has pro-

Undercurrents 1 5 ^ nowelectrical - the last is perhaps the most controversial and, to thoughtful analysts, the most obvious, because electricity is the costliest form of energy to make, store, or transport in bulk.

Electrification of most end-uses in an industrial economy i s simply too expensive for any major country outside the Persian Gulf to afford it. Building the

i t is conceivable that some poor countrie which have great economic needs and n other assets might be tempted to sell bomb materials or designs to 6th countries with great assets and m ambitions. Obviously, a decisions b one country to forego and discour nuclear power will marginally dimi not solve outright, a worldwide pro of this sort. Exceptionally, such a de

The social implications of ce ectrification, too, are as disquieting t s capital intensity: it is the most complex and slowest kind of technology to deploy, is remotely administered by

extremely expensive technical mistakes

must be capable o f faster growth tha preceding one. The traditional succe of sources - wood, coal, oil, gas - p mits this because o f its trend toward

cia1 questions are seld Consider, for example, the

Every assistance sh These technologies are small-sc What matters, though, i s not agg evenunit energy production, but to meet the energy needs of peop particular circumstances, Indeed,

re somewhat different in kind. T

clear violence and coercion thro are not glamorous technologies, a for poor as well as rich countries have no military applications, so

omic-bomb materials, is several dec

Save Jobs

I

ATIVE TECHNOL usually justify thei for the development o f alternat existing forms of technology an organisation on long-term social ..

1 environmental grounds.

1

-those at Lucas Aerospace-to campaign or the adoption of alternative technoogies as a way o f saving jobs. Of cou these demands might be seen as than reformist 'technical fixes' by self-interested groups to head

right to work on socially-desirable alternative technologies. A t the same time, the Government needs some way to reduce the redundancy figures. With this background in mind it i s worth considering the potential for job creation o f a programme aimed at developing AT products.

Job-creation and retraining h t to work', preferring rather the and for the 'right not to work' or at the right to seek a new society in I,

So far, Westminster has come up with a number o f relatively trivial short-term 'job creation' programmes, via the Manpower Services Commission. These have involved beach-clearing,tree-felling and similar activities, employing out-of-work youths. The retraining component is usually small -although at the same time the government is embarking on a number of longer-term retraining schemes designed to relocate unemployed workers

asses by polemic, exhortation and so

1 these immediate problems and crise

; economic system and, with science, helps ! legitimise and reinforce the dominant

pattern of social relations. Consequently avital area of change must be in pe : attitudes to technology and in the g pattern of development and use of technology inthe future.

There are already some signs of this k nd of change producedby exper:cn~e uf indngcd circumstances. Pollution, impending resource scarcity, increases in energy costs and so on, have made individuals consider the case for alte native technologies and energy and resource conservation. And the curr f o ed ome worke

I1.

o f non-government philanthropic ons, self-help groups and eers. But this need not be so. There ness and engage in a process o f radical transformation.

Given this perspective, the demand for the right to work (for example) can have radical implications, as the Lucas Aerospace Combines campaign illustrates.

Faced with possible unemployment these workers have found it necessarv to challenge not only miinagemeni's unilaterial contro. over the denlovmcnt of labour and the means of p r ~ d u c t i o also their right to choose what shou

forms o f employment which could - in both the short and longer term - make a substantial contribution to reducing unemployment.

Rather than throw good money after bad in another round o f nuclear power station construction, the government could beneficially invest it in an energy con\crvdtiiin programme, for example, creating jobs dnd training people in the building insulation and alternative energy system fields. A national alternative energy technology development and

'J--Y-

heating and power techniques for new housing developments using heat pumps, windmills, solar collectors and fuel cells.

Already several local authorities are interested in this idea - for exam Wandsworth and Essex Councils, Milton Keynes Development Cor are experimenting with solar hou There would also be considerabl

be expanded evenfurther than the rece £6 million programme Whether a joint job-cr retraining programme o osed here will materialise e extent to which the e tax-payer and the envi tivist can work togethe lans su~oortedbv those

dangers in exploiting these markets. For if the development o f AT is to have any radical implications it cannot be used as

ment. This implies grass roots organ; in industry and the community; care exposure of the counter-productiven

suitable for whole council estates, small

implementation of t environmentally-sou liberating al '

