UC05 Winter 1973

56

description

The magazine of radical science and alternative technology

Transcript of UC05 Winter 1973

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UNDERCURRENTS Winter 1973 CONTENTS

Transfiguration among the Windmills ............. .3 The Sunship: Towards a Peoples' Airship.. ......... 5 Big Dams Cast Dark Shadows .................. .9 Class War Comix.. ........ 14 Velikovsky : State of the Debate ................ .I6

.................. Letters. .2 1 Three Ways to Work

............. up Wind Watts 23 ~ e c h n o l o ~ ~ for

........... Decentralisation 25 ... Lyle's Golden Gasmask.. 33

...... Paolo So1eri:Interview .36 Canned Heat: Steve

........ Baer's Solar House. 39 .............. ... Hic! Cups .40 -.-.

The Plastic's Not for .................. Burning - 4 1

Why The Pentagon Loves Pure Research.. .... .43 Methane- Fuel of the

.................... Future 44 Inner Space Scientific

......... Expedition 1973.. .45 Car Batteries and ,

............... Enthusiasm 46 S S and Broadcasting.. .... 47. Can You Repeat Your

........ Gessage . please ? .48 ........... Self -Sufficiency. 49 ........... Snap Judgemehts 5 0 --.

Double Vision? Second ..................... View. 51

............. Subscriptions 52

I t is UNDERCURRENTS policy not to car ry display advertising, but we do include small ads a s a service to readers. Small Ads cost Ip per word, up to a maximum of 150 words (bigger ads by arrangement), and must be pre-paid. Small Ad Copy Date for the next issue i s January 26, 1974. Coov date for feature material for the next issue is Saturday, January 19th. For news in the EDDIES section, the deadline is Saturday, February 2nd.

Our Phase 3 Policy WHEN UNDERCURRENTS f irs t started, back in January 1972, our aim was to produce a quarterly magazine consisting of articles on radical scientific and technological subje~ts~pr in ted , where possible, by the people writing them and collated into the "common carr ier1 ' of a plastic bag. In May 1972, we experimented with a cellophane bag, but found it wasn't strong enough and anyway was non-reusable, so we went back to much- maligned polythene. Meanwhile, in the Autumn of 1972, we decided to print our news section, EDDIES, separately, and mail a copy each month to our ^ subscribers.It seemed like a good idea at the time- a s indeed it was, But, perhaps predictably, we found that EDDIES was taking up a disproportionate amount of our very limited time, with the result that both EDDIES and UNDERCURRENTS have suffered from chronic production delays. And when you consider that EDDIES still has to be collated, folded, stuffed into envelopes and addressed entirely by hand, for reasons of economy, it isn't too surprising that our all-volunteer workers haven't always been able to deliver the goods. As for the polythene bag, well, people seem to have loved it or hated it in almost exactly equal numbers. And although we still think it 's a good idea, we feel that UNDERCURRENTS would have to turn itself into an entirely different kind of glossy, expensive magazine to be able to pay contributors the cost of producing inserts. What we've found up to now is that while many people a re keen to send us "paste-ups" of their articles for us to print in the magazine, almost no-one has come along and spontaneously offered ready-printed material for inclusion. Those inserts that we have carried in the past have all, without exception, been requested by us. The reason for peoples' lack of enthusiasm for the insert idea i s fairly obvious: inserts cost money to print, and contributors, understandably, would rather we did the paying. SO, TO CUT A LONG STORY SHORT, we've recently been going through what's commonly known a s an "agonising re-appraisalf1. We sincerely apologise to our long-suffering readers and subscrib- e r s who must have thought we'd decided to fold without telling them. F i rs t of all, we 've decided to abandon the polythene bag format - thought we're still toying with the idea of occasional, special publications in "bag" form . Secondly, we've resolved to cut the number of mailings down from a ( theoretical) 16 a year to six, re-incorporate EDDIES into UNDERCURRENTS, and produce the thing a s a conventional magazine . Incidentally, this should mean that a lot of bookshops will s tar t stocking the magazine: quite a few -- Collett's of London, for example -- have refused to take it in i ts polythene bag incarnation. It'll take us a while to get geared up to bimonthly publication, so the first issue of UNDERCURRENTS-Phase 3 won't be out until the end of February , 1974. ABOUT THAT COVdR PRICE INCREASE. Let's talk about the financial state of the magazine first.As of the end of October, the magazine as a whole had run up a deficit of around £70 We owe the bank about £80 and £5 or so in ( to inside back covei

