UC21 April-May 1977

INSIDE! Good Squat GuideoFree Radio~Orgone~Lauriest~n* Iron Age Farm-Nuclear Policy Chaos- Peace Work* Future of Sail* Print-it-YourselfcAlternative Transport Planning and much more

t ' -3 TIMES: What Will Become of A

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the Counter-culture ? ?

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NDERCURRENTS 5SN 0306 2392 hidercurrents is ~ublishedbi-monthly bv ndeicunents ~imited,id e n 1 0 c r a t i c ~ ~ ~ rofit-making company without &huecapital id limited by guarantee. rinted in England by Prestagate Ltd..

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530 37413 and 01-229 9000.

Jl enquiries about distributors to Chris lutton Squire at our London office lease. [e can h- contacted by hone on 0i-891 989 (I I or 01-261 $774 (office).

PERSONNEL. Undercurrents has two part-tima employees. sally Boyle and Joyce Evans, and a, large number of unpaid part-timers, of whom the following helped to produce this issue: Barbara Kern, Chris Hutton-Squire, Dove Elliott. Dave Kanner. Dave Smith, Duncan Campbell, Godfrey Boyle, Martin Ince, Martyn Partridge, Hit Coyne, Pete Glass, Peter Cockerton, Peter Summer. Richard Elen, Tony Durham, Woody, and, most important of all, the Cokctiveat-large. Especial thanks are also due t o Nigel and Hermione Cowland and all at Earth Exchange.

MEETINGS. Anyone interested in any asoect of the magazineisinvited to attend o k editorial meetings. These are normally on Wednesdays 8 pm. at Archway Road but we may start meeting in the centre of town so ring Chris Hutton-Squire fiist.

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WRITTEN CONTRIBUTIONS to the mazazine

are most w ~preferable ~ but ,not .iecesurily double-space typed on oneside of the p a w to facilitate the minimil amount of edit& we like to perform. Scripts should be ent to Archway Road. ¥RGANISATONUndercurrents is not p m duced by a publishing elite: it is open to myone who feeltcommitted to the magmine and ts aims. Key decisions are made by the ollective at mtjOl meetings held evuy two .nonthj, immediately after publication day. At these meetings we discus the latest issue, review what we are doing for the next edition, and appoint posts for the one after that.

Principal functions News Editor, Features Editors. Reviews Editor, and so onare Uocated at these meetings depending on who s available. AH decisions on imwrtant issues of ditorial policy, production, etc. emerge during he weekly and bi-monthly meetings, etads o ~ h i c hmay be obtained from either Of o w offices.

COPYR I G H T . U ~ otherwise ~ ~ ~ ~ stated, everything in this magazine is joint copyright 01977 Undercurrents Limited, and the respective authors. We will quite ha pily let people we like reproduce anything horn the magazine,

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werchain Ltd 43 Silver St WMtwick Leics. ad 5 ~ o n r n o u i hSt ~ o n d o kW2 sup \ ther outlets and all'^^ wholesalers. #el:

COVE1 auks to Martin Turner for the front auu uuck cover design.

Thanks are also due to Peter B o ~ i tor d bis cartoons.

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Number 21 April-May 1977 y'-

EDDIES: All the news that isn't really fit to print. * WHAT'S ON AND WHAT'S WHAT: Events and information.

LETTERS: Where you can inform, correct, praise or abuse us.

GOOD SQUAT GUIDE - t o the North Yorkshire Moors. Ann Petfift and Barry Wade relate their researches into empty rural property for those who want to take to the hills.

John de Graaf uncovers THE DANGERS OF COUNTERCULTURE: the inter-war counterculture in Germany and asks what happened t o it. Reprinted from North Country Anvil No. 17.

APATHY ON THE AIR: Ifwe really want free broadcasting, Richard Elen tells us that we must go out and shout for it.

BAREFOOT ENGINEER: In order to supply water to the world's poor villages Arnold Pacey explains how we must extend the barefoot doctor concept to water engineers.(Â ENERGISE YOURSELF: Bill West takes a deeper look at the teachings of Wilhelm Reich and Orgone Energy theory.

NUCLEAR POLICY CHAOS: The comings and goings of our rulers are monitored by f a t Coyne.

CHANGE THE CITIES! -John Gilbert replies to Cliff Harper's vision in Undercurrents 20.

IRON AGE FARM: I n the search for Radical Technologies we should not forget to appraise methods used in the distant past.

Beth Tfieis visited an experimental archaeology project.

KARMA and THE ART OF GARDENING: A rewrt on f i t s members, Pa Lawieston Hall and its garde Upton.

PEACE-WORK: Which creat bs - building born investing in health care?Dave ~lliottarguesthe case for peaceconversion. "^Â¥Sg.Ssi COPY With this encyclopaedia of printing processes ;

by Sandy Morrison, you will be able to choose the right technique for your needs.

K:f-% RADICAL ECONOMICS: Woody puts his view on how we shodd Sfr-iidw change our consumption habits.

THE WAY THE WIND BLOWS: Some advice frornJim McCuY/ough on where to site your windmill.

IVAN'S AFTER HOURS BRICKLAYING: The Tao of Work ?% *,;through the eyes (and other senses) of Simon Watt.

-&: % % % ' ' ENERGY FIX: This interview with Gerald Leach expresses the belief that painless transition to a low energy society is possible.

MOTORWAY MADNESS - A CURE?~ e o & Stern presents an -GI* alternative analysis of transport options and a proposal of his own. &.: TIME TO CHANGETACK: Ray Hulm examines a proposal for a cargo sailing ship.

NEVER TRUST AN EXPERT: A few words of warning from ^""& ;fà : Fred Smith over abeer at his local. ? -< i , IN THE MAKING: The regular spot of alternative projects that need people and vice-versa.

-2 REVIEWS: Land for the People, Quicksilver Heritage, Aquatic Weeds, J immy Reid, Nuclear Holocaust, Alchemy, Africa, The Tao of Physics, The Poor of the Earth, America's Revolutionary Heritage $d the Everyman Project.

TASTER:

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Hawkins, chief 01 the C-LGB, h, estimated that brineme forward power station orders could add up 1-40% to electricity bills if th @repessimistic projections o t. Raising t is the surest hose psojec- ,:. Ten y ~ r s 2% t i n t a t . expensive and the difference if .. ,.

time demand begins to cat~ the Board ffollowine tt &soning it usually emplo) to impertinent questions at unreliability) ought to havc ed out these teething troubles.

In any event the logic of the argument that the best way to overcome problems of unreliable equipment is to order more of that same equipment is difficult to follow. Much better - and UD.

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further increase in electricity costs .will further depress demand - . which in turn will put up prices .~ . -.2 still further, since the plant still has to be paid for.

If the government attempts . . to break out of this vicious . circle it will have to subsidise. , the CEGB. This would mean . . money being diverted from areas of real need - housing, social services, education, transport, in order to build plant to stand idle.

EAEORD A. just one of the power-stations iginally planned because of surplus capacity

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'here None CONNOISSEURS of the conspiracy theory of government ive been much impressed by the recent action of the Electricity Council. The Council, which oversees the marketing and distribution of electricity in England and Wales, has, without any public discussion, committed itself to a course of action hich could add 40% to electricity bills and involve expendire equivalent to two or three Concordes, 50 or 60 new spitals or several hundred miles of motorway all to keep nerating plant idle.

The Council has agreed to the raising of the Central ectricity Generating Board's plant margin from 20% to 28%.

This margin is the safety factor of generating plant which the CEGB must install, over anrfabove the maximum demand it expects, to enable it to cope with breakdowns and plant taken it of service for maintenance. corporate plan, then the peak will The decision was in fact taken reach about 57,500 MW by 1985.

January but never publicly With the 20% margin the board Bounced. What few attempts would need a total capacity of there have been in the press to about 68,500 MW but a 28% divine reasons have blamed the margin would push this up to over CEGB's modem, high capacity 73,000 MW. Since power stations plant which is not only less are taking anything between 7 reliable than older, smaller plant, and 12 years to build, this extra but also has a consequently capacity will have to be ordered greater effect on total capacity soon. The cost difference between in the case of breakdown. the figures is.upwards of £200 Since the CEGB already has million at present values. a 35%overcapacity, due to depressed demand and overordering in the sixties, the general impression seems to have been fostered that the decision is no more than a paper exercise.

In fact the consequences could be anything but theoretical, as trouble with some of their large. can be seen by the figures. The plant. The recent shaft failures C E G B has about 57,000 mw of in two 660MW generators at the capacity installed at the moment, coal filed Drax A station have received a lot of embarrassing while peak demand last year was 41,353 MW. B y 1985, with eonpublicity and there have been pittion of stationsalready on order now, total capacity will be i t Kbgsnorth. But the amount about 65,000 MW. If demand grows at about 3.4% a year, which even theÈ faituid present no is ritthe CEGB expect in their capacity problems and, by the

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plant before 1979 at the earliest and maybe not before 1985. With world-wide manufacturing overcapacity and increasing evidence of other governments subsidising exports, ~heiroiitlookis bleak.

The government's Think Tank, the Central Policy Review Staff, analysed the industry and produced a report at the end of last year which recommended: * The merger of GEC and Parsons turbine generating interests. * The merger of boiler manufacturers Babcock & wilson&~d Clarke Chapman * Bringing forward an order for the 2000MW coal-fired Drax B station * Encouraging the development of a 1300MW turbine generator for the fast breeder reactor * Financial assistance for exports * Increasing the price of electricity by 1.25% a year to 1984.

The government now appears to have made up its mind. In a confidential briefing for trade union officials and MPs on 2 March, Industry Minister Alan Willlams hinted strongly that the government would sanction Drax B, the development of the 1300 MW turbine and export assistance but would not recommend the mergers.

The government appears to have chosen the most expensive option. Faced with keeping two sets of plant manufacturers, it now has to make sure they have orders, most of which will have to come from the home market.

The high price of employment In 611, this the government's chief concern, laudable enough, is the preservation of jobs. 33,000 jobs could disappear in the next twelve months if no new orders are forthcoming. However there is increasing doubt, even within the industry itself, that they are adopting the right strategy. Shop stewards at GEC's Rugby Plant with the tacit backing of their management, have put forward an alternative which they think would be much cheaper and probably more effective. For £5million, explained ASTMS Rugby branchchairman Doug Hall in letters to both Tony Be.... and Eric Valley, the government could ensure work equivalent to keeping both GEC and Parsons fully employed for a year or more - rather longer than won the £50 million order for Dra B. The money would be s £2million going to expc stance and the rest to a programme of modernisation of the CEGB's existing plant.

Modernisationto improve thermal efficiency and reliability would both cat costs and remove the need to increase the plant man^ It looks, at tint tight, a most attractive option and ought to beconsidered very carefully befoi the government commits itself irrevocably to a decision whi& could make Concosde look liki an exercise in sublime fiscal wisdom.

I This is going to hit the electric-

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Thanks

For help with this issue's news; David Stringer, Chris Bennett, Jenny Burgoyne and Release.

For help with Chemical Cornucoom Collapses and The Whok ~ o o dchain in Undercurrents 2 Dave Baldock, Colin H i m , Pat Dodd, and Roland Chaplain.

Drugs Act Misused AFTER THE mling in Portsmouth Crown Court on Match 4th that .CTin Goodchilde wtsguilty of poaeauig tetnhydrocaniublnol (THO o m d i d derivative. the obiect of the Misuse of Drugs Act, 1971, Ã been defeated.

In the similaroilier case of he wasn't talking from first hand experience. The defence.@unsel bis Chrysostomou, the Appeal 'oust ruled that c a ~ a b i stalks s went to some length to point out lid leaves, although they containthe ludicrous nature of an act that, strictly interpreted, would make 1the active ingredient of cannais, were not covered by the wordpossession of a natterjack 'toad possession of a dangerous drug. ig of the act, and a small quantity (The skin of the natterjack toad f cannabis was returned to the excretes the hallucinogen efendant. bufotenine).

Classifying leaves, the weakest art of the cannabis plant, as a lass A drug includes them with Kevin Goodchilde intends to arcotics such as heroin and contest his case. But Lord Widgery icaine. So their possession could in the appeal court is unlikely to zry a-hardier sentence than that uphold his appfcal. If this happens the police may proceed to bring ir possessing cannabis seeds, ollen or heads. The main purpose prosecutions in a growing number of outstanding cases affected by f the 1971 act was to reduce the the forthcoming verdict. snalties for possession of mari-, Marijuana is now legalised in lana by separating it from the lore dangerous drugs. several states in America, which This latest case produced some makes the British law look particunhsing highlights, such as when larly ridiculous over this case, even Eic%J de Navaro, prosecuting, though Kevin Goodchide has been ordered to pay a mere £2 fine, escribed THC has: "the narcotic iat turns you on". Presumably subject to appeal.

LUCAS CUTS: The Reply

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THE THREAT OF MASS REDUNDANCIES,long predicted by the Lucas Aerospace Combine Shop Stewards Committee, has now materialiaed with the company warning that 1,100 jobs would have to be lot

by August. The Lucas workers plan to fight these redundanaef and

have made it clear that industrial action, including rtrikes, will be the response to any sackings. An overtime bin and (elected blacking of part movement is already in (Mention. The cohesion of the Combine Committee and the support for the Alternative Corporate Flan drawn up last year have never been greater.

At a meeting on March 1 in the owned company like Lucas, y e n House of Commons attended by though much of their business comes fromlhe Ministry of all thirty of the Combine Shop Defence.

Stewards Committee, the shop Sympathetic MPs may be able stewards made it clear to the to generate some disquiet in the dozen or so Labour MPs and junior corridors of power, but what ministers present that they wanted happens over the next few months talksan the future of the industry really depends on the workers held immediately between themthemselves, and on the reactions selves and the Department of of the company. Lucas have already Industry and Employment. They announced that they do not recogalsocalled for a government enquiry into the way Lucas Aeronise the Combine Committee as a representative body. This indispace had been operating, in cates that they intend to challenge particular to find out if the £31 both the Corporate plan and the 'deferred Tax' concession received organisation of the Combine.

by Lucas had indeed been used to find expansion abroad as has Therefore, the current redunbeen alleged. dancy threat is a crucial test for Last May the company rejected the whole 'corporate plan' approach the Combine Committee's CorporBy producing the plan before ate Plan, assuring the workforce redundancies occurred the Combine that . "the only way to secure Committee aimed to be ready for fobs in the market economy is to ~ u s such t a situation; although they manufacture the products which also hoped that the plan could be the Company'is best a t producing gradually implemented by negoefficiently and profitably" and so tiation. the company . . ."intended to The workers at the Burnley concentrate on its traditional busiplant have already succeeded in ness which involves the developnegotiating the adoption of one of ment of aircraft systems and the products proposed by the components for the Aerospace corporate plan: diesel engine and Defence industries". powered heat pumps for use in However, the Company now council houses. The local manage say defence contracts cannot ment had just agreed that protoguaranteejobs, and are calling types should be developed when for 500 redundancies at the L ~ e r - the redundancy threat was announcpoolplant, 250 at Birmingham ed by central management. Detailed i t 350 at Burnley. Thecombine technical discussions with customCommittee allege that the corn* ers and consultants were already underway. Hopefully the threatenpany is simply 'rationalising', that is reducing, the workforce by ed redundanciesat Burnley will not affect this project, which ought to shifting work abroad. They see be the forerunner of a whole series Lucas's indifference to the of projects suggested in the Corworkers corporate plan as a direct porate plan. attack on the government IndusThe threatened redundancies trial strategy; a key aim of which should, one way or another, preciis to stimulate investment in pitate a @or industrial struggle ted by British f'iinns in order to for the right to work and for the increase employment. alternative projects which will make However, the government has this possible. little influence on a privately

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Farm Cities

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CITY FARMS ARE CONTAGIOUS. Since The Department of Environment made a £15,00grant to Inter-Action T N S ~ last November, more than thirty community groups have app~oached Intel-Action Advisory Service Limited for advice and assistance in setting up City Finn; Newham City Farm in Canning Comparison of'the 3 acre City Farm 1 with the similar size council Town has grown particularly quickrun L i w n Green Estate Playground ly. Beginning with a small area of illustrates the importance of 10'4 land within the Mayflower Family control of projects. K i n Green, Centre last November, they have with far fewer facilities, has been taken up an offer of a fourteen vandalised repeatedly and with acre site in East London. Ducks, higher capital costs has worked chickens and a garden will be out almost £100,00dearer than supplemented by cows and horses City Farm 1. One dreads to think when they transfer to the new how much a council-run farm would she. Twenty-one workers are cost. employed there through the Job Inter-Action will help any group, Creation Programme, and are build-, anywhere in the country, to start ing cowsheds and chicken coops similar projects where there are soda1 ready for the move. or educational aspects as well as just Othw farms are being'Marted food growing. But hopefully it up by self-helftgroupsin Glasgow, could be the thin end of the wedge, irmingham, and Newcastle. and citydwellers may soon awake to iter-Action stress that they will cocks crowing. act only in an advisory role and that the success of the Kentish "own farm (Eddies, Undercurrents Further information from Ed 8), results from the involvement Arman, Inter-Actbn, 14, Talacre 'the whole community in the Road, London-NW5. .eject.

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Archwav Re~lav J

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IF YOU ENJOYED the Archway Inquiry last September, then don't miff the ~ e p h beginning y at 10.30 pon Tuesday, 19th April at Atchway Central Hall, Archway Clw, London, N19. The stormy proceedin@ of the first enquiry, as reported in Undercurrents 19, were adjourned because of the illness of Mi Vernon, the Inspector.

The Transport and Environment Secretaries have decided to scrap the earlier proceedings. Objections to the roads connecting Shepherds HOI and Holmesdale Road to the proposed A1 Archway Motorway, which have already be& lodged, need not be resubmitted. But should you up and send them, in writing, to the have hew objections, Dqmtment of &St Christopher House, S o u t h 4 Stn?et, London El.

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N 2 Tell All

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OTHER PMER are to prosecute h e & city council for withholding information that by law should be made avail%case will be brought under the Public able to the prt -<.

Bod~es(Adrn.\h t to Meetings) Act, 1960.

The City Council has Made this Section 4(b) oi the Act pro-

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d e s that there shall, on requkst . . . be supplied for the benefit of any newspaper a copy of the agenda for

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informat4011freely available to more traditi~nalpapers IS@ t% Yorkshire h S ,while stubWd$::**

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them g r a t t a recfmt metmse of any item, with copies of "2%&&port w n t a m a details of next - expendiiure on housing was any reports or other documents ~ 5mr's supplied to members of the body =- -- di8cussed for over an hour. Without. in connection with the item." a copy of the report it was impesBodies covered by the Schedule sible to fathom out quite what of the Act include cotinah, some washeirg discus&. m u n d wnnnittee meetings, The. 1960 Act doesallow regionalhospital boards and water councils to hoki meetings that are boards. do& to the public, and thus

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The British f m s involved are EP and Shell, both of whom are long established in Southern Africa a d who participate in a wide range of consortia with Caltex;Mobii and Total, the American and French oil companies well represented in Southern Africa. The fiims collaborated with Iran to avoid the Arab boycott of oil mppties to South Africa in 1973, and helped the authorities there conserve oil to make up for the undelivered mpplies. In addition, they have taken part in prospecting for off the coasts, which seems t o c v e been more succeasfd than the A4hl estimate. The companies have also invested heavily in the 1 4 coal industry. In particular, both BP Coal and Shell Coal are prospecting for cod (which requues technology similar to that for lookkg for oil) in the coal-rich parts of the country, which contain 64%of Africa's coal. Coal production In South Africa is the cheapest in the world, chiefly because of the low wages of the black workforce.

Shell also owns,h3E6P*e troubled General Atomic c%fnpany in the USA, whose problematic High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor was at one stage advertised in South Africa as vaticularlv suitable for that

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Lastly, AAk finds evidenm that Shell and BP (68% of whose shares are now in Govemnlent hands), have both been active in supplying oil to the Smith regime. Indeed, one photogmph published in the Rund Daily Mail showed a tanker of oil crossing the border northbound: An amateurish paint job did not quite conffial its BP logo!

AUOW i e ServiffiS, formerly Freight Sei-vices Ltd, are the main agents forwarding oil to the Smith regime. Sou$h Afiica'p biiest freight forwarder, they are ultimately controlled

by Anglo Amrican: South Africa's biggest p $ w t ~ Z ~ m : ~ p tion. z S ~-e F m-%g Neither Am10 or -v-Zy's ->: Aero Marine & saying anything < ! about th& Zimbabwean dealings,': daiming that they must preserve , the confldenffi of their clients.

BP and Shell will probably soon be shown to have participated in a 'paper chase' to cover the tiacks of their dealings with the Smith regime, in the same way as Mobil did before them.

There is little doubt that the British firms, with other South African oil intere oil to Smith, and armies of both co

No -Land To Go To

DON'T GO WEST young homesteaders, is the message fro the Diggers of Cornwall. The c k m t weathr, sandy bea rugged coastline and wide-open spaces lead an increasing of people to look within the area for a house and a few a land upon which to becornself-sufficient.

However, it is one of the worst sunties to choose. Land is scarce, !wen at prices of Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ50an acre. :ompetition for houses between he local indust~Mworkforce, :ouples seeking retirement homes md the tourist industry is fierce. :inding casual work to tide you )ver while you establish yourself s difficult with local unemploynent between twelve and twenty XI cent. Similar problems exist n the rest of the country, but are lot as intense as they are here.

L i e Scotland, much of the and belongs to large estates, ike those of the Rashleighs or iii John Tremayne of Heiigan, aevigissey, run in almost feudal nanner. For instance, tenant .amen r e n t h farms of twenty o thirty acres&dtm

z c t e d private*marketind JXUM~I housing is in short suppl Jntil very recently industrial :ernow (the Cornish nam for !ornwall) was not recognised as b~usingstwssarea. Since 1945

In Restormel district, fifteen hundred families art Qn the housing list and the council car only build three hundred new houses a year. St Columb, n w Newquay, has about 300 hornelm out of a population of 2,000.

But it is a problem throughoDt CoruwaU. Much of the cheap hous@ is substandard and over r&y years old. The problem is extreme, for instance the Hamlet of Come consists of three s+one housesand thirty caravans parked by a council rubbish tip since 1947.

The Cbmmunity Land Act has not allemated the shortage of available land and housing. though^ the County Small Holdiis Committee tq~to ensue that the most needy do get seen to, the County and ~ i s t r $ councils have neither teeth to take over ount of land or they might like.