unnecessary. The current investment the figure is something like £400,00Operlo -

PRINCIPLE OF SYSTEM

a diversified ind sent we need a c

implies, has provided cheap insulati

Group expects to have comple homes by the end o f March. T h power Services Commissions j o

could mean the conversion of some exist-

would

nit'nti .ind Seoul - 4 n i i ~ n Lenirc-i, tne advisingactivists on how to help the derly, youngfamilies, and others on low comes to keep-warmby avoiding dis onnection o f their electricity and gas

airer tariffs o disconnections (arrears shout llected through the courts, like other

omi." ol thew b u i i i i ~ ~ r dioy, l i ~dm,. t3uI in? recent Cnncmnierit rnu'ic i n simnk postpone electricity and gas disconn'ec; tions for pensioners who cannot pay indicates that i t i s not interested in dealing with root causes - just in aiTieliorating effec In case this soun mistic,

to the £40 allocated last June - plus £55 for retraining, and an extension of the 'Temporary Employment Subsidy Scheme' to twelve months duration. The aim of this massive transfusion o f public funds is to create 140,000 jobs or training

CREATING CO-OPS

Industrial Common Ownership Move-

There have been, and are, a number of job creation protects around the country based on the idea o f setting up workers' co-operatives- building co-o&rotives in particular. Groups like COMTEK and the Swindon Centre for Alternatives in Urban Development provide technical aid to people in the local community wishhg to modify their own houses, and there are many self-help building co-ops constructing their own dwellings.

Setting up a formal co-operative enterprise is not easy - there are legal, financial and organisational problems.

Some advice can be obtained from the

ment (ICOM). I n theory, the National

In Edinburgh, the Heating Campaign

Enterprise Board could help support a co-operative venture, aithowh the relevant legislation seems not to have survived if? the post-Benn era: the 'Co-operative Development Agency' that Benn was tryinq to set up as part of the NEBseems to have foundered- at least for the moment. However, a private members Bill iscurrently struggling through its second reading in Parliament, piloted by David Watkins and backed by ICOM. This would provide £60,00 in grantsund£l inioans topumpprime new co-ops. improvement of public sector housing over the next year.

interim. Certainlv the various solar collector manufacturers are confident of a promising future, and although their concern i s obviously profit, employment i s another outcome.

Insulation i f we turn to domestic insulation cavity wall-filling, loft-insulation, double glazing - the situation looks even more attractive, even in the short term. As the recent report by Tyneside Environmcntal Concern makes clear, "almost the entire housing stock (19 million homes) could be upgraded by 40%-50%- that is, the energy consumption required to give currently acceptable comfort conditions almost halved."

Of courseat present the home insulation field is inhabited by many 'cowboy' outfits - but the possibility exists of creating new enterwrises. idealiv mail-scale community-related co-ops uble glazing, loft- and cavity wallation all have im~licationsfor the industries which supply materials - glass, aluminium, plastics insulation, etc. Peter Chapman estimates (in Fuels Paradise} that a major programme aiming to provide double glazing for all new houses, offices and shops, plus some existing buildings, would require at the very least a doubling in output of the sheet glass industry.

Although such a programme might take some years to accomplish (it would take thirty years at a conversion rate of 600,000 houses per year; the current rate of new house-construction is only

-following the fines of the Milton d has not been given. sources of funds are hard t

grammes would require similar expansions in the relevant industries.. . . . boroughs o f Croydon, Lambet Lewisharn, Southwark, Sutton Wandsworth, who-have set up

18 million houses this would absorb one

ountry were to be

up a national Waste Management * Advisory Council and has put £1. million towards two mechanised waste-sortingplants in the North East. Of

working up plans for small-scale I units costing £40,00 or so, produ 5-6tons o f recycled paper per day a providing work for about ten worke each. Some local authorities, includin

come to indicate a high standard

by forcing their management to diversi the product range and to link with the various projects being consider authorities and government de Fuel cell and heat pump units domestic use are already unde development in various firms an

Lockheed have estimated that

tection and pollution

fairer and more ecologically-cons

i s still worth buying a 3 inch jacket, bee 1 you have to pay the hot-water bill, It i s a

this helps the country to raise its standard

ost limitless."*

wards. You can get convincing arguments to say that arms are bad, but when you say you have got to allow for a year on r redundancy pay, you haven't got

rk. Because he has still got his kids and wife to feed. So you have got to get e firms that are doing the work to

t only sociaily desirable, but guarantee

war, production lines switched rapidly to

anning and retraining. But a major cession, like the one we are i n at esent, provides an excellent opportunity

e expenditure has pr

Keynsian economic solution to recession.

