UC60 Summer 1983 by Christopher Squire

Sigmund Kvaloy from Norway Petra Kelly from

Germany

Three Great Lecturers all at

Dimensionsof Change 22nd October, 1983

- 11.00 a.m. -6.00

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BLUEPRINT FOR SURVIVAL? [Â¥HECOLOGY PARTY

&erehas never been a better time to get Involved In green politics.

* a ~ r o w ~ n genuinely g, ~ntflfnattofnltnovemant, with exciting new links and Btworits being forged between the new partiesapringfng up across the world

'a an Increasingly credible movement them are Greens in the European Par lament German, Belgian and Dutch PwfCmeptm Ã§nIn Sum wa Loca. Adthor ties ght across Europe

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the UK, we I n the Ecology Party are uearinu UD for the General Election We've lined a lot of experlenceiince the last tim<round-experience In potlcy-mahmg. in 'ganlsatlon and In elections themselves Now. with twice the number of cand dates Â¥u five times the membership SUDDOH. as in 1979. we are QOIW to ensure that more mpie than ever before in this country become aware that the$;s an alternative to 1pollt~csof re-Industrialisation, materialism and alienation that is on offer from the her parties

b nnwdfour volwto

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'HE ECOL BEACE-Politics for One World .IBERATION-POI~~~CSas if People Mattered iURVIVAL-Politics for Life ibscnptlons Standard Â£ OS Joint) Students, claimants, OAPs inatlons to our General Election Fund are

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wues payable to 'Ecology Party' please e a e n d your subscription ordonation or write for more information to SLOW PARTY OFFICE, ww ~lapham'Rud.London S W OJQ. ~ 01 735 I W ~

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Many groups have used PAC's 'Â£1 A WEEK ON ARMS' billboard poster. Now for the campaign against Cruise we have a new poster, to remind people that Cruise missiles are a real threat to us all Along with the poster are a 'SAVE GB' car sticker and lots of 'STOP CRUISE' badges. For details send a stamoed and addressed e n d o m to:

Chit Church PEACE ADVERTISINGCAMPAIGN (Cl), PO Box 24 O W . OX1 3JZ [or telephone OXFORD (0865) 2493441.

setters.

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:ddies. . . Slews R o u n d UP

3rave Green World

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'eter Culshaw visits t h e Green iwingometer

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3REEN GATHERINGS 8

A Cynics A-Z Guide t o Sizmell . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 NORLD CONSERVATION STRATEGY the cons and pros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 Beast News

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John May's animal c o l u m n

Gory Tales.

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A n everyday story o f men, w o m e n a n d gorillas.

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Briefing.

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Events, contacts a n d a c t i o n f o r t h e summer.

Espionage conspiracy expose by John Le Stalin .31

Undercurrents was brought t o y o u b y : Pat Sinclair, Peter Culshaw, Lowana Veal, Julian, A n t o n i a Miiien, E d Fenton, J o h n Dawe, Inanna, J o h n May, Matthew Hale.

Welcome t o the Undercurrents fun-packed summer special. The issue is mainly concerned with two differentapproaches t o the ecological crisis - the Green Gatherings and the World Conservation Strategy. The WCS is a blueprint sponsored mainly by the World Wildlife Fund whereas the Green Gatherings are an attempt t o create a grassroots movement for change, where you on't have t o be an expert t o make a contribution. W e e produced a cheaper issue than normal, without our usual non-ecological glossy cover, partly t o save on the print bill, and partly t o enable us t o reach as many people as possible at the Gatherings and festivals this summer. The summer is always a bad time for the magazine financially, and the closure of many of our usual outlets has h i t us. In the past, when the magazine has been financially skating on thin ice, we've been fortunate t o receive some donations and more subscriptions from our readers and we hope this great tradition will continue. So keep inflation down and recycle your cash now. We're introducina " a subscriotion offer - if vou subscib now, you receive three back issues absolutely free, g no change. The other good news i s that a major newsagent di tributor hasexpressed an interest in selling Undercur which opens up all kinds of possibilities for us. We're intending t o change the look and feel of the magazine oerhaos when vou write in voucould mention what chanqe you'd like to see. And if you've got some time on your hands, whether as a member of the UB40 three million or not, get in touch if you'd like to help with the production or administration of the magazine. This was not a party

COPYRIGHT: T h e contents o f Undercurrents are copyright: permission t o reprint is freely given t o non-profit groups w h o apply I n writing, and s o l d t o everyone else. TYPESETTING: Bread ' n Roses ( T U ) , 3 0 Camden Rd, L o n d o n N w ~ (01-485 4432).

AH material f o r t D I S T R I B U T I O N : W i t h i n the-rltish isles b y w i t h us b y August 5th. B u t get i n t o u c h if y o u have last m i n u t e material/advertising F u l l t i m e Distribution, Building K , A l b i o n after t h e n a n d we'll t r y t o create some Yard, l 7 a Baife St, L o n d o n N 1 (01-837 14601. except L o n d o n newsagents, supplied space. . b y M o o r e Harness (01-922 415). I n t h e US b y Carrier Pigeon, R o o m 309, 7 5 Kneeland ACCESS: :Sfc:,. St, Boston, Mass0211. O u r US mailing agents are Expediters o f the Printed Word. 5 2 7 We meet every Wednesday a t m. at our o f f i c e except t h e Wednesday immediate Madison Avenue, New Vork, N Y 10022. l y post-production, a n d w e are always o n t h e l o o k o u t f o r volunteers t o help w i t h n+e&dasist-he-maa~z-ine. a n d administration. We are usually t o be f o u n d at about 10.OOp.m. o n Wednesdays a t t h e C r o w n A D V E R T I S I N G : w e d o n o t accept advertTavern i n Clerkenwell Green. , isements that are sexist o r racist. When UNDERCURRENTS is a company register. ed under the law o f England (no.1 1 4 5 454) replying t o ads piease m e n t i o n t h a t y o u and limited b y guarantee. ISSN 0 1 0 6 2392. saw t h e m i n Undercurrents. F o r m o r e T W E L T H G R E A T Y E A R o f Issue. i n f o r m a t i o n w r i t e t o r i n g 01-253 7303.

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Unfortunately the hyperactive child is not a myth, as suggested by the title of the book reviewed in April (UC 59). 'The Myth of the Hyperactive Child'). The child who sleeps only three or four hours a night, and the rest of the time is in constant motion, is unable t o sit through a meal, a TV programme, or a class lesson, who is unable t o concentrate long enough t o play games with his peers, and who is compulsively aggressive and unhappy needs some help, as d o his desperate parents. The Hyperactive Children's Support Group has had letters from 50,000 desperate parents, who have only been offered drug therapy by the medical profession. The Group is strongly against the use of drugs, and follows an alternative method of following a special diet, which is very successful. For further details write t o Sally Bunday, The Hyperactive Children's Support Group, Angmering, West Sussex. Janet Ash

begin t o take on responsibility for their own defence plans and foreign affairs by twinning with a Nuclear Free Zone in Russia and pleading for both zones t o be de-targeted' by NATO and the Warsaw Pact. People in Ashland, Oregon, (population 15,000) read my letter and I have now heard that a group of five succeeded in collecting 1,150 signatures t o get their proposal in the ballot. After an intensive campaign Ashland citizens voted (Nov.'82) t o become a Nuclear Free Zone by a 53 t o 4 3 percent margin, thus becoming the West Coast's first, and the nation's largest, legally established Nuclear Free Zone. It is a stronger symbollic gesture than the UK equivalents because it was established by popular vote in a referendum. It is being strengthened further by trying t o establish contact with a similar Eastern bloc community. They have published a booklet t o encourage others, entitled 'How t o make your community a Nuclear Free Zone' (5 dollars including surface mail from Peace House, PO Box 524, Ashland, Oregon 97520, USA. Nicholas Albery

I reckon that Paul Gravett of the Animal Liberation Front has totally misrepresented Ms. C. Osbond's letter in UC58. She was not condoning violence done t o animals, but criticized the tactics of the ALF. Pulling stunts t o raise public awareless is fine by me, but the4 systematic emotional harrassnent of researchers and their amilies described in the original article (UC57) is a partcularly unpleasant form of ~iolence. If there is one thing we .hould all have learned by low, it is that you can't stop violence with more violence. However despicable the I have an example of what small core group of half 2 animal experimenters may be, dozen people can achieve we have no right t o treat which may inspire your rea them like animals. Incidentally, the same ders t o similar efforts. In November 1981, as part could be said for Daily Mail of my work promoting the readers, Mr. Gravett. Can you Fourth World Assembly, I really afford t o he so smug" had a letter printed in the Brian Darnaa; Californian journal, Co-Evolu. tion Quarterly, suggesting that American communities might like t o copy the U.K.'s example of creating Nucleal Free Zones. They might also

We feel grateful for the support offered by both Leonie Caldicott's letter in the previous issue and Ramona Reilly's letter and would like t o clear the air of any implications of division and disunity within the Women for Life on Earth network. Though Women and Life on Earth and Women for Life on Earth may have begun in different places and with different expressions, our history is a shared one, and we regard what we have been doing as complimentary and of equal value. Hence the reason for choosing t o work together under the one name almost a year ago. As a matter of fact, the Welsh women did know of Women and Life o n Earth's existence before the Cardiff t o Greenham march, but we had all agreed that as what we were all on about was so much of the same thing that