Planning regulations often vate the woiild-be smallholders problems. Unralistically high standards for housing have to be waived due to the impossiiility of rehousing people>but are adher ed to when new buildings are plaxt ned. The rigid zoning of land use into industrial/urban, agricultural and amenity areas limits the . di~Si0nof the hfid into sUUB

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my ueovle full k f o m t i o n about mncil activities. S u b ~ u e n t b ' , &ion 100 of the 1972 lo&l + opernment Act reduce* the power ' counds to withhold informaDn and partly amends the 1960

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ms&wthis r, didn't cause the ush to open govern-

1975 Department of t Circular 45/75 was to remind o Norm done in

S k e is now evidence to sug&.&at wen this may n6t have

s %le?aNFSE had found several & e w o n s when examining

&st&# inEorrnation available

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Te protea the m a 1 nature ~W-mntryeide,caravans and $ld& axe strictly controll-

~w on will soon tbe planning %WtS

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k O bback to the hd* lave Wmed a group of &$p&etiiplanners to help people @pb&g problems, both &%gwaU and the rest of Britain. p h n i n g g o u p is based at k E s r t h Centre. Land is just not t&&!e by right, however keen &&lit be to work on it. &*d Schama hopes to bring

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:WO JOURNALISTS,

and the case is now in WAcourt.

Commu~ty~papers Iike h p e k town News have a h been discdm inated against by local &unch WithholUing information. They me Leeda Other &per's case as setting a precedent and wfiuld welcome a verdict in their favour. Local anthpritiea do not hayeK&orrn 1 4 policy fot dealing alternative press. Livepool Re< J'ress, a larger paper w.th paid repbeers belonghg &%?he ati ional Udon of Journalists,~hasnot had any problem with local councils. Many community papers did not real@ that minutes of council meetings were available to them.

Lee& Other &per have xaised suffkient.money to be& proceediis against Lad8 City Council, bnt have opened a 1-1 a p m , aJa Goldenball%to finance the* rase. If m u wiah to help pay the price of freedom of information, without which freedom of speech is a mockery, then make out a cheque or postal order to Leeds Other Paper. write legal aid on the back, and . send it?o 39, Bledleim Terrace, k& 2. If their case is proved and costs awarded in the~favour, , your money wiH be returned. this to public attention wnen she puts Motion 22 to the Annual Genegl Meeting of Wional Council of C i a L e on the 16th and 17th April, 1977: motiow called Rights to the Land, reads: "This AGM: * declares that land is held in trust by each generation for future generations;

* endorses the right of people to become self-sufficient in f00a * maffims the h + k ~ b lright e of evew individual to have access to land for living and food production;

l H E FIRST WOOD SlDVE SHOW bok place on January 15th and wm orgmieEd by C ~ ~ t colic@, a y a 80rt of dtmn8tiva t c d m i d d m m n f b m a b m d h - h m H & M & h M w b * h = h t W & p d o f * a W n m b W ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ * ~m*fmn*awe a I l @iring &anlieid MuWBurmr, whiih runs on whok M a so f e w a wen Wed a d b o d waste, to m i impo&ed antique Fmnch stove& The exhibition was dominated by m e entrance feeof Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ1.50 the Scandinavians -1otu1, Ulefos, S l in advan-, was the only sour Bjomo, and Lange - and the French note, and mme people mmp& and Eelghns Coste, Fmco-Bdge , ed that the manufacturers o q h t Rosieres and Don-Bar. Tucked away to have been fthe bii. in a mmer under a Union Jack was However, many must have ' the Ouebb. a J o t u l - b d machine thouzht the money well m n t . at about half the price and manufactured singbhandedly in impow%leto move around at all Hay-on-Wye. Beyond this were the . d y in t@ehall, let alom in tb* Franklin and Tort4se stoves, beth h o w . Clearly the o m s e t s were overwhelmed by the welkvmven d ~- s v e wze n t y response, which indicates a years-okl. need for a permanent exhibition I n ad&on to the hafdware, somewhere - at the ~ o l i hFuel there were lectures. demonstrations Advisory Centre perhaps? of how to use a &in-s~w,+tnda *,s-k 5 hycraulic log-splitter, costing a -4 %,~;.y;% < z+chilling $600 plus VAT, was put ) through its paws. Back at the wkte to Co"ntry College, house there were demonstrations, 11 Harmer Green lane, Digswell, and samples, of what could b,e Welwn, Hens, for the addresses cooked on a wood-fined cooker. of the exhibitors at the show.

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* GPports all peaceful efforts undertaken in pursuance of these h : e t e a&on to mst&~t~~t~-*~ pries -@,q& h a vast acr&ges by individuals, corn panies, l o d and central government; * proposes that a low ceiling k ' ~ k c e don future M d h o l d i ~ to prevent accumulation; * requests the Executive Committee to initiate action 2 i at dving effect to the principles contained in this motion."

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Anyone who has been prohib ited from fim&ng land and nome because of high prices, or whatevef, is r e q u W to write to R o W d Schama, Daisy Carav-an, Wittey's Lane, Tbomcombe, sOmemt*as she hw to begii a campaign to advand Land K i t s if the motion is carried.

For details of the advice on self+ufficienw andmwee ~ b jects available in witing fmm the Dfggers, write to The Earth Centre, 8, Tabernacle Street, Trum, Cornwall enclosing a lame s.a.6.

Duncan &mpbeU, a member of the Under=

m@~ U e ~ t i vand e , C&xpin Aubrey of 7ime Out magazine, and a

MM warkerdohn Berry, were arrested on Feb19 in London.

-6 Aubrey have been xemanded on bail, and Berry remand&&Urnp*n, until A p d 26, when charges under Section 2 of &E&lcMSecrets Acts may be brought.

->, and a niass of personal documnts, ;*arm$~ were made outside W&g's flat h North London after such as his building society paw @&t.Qmpbell had been speaking book. The aim of the search was at @%-f$ezry. However, the widex rust mysterious; it would have been *of the ztuthorit~es'interest in far eader for the police to remove kfisewas indicated later that only items of mme possible interest wkm* police van went to to the case, as opposed to the range idbpbeE8 house in Brighton and of novels, electro~cstextbooks and telephone directories which were including some d i t a r y magazines, a t least &&nates the powiiiity

Duncan Campbell, C headqumm of the British Ii~te%ge~~% Service at Cenhuy House, in Lambeth, held on March 3 the essentially simple nature of his CampbeU is now convinced that - researches into sensitive informahk mest and the removal of his tion'explained. The end result was muree material is intended simply to leave the authorities looking to remove his livelihocd and to even sillier than they always have hartas him. The bail condiiion over the deportations. This, in addithat he must report d a i i to a police tion to the work he has done, for station - is unusually restrictive a number of publications on and adds strength to this belief.

The authorities' reasons for ? i s k g military and security topics, lea& Campbell ill are clear enough, in CampbeU to think that the author. it& are anxious to incapacitate him p r t l c u k , he was the star of a Granada World in Action progmm by whatewer m n s are available even the most discredited pa@ ef dite4iAetaE*.

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r n E R N A r n N A L NUCLEAR-' WNl' is awries of bppenings *bWPhW I the fust half of May. The Inteznational tomic Energy Agency is orpnising a )nference-Gn nuclear power. h i & will :hdd in Sdzburg early & thy. This wmes a time when the duclear industry is fightg for survivalin the face of pubic m & m ~demnothicloses,-and they hope to have mut 2000 deleeates. Friends of the Earth , tternational an: other orgamtiom wiIl 3 taking concerted action a d plan an ternative mnference. in Salzb-. before 1 d& the IAEA o&, on May j-13.

The weekend after the wnferene, lar 1+15. envirodmentaloranisations are Gw& anti-nuclear evgnts in seveml- -. uropean countries. FOE wiU be organisins major event in London, f a keep that eekend clear, and go a6d jom them!

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%IORTICULTURE is the subject of a weekend wurse arranged by the Alternatwe Society on April 23-24. It is to be a weekend of practical ledrning about soil and organic mil knagement, such as compostbg, n o d i i n g , planting, and peenhouse work,and is suitable for beginners and peopk whh mme exnerieri&. Mike Bureess --~of LackhamI C NIl it.

fCAm 77 is taking phce from .

April 15-19 in Leeds, m note these dates in your diary. There is a very fuU prograhk of working groups discussions and teac so for detailed informat~oncontact the secretary of theFuture Studies Centre, Mland Chanlain, 15 Kelm Road, Leed S 2 YPR. ~ i l0532 .

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PRACTICAL SELF-SUFFICIENCY chibitions at their smallholdingat Widdii)n, Essex. They aim to provide help and ~thoritativeinformation by lectdres, om,experts, and practical demonstrations, ~ a e a of s d scale living. On April 16 E ntbject is mu-scaIe PouItry Keeping. ,4ril23:- sumival food growing. May 14: Soh Energy, June IF: Home Dairying.

For information on thew and future coww, write to Katie T h r , B m d Leys Publishhe Co., W i d b t o n , WTmn Walden, Essex CBll 3SP. The cost isXl.50 for the day and - -includes a - H&t lunch.

W E ENLl OF ECONOMIC GROWIH -WHAT N E m , is the titk of a weekend conference on April 2344% Sheffield City Polytechnic. It is organhe4 the Conserwtion Society and 'more , . by details are available from Richard Baker. . ..., , * dingley, ~owley,Lane,Holmesfidd, : ffieId:Z%ey hope it wiU be an impom# onal occasion where members of the ...& ety and many other people invokd in j.21 industry, planning, local and central gowtn- '. ,$$ ment m u meet and discuss the prospects, that face us c o n m m natural resoureek wnomic growth and ither related sugeots-

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be a DESCHOOL Week at There Iauriemon Hall from Friday April 29 to Saturday May 7 to talk about what happens when people try to set up w o r k i i alternatives to w m p u h r y State education. For details send a sa.e. to: Deschool Week,Laurieston Hall, Castle Dough, W c a d b ~ t s h i r e , SwtIand.

e holding a series of oneday wursesl

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LAND FOR THE PEOPLE is having a meet@ cym conference on the weekend April 30lMay 1. It wiU take place at the Talbot Tabernacle, Pow& S q w e , London Wll. For more deQils, phone 01-267 1184, or 01-485 3752.

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CENSORSHIP is the mbj& edbyasuieofmeetingsattheIC4~ Q~ursdayat 7 pm. S W b g on April 21, they wver censorshim in films sex and vioience, broadcast& and politics. The series is sponsored by the ICA, the R e f e m of Literature and the Arts Society and the kvening Stnndard. Speakers inclide 3 Dilys Powell, Professor H. Eysenck, PC$&/ Jay and many othem. They hope to show, ,f i i s as we& For more details contact Lmda Lloyd Jones, 01-930 0493.

@fALlERNATWEBUILDING is from May 6 to 8 tit the Hull Mool of Architecture, 'l%e UnLversitv. HUM.North Humbetside. It MI cost on1ii1 pm'ciay (ES for those on e x p e w ) and there M , b e ample sleeping bag acwmmodatmn. For details write or ~hom (HuU 25938) Howard LidUeU.

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What's What URBAN ALTERNATNES is the title of a seminar paper to be read hy David Stringer to the Urban Theology Unit in May this year. The emphasis is on the problems of the urban people who want to grow more food. It IS p a t of a larger and more ambitious plan conce~edby the Diggers {S.W.) to compile a register of land-ux in the British Isles, excluding Eire.

They welcome any local ~nformat~on about.

- * proportbn of derelict land your area = - - . , * reasons for its dereliction, e.g. covered In + , N@A& ~owe;dles, $km@g, rubbish dumps or industrial slag or . merely neglected >Uuiion,gar&*, recyeIing and insuMion * proportion of untilled, rough uplq~d e Z sample of the environmental h e s pasiure that has beemdeforeaed ahd has wered bgnewdettera, bo~ks,-ma&!a&es, soil that could be ~mprovedover the years 3stets, &91@and badges available from cdbz.+fWb-6f EieMs of the Earth and - * proportion of land at present underused ted* 2E$p!m ~ ~ ~ @ i c a t ~ q m ? ~ ~ o r for agriculture because it is part o f a flood" :t&s o$ thegmihbiiity aF ?TheOdlySafe plain &stBr&qr IS a &%bit'' T airt,BWepe main farming use of good agricultural hii8 cy~ling sfid$sg tE~m+qy exhibiiii6qad ~eo t h e r 7 & p 6 ~ * $ h ~ m n t f o ~ & * land left idle or underused because it is IOVG, m d %mi@; $9ff5?~&$~5mt, -

'ilIE CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE RMS TRADE is now very actlve, set up a ago by CND and a number of other pci-, st groups, they have published a lot of >cumentation,held meetings, and organied rents like leafletting the British Army ~uipmentExhibition at Aldershot last year ~da week of action this January. Write to hem at 5 Caledonian Road, London Nl for ;tails (there are local groups), and send lp if you'd like a comprehensive list of UK rm invbIv@+.the axinstrade.

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\ ' ~ & d in f a Sharing' badge%I* ' !&-and 'No mow Nuck?a~Power Stations' ickexs, 5 6 % ~ for 50, h l u b postage, are m availabk &om FpE in Budngkim at: Passey Road, Biiminghnm B13 YNU.

Community Action have just pmded their excellent INVESTIGATORS' RAND- .

BOOK, 30p from them at PO Box 665, London SWlX 8DZ. It!s the most comprehenswe and useful gu~deto investigating aU +ds of pol~t~cal power ~nBntam. The authors say "TIUShandbook has one main purpose; to help tenants, workers and action groups to& more power through a clearer anderstandii of where the power lies now, locally and nationally, and how ~t1s exercised. 1t is designed to be used by people needing detailed -mformation about companies, organisatbns,, : and individualsoperating in their area, as part of a wider campaign". The handbook b t s and details hundreds of sources of 1nformati~about the local and national power structure and explains how to use the info. nost of the sources described in+he handbook are +

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LETTERS

Undercurrents Earth Exchange Building, 213 Archway Road, LONDON N6 SBN

Although I agree with much of John Fletcher's ~deasin The Secret People (L1ndercurrents 1 9 ) . 1 must Ooht out that there was a lot of unjustifiable bloodshed on the part of the peasants UI 1381. Contemporary accounts speak of scores of h m h a r d s and Flemims beim decauitated and otherwise

Congratuhtions on surviving for five yeem without either full-time staff or the profit motive.

However now your policy is, ta a fairish 2xtent the rece~ved wisdom. hasn't th; need for huffing and puffing. and a constantly embattled posture, largely faded?

Wtth the establishment so short of self-confidence and social and economic order rither shaken. the qyFtion is no longer does your w o n have a chance, but how is it to 6tart taking practical shape here and now. How ts ~t shaping UP t o inflation and unemployment?

In making dreams a r e d t y accuracy is as import?nt as ~n;he bad o!d days of a n UIUUSC in~unous stahiltty On age 1 7 of Under. ere's a photo Wustratcumnts'~~ ing the effects of over =zing. But it seems to show the egects of drought.

were given trials does not necessarily mean that these trials were alwmvs f x i ~ Please let's have a %";fitcoy thit-b.iti,hersinnocent peo le. even capitahsts. fioving on to something construe tive I note that Savonius rotors are in danger of being regarded as the ugly duckings of wind power ( U n d e ~ u r r e n i s ~ l 9.ll for instance). ~ d m t t d yrusty 0% b m s look pretty a w h but with a bit of skiUfuUy applied paint they could be made t o look positively attractive. This would also protect them from rust; bare metal won't last long when continuoudy exposed t o the elements. Come tn think of it how abo t an art g d e w of **ad'ow~y rotating Fries of modular abstract fnezes"?!

t8

15 Glebe Court cross Lane

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Alan Bula

I'm quite happy about the way mfu ine has developed over the past wo years but I would

YOU

Robii Turner

me t o see more 4 c h n a c i o u m e r e h i d matarid t o provide an idmlogicd SuhstNCture ( M m , forgive me) the 'why' of the movement 'aa wen aa the 'how' of omme. bor examDle. how to

K i r a Reval ~

Now that we h a w ~ o i d off our creditors and accukulatid a modest surplu8, we are loohinz or methods of marketing nder-ents that are both pmfitable and consistent with our dearly held mdical principles.

How for we are prepwed to corn. fmmise is still'undecided; in fact t haspmuohed80,me fazrly heated argument wtthzn the collec- tiue which was omitted from ~ndercurrents20 in order to allow tempers to cool. We would be grateful for practical suzzestiom fmm our readers.

L

ALBION

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~ C n d a l Wholefoods a 43 Manor House Rd Jcsmond Newcastle on Tyne 2.

Gordon

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......-, ...-. . ~ However I do not disagree with the fo& basic hilosophicd premises behinfma&c. w stated in Richard%review.

I d o not.quest~onthe'ddea that

Nazarene Manse Main St Twechar Kiisyth G65 -9QE.

LETTERS 2 BONDAGE ........

p e o ~ l e % - F e = h i 6 l otgo~ which I subscribed. Then a w ~ c k e dfairy came along and in spite of nice MI Elen's &ic turned i t into, a colour su plement for the Dady Worker. &ease. Mr Collective,

Alternative technology is claimed t o b e a method of producing the facilities enjoyed b y society a t its present scientific level h u t witho u t interferinq with tde P r o c e ~ e s of nature. Whdst not disputhk? the merits of alternative technology I would like t o question whether the above is a n accurate description. The acquisition and combustion of finite fuel resources ohvioudy does have a harmful effect o n the environment in that it upsets the established pattern of life But any method of hame-g energy must,interfere with the existing ntuatlon. Aerogenerators absorb the wind solar cells intercept light, H.E.P.'dows down rivers etc.

Perhaps therefore the differences between A.T. and conventional technolo Y is in the relative efficiencies of &e two SYSte*S: the direct transfer of energy In A.T as o posed t o the high de&ee o?waste involved in ?onventiond methods (factors a e pollution manpower and insulation are ah imphed in the word

I was pleased t o see the article o n can& in Undemurwnts 20.

Certainly the canal system is the most eco10gicaUy sound means of hulk trans ort that exists; the way in which tEe other vested tmnsport interests have attempted t o destroy i t make good readin$ for anyone interested in the onof 6Gr i i e s e n t noisy. oil-guzzling transport system.

To be fair t o the British Waterways Board the are attemPtMg a revival of i r e i d t carnnge on some waterways b u t they c a n only see a future rf; craft of 700 tonne and over which rules out the reemergenie of a community of owner-boatmen such as once existed in England aAd still PerSiStS.. albeit In de=%e, In EuFope. It IS. however st1I1 lust possible t o earn a living ;n the narrow canals hY c a n i n g oods d.espite the efforts opthe B ~ t oBL h m h a t e such etivities.

I would very much like t o hear from rJndorcuments readers who

anyone interested in lirink?on a boat. Please,contact m? for det,ads.

Anyone mterestcd In restoring cnnds. theoret~callvfor CaIrYInR

.. .. from the spells of the system.

Please. Mr Collective caulk, you *os~ihlysupply me a$:*:9~-;~'%~6~~ magmfy~ngg l a s In the next issue so I can read the Letters 창 page and those funny little Loughton black blobs in the top ri t Essex hand comer o f Page 11 currents I O)? Ever since my wicked stepmother Age t u m e d me f ~ o m a Youthful into an Ageing R e v o l u t i o ~ y my , eyesight hasn't heen as good a s

kith

Roger Brewis

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uences.

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Paul Halford

Chris Leah

23 Ashburton Road, Biimingham B14 6JA.

N R I ilith

%ride

LEY THOUGHTS It seems that the bickering over the validity of audyipg ley lines. continues. The q u m o n c o n c e m g usis not what use Ihner Technology ia to the world m w b u t what use w i l l i t be ia t h e futtue? It is dl very well wing to take a stance an "dte+tive technologst"

and posit v m o u s quasi-utoptan societies b u t before they can happen we must radically alter our own inner c o n s d o u ~ e s as s well..I believe that M o r n and slm3a1 communities have the x@ht anewer and it ia to t h e m we &ould look.

AJ Bullion

17 Dry Bank Court Tonbridge Kent

Undercurrents 21 because they may deci

Lords Ingleby and Mexborough ow a great deal o f land on the western side o f the North York Moors We heard that Mexborough had joined Masham for celestial monopoly but still in the familv, for examole. i s a good group o f buildings c a l i e d ~ a l e Head (S.E. 495949) which they are reluctant to give up before they are completely destroyed by wind and rail Lord Ingleby, on the other hand, is alive and probably well residing in Snilesworth Lodge. Just over the hill from Dale Head Ingleby has Bumper Castle (not really a castle, but teeterin; on the edge o f being a ruin) (S.E. 551 924) and Crow Nest (S.E. 547914).

Both are in repairable condition but in a few years will be shells when the weather finally breaks through the roofs.

Farndale is a little further east. Here we met very friendly,and resentful, inhabitants. The whole dale was bought some years ago by a landlord who then ignored it completely (as one person u t it, 'He came here, said "I like Farnale, I think I'll buy it" - and he did.)

In summer '76 the dale was in the process o f being sold again, to J. and A. Stancer from Warwick. Sale was due t o be completed on Dec 24 '76, and there

Rural Housing is v e r y scarce, as Ann P e t t i t t a n d Barry Wade, who have been l o o k i n g f o r a house w i t h l a n d f o r the past year a n d a half, have found out. T h e y are c e r t a i n t h a t a n u n o f f i c i a l l a n d register is needed to h e l p e q u i p u s to begin reclaiming the l a n d for the people. T h i s is t h e i r c o n t r i bution to such a register of l a n d for reclamation. the outskirts of the Park you may discover Scar Top House, 0.5 reference S.E. 028639, at Hebden. This is a large empty house i n reasonable condition but lacking electricity; i t s position and appearance make i t the perfect setting for 'Wuthering Heights' fantasies.

A little further down the road to Pateley Bridge there is Greenhow, mainl y belonging t o Lord Mountgarret. This is a somewhat bleak ex-mining village and o f f the road about half a mile is a scattered erouo of houses mostlv i n pretty badstate o f repair - twostill have roofs. Ref. S.E. 11/65.

If you carry on down the hill the you go up Nidderdale you will find Merryfields (S.E. 116663).

A little way on is one of several delightful farmhouses with outbuildings

I N THE past few years increasing numbers o f people have been moving out o f cities into the countryside. This movement seems so great t o those involved that it often appears impossible to find a patch o f soil anywhere. Although second home owners are finding it more difficult t o sustain their standard o f living, there still are many seasonally deserted villages throughout this island. Prices are still not falling; local people generally s t i l l find it impossible to rent houses or buv at current citv dictated orices.

Any city migrant must be a bad influence on the prices o f a limited supply o f rural housing. However, i s the supply so desperately short?

A short time spent looking for empty buildings in many areas o f England, Wales or Scotland will convince you that there is no shortage. The problem, of course, is the way in which the land i s s t i l l very definitely owned by a small number o f people. They are quite prepared to allow houses to collapse rather than split their estates or encumber themselves with necessarily demanding tenants.

F i n d i n g empty p r o p e r t y It is notdifficult to discover empty buildings. There are three mportant methods that we have used: 1. Talking to people in the locality can be the most fruitful method and can supply you with a potted history o f not onlythebuildings, but also the owner's family. 2. I n hilly and relatively treeless landscape a oair o f binoculars will allow vou t o inspect miles o f countryside and spot signs o f dereliction. 3. Estate agents and solicitors often have traditional family connections with landowners and are aware of their property that is standing but not on the market.

We found that the best methods were 1 and 2, i n conjunction with a local 1: 50,000 Ordnance Survey map that usually names the buildings and i s essential.