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I CAN HARDLY bring myself to say it. It feels like lacking my grandmother. But.. .pass the word friends. . .I think . . .AT IS DEAD. It was a wonderful dream, and we, the children of Hamlin, followed i t dancing through the streets. I'm glad we did. On the walls of Paris in 68 they wrote "The revolution which is beginning will call into question not only capitalist society but industrial society.. . .We a re inventing a new and original world. Imagination is seizing power." Imagination i s seizing power. I always find such romantic bullshit irresistible, a s do many of us. Combine that weakness with our faith in what, for all our protestations, we all believe to be the real god of the Universe -science -and you have an idea whose appeal i s irresistible. Well, it 's led me a merry dance for three years, and now it's time to move on. Just to get i t out of my system, I am going to recount my own experience of the idea a s i t developed up to the conference of Alternative Technology at Laurieston Hall in Scotland, October 1973. I was then going to outline what we should do, and to show that in reality AT is not dead but transformed into something else. But UNDERCURRENTS i s only so big, and that will have to wait for another time.

Remember the beginnings of the ecology movement? In the 60's i t became fashionable to worry loudly about population growth, pollution and , depletion of natural resources. By the 70's this had grown to quite a substantial middle-class movement in which apocalyptic rhetoric seemed quite appropriate. I for one was convinced that Armageddon was not far away; advanced industrial society was leading the world to ruin, whether bang- type o r whimper-type I wasn't quite sure, but anyhow it looked pretty nasty. In 1970 there was a conference at Imperial College called "Threats and Promises of Science", which somehow never got round to the promises. That doughty old Stalinist Eric Burhop valiantly defended the gods of science, but i t all fell on deaf ears.

Ted Roszak was the hero of the hour, and we sat there chilled and enthralled as he quietly anathematised the whole technical culture. We were all set for a pathetically joyous return to the Stone Age. Later that year a band of Luddite desperadoes, including Robin Clarke, Jerry Bavetz, Kit Pedler, Gustav Metzger, David Dickson and Piers Corbyn met to discuss the matter. Robin Clarke wrote a little paper called "The Third Alternativew. Yes, he said, the future of industrial society was

WHEN MUGGERIDGE went over to the side of God and the Angels, there was great rejoicing, no doubt, among the Lord Longfords and the Mary Whitehouses that this inveterate cynic had rejected his evil ways and begun to believe in all the things he'd been so successfully knocking for all those years.

Likewise, when Peter Harper starts claiming that "Alternative Technology is Dead", there are likely to be knowing smiles in Establishment circles. But before they start offering him Shell directorships, maybe they'd better read this article. For it's not so much that AT is dead: it's more a question of tactical withdrawal and re-grouping in preparation for an even more powerful attack on the technocracy. Watch this space for further details.. . . . .

TRANSFIGURATION AMONG THE WINDMILLS

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ffe MONOPOLY CAPITALISM ?

*THE SOUL-DESTROYING MON

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UNDERCURRENTS Winter 1973

catastrophic, but negotiating a transition to the stone age seemed a bit tricky. What was needed was indeed a "Third Alternative" that would give us the best of both worlds. And Science and Technology? Well, yes, but a science and a technology; a new worldview which would integrate objective knowledge with subjective experience, reflect our real dependency on the natural world and incorporate the canons of the new eco-socialist morality; and a new array of tools and techniques that would:

operate on low amounts of energy; not irreversibly disperse non- renewable resources; use local and easily accessible materia1s;recycle materials locally; not produce waste products a t a greater rate than they could be absorbed by the natural cycling processes; not liberate novel chemical compounds in more than trace amounts; fit in with existing culture patterns; satisfy those who operate it; lend itself to control by those who operate it; have safe- guards against misuse.

F a r out! At this point we had also coined the term "soft technology", copied with ironic intent from the then current wave of detergent adverts for "New'. Soft! DAZ" etc. Evidently a lot of other people had a similar idea because the name i s now very widely used and I can hardly believe i t diffused from that group. /

Then I went to the States and met various groups like the New Alchemists who were into the same sort of thing, but in a more practical way. That looked real enough. The rumour machine was working overtime. Anecdotes and snappy statistics about the collapse of American society and the world ecosystem circulated endlessly, along with heady stories about the massive yields on .

this o r that organic farmstead o r the willing megawatts that could be magicked from backyard windmills a t the flick of a screwdriver. I t all seemed so right.