'a little 'and' or a 'for' didn't matter really. Also, the article about Women for Life o n Earth in UC 58 did not say that it was the Women and Life o n Earth women meeting in each other's sittingrooms that spurred the Cardiff t o Greenham march. What it did say was that the same feelings. about militarism and the urge t o d o something positive and constructive about it that motivated WALOE women t o meet together were don't give a damn about credit. What we love about working within the Womens Peace Movement is that we avoid having the leaders and personalities that the media is seeking. What is important is the urgency of the issues a t hand. Let's stop wasting energy over who's who and get on with it. Stephanie Leland and Ann Pettitt, o m e n for Life o n Earth

the Greenham base. Ironically as we gc to press, and non-violent training proceeds for peace campers at anothel USAF base - Upper Heyford, Oxford shire - over in Arizona the antithetica' 'finishing school' of the USAF is packing r off its pupils, graduates in combat, tc The British Society for Social Respon- their posts at Greenham Common. . . sibility in Science has been siphoning environmental ethics from Shell in the Meanwhile minutes of a Cabinei struggle to relieve petrol of lead. A 1980 issue of Shell - brief, staff paper to Committee advise on the wisdom ol the oil company, says "Lead is a toxic 'going nuclear' as protection against tht element and should not be dispersed industrial action of miners and transpori in the environment". Now, BSSRS workers. David Ross recently took t h ~ wonders, is the government phasing out SE minutes t o the Sizewell Inquiry but lead or phasing out this truism? The found the CEGB reluctant to dwell on government were unusually quick to government thinking. This could be a defuse public opinion and preclude rare ideological split between the debate following the Royal Commission respective powe,?. Ross, however, thinks of Pollution's report on Lead in the its something to do with the fact that Environment, yet no date has been the disseminators of the minutes, the fixed for the introduction of lead free Department of Energy, are vulnerable to petrol. Meanwhile the hazard remains prosecution under Section 2 of the of Tetra Ethyl lead transport (the RC Official Secrets Act. did not recommend halting lead alkyi exports and 80% of Associated Octel's Memories of the Windscale Inquiry are products are sent overseas). And still there is no legislation to prohibit the flooding back to Cumbrians and conburning of sump oil, or to protect cerned alike. British Nuclear Fuels are stomachs from lead weighting. John now gearing up to start work on 'the first Bradbrook of BSSRS has a solution in phase' of Thorp, the spent nuclear fuel rehand. He is advising Michael Heseltine processing plant, at Windscale (Sellafield). that work might be generated in the Completion of the storage facilities production of safe octane improvers, employment for 50 operational staff such as methyl tertiary butyl ether. is due 1987. As Dave Elliott of NATTA Work, say, that could fall to employees points out Friends of the Earth's original case, promoting storage rather than freed from the cancelled Trident project. reprocessing, has been, temporarily at least, vindicated. Reprocessing however, Last month six women from the he adds, is scheduled for 1990. Capenhurst peace camp were arrested for blockading the uranium enrichment plant there, which is importing uranium Across the channel Les Amies de la horn the Rio Tinto Zinc's Rossing mine Terre held their first International in (South Africa occupied) Namibia. It Conference on Ecology and Unemploy is violating international law by dealing ment on April 23rd and 24th in Paris with RTZ, and though Britain's contract Tammy, our Eurocurrent correspondent ends in 1984, BNFL will continue to reports spirited speeches from Richard use Namibian stockpiles in the UK for Kazis, Washington - 'fighting job black foreign customers. On the same site mail, forging a political movement fox BNFL's new Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ10 million enrichment employment' and H Y Breht pushing plant will likely fuel those Trident 'low Netherlands energy'. But the promised 'tables rondes' threw her: the submarines. only ronde bit being the circumlocution of speakers and organisers who avoided Similar t o the long standing campaign audience questions by making off with igainst RTZ are CND's plans t o take the microphones . . . (Contact Les Amies industrial action (by buying shares and at 72, rue Chateau d'eau, 75010 Paris. slacking products) against Tarmac, ~uildersof the Greenham missile silos, Silencing minors is of course another md the West German MAN-VW, makers if the launch vehicles. Initial plans to matter. Opium is rather passe. Fresh on :oad block the launchers look doomed, ;he market though is the Mercury Maze f the transfer of these, like the US Loncraine Broxton and Partners). It's a training equipment', is airlifted in to alastic cube and contains a blob of

mercury and could do the trick. Only one milligram of mercury evaporated into approximately twenty cubic metres of air (say in a child's bedroom, keep the windows shut) would reach the industrial safety limits set by the Health and Safety Executive says Brian Price, of FOE. Mercury vapour is extremely poisonous and this toy contains 3.68 'grammes. t.Iercury on a far vaster scale is contaminating the Saldana River in Columbia, South America. The deposits are caused by a dredging operation on the river ip pursuit of gold (along with other sediments) which is threatening the river basin ecology. Any support to halt the dredging will be welcomed from Grupo Ecologico de la Universidad del Tolima, Apartado 1013, Ibague, Columbia. scouting about the Caribbean the People's News Service has come up with more on the AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) story. Any Lancet reader knows, of course, that, according to the Harvard School of Public Health, AIDS was first discovered in Haiti; it is a modified strain of African Swine Fever, virus, and is spread in a similar way through ulcers; that AFSV hit Cuba in 1971 and half a million pigs had t o be slaughtered; and that, possibly carried by infected meat, ASFV occurred throughout the Caribbean. Carrying blame with the refugees and pork however are Cuban right wing exiles who, says PNS, are visited by American gays. Thus surmises PNS ASFV and CIA = AIDS in transit. . . maybe. . . Once upon a time Izu islanders made albatrosses into doormats. The albatrosses shouldered this quite well, until one day a volcanic eruption laid inestimable numbers of them flat. The survivors retreated to their sole home, Torishima Island, to scratch a Dodo's living on the path to ruin. They had housing problems; stormtriggered landslides swamped their pads. But eventually their plight was recognised. The Japanese Environmental Agency planted erosion-resistant eulalia grass. And this season the response is a 25% increase in eggs. In the deal, worth Y7.7 million, the albatrosses were also built fifty metre runways because they need to run ten metres before lift off. Pat Sinclair

Journatism is one of the devices whereby industrial autocracy keeps its control over political democracy; it Is thekiayby-day between-eleetiom propassnda, +wherebythe ironA of the people are kept in a state of acquies~enbe,so that when the crisis of an election comes, the9 go to the polk and cast their ballots for either of ihg two candidates of their exploiters. Not hyperbolically and contemptoously, but litemily and with scientific precision, we define Journalism as the business and pmctice ofpresenting the news of the day in the interest of economic privilege. Upton Smclair, Brass Check, 1920. It's not a usual sight to see 10,000 people actually paying up to a fiver for a political meeting, but at the 'Green Rallies' in London, Leeds and Bristol last month, they were turning them away at the doors. The Rallies were organized by Friends of The Earth and CLEAR, the lead tree ail group, with newly elected Des ^ilsoti at the helm. This was seen by many as the most pubBc manifestation yet of the 'green movement', but the younger, more anarchic wing of the Greens stayed away discouraged by the price, the old-wave format of a panel of eco-stars (no feedback allowed). or bv the fact that. bv the time t h e allyr reached ~ e e d s , t h elineup was all men. (Just a coincidence said FOE). There was also some suspicion that FOE were trying tp adopt an image of spurious radicalism borrowed &om Die Grunen, whose recent success has brought Green politics to the nation's 'breakfast table' reading (or even viewlag) if not their hearts. To be fair to FOE, y do seem to be shaking off their im e of a rather genteel organization mainly concerned with returnable bottles. Besides the expected eco-doomwatching and nuclear paranoia, government secrecy, multinational corporate abuses, and employlent strategies all came under fire.

Wilson, Regina Leslie/.

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Graham arle kicked off the Rally with news from Sizewell - the CEGB have finally admitted that nukes are more expensive than coal. The case of the antiaizewell lobby is slowly chipp ing away at the granite face of nukespeak. Joan Ruddock welcomed the links between environmental and peace groups, said 'From now on the Tones will have to accuse CND of being a Green plot as well as a Red plot', and even if we 90 e v e what she called 'the obscene nuclear oneupmanship of

Reagan and Andropov', we're still in.. trouble. Most of the audience had a vague idea of the general picture, but David 'Botanic Man' Bellamy spelt it out. Just back from a spell in gaol in Tasmania for protesting against the dam (see UC 57) looking himself like an endangered marsupial - Bellamy pointed out that a species was disappearing every day, 150 acres of forest wiped out a minute, a quarter of the world's farm land already turned into desert, ; there was increasing food and w$er

pressure groups are to meet in June to start the ball rolling. Ralph Nader, an anti-corporatist vigilante from the US, agreeing with Wison, said 'Sunlight is Government Bureaucracy's best disinfectant'. He orchestrates a band of citizen's action groups nicknamed 'Nader's Raider's' from a bedsit in Washington. Such a pain in the neck has he proved for the multi-nationals that Exxon (turnover bigger than the entire GNP of Poland) has had private detectives trailing him. Regina Leshel was a last minute sub from Die Grunen for Petra Kelly. She described the factions within the German Greens, her moment of conversion when she 'threw out the TV and washing machine*. She spoke of the number of times Die Grunen had been written off as a lost cause before breaking through. Her appraisal of Kelly was faintly scary 'she's like a saint'. Kelly was in hospital recovering from exhaustion after the German elections. For a movement that attacks workaholism she is not a good advert. Nevertheless, she did manage to fly over to help launch the Ecology Party's manifesto on May 25th. Still not well and on a cocktail of drugs, Kelly is a powerful speaker, and seemingly in good spirits, and her endorsem-mt of the Ecos can only help them - the Ecos need all the help they can get. At the Rally, Wilson had introduced an acid note by saying that a Green party in this country, because of the electoral system, was a waste of time. Jonathan Pomtt, repressenting the Ecos, not surprisingly looked pained. Theresa Wilson is prepared to work within the existing system; Pomtt aigued that this was only tinkering with the status Quo and could have no real effect. It's a shame that they will make little impact in the election - they have iharpened up their act and have a range at constructive policies such as a Reiources Tax, mixed small-scale fanning, Freedom of Information, community contamination and carbon dioxide, :round Rents and inimal rights. Their levels were just some of the more press- :ommitment to feminism has a more : problems. He reckons we've got five convincing ring than the slightly tokenus to change - after that it will be stic statements they used to make i&b$uuLhe9s going to 'opt out and ilthough less than a quarter of their e destroyers and enjoy myself. mdidates are women. son proclaimed that the main The Ecos are sorely miffed at the lad faster change is insitutional )f media attention - they are fielding

mtai stone*^ mil Ãˆr

r e c y . ~ oenable the necessary infonnation to be extracted, Des Wkon took the opportunity earlier in the day to launch 'The 1984 Campaign' to repeal the Official Secrets Act - 30