I n the summer of 1976 we looked i n lust about every dale in the North York Moors, most o f the Yorkshire Dales and its outskirts, Weardale, Teesdale and ventured briefly into Southern Northumberland. We found over 40 isolated rural houses o f various sizes and condition that were empty and not for let or sale.

Dales N a t i o n a l Park Let's start with the Dales National ^ark. A beautiful and dramatic location or many second homes. Looking round

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owned by Mrs wheelwright o f Wath was some indication that the empty and neglected properties might be sold who likes to keep things to herself.

This one is Yeadon (S.E. T56 679) and after that. Anywa , in this dale we found ~awson~ y k e(S.E. 681 944, a although it has no electric it is sound substantial stone built farmhouse in and dry and beautifully situated with , i t s own cluster o f outbuildings. good condition which had been empty for four years. At present the barn is A particularly interesting area is a used b y a ybung neighbouring fanner little north o f here near Masham. This who has been trying to get the place is the Swinton Estate owned b y Lord to live in forsome-time, b u t seemed Masham, until he joined the landlords eager for anyone to move into it. i n the sky last year. We talked to some Cross Farm cottage (S.E.674 938) is angTy people here who complained about . a small cottage which despite being at least 14 empty houses that the estate empty for the last ten years is still in refused to let, i n one case a t least this good condition with asmall garden meant that two generations o f a family and a barn. Towards K e y s k k there were having t o squeeze into one small is another siftall cottage with wtbuildhouse. The charming young man in the ings and a garden. (S.E. 669 948).

Swinton Estate office said that maybe f&$ W d (S.E.-678 958) is a large some would be soM around Christmas stone built house w i t h many outbuildand maybe not. ings arid a large garden, i n good conAround the reservoir i n this area.the dition. The last empty property we Yorkshire Water Authority have empty houses that they refuse to let 0 r . d ' "Ă&#x192;â&#x20AC;Ą saw in Farndale was Cbk C q , S.E.w

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THE DANGERS OF This article was originally printed in an American Journal, The North Country Anvil. We think it important that Undercurrents followers should read it. For some the moral will be that Countercultures are futile diversions, or worse. For those of us committed to shaping alternative values into social realities, there are vital lessons to learn.

I N 1970 CHARLES REICH wrote The Greening of America, an optimistic look at the American counterculture, seeing positive and earth-shaping significance i n even such aspects o f it as blue jeans, and depicting the 'hippie' phenomenon as heralding a wholly new and more human world to. be. The year before, Theodore Roszak had done much the same with his more sophisticated (and therefore less popular) Making of a Counterculture, glorifying romantic emotionalism over arid rationalism (Norman Brown's poetry over Herbert Marcuse's politics), attacking the 'objective consciousness' o f science and setting the humane subjectivity o f the American counterculture (with 'eyes o f flesh, eyes o f fire') i n direct juxtaposi-, tion t o fascism, which is pictured by , Roszak as essentially a cold, scientific phenomenon, with Adolph Eichmann as prototype. There are differences between the two works: Roszak i s aware of the dangers i n drug culture ('the counterfeit infinity'); for Reich, drugs are Huxleyan doors to perception. But in essence, both books se? in the counterculture something original and better.

Neither discuss earlier, similar countercultures, nor account for their demise.

Yet the Sixties 'flower children' were not something new under the sun.

Recently I read a little book publishi d i n 1923 - The Revolt of Youth, by Stanley High.'-lt is a disturbing book, provoking many questions and fears.

It is an eye-witness account, glowingly recorded, o f the youth culture that Followed the horrors o f World War I. And though it speaks o f many countries, i t reserves the author's greatest praise and hopes for one; Germany, Indeed, this book could well have been entitled, The Greening of Germany, Reading it, :>neis unsure whether this is Germany af the Twenties or America o f the sixties that High is describing. "The youth o f the world are pointing the way to the new day which statesmen have Failed to brine. . . a new internationalism

A German counterculture Coincidental with this internationalism. a counterculture sorines from the cities o f Germany. ~ a c ktonature go the

hippies o f the day, the Wandervogel.

"From every city throughout the land one sees this flight o f German youth into Led by the hills and the open country. a battered assortment of guitars. . wearing wreaths o f wild flowers, the old guitars gay with blossoms". Here, High writes, lies the "hope for the future o f Germany", "Long forgotten festivals in great open a k fetes" were revived (like Woodstock?) and "the back t o nature spirit began t o appear.

Natural camaraderie prevails, with freedom o f sexual companionship, the girls "in peasant dress", the boys looking "motley"."Nothing is so roundly hated as the superimposition o f conventional authority, and nothing so loved as nature".

Moreover, this emotional revolt o f consciousness, this new counterculture, is openly apolitical. "Always the members stood against any political alignment" says High. "The political interests are tending to disappear, the great spiritual forces. . are on the ascendancy". High waxes eloquent on the future implications of the German youth movement, with its free schools, co-ops, folk masses (there i s an "inexplicable reaction against conventional Christianity") and so on; German youth are ushering i n the Golden Age. "1 had been privileged", High reports o f his stay i n Germany, "to walk with the the youth o f another world. apostles o f a wholly new life for young and old alike.. with their spirit, the old heaven and the old earth - o f suspicion and selfishness and hate - will pass away." This is not Charles Reich praising hippiedom; this is Germany i n 1923!

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of what Germany was 10 years later) b y the apparent superficial similarities between the post-World War I German counterculture and our own, I sought out further, more detailed information.

What else was similar? What different?

What happened t o these flower children of another era? Some people, even in 1923, High writes, were suggesting that the youth movement might become caught uo , in another German militarism. "another war t o win again a olace in the sun". But, he assured hisreaders,

the youth movement was "too snontaneous and free from the direction o f the forces which would be most interest ed i n such a development to give adequate basis for alarm". What, then, happened?

The literature, at least i n English (and 1 do not read German), is sparse.

But Walter Laquer's Young Germany is a fine study o f the German youth movement itself. Published i n 1962, it preceded the present US counterculture, and thus draws no parallels. It is, unlike High's, a scholarly, not an emotional, work. But before attempting t o find countercultural parallels then and now, employing Laquer's study, let me first picture the Germany o f the post-World War I period. Great manufacturing cities had grown up before the war, with population leaving the countryside for industrial employment. A prosperous middle class benefited from industrial progress, but by the turn o f the century found itschildren alienated from the world of commerce and science. In 1896 the Wandervogel was formed, with the youth o f subvban Berlin setting o f f to the woods decrying a "soulless materialism". Then i n 1914 came war, early success, ah industrial surge stimulated by armaments production and then, ignominious defeat, with reparations due the victors. Inflation became rampant, pauperising the middle class.

The dominant intellectual mood was the pessimism o f Spengler's Decline of the West, published in 1918. Life had lost its meaning, and as the economic situation of the middle class grew more grave, its members were either politically radicalised or grew hopeless, seeking the 'eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die" pleasures o f a materialistic hedonism, as depicted i n the movie Cabaret.

This was the social setting i n which the pre-war Wandervogel counterculture was revived in the post-war period.

German middle-class youth were alienated, but not attracted t o politics pursued by German Social Democracy.

They chose instead romantic protest The youth movement was narrow i n class character, its members mainly the children o f middle-class professionals from the cities. Its activities provided great emotional experiences. Meetings included singing, story-telling, readings, discussions o f movement aims and an emphasis on things that were 'personal'.

It attacked the materialism, sterility and lack o f ideals o f German society, b u t i t hoped these could be overcome by "the power o f all-embracing love" and the "Inward Way" t o enlightenment Changepeople, the German counterculture believed, then society will change."Our lack of (political) purpose i s our strength", German youth declared.

Co-ops and free schools Germany's post-World War I counter culture did seek new institutional

arrangements, however. Students formed co-ops to provide the necessities of life at lower cost. And the German Free School Association battled the .

'Prussian spirit' of authoritarian rote learning which prevailed in the public schools. These free schools preached equality of the sexes. Forty percent of their students were Jewish.

Moreover, and in similarity with the

Hitler takes over

group became radicalised to the Right.

Writes Laquer, "The spectre of white collar and academic poverty" became a reality. There was a clear sense that liberal capitalism and i t s political institution, the Weimar Republic, hadfailed. By 1930 "everybody wa a SQCCaliSt", either "proletarian" or "national". Youth movement groups corresponded. The Communists, with ~

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most German youth still kept. politics, still concerned themmainly with spiritual questions. his the Nagis were later to i t By 1932 the German corpor-. ourgeoisie, faced with economic' er and no longer facing a strong

of 1920 was the heyday of Dada an occultism, when all kinds o f curious sects spread and prophets of the most fantastic causes found a ready response." Many German youth joined the "new religious and occult sects ' whose prophets grew like mushrooms between the First and Second World Wars." The popular magazine Free German Youth featured numer- ous articles on Taoism and the Bhagavad Gita, while favourite writers, as with the American counterculture, included Herman Hesse.

It should not be difficult to see th parallels between thenend now, between young Germany and young America. What happened to this idealistic; emotional, humane and , internatiohalist movement which moved observers like Stanley High in the same manner as our hippies moved Roszak and Rekh? Wherçdi they

Meanwhile, Hitler sought out the older leaders of the movement for persecutit and imprisonment. Many fled. Most simply acquiesced to the Nazis, respon ing as people who still retained too

Reality became an art spectacle, as art was confused with reality. The fantasy of power replaced the reality o f impotence. and identification witfi the brutal replaced the impulses o f pacifisr as Alice Cooper killing animals on stag* ,in &r time replaced the soft anti-war music of Joan Baez. Moreover, Hitler's anti-semitism and anti-Bolshevism, blaming Communists for street chaos and promising "law and order", appealed most to the Protestant youth groups, or "Bible circles", which abounded in Germany as the "Jesus Movement" flourishes in modern America. By 1931, more than 70 per cent of the Bible circle members /were pro-Nazi. By the mid-Thirties the German counterculture was gone.

All was Hitler. The deluge had begun.

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Counterculture and radicalism must fuse

1918-19, chose fascism as a means of stabiiising the econamy and its role.

Hitler's rhetoric welded flie suffering lower-middleclass to ft** by promising order and singlTng out 3 scapegoat,the Jewish financial '

was in power ami that

i n 1970?

interests, and by extension, Jews to general, blaming them foe the crisis.

Further, Httte-s taHC of a mysticat b m t i w i t y . b e *'yBlksgemeinschaft",

T&"greening o f America" then à tee of a more humane future greening of Germany was net. as C o u p ~ u l t u r and e political rad'ialisn must join t o envision and strugglefor thefuture, seeking thoughtful alter- .

O-W the economic and psychic chawsabout us and to counter the&

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appealed die yeawings of* hard ti'mes and chaos in*, Arnerialienated youth a@ won cans will seek puwose, meantng, order numba~~ of sttq young who h a d n ~ and hate. If they find a counterct&tq memory of Whorrors of World Ww 1. .

German iqitellectuals like With&& T@ &(ng my .own thing" apathy, if, ReichaXt Ernest Bboch warned that , dimtion from ~ s k c h ~ thfcleft washot ml@& to* free, humane and logical yearnings& y&; that the society,they will find direction instead Nazishad takenOver spiritual InaWgtface.Then we wilt at1 feel f ~ -. .d&~mtoseize~~ e&.t. a ~

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Treaty. The working class, strongly represented by &wqiil urtfetethe Social Democratic bear the initial brunt

troubles, massive n example.

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on the lower middleclass; shop- 4 keepers, artisan*, teachers,etc. This 12

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Hitler did not simply steal the who1 of the youth movement away from its earlier humane aspirations. In fact, he despised the pacifism and internationa ism of the movement and its leaders, like Hesse and Wyneken. Nazi opinion generally was that the youth movemer had "done more harm than goodw (Laquer). Hitler formed an alternative

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b beginnings of broadcasting OVER SEVENTY years ago, Thessen&sent the first music and speech trans@ions over a few hundred miles w e . Broadcastingwas a new adven& the realm of the experimenter, and &back-shed inventor. Their reign lasted $iere^ixteen years until the rot began( &tin, with the formation o f One badcasting Body, the British BroadSiting Company, in 1922. It was under $direct command o f the Post Office, @then building the foundations of its ~tigteholdon free speech. The BBC &.to be financed by radio licence ontey, and by the sale of such items as adphones for crystal sed, about the ijy part o f a radio receiver that you +$'t make yourself. ;The early broadcasters were very i@&us of the state of radio at that Win the USA. Lord Gainsford, at the )eni& e f the Savov Hill transmitter in (2?;6mark$ on the necessity for ti@ broadcasting body' to avoid the &us' that existed in the United at&, He was quick to mention that &decision was made not only on ,S (half-of the radio manufacturers and &-post Office, the two controllers of Radio, but &so 'in the interests 'the general public' - the latter O f mpe being the only group of interested !@piewho were not consulted. This is the attitude which has ever since & i n control o f broadcasting in the K,.that of: "We the elect have a duty $Re masses . we know . . ." j& paternalism has been emulated by

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a large number of high-powered stations sorted out interference problems by stepping up the output power - a system which would have been undesirable and unworkable so close to Europe. In fact the system of broadcasting in the US has ' largely sorted itself out, as anyone familiar with the output o f any o f the major cities wiH agree. There area targe number of stations, but with careful use of directional antennae and suitable power, there i s little or no interference.

The great thing is to be able t o listen to exactly the right sort of presentation: - matter of personal choice selected horn over four dozen possibilities of information or entertainment. Individual stations special! : in the type of presentation they are good at, rather t ' - ~ having to confront the same aud' m e as everyone else and thu? quickly plunging to file lowest Common denominator of broadcasting.

Put on your earphones, Turn on your set, Listen in at half-past three; sit well back We're going to have a crack From Auntie Aggie of the B

the truth as far as the Government would let it. It i s interesting t o listen to the

the odd 'independent' locainewsoaoer controlled b y commercial interests.'

And if radio was now a few centuries old, would it not be as free and independent as the Press today?

Technical

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A t the>hought o f free radio, Post.

Office monopolists leap up, screaming such cliches as "But there isn't unlimited airspace as there,is unlimited space for the press", "Our overcrowded wavebands", and so on. But in reality it is only historical considerations that have singled out broadcastingfor special treatment. Such government control does not exist with the press and few people would consider such controls necessary today. I n fact most would object to any such interference. And it must be cemetnbered that the BBC \Ă&#x192;Ë&#x2020;a set up to avoid 'chaos' rather tha to limit content, just being the only authorised station. the mouthpiece f c the ~overnmentin times o f national crisis, made the BBC the organ of authority,it has become. And the technical argument about the need fc restrictions on broadcasting to avoid interference is a red herring. The Posl Office, i.e. the Government, wants to control all the means of communication, so it constructs fabulous lies to justify i t s aims. And lies they are, as anyone who remembers the alacrity with which the Post office was able t allocate frequencies for dozens o f BBC and IBA local stations will agree It is safe t o say that if frequencies are deemed necessary, they can be found quite easily. The problem is convincing

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whose transmitters all over Britain are now "merely warming the ether for a few viewers in the Hebrides" t o paraphrase a correspondent t o Wireless' World, and the 'other half' of the FM Band 11, may all be used. Even the present (illicit) use o f the top half o f Band II for police broadcasts allows space for 20-30 FM Stereo Channels in the region 88-98 MHz. Several stations may be placed between the BBC channels as well. And this discussion omits the so-called 'military' channels, often i n use for only a few days a year.

There i s no justification at all for the Home Office 'No Space' technical argument against the liberation o f communications. And that's all there is t o it, however much the monopolists may chatter outside our cages.

t British broadcasters - a limited company From the technical arguments, let turn to the social conditions. I n British broadcasting, we suffer under two organisations dedicated t o the *ationine o f information. The t w o organisations have different reasons For controlling information; the paternal 3BC i s dedicated t o telling the people h e things that are 'good for them t o (now', whilst on commercial T V and .adio you can say anything you like.

Veil, as long as you don't say this, )ecause our advertisers won't approve, ind you don't say that, becauseit von't attract a large audience, and vill thus reduce our income from [dvertising . . . and be sure you pay 1s well before the program goes o u t . . . rhis is, of course, why it is termed , Independent Local Radio': because t is independent o f big business, and oecause one station is enough t o cover

t o be done about it?I n adopting a strategy it may be as well t o define the task radio and TV are t o perform, and how a structure may be evolved t o enable them t o do it.

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be t o provide information, education, art and entertainment. It should also particularly be able t o cope with a high level o f feedback.

To whomshould this service address itself? Well, the technical limitation we have as t o the size of audience o f a given transmitter is noninterference, thus we are t o expect local stations onl y. This is o f course. desirable for political reasons also, enabling stations to concentrate on a local community, on specific areas of interest, etc. There is no need for centralisation. Stations should be able t o serve a few thousand people at the most. They can then be a direct part of the workings o f the local community, can cope with a large number o f people wishing t o produce Programs, and can deliberately encourage access and feedback t o and from the broadcasting medium. Much larger and such essentials become impossible.

(Gin 7 000 000 people express their views on C a ~ i t a l ?700? 70???I No limitations, o f course, should be placed on content b y whatever body is to organise the allocation and coordination o f frequencies, etc. It hardly needs me t o point out t o Undercurrents readers that every commercial radio or T V set yet produced has been supplied with a built-in ONIOFF switch. This enables the viewer or listener t o remove -the source of herlhis annoyance, disgust, etc. with one easy movement. Unfortunately some people do not seem t o be aware of this facility. It may equally be assumed that the libeller and the libelled are able t o take care o f themselves.

Thus the beginning o f an Alternative Broadcasting Service begins t o emerge: a large number o f local stations, run, perhaps, on subscription lines, like the Pacifica stations in the US, with a small number o f staff (one local station I visited in the States had six people on the payroll: two looked after the office, correspondence and administration, three produced the majority o f programs that were not contributed by the community, and one person looked after the equipment. Checking the transmitter involved looking out of the studio window and seeing if the mast was s t i l l there*, i t having twice been blown up by local residents who found the station too controversial). It does not take Capital's 500-odd staff (at a guess) t o run an effective radio station (or even BBC Radio London's two dozen or so).

London's local 7 000 000 population, for example.

The result, o f course, as we see it today, is that the commercial stations push out 'lowest common denominator broadcasting', designed to reach the greatest audience at the lowest cost, and the BBC, forced into a vicious circle on ever-shrinking funds, have to do the same t o justify themselves t o Governments who are not prepared t o see broadcasting - or transport - as a public service. This is plain misuse o f the medium, and results i n an asymptotic approach t o the worst kind of programming that the 'normal' middle forty per cent o f the population will tolerate, Mrs Whitehouse and radio freaks apart.

Assuming we are agreed that British broadcasting is i n a bad way, what is

Purpose of free broadcasting '

So what is broadcasting t o do? Well, as far as we are concerned, obviously to 'inform and educate'. But that i s not all.

People do not live by factsalone (especially when we insist on feedkng ourselves mere opinions), and there i s astrong case for art and 'entertainment'. By which I do not mean 'socially relevant' anything at all, necessarily: landscape painting, for instance, can be art, and remarkable art at that, without having deep Marxist significance. The same goes for broadcasting, r a d i o m i l television similarly do not have t o be serious all the time. They should, at least sometimes, be 'fun'. So let us say that the purpose o f broadcasting should

*A procedure no doubt familiar t o engineers at BBC Radio Brighton.

Space allocation

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How much airspace would this take up?

Well. assuminu an ideal case. and on VHF. we may assume that a radiostation will product* a useful signal. over a certain distance, and a still-receivable signal up to twice that distance. Stations could then be situated as shown in the illustration: Only about three basic channels are required in this simple case. N o two adjacent stations are on the same frequency, and

rcurrents 21 wo stations on the same channel d o n nterfere with each other within the" espectk reception areas. Such tigh land-planning is possible with VHF directional antennas, but let us assu 5 channel availability t o allow for diffi situations.

Subscribers between the 'good rece reas should be able t o receive a usable vith little difficulty fromanv of u p t o tations, particularly with directional ntennas, as could even those people tuated well within a given station's'se~ ce area'. AS solely local coverage is equired, the system may make use of :ontrolled interference' - it doesn't natter if one station interferes with nother outside its designated service ar Ithough such thinking has, of course, een anathematized by Post Office Tradiion. This is only one option, of course: the inly limitations are imagination and ommon sense. Think u p your own.

Let us say we allocate Band It, the FM land, to radio broadcasting of this type,

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scale, but applied by locatlodies perhaps area-related to local councils.

Such bodies could be voluntary, as few people would have the knowledge t o plan the allocations i n the early stages.

As I have said, this i s only one option, and quite a fanciful one. It . must be remembered that while these things aretechnically feasible, they are not necessarily desirable. Let ncone c r i t i e e me for merely pointing out theoptions: what we do with them is everyone's responsibility.

- how do we get there here?

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low are such changes as we deem necessary to be carried out? The only real long-term solution at the present . , time .a public pressure. It was

Idealised geographical band-planfor a number of low-powered VHFIUHF local stations,

using about the channels (lower limit two, optimal four). A practical system would probably require one or two channels "in hand" t o cope with local effects.

illegal broadcasters like Radio Jackie who operate under continual threat of prosecution by the Home Office.

Qch campaigning needs t o be revived, d must not fall under the thrall of ..i-athy again. Despite much fuss in the technical press, Citizens Band -mpaigning doesn't seem to have gr* F the ground despite the efforts of ute CBA and UKCBC, and we have only ourselves t o blame. Perhaps nobody cares about liberating communications? In which case, it serves us all right.

A good start would be to press f c the experimental broadcasting stations, like Swindon Viewpoint (Cable TV) and the University (closed-loop) radio stations, to be allowed t o broadcast on the air. A transmitter is a cheap and easy device to obtain, locate and operate compared with the expense and complexity of even a small TV setup.

Campaigning might also focus on the fact that free speechis a basic human right. Who are the Home Office to deny it?It&almost as if a hundred Hosenballsand /tees were being deported every week. If you can (almost trust people t o be sensible after they have read something in a newspaper, 0 Government, why can't they be trusted t o hear i t on the radio?

The only people who have the right to control broadcastingare the people involved, listeners/viewers and production staffalike. How can it be necessary for someone t o require a 'licence' t o use the ether? A+ how can anyone re'fuse to issue one if such exists? The right t o the air o f all people cannot be denied assuming "the people" make the effort t o do anything about it, if not, it serves us right. But if such a popular demand is denied, and the regulations against free broadcasting - free speech over the air - remain unchanged, it will hardly be surprising if a large number o f people take the law into their own hands -and break it in two. That is, if we, those "people", can be bothered.

Richard Ele

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or w h i i it is eminently suited. The UHF

rv bands are suitable for wide-band TV

ignals of the same nature. Band Iwe have ilready allocated to Citizen's Band - and rerhaps t o an Amateur Band (radio 'nthusiasts are already crowded into a idiculously small space for no good eason), Certain spaces on the bands could x used for what might be termed Amateur Broadcasting': small stations providing a limited service (a certain imount of time per day) on a few shared :hann&.