When I got back I managed to wring some money out of UNESCO to do a report on Soft Technology in which I tried to systematise the case for AT research. I argued that the potential problems of industrial societies (resources, environment, "alienation" etc .) were insoluble with big-scale technology and needed small-scale stuff. At the same time I argued that development in the Third World could not succeed with the current type of capital-intensive technology and also needed small-scale stuff - intermediate technology a la Schumacher, in fact. What a beautiful picture! a universally valid land of

technology applicable to all regions of the world which solved physical (resources, environment) and social (alienation in all i ts forms, capital accumulation etc .) problems with equal ease. The philosophers1 stone had nothing on this.

There was, of course, a problem in distinguishing "soft" from other technology. I s there a clear test for softness? Compare i t with intermediate technology. You can look at an equipped workplace, ask "is i t intermediate?" and answer yourself by determining the capital cost. If it 's less than say £300 then you could say clearly, according to that criterion, i t was. With soft technology it was all done by an intuitive sense of appropriateness, roughly gauged by the standard benchmarks of wind, sun, methane, rammed earth, waterwheels, compost heaps, free- range hens and a partridge in a pear tree. As soon a s I say this you note the ecological influence. Environmental impact was one area in which you could possibly measure "softness", and I was considerably influenced by Nick Holliman's unpublished paper "Towards an .Ecologically-Based Technology", in which he argued that once the criteria of ecological stability were satisfied then everything else followed (including "liberation from drudgeryw, "independence from large production units", "political self- sufficiency", "freedom from manipulation by elites" etc.) Even I couldn't go that far, and felt you had to wire in all the desirable political aspects separately, but I couldn't help being attracted by the tangibility of ecological criteria. This ecological bias was reinforced by meeting Andy MacKillop, who used the term "bio technic~~~ to describe the kind of groovy all-purpose technology he wanted.

Andy and I organised a meeting in February 1972 at University College called "Alternative Technologies". I think that was the first time the term had been used publically. I can't remember why we chose it, but probably it was something to do with the associations that the word "alternative" had picked up during the 60's (is that right Andy?) The meeting was a shambles, but a lot of eager people were there and some prophetic things happened in the general discussion. I particularly remember the plaintive cry, "what's all this about revolution? I came here to talk about windmills." No comment. The papers later printed up in the "proceedings" gave a nice over- view of where alternative technologies were a t in the fields of economic development, food, medicine, bits of politics, and in theory. Robin Clarke's

paper "The Soft Technology Research Community" (later reprinted in UNDERCURRENTS No. 2) was particularly significant and influential. It put forward a plan for AT research based in a community specially set up for the purpose, guided by the principle "Technology valid for all men for all time" (Parenthetical note from Lyn Gambles, proofreader: "and women?"). Perhaps the most valuable part of the paper was a table contrasting features of "hard technology society" with ideal features of "soft technology society". It was outrageously partial, but unrivalled a s a kicking-off for discussion

UNDERCURRENTS, too, started that month, and I think STREET FARMER around that time as well. In the States, ALTERNATIVE SOURCES OF ENERGY was getting off the ground, and WHOLE EARTH CATALOG, MOTHER EARTH NEWS and NEW ALCHEMY INSTITUTE ; BULLETIN had been around for some 1

time. Many of us had read Bookchints famous "Towards a Liberatory I

Technology", but judged i t not sufficientlj , neo-primitive. Later that year, there was a meeting at the Poly of Central London but nothing came of it; then there was the UN conference in Stockholm and an exhibition of "People's Technology" and nothing came of that either, except to 1 earn what incredible effort i s required to get such things together.

One spinoff from that was an attempt to further define the scope of AT which 1 became the Undercurrents "Guide to Sources and Contacts in Alternative Technology", published in No. 3 : "not , only the relations of production, but the means themselves must be changed". Alph Moorcraft did his special issue of ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN on "Designing for Survival" and the RIBA had its ~ conference on the same topic. The first SURVIVAL SCRAPBOOK was published. The Street Farmers a t last found a patch of turf and started to build Street Farm House (nee Eco House), and a group in Sheffield started Rad-Tech-in- Pact (nee Communal Factories). There was an inconsequential meeting in Leatherhead, and another in Richmond.