Even the SDP will be pushed get more than a handful of seats, and the amount of media coverage they've had would, if laid end to end, stretch round Greenham Common about ten times. The major parties are aware that there is a Green vote - and have been applying a certain amount of Green gloss to their election pledges. There was Michael Foot addressing the Socialist Countryside Group welcoming the fact that the environment was becoming a more mainstream issue and promising to ban the pesticide 245T and foxhunting. The Liberals, are committed to more or less anti-nuclear stance, the SDP occasionally make noises and have Green Alliance supremos Richard Holmes and Tom Burke standing for them. EventheTories wheeled out Tom King to usher in 'a new era of conservuttered with true blue cvniation' cism and about as unliftine as a sub- k* Te; .----scription to EXIT. The wider 'environmental' constituency is vast. Nearly one in ten people are members of an environmental group (more than three million - bigger $1 than any party or Trade Union). Ad- > ?; mittedly this includes bodies like the ;:% National Trust, which are not known $+ for their revolutionary sentiments, but $:\. even the radical 'Green' vote must be b,: around 5%, if Germany is anything to go by. The Greens are practically disenfran chised, and the focus for the green movement will remain in local activity. The anarchists would argure that that is where it should remain, and a large proportion of Greens won't be vat'" on the principle of 'Whichever way) vote -the Government always gets it The big parties' attempt to woo 1 Greens is so obviously cosnietic it convinces few, yet not voting does seem a luxury in the face of a Tory walkover. Labour's commitment to unilateralism may be increasingly wobbly, but it 1 be much easier to campaign agai Foot than Thatcher. In the long t e ~ the conventional politicians are me1 re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. The Eco Party realizes this and, UP against the wall, their residual belief in the democratic system seems quite touching. It's possible, though, that this ~ ~ ~ a t o s t e i ~ ~ f i A A c f , W t v n h-Ã§i6teÃ§iffiteÃ§M^ yVit go up - as seems likely to Â£1,50 1 puny five minutes on TV. And without PR the chances of them getting any their faith will be shattered, and they, seats are approximately equivalent t o along with the rest of the Greed mi^ the chances of Mrs Thatcher growing ment will adoot other means of ma1 dreadlocks and emigrating to Jamaica. , their voice heard. Peter

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For all the latest details of green gather. ings, please contact:; .- . ,

INANNA 4 Bridge House st Ives Huntingdon Cambs. Tel: 0480 63054

Others?

There is a .po68ibility of other gatherings in North Devon and East

Andla-

There might be one in North Devon Ilater this summeg. Contact Bobby Basilgate, 1Bredwick Cottages, BlackImoor Gate, Barnstaple, Devon. (05983437) for details.

IKetterina IKettering Green Day

Westfield Gardens, Kettering, Northants. 4 June loam 6pm Free entrance

This one day event is aimed at the 1local community and will involve local tenvironmental and peace groups as well iis theatre and folk music. The local IEND group will be building a bunker Iiccording to Government specifications. Fo get there go down the back of the 1bus station, below Westfield Museum 1md behind the Royal Hotel. For more information contact:- Rosie i$tanning, 11Chancery h e , Thrapston, IVorthants. Tel: 08012-2187 (6-8pm).

I 'I

Bradford

Bradford University Campus, Bradford, West Yorks. 25-26 June

IFree

This event has been oreanised bv the new Bradford Greens Group and is aimed mainly at local people. There is very little space for camping. The main purpose is to bring greens in the area together. There will be workshops, theatre and music and the emphasis is an participation so bring your own mtruments, costumes etc. For more information contact:- Chris Savory, 336 Barker End, Bradford, West Yo*.

Greensgathering Norwich Norwich Peaceful Green Fair University Village & Parkland, Earlham, Norwich, Norfolk. 1-3July. Tickets are Â£per day (50p with UB40) and children under 14 free. No advance tickets. This fair is heing organised by the Student CND group at the University of East Anglia and is involving many peace and environmental groups in Norwich and the surrounding area. The organisers hope that 'the Fair will reflect the interests of different sections of the local community and the positive and friendly links between them.' They are planning workshops on the peace movement, feminism, environmentalism and third world issues and hope to have displays of alternative technology and d~monstrations of alternative healing d organic farming. Clowns, dancers, ~ s i c i a n s and theatre groups will xovide all day entertainment for adults a d children. They are providing all the basic - 4 i t i e s and a beer tent as well as a de range of stalls selling vegetarian ad, jewelry, clothes etc. Despite all this it is primarily a paripation event so bring your own itruments, poems and ideas. It is a Fair though and there will be lectric music throughout. To get there find the B1108 and then ook for Earlham. For further information contact Norwich Green Fair, Students' Union, UEA, Norwich.

Sharpness This one has unfortunately fallen through as a suitable site couldn't he o u n d A shame hut there is some other mportant news from the Campaign Against Sea Dumping. The Atlantic Polluter enters Sharpness Docks on Sunday July 3rd and leaves on the 7th. FOE are holding a demonstration at the docks at midday on Sunday. On Friday 24 July, we shall he celebrating the Great Fish Testing Day when greens everywhere send assorted fish to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food with a polite request for him to check it for radioactivity. Monday 27 July, a Friends of the Earth deputation take a barrel of fish to him personally for more testing.

Alston

Green Moon Gathering Pry House, Nenthead, Alston, Cumhria. 14-17 July Tickets are Â£ per adult for the weekend (Â£ in advance) with under 14's on half price and under 7's free. Daily rate Â£1.50 A decendant of last year's Blue Moon Festival, this event is now in its second year. They say 'this year we plan to make it a less centralised and consumer orientated event. In other words you come here wanting to experience a community, a common aim, and you have the chance to make it happen - in music, mime, theatre, crafts, technology, juggling or whatever. We provide the back-up, such as shelter, campsite, water, toilets, roads and local knowhow.' They are planning theatre, workshops on all manner of subjects, a bar, wholefood, clowns, poets and a children's world. To get there by train travel to Penrith, Hexham or Haltwhistle and then by bus to Alston. By bus with Wright Bros from Marlborough Crescent, Newcastle twice daily and from Penrith. For more information contact:Richard Crabtree, Pry House, Nenthead, Alston, Cumbria. CA9 SPY.

Glastonbury Liamberts Hill Farm, Pilton, Shepton Hallet, Somerset. 26-31 July E7.50 in advance, Â£1 for the six days )n the gate or Â£ for the weekend. Chilhen under 14 free. See article fot further details.

Greenham Common R'weption On or near Greenham Common, Newbury, Berkshire. 6-9 August Free Something is heing planned for all the Star marchers when they arrive on the evening of the 5th. They plan to he there keeping a vigil, keening and fasting tor three days. Details are not yet Bnalised hut facilities are heing planned for the Star marchers. Other people are lot encouraged to turn up. -

Lundsbera 4

A gathering for greens throughout Europe between August 7th-14th. They are hoping for 300 adults at this gathering in Sweden. It is heing held at Lundsherg between Varmland, Kristinehams and Filipstad. 280 km NE of Gothenburg: The British contact for this international Gathering is: Anne de Boisgelin Felin Newyddy Gellywen Carmarthen Dyfed Cymru

Wales

Blaen Cwmdu Farm, Garth, Maesteg, nr. Bridgend, Wales. 26-29 August. Tickets are Â£7.5 on the gate or cheaper with a UB40 and Â£ in advance. This gathering is aimed primarily at uniting the wider green movement in Wales and a number of groups have been invited including Animal Aid, Women For Life On Earth, the Ecology Party, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the Welsh Language Society. Although the gathering is basically acoustic, one night has been set aside for amplified music. Take Junction 36 off the M4. For further information contactJulie Baylis, 1 4 Helens Rd, Neath, West Glamorgan. Tel. 0639-52223.

Otmoor

Otmoor Fair Moorlands Farm, Murcott, nr. Oxford. 9/10/11 September Tickets are Â£ for the weekend (under 14 free) and Â£4.5 in advance. Now in its second year, this fair is organised by Friends of the Earth. Its central purpose is to oppose plans for the extension of the M40 and the main stage will be erected in the middle of the projected fast lane. This is a celehration of the Earth and all kinds of theatre and music are planned including folk, country, jazz and rock. Take the Bicester bus out of Oxford and get off at Murcott. Incidentally, the land which the local authority hopes to purchase for the M40 has been sold, in 3000 plots to people as far away as New Guinea. For more information contact: Joe Weston, 5 8 Mickle Way, Forest Hill, Oxford. Tel: 08677-2679

early daze It was going to be the party t o end all Parties, but the Eco Summer Gathering was regarded with some suspicion by 1 the moderate majority of the Party's National Council. The organisers of the Gathering received little support from ithin the Party, since it was thought at they would damage the sober image of respectability thought necessary in some circles. Thought necessary t h a t is, if the Party's 'ghost cabinet', a sort of shadow, 'shadow cabinet' - were t o continue their preparations for riding the crest of popular acclaim and form a government. However undaunted and unheeding of the silent scorn which met their ragged efforts our band continued their clandestine meetings wherever safety would allow ... Finally, in late July 1980, dawned the first Gathering. Pressure groups harangued passers-by in shrill tones. Stalls with badges, stickers and revolutionary tracts were cheek-by-jowl with Aquarian gurus, whole-food cafes and New Age Gypsies. The first of the Eco 'moderate majority' arrived on site, finally enticed out to mix it with the grassroots, and glancing warily around them in case some drug-crazed pagan revolutionary pinned them to a tree-trunk, joined the some 800 other souls of the Gathering. Even so, not everything was sweetness and light. Some free-festival drongos insisted on sharing Hawkwind at top volume, in the early hours of one morning and their amplifier cable was quietly castrated by a group of women... It was at the next non-electric Gathering that Ecology Party CND became 'Green CND', loosening its direct link with the party and thus widening its appeal. It was here also that Green CND laid plans for a special 'nonviolent Direct Action Conference' in London the following October. It was to be a conference at which the first real links with Greenham Common - the Women for Life on Earth -were formed. A fresh wave of inspiration and purpose swept through the 'Green Gathering Collective', as the way was finally Left: Tipi-power. The weather today depends on where your head is st.