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All these stations could be financed n a number of ways; primarily by , ioluntary help and donations from .ubscribers, who would all be direcwy nvolved i n the making of programs, operation and organisation of the stations. Frequency allocations, antenna sitingi~owerand other technical specifications should have laid down on a national 'uide

mainly public pressure that brought about -- - - .commercial -.

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- radio - - - in Britain: - people had listened to the pirates and when they were stamped out, wanted a replacement that Radio One could notprovide. The c d l was for 'Free Radio', not that the pirates were ever free - they always admitted that they were i n it for the money and that the audience came second -and what we got was the 1BA. Any resemblance between commercial radio and 'Free Radio' was pure1 coincidental, as many o f us po out at the time, but no-one liste The Free Radio Rallies on successiv August 14th'~after 1967 dwindled away to nothing. Apathy ruled the waves the airwaves, that i s - and the original goal o f Free Radio sank out of sight, save for the efforts of

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NOTE: The author, and the editorsof Undercurrents wish to ooint out that whilst they may not be accused of inciting people t o break the Wireless Telegraphy or other Acts relating t o wireless telegraphy, etc, they cannot be held responsible for the thoughts or actions of their readers. I t Is ille@ t o broadcast without a licence, as under the same Acts it is illegal to make a hand-signal on your bike. So don't do it. will you.

Undernunwits has printed a number of other articles on the liberation of cornmunications: issue 7 was dedicated to the subject. Here is a list of those articles relating directly t o broadcasting: Issue 1: Community Radio. Simple transmitters.

Issue 7:- The People's Radio Rimer (and other articles) Issue 8: Opening Up the Airwaves. Running community stations Issue .16: Citizens Band -Why is it Banned?

Issue 17: TV Hijack (news item) Issue 20: Air farce. Annan Committee Radical Technology. Radio. General Items.

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because they felt bound by codes of practice normal in their profession, and by the unrealistically high standard for water purity laid down by WHO. But the fact is that professional engine( have often been reluctant to work-on rural (as opposed to urban) water supplies because they feel that a propel engineeringjob i s impossible.

Barefoot concept is extended It is not surprising, then, that o government Water Departments h i failed to give a lead in mobilising r trained technicians to design and t simplified water supplies. To call t barefoot water technicians is apt, i only because determined measures tackle the world's rural water prot would present as much of a challei to professional atittudes in engine1 as the barefoot doctor concept die professional medicine.

The widespread employment of technicians, using kit of parts and simple engineering calculations on reckoners and nomographs would require a completely different app to engineering and t o the governm departments and other institution! through which it i s practised. But provide better water for 1,OQO mil people within a couple of decades, which ought to be the aim, deman little short of a revolution in watei supply, and radical changes ought be seen as necessary and inevitable

Just over 1,000 million people in rural communities around the world do not have an adequate water supply, and according to all the projections of WHO, this total will not decrease at all in the foreseeable future.

Arnold Pacey asks whether this is because of lack of funds, or lack of suitable technology. Or is there some other, less obvious obstacle to be overcome?

The funds available for investment in water supplies are always likely to be inadequate to provide for the 1,000 million in need, yet ironically, aidgiving organisations have difficulty in finding good water projects t o support.

"There is more money on offer for water supplies in parts of Africa than can currently be spent. One agency which would like to double its expenditure on water schemes in Tanzania finds that local capacity for constructing supplies cannot absorb the extra funds.

It has been claimed that slow progress in using the available money is due to a lack of appropriate technology.

But people who have looked into this say that there i s an ample range of techniques available for building appropriate water supplies (though existing sanitation technology is inadequate). There is no vital principle or invention which could transform the situation, but which is lying unused f o r u n t of research and development.

Organisation and training The difficulty, indeed, seems not to be lack of appropriate technology, but lack of organisations and of people to put it into practice. Villagers can dig trenches or build dams, giving their labour freely on a self-help basis, but shortage of skilled manpower is common, especially at the level of technicians and surveyors capable of marking out the route for a pipeline, setting up tanks and jointing pipes, and most important of all, capable of maintaining the equipment already i n use.

Possibly the only way to make a real impact on the world water supply situation would be to train a great army of technicians of this kind, and make it possible for them to design and plan as well as to construct the simpler types of village water supply.

This would be feasible if systems of standardised parts were devised to fit together easily on Meccano principles.

Several countries have already experimented with this approach on a very small scale. In Lesotho, village

piped water supplies are regularly designed by surveyors with a minimum of training in water engineering. In one region o f East Africa, public health workers were given a two-week course on water supply construction. and then designed and supervised the installation of water systems using standard components. Very rapid training is possible with this approach because the technicians specialise in only one form of supply -piped water for villages with around 500 to 2,000 people might be one man's speciality, and wells another man's.

Resistance of engineers It i s significant that in those countries where active efforts are being made to train what might be called barefoot water technicians,albeit 01 .

Maintenance is vital

Finally i t must be stressed that maintenance of existing water sue is quite as urgent a problem as thc construction of new ones. Again, notion of a barefoot water technii can be applied, and in this case, hi she may sometimes be a villager w has been given the necessary train to do the iob.

Also it is painfully obvious tha provision of the manpower is not itself enough. India, for example, 7probably has enough technicians \ - - t h e right skills, but still cannot m; tain its pumps. What is missing is i right kind of organisation to supei vise and back up the work of tech dans, to keep records of the servi< of pumps and also the usage o f spare parts so that new stocks can 0 be ordered in the right quantities.

If there is a lesson in all this, it is tiny scale so far, it is usually the Corn,hat there is no wholly technological . mu nit^ Development or Rural solution to the problems of poverty merit departments of government which and under-development. Appropriate are doing the work, frequently with technology must be used within a scant help from the engineers in the framework of appropriate organisation main Water Departments. and appropriate institutions. Radical s.ome Years ago, engineers in the - Ă&#x192;Ë&#x2020;-cwzimprovemenin the next few years Water Section of one African govern- ,;-&-can onlyfollow widespreadacceptof the ment were unwilling to give more than aance to technician design half-hearted support to a particular and water supply rural water project because it appeared a few rural development to represent a lowering of standards. officials have begun to pioneer.

It would be wrong to criticise the individual engineers concerned, Arnold Pacey

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ing, emotion expressionjind orgasm.

The basic Reichian idea is that we all have blockages in our energy flow, making us susceptible to disease, causinl us to be mentally, physically and unhealthy.

- emotionally lhere are several ways of altering this situation, though the best thing is to be brought up unblocked from birth. (It's better to keep a small plant straight than the almost impossible task of straightening a bent tree.) What ,tends t o happen i s that a block will cy of silence on Wilhelm Reich is the rule in journals of 'respectA cons ' disappear only to reappear again when able' science and 'resmctable' ~svcholoqvalike. This fact itself must have you are under stress. You deal with it again and it reappears again, only and of some meaning. But repressed id&s will iiill flow underground gradually does it come back less often, course in Undercurrents. Further to Mark Abraham's letter in UIC 20 as you progress. (worth re-reading), Bill West brings together more information on Reich, There are several ways of letting Qrgone energy, making and using accumulators, further reading and who your energy flow more freely: contact. a) Improve the energy flow physically energy, is universally present and exists In this article I want t o describe some

by Acupuncture or by Reichian massage i t s within the living organism as orgone energy devices, that are easy to b) Work on the emotional basis of the biological energy". make and use, and also methods of using block by encouraging emotional disorgone energy. First off, a few brief So orgone energy is the life force, the charge (i.e. crying, laughing, yawning, words on Wilhelm Reich, the discoverer vital energy known in the East for expressing anger, fear, pain etc) orgone energy. thousands of years by methods unacceptthrough bioenergetics and similar Wilhelm Reich (1897-19571, like most able and undiscoverable by Western methods. great people, i s a source of controversy 'science'. and of fiercely and heatedly divided c) Some f o r h f talk therapy or counAs an interesting aside we in the West opinion. Few can deny his influence selling, that encourages discharge, e.g. started off with the theory of four you only have to notice the number co-counselling. elements, fire, earth, air and water as the of encounter groups where bioenergetics basis of everything, in the East they had d) Increasing the orgone energy level is used, or the number of Reichian five elemetts; fire, earth, air, water and in your body by breathing more deeply, or nec-Reichian therapists around. Anywood; where wood can represent the life diet or by use of an orgone accumuone with an interest in Psycho or Sexual force. I will add also that the energy lator. All of which will tend to produce Politics will probably be aware of Reich's theory of Acupuncture is very similar if discharge if you let it. ideas on sexuality and probably some not identical to that of orgone energy Whichever one or ones you use, will have vaguely heard of the Sex Pol and that Acupuncture baffles Western ' once you are aware of the ways in whict movement in Germany in the l93O9s, medicine even though they are forced you have been messed up, you then nee1 whose activities led to Reich being expelto admit it works somehow. to alter the situation producing it. This led from both the German Communist What is an orgone accumulator? produces an impulse towards change.

Party and the International PsychoOrgone energy i s universally present What amazes me is how so many people Analytic Association. but under some circumstances it will who do therapy fail to apply the results But following his own logic, Reich concentrate. Anything causing this to of it to the situations they live and work finally based all his life work on his happen is an orgone accumulator. in. Without this impulse, therapy deorgone energy theory. Many could not All living things are natural orgone generates into escapism or entertainaccept this, even now mahy make use of accumulators and some people achieve ment. People Gho slice off parts of his earlier work and avoid using the quite amazing results through being able Keich's work as it suits them seem to word orgone energy. For some reason, to control their own orgone energy. lack any impulse to change, which i s possibly related to the anti-communist There i s a natural flow of orgone energy something you c w l d not accuse Reictr paranoia of the McCarthy pefiod, the US of. (He did become politically con$ervain living things which is regulated in Government's Food and Drug Administive in his later years, but he was very humans and animals by breathing, eattration took legal action against Reich involved in issues of Ecology and that destroyed Cloudbuster: Orgone device resulting i n his imprisonment for conNuclear Power in the early 50s.)

DOR clouds. Claimed to enhance min-clouds tempt of court. Reich died in prison as well.

Back to option d). Shallow breathing where the prison psychiatrists were i s a very easy way of keeping your unable to agree on whether he was sane orgone energy level low. Try breathing or not. deeply without checking any emotional Such are some of the bare facts of his responses you may have. See how it life, of which many books have been feels, if it gets too much, stop. If you written and over which much argument feel too afraid, ask a friend to,be with stiil occurs. Although I am an ardent you. Don't force the breathing, jusi supporter of ~ e i t h ,it's not my intention don't stop yourself from breathing here to join battle with his detractors. deeply. Do this in a clear atmosphere Orgone energy works for me and many or a fresh day if possible! others. IJd.like to present information Diet: Reich didn't say much about here which you can make use of (or not) diet, though reading between the lines and so decide for yourself about Reich. and so on, it's apparent that eating fresh unpolluted, unpackaged or loose mt is orgone. energy? ly packed food i s healthiest a d more Re& didn't invent orgone energy, orgone enriched. , was he the first t o discover it. But he The Orgone Accumulator name it and rediscbver it in the conMost people think of an orgone text of his work on the libido theory accumulator as a box you can sit in between 1936 and 1939. d u r i n ~his fcrcThis is onlv one of several designs. It's ed travels across western ~uro<eresulting L. wobablv ihe best for obtainirtg In his settlement in USA. " orcone energy ill over, but there ?re many "Orgone energy, the primordial cosmic

ENERGISE YOURSELF

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~ utot it while other8 appear to have apother,. M a y p o p l e get-beadaghes &herdsigns fM wwlyim MwneeMrc., a weak orgone system tha% It such unaer flbore%ent lights, or fed tired o part o f your body, t o heal a wound takes a number o f sittings before and dmhed which is a sign o f a weakenuicker or energise a part where your they experience the enerm. ing of their orgone energy. nergy is sluggish.

It tends to heighten your mood AcCidental over-exposure to Orgone The diagrams shown were supplied energy produces DOR-like affects and sometimes change it. Ifyw,go into

by E k Eva Reich, Reich's daughter. the accumulator feeling pod you maw general feeling of heaviness and headIther designs I have used include: an well come out feeling even better achs, in the extreme vomiting. The ugone bandage similar in design 'cure' is to take a bath preferably in maybe even a little manic. If you're @& naterials to a 'muff type* but longer running water. de~ressdit may well deepen until pd Thinner fdr wrapping around a limb it through thou5tv you sta~t crying, see tc;and orgone stick, an o on or steel Many Resources od wrapped in polythene and sellotapand you'll Out people feel a tingling sensation, particud that draws energy around your The Reichians are notorious for s$% I ~ ~inItheir Y hands and a gmeral 10dy. You can use Acupunctum Charts and factions, some of them radical and 2 ing of warmth and well-being. Sometith this - try it on your third eye! some of them particularly in the State times you get odd spots that ache a t l y , an orgone air purifier - nesting right wing. Many select that part of which tends to be where the energy dd tin cans separated by polythene Reich's work thaLsuits them. lt's best is blocked.

IOU put some water in the inner can to read books by Reich himself, cathe1 lt's best to stay as long as it feels vhich you change regularly. than any critiques, iince there are sow OK and certainly not for more than dretty bad books Baicall~ an OrgOne.accumu'atOr half an hour untilyou are used to it.

2 ;.ja.* against him. ists of a number of layers o f metallic generally iron) and 'organic' material. use of Meandihe Orgone, Orson B ~ ~ . --? +$ ~ c u m ~ a t (Eva o r Reid) l e innermost layer being metallic, the Book of Dreams, Peter Relch. luter layer 'organic', with alternate 'fl: = 1) Accumulates life energy (0;gone ayers in between. Reich called one Summehill, AS. NeB, a life long friend d ~2 from the atmosph~re.Uw only , Reich. . .., louble layer a 'layer', so a five layer when atmosphere i s 'fresh Enewy and Character, David Bead* C C U ~ Uconsists \ ~ ~ Oof~five layers of a" triannudy. ach. Iron is the best metal to use,othbr 2, prompdy wounds or burns, as soon as possible Selected Writings, Wihelm Reich. wds being wrhaps harmhi - particu* after accident happens. Put over affect&netion of the Orgasm, Vfiielm Reich. arbaluminium. For the aorganict layer ed part metal side inward, without ~ncer&path~W , h d m Reich. roql is good and cotton but also touching, for no longer than 30 mhutes, fim ~ co f Fascism, ~ Reich's r~e w z I ~lastici s alright! or until the part of the b d y luminates to theim &OW%how fascism is built to how it works, Rakh~sexplanaon $eople's emotxod fwk ups and whj (gets warm), and a few miwteslonger. ion is that the organic atfracts orgone Ws has greater appeal than radical ideas3) Irradiation m y be repeated several nergy, while the metalk attracts then me Orgone Energy Accumulator, its ~&nt&%times daily, for shorter Xime intewals. and Medeal Use, 195 1, Orgone Institute+;?;, epels. If you work this OF you'll Ress, Reich.

If an area o f &ody gefs overcharged it t a l k that the net result &a number -- . can be discharged by makingor immers- *p:= lf layers is aconcentratbn.of orgone . ing in water (or alcohol; witchhazel). nergy on the inside of g b accumulator.

2 minutes over head, eyes, ?he Centre for Bi0-en Vhen you s i t in the accumulator you 4) use ian Therapy and also heart area at one time. re in an orgone enrichedenvironment Quaesitor and Community often have nd you draw in orgone Cmrgy up to 5) Keep accumulator dry (inside a Reichian groups o f one kind or another2-$ our limit. All orgone accwmulators or paper bag), in an airy place ssc& All of these are in London - see Time .+ ncluding humans have their own limit shed, garage, barn or entry wa ::y-, Out for details. ~eyondwhich they can take in no 6) DO not use in a DOR (Deadb =O,~,C, 1 1 ~ ~ bndon7*3i/:s ~ d , nore energy without discharge. SurEnergy) a t m o s ~ h ~ enor , near television, on alternath -< hoUld be a sMrce of info ~risinglyorgone energy is dpwn fro,m LTnuclear radiation, fluoresent lights, groups, if any. he weaker orgone system %the ...

X-my I'na~hineS,or radioactive luminous tronger; since you are a stronger Sad to relate Reich was a bit of a dials. ystem than the accumuliltor, you sexist, and also thought that at least ~enefit.This appears to mintradia one some homosexuals were changeable. . DOR f the laws of thermodynamics but. ..

Unfortunately some modern Reichians 23 Deadly Orgone Energy i s in effect still regard homosexuality as something .$ Orgone Energy gone bad. It's produced curable. Although Reich was mmth?Rg--T IOWit feels when Orgone Energy comes intp contact of a genius he was a man of his time; U p t o half the people first usingan w progressive in many ways but.. . with nuclear radiation, and it's generally

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CHAOS IN NUCLEAR POLICY

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S C R U T I N Y o f t h e decision making processes in government falls i n t o t h e category o f un-British activities. When it does happen, t h e tendency is t o ignore any recommendations o r blame and carry o n m u c h as before. Such w i l l almost certainly b e t h e case w i t h t h e recently published report o n t h e Steam Generating Heavy Water Reactor, ( S H W R ) f r o m t h e Energy Resources Sub-Committee o f t h e House o f Commons Select Committee o n Science and Technology. N o t t h a t t h e report is, by and large, w o r t h y o f m u c h notice in terms o f policy, b u t it does provide in microcosm a fascinating insight i n t o t h e somewhat unhappy state of Britain's nuclear rogramme.

The stow really begins back in June last year at the National Energy Conferente, the one day jamboree organised

by Tony Benn, at which everybody who ?isanybody in the energy world - and a tot more besides - gave their view on the future of energy in th.e UK over the next 25 ears. Somebody at that conetence gelieved to be not unknown stff the CEGB) had quite deliberately s t a hare running that the SGHWR, p i d e and joy o f the British nuclear 6tablishment, was about to be abandon4.The reasons for ditching the SGHWR M&h had been chosen less than 2 years previously, (after the AGR debacle), as '*the mainstay of the UK nuclear pro#amme for the rest of the century, were said to be the rapidlu escalating cost$of the commercial design and a &astic revision downwards of expected .grwth in electricity demand. ' O ~ ~ r x i t i from o n the CEGB was not ~ ~ p e cThey ~ dhad . never been in favour of the SGHWR, describing it as early as 1972 as 'out of date technology' W expressing preference for the h 6 r k a n desi ned Pressurised water -&actor (PWRT. Howeverl the next blow r.yas much less fow-able. The UKAEA, ,which had supported the decision to go @wad in 1974, changed i t s mind. In one dvstory's more notabie emulations of Brutus, Sir John Hill, UKAEA chairman, ihformed Benn that although the .Authorityhad no ' h d a m n t a t 'kyhdoal worries' about the SGHWR, ,it h v felt that the present design would be"sL~it7cantly more expensive than &her reactor choices". aeady this inconsistency cast doubts Y ~ the W credibility of the AEA, a fact ,Mi& Benn icknowledged pointedly. ,JB 1974 the government had said "the ~ f p a t a i n t yi s over". Now one of its ~.wmaseacies had ~ uevewthin~ t back .- ,@quare one. This was e(ough i o galvan#the Energy Resoumes Sub-Committee - - p @ i n . In a somewhat hastily con~ i d s - ek fs i o n &tbey cross-

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examined Tony Benn and representatives from the CEGB, the UKAEA, The National Nuclear Corporationl the Nuclear Power Company (NPC), the South o f Scotland Electricity Board (SSEB), the Electrical Power Engineers Association (EPEA) and the Health and Safety Executive. They atso took written evideme from three unions, I X S and one turbine GTMS* manufactumr, C.A. Parsons.

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rather oursory press reports was that the committee recommended continua.tion of the SGHWR programme. m i r conclusion was, o ~ p r e s eevidence, ~t continuation was pmferable on cosr - grounds to e h w i n g t %PWR ~ and that

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if the SGHW were t o be cancelled then the next est choice would be a development of the Advanced Gasc d e d Reactor (AGR). A vind ication oâ British techno(ogy one'might think But on c l exammation ~ the committee appeared t o have made a choice between two t y p e o f reactors which had not yet been designed and a thfrd which nobody would want to buiId - on cost comparisons which are highly questionabb. FLrthermore the report provides strong eondemnation of the way British mclear decisiom have been taken (and are still being tbt taken) and prmi*j&iations the major a r g u w t s aFe moving away from the kxhnical qnd into the political ardna, involving among others, the trades unions.

Gas cool& M o r IAGRI

UriuerLurrents L I The committee considered there ere four alternative strategies open to le UK if the SGHWR were abandoned.

1) Withdraw from nuclear power . altogether and base a future programme on a combination o f fossil fuels and renewable sources of energy.

2) Abandon thermal nuclear reactors (SGHWR, PWR and AGR) and concentrate efforts on the Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR).

3) ~ d i pthe t AGR instead of the SGHWR .

4) Adopt the PWR In fact only the last three options ere given any consideration. The only bomment made by the committee on option 1 was that "None o f the witnesses during this inquiry has sggested that the UK should abandon nuclear power altogether". (my italics).

Since all these bodies are on record as favouring a large British commitment to nuclear power, this is hardly surprising. In reality that statement is much more a reflection o f the way thecommittee approached t h e subject than any objective appraisal of the non-nuclear option. Chairman, Arthur Palmer (Bristol SE), a member of the. .EPEA, stated more than once that the committee was fully convinced of the need for a British nuclear programme.

The notiond reactors Having disposed o f something it had no real intention of considering the committee then prcceeded t o what it saw as the meat of the question - was it t o be SGHWR, AGR or PWR? It concluded, as we have seen, that the PWR was likely to prove more expensive than either 'stm&r'

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*.e S G W R or the AGE but,the masoning behind i ~ conctu~ons s raises disturbing echoes of the lack of clarity whic6 has pervaded British thinking on the whole question of nuclear power. First, the comparisons were based not on fully costed ref6rence.desigrts much less on actual reactors, but on purely notiocal reactors. The committee accepted the evidence of Frank Tombs, chairman o f the SSEB that the present S@HWR reference design was "unnecessarily costly'' since it was engineered to too high safety standards. A redesigned (i.e. less safe) reactor, he calculated, would .cost about 15% less. The AGR estimal@s yere provided by the National Nuclear Corporation. These update the Hinkley Point and Hunterston design to take into account not only increased costs but also the need for some redesign, to improve ease of maintenance and meet additional safety standards.

The degree of redesign was not specified but any estiytes o f Costs on the AGR must'be treated with extreme caution.

Their construction i s extreme1y difficult and has been desribed as "watchmaking by the ton'!. Cost overruns on the preFnt set o f reactors averaged over 50% in real terns and w e weJl i n excess d 100%for Dungeness 0 which hdds the record for construe tion'time of m y reactor, twelve years , and.no end in sight yet. Furthermore, the committee merltmns, but does not take into account the severe corrosion problems on both reactor steel and graphite moderator which threaten drastically t o shorten the life of the AGRs. The NFC provided estimates which indicate that a shortening of 10 years on design life would push tht cost of the AGR well above that of the PWR and indeedto a level virtual-

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ly identical'with-that o f th&&rtgrnal "unnecessarily costly" reference design SGHWR. The committee omitted to mention thispoint in the main Secondly, the treatment o f costs is enough to make even some0 (like me) who is far from a fan o f t machines sospect foul play. Th mittee compared systems for a types which incorporated twin reactors and turbines. This size about the biggest which could ably be built in the present sta the art for both AGR and SGHWR b the same is not true for the PWR. Reactors twice as big have been built and the NPC estimated that a single 110OMW reactor single turbine PWR would be ab6ut 30%cheaper than th SGHWR. There-areperfectly good reasons for choosing a smaller PWR (they tend t o work somewhat more often) but since both other reactors are being given the benefit of an enerrnous doubt in being costed bef they are designed, it seems only fair that a similar courtesy should be extended to the PWR.