It was good to see the brethren together, and to hear about all the plans and projects, but i t was difficult t o d o anything collectively. There was no organisation except when anyone felt like inviting everyone else to be somewhere a t some time. Terminology was important: there was no "group"; there were no "meetingst'; simply "gatherings of enthusiasts". Suddenly paranoia gripped the a i r . Things got so bad that whoever convened a meeting would feel obliged to stay away, lest the:

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UNDERCURRENTS Winter 1973

DEAR UNDERCURRENTS, Sorry to see

you wasting your space on Velikovsky. Velikovsky is a good test for literacy in science. It takes rather better than 6th form science to see thru* Velikovsky. Which is why reaction is able to use him as a vehicle for yet another irrationalism to confuse and divert the public.

Frank Quelon 190 York Road, Stevenage, Herts SG1 4HH

abroad? DEAR UNDERCURRENTS

I didn't exactly regard myself as swept away by your reply to my points of disagreement with Velikovsky's theories. i The records we hold of BC astronomical happenings are rather numerous and come from Europe, the Middle East, the Far East and Central America amongst other areas. All of these are and have been studied from a conventional background since the middle of the last century. in direct contrast to the impression created in Worlds in Collision. And in direct contrast to Velikovsky's approach, the "straight" investigators have never crassly selected their evidence with great care to suggest an unusual event in the past, or seen any need to postulate one. The triumphs of palaeography in astronom- ical thought are too familiar to need elucidation, but include the identification of the Crab nebula with the 1054 Supernova and two minor nova/nebula identifications also from Chinese records. A recent paper in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society by F R Stephenson discusses the possibilities of this field. So the point that other scientists, some of them of the reputation of Lockyer, have paid attention to the value of these records, i s not a rebuttal of Velikovsky but must stand against him to some degree. The value of these investigations in the study, in particular,

of the orbit decay of Comet P/Halley, for which every opposition back to several handred year; BC is recorded, is unquest- ionably immense. But Velikovsky's writings, which have the atmosphere of the innocent abroad in practically every field he touches, cannot he so well received. The terms used (to speak of an area I know a little about) in the Oriental records are rather precise. "Lances" and a few other terms describe meteors, 'brooms" and a few others comets, "guest stars" almost exclusively covers novae and snpernovae, and so forth, with the terms "fixed" and "wandering" stars covering precisely what we mean by stars and planets. The upshot of this as I see it i s that If the object Velikovsky proposes appear- ed in the sky 3500 years ago a precise term for it would have been found, and 'comet' would not have been it. Another more serious point i s that the term comet in the context of this object i s of necessity, not the ancient astronomers term but Velikovsky's. While this might he a foolish error on the part of an ancient astronomer who knew nothing about the disposition of the material of the Solar System or of masses of celestial objects, it i s ridiculous on that of a person of the twentieth century 'AD who should. This cannot really be regarded as anything but a piece of obscurantism on Velikovsky's part, since apart from a lot of gas and an amount of rock it has nothing in common with what we call a comet. A particularly sad misunderstanding is the one in your item on geohydrocarbons, an expression, by the way, that I made up. It is the first rule of Geology that whatever we can see happening now can be found in trace form in geological structures. Thus we can see fossil meteorite craters, current bedding, delta deposits, glacial deposits, marine deposits, fluviatile and lacustrine deposits, lava flows, etc. etc. The point of this should be obvious; hydrocarbons are formed under quite well known geochemical conditions where- ever plant or sometimes animal material i s rotted under wet rather reducing conditions, and such items as pH, temperature and the like, collectively the facies, tell us the deposit, whether lignite or North Sea Gas, formed. I am sure that P V Smith wouldagree that hydro- carbons at present being deposited in the Gulf of Mexico are being formed in the same way as those we are at the moment so profligately ripping through and which are sealed in rocks of far greater age. Oil bears quite large 'amounts of dextral optically active compounds of undoubted biological origin, as well as organic pigments typical of plants, while even coal i s too full of plant fossils for a supraterrestial origin-to be proposed.