Which makes the current savage cuts in education -and particularly in Further Education - a l l the more ludicrous.

All in ail. you cannot simply argue for the conversion of the armaments industry, the nuclear business and the other high technology industries to socially useful alternative activities without considering the manpower implications and the wider social and economic issues -and this implies some form of planning and protection for displaced workers. But as I

Undercurrents 1 5

Production for need: the socialist alternative attempt to discuss.

This dilemma can be exemplified by the

sums if it decides demand for alternative techno

irreversibly closed by traini adherence to 'the line', the enormous numbers who see

to the Dole Queue - Socially-usef Work', on May 8. A t the conferen hope to demonstrate various possi technologies to trade unionists, lo councillors, sympathetic public of and general activists, and to discu social and economic implications.

that it stops the system functioning and opens up the way to alternative developments Here are two other possible redistributive measures, both of which are likely to have a favourable environmental impact 0 cut out the incentive to the well-to-do to hog as much housing space as possible by abolishing the mortgage interest tax relief (except for, say, the first Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ5.00 over the first few years). increase petrol tax, to get the rich guy who use's his (speedy) jag a lot, and thereby imposes severe social and environmental costs on the community. ( I f you do not believe this is a revolutionary measure, wait for the Road Lobby to react') Having deprived the rich o f their excess demand on the production system, however, is it sufficient just to raise the incomes o f the less-well-off?

No apart from the fact that there mdy not be much to redistribute (incentive having been reduced), all we have done i s to increase the consumer spending power of the less well-off individual in the 'market-place' Such measures are inefficient firstly because the market responds poorly, if d t all. to collective needs for communal heating systems for instance. Secondly, consumer 'choice' or 'preferences' can easily be manipulated by the large and powerful firms who now dominate the market' A ~onsumt'rcdnnoi exercise redl cnoice unless he hdi adeq~dteinforrndt on out all aspects of the product in estion. But the producing firms control s supply of information. They play wn or suppress unfavourable informan (e.g. the health impact o f pharmaceuticals or food additives, the environmental impact of detergents, the facts of 'built-in obsolescence'1. instead thev supply i m ~ . i i - h i l l i u n p - u n d barrage of cnioliunil. one-sided inform~tion'aimed

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how would the p trol this form of'

trol. And the unaccountable burea crat i s a dangerous animal.

Ultimately, of course, economic i i ~ t i vitv would hopefully he dominated by

stamp (except for personal matters for example, those concerned with an urban farming co-op might like know how much food the school me rvice buys, from whom, at w ice, and so on, and demand formation i s presented in an gestible, easily-accessible, fo it, o c m ~ n d n re\cri.il n i the trend 10 bigness' in ~ u h l i ci-iuihoritie1) size

small-scale recycling technology.

Tobacco would step up advertis' advantage o f new potential dem

ruction, subsequent maintena so on, would have to be negoti

economic act!

will change global clima and irreversibly; so, they

uid produce only three-quarter

patterns, safe. with'minimal envi mental and climatic impacts, has tends to resist commercial mono

d 31 percent in 2000 if the owed the 'Technical Fix* s

Undercurrents 15 e minimum on vehicle-maintenan iver training, they will be more co titive than i f they transport good ail. They have reduced internal cos xternalising or dumping costs (in t orm of pollution, noise, congestio ccidents) onto the community. Si m in a competititve business c rd to spend the time and mon nto the long-term or side effects new technology. Otherwise, a cornt o r would beat i t to the market. encc, DDT, thalidomide and other

it is at all possible to control instituti as large and powerful as 1Cl or Gener Motors) then the public agency must subject to public scrutiny and control. we are back to the transitional questions raised in the previous section.

Of course this problem (the incentive to externalise costs) would be greatly reduced'if we moved away from the production o f commodities for sale in the competitive market, to producing directly for need under the control o f an informed community. But how do we get there?

ithout changes - in the political and c~~nnrn:; 'iir.ciure, A I entrrprisc% must

Action on all fronts

rst polluters aresmo// firm ' ing of industry is an obv' ediate demand. So i s the lause concerning "acting erests o f the consumer and

V \ J U m,iv not agic-i*w:thmy pdrt cul.ir sueaest.on<i.But w n ~ ist i.li.'iir I< thdt 0 . . these problems need to be tackle rnultaneously and urgently: we evelop alternative job-creating, seful technologies; to create the or them amone trade unionists

progressive movements in the fight for these changes, in the fight to fend off the inevitable reaction from vested interests.