The Scottish connection The r w n s T o r only considering . a twin PWR system smack suspiciously ofspecial pleading. The SSEB, the original and now virtually the onfy champion of the SGHWR, is likely to k the first to order a new nuclar . ,power station. 110OMW represents yver 11% of th-e SSEB's total capacity and since a PWR has t o be shut down , every so often for fuelling and main- *:. tenance the board would have t o keep t h i s amount o f capacity in back up, :.* which would be very expensive Twitt7, -$ reactors means that one reactor could -,~ c.. be taken out o f commission at a time, . % thus halving the needed back up , .+p> capacity.

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Favouring twin reactors would be fair enough if the committee were recommending a choice o f reactor f ~' r the South of Scotland but not for <+: p- = the whole of the United Kingdm.

The CEGB with an instqlled capacity ' J ~ - ~ of over ten times that o f the SSEB, would certainly order reactors in sizes 4 larger than 100OMW - indeed it . ' A* appears to consider anything smaller as beneath contempt. The notion of A adopting twin PWRijust for the SSEE-C-~ looks very much like a small scotty ; tail wagging a big English dog.

Even given their somewhat pa attitude towards the British react the committee jud costs is somewhat provida by the N reactor version of within about 10% those provided by ly identical, Given

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under fts own feet and from &r that o f the rest of the British--: &ear establishment. In the most l w t a n t passage in the &ne the nature of the hich ehave d ata be l " and then "It is'a sad reflection on the st - wr decision-making machinery I on the quality of expert advice mto awcessive governments, that, vef~years after the last nuclear &ionwas ordered, andafter extenm private and public debate, ftlcient information is still not ailable on any o f these points for country t o proceed with confid!-at whatever pace - t o the wruction of new power stadions That more or less puts it in a nut $1. The UKAEA change their mind m~ne year to the next and the EGB are no better. Palmer tore a rip-off CEGB chairman Sir Arthu &wkin$by pointing out t o him t h s'forecasts haw varied wildly ove e last few years. In August 1972 e Board wanted, at most, to orde dy four nuctear stations before

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So whb did the committee listen to? The evidence points towards the unions. Mmer, a o as chairma~carries wei&t, ishimelf a member of the EPEA (althouih not s~onmredby them since the EPEA is not affbted t o the Labour Party). All four unions submitting evidence were unanimous in their support of a large and continuing British nuclear programme, and, on presentevidence, with t h e continuation of the SiHWR. The TUC's influentid Fuel and Power Committee, set up in 1971 and comprising representativa from all the unions in the energy industries is in favour of a switch towards coal and nudear power and away from oil and gas.

This support is based not so much on direct arguments about jobs but 01 acurious mixture of humanism,.cmcern about safety and technological nationalism. Eric Hammond, an executive councillor of the EEPTU

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seeking t o provide.not only our ow energy nwds but that o f our grand. children and beyond."--Hammond went on to ;"d&h ( a d indeed fusion) and defend it the grounds of safety by pointing that *e equivalent enerw from would result in the deathsand inj of many minen plus an unknown large, number of casualties f r o a t T I resdtant air pollution.

The unions' position ~vnt%df its good points, nor is it without f ne of the few certain result ,capital intensive nuclear mme would be less jobs in t ty supply industry. The e behind the union positio dese~esscrutiny at much greater

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IRON AGE FARM

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1'HE BUTSER ANCIENT FARM Research Project, currently in progress at 3utser Hill, Hampshire, seems likelv useful information for the . to orovide .

Mternative Movement in the form of experimental data on different breeds ind types of farm animals and crops that may be raised in a self-sufficient mvironment. We can also learn from the techniques of bread-baking, lottery-makingand iron smelting that were used in the Iron Age period, and rom many other aspects of ancient life-styles, described here by Beth A t the bottom o f Butser Hill, Hamphire, lies the demonstration area for n archaeological project which also appens to be an interesting exercise in elf-sufficiency, small farmstead style. The lutser Ancient Farm Research Project is e t higher up, on one o f the spurs o f the I itself. It aims t o construct and operate working reconstruction o f an Iron Age irmstead of about 300 BC, t o test by ontrolled experiment all the theories bout Iron Age agriculture. Evidence for I the experiments comes from written iports by Greeks and Romans, observaon o f surviving methods in various ountries, and archaeological fieldwork nd excavation. Recreations o f many o f i e farm structures have been set up in l e demonstration area, courtesy o f the ncient Agriculture Committee in isociation with the Hampshire County ouncil. Animals and growing crops are n view, and there were demonstrations f methods - bread-baking, pottery ring and iron smelting - when we visited n Bank Holiday weekend'.

The exercise includes the raising o f range of farm animals - cattle, sheep, igs, poultry, and horses. For greater chaeological authenticity the earliest i o w n breeds available are k e p t The ittle are being trained as draught animals. s there seems t o be evidence for Iron ge manuring o f fields, cattle are penned id fed,but sheep must be free-grazed.

The Neolithic Kiln

The sheep are the Soay breed, redomesticated from the wild ones surviving on the St. Kilda islands o f f the north-west coast o f Scotland. It's estimated that the wool plucked (this breed isn't sheared) from twenty mature Soay sheep will clothe a family o f five for a year. (Each one provides about one kilo Joinery B.C.: The Hole for the wooden spike was probably burned out with a red hot ember

Upright Loom

o f wool per year.) Wool is spun on a hand spindle, a stick with a flat stone or pottery disc threaded on t o weight it.

Cloth is woven on an upright loom, th verticle threads held taut by stone or ( weights.

J Several crops are being grown on the farm and in the demonstration area.

Besides buckwheat and barley, the grain crop includes several types o f wheat grown during the Iron Age - club whe oi I bread wheat, einkorn, emmer, and spelt. The last three species, although 'very difficult t o thresh, have approximately twice the protein level o f modern bread wheat. Celtic beans (Vjcia faba minor) are grown, to be eaten as a fresh vegetable in summer and stored hard through the winter for food and seed.

There's also a plant called melde, or 'fat hen' (Chenopodium album), which has a very high food value, its leaves and fruit being eaten as a vegetable. Vetch is grown as a winter forage crop.

Emmer Wheat

are staked up over this t o make a pyran about a metre high and wide, leaving tv cracks either side for firing the straw whole of the fire i s covered with turv Once i t is burning well any cracks are filled with soil. Every time the fire burr through the turf, more turves are addec For the kiln, a hollow is dug and a wicker framework built over it, to support a clay dome. When fired, the wood burns away. Straw, pots and wood are put inside, and the straw i s fired. The door is sealed with turves and soil, and the vent hole in the dome is sealed whe the fire i s burning well. Temperatures o over 7 5 0 C are achieved with this method.

Iron smelting is done i n cylindrical clay furnace about a metre high, with an arch at the bottom for the bellows pipe t o go in and the slag t o run o u t After being roasted in an open pit, iron ore is put into the furnace with charcoa and heated for about four hours at arouna 130O0C. Getting the temperature up with ' the aid o f a bellows looked a l o t like ha work. The furnace produces crude iron, ready t o be w r o u g h t b ~ ~ t i afl ng -7 hammering.

-=-*-@ , The demonstration area is setup a b o ~ four miles south o f Petersfield, shire, on the A3. It's part o f the Queen Elizabeth Country Park, which is signposted on the highway. You drive into the car park and walk through an under pass beneath the road to reach the

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Ploughing experiments are carried out;--;"-jE grain will store successfully all winte fith an ard, which has no mould board i - 3 The pits are sealed with clay, with in i turn the soil like a later plough, but ;.sSE>emperatures and gas concentrations measured and recorded over the stor&.:: imply scores a furrow. It's reckoned period. It's hoped that the experiments man and an ox team can plough ab will show how long a particular pit can be ,alf an acre i n a day, so this i s the fie used before going sour. ize. Fields are harrowed with an oxenPit storage seems especially useful for Iragged beam, t o level the furrows and reak down clods o f earth. Seeds are sown seed grain,-as breaking the pitseal t o remove any for winter consumption lets Ia shallow stick-made furrow or i n seedoxygen in and so disturbs the dormancy. oles poked along a row with a stick.

Seed grain still grows extremely well after leaping i s done with a hand sickle. being stored in pits. The production o f A t the farm site the project workers silage has been tried on the farm, by ave experimented with different shapes fillingapit with grass and covering i t with nd sizes o f storage pits dug into the chalk blocks. For alternative storage, halk. The principle o f grain storage in simple post-built barns and hay racks are its is that in a sealed container the grain set up. (ill continue i t s respirati6n cycle, using Grain is ground in two types o f stone p the oxygen i n the pit and giving out hand querns, saddle type or the rotary arbon dioxide. Once the atmosphere is kind. The bread is leavened by a sourufficiently anaerobic the grain reaches dough method - flour, water and salt are state o f dormancy. I f this atmosphere i s mixed, then left for about three days naintained, and the moisture content is before baking, with a bit o f this dough naltered and the temperature stays low kept out to leaven the next batch. nough to inhibit the growth o f bacteria Two types o f clay cooking oven have some of which could be poisonous), the been used for bread-baking. These burn Cookina Oven charcoal, because o f the low oxygen level inside. The simple dome type i s thoroughly heated, the embers are raked out and the dough put in t o cook. The other sort has a fire compartment in the bottom, with a cooking compartment above it. From experiments i t was established that an oven with a dome about a metre high worked best for smoke dispersal and maximum heat. Such an oven can be used for spit-roasting and cooking i n pots, as well as baking dough.

Pots are oinched out or coiled (wheels were not used until late i n prehistoric Britain). They are fired either in pit clamps or in kilns. I n the first method dried pots are piled in a pyramid shape i n a circle about 18 inches across and 6 inches deep scooped out o f the ground and lined with straw. The pots are covered with twigs and small pieces o f dry wood, and larger and greener timbers

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KAKUA AND THE fl OF GARDENING Getting it together in the country is the dream of many an alienated city dweller. So too is a loving, caring community. But the shit in our heads travels with us. When the dream confronts reality, potato blight may be the least of your problems as Patrick Upton reports from Laurieston.

LAURIESTON H A L L is a grotesque Edwardian mansion set i n 12 acres of lovely Galloway countryside in which there are stables, a mortuary, a pottery, a pond, several acres of parkland, and a 1% acre walled garden, containing nearly 200 feet o f lean-to greenhouse. Since 1972 i t has been the collective home o f about 15 adults and 10 children: two-thirds o f the people who were there i n 1972 are still here. We hold conferences, entertain selfcatering groups whose ideas we are sympathetic to, have city kids here for holidays, do building jobs, and occasionally do outside 'straight' jobs. We spend a lot o f time migrating round the house looking for warmth, nice rooms, a --different view and a better way o f living with each other. I n between educating our kids at home, and trying t o change our lives, we look after pigs, a cow, bees, chickens, a horse and the land. Since 1972 we have practised organic gardening on an ever-increasing scale, such that by now not only i s the garden in full use, but also about 5 acres o f the original parkland have been turned into arable, pasture or orchard.

"Yes, the garden works well, but at the expense of our politics". ' B u t the way the &den works is an "

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expression o f our politics". make money t o survive but t o make it We were individuals who were brought doing what we liked. 'Revolutionary' together by the idea o f living as a comwas scrapped as a description o f our mune. We found a place and had lots o f activities, t o be replaced by 'radical'. energy for doing things with it. We came The garden, i n common with everything from cities t o this house and grounds else, became a project. People became with which we could do anything we more defensive and projects were good wanted. The house lent -and still lends things t o withdraw into. Personalities - itself t o a multitude o f interpretations. became more overtly important. Project The garden always expressed itself were seen as belonging t o specific clearly, and was all the more attractive people. The garden can now be criticisec for that reason. We cleared away the -..foe not bringing i n any money for all stones and weeds and started t o garden @te,mrk pu( i n on it. It becomes an organically, which meant 'without e l n o t i o n a l issue, something t o argue chemicals', whatever they were. I t was about when the 'real' arguments are summer, and we were a commune, and between the people involved: "Criticise the garden, and you criticise me . . If we had a bit o f money i n the bank, so it didn't matter too much when crops the garden goes, I go". We turned from failed. We all had a hand i n it somepeople trying t o be a commune, seeing where. the future invested in each other, t o , people livingcollectively, who saw the The fading vision future through the projects we underBut we grew older, more introverted = took. , and more intent on 'sorting something Each project held meetings, oper out', about who we were and what we iyone, at which decisions were were doing. (We're still trying). Ideals of -;_3$pposed t o be taken. The regulars at being primarily a close and loving group;,&5hese meetings appeared as 'informal of sharing skills, o f doing things together--%rites'.

The garden was controlled, more and combating role stereotypes all or less, by 4 or 5 people who had workbegan t o fade. We found ourselves livine ed reeularlv i n it for a counle o f vears. , , way out i n the country, a n d had therefore an increasing amount o f knowledge and specialisation. They Hall could talk together easily in gardeners 'shorthand', thereby excluding the casua hoer and the like. They inevitably took decisions outside meetings (partly because no-one could be sure when we had taken a decision in a meeting one o f the problems o f consensus government.) But personality clashes even split the gardeners. Three of the men were -and are - more i n agreement over what and how things should be done. Because their concern for the soil was the most intense and consistent, it was their approach - a willingness t o work hard 'to get things right', a very male desire t o bring order t o the ' garden so that it functioned efficien which dominated. Two women who also spent a lot o f time in the gardei have since left the group.

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Garden retreat Working in the garden is easiest and best for me: it feeds me, or rather, i t s passive and responds t o what I ask o f it.

I can be wheeling great barrow loads o f dung into the dark in order t o finish off a plot, and I will be perfectly tired at

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ie end. I can leanon my fork and look xind at what i s happening slowly, ecause it doesn't move. I can walk over i d touch something and it waits for me ) twch it. Whether it's good things or i d things Isee in the garden i s someawimmaterial; what matters is that I fn see it and now, having worked ie garden for four years, usual1 hat to do about it. I thin liance on the 'outdoors' 'eat. I shy away from th lings here, like working as, working with other ie here outside the two have found what i s best hat i s best for us. We have made the irden into a chiefly male enterprise, to !dealt with accordingly. The joyof it Ii s there, but on the whole internalisec oing the garden well - meaning efficntly - seems to conflict hugely .yith/...: ling the garden well collectivety.,-~j~~i:~ "The aims o f organit to secure the advantages and ecoriom" ies of working with nature, by the same general methods, to bring more and more plant foods into circulation and t o obtain the greatest yields of the most nutritious crops whilst maintaining the fertil (Practical Organic Go WY p.21) Add t o that stateme out wig as much as possible of the available

cultivation^^^^^

~'.'

!re in S.W. Scotland and not r r elsewhere.

rgetables by Lawrence D. Hi auld be futile for me to reiterate adily available knowledge. f to detail areas where we h I our own specific solutions.

wunesion s uamen

before planting. Seaweed is high in potash which makes it ideal for potatoes and far mulching round fruit bushes.

We a liquid manure for seedlings and any plants that need the occasional boost, like indoor tomatoes and cucumbers. Seaweed has some effect on aphids, but none on blight which is a perennial problem for us, on potatoes. Despite putting pigs on the ground over winter, some tubers survive to release their spores the foil ing year. In 1976the blight came in before we'd started any preventive spraying with Bordeaux mixture. In order to save the crop .

'Dithane', a mercury based fungicide.

Our organic phiFophy is not so purist to let a 3 ton crop o f potatoes bemess. This year we at a friintf's house level, which should mean that our seed at least is disease freeOur sandy soil allows root crops to grow easily. Fed with well rotted compost, or on remains l e f t in the ground of the manure used for brassicas the

.

Short season Onions are grown from seed, starting them off in the propogation house , . . i n January. Onions grown from sets . -.. . . seem t o be more watery and don't keep beyond the New Year. This i s something to do with the short growing season here - only four months can be guaranteed between last and first frosts. This means adjusting all the planting dates given in gardening books which are almost exclusively written for the southern garden. It means waiting an extra month before planting early potatoes and sowing roots. Sowing into cold, wet soil is a wasteof time. It also means using every possible means to extend the season.

This i s where the use of an electricallvheated propagation tray and a paraffin heated 'tent' in the greenhouse become essential. Onions, leeks, tomatoes . cucumbers, peppers, dwarf and runner beans, and brassicas, plus herbs " g d extra tomatoes for sale, all get a

Undercurrents 4-st<u-LThey are gwdually tianir ~ e tdo cooler parts o f the greenuses before planting out so that t{tc &k of gping'int~cootsoit is n o t - I o great. : --'The-only problems with pea' ans are weeds and correct sparing. lickweed is our- perennial joy and . n only be combated by hand weed^^^^ longst the tender pea haulm. Grow3 in blocks rather than rows works ill with tic and broad beans, but not as which tend t o support each other ~ c less, h and get swamped by weeds. , regards spacing, it seems vital t o ow 3 to 4 feet between rows regard1s o f the heigh o f the variety, so as avoid overshadowing, and t o make :king as easy as possible. Legumes s manured with compost or dung, grown direct into trenches filled t h winter kitchen waste.

We've always found brassicas ibbage, etc - Ed:) hard t o aw - a combination<of club root,

-

.<

M& land

.

~.

-.

This year we aw devoting the brassica quadrant t o kale for the animals and concentrating on growing only a few

Each year we have more landto feed, so we are stepping up our attempt at making compost. We have had manure from nearby farms, and our own animals provide some, but we can never have too much. Composting spoa hay and straw is our latest task. And if. we get round t o it, there is bracken anrf nettles, and we are.composting some of our own shit for use on non-salad .crops.

The garden pays.for its running c'osq through'sale o f herbs, dried flowers, tomato plants and surplus vegetables,' b u t it does not pay for-the labour we - put into it. It's labour intensive, and' there's always more t o do - like repairing the greenhouses, repointing the job, it's one that can never be done Insofar as gardening is a job, it's on that can never be done. This makes it all the more engrossing, probably oengrossing; could I give it u p if e collective asked me to?

"

t i i n f o r peace or w a r becomes increasingly blurred. Even a ploughĂ&#x192; o r a t least a d e f o l i a n t - may h a v e m i l i uses these days. T h e military-industrial c o m p l e x has t h r u s t itself i n t o every aspect of t h e e c o n o m y to t h e e x t e n t t h a t even m a n y w h o question it shrink f r o m advocating i t s dismemberment for fear o f t h r o w i n g t h o sands, if not millions, out of w o r k . However, as Dave E l l i o t t p o i n t s out, t h e idea t h a t m i l i t a r y spending is good f o r t h e average w o r k e r is being increasingly questioned by t h e advocates o f 'peace conversion'. Far f r o m providing jobs, it actually soaks up scarce m o n e y in capital intensive projects w h i c h employ relatively few, over-specialised people. M o r e jobs c o u l d be provided by spending t h a t money o n a l m o s t a n y t h i n g else.

AEROSPACE WORKERS in the USA, re their colleagues at Lucas Aerospace

the U K, (see Undercurrents 12), can see ;arly that there are alternative options continued military production - or e dole. So far, however, there have :en no direct plant-based demands ade by US labour unions to convert eir industries to the production of cially useful products, along the lines the Lucas campaign.

However, the idea of 'peace converin' which is being widely canvassed / radical environmentalist and pacifist oups, has begun to be accepted by me workers. As one Lockheed enginr, Bill Brandt, when interviewed by the est Coast 'Plowshare' group, put i t : think that diversification in general is obably a good idea in that it would 'fer Lockheed or any other company I opportunity to make broader use o f ; personnel". Specific examples of oducts that he felt Lockheed could ake were" . . . things like transit, solar !sting or other alternative forms o f lergy. There is", he added, "already an fort within Lockheed now on solar satin? 2nd alternative forms o^ n-"--f

While at the shop floor level there are signs of interest in grass roots action, the more senior engineers, like Bill Brandt, express unease at the idea o f organising collectively to try to implement change. This sort o f problem seems likely to force even senior engineers to join bodies like the 'National Scientist and Engineers' group which is currently trying to organise engineers within Lucas.

As Brandt put it: " . . . such an organisation would have to be vitally involved in working for conversion. One of the reasons for its existence would be job security for i t s members so therefore such an organisation should play a fundamental role in organising and negotiating foralternative job situations for its members".

As in Britain many people feel that the difficulty o f converting the defence industries to peaceful production has been overstated. One of the Lockheed machinists pointed out that " . . after the war in 1946 many large defence industries were converted to non-war time industries.. ." He added "I don't think much retrainins is reauired at all.

It's just a matter o f searching out

.

different contracts now done by Lockheed, but that area of contracts could be greatly enlarged, and I think i t would tend to make a much more stab11 employment situation for people who work there . . ." The only viewpoint that has to be changed i s the managernent's viewpoint - in looking for contracts for peaole in this area. rather than the pentagon.

F r o m economics to peace Some alternative technology snthusiasts might respond to these idea by saying, well yes, fine, but just how radical i s it to simply switch from one set o f products to another, without at the same time changing the pattern of production and distribution. The advocates o f 'Peace Conversion' in the US are well aware o f t h s e problems.

They see the basic diversification from military to civilian within existing firm as the first stage only -'economic conversion' i s the phrase used to cover this - to be followed by the much more radical 'peace conversion' stage.

As George Lakey puts it (in The

'Hies o f Peace Conversjfy~,PI '5s

share.

VOI 1 NO 9 ~ 6 m r n e r 1 9 7 6 F

he biggest difference between. inomiq conversion and peace consion is the question of power. Peace iversion includes a shift in power rr~the elite to the whole society" ough community and'worker conlied enterprises, "decentralised ialism with a human face".

The advocates o f peace conversion therefore very keen to set up nonstration projects based on comnity enterprises - self-managed )-operative' production units. One h project, instigated by the Santa r t Solar Power Group, involved the @igup o f a manufacturing subsidng solar power systems for anta Clara city is to instal ng paid for in monthly instalocal h o u ~ s so , there is a gi market. They hope to create^,-* y "alternate research and indusgive people uncomfortable with military sponsors a'choice".

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1980 dollars) for jobs per billion dollars federal s&ndine. hi& come from Bureau of ~ab; s t a t i c s / ~ e ~ot .f Defence figures: Military Contracts 35000 (average) B1 Bomber 22000 825Q Trident ~ i s s i l e 6850 NASA space shuttle Mass Transit =2200& - School 'tonstruction 29000 .