opened for a broad coalition of green, radical and alternative social currents. Planning began for the first Green gathering the following summer. In the course of these planning meetings, the collective began t o focus more attention on relationships within the group, on developing the arts of consensus decision- taking and 'facilitation' of meetings. In common with the Green movement across Europe, the Sunflower was adopted as a symbol of these fresh aspirations. The publicity and organisation for the Third Gathering was significantly improved. This was partly a reflection of the increased confidence and experience of the collective and partly a belief in the Gathering's new green appeal. In the event, this belief was justified and around 5000 people gathered once again at Worthy Farm. For the first time there was a women-only marquee with a series of workshops. For the first time there was a special 'alternative healing' marquee. For the first time partisans from the Animal Liberation Front mingled openly with newly-freed members of the Conservation Society. People from most of the peace camps shared experiences and discussed future plans. Pagans Against Nukes (PAN) held a Grand Sabbat on the day of the Lammas, and the nonviolence training courses were left in peace. There were sacred dance workshops, puppet shows, theatre events and an exhibition of Alternative Technology (including the 'Magic Spanners'). There was the infamous sweat lodge in a centre of the tipi circle; and we witnessed the worlds first workshop to demystify Time, in which participants were asked to bring a hammer and a watch. The Tibetan Ukrainian Mountain Troupe performed "Absolutely Nothing", critically acclaimed the world over. The Wessex Regionalist explained their ideas on decentralisation, striking a blow for Free Wessex, whilst workshops on 'Verbal Disarmament' continued to leave audiences speechless. Where else would an off-duty policeman chart astrological portents for the Gathering? Where else would the Eco Party "Constitution Working Group" rub shoulders with crypto-supporters of ELF? Where else would a giant "Reclaim the Land'' Banner ripple in the wind while maze patterns traced in the grass. . ? The Green Gathering inspiration has spread, with other Gatherings in many areas. The Green Gathering Collective lids become more of a network, spreading information, sharing resources and

co-operating in a variety of green initiatives. And of course, much of the energy is once again going into this year's Glastonbury Gathering. At last the Truth stands revealed - this is indeed History in the faking. . . Richard Oldfield

It now looks as if there will be something like eight green gatherings in England, Scotland and Wales this year - a big leap forward from just one 1 s t year. Although they have some similarities with ordinary festivals, a gathering is much more of a political event and something quite new in that sphere. People leave behind their organisationd loyalties, personality clashes and 'points of order'. There is space for everyone t o relax and celebrate what they hold in common without the pressures or divisions of a formal event. The central role of the green gatherings is t o bring the wider green movements together. At present we all too often see ourselves seperately as ecologists, peace activists or feminists and fail t o see that fundamentally we are all acting from the same impulse for peace, harmony and liberation. We are unlikely to make political progress if we cannot recognise what we hold in common. It is this process of sharing and integration that primarilly concerns the gatherings. It's very important, a t this stage, not to confuse that sense of coming together, that solidarity, with loyalty to any one organisation. We have many different loyalties and can all too easily slip into arguing about our differences rather than exploring what it is that we hold in common. Solidarity is essential if we are ever to develop some kind of consensus on the green movement's overall political strategy. As more gatherings are organised, so they take on more of a regional focus. They can then act as catalysts for the establishment of regional initiatives and local federations. Green gatherings are similar t o the annual gatherings of North American tribes and nations. Both are outdoor events over several days and involve political planning as well as a celebration of a way of life. But it's not just on this political level that the gatherings are important. Their unique atmosphere can have a profound effect on an individual, giving a relatively secure base from which

tp explore inhibitions and prejudices. Self-d@ermination, penonal respondbility a n d mutual aid are eoentid qualities for the green movement and the gatherings can do N o t to help such

an approach.

As the gatherings develop they might be r a i d t o t a l l i n t o t h r e e broad&gorie*. For one gatherinci at Glastonbury have dwys provided a focus tat tfaoae who want to escape (rom their home communities. The rite is private enough for people to express themselves in any <Cay they wish - nonviolently of come! No one his to wony about 'image* as the movement is not on show. This year the Green Moon Gathering in Cumbria and the- Welsh Gathering aught both be said to fall within this

category-

In contrast, some gathexin@ aimed specifically at the 1community who are encouraged to get closely involved. Here the main purpose if to interest local people in green ideas. Perhaps they should be called green fails' rather than gatherings to help nuke the distinction. The Ketterin# Green Day (Northhants) is an example of this. Some gatherings are organised in nipport of specific actions. They can act either as a base for dire@ actions or as a protest in their own right. There will be a gathering of some kind at or near Greenham Common this summer to cater for the Star -hers who will be aniving on August 5th. Another gathering Is planned-on the beach at Sizewell over the August bank holiday. Here's another thought: Gathering! are similar to peace camps, settlements,

convoys and caravab in many ways. As unemployment increases more people will take to the road or leave their home for a peace camp. This will give an added dimension to the green movement's ability to act spontaneously and organise small gatherings at short no- This year's Glartonbury Green Gathering tice. is at Lamberte Hill Farm,near Shepton We're likely to see gatherings being Mallet a beautiftil 20& rite. We held Illegally on MOD or common land provide the bade*, the place and minia8 part of an action-based movement for mal resouice*. The rest is up to you. land reform. It's vital that greens intr- There will be worfcdiopf on a range of oduce access to land into the economic issues such as the peace movement, debate. These gatherings, peace camps nonviolence training, human rights, etc. could provide an important focus feminism, education, animal right* and for a land movement. the Third World, and ecology/environAll the gatherings so far have been ment (to mention just a selection). What organised for relatively small numbers will be new year is the idea of a of people, no more that 10,000, and 'childamtred' athering. I we've tended to follow the maxim For the workshops this means '801*11 is beautiful'. Perhaps we can now making adaptations for children and consider another approach as well considering what we, as adults, can - the concentration of thousands upon from them Well try t o incorporate thousands of people and the releiiieuf a these realisations and act on them. thoughtwave that would be felt Children are our hope for the future. throughout the industrialised world. A For too long the 'alternative' movement new Hnd of festival a green festival! has been ignoring their needs and It's Shall we put one on in the summer of time to try to redress the balance. As 1984?Anyone got a site? adults we are beginning to rediqemzr The Green Gathering Collective is play and treat our children asequate. We also thinking of planning a group that can learn just as much from the telationcould be set up to act as a resource cen- ship as they can. It's not just a question tre for the gathering! - to help with of adults 'teaching' children. Sure, they loans,publicity, contacts etc. If anyone might use adults as models tor bebanour is thinking of organising a gathering - and as a source of knowledge, but learnindoors or out, winter or summer - and ing is a f a r more profound experience thinks that we might be able to help, than that. please drop us a line (witha SAE). In a child we see the embryo of ur GREEN GATHERING COLLECTIVE human potential The young are mirr rs 4 BRIDGE HOUSE of adults, reflecting their f e w joys ST. IVES HUNTINGDON CAMBS. enthusiasms, even their violence. I t is Tel: 0480 63054 (24 hrs) therefore our 'duty' to recogniae and nurture tint potential. We have spent so much time finding our true selves agai~, after the repressive effects of growing up in institutions which undermine (if not reject) our sense of responsibility (from mechanised hospital birth to authoritarian school and beyond). We're over-exposed to the passive entertainment of the mass media and blind acceptance of a world view which supports sexist, materialist, violent, consumer attitudes. You've heard it before, but it's still true. I t is these attitudes we have striven t o release ourselves from. Yet there is little hope for change in the world condition if successive generations have to go through this de-contamination process, which has taken us years t o even begin. What hope then for our children's children, if we, who have the supposed insight and undex3tandhg. do not begin to eskbliab

the kids are allright -

equal &lationships with our children only half the picture. The other half is the beginnings of an emergent culture NOy.&' &$+ .; - We/pust 'help them to-%findthem- with a distinct identity of its own. plv* and give them, $he freedom we Fortunately there is no particular 'Green demand for o u ~ ,l v,, ..e s ^ ~ f.r tohm e. fear stvle' or uniform - after all. the first , .' of violence. . ... ..*. . .,:', ..,., . : ~ r i n c i ~of l eecology is diversity. We must' lay i . i i d & ' o u r qwn'self- . 1 But what are the components of this importance and'get invoryf$YflfK&tyetit;' emerging culture? A visiting sociologist treading lightly and .tfspiting the- to last years GGs could have picked up variety of ages and abilities, ob?e@qgi some interesting pointers for theirnext their reactiob, and respo.nding td thesis. F o r one thins. whereas a few hopesand fears. * years a g o it a s possible to make firm So. the children's area will be central distinctions between "011th cultures .-. .-... on the site and at the heart of the (viz Hippies vs Punks, Mods vs Rockers Gathering. There will be activities of all 'etc) it really isn't so simple anymore. kinds from painting, clowning, building. The different tribes such as punks, cooking t o BOUNCING - with endless hippies, straights. Pastas. straights room for variations, addition and aid trendies &e meging. 1t's p&ly that the punks, 7 years after 'Anarchy experiments. Andin th&pmceqs,.extend In Th.e UK' have realized that slogans the boundariq,of what!$p&ible. /Ă&#x192; *. &chard ~ottdtill like NO FUTURE and a comdetelv nihilistic approach don't get you very far, the hippies gotitired of being brainless on cocktails of exotic drugs and -, their slogans like Turn on, tune in, drop out' lost their appeal (how d o you 'drop out' of the arms race) and the Trendies cot tired of beins- full-time If you thought that Green Gatherings clothes hokes. were s o m e t h i like ordinary political It's encouraging, because while the m d i except with the added in- oppositional forces t o the status quo are convenience of mud you'd be missing split effective resistance becomes so much harder. 'Divide and Rule' has the point. In tact quite a few of the people always been the best way of keeping at the GGs don't bother to turn up to power. The most effective examples of the worthy discussions about .feminism Divide and Rule have been between m d the Third World. The politics are black and white, men and women and '

Thats showbiz I

(and this hasn't been commented on so often) old and young. The majority at the GGs tend to be young people, who've been brought up on the old cliches of 'vouth rebellion', hut more and more older people &e coming into the Green movement. The Green party in Germany. found that most of their support-came from the under 35s and the over 50s - indeed, the older age gfoups are often as dispossessed from power as-the young. So, as UC's fashion coiresnondent I can sav there is no dominating style, although I did notice last year the preponderance of bright colours as befitting a celebration. The feeling that the Green movement can achieve something seems to have replaced the despair of a few years back (the prospect of more years of Thatcher notwithstandins). P e o ~ k seem to be making their own clothes more, which makes possible an individual style, rather than being one of numberless army of clones in Levis. The other encouraging move is a development of the punk ideal that anvone can be musicians or nerform.eri, with an emphasis on acoustic music which doesn't enable one group to dominate the proceedings. This democratisation of culture also. a ~ v l i e s t o the theatre groups, fanzines, %dm bums and purveyors of DIY technology and medicine. This is the age of the Generalist. It's going t o be an ipterestig CHARLES OF THE RITZ summer.