And we need to believe we will win - in the end.

Tony Emerson SERA exists to do all the things Just mentioned.

I t is open to all who regard themselves as socialists.

Details of SERA and of the 'Atternatives to the Dole Queue - Socially Useful Work' confecence. (00 Mav 8 in Greenwich1 can he

Aerospace Combine Shop Stewards Committee, John Davis of ITDG, several local government officers, planners, councillors, members of the group involved with the Milton Keynes Solar House project, people involved with the Hull Regional College of Art community techno. logy project, and Friends of the Earth.

If you want to follow up the implications of the conversion of the armaments industry you can't do better than buy a copy of CND's Arms, jobs and the crish 15p, from C N D , Eastbourne House, Bullards Place, London E2.

A plan of AT-based housing for an area of Hull is currently being drawn up at Hull

much, whether they u.inl 10 or r'ul, the\ c/fn unl\ dee'de whether ti^ do n i t oy d c l i b i ~ ~ nt)trnaii~e tc -nc'i;c nc,w o r oy Iran!..-Ă&#x201A;improtis.nion Inter 'n thr a c e of imminent shurtdge. Alw) n Rh\, s that when you havecome to the e of an abyss, the only progressive ve you can make i s to step backward: he might equally have said that you can rn around and then steo forward.

Planners whose thoughtsrevolve around econometric extraoolation. economies of le, centralised electrification, an rginal mills per kilowatt-hour planners who can most cons ress the problems of turnin at process, too, will require t oughtful intervention o f conce itizens in order to ensure that rts do not lose touch with mo widely held social goals. How we, as citizens and as nations, meet the allenges of energy strategy is a cructdl t of our ethical vdlues, our political titutions. and even our conception of elves. e can perhaps see the ethical issues re clearly if we imagine, as Hugh Nash hasdone, some of the Questions we might ask our grand-children about our nuclear decisions for example, we might ask h3.f JS

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ingenuity than tomake sure you n it?" To questions like these, I thin know what kinds o f answer we wo get. But in the technicalities of abs rac debate about acceptable risks, economic

inherit.

A t the root of the issues we consider here is a difference in perspective about man and his works. Somepeople, impressed and fascinated by the glittering achievements of technology, say that if we will only have faith in human ingenuity (theirs), we shall witness the Second Coming of Prometheus, bringing us undreamed-of freedom and plenty.

Other people think that we should plan on something more modest, lest we find instead undreamed-of tyrannies and perils; and that even if we had an unlimited energy source, we would lack the discipline to use it wisely. Such people are really saying, firstly, that energy is not enough to solve the ancient problems of the human spirit, and secondly, that the technologists who claim they can satisfy Alfven's condition that "no acts of God can be permitted" are guilty of hubris, the human sin o f divine arrogance. We have today an opportunity perhaps our last - to exercise our responsibility to foster i n our society a greater hu springs from an app essential frailty of the

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Copyright @ 1975 by Amory B. Lovins.

to set some aside for you?" Or we might ask our grand-children, "Isn't it a bit

sy

This article is an edited extract from Amory Lovins' introduction to the book Non

FRIENDS OF THE Earth have launched a new 'Crops and Shares' scheme, the aim o f which is t o put people who want to grow their own food, but have no access to suitable land, i n contact with those who find it difficult to cultivate their own gardens, but would be glad to have them used.

has been even more rapid: one estimate of the weekly bill for basic foods for afamily of four is that it rose from £8.4 in January 1975 to £11.12'/2 in January 1976. With last year's food import bill approaching  £ billion there is every incentive for Britain as a nation, and for individuals in particular,,to produce more

land into allotments.

Limited, Poland Street, Wlv 3DG, IT phone: 01.434 1684).

15 million gardens in Britain and no-one knows how many o f them are under-used.

What is certain i s that there are a large number of disabled or infirm people who cannot garden, and many more without the knowledge, inclination or time to cultivate their gardens.

Twenty Friends of the Earth groups, from such places as Stoke, Horsham, Birmingham, Lambeth and Milton Keynes, have already started operating such schemes. FOE has published a Crops Shares manual which will be used bo

tions, old people's clubs,Task Fore women's institutes, community ser volunteers, and so on.