Housig&construction 36000 , Healthdelfare and sanitation 46000 Education 52000 Public servi.ce jobs 1b2Ooo The belief thatspending by the Department of Defence has been good for (he economy has been a myth. Every billion dollars spent on the Pentagon costs the economy jobs,costs people who are employed higher taxes, and . produces a lower quality o f life foe 8.

With a transfer of tax money back tel> the pockets of people, whether s p e d for personal or for state and local -! needs, nearly every major industrial ;. state would benefit.

.

The problems of transition In arguing thatjarge cuts should he

plants under control of the new production authority would be run i n a democratic manner, through a system of workers' participation or control.

Such arrangements might be viewed a working experiments for workers and unions, and examples of how factorie and offices might be democratically rurt".

In Britain o f course this i s a central issue in the current debate about industrial democracy in the public and private sectors. Shearer however goes 'further calling for "decentralisation and the stimulation o f state and local econon ic development. and for a new Economic Development Act t o aid the growth of community enterprises. "Help is necessary", he says "not only because local communities do not often have the necessary technical know-how and capital resources to stimulate economic development, but also because there is often a lack of local initiative in the absence o f outside programmes. Part of the stimulus for local people t o participate in conversion planning would be the knowledge that there exists a nation; conversion programme o f which they are part."

.."

Support your local weapons programme?

The case for peace conversion seems - but of coqw that is not enough. The central struggle new isto convince workers and their unions that they should use their power to bring about change beneficial to the wider community. Through ' campaigns against specific weapons developments - like the El nuclear bomber and the Trident submarine peace conversion groups in the US are trying to do just this. It's going to be a long haul. Many US workers have been convinced by decades of propaganda that the Russians intend to invade and steal their colour TV sets. As Tom Whalen, spokesman for the United Auto Workers (UAW) local 887, which is bargainingfor workers on the Rockwell El bomber project put it: "Certainly more jobscan be created for'the same dollar in other areas, and we don't argue that point. We do argue the point that the system is needed as a deterrent weapon". flowever, even now other sections of US trade unions see things differently. + The UAW education department havestated that: "As a nation we do not spend so much money on the military because we need to. Nor do we spend so much because most of us want to. We spend so much and waste So much because . the people who gain from the waste are the ones whodecide how much is t o be spent".

Or as it was put, more succincdy by a Rockwell worker: "The peopleIn power won't pay for mass transit. They'll pnly pay money for violence and death. It's been that way from the beginning starting with litHog the Indians". to have been well documented

arion Anderson o f the Public

Nurses 77000 PUS& Housing 76000 Sewer Construction 76000 Defence 55000 Ă&#x201A;ÂĽmore telling figures (updated to

form o f local community and worked. control.

"In addition the emphasis on , public enierp%, conversion could?; .

- also imhfde the-stioulatitw that 3:

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ravure: Another process dating

w e a brief outline of the nature and zapabilities of the common printing processes. So you will need a book o f nstructions before you start printing [well, probably, I started without one.)

3ut at least vou mav be able to decide after readine this whether there i s anv sense in doing your own printing, and an what kind of machine; and if not. who might do a better job than your own friendly Iitho prin Teaching yourself p n t h g is perfectly practicable, it requires patience, asteady hand and an ability to follow instruction books. Whatever kind of work you are doing, it will pay you t o get several books o n the subject and read them fairly casually, rather than trying desperately to memorise all the words in one book - no matter

r.

screen, transferring the result to the printing plate, andetching the plate to produce print and non-print areas.

Commercial firms will do this for you, atzprice; hametetterpress and litho m@bothprint haw-tone plates. full d o u r pÈtin cd+d t t a l f - t m q p l ~ $ ~ ~ & , usually) t o be printed on top of each other. If the atignmeirt o f the prints

. '

unevenness in the plate. Used mainly for quality colour work -postage stamps, art reproductions, some waHpapers. -,: Again, the process is too complex for home use, but the basic principb could be applied to making prints@*% existing etchings or engravings; indeed¥¥* .- +-2 2 was used i n the past.

-.

ly when paper i s pressed on

ADictionary of Reproduction,

I've seen them advertised for sale they used to be home-made. I have formulae for pads and inks; or Is stamp pad ink diluted 3:l with would be very similar.

machines available

tint and Mu/ti/~h). vav -

i:-iandsmall orders on cheaper pampler equipment than litho. '

:. .

heprinciple is similar to John flhets: individual raised letters or%& signs i n metal are arranged by han:;T$+@ blocks which ..x=--. $it-frpm raised dots or lines are $&where necessary), spaced with @-metal too low, to print, and ;ked in a frame. For newspaper work gnormal t o print from a cast o tout; for home work you print,,^, k t l y from it. , .. $he process will printon just ab fpaper or card,.and even some 1cs: .' ¥lan letterpress machines are n we complicated than a bicycle, but &imprint over 500 copies an hour handed (1500 on a treadle rf). Caxton and his mates were to get 40 an hour. Theyare up to ssional' standards and some e make a living running them. ichines to set metal type cost 1hundred pounds, so you have to . .-j y hand. If youhave a lot o f words ancredibly slow and boring, which is i.$eason why litho i s widely used gad. But letterheads; business Wetickets, haiku (look it up!), @i%e graffiti labels etc can be set i n t#minu&es - w i t h PRACTICE. It (takehours at first. $w.can have a wide range o f typ& &at low cost, which isn't bhe case

sachine

,

size, sped, accuracy ability to print really large areas of solid colour evenly.

Browse through the manufacturers' . catalogues before you buy.

Even if you don't want to print faidy your own my magazineor to yourself. whatever,Put it i s

Lithography: A process for printing. .from a plane plate treated so that some areas will pick up and some repel the greasy inks used. Originally, stone treated with wax was used (Greek lithos' = stone). Now the ink is normalIYWftettfrom aflexible printingplate , t o a 'bblnket%hichthen prints on the paper. This means that the print on the pI@e is 'right way round' not

,

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.

. .

a cahon ribbon in your typewriter, dray your pictures in I n d i g ink or .

Rotring blackink, make your headlines from Letraset All these give a ,deep black that photogr=-1" l.~Stickall the bits togethei et o f white paper (cow gun commended) in the layout y ant, and take it to your litho ~ I I I I L G I clear instructions;,the size you want it reduced 6; the paper you, want it on; the ink colour. All you have to do then is pay the bill .... and hope that you didn't leave any dirty marks on your copy. "PK photograph and print quite v / ~ (More details inAtfwwyf~£&ggaff & Wales.) ,~~~:::?;:,:~~:~:5~:~2x-:~:F"<"?.. :r -^W-^,.;-^,- '.. -^.--.^^^;-^ The rich amongus usej$k~5tfic typewriters, or (pecial models with changeable typefaces, and variable spacing to even up the right hand margin, but none of t h i s is essential.

If you expect to do a lot of this you cantypewriters sometimeswith get secon a work, manual

'shaded typeface' which gives a neaterprint. We we're offered one (at 00 extra charge) but turned it down because the typeface doesn't cut stencils properly.

with a rubber wiper. That is that:" ome ink colours, or black on me paper colours, won't reproice at all - and you can get special hite paper which can't be photo¥piedNo doubt this will be used creasingly in all the overpriced iblications you would most like to lotocopy. Half-tone pictures produce badly, and some copiers e now designed to fade anything out writing.

Screen Process: Used by the ancient Chinese, and now used to produce striking posters, original art prints, id ruin the appearance o f perfectly bod glassware with hideous designs. ¥causit willtake a thicker ink m than other processes, you can t stronger and more brilliant lours, but fine detail is impossible.

Ifyou can put a shelf up, you can - ~ i l your d own silk screen frame.

The system is almost the'same as the flat-bed copier described in U/C 18.

Cloth (usually silk) is stretched taut over a 'picture frame'. You then cut out a stencil o f the design you want, "it without the 'ties' normally used hold the centres o f letters like 0 d A in place. Stick the stencil

:

With care-and patience you can work in umpteen colours.

You need ope big accessory, also home made - a rack to stack the prints while they dry. The inks are too slow drying for sheets to be just stacked on top o f one another.

Art shops should be able to supply you with inks, or it may be worth making your own as the quantities used are fairly large. A friendsuggested mixing strong Dylon dye with Pol~celltype wallpaper paste (NOT L.A.P. starch t paste). This ought to work but the paste 'goes off' in a few days so you'd have t o mix it fresh each time.

You can print on fabrics as well as

'

or draw on a special master paper b ed with an upside down Banda carbo paper. The colour which i s transferred to the back o f the top sheet i s then slowly stripped off with spirit in the' machine to produce up to 200 copies.

Foe more than a few copies ou have to use a good writing paper (try 'Strathdon' if you can get it). Absorbent paper eats too much ink for each COPY. One advantage i s that you can use 'carbons' in several colours to prepare your master sheet, and they all print in one pass'through the machine. Some o f the colours fade quickly though so it isn't very good for posters.

Stencil Duplicators: (Roneo,

much better if you use writing paper or thin card inplace of absorbent

For magazine covers, handbills etc this doesn't always matter. Al possible to have an 'electron! ,cut fromordinary black writi

Getting it all together

danas £15-£15litho machines 40-£1,000 duplicators; platemakers, hotoeopiers and typewriters £1 pwards and upwards!; electric Best tencil cutters from £50-£10 o read the Exchange'and Mart for a ew weeks t o get the feel o f things.

Printing machinery is pretty durable o old mache tis may be OK, b u t ring he manufacturers t o check the spares ituation. (Remember the parts and rices S i t the seller shows you could e five years old). Phone calls are cost/, but useless machinery cost more! iccessories, especially in letterpress, iav be worth more than the basic machine, so try t o avoid buying only i e machine secondhand.

Them is money (as well as communy use add plain fun) in printing, b u t mates littie sense to try and compete ~ i t hfirms who have bigger and faster achines than you. It's a mistake though a think that home printing equipment 'inferior'. It is appropriate for work lhcih most printers dislike doing - and 3 in effect pretend doesn't exist.

Every prWgfaas-its dWft ecdogica (?) niche. Stencil duplicators or litho for community magazines is a fairly obvious one. Letterpress or Banda is more appropriate f o shshort runs or fan work. Silkscreen is the ultimate for art ' with impact.

Use the advantages o f your chosen process t o do work ttat can't be found elsewhere, or that c d l i cost a fortune-on a large machine.

Changes o f ink colour, for example, are often far easier on a small machine so many large printers run everything in black or blue. Why copy them?

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t

The impact of Silk-screened posters

1

Radicals still passing the buck onto GUESS WHICH nineteenth century, 'them', 'the system' have become part atriarchal, hate mongering, 'radical' o f the problem - twice over! icial theory has most t o say about , Further, it is the consumer, through conomics? Right first time! But I'm savings, insurance, trade union dues and oing t o argue here that class theory the like who provides the working yen got this bit wrong. It made a fetish f production. It turned workers into capital to industry and demands surplus ods and bosses into devils. People value on it. (In the latter cases the hat's us, remember?) came a bad third. institutions do so on our behalf.) Every Production is the slave o f consump tycoon worth his salt operates with on, not the other way round. As the borrowed capital (remember Harry anks have it: "Nobody e& till someHyams, Centrepoint, and the Co-op?). ody sells". That's why firms spend a As consumers we demand a pound o f omb on advertising: trying desperateflesh which we as producers cannot give ' to influence the consumer. Consumers except by continuous expansion of lie, OK? the market, by endless growth.

Now that the social and ecological You could even say it was the concosts o f crazy growth can be seen, the mer and not the mill owner who was political nature o f consumer decisions ie villain o f the industrial revolution. is finally out i n the open. 'Cheap' capital was the decision o f consumers t o intensive manufactures? Food ripped o f f ly the cheaper manufactured goods from the third world? A plutonium state hich drove a whole generation of profor maximum home comforts? Second icers into those 'dark satanic mills'. hand living through the telly? A l o t of iter, Gandhi saw the pointand tried issues - we'll stick with the first one.

1 stop Indians buying the cheaper I n old culture economies without growth iglish cloth. He knew that they were cheap buying means unemployment, straying their own producer economy, either real or hidden. Which brings us ducing themselves t o starvelings. This t o radical consumption. the meaning o f charka, the spinning The way we shop - from narrow selfheel. advantage t o full social awareness - fixAt first the big gap between rich and es the nature o f production. Even a 1% >orconfused the issue. I t was hard to level o f social consumption i n a geographiy that consumers were dehumanising cal area, a 1% parallel culture if you like, emselves as producers, since the would provide a base for the social arkers were not doing much o f the production o f almost all basic needs. insuming. (Likewise the more general (Admit it would barely dent the market ena at ion - living against each other for unsocial production.) i s masked by massive one-sided Radical production also needs working ploitation.) Today, the way we hate capital. Where will it come from? The ch other and ourselves i n the market answer again lies i n ourselves as consumers. ace is becoming clear for all who have And what consumers! Probably around e guts t o face it. This one simple fact twenty times the world average. To imply akes a nonsense o f older social theories.

Further h d p and advice: Try the libra f i r s t Pester the library second. I'lltry t help people who need info and really ci find it elsewhere. Consultancy fee £profits t o CLAP. Ihave formulae for printing inks and rollers, plus umpteen other thin ,in an old book (they are 1 untried). Also practical experience o f running an Adana.

Addms: 244 Calais Road, Burton-oi

Trent, Staffs.

Sandy Morris

that people have'nothing left'after keep ing the boss and paying the old state i t s taxes is t o reinforce the myths o f a growth economy, which must always entice consumption beyond income.

So then: the economics o f parallel culture hinges on us, as radicals, reducir our ability to consume i n two ways.

Firstly by supporting socially valid, small scale, labour intensive production which will usually be more expensive (and not always better). Secondly by deducting from ourselves extra surplus value t o fund new capital works.

But can we do it?Can we outflank our own ego-selves? As individuals, I don't think we can. This is where small group co-operation comes in. The 'I will if you will i f she will if he will' trick.

Group dynamics makes it a whole new ball game. O f course some people in the group may be better o f f than others, which can make a nonsense o f reducing consumption. Hence income sharing is a sound tactic when your head is ready for it.

What about the big stuff? Won't we need t o take back surplus value in the form o f factories, equipment, public facilities, most o f all land? Perhaps - b i much later on, when there is already organised radical consumer power and widespread tacit support, even within the bureaucracy. When parallel cultures enjoy that much support, the reoccupation o f land etc could be a quiet fait accompli. Before then it would be a provocative and premature confrontation.

Right now, radical economics is about you and me and some really alternative consumption.

Wood'

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k I H E

WAY THE WIND BLOWS

c-me.more hints and gadgets f r o m Jim McCullough t o help y o u site y o u r .

,

THERE IS LITTLE point i n 'fine tuning' a windgenerator vnless you make sure that the wind is hitting it square on. Common sense will tell you some-places not t o put it (like building), but for best results ' taking masuretnents o f wind and diretion in different plac this on windy a d calm days for as long as possible, or while planning/ building your windgenerator.

wmd Force Gauge We built one over A weekend (see

w i n d m i l l where it w i l l d o most work.

3

diagram). A batch of four should take less than a week. Stick them up in different parts o f your site. Afterwards you may be able to sell them or do a swop. If you have no brazing kit, try (say) your nearest bicycle frame builder. Make sure your conduits are screwed well home into the coupler(s)

Bubble Generator Makes a stream of bubbles so you can see what the air is doing in the test zone. The diagram shows one possible design. Washing-up liquid

th a little water makes a soap sol{ n, or buy some from a toyshop.

Another unit near the ground will show up the increase o f wind speed w ~ t hheight.

--

gg$7t

ind Speed Indicator h+ %T& .-:

Fix a propellor directly to a cycle eedometer (see diagram). Calibrate by remarking the scale. (We recommend a knuckle guard on the hand grlp - Edsl). N B. 1 knot = 1.15 m.p.h.

Jim McCullough (and Fre,

lnoercurrents L I

IVAN'S AFT:- [ I Z n s L------ AIL--- - --

The first translation, the mystical on1

by Waley, i s as follows: weit pa u twheel; thirty spokes together and caj

But it is on the space where there is nothing that the utility o f thtwheel depends.

We turn ciav to make a vessel: But jt is o i t h e spoce where there is working on nature as an object outside '%be prisoners looked out from behind nothing that the utility o f the of ourselvw, has scant place in Taoist the bars, vessel depends. thinking which insists that we are apart nost saw bricks but lvan sow stars. ' We pierce doors and windows to mak of nature.

IVAN DENISOVITCH, at the end of a a house; The Knack hard, cold day in the Siberian winterl And it is on these spaces where there stayed on to finish his quota of bricklayjoseph w a r n in his book describes is nothing that the utility o f the ing whilst his fellow prisoners matched many a s p a of this climbing into the house depends. off to the meagre comfort and warmth Tao, this 'knack' in doing practical things, nereforejust as we take advantage of the work camp and meal o f bland from butchering an animal to making o f what is, Siberian scouse. The central character of wheels and pots. But it i s not only in W e should recognise the utility o f Solzhenitzyn's novel worked with a w i l t physical work that the Tao may be what is not. with a swing - with zest, we might say - found, it must also be present in social (1950) translation by A more recent to complete his section of wall before it and political life.

Hou Wai-Lou gives a more political versi~ was too dark to see.

The Taoists had an attitude t o society of the same poem: Conditions were poor for bricklaying, that Needham describes as 'Co-operative a cold wind was blowing that would Primitivity', a longing for an agrarian nifty spokes combine to make a quickly freeze the water in the mortar society without feudalism or money, a wheel; between the blocks, causing them to When there wbs no privategroperty smiety where egalitarkan rights prevailed heave out of place duringthe Arctic carts were made for use. and where greed was not institutionalised. night. The next day they would almost many people will suspect A t this Clay is formed to make vessels; certainly have to be knocked down and that the Taoist ideal of society i s ArcadWhen there was no private property relaid. What inspired lvan not only to ian and impossible to achieve. But yessels were made for use. do such work but to actually enjoy it, amongst peoples who have not been Windows and doors go to make a despite the privations of the camp? subjected to either a rapacious native house; He was trying, of cours, to find feudalism or been conquered and broken &en there w s no private p?operty something of value he could experience, by external powers, the ideal of co-operahouses were made for use. enjoy and make his own. By finding tion is held in high regard as being the value in his bricklaying, he was in effect, n u s havingprivate property leads to best possible way to live. There are recogcheating the tyranny of forced labour, profit (for the feudal lords), nised checks and balances that prevent transforming i t s oppressive character.

But not having it leads to use (for power from being accumulated and Most people try to do this in their work, the people). abused. The sceptics will argue that we even on the track production lines or in Britain have gone too far down our The first interpretation i s an objective in the most ugly conditions o f industrial historical road for these ideals of co-opera- one, a mystical description of reality. life where people are forced to prostitute tion and equality to be possible. we Can he second insists that productive work their talents for monev. The research by i s inevitably a social activity and that i t s reply by saying that personal happiness industrial ~ s ~ c h o ~ o g iins ithe s 60's ~ h 0 is rooted not only in personal satisfaction fNitshould be for the broader society, discovered how women gutting chickens ' but also in social solidarity. Though this not for the few who can control thin=. in a below ground, windowless butcher's view of the nature o f mankind is an Many will argue that translation can 6e room, could actually enjoy the work, or optimistic one, I would argue that we. doctored to w i t the prejudices of the how a gang of men shoqelling coal into really have no choice; if we are to solve translator, but there is strong linguistic wagons could have a laugh doing it, i s the physical problems in a world of evidence that the latter translation i s an eye-opener. Climbing into a task or resource scarcity we can only do it by more in keeping with the spirit o f the swinging in co-operation with others is co-operation. original poem than fhe former. dee.ply satisfying no matter what the The Taoists were fundamentally Simple F'leasures work. political in outlook but they did not hold Joseph Needham, in Volume Two of political power. Needham advances the The importance of Taoism for us in his Science and Civilisation in Chinal view that all religions that begin with a our attempts toeffect cultural and describes at great length the pattern of vision of the brotherhood of man (and political revolution out of the cadaver01 , Taoist beliefs and their relationship with woman), retreat over the years into 5 parts of our industrial history i s that it the world. They differ from Western mystical framework. This has happened provides a framework of values that rationalist beliefs in their insistence that many times with Christianity with its allows us to live with ease in the world t ~ t h beauty , and values in life can only revivals and decays into orthodoxy; and of nature and the broader society. As be found by doing and experiencing, there is a case for thinking that the fossil fuel s w k s are depleted and the knowing how something i s done, rather movement of the English 17th Century oil-fired central heating turned off, we than knowing that something i s done.

Levellers, which insisted on the equality will have t o encourage ourselves and The Tao, the Way, cannot be described of treatment of all people, evolved into others to actually enjoy using less, in words. The penalty for losing the the Quaker movement out of its imp* rather than to threaten the cold barbarWay i s not eternd damnation or perpettence to change the physical relationships ism of industrial and social collapse ual suffering; the penalty i s a lack of within society in those times. as a way of cutting consumption. A ease, a sense of frustration. But knowing rediscovery of 'simple pleasures' must Political to Mystical the Way, experiencing the Tao in life, be an essential part of the changes.

This transformation from the fundaleads to a sense of balance and fulfilIvan stayed on late to finish laying mentally political to the,mystical vision ment: it is tapping into the cosmos. his bricks as a celebration of his may be illustrated by the Taoist poem The Western belief that we exist only humanity. that is included in many counter-cultural behind our eyeballs and that our bodies . Simon books. are a motor mechanism serving our will,

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AFTER THREE YEARS of apparent despair, Department of Energy mandarins are becoming increasingly sanguine about natural energy sources and the viability of reducing consum~tion.The recentlv annouked E3.6m ;olar energy research progra&me might be chicken feed compared with the atomic budget, but it is, at least, a tremulous step in the right direction. Martyn Partridge talked to Gerald Leach, one of the country's leading energy analysts, about his current research into low energy options for Britain. ,' -..* -.

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s.7<Gerald Leach %+

"The idea for the project began back i n '74. I n the wake *:..assuming $ that personal incomes will tend to b of the oil crisis the United States and Scandinavian countries more equal. Changes in attitudes are already widespread." were already showing a lot o f interest in new energy sources Transport and consumption patterns. But in the UK, Germany, France In turning their attention to transport and Italy, the four major western European economies, the researchers anticipate more difficult problems in policymakers were slow to react. They were looking at the achieving a value-free assessment. "Within existing transport problem in large scale terms - they hadn't begun to consider patterns it's possible t o reduce energy use through smaller the possibility that accumulated small changes could make cars and better design o f cars and engines. But you also have an impact. So the International Institute for Environment ask fundamental questions about what transport is for and and Development (an independent, nor/-profit organisatio~ who i t benefits. There are ma119people who will never own o f which Leach Is a senIor Fellow), persuaded the Ford *-gr2+ ,-+~? their own car, who rely or1 public transport for their mobilit) Foundation to fund a two year research programme to :> :? *<.:,: l h i s isn't just an energy problem but a social problem, too." discover the imuact o f renewable enerm sources and more Agriculture efficient energ; use in Britain and 0th; Western European countries."