Alternative sources of energy (sun, wind, waves etc.) Unacceptable since they cannot be fully controlled by central government or manipulated by vested interests in Anerica.

i_______r

Benign but sceptical neutrality - oft-quoted phrafe summing up the attitude of. the local council*. CEGB translation: a soft touch.

'a nuclear programme'Would have the advantage of removing a substantial proportion of electricity pioduction from dangers of disruption by industrial action by coal miners or transport workers'.

Department of Energy: at present trying at Sizewell to reconcile an official report ~hmmingenergy conservation as an alternative to P W s with a 'leaked' one contradieting this opinion.

Exit: door used by Inquiry top brass t o get into the mail hall and apparently avoid police search carried out at other doors.

Heritage Coast which includes Sizewell. 'In cases where conflict may arise between proposals for development and codervation in or near the Heritage Coast, priority will be given to conservation'. (Suffolk County Council booklet: 'Suffolk Heritage Coast'.)

Fish, expecially bottomfeeders in Irish Sea near Windscale: not eaten by many locals.

Information Centres: suddenly appearing at Leiston and Ipswich prior to the Inquiry, both offering lavish displays and free literature about the benefits of PWR systems.

Leiston, the nearest town to Sizewell and an unemployment blackspot yet the last official poll gave almost a 4 to 1verdict against Sizewell B.

Guarantee 'io House of Commons by Secretary of State for Energy, January 1982: 'the Government are committed to holding a full ind wide-ranging Inquiry*. Retrospective translation tbf. Sir Winston Churchii terminological inexactitude.

~ & i c eParker, the Windscale Inspector. Retrospective comment after the Inquiry: 'If an effective oppositioican only be produced if it is

Maltings at Snape, the Inquiry venue. Established to promote culture and the arts. -

X i e r disease leukemi deaths amoncr workers at Sizewell A but CEGB Medic: Adviser confident they were not related to radiation levels.

- --

In 1980 the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, the World Wildlife Fund and the United Nations Environment Programme launched the World

Conservation Strategy in thirty three countries. This June Britain's conservation ' action programme' is published

Strategy

Elkington's contribution to the Work Conservation Strategy action pro gramme, identifi seven new industrie; that he says will support sustainabh development. They aremicro-electronic! and information technology; the new biotechnologies; pollution control recycling and resource substitution energy conservation; renewable energy systems; and the broad range of trade able environmental services. These are sunspots certainly, anc generally could be politically attractive in Britain: the overall contribution ot the Sunrise Seven to our GNP says Elkington could rival that of North Sea oil by the mid 1990s. And of course the 1 sunrise will revitalise existing industries and create jobs. Despite this there is a worrying plac atory tone to the report. And it is directed towards the industrial interest. Allegedly 'uncompromised by power All sectional interests' the report bend! over backwards not to criticise industry We are told. "there has been a striking Seven Bridges to the Future: Industrial convergence between the interests of Growth Points for a Sustainable industry and conservation over the last Economy, looks at the role of industry decade.' True, some multinationals have in the implementation of the World been vigilant aoout developing pohtior Conservation Strategy. John Elkington control technologies and materials and facing us in the eighties, the energy substitution/reclamationsystems. challenge to 'rekindle the industrial but to b o r e the commercial self-interest spirit'. He emphasises though the is an odd slao of the whitewash: where contribution industry would make there's muck,especially unscenic,'largely towards environmental policies which lumpy muck, there's a pile of brass, inI would safeguard genet'ic resources - cleaning it up. Elkington admits that many of hi 'our biological capital'. He examines, in this far-ranging document, alternat- proposals "go considerably further . . ive industrial frameworks, suggests a than most UK companies would want resource tax, and promotes new duties to" but he reserves the sharpest criticism for what he sees as the overly confor 'the management agenda'. servative trade union movement. To be Talk of the Sunrise technolugies nas fair he (probably correctly) identifies abounded in Britain for some time. But the old guard of union leaders as the Harold Wilson's 'white heat of tech- main problem and eulogises the grass nology' was a list of sunrise products initiatives like those at Lucas Aerowhich have been continually revised; space. However he conveniently ignores now nuclear energy means the PWR the fact that this drive was ruthlessly followed by the FBR and possibly repressed by the company, and that fusion; biotechnology has subsumed the most of the originators of the Lucas last chemical-success plastics; and com- Plan are now sacked or have been perputers and telecommunications now suaded to leave the firm. So much for come with added microchips. Not sur- Corporate Responsibility, or as Elkingprisingly there is a vast chasm of intent ton puts it, for discovering ways by between the official shopping list and which "these small seeds of change can the 'alternative's' list which, though be nurtured". Yet despite the blindspots - and the similar in content, purports to meet real social needs - rather than support mandatory reference t o the Real Problem the conspicuous consumption of plan- of the population explosion - this is a useful report, particularly as an introned 'obscelescence' goods. Nevertheless the alternative concept, duction to ecologically mindedindustry. especially where renewable energy It's compromised and maybe just a little systems are concerned, is gradually complacent; the Tories' cuts in Renewable Energy R&D funding are seen only filtering onto the official list. John

I Seven

bridges 1to sunrise

as disappointing, whereas in fact they indicate the government's intention to head off in exactly the opposite direction to that proposed by the World Conservation Strategy. Obviously this is a far from radical document. Is it "worthwhile" to re-introduce National Service, d i d as useful work, even when it means the young come off the streets and knuckle down to their environmental projects? Obviously too it fudges the key issues: Nuclear power is seen as being just 'some way from qualifying' for inclusion as a Sunrise Technology on environmental grounds. Seven Bridges then has thrown out a superstructure across the chasm. And the foundations have yet to be built to ensure that power in society is spread evenly under the hardware. The answer may lie in creating, in the first place, community orientated networks, rather than for example the Science Parks which serve the interests of private capital. It may mean being wary of multinationals when talk is of the benefits of exploiting 'biological capital' via bio-technology. It definitely will mean developing technology to meet social needs, rather than to ensure the planet is gambled away in order to satisfy a Dave Elliott minority's greed.

.-":' "

Urban whitewash? -

One of the Liveabk City trailers is 'changing national and international circumstances have conspired to make some urban areas offer the poorest quality of life possible in Britam'. This report, by Joan Davidson and Ann MacEwen, however, is not a 'green' sociologist's analysis, but is based securely on an environmental approach.

.. .

for Earths survival A large section, therefore, deals with resourees,including energy and buildings, but also transport and the issue of city wasteland (currently M million acres of it). Chapters also look at community enterprise, and advice on locally responsive approaches t o policy making. In the 42 recommendations the authorssuggest the government formulates a White Paper on 'integrating resources conservation with urban development'. To begin at the end - the Liveable City report has an eight point strategy for action plan under the slogans 'leaner on resources' and 'richer in skills'. It is inevitably a political banner. But though this stands as an 'appeal to the conscience of the government' on the whole what we have here is an environmental initiative circa 1970, 'The City' treads carefully quite unlike the more recent ereen movements. Dealing with resource conservation, for instance, -asection which comprises discussion on energy, land, building materials and water and pollution, followed by a wider view of 'our requirements' - is a matter of merely brushing the surface of the debate. The author imparts a vague sentiment of liberal concern allowing no theoretical self-coniciousness nor awareness of the voricious and serious political purpose of 'modern consumer society'. In fact this section asserts rather than analyses the case for resource conservation. We learn that "The UK uses more oil and gas than all Africa and South Asia cornbined . . . whatever their development paths, most of the world's population 'annot hope to live at the standards of urban society in developed countries". But there is no discussion of possible consumption rates or of the wider political context in which resource decisions are made. The Liveable City looks respectively it urban change, transport and salient policies which might improve otherwise mhealthv trends in resource use. Its a bunch of "jolly good ideas" which, aowever, leave one guessing as t o their necessity or adeauacv. It is difficult. if * . not impossible, to evaluate the usefulness of piecemeal improvements in the urban structure without some overview of one's plans; that should have been the major lesson of post war planning. Chapter six concerning 'human resources', together with chapter nine, 'political realism', and ten, the recommendations, reverse the overall political stance. At first sight, the emphasis on 'community action' - so dear t o the