FOE aims eventually to persuade I authorities to take over the running their own schemes, following the re example of the London Borough of Camden. Growing food, they point is one o f the few defences against rapidly rising food prices. Government figures show that food prices doubled between 1970 and 1975. Since then. the increase

Continued from page 17 together. Some plants ar repelling harmful insec attract beneficial ones.

it may be difficult for one person to

nutriments. The use of companio planting aids the gardener and far producing fine quality vegetable helps create and maintain a healt

principles o f the method intermesh i n

increased yields, but rather promotes t soil life and health necessary to sustain increased yields.

0 Compost. The high vields and lowered water requirements made funds is needed for all orders.

and Mostert takes us there, on board the 200,000 ton P.O. tinker 'Ardshicl', on its 11,500 milc, 6-week journey from Rotterdam to the Persian (or Arabian as i t is now politic to citll it) Gulf. We meet Captain Basil Thompson and his crew, examine their persundlities and the effect the isolation of this type of ship has on them. We iliare their daily lives, their cisurc, ttu-ir duties, their worries, and their boredom as the <hip progressa, no: stopping once a t any port. The ships life is one 01 long weeks of monotonous

s and Clipidins can get away with, er. And murder the seas they will, ially as chemical and LNG uefied Natural Gas) carriers grow

point, leaving out

summer t o winter as i t rounds Africa,

ly low standards by officersowho arc alienated

J

l o t of the repetition.

o f these vcsscls, that the seas, and we who use the oil, may be saved from a dciith by pollution. As Mustcrt's tinal comnient says, the oil is replaceable, we will find

K. Coates and A. Topham. Panther 1970; On Democratic Adm/'n/'strotionond

A t a time when workers co-operatives arc in the news it's well worthconsidering

need technology in the auto

opt for ruthlessly exploitative forms of production. There are thus no final solutions at the level o f the individual firm; however, it is possible to imagine the gradual decentralisation of the macroeconomy into semi-autonomous units; but then how would they be linked

Christopher Hill. 395pp. Penguin. 1975.

75p.

moment for the bourgeois revoluti

The 16th century had been a time of stability in England; it had also seen the opening up of the Americas and new trade routes to the Far East. with

socialist society.

I f you want to go further into the theory and practice of self-management and workers' control, then Self-

tends to be on the 'micro-economic theory of the firm' rather than o f the problem of co-ordinating autonomous units at the macro-level, but there are

Ken Coates has, over the years, put together a number of anthologies on Workers' Control, of which Workers' Control, Ken Coates, Tony Topham, Panther 1970, i s the most accessable.. it's essentially a collection o f articles by British activists and commentators over the past hundred years or so.

Personally I've found a pamphlet entitled On Democratic Administration and Socialist Self-Management: A Comparative Survey Emphasizing the Yugoslav Experience by G. David Garson, quite rewarding - although it is by no means an easy or comforting analysis.

Finally there's Paul Blumber's classic Industrial Democracy: the Sociology o f

thesis, is the record of a

factors, togetherwith the fac owners of the printing presses t belonged as like as not to the r fringe, gave rise to a great flood pamphlets embodying the ideas of the submerged half o f the population.

Christopher Hill's book The World

to the men of property, and paving the way for the protestant ethic - the ideology of the propertied. The second never happened because it was never organised. Yet movements for wider democracy in legal and political institu-

crops led in the long term to greate the growing urban population. In the

If there is one message that emerges from all these books it is that 'workers' participation initiated by management so as to ensure the smoother running of an unchanged capitalist society -rather it represents part of a fundamental challenge t o the goals and organisation o f that society and as such cannot be con-

radicals. Feudal society was a static agricultural society where social and geo.graphical mobility were extremely limited. But as new manufacturing industries grew, as agriculture beca more efficient, moving towards more capital-intensive enterprises using wage

supplement their diet. On April a Sunday, a small group o f men cultivating the waste land on St. Hill. The cultivation o f waste Ian

Undercurrents 1 5 -.. .---. . -. .

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task for 365 days a year in all hers. I hope that Len Street and

dairying i s concerned.

Angela Blackburn e outward bondage tha

e lay upon another."