The outstanding problem i s food. I n a recent book, The team began working in October last year. Consisting Energy and Food Production *, the outcome of earlier of an architect, a physicist and a biologist, as well as Leach research conducted at IIED, Leach has analysed in detail himself, the group Intends t o analyse the entire British the energy costsof a wide variety of agricultural methods economy sector by sector (homes, offices, industry and in different countries. Since the second world war, Britain transport), considering how energy consumption can be has enjoyed considerable increases i n the rate of agricultural reduced without causing a drastic dislocation in people's productivity, both in terms o f output per acre, and i n lifestyles. terms of output per unit of farm labour. Most of this has been achieved through the application o f an immense Homes amount o f strictly non-renewable energy, as fuel for farm They have already completed their study o f domestic machinery, as electricity, In chemical fertilisers and in the manufacture o f equipment. use, making a sophisticated breakdoMn of the existing When considered in detail some surprising,facts emerge. lousing stock into such categories as suburban semis, base In 1968 the whole of the British food supply industry, ment and top floor flats, terraced houses and so on, each including processing and transport as well as agriculture, with their different needs and potential for saving. They have also looked at household income patterns in absorbed five times as much energy as ~tactually produced order t o determine the sort of 2overnment assistance which i n edible calorific value. Although this invites possibly different people will need in order t o embark on capital spurious comparison with Kalahari desert dwellers, whose expenditure. "The Department of Energy are quite food production nets twenty-five times as much output as envious o f our model" says Leach, "We have found that a input, i t is clearly not a recipe for a reliable food supply in a world where the end o f fossil fuel reserves i s in sight. concerted home insulation and draught-proofing campaign would knock 8-9% o f f total energy consumption, and would be There are a number of areas i n which significant savings can economic even at today's prices". The team considers these be made; the processing o f straw as liquid or solid fuel, findings important enough to justify the publication o f a a renewed emphasis on organic fertilisers, the digestion o f preliminary report, which the government'will certainly take manure t o produce methane, the elimination o f artificial very seriously. The next stage i s t o consider what additional heating for glasshouses. This sort of cheeseparing can b~ carried out within the country's existing allocation o f wings might be made with widespread solar heating and/or labour time t o food production (about 8%) and without ieat-pumps. fundamental changes i n diet or lifestyle.

Leach i s a realist and has no qualms Further savings require greater changes. 44% o f the UK i i o u t distinguishing between facts and opinions. The Ford food energy intake i s in the form o f meat, which i s a 'oundation don't want to hear about 'Utopian fixes', nor, notoriously inefficient mode of production. I f this was t seems fair t o assume, does most of the British population. reduced to 28%, and land switched t o the production o f f i e project tea.m are working on the premise that vegetables for direct human consumption, then i t would 'or the forseeable future, say 30 years, we will continue t o be be possible to feed the whole o f the population on UKLn industrial society, and that the majority o f people do not produced food, rather than half at present. But this "would tagerly contemplate reduced living standards. The object o f the create financial havoc for farmers and the food industry :xercise is t o maintain prosperity while reducing the resource unless the change t o a system o f this approximate type was ;ost. slowly and carefully paced".

But Leach insists that this is in no sense a conservative ,emedy. "The implication of reduced energy consumption Lre radical. Diversified energy sources and reduced iependence on central suppliers are important. We are

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Undercurrents

MOTORWAY MADNEFC

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Dur planning inq s are charades. When the Archway Road ( A l ) , widening inquiry reconvenes in mid-April ~twill have a new lnspector, an engineer who used to bulldoze roads through the bush in the Colonies, no doubt against the wishes of the natives. The objectors have a tough nut this time. One of them, George Stern, has been Fighting this particular proposal for nearly ten years, and here he probes into the fraudulent techniques used to ~ustifysuch schemes. Maybe his arguments and other efforts will help persuade the Ministry to stop bullying the 3eople of Highgate. He finally offers some surprising ideas on public transport which we hope will spark off a ~ i d e debate r on transport in Undercurrents. magic of cost-benefit analysis t o show Archway - to show that the techniques TWO SUPPOSEDLY scientific that n o t widening would cost £1.93M, are fraudulent; I propose a simpler, echniques are used i n transport planwhile widening would save  £ 4 . 6 9 ~ . ling: forecasting and assignment o f tra*, cheaper and clearer alternative - B E n A , Their documents did not state how they ~ n cost-benefit d analysis. Many would BEnefiT-Time Analysis, and use this t o had reached this conclusion, nor did ;oncede that traffic forecasting, and compare the benefits of present transthe lnspector bother t o ask them Issigning it t o specific roads, is highly port strategy t o a public-transport based after all he was paid by the Ministry ,peculative, but cost-benefit analysis alternative. t o turn in the right answer. The 4ppears more attractive. This technique The Archway Widening Ministry state elsewhere that the issigns monetary values t o the benefits For fifty years the Ministry have bee^ method must be "calculate what can Ind disbenefits,of each scheme proposed seeking t o widen Archway Road, London readily be quantified - that i s the costs Ind compares the total benefits with the and traffic benefits - t o guide substanIctual costs. Why do this? I suggest-ty ,. N6. The opening of the M I and moving down-river of much o f the docks have tially but not to dominate the final .easons, one overt and one covert. ; out-dated Archway's image of the major decision made.. .''3 The document The overt reason is that there is no ", ~.. road north, but have not lessened the cited gives the values of time to be used 'ree market in transport: it is pointless profits which a massive widening would in such cost-benefit studies: the working o say that people have freely chosen time of a car driver i s worth £1.6 per oad rather than rail if our rail system has give to some. As a preliminary, the British Rail line serving Highgate was closed, hour, but of a bus user £0.8 per hour. )een Beechin.qised, or that they have bus services cut, and the Underground Nan-workinz travelling time is rated as :hasen cars rather than buses if our buses lave been taken away. Indeed permitting Archway graffitti by Highgate Underground Station :ars at all makes other forms of travel, ike walking or cycling, unpleasant and langerous, and makes bus travel slower.

Iost-benefit analysis steps i n and allows he planner t o select the most 'profitable' cheme which i s the one economic man vould presumably select.

The covert reason far cost-benefit .nalysis i s that transport planners often nake decisions like building an Archwaytyle superhighway, which amount t o mashing up homes, shops, open space ,nd environment and the public transport ystem for the benefit o f the drivers, who £0.1 for adults, £0.0 for children. In tu~medinto the notorious 'Misery Line'. onsist mainly of the young and middle plain English, a bus user i s reckoned The Ministry then tried to widen ged middle-income groups, and exclude to be worth half as much as a car driver, through Hampstead Garden Suburb, nost of the old, the very young, housewhile a mother loaded down with sliopthe next section north, but were fought vives and the poor. Through costping and two children only rates one off. The Greater London Council, the ~enefi:analysis, highly-paid experts fifth as much attention as the car authority for- the southern section o f rtter niagic spells wliich 'prove' that superman. the r i ~ ~ were d , abl? to destroy a large ioise by <la), arid niglit is a ~ e n e f i i<I:, pdrt ot N c ~ t hIslington by widening F;i~itasyforecasts h ~ btc i r i ~houje.boirrid b y h o liri; ~ liiglithere, '15 the rchiclent~were mainly poo! vays a i c i lack of pi~blictransr!??! li~:, Th,: arbitrary itlcc~t,,!: ?;, f:tcto;:. ,LO pec)ple, t,~a!-)lcto rc5isi. icreased !nobiliiy. It is ]not 5 9 r : ~ ~ c i : l ~ l j eblir~is.ry's pl'lns for ttic tit~~-ilier;: bc coi;sidc!.cd ~ n c l ,.d!c~?sI:.) b, pl:~cscd hdt ex;)c3rts p r w e ihing, :ii~l !h,:y !L,I-,th~n: us.cd I O ~ G ~ ; : (' :, , : t i : f t i : ~ . ~ , i s se~tioriof !lrch\vay RO'I~tlirough nake anv pr(:p(~siti~~ri, r:o nid:te! l~,cj,.v ~~bl;icti ' 3 ~ 2consid?rrd ~ ' ~ \bhL,!k;cr liigl?ga:c , ~ c ! cr?ve.~ledat tlie 1973 . . ~ : i ~ i ur iniple, impenetrably cornpl*:~GL: YIOL !i.ie iroad in quest.~dti ,:, bbil?, s t i i k i ( ~ i ~ ~ l lriquir) as rniaii~igd f.oaJ '~bc,ut eleven icomprcI??ri~ihie, sci llnat ~ c o ; ~ ! c in the LLSC o i Arcnwziv, t ; a - ~ r i c ;LIc ydrd> wide i r ~ ~at omigI.ti.,, strip (jf coiid can:,^,! e\,c~icc1ntc5t thc schcrne ~ r n l c s cretc in par1 over cigI7:y yards wide. tc expiari: hov$ a cc)niplctel\ i.icirnfcJ hey can !,ad  lO,OC!9 ? G gel 2 ct>unlc?road bvotild take more ira[tic. As 1.c.

Much o f Highgate's fCi:nouswoods, as xpert to chant the iipproved i[i?l;s. 11; well as ihe homes for over 150 h an lilies T~nrier,a leading official traffic foreact cost-benefit analysis is ~icitliirigrliolc casrer puts i t "policic5 based on low and over 30 shops would be destroyed. han SOSlPing - the sophistical obfuscaforecasts would discourage traffic Waste i s savins ion of self-interest and prejudice.1 1-he official forecdstirig I examine i typical case of the use o f Nevertheless, at the 1973 Inquiry, methods are impressive in their brutal the Ministry's exper-ts were able by the orecasting and cost-benefit analysis -simplicity. Lorry traffic will grow in

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Archway traffic forecasts, the M i n i s q that as this could not bequantified ~o ~y they would ignore it.N e e d t t the Ministry refu* to take account o f , the possible alternative o f improvd public transport and more use of rail and canal for goods. The Ministry-paid hpector OK'd this farrago o f o r w e ~ ~ i a n xience and Gulag-stylejustice. * ~ C ~ W d j aY t o r s found in the 1976 Inquiry that demanding that the Inquiry be stopped was far more productive than behaving 'reasonably'; the man who is reasonable according to the standards of lunatics, will won be mad himself,

uniform high level of no&, the cost of noise will be zero, and the cost-benefit a e s i s will beable t o declare in 1984 *t # c m k is F*~.6 A&= ' m t sout that m & &&& &&ill, a favoured site for atmher London &portmust be Hyde Fndeed, ifthee g ~ n did s a costhenefit Wiysis of hell, they would conclude h t it was the best place provided that a g a there fast

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One cannot forecast the fi~mre, d ~

The basis for cost-benefit w t y & can now be seen; by forecasting, 'prove' that traffc will increase wm if there is n o road space or fuel availa&.

Then ignore all factors except a few, and give these weights reflecting one's peconceptions. More specifically, wi&t the time of car and lorwdrivws very heavily, and virtually ignore mobility o f others Ignore deaths, noise, fumes, pollution and destruction on. the stale of war. In some cases, it must be admitted, officials do allow for noise and death%They assess the value of a life by funeral costs, earning capacity and a few thousands to cover grief etc.

Adams points out that all this had beeh gone throu h long ago by Jomthan Swift. ?L I n his 'Modest Proposal', Swift advocates that the Irish solve their problems by selling their children for meat, and is able t6 . show by similar techniques that t-he value of a plump yearling child when staughtered was 81-.

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d b ' s i s allied forecasting d w s a W e answer which n m n e believes b@ to do no analysis results in a long * m which no-one reads. Isu-t * a middle course, whereby all the facts dKWt the qtternative schemes (includ&the alternative which the officiars

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LOW TRAFFIC

.ActM cost . Homes dwtmyed .Homes damaged * Road deathdcentw -Fumes and noise ; 2 Public transport 2WalkhgJcyding Commuting for t W +$hmmuting far 9 W L8iaue trip for 25% Leisure tdpi for 75%

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entury as the Flixborough NYPR xplosion. Utimately the decision maker would have to weigh up wh factors are important and less important, and which traffic level! are likely and less likely. Science c a n n ~do t this for him, but what it can do is make dear just what he is assuming, and who he i s planning k r and who he i s planning against

Must we have the conmete w?

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the various schemes.

The table compares the Ministry xheme and an alternative which consists of no widening with better public transport. 10%of commuters go by cai and are more comfortable than in better public transport, but leisure journeys split differently, asa car benefits more there (though still a minority). The entries from 'fumes , and noise' down use a scale where 1 0 repfesents the present level.

Of course all items in such tables could be queried, and this i s right. The body proposing the road would be obliged t o write a report centred roum the table and justifying the valuesused and by public debate it would be determined how valid these are. The requirement to produce such a table would prevent items being omitted -

Yes f35m 200 1000 30 90 90 \ 90 180 90 110 90 80

Ifind that people often concede much of what has been said & w e but claim that motorways are needed because most goods must go by lorry; because only cars can give mobility, and because, even if thew first two @aimswere proved wrong, otftw polities woutd cause massive unemr ployfnent. For goods transport, it is use€ to consider the figures given by the fanatically pro-motorway Tt2nsport Consultation Document for percentage of ton-miles moved by r&d m the Common Market Countries:8 Denmark - 87%; Ireland - 83%

PRFSENTTRAFFIC HIGH TRAFR No

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Yes £35 200 2000 50 120 80 85 150

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UK - 78%;Italy - 67%; Belgium 4 % G~~~~~~ -,41%; - 'Â¥> Luxembourg - 26% The successful countries of thi.

Common Market seemed to make much less use of lorries than h e unsuccessful ones, so that at at1 events lorries are not vital to economic success. It is clear, therefore, that lorry usage could be cut to a small fraction of its present . < .: level.As to personal transport, it i s useful to note that we spent 3.8 times as much in real terms t o travel 2.2times as-far * in 1972 as in 1952. .

Furthermore, in 1952 everyone had .. access to a widespread public transport network, o f which at least half as been axedand the rest made slow, dirty and dangerous. Only one person in four has acar, and less than one in two has ready. access to a car: the rest o f the population are on the way to the highest etra degree of immobitity since t

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1.8 miles from an A or B class road.

In fact examination of large scale maps suggests that nearly everyone lives within half a mile from such roads.If therefore a public vehicle up and down 5wha rmd every five by day and night most people would have an adequate passenger service. Most shorter w c o u ~ be d m& wifione an average of 2% minutesat the junction. This would mire 24x365~2x12~50,OOO= 1 veh,icle miles.

This compares with the 1 . 2 ~ 1 vehicle miles run by allpasse 1972. vehiclesin Receipts on buses in the sa year (when subsidies were lo fires reflect cost pretty well from 17 to 38 pence per ve Bus costs depend on mileage, ti overheads. Under this scheme

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to predominate. These reasons are the decisions ofplanners ostensibly based on phony science {but really no doubt based on a very scientific forecasting technique applied to their bank accounts), and the 'radical monopoly' effect, to quote IUich, whereby cars and lorries physically drive our their c o m p e t i t ~ r s .One ~ ~ cah also add thatit cars' kill roughly ten times as many per passenger-mile as public transport, and notless real because in blood and health.

e are not far o f f £2,0001~per year. also taken of interest 01 in roads, and the value occupy, over £3,00011 er figure. In addition out£1,000 per year, so that

TIME T O CHANGE TACK ro continue our debate on transport, lay Hulm examines Project Ceres, I proposal by Alan Sims for a nodern sailing cargo ship. Both the echnical aspects and the forms of wganisation on board are discussed.

I IMAGINE that Sea ~reezes',the

set of sails andtrim of hull according to the prevailing andforecast weather, tidal streams and ocean currents.

The cargo would no doubt be containerised. It would be important to decide how much of the cargo could be refrigerated, and this would depend on how much the relevant part of the nagazine of ships and the sea, is not part cargo could be super-insulated. if most people's regular reading so you And just in case you were wondernay have missed Project Ceres, Alan ing where the power for all this hardiims' proposal in a recent issue. ware i s coming from What the author has in mind is a Obviously there would have to be nultiple masted, Bermudan rigged two bask diesel generators as a stand chooner withan auxiliary diesel engine by for lighting, heating, ventilating, or manoeuvring in-close waters and serw-meters, power steering and d m conditions. Well, we have all been elec(n0nics. There would also be , aying for some time that the wind is stofugebatter/es, wfme wight Is , ree, and one only has t o look at some no problem Id a 'ship. Howew~ when if the times achieved by the clippers the ship was under sail the propeller nd other fast trading vessels of the past . could be allowed to rotate to drive o wonder if perhaps the days of sail u dynamo. Naturallv this would be re not over for good after all. Not that . at the expense of drag, but this could :ere5 is envisaged as a nostalgia recreabe varied from maximum to miniion of the past, far from it - , mum by means of a variable pitch propeller. When generation by this The configuration of the sails would method was not required, the lave to be worked out by tests in wind propeller,would be fully feathered. unnels with naval architects and aero. wutical engineers in collaboration.

Wind generators could gene%ere would be geared winches for the power wh^n close-h.uled,or.reaching, wnual operation of~alliardsand sheets, butat the expense of drag. : nil serwmeters f+rapid i n a n o e u v r i n g ' No-one seems to have wondered, whether or hot the kinetic energy, f t h e sails. transferred from waves to a rolling, There would be.a control ce& on pitching ship could be partially utilised be low bridge equipped with a comto generate electricity. Could not the 'liter for calculating the best course,

constantly varying hydraulic/air pressure in vertical tubes open to the, sea in the bottom of the ship be used . to drive impellers coupled to small dynamos? Would not horizontal tubes placed athwrtships experience alternate compression and decompression as the ship rolled?

4 Some solar collection would ah6 be posible.

Unlike the sailormen of old, Cen crew will not be living on a diet of! pork and hard tack, home grown frestr vegetables being on the menu. It is suggested that a new science 'of maritime horticulture be developed, using recycled sewage to feed plants in 'plots' suspended a few feet below skylightat deck level.

O f course, man cannot live by hydrih ponically produced veg alone A ship is of course more than naval architectureand technology; it supports a human community. On this score it could be objected that you could not attract a crew to what w s basically a sailing ship operating on long passages.

The crew would be small, however, and considefation could be given to the possibility of wives sailing with husbands.

It would be interesting to explore the work possibilities on board ship for the 'supehunmries' - the wives - and also for members of the crew off duty,.

It would not be difficult to set up a small craft-precision-workshopfor the . production of small abides. The work ,

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craps UP the fish, Or how's about=* little blueasbestosthen?You work up a nice gentle sweat m'menty - five years on Wt one.Sometimesit's ' not the top boy, lifcnn (fie Tay &&ge case- End of the month job that was; cracks i n -.east iron pillars. So *is little "'otnose says OK, - bad design of the escape hitch. p X P E R T S YOU SAY? Well, &st we thecrackswith lad tffofe the First War there w this ship ninety bought a farm apiece - slow'ah ' would YOU bdiwe an' the bridge goes the Titank. This Expert claimed thowh, gassed when the water got ge-wasunsinkable but her as was ripped tffebattepiw. No, was in the army ma&&* with a train UP. They @t four b ~ k $ t h films ant a play out@that one . ~ n lhad to worry about the nifty jut on aniceberg. The poor baskets on as tong~you're blokes. Still,,the Experts can g i n you :J P^W Sari s w f hymns waltin' for her to do sitting in the third la^, eh? your time in your own armchair, aft% hedeep six, Ireckonthey muIda lasted Now you tell me they are going they? Remember fl/a+ro'? It's whç '@ood quarter hour in the ice water. to build t h s e Atomic Power stations they get to the kids does roe. Remeffltec there was thisAairahip, The R One -win' Ffutonium. You must be joking, that tip in Wales that took out a schoolQMS. Yeah she did a h?g whump too; that stuff has a half life of twenty ftil, Abet something or other an' it gets y <atd i t was money and government five thousand years; that's a hell of a worse when they only do half a job Thanks, mine's a Guinea, loft* Experts end to end. Take it like the Thgiidwntde .thing. Poor littie itch the health y'kndw. Oh, from me, only an Expert would give so an' so's can't even get into trouble there was this sub, H.M.S. Thet/s an idiot a loade fof picking their noses. Get's a round & ti-ecalfc she was on her trial runs, my old FI' i n Charlie will you?

Course they don't . %get her down to-periscopedepth, atwaystry to do You then an' there; a torp tube an' the sea's inboard sometimes it's like D.R.T. whdreit ctet s w s h . Only a couple got out,-

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Undercurrents 21

Khgmay Community THE KINGSWAY COM-

MUNITY is founded on the belief that 'through a coalition of dispossessed and privileged people in extended families, within which the practice of sharing establishes a common, W a r e , a more just society may be created'.

Three households, two in London and one on a farm in Cornwall, have now joined the patchwork community, and a group for the next farm is being formed. It will contain people with a vyiety of skills, experience and income. The intention of the Communitv is to purchase a property a s close to the farm on the south coast of Cornwall as oossible. and to settle it with several households from the outset.

Even while this new group is embryonic, much may be gained from close relations with the first farm.

Anyone able to consider throwing in their lot with this venture should write to: Divid Horn,tlie 'ty, 23 Sutton KiMÈwà ourt ¥Old,Chitwick London W4.

-

In The Making 4, the new 1977 edition of our directory o f co-operative projects is off the press - at last! But it's been worth waiting for: 76 pages of articles, project entries and reviews.

Thuleprint, a co-operative in the Shetlands, printed ITM 4 for us and, provided the boat from Lerwick made a successful crossing, we should already have the copies - so send for yours now (see subscription rates below).

Meanwhile, this page contains information about projects which arrived after the deadline for I T M 4. Remember, we need ideas and entries all the time for this page and to compile the first supplement to-the 1977 directory, so keep writing to us.

-

HAMLET TRUST held another disoussion weekend, to finalise plans for building their temporary workshop (a reuaed billet hut) and the flirt eeohouse of their hamlet, at Dartington on 28-30 January. They are a small group of vegetarian families and individuals workine towards building an earth, crafts, nts-based hamlet with a nonhierarchical structure. Their basic aims are for self-education, harmony and co-operation with each other, nature and the greater world. They believe that a large degree of self-sufficiency in food and energy is also a means of ridding themselves of centralised control systems and of not polluting their surroundings. People in the ha et can interact with those in'#t e greater world through the constant dialogue of skills arid knowledge exchange, and by surplus wholefoods and crafts exchange.

Education for afl is seen as a totally integrated day-to-day activity, not a sphere delegated to specialists. New participants md helpers with a building, craft ar gardening skin are welcome.

-The present plan comprises deven eco-houses of local materials with walled eardens, worksho~aand a comhunal :entre (&-cum-dinkg room, utchen, creche, small library, neditation room and laundry) e t in about25 acres of ~ ~ ~ ..

-leasehold - and for fruit and nut tree& bees, ~erbs,vegetables,graim, pulses :oats and hens. Jeff Gate. Hamlet Trust. l o h e X crOnt, ~ i ~ b & n , i. Devon (to1 Aahburton 52419). ~

'ress Collective

PAUPERS*

THE PRESS in u o r d began trading last November and has just registered vith ICOiu The collective who et up the Press do not see it as purely w venture, nor s a ' c o m m ~ e s ins the enae of simply'expressihg the

Contacts Wanted. . .