hearts of radicals - appears to put the section examining agriculture, forestry, case for a radical way forward. Little tourism, and recreation, and mining warning bells go tingaling, however, as and quarrying. Timothy O'Riordan the frequent references t o NCVO/MSC/ eriticises the current lack of ecological Urban Programmes/FIG and other information geared towards environorganisational mental assessment integrated witt central Governmc * t arrangements pop out of the text, con- management schemes. Chapters of land trasting with silence over the more spon- scape protection cover heathlands, grass taneous and politically oriented initiat- lands, ancient deciduous woodlands ives. hedgerows, wetlands, and limestont The ixorrigi'ale 'governmentism' pavements. The report looks at rura and paternalism of these chapters shine depopulation, and charts specific pro, through. "None 01 its elements", so jeets like the Highlands and Islands goes the introduction, 'is likely to Community Co-operative schemes. Her. seem revolutionary, hut the bringing itage Sites should be the new designattogether of so many tough strands of ion for conservation in rural areas logical thought should lead most of us A recent dramatic headline in the to the conclusion that we must mend Times ran - 'UN group launches plan t o our ways." But this does not mean clean up the world.' It appears that mending our political ways beyond a UNEP (United Nations Environment few realignments in bureaucratic struc- Programme) is going to produce 'a tures. Liberal, yes - indeed a rare case scenario for the world environment into of a 'report with a heart'; but is this the twenty-first century.' To see the enough? Indications are that however plan through, UNEP proposes to estabwilling the World Conservation Strategy lish a commission of environmentalists is t o remain 'politically realistic', these on the lines of the Brandt commission. words will fall upon a government with So here we have it - a global strategy. deaf ears. The World Conservation Strat- One can only hope it will be accessible egy reports seem counterproductive of to the likes of us outside the debating any real progress; like Chamberlain's chambers, for the World Conservation agreement with Hitler, a weak means to Strategy we have already is a thoroughly delay an inevitable decision. But radical heavy' docur-lent. political ecologists may also find here an That's not t o belittle the importance education; they will see what problems of the subject-matter. But the author occupy conventional 'strategies' getting a d o- ~ t s a kind of environmentalists' t o grips with real environmental jargon, and thus words such as problems. Adrian Atkinson , 'sustainability', 'utilisation', and 'balance' are repeated so many times that they lose whatever impact they had. A pity, because the subject has been well researched and some of the proposals are quite radical. It's a pity, too, because a report that expounds conservation programmes for British agriculture and forestry and takes a critical look at the current system of countryside designation, such as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, deserves to be read by an awful lot of people. The philosophy of the report is 'sustainable utilisation', in other words keeping both conservation and development in proportion. The intention is to 'build bridges between the competing interests currently in dispute over countryside management. How can it be u economically productive, aesthetically inspiring and socially viable?' These are worthy ends but are unlikely to be achieved until some 'interests' are The development and conservation o discarded. Those agencies responsible rural resources - land, soil, water ant for economic regeneration or diverwildlife - heads this report, Trust ii sification, as the report notes, must be the Countryside, in a comprehensiv~ compelled to channel resources back

Trust in country

from the towns to the countryside. The report recommends planning controls on agricultural operations, a more enlightened system of countryside designation and more stringent safeguards against, and penalties for, misdeeds. Yet it doesn't deal at all adequately with this most fundamental issue of power. And it simply isn't good enough to suggest that, when family incomes are low, 'part-time and home-basedwork should be encouraged.' Wouldn't it be more constructive if the Strategy put its weight behind the campaign for a minimum national wage and, particularly, for higher incomes for agricultural and allied workers? The report recommends reforms, extensive research programmes (and budgets) and forecasts of resource needs. But if this contribution to the state of the British countryside would also confront and challenge the kind of politics implicated in the mess and do so with the language and spirit found in Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, a few heads might turn. As it is, they may but nod - in tacit agreement because no feathers have been truly ruffled. Despite this the report is imaginative. The section on forestry makes timely reading (world timber supplies are shrinking but so are sensible ideas for wwdland conservation). Anne Weigall

responsible attitude to the environment'. Environmental ethnics thus has a simple message. The complexity of this

unnaturally lies in the speculation on the directives available to achieve that end. The report sees shortfalls in economic guidelines, in law and in religion. Finally - 'We cannot afford the lazy way out of a moral dilemma ecocentricity, or reductionist noeracy' - and the WCS 'wid be a dead letter unless underlying conflicts are faced and solved.' The prospects for 'Homo Sapiens' are not bright. But perhaps too neither are those for this report. It claims to stand in the 'no man's land (sic) where philosophy, psychology, politics, human biology and management economics meet.' This is probably not a recipe for a best seller. And it holds odd assumptions. 'The key to this report,' says the report, 'is an insistence that we are both apart from nature and a part of nature.' We are a part of nature but we only think we are apart from and possibly superior to nature; biologically and historically speaking, we are properly a sub-species of ape - with a somewhat inflated idea of our own importance. This is not meant to underestimate the seriousness of OUT situation. Despite the obvious fact that all natural resources are in limited supply, all the major political parties which contested the general election (remember that!) were committed to economic growth, to increasing the already disastrous rate at which we're using up finite resources. This report sees the answer in reconciling selfishness and altruism. I would argue that the problem is one of tunnel vision, one of failure of imagination. Accept the 'selfish gene' theory and our instincts are for the suvival of ourselves and our descendants. So pious appeals to 'altruism' are rather beside the point.. (Understanding survival ecology is a, hard-headed necessity). In the interests of short term profits the forests of the Amazon Basin are being destroyed despite their unique ecological diversity, and importance as a natural resource, as a source of food, fuel and chemical feedstocks. But the report also comes up with some less well known facts. Comparing a somewhat O mythical 'natural' human, W ~ subsists

wzf

reckons that 'A unit of population today- in the develooed world consists of adhuman being wrapped in tons of steel, copper,. aluminium, lead, tin, zinc and plastic, gobbling up 601bs of raw steel (a day?) and many pounds of other materials His energy need

...

Is equivalent to ten 1000 watt radiators continuously burning.' So we see we do need an anti-waste and an anti-consumerist ethic for a sustainable, conserving economy. Yet the report doesn't tackle the core of the problem - our' competitive cashorientated economic system, which must act in an anti-ecological way. The competitive ethic hits us young, at school if not before, and such injunctions to be competitive go on throughout life. Although Kropotkin says competition and cooperation are natural 'forces', how much of the former has to be imposed? The Ethics report at least r e c w nises this externality : in the section 'Possible solutibns', the old heavyweight orders are invited back in - Religion, Law and Economics. (Isn't it rather Tory that religion, even if you don't believe in it, is good for social order?) Still, there are welcome 'Cautionary Tales' here too. Covering the law fox environmental protection, the author refers to the government sub-committee which sat for seven years on a pesticide dumping case - after which - nothing. .. and the cause of the lorry driver dumping cyanide and caustic soda, lost to the absentminded DOE. 'Leave this planet in a condition in which you would like to find it', would not be a bad slogan for the 1980's, for everyone. Jnhn Rradhrook

1 Unsceotical I - --

Environmental education has various aims: -ntially they are to develop an understanding of the environment, but this report sees also the importance of promoting the skills to investi-

gate and make informative decisions system a firm fails in its primary duty - Department of Maritime Affairs. about it. John Baines surveysthecurrent making profits - if it adopts Processes Commendably, this report suggests state of environmental education in different from its competitors, that planning controls be extended out Britain, and concludes that although The report admits this t o a certain to sea. A Department of Maritime recent in origin it has made a healthy "tent: 'policy-makers' should unders- Affairs should be set up, and local impact. A list of 24 aims is included, band the need for conservation; there fishing communities given priority for the heart of the report being recom- should be supportive structures for it. fishing in their own areas, and protected mendations for a framework comprising But will the decision-makers - once from distant fleets exploiting their continaing education for adults; con- ?nh?htened, see the rational path? The qesources. The Control of Pollution Act servation vocational courses; support trategy's author thinks so; thus the 1974 should be brought into force for instructors both through academic 'mphasis on academic knowledge, and where estuarine and coastal activities bases and regional environmental centres; ess on the feelings, and ability t o express are concerned; and coastal habitats and lastly 'an unprecedented publicity .hose feelings. should be better protected by removing campaien.' In short, this report is a valuable certain exemptions from planning Those environmentalists who demand summary of the excellent education control which currently benefit agriculthat young people be taught the eco- already existing. But real conservation tyre t o the detriment of coastal areas. horrors to come are often surprised t o means making conservation not a Licensing for waste-dumping operations learn there's a lot of environmental Fringe luxury. In pursuit of consensus must also be tightened up. education going on already. the whole strategy flounders. Where is Yet the report is acutely This report summarises the state of 1 the sense of wonder, outrage and disappointing in some of its Factual play; in schools, in youth groups, and urgency in this report? Stephen Joseph coverage and assessment of some of looks at the role of the media, the the more serious problems. professions, industry, unions and govemOne cardinal error is that man's ment. According t o the report, any (sic) activities have a small effect on political party could promote environthe seas, because, among other reasons, mental education. Of course, that's the marine environment is less accessible probably the idea. The Conservation t o man. As anyone who has worked on Strategy has been conceived and marine pollution matters knows, this developed to minimise conflict, 'sell' leads t o enormous problems in idenconservation to everyone from rich t o tifving .. ,- ~ - - the effects of toxic and persispoor, from powerful t o powerless, from tent pollutants,particularly heavy metals top industrialist to YOPper. This has and organohalogens, because it is difficertain consequences for education. cult t o monitor their effects. Nowhere Firstly the conservation under view though does the report mention this. is distinctly narrow, a common environ[n fact here are opinions that can only mentalist, green, ecologist failing. It be sustained with such lack of evidence. lacks the understanding that until such Thus: 'Many of the effects of (man's) time the environmental movement activities ... are of minor importance shows any interest in conserving people rnnsistin~ of slight damage t o the as well as plants it's hound to have a low habitat or a small reduction in the priority. numbers of ... organisms.' In one All the work hazards campaigns have sentence, four camouflage words have been run by bodies such as SERA and been used t o give an unjustifiable BSSRS, but until 'mainline' scepticism, impression of a situation giving rise to particularly about unemployment, little concern. The report says there is surfaces, significant conservation D.F. Shaw in conservation and De- no direct evidence that organohalogens policies appear unlikely. Indeed here is a velopment of Marine and Coastal have been harmful to human life. Both report which seems happy tinkering Resources makes some controversial PCB's and dioxin have been clearly with twentieth century machinery proposals regarding human activities incriminated, so is this a deliberate or an instead of giving a thorough overhaul. in environments ranging from coastal accidental 'dilution'? Likewise discussing Social and political education at schools lagoons and sand .dunes, to deep sea mercury and cadmium, the report is and youth clubs is great and is acknowregions. He, suggests cessation of agri- deceptively placatory. Discharges of ledged, but as Schumacher said, 'You cultural compensation pay by the heavy metals seem to be a thing of the :an play many tunes on the same piano, Nature Conservancy Council, under past, though later they are much reduced. nit it's still only piano music.' t h e Wildlife and Countryside Act No recommendations are made t o deal "ontroversies are recognised as 1981; notes the threat to soft coast- with these pollution problems, including ~rtant tuition, hence there's SUPlines from wave energy Salter Ducks; oil spills which are adroitly swept under for political education. But and advises that the UK'S discharges of the carpet. stry gets off lightly: 'Industries radioactive materials 'be reduced to One glaring omission is that of UK whose activities have a ... harmful levels regarded as acceptable' by other rights and responsibilities for its fisheries mpact on the environment should 'reprocessin@ countries. Recommendat- zone. which extends in many areas, out ievelop internal advisory services.' ions cover "the protection of habitats, to 200 miles from the coast. In recom[t seems blindingly naive. If advice is reduction of persistent toxic wastes, mending the extension of planning to pay out on alternative processes its and safeguards to prevent over fish- control t o the seas the report restricts iffect will be marginal. Caught in the ing in the Atlantic, and suggest a new itself to 3 miles, the current limit of our