A goat i s an ideal animal for home milk man is to employ another, and all perty i s held i n common. He gi tended picture of his utopia i of Freedom where he has wo u a whole framework of laws an ected officers to see they are car out. These laws are to be such that t e intelligible to all men. thus doin way with lawyers and judges ( f o awyers "love money as dearly as an's dog do his breakfast in a c orning"). In fact the whole m away from specialisation for Winstanley saw such elites as scholars, lawyers and churchmen as a burden, as an alienating force upon working people. ' is the keynote o f Winstanley's gs. He i s essentially a humanist and tonalist who sees each individual as eat of reason, capable of obta nowledge by the use of his five senses. i s utopia is founded on the right dividual and his duties to his fell and the community. He is able to ashrewd analysis o f how his socie arisen, but his solution is for isolat groups to occupy waste land and c it. He is a pacifist who wants to conv by example and who was bound to f My criticisms o f these two books ar slight. The limited scope o f 'The Worl Turned Upside Down' means that one needs an adequate knowledge of the historical background - probably more than can be provided in an introduction, while the variety o f subjects touched on is bound to arouse the reader's continuing interest in certain areas. But all the sources and references are hidden away in footnotes - often i n anonymous 'op. cits.' that one has to chase back for several pages. Surely compiling a short bibliography would have been little effort

ited tothe needs of an average f

'

of Ag. regulations for the buildings ha to be complied with, thus involving eater capital outlay. Either way a pleasurable money-saving pastime can get a bit out of hand, so there is much to be said for the advice given in the book to the beginner, to start off modestly with one goat.

ller Fertility Without Fertilisers. Sharing only the title and some analysis figures with the earlier work, this book contains much new information resultingfrom the research of the HDRA. Although written for practising organic farmers and gardeners Hills starts with the theory behind fertility and goes on to outline the long-term dangers o f using rtificial fertilisers. He brings home the oint that not only are we on the brink of hausting the world's resources of fossil tilisers but much of what is so boriously extracted is wasted. Due to erspreading, surplus phosphates and rates are being washed into waterurses resulting in the eutrophication of ers and the loss o f fertility in vast tracts

various method

make from the milk from your backyard buffalo.

The book gives a long l i s t of references and addresses which unfortunate!

.

he main part of the book deals with ding and using a compost heap. As ortant as the container i s the type of vator and with the rocketingprice of all shop-sold items i t i s comforting to discover that the cheapest and probably the best activator is that produced by every household - f o r details read the book! Linked with this is a chapter on municipal compost and sewage sludge.

The author outlines the dangers of using this too liberally - the long-term effects of the build-up of metals, particularly

that dealing with the Trace Elements which are often 'lockedup* by inorganic gardeners who use too many chemical fertilisers. Most deficiencies can be cured by feeding with compost or a foliar spray of seaweed. Other chapters deal with leafmould, peat and manure, green manuring,

when we know that a vast proporti

is no such place as the third World is one world, the resources of which be shared. People are interdependan

ions. This increases soci

ed t o die. Instead we should alternative choices, whethe

of male chauvinist faustian arrogance raping mother earth again!)

Historic Necessity bewailing the lack of government support

clear look at the Conservationists', evidently in all his years as a consultant Dr.Thomas never learned to set out corn icated ideas in a logical and orderly manner. Instead we are offered what appears to be an unedited transcript of his stream of consciousness that flits like a butterfly from topic to topic. The environmental movement is indeed beset by contradictions - between rich and poor, ourselves and our posterity, wild

owever, Hugh Sharman offered a somehat more positive strategy. Conservation 001s and Technology, he said, "are ying to force the right developments t t l e bit ahead of historic necessity." also made clear in answer to questions he was not interested in large-scale

eyebrows.. . perhaps the wind o f change is blowing i n the bureaucracy?

The star turn was of course Peter Chapman who presented acut-down

attitudes o f vegetarians down the

much one with what Marx call

Amory Lovin's 'World En tic and therefore sion to an excelle

enlightened energy policy r preme. There are chapters d

with the recent Engli s it has the ominous h

t had just gone up. The tangent' mmentaries scribbled into the m

ments in progress and taking a cautious years in the West.

principles and i s beholden to

duct of considerable effort and this kind of book i s that we are

will prove invaluable to third world villages and might well be a useful source of ideas for pioneers in the overdeveloped Self-Sufficient Small Holding (The Soil Association, Walnut Tree Manor, Haughly, Stowmarket, Suffolk, 50p) is a first-hand account by someone who's actually out there doing it, but prefers to remain anonymous because of a superfluity of spectators. Rather stronger on inspiration

I single-buoy mooring off Angl tankers) and the Holyhead alu is type of issue; members o f local

of even greater stress, rnatives to Prison

SMALL A D S . .