The few oils which lack such ingredients are known, and I mean - to be of algal origin and are, as usual, too well sealed in to have been affected even by such an object as Velikovsky proposes.

The next point i s the horns of Venus. The planet Venus, to cut a long story short, is easily seen to anyone with moderate eyesight to he homed while gibbous in phase, so that there i s no need for a horned comet to be invoken to account for the planet's portrayal as horned by (eg) Egyptian artists. Later on this year this appearance will be plain to anyone with a little patience and clear skies and should be able to be tested by seeing which way the cusps point and checking with binoculars. To return to Geology Lesson One, there are two sorts of animals; extinct and still living. Lingula, a brachiopod, has been going from 600 million years ago and shows no sign of becoming extinct. In African fossil hominid sites various m e s of and Australopithecus commonly coexist with present species such as monkeys and extinct ones such as Oryx spindex so, a big-homed oryx. The case of the Siberian mammoths, too. needs little amplification. And in modern times animal extinction both man-made and natural are familiar. I see no reason for man and now extinct animals coexisting in Florida a few thousand years ago to be evidence of anything in particular, except possibly that the site i s older than once thought. There is however, something in the current (September) issue of Skv and Telescope which I think should be in any good Velikovsky file. This issue contains a letter from S S Vsekhsvyatsky of the Astronomical Observatory, 252053 Kiev-53 USSR. He talks about proceedings at the 1970 International Astronomical Union Symposium on Comets, held in Leningrad. It is of course the accepted wisdom that comets, mostly long-period ones like Halley, disintegrate to give meteoroids and general dust. Earth-based observat- ions of meteor showers give elements of their orbits which compare closely with cometary ones and all the best meteor showers have a fairly likely parent comet. And in recent years it has become obvious that fainter comets can be captured by Jupiter and end up with asteroidal type orbits. At the sort of distance this involves they display very little tail, if any, and if the few definite cases of this effect had not been noticed until a little later they would certainly have been accepted as standard rocky asteroids. But Vsekhsvyatsky also says that he and a few colleagues have shown that "mighty" processes of eruptive evolution" are taking place in the Solar System, mainly of non-gravitational origin, and that the orbital peculiarities of short period comets "convincingly demonstrate" that they have formed from "ejections from the giant planets. " and that this eruption theory (due to Lagrange and not, as he claims, Velikovsky) i s "not simply a working hypothesis but a result of a well-rounded interpretation of many data about the Solar System and it's past." Although Comrade V would almost certainly have an apoplexy at the very idea, this is certainly the best pro- Velikovsky piece I have ever seen in print. But the idea that comets come from these planets is however, a far cry from saying that they can perform the tricks that Velikovsky requires of them in proximity of the Earth - the more so since the conclusions have been reached by rigorous celestial mechanics and not its precise opposite, as by Velikovsky. Maybe its good that Velikovsky should have

a hearing, although I can t understand why it should be so e n t h u s ~ t i c and unanimw after so long. Certainly it compares unfavourably with that given to UFO people who, if one sorts out the lunatics, a re a far more worthwhile class of investigators altogether, and whose case can scarcely be doubted.

Martin Ince 47 The Wiend, Rock Ferry, Birkenhead. L42 6RY (We hope to get round to UFO's soon!- Ed)

Methane ! for the love of Allah ! Dear Undercurrents,

We are a newly formed company involved in express collection and delivery and courier services, using at present 1 ton petrol driven vans. Our aim is to provide a high quality, honest but competetively priced service dedicated in and to the worship of Almighty Allah. In this respect our name for the company has been received and given to us, in Sanskrit, to embody the word-essence of 'perfect* with further connotations of 'completeness', 'fulfillment' and fulness'.

We are telling you this, not as an egoic statement, but only for an under- standing for alternative worldngs within the present system.

Our financial status i s precarious, as we are so newly formed, and for this reason and more obvious environmental considerations we are looking at methane as a means and source of power. We would he very pleased if you could send any available literature or information on alternative fuels, and suggestions that you have of your own.