the shallows~

~~~

the towns to the wunkydde. The report recommends plÃ§nnin

{rom

controls on agricultural operations, a

more enlightened system of countryside designation M& mom stringent Mfeguards against, and penalties for, mildeeds. Yet it doesn't deal at all adequately with this most fundamental issue of power. And it simply isn't 'good enough to suggest that, when family Incomes are low, 'put-time and home-basedworitshouldbe encouraged.' Wouldn't it be more constructive if the put its weight behind the h p a i g n for a minbum nation@l wage and, particularly, for higher incomes for agricultural and allied workers? The report recommends reforms, extensive research programmes (and budgets) Mid forecasts of resoutee needs. But If this contribution to the state of the British countryside would Â¥Is confront and challenge the kind of politics implicated in the mess and do so with the language and spirit found in Rachel &son's Stlent Spring, a few heads might turn. As it if, they may but nod - in tacit agreement because no feathers have been truly ruffled. Despite this the report is imagiiutive. The Ãˆectio on forestry nukes timely I reading (world timber we elqinking but so are sensible i&u fawoodland conservation). &= WeiÃˆal

Ã‘Ã‘Ã‘Ã‘

tiom. t he key to this report,' uyi the report, 'ia an insistence Uut we u*

bothmartfrotbnatureud*putof nnhmf W e a n e f t p a r t o f m h ~ b u t w e only thinft we are xput fttnflt and - -

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Or forests of the A n p o d Buin an bein{deitloyeddeÃ§f>itÃ§-uniq ecoloficalfifmtty,andimportancea*a

naturalhe1 and chemical report also comes u known facts. Cornpwing a -*hat

1 ethics The

future of the world depends 01 to I

a widespread public commitment

responsible attitude to the environment' Environmental ethnics thus has i simple nmmage. The complexity of thi .. , Professor J. R,. ..Be?,. . , .no ..<,;:.: .. -. .I.. ;;: - .:-.>:;-- ' . : ,"& ."*:

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myWai'Mturti'humm,whosubtists on 2,500 calories uid 60 grams of protein a (toy, a certain .Chariot Btmb reckon* that. 'A Wit erf population

today, In the developed world consist* ofahurnanbeing wrappedintoluof steel, copper,, -*, lead, tin, gobbling up 6 O b of and many pounds of

energy ', -. .His-"-"* *.t^: ,' .'"Â¥" -'Ã‡Â£. - ,"

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dumping cue after which nothin] and the uuie of the lorry driver dll ping cyanide and caustic soda, lo& the tbumt-niinded DOE. 'Leave t planet in a condition in which 9 that!) were 1muld like to find if would not & IK>wttl>b bÃ§dogan for the 1980'Ã§for everyo:

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^Sf and nuke informative decteions about it. John Bainm nuveys thecuirent e t a of environmental education in Britain, and concludes that although recent in origin it has made a healthy impact. A list of 24 aims k included, the heart of the report being recommendations for a h e w o r k ~ m p t b i n g cootiiraing education for adults-, conservation vocational eounec upport for lostnicton both through academic lugesandmgbnÃ§len~oninenta centres-, and M y 'IB unprecedented publicity

system a firm fails in its primary duty making profits if it adopts PI-

Department of Maritime Affairs. Commendably, this report sugge different from its competitors. that planning controls be extended ~n The report admitt this to a certain to sea. A Department of ~aritim extent: 'policy-makers' should undersbe set up, and lorband the ne^d for consemtion; there fighing communities given priority 1 should be Sbufor it- fishing in their own areas, and protect Bat the dechbn-makers once from distant fleets exploiting thi enlightened, see the &bnal p ~ t h ?The qewurces. The Control of Pollution ACT author thinks so; thus the 1974 should be brought into force e m ~ on w w x k m k knowledge, and where estuarine and coastal activifi lesson the feelings, and ability to express are concerned; and coastal habita should be better protected by remov' those faelingd. campaign.' In 8-9 this report is a valuable certain exemptions from plann Those environmentalistswho demand sumarY excellent education control which currently benefit agriculthat young people be taught the eco- already existing. But conservation ture to the detriment of coastal ness. horrors to come are often surprised to means making wnservation not a Licensing for waste-dumping operation learo there's a lot of environmental fringe luxury- In punuit of consems must also be tightened up. education going on already. the whole strategy flounders. Where is Yet report is acute This report summarises the state of the sense of wonder, outrage and disappointw'in some of its &ti: p l q ; in schools, in youth groups, and urgenc~in this Stephen Joseph coverage and assessment of some o look; at the role ,of the media, the the more serious problems. pmfessions, industry, unions and governOne cardinal error is that ma ment. According to the report, any (sic) activities have a small effect polit* party could promote environthe seas, because, among other reasons, meptal education. Of course, that's the marine environment is less accessible probably the idea. Tie Conservation to man. As anyonewho has worked on Strategy has . been conceived and marine pollution matters knows, this developed to minimise conflict, 'sell' leads to enormous problems in idenconservation to everyone {rom rich to tifying the effects of toxic and persispoor, from powerful to powerless, from tent pollutants, particularly heavy metals top industrialist t o YOPper. 'mis has and organohalogens, because it is difficertain consequence! for education. cult to monitor their effects. Nowhere Firstly the conservation under view though does the report mention this. 5 - r ' is disfinctiv narrow. a common environIn fact here an opinions that can only mentalist, green, ecologist failing. ~t be sustained with such lack of evideftce. lacks the undentandinf that until such Thus: 'Many of the effects of (man's) t@ tint. environment$ movement activities ... are of minor importance shows any interest in conserving people consisting of slight damage to the Ã§well as ptaats it's hound to have a low habitat or a ~ ~ I u Ureduction in the priority. . sentence, numbers four of camouflage o m m s :words In have one, AH the work hazards cam@- have been run by bodies such as SERA and been used to give 6 unjustifiable 3SSR.S. hut until 'mainline' scepticism, impression of a situation giving to ~ c , aboutu unemployment, ~ little concern. The report shy8 there is Mrfaces, significant conservation D.F. Shaw in Conservation and De. no direct evidence that o&halogens policies a p p h unlikely. Indeed here is a velopment of ,Marine and Coastal tore been harmful to human life. Both report which seems happy tinkering Resources make* some controversial PCB's and dioxin have been clearly vMt twentieth century machinery proposals regarding human activities incriminated, so is this a deliberate or an t n p d of giving a thorough overhaul. in environments ranging from coastal accidental 'dilution'? Likewise discussing and political education at schools lagoons and sand dunes, to deep p a mercury and cadmium, the report is W& youthclubs is great and is acknowregions. He suggests cessation of agri- deceptively placatory. Discharges of lodged, but as Schumaeher said, 'You cultural compensation pay by the heavy metals seem t o be a thing of the can play many tunes on the same piano, Nature Conservancy Council, under past, though laterthey are much reduced. butif &lstilly l piano music.' t h e Wildlife and Countryside Act No recommendations are made t o deal Contlowisies are recognised as 1981; notes the threat soft coast- with these ollution problems, including important tuition, hence there's suplines born wave energy Salter Ducks, oil spills w ch are adroitly swept under port for political education. But and advises that the UK'S d i e s of the carpet. industry gets off lightly: 'Industries radioactive material* 'be reduced to One glaring omission is that of UK harmful levels r&ed whose activities have a as acceptable' by other rights and responsibilities for its fisheries Impact on the environment should 'reprocessing' countries. Reconunendat- zone, which extends in many areas, out develop internal advisory 'services.' ions cover the protection of habitats, to 200 miles ftom the coast. In recomIt seems bIindh@y naive. If advice is reduction of posistant t@c wastes, mending the extension of planning to pay out on alternative processes its and safeguards tb p t over fish- control to the seas the report rest+@ rffect will be mxtgiod. Wt in the i6g in the ~tlantic,and a new itself to 3 miles,the cufmt Un&ot our

;-.

Coasting in the shallows1

...

Â¥enitorin seas. Yet these are shortly to sees a common thesis in the WCS the Global 2000 Report, and citeÃ ias primary responsibility tor what already well establlihed bodies --DOE, Mppens out to 200 miles. In this it is UNEP, EEC, MAW, FAO, and OECD zither ignorant or timid. This affects the for instance .- as the world's ecological 'actual elements of the Appendix listing task force. The Commonwealth secretirotected species. Only two species of ariat could c o d i n a t e scientific aoixtlolphin are listed, yet all cetaceans are an-, but NGOs AouU 'be conddered obwrrers' at n fact now pmtected within our for membership as. Ishetiea limits. It fails to identify the conventions and treaty meeting!, and ~azard to small cetaceans from drift they should form a new, political lets, which kill uncounted numbers. coalition with the 'greed and the Timidity chtinues regarding the 'flora and fauna' lobby. 3ontrol of Pollution Act. 1984 will be The Strategy rather confirms my feeling .he tenth anniversary of its passage that the invention of the quality of life hmugh pdiament, yet nothing has was a diversion from the buic issue that wen done to put It Into force for some people have got more access to stuaries and coastal waters, where quality than others. emedial action is & urgent. Surely Sandbmok admitsthe WCS and UNEP en yens is long enough for local lack credibility with government*, NGOt ~uthoritiea and industry to prepare and international agench. He says that 'or the financial burden of cleaning part of the reason for Hie "apparent IP? tack oFinterest of Govramentf la the In summary, a report which appeal's WCS is tatit** not clear what lt's rÃˆÃ‡ o cover facts, q m up the impact of trying to addreu". Oi is one cynic put iuman activity, and make wide-ranging it "what exactly is it not trying to Â¥ecommendation for a long term address". Sandbmok has to admit that itrategy, but which fails to do so the VVCS encompasses so much the idequately, and gives a misleading reader is left bennued. mpresgion of all being wen. We have a The Report fall* down on its blyiseful framework for writing a proper ami platitudinous auumptionthat global itrategy, but one that requires eor- interdependence Is the w ~ yand the Â¥ectingtoughening up, and extending, truth; a light shining from Europe on Jamm Gordon-dark the developing world that will surely dispel the darkness of the world's poor, otherwise doomed t o a gbomy, ruinous and above dl untidy existence. Hence the unity of interest between protecting panda* and pandering to mme of the needs of the poor. W b r o o k says that Brandt1s cause for interdependence is a powerful statement. But then he his to acknowledge that statel are now keen to guide their oversea* policy toward: domeetic economic and military security. He longs for sustainable development, prosperity and growth based on equitably shared resources, then admits that we are inmisingly vulnerable to disputes over resources. The xecurity of our (UK) sources of food, energy and raw materials are of primary concern. Of course that's true. We are still mole powerful than our suppliers. So why pretend equality between unequals? British aid has gone into reverse thrust qn environmental issues. "The more aid flows towards those =ton filth globalist determination to tackle favoured by political, industrial and I vast number of interrelated issues commercial criteria the less likely his report is the UK'S eye on environ- they are to arrest such environmental n a t a l decline overseas. British policy, damage". The author points out that agues J.R. Sandbrook, will be based on the Natiortal Resources Advisory Group he 'interdependence of nations. He has been shut down. that environmental