AN EX-COMPUTER programmer and an architectural technician have written to ITM saying that by the end of the summer they hope to embark on some form of long term cooperative/communal, living/ working type project. They are fairly vague about what form of pio'ect they would liketo set up/join, but because they particularly want to get involved in a project whsh is in close contact with the local comnuinity, they have been looking more towards the idea of a shoplcafe (in the style of Uhum of Oxford). They would consider "settling down just about anvwher&t h ~ u e ~ a r e drawn towards the NO^, especially West Yorks. They hope to have £3000-£40bv the autumn - and are now looking for people, a place, an existmg projecft to join, or opportunities for setting one u p .

Box MO, In The Making.

(Please lend stamped unaddleucd envelope for forwardine.)

Sdf Build Hamlet

~

Local groups have been invited to help by: looking out fofderelict land near towns, or underused marginal land in the country. and to investigate it$ ownership and. circumstances so that action can be taken for it to be used or resettled. There is a meeting to discuss this and relevant action at Lower Shaw Farm on May 13-15th. twine to find out local ulanning so that they can to know of countries or areas which allow small scale buildimin the countryside. * looking out for cheap laod. houses and derelict cottages either for sate or rent, so tha list could be nude for people wanting to live in the country in some way finding out how many people in their area would like to resettle in the country.

Kuril Resettlement Group, Lower Shaw Finn, SwindoWiItl.

/

views ot the community whatever they may be. Ttey believe the Press has a positive role to play in changing opinion and further ina certain caum. They see its work falling into two categories.

1. A positive commitment lo help, encourage and print anything that they believe furthers racial harmony, axual liberation, the undermining of represisive authority, self-management of the communityandaf the workplace, and anything which encourages people to do things for themselves, make their own decisions, and work together collectively. Thjj commitmentmay not always W e the form of printing. They want to teach people to printund motivate them to write and communicate their ideas. They have also just produced the first issue of an alternative Oxford newspaper cdkd City Rumbles.

2. The Press will have.to &int quite a lot of commercial material to remain financially advent,and ale.piepared to print

virtually anything so long as it is noto&ytly racist, sexist or an ='try to do the things in the first category as cheaply as possible, charge standardrates for things in the second category.

The people Who work for the Press are the oeoule who run it.

All people, and only those who spend time or effort doing work for the Press. over and above just comingto collective meetings, are entitled to take part to decision making, and the collective want as man? ueoole to take an active interistin the workings of the Press as possible.

FWpen' Prea Collective, 29b CuUe Street, Oxford OX1

Settling the land A RURAL RESETTLEMENT GROUP was set up after two meetings attended by a variety of organisations at Lowet Shaw Farm in November 1976 and

Organic Gardener CONTACTS IN SURREY are wanted by someone with skills in hydroponics and organic gardening. He writes: 'I'm reading up on fish fanning and am aim ing to build a model of a methane generator which incorporates an algae stage'.

Box JW.In The k k d fPteasc enclose a stamped anadd~ssed envelope for forwarding.)

Our Mistake .

.. .

In Undercurrents 19.,... the' .. entry 'Revolutionary Village' implied that the East Midland '" Housing Association was ureoaec" ---sing plans for this scheme. The a work, which is still at a research stage. is beine carried out bv a. separate orginisation, the h i i d ing and Social Housing Founda- , tion. which is a registered chai-itvt ITM wishes to apdogise for a n y misunderstanding or inconvenfence this may have -4- - ,

naercurrents L 1

which Is a reversal of the tren

lement schemes where

~merousor accurate en

kiy'sqiginal hypothesis

tion. I n fact, as this rather rambling book shows, he is perhaps too much the other way, too willing to follow up the scents, true and false, that hang around like morning mist and obscure what seemed originally a straightforward empirical question: do ancient sites line up or do they

D.C. 20418, USA.

lot? No matter, the trick is t o get h e rationalists and mystics t o work

wether, albeit warily no doubt,

Imisreadthis book. It reawoke within me a juvenile fascination with the wonders and diversityof nature.

Captivated by m~atees~capybaras, nutria and 'silver dollars*, I was soon absorbed in reading of the multitude of aquatic plants and-animals: some foreign, somsfriendt~,and some fabulous- The authors' enthusiasm is indeed in danger of overpowering their scientific ration-

America ap traditional V i e t n a m ponds to treatand use animal wastes.

The world-wide look at how fish, swans, waterplants, etc have bmj, and are being used is meant to open a few eyes, and hopefully itwill. Many of the problems of using water-weeds * as fodder, food, fertilisers, and in tarn ing generally, result from isolating a singlespecies from the local eco;systemand trying t o fit it into afing sysw imported from -rhe are susceptible to this, a

?:

is 'Multidisciplinqry

Observation of 'leolithic Anglesey') will draw on the arious talents of individuals from roth sides of the argument; we hope

>ageslisting articles. Though these lists ire complete up to mid-1974 it is a >itythat they omit the flood of books ' ind articles that have appeared since hen: thus our Land's End study i s nentioned in the text but no details re given and John Michell's book The ?IdStones of Land's End, on which it lepends, is not listed. This i s sloppiness m the part of Abacus. It would have . ost little enough t o have had the ists updated; their incompleteness nakes the book seem out of date, which or the most part it is not.

All this will take timeand energy nd we would be pleased to hear from nyone who would like to help, particuirly with the fieldwork. Professional ceptics and "well, man, Icouldn't luite get it together, man" freaks need ot apply. Seek and ye shall find. What etter place to start looking than inglesey, last stronghold of the Druids? i s William B l a b wrote: "AIL things agin and end in Albion'

kuM, Rwky sbsi'e".-

waterways. Theproblems areeloquentlystatedinaseriesof photographs from around fhe world.

If only other bookcompilers would take note of the drama achieved b y subtle understatement: no exclamation marks,

Ă&#x192; Ë&#x2020;

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1 y e a njti.cr.pl~n (4 n i u d 1 5 00)

and the owners of. capital will become

than competition .

flections o f a ~ d~m t by nmy @eid, 1976 - Souvenir Press, 6pp, £1.7

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intense in the futfwe. %have to haw a model of the forces withiri society, an ideology, if we are not t o relapse back into the squalour of the 3 9th

.."

./'.

Century .

Jimmy Reid (interrupting): "Ideology without compassion i s sterile. We must re-orientate society t o give creative expression to our love of life. We musfcontinuously strive to rebuild society and every step in 1hfà direction must be encouraged. We must make every effort to show people that most of our social problems can be solved by co-operative effort, that this is the way t o the good life, that we must realise the good life in our selves. "

Liberal voice from front stalls:

lice off,right wing: . fhat'~~Wong with you, jimmy Reid, you3 nutter or something? Do you illy Mieve that human nature i s entiay good, that we can p k e the Aal goad above our own self interest? to't thew teach voir inschool that man sockties exist and are made NOU**Y ruthless competition, that it you should never trust your ,ghboar? we are beyondredemption..u m y ~ e i d ,entering on left:

donref iadMdiak to <te what they like with fteir skidisand rooney. We , must gim9w poor and under-privitee ed the choice of improving their l o t or staving . - as they are".

The Dukes Box (expansively); ,,, am comfortable. represnt leiwre . pointing to ^\\cry) and easen "Those people up there hate their work, look to me as the symbol of d comfort I am a totem, of their aspirations. They tion,divided by the fear

< ...

.

Id .son is a small flame, asmati flower it-mugbe allowed, if we are to ;ome truly human, to grow and issomlike the red flame of a rose. pitalim has institutionalised greed 1self$fmeisand it is plain to see it it doesn't work t o produce a 3py life.We must change society j soc& relationships, we must m  meqw of production more &moitic, ~ J I M Swork ~ to make coeration-asmerespected ethic

o&liber&lfriend. You

be more proof of this, jimmy -you m i n o t even j ~electedan t official in your union. The' only way that those people there" f. . pointing t o gallery) "will when this theatre starts t o and they are forced t o cofor survival".

.

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.

Voice off-$ teft wing: "Wealth in this country is in dedine.

The struggle beemem working people

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Voice from the gallery: ' "It's all right for you, Jimmy Reid, now that you've made a name for yourself.

This book is &collection of J immy Reid's speeches and articles written over fhe bet 10 yews. They are written passionately and-5iroply. jimmy Reid" is most famousfor'his efforts t o halt the closureof shipyards of the Uppe Clyde and his " e are not rats" speech at Glasgow University. He believes that socialism is only possible when the majority o f people want it and he would agree with Gandhi that socialism begins when you have persuadedeither yourself or another that socialism is the best way. Socialism must be democratic.

Will those in power withvested interests-staixiby quietly and see their wealth and power redistributed, J i m y ?

You must be a nutter if you believe that Jimmy Reid comes from a fine socialist tradition that would wade through shit torescue the vessel of hum; ity. This tradition $If receive a severe bruisinaas it attenwts toreconcile the &xnpi&* weal6 of British workers - WithHwpoveity ofprimary producers inthe Third World (do you drink tea, . )tewÈ$i?) The Leaders of the Labour Movement, in our post-Imperial dotage, should riad this book. Socialism is dead simple, whackers.

Simon Wai

about anyonewho'suneasy about genocide; it succeeds in contemplating Armageddon without actually getting controversial about anything;the problem of bulging nuclear stockpiles

atom-splitting.

But in spite of its political silliness Overkill i s larded with interesting snippets of conversation from the mighty, and's few mqre wouldn't have hurt. I was particularly moved by the hchev ("We're satisfied ish off the United

not a bloodthirsty people") and Nixon ("I can go into my office and pick up the telephone and in twenty-five

.

...

.

^.

Gold standard -

Neville Spearman 175pp. £4.50 There have always been two interpretations o f Alchemy: firstly as a purely metaphysical road to enlightenment (this was Jung's impression) and secondly as a purely physical methodof producing low-energy transmutations of elements.

As is usual in such matters, Tt-now seems likely that both these interpretations are equally valid:Alchemy has both an inner and an outer manifestation.

Lapidus would have us believe initially that alchemy is indeed a series o f moderately ordinary chemical reactions: but his reluctance to give us any recipes for transmutation indicates that he, like most writers o f alchemical treatises, i s a master of obscurantism. This sort o f deliberate confusion i s a standard ploy,

good evidence. There are also a fair number of relics in the musedms o f Europe that lay claim t o having been produced alchemically. Some o f these, like the medallion which is half gold and half silver, must surely be canable of scientific testing.

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Big game hunting

I

44

on - the book is genuinely worth it In general, Lonrho is a disappointment, but it's also the embodiment of a lot of effort and for the Africa specialist i s literally essential. For the rest of the race, a good read in parts.

Lonrho, Portrait of a Multinational;

Susan Cronje, Margaret Ling, and Gillian Cronje; Penguin pb £1.50 '2% M i a n Friedmann Books hbY6.95. ' % :

+

<--

How Europe UnderdevelopedAfrica

Walter Rodney, Bogle L'Ouverture :Publications LtdITanzania Publishing : House £1.20 Walter Rodney's How Europe UnderdevelopedAfrica is a classic, in Although what set out as the grand the manner I feel Lonrho will never & Undercurrents Africa review has now It has just been reissued, unaltered (nc come down to a took at just two books, that there's any need) from the first they ar% both available and Important, .

1972 edition. Rodney is a thorough andabout as different as two books and socialist African historian. He trgc on somewhat related topics could be. the relations between Africa and its The Cronjes and Ling have turned out exploiters in detail, after detailsof a painstaking history, almost bereft of African society before Europeansand analysis, of Lonrho since its origins the exploitative money relations that in the early sixties as a sleepy Rhodesthey brought. The book is published ian ranching and mining outfit Rodney in a no-messing cheap paperback, to has produced an equally painstaking guarantee availability especially ir but analytical and politically located Africa, in a manner which other outline of the exploitation of Africa publishers could usefully emulate. sirfce the Middle Ages, up to the end o f colonialism.

Two complaints; in a book which ii a prime reference source, the lack of Lonrho is a history. It spends virtualan index is a tremendous false e m &airitsspace on a blow 6y blow, omy, making it nearly useless for its* prime purpose. Likewise, it's very -*frustrating to have no references, as Rodney constantly refers t o all sorts of interestingstudies by different -authors which there's no way o f b ~ &hak the musty air of the fifing following up. The second pointis Satinet, reinforced by 802 references -. less important to a whole range of political and But How Europe Underdeveiopeit f i i t l c i a l sources. But the book is often Africa i s a good, politically sound, boring, simplyJwcause it's a document useful book, which can be used for , that mtght have been put together as all sorts of public and private educaa preliminary working paper for a tion among blacks and whites, student group working towards a potitical and human beings, and anyone eke analysis of Lonrho. We know that who needs to know about the far Rhodesian sanctions, material and from accidental, and far from unrdafinancial, are broken; we can read about ted, history of Europe's development it in the Sunday Times, even; and there and Africa's underdevelopment. are limits to the length at which it is Would it be too much for someone o f interest t o read details oC just how to setout on an update of the same it's done. standard? Ifear so.

The same goes for Lonrfio's relations If you can't get the Rodney book, with its workers in Afrfca-md goeseven. by the way, send the price, '£1.20 .more for the details of Lonrho's interestplus 20p p&p to Bogle L'Ouvertwing but hardly gripping diversification Publications Ltd at 5ii Chignell Place intoblack Africa. On the other hand, in London W13 OTI. or. in Africa. the chapters which are about genuinely enquire of the ~ i k a i i ~ublish'in~ a ' interesting parts of the story'- the House at PO Box 2138, Dar EsBoardroom strugglss, the OAU oil If you want to send money, Tanzania consultancy which Lonrho were grantShillings Were 14.315 t o the ed despite &eir lackof oil knowledge 'andt&efr Rhot&-siy connections, the strategic grand plans for Africa andso P :

,

presumably intended to make the reader think hard about the philosophical implications of alchemy. It [nay br may not succeed: sometimes Lapidus' tautological tortuousity does make me think hard - but at other times he just gets me annoyed. Perhaps it would do me good to learn sufficient patience to tackle a standard work on alchemy, but Idon't have it y e t But as alchemical tracts go, this is a 'good example. It collects, as well as some of the author's own thoughts, a number of central works on the subject from several periods in which alchemy has been important And important it was.

One thing it wasn't was bad chemistry.

Workers like Kevran have demonstrated the practicality o f low-energy transmutations in a manner which only the most hardened pseudo-scientist can. pretend to refute. And in earlier times there were laws against passing or making 'alchemical gold', and Ithink the wheels o f administration ground sufficiently carefully for the legislatures m a n y countries, East and West, to ve decided that alchemy nibs-possjble.

I am quite sure they would have requirec

3rcurrents

Lapidus' book i s a good introduction to the subject of what one might call "classical low-energy transmutations", but to undertake such a study i s almost a life's work. As it requires searching through a thousand dusty manuscripts, each one trying to confuse the reader in yet more profound ways, I think I'd rather give it a miss. In Pursuit of Gold is at least 1,000 times better than the average medieayal text, so it would be a good start I can say no fairer than that Richard Elen

n,

In Pursuit of Gold, Alchemy Today In Theory and Practice, by Lapidus.

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I hope I shall not seem unfair or too abrupt. But Capra's study of history and of historiography seems confined

e.Tao of Physics Fritjof Capra

ntana 352pp. Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ0.95 Fritjof Capra i s a research stude theoretical high-energy physics. is deeply fascinated by Eastern tstteism.

I n the book, Capra sets out to show pt he claims to be the correspo heen modern theories o f physics Et the views expressed in Eastern igious philosophies.

He gives & fairly comprehensive munt-of the build-up of Western entific thought from its roots in cient Greek through the Ne issical' physics to the twentiet Sury era of quantum theory a ativity. I n parallel (at times it's p a i r i n g two booksat once), he scribes the relevant aspects of Aihism, Hinduism, Taoism an* - ,, n.

Jtiroughout the work comparisons : made between the mechanistic d tile mystical in order to develop an ttogytetween the scientific search, 'afundamental unity and the "ones" of Eastern-philosophy.

The feook need not deter the nontoyst it%spite o f the d i i c u l t wepts involved,Jt is well-presented avery readable manner. To illus- te the theme, a quote from Niels br:"For a parallel to the lesson o f mic theory. (we must turn) those kinds of epistomologicai >b1emswith which already thinkers s. the Duddha and Lao Tzu have mconfronted, when trying to ,monk ow position as spectators 1actors in the great drama of stence.".

Whether the reader finds the boo

.-- .-.----<,",2 - ,.* - - -

to that ofphysics and religion.

Buddhism, for instance - and he agre

/

with it - teaches (pp.101-102 and elsewhereb~hatsuffering exists because "we divide theperceived world into individual and separate things-and so on, and this false consciousness is the illusion called maya. But cheer up, wretched of the earth in your millions everywhere, who imagine your need is for food and shelter or the end of fear and grinding toil, or you who feel some discomfort in the torture or lran or chile! cham&rs of ~~~~i~ What you need, you clots, is "the Eightfold Path of self-development which leads t o the state of Buddhahood" Nfrvana. Mutatis mutandis, Taoism says much Capra and his sages would probably retort that the oppressors and their hirelings - and not least in the lands of the sages - have tt~emseivesthroughout history been in equal need of the Way of Enlightenment and the death of their egos; hence their behaviour (and their "karmas" will cop it in reincarnation). But this won't do.

Historians, or at least modern ones, present a more humdrum explanation - unless, of course, their account is itself illusory.

That account may be labelled "the materialist conception of histor But several things must be clari led.

(11 That was Marx's and he never called it "historical materialism" nof "dialectical materialism" as did Engek.

J".

/

severe compression. Although Marx and Engels no doubt gave great stimulus to economic historical research, one could cite many scholars, in many ways not Marxist; who would probably : agreeat least with the firsfcof t h e ? : =-+- - -- -*'.Sfl-*- , following (1) Civilisation'was a-respod t o :%* scarcity and inseC@ity in parts of the * world.

(2) Its multiform cruelties are not innate in humanity (but its multiform beautiesore).

(3) The seminal scarcity naturally produced scarcity value, perpetuated even when no longer materially neces-

--

-

-.

-

SrY.

From (1) came class dominion, war, want, oppression, and competition for status and livelihood between rulers and between rulers and ruled. All this compelled greed wherever the means existed. But (and as Marx insisted) subjective greed is irrelevant, however strong it be as a secondary effect.

Believing this correct, I cannot but be irritated by those of Capra's sages who attribute historical suffering to from its material greed in abstrac necessity. 1 am a are that theforegoing skeletal aetiology could evoke from some quarters the pry of "Reductionism!" So far as Capra and his sages are concerned, Ireply "Same to you!"

Further, can it be denied that "Enlightenment" is attainable only by an elite? No matter how ascetic the seeker or his guru, they are not kept alive by manna from Heaven or the Ultimate. And what earthly chance or leisure to pursue Enlightenment have the myriad harrassed toilers upon whose production Enlightenment for the few depends? Perhaps we a#commit suicide, which would certainly end our suffering and leave no wombs for cruel reincarnations.

Now there are, t o be sure, quite a few Western scientists who may agree not only with Capra's account of modern physics but also with the "materialist" account of history I have tried to summarise, for those accounts are not contradictory. But Capra shows no signs even of awareness of that second account's existence, which is

T

ysticism are indeed most striking" revealed by Capra. I will also accept, least for present purposes, that rious Eastern mystics do experience inion with Reality that is verbally ;ommunicable (though I am doubtful out its being "ultimate").

Nevertheless, 1 venture to say that pra, operating, as he must, in conptual language, an&thouglrbrilliantly slligibte (waiving certain puzzles &h may be just my stupidity), is tanother example of that fragmented &/&mess which capitalism and ail

A";

to the Poor of the Earth. The new emphasis among concerned parties on rural development makes this scenario most likely to happen. The British ODM gets a pat on the back for initiatinga new aid programme which will world has reach-

problems o f the poor of the earth is

%

yet pull out all the stops.

agriculture or consumption. Globally there is enough food produced every year t o meefrthe needs of the whole population, yttt tJwpeor.wns&ntly Be-hnnery and without social and &icd change aretikely to continue t o do so.

Susan George never loses sight of her main theme which i s developed in stages, starting with more general analysis and building up into a critical examination of the way in which the UN supports established interests.

Intwmediate chapters deal with the population myth, the Green Revolution and ruling elites i n developing countries, all o f them setting out the arguments in fairly simple but powerful terms. The detailed description of the part played by the UN and the World Bank, perhaps the most original part of the book, is interesting but dry and will appeal t o a more limited readership.

At the end conies a section a n political action, which can be sumrnarised as "study the rich and powerfulinot the poor and powerless".

The book is aimed at people i n wellfed countries who have been used to thinking o f hunger as the product of nameless, immutable forces: reading it should help to change W r minds.

The style will not appeal fa'everyone and the contents aren't faultless; a lot of generalisations are made, agronomic andecological considerati&s&e rather neglected and the chemical companies t book is areletoff the h o o k ~ b uthe a tremendous advance on i t s politically , castrated predecessors. With luck, thepublishers will read it again, the present . cover depicts "the other half' as a bald Indian i n the lotus position with : an enormous begging bowl, waiting for

,

eorge, 349 pp, Pelican, 1976,

climate. The self-interested role o f

to-grow their own food is greatly inished by the lack of land reform, hieh interest rates. excessive concentraion on cash crops, giant agribusiness nvestments, dominant urban elites and Fnreitm. cnntrd --..-.-. of - . world ..- ..- .markets. .-...- -. cnfrontedby &range of entrenched nterests, they have little control over

I

through the overthrow of the p r Ă&#x192; . *. ous southern slaveholder. and u l t i n a l

of we Nortnern oourgeoisie, ma free flow of capitalist expansion

...---

marip nnuihle

Novack goes on

discuss a third

r~ui-tlntinn with ~ l i a n r fnn t the nrok .-.-.--.-.. ...-. r.-..-.-T.---

iatjustas the Native American was forced to step aside, so too wilt the present institutions o f private proper and free enternrise he unrooted so th

ition ggowits whfle the Rockefellers Melmcontinue to indulge. The esse* of the Emancipation ;lama8oir wiH n o t exist until this ilutioft&curs, says Novack. Parallels

mov of the Suffragette, demands confenà for a better life and w u r e future.

Novack makes a valid final point here.

For only when the oppressed groups and working: class unite to take power,

arm

ungk believes that human d be made into something --

the greenhouse effect toAcoaJgas' in the atmosphere, but the original .text seems to have been little more than a laundry list of jungk's powerful and influential friends. Another drawback is that the English version b three years behind the German original, making even the contact addresses o f little use in .the rapidly

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and readable book would have resulted; but in the process of taking part m "coUoquies and seminars in places as far apart as California and Moscow,

Going back

^AÈJÇ

Learnorganic

farmingand gardening in your weekends and holidays while working on farms and small-holdingi

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and Technology Apply n&

to start h September 1977

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This thas and threequarter year course offers you' the opportunity to study the natural and social

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