. . SMALL

Undercurrents 15

^ HAZARDS 4

BULLETIN

Industrial Heal th. Developments under the new Act,in courts and on the shopfloorHazard 'pullout' section, research news,B&S Exec.news, Comments,Contacts etc. Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ for 5 iss~es(~a),incs p&p.

SfP work hazards group c/o BSSRS, 9 Poland Street, London W.1.

BSc and BSc Honours in Society and Technology .

Apply now to start in September 1976 This three and three-quarter year course offers yo1 the opportunity to study the natural and social sciences and their interdependence. You can enter two subjects. The course prowith A levels in vides an understanding of the complex relationships between society and te~h~ology, enabling you not only to understand your own place in contemporary society, but to work responsibly with the benefits that technology can bring. '

Write or telephone for further detak' and an application form to: The Admissions Office, Middlesex Polytechnic (Ref. Cl14), 82-88 Church Street, Edmonton, London N9 9PD, telephone 01-807 9001-2.

RADICAL TECHNOLOGY A

TH E LONG w AI TE D Undercurrents magnum opus, our book Radical Technology, was published in the United States (a little late) in Mych. I n the UK and Australia it'll be available in May. Copies will be widely available in all good bookshops. You'll also be able to order copies from Undercurrents, after publication, at the cover price, £3.25 plus postage and packing. Here is Peter Harper's summary of the book, for lazy reviewers and prospective purchasers.

Radical Technology i s a large-format, extensively illustrated collection of original articles concerning the reorganisatipn of technology along more humane, rational and ecologically sound lines. The many facets of such a reorganisation are reflected in the wide variety of contributions to the book. They cover both the hardware' - the machines and technical methods themselves - and the 'software' - the social and political structures, the way people relate to each other and to their environment, and how they feel about it all.

The articles in the book range from detailed 'recipes' through general <accountsof alternative technical methods, to critiques of current practices, and general proposals for reorganisations.

Each author has been encouraged to ./ follow her or his own personal approach, sometimes descriptive, sometimes analytic, sometimes technical, sometimes

political. The contributors are all authorities in their fields.

The book is divided into seven sections: Food, Energy, Shelter, Autonomy, Materials, Communication, Other Perspectives. Over forty separate articles include items on fish culture, small-scale water supply, biological energy sources, a definitive zoology of thewindmiH, selfhelp housing, building with subsoil, making car-type shoes, the economics of autonomous houses, what to look for in scrap yards, alternative radio networks, utopian communities, and technology in China. Between the main sections are interviews with prominent practitioners and theorists of Radical Technology,. including John Todd of the New Alchemy Institute; Robert J ungk, author of Humanity 2000; the Street Farmers, a group of anarchist architects; Peter van Dresser;-and Sietz Leefland, editor .of Small Earth, the Dutch journal o f alter-,

native technology.

Also included between the main sections of the book is a series of visionary drawings by the gifted illustrator Clifford Harper, evoking the spiritand practice of Radical Technology: fKow it could be'. These drawings, or 'visions' include a communalised urban garden layout; a household basement workshop; a community workshop; a community media centre; a collectivised terrace of urban houses; and an autonomous rural . ' Ã housing estate.

Th'e book ends with a cornpreh&dive directory of the literature and active organisations in Radical Technology. This notes inevitable gaps in the book's coverage, points the reader to where more inforhationkan be found, and provides also an overall picture of a growing movement- - - - - --

Radical TeCflnoiogy: Food and Shelter, Tools and Materials, Energy and Qmmunications, Autonomy and Community.

Edited by Godfrey Boyle and Peter Harper, and the editors of Undercurrpts. , Wildwood House, London, £3.25 Pantheon Books, New York, $5.95; 1976, 304pp. A4 illustrated, index. Hardbaa 2 18 6; paperback ISBN -A

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Vision No a. scheme is not so an autonomous as communalised terra in which shared ities reduce dema central services. inside the house organised, with of them bein is used for heavy-c sumption comm facilities such workshop (see N o 5 ) , bakery, and laundrette, shown here, and coff shop. Gas, electric! and water is suppli from the mains, but t community is set up use these very econo cally. I t treats its o sewage and uses it garden, greenhouse a