be extended to 12 miles, and the UK

Aid and 1 imperialism

research in the Qvpeas Development Administration h&%een cut, and thft there is greater use o f dto promote and sustain British exprts and industrial activity. Indeed that if we need more tropical hardwood then someone else needs a large hole in their forest. The eurocentric assumptions set out in this Report are blatant, archaic,sometimes amazing. On aid: "Massive expenditure on inns and overt corruption by a few have not helped the Northern public- to open their cheque books.' WI!y assume that corruption equate a 'Southern problem' when the corrupting influences are so often Northern? If we don't really want developing countries to buy our guns perhaps we should not try to sell them in the first place! If France, Russia, the USA and Britain want the WCS to work they could stop providing the gear to blast the world apart. Imperialism abounds. "In the case of minerals, oil and gas in Antartio, one suspects the UK will go (or the very highest of standards for environmental control without saying no to exploration and exploitation altogether". These aft the high standards one suspects will also apply to the Falklands! So very clearly he who arrives first with a gunboat - or second with a bigger gunboat has the moral and political right to dig up a continent (whilst protecting the highest environmental standards). With them multiple pearis of wisdom it's no wonder the great search for the all purpose environmental gWd platitude Is not gaining ground. This Report begins with a statement from the Chairman of the WCS Review Group to the UK, "The Group . . . supporttd the thesis that the UK is in a strong position to respond positively to issues railed in the World Conservation Strategy". This is true. As General de Gaulle Ã‘i when he announced that France had exploded a nuclear weapon - France b now in a very good position t o co~tributeto nucleir disarmament

talks.

Teny hcey

The reports rev:ewed appear in The Conservation and Development Programme, price Â £ 1 4 . 9 from 5 Kogan Page Ltd., 120 Pentonville Road, London, W 1 . ( Popular edition by bavid Bellamy evailab later this year 1.

Gor Saga. Maureen Duffy. Methuen Â£2.50 Gor is short for Gordon; also for gorilla, because Gordon is half ape and half human, the product of a gorilla ovum f e r t i i i d with human sperm in vitro and then replaced in the womb to be born 'naturally'. The experiment is done by Norman Forester, Head of the Primate Department at a Ministry of Defence Research Institute; but it is an unofficial experiment, uncommissioned, and secret t o Forester himself. "While all the rest were speculating about the possibility he had quite simply pulled it off. Even the Russians who had been rumoured to have been trying since the early seventies hadn't made it yet or word would have got out." When Mary, Gor's gorilla mother, rejects the baby after a painful birth, Forester has the problem of keeping the secret until it is clear that Gor is a success, not 'mad, monstrous, sterile'. Forester delivers him first t o a lab assistant and his wife, and then, when she becomes too emotionally attachec t o the infant, to a commercial breeder of animals for research. But Gor turns out t o be too human to be passed off as pure ape, so he's promptly fostered out t o a poor family, the Bardfields, ant! then despatched to a private boardin. school. Forester continues t o delay the moment of revealing his creation, now top of his class in art and athletics, his singular origins unsuspected by anyone, even himself. Though Forester has a remarkable contempt for the apes he works on daily, he wants Gor to prove the equal of the most privileged young men in his society. "How much greater the impact would be if he could place before the world a young man of status, and then whisk the cloth away and show the ape, rather than a clever monkey punching the right buttons with a human forefinger." But Forester has a daughter, Lucretia. At her fourteenth birthday party she gets Gordon drunk and entices him t o kiss her. Forester is enraged; Gor flees. The experiment is out of control. For the first time Gor is really alone in the world, though he is not to know how uniquely alone until later. Duffy's novel is set in the near future, around the end of the present century. She describes a Britain of

increased stratification, with an upper class secure behind a fence of high technology, and everyone else locked firmly outside. The 'nons' (non-achievers? non-Us? nonentities?) have to fight for lobs whose number, meaning and purpose have been eroded by autonation. Mr Bardfield is one of the chronic unemployed', Mrs Bardfield has B part-time cleaning job. They foster :hildren for the money, but still can't afford the water to flush the loo more than once a day. Keeping Foresters and Bardfields apart are armed police with ipparently limitless powers. The cities are crumbling due t o ipidemics, malnutrition and despair. Birmingham and Bristol have deserted nner streets and peripheral shanty .owns. The outer boroughs of the capital lave emptied and been bulldozed to nake a new green belt: "London had W r n e d to almost the configuration it tad had a t its zenith a t the beginning of he nineteenth century." Clearly, if iome aspects of Duffy's bleak dystopia ,~ggest the London of Booth and Sickens more than one we might yet see n our own lifetimes, it is partly because M a i n is indeed runfling backwards .awards a society with a leisured gentry md a downtrodden populace. On the )ther hand, if Duffy had made that shift nore complex she would have made it nore convincing too. GorSaga ismuch stronger on political han on narrative conviction. For nstance, it seems extraordinary that a cientist as callous, manipulative and >pportunistic as Forester continually hows himself to be would contrive a breakthrough' like Gar and then not !yen try to capitalii on it. He works for

the MOD, yet conceals Gor from thi Army, who would surely welcome ; cheaper way than Basic Training fa produce 'intelligent sub-humans'. Hi remarks that 'a species of animati robot' would make a good domestit servant, yet pursues this tenuous an( awkward fantasy of having Gor turnec into 'a young man of status' by othei people, in institutions and their home where his secret could be discoveredanj minute. Forester's motives must be ambiguou! at best, but Duffy says little about them. Even more surprisingly, she makes next to nothing of Gor's double nature, which any science fiction writer would cultivate for a very special viewpoint OB life in general. Apart from one rathei stagey scene in the woods with Go1 lamenting his lot like a sort of inverted Tarzan, she treats him ashuman throughout. Everyone who is introduced t o Go1 as a young gorilla thinks he looks rather odd; no-one who is told he is a boy has a moment's uncertainty, not even a surgeon who operates on his larynx. An undecided reader would hardly be persuaded of any part of the case for animal rights by the imaginary example af Gordon, wretched as his suffering is. Instead Duffy uses him as an unfixed [officially non-existent) person in a very rigid society, moving him in and out, up md down, to reveal that society from iifferent angles. As a human, she draws lim well, as she does most of her ;haracters, observing them distinctly md appraising them neatly. It is good to see a talent for individual :haracterisation being put to the service i{ a communalist vision when Gor ends ip in a camp of 'UGs' (urban guerrillas, hough the pun seems to be uninzntional) with the survivors pf the 3ardfield family. No longer terrorists, h e UGs have developed fanner "no-go ireas" into "independent autonomous !ommunities within the cities. . . urban iillages if you like." Duffy is rather r a p e about how they live there other than that people are nice to each other ind put flowers on the tables. She also, Â¥athedisappointingly, winds down to a .raditional romantic happy ending, so hat the focus is finally on individuals inding bliss in the oasis of the camp, 'ather than on the values of the camp woviding a credible alternative to the lesert of civilisation all around. Even so, this unexpected glimpse of itopia in a dreary i n d depressing andscape brightens the view no end. An :xtremely uneven book, but a spirited ind sympathetic one. Colin Greenland

Undercurrents 60 Summer 1983 4 Letters 5 Eddies - News Round up 6 Brave Green World - Peter Culshaw visits the Green Rally and gets out his election swingometer 8 Green Gatherings 83 14 A Cynics A-Z Guide to Sizewell 16 World Conservation Strategy - the cons and pros 22 Beast News - John May’s animal column 25 Gory Tales - An everyday story of men, women and gorillas 26 Briefing - Events, contacts and action for the summer. 31 Espionage conspiracy expose - John Le Stalin & Subscriptions _________________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Undercurrents fun-packed summer special. The issue is mainly concerned with two different approaches to the ecological crisis - the Green Gatherings and the World Conservation Strategy. The WCS is a blueprint sponsored mainly by the World Wildlife Fund whereas the Green Gatherings are an attempt to create a grassroots movement for change, where you don’t have to be an expert to make a contribution. We’ve produced a cheaper issue than normal, without our usual non-ecological glossy cover, partly to save on the print bill, and partly to enable us to reach as many people as possible at the Gatherings and festivals this summer. The summer is always a bad time for the magazine financially, and the closure of many of our usual outlets has hit us. In the past, when the magazine has been financially skating on thin ice, we’ve been fortunate to receive some donations and more subscriptions from our readers and we hope this great tradition will continue. So keep inflation down and recycle your cash now. We’re introducing a subscription offer - if you subscribe now, you receive three back issues absolutely free, gratis, no charge. The other good news is that a major newsagent distributor has expressed an interest in selling Undercurrents, which opens up all kinds of possibilities for us. We’re intending to change the look and feel of the magazine - perhaps when you write in you could mention what changes you’d like to see. And if you’ve got some time on your hands, whether as a member of the UB40 three million or not, get in touch if you’d like to help with the production or administration of the magazine. This was not a party political broadcast. _________________________________________________________________________