We would also like to say that. God willing, if and when'we are able to make a profit (nett), up to 25% of this will be donated to charities of the Subud Spiritual Brotherhood. Yours in faith,

Charles M. Thorn Raphael A. J. Wise

sempuma Transport, 94, High Street, Sbepperton. Middx. TWIT 9BL

A bit of appreciation Dear Undercurrents,

Just a note of appreciation for your magazine (?), which we have found extremely useful - as well as fun to read! We have come to worry over long silences, fear that Undercurrents will burn itself out in the pattern of alternative mags - don't let it happen! Attaching a copy of a "profile" we sent to the Sheffield people (Dave, Robin, Mavis). If you list more people interested in the technology/economics of alternative group living, could you include us? We would like to hear from those with familia; concerns or practical experience, and

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will share any Information we have (al- though your alternative technology guide was so comprehensive that it would be the first thing we'd refer people to!).

Communally, David and Elena French.

But one recipient at least seemed mortally offended at what he regarded as an example of "inertia selling"!

Inertia

David and Elena French (Box A-46, Johnson State College, Johnson, Vermont 05656, U.S.A.) Age: 33 and 31. Daughter, Tana born May 1973. David i s American, Elena i s Balo-Russian, raised in Ethiopia. Trained as economist (David) and interpreter-trans- lator (6 languages) and Africanist (Elena). Special experience: work on feasability studies of industrial projects, done while adviser to Nigerian government (David). Currently writing a book together on communal work, covering graup action in U.S., China, Yugoslavia, Israel, and Europe: intermediate technologies suit- able to small groups; value transform- ations necessary for successful commun- alism; economic cooperation among communal groups; etc. Hope to find/ create an economically-productive, spiritually-questing, "extended familyw group to live with, preferably in rural area, not necessarily in U.S.

A month or so ago, we sent out the letter reproduced below to some 175 people who had previously expressed an interest in UNDERCURRENTS -- people who'd asked for sample copies, . or who'd written to us for one reason or another, or had expressed an interest in alternative technologies and related fields. Our hope was simply to remind them that UNDERCURRENTS was still in existence, and to suggest that they might like to subscribe. A fairly innocuous bit of sales promotion, you might think. . . . . . . . . .

GREETINGS:

Dear Undercurrents,

Please find enclosed a 30p. postal order in payment for the copy of Under- currents 4 which was mailed to me with- out my consent. As a concession to your position as a platform for the pro- ponents of alternative technology i am prepared to pay for this copy. However should i receive any further attemps at inertia selling i shall keep the material the statutory 6 months and then destroy it.

lncidently i find your justification for using a polythene bag in place of a bio- degradable one some-what hypocritical in view of your avowed policy of conserv- ation. Furthermore i suspect you where motivated by financial rather than ideological reasons. Your most humble savant

J. Wood, 68 'Nverton Road, Selly Oak, Birmingham B29 6BP

Petty- minded Dear Mr. Wood,

I assume that the reason you have adopted the graphically-peculiar habit of using a small "1" as the personal pro- noun, instead of a capital "I", i s that your

UMBHiaUIMIWTI 276, Finchlay Rood, London MW3, England. (tat01 794 2760)

We're seading you the enclosed soeclmen copies became you're one of a number of people who've expressed an Interest la what we've been doing over the past year or 80.

And to put it bluntly, we believe a browse through the pages of a recent indue of UNDERCURRENTS and EDDIES ought to tempt you into taking out a subscription.

UNDERCURRENTS , we think, has come a long way since it started early in 1972 with a dozen wildly optimistic subscribers and a circulation of about a thousand. We've notched up around 350 subscribers now, doubled the circulation, and launched EDDIES as a monthly eubscribers-only news bulletin, whir,'' we think isn't too bad for a magazine that's written, edited, designed, mailed and distribute ' entirely on a voluntary basis. Especially since, apart from one paid advertisement, we've s p a absolutely nothing on publicity -- until now, that la.

No one -- apart perhaps from our printers who work hard for their money -- makes a penny out of UNDERCURRENTS. Which la why a year's subscriotion will set you hack only the unazingly-reasonable sum of £1.8 ( If you live in the UK: it's £2.0 otherwise). for which you'll get four issues of UNDERCURRENTS and 12 issues of EDDIES.

As a matter of fact, our latest calculations show that due to postal rate increases and ç OB,

it'a now costing us a hit more than £1.8 to service each subscription, so from the next issue of UNDERCURRENTS 0nwf.d~ our subscription rates will have to 30 up.

But we're offering you a subscription at the old rate of £1.8 If you send us hack the form below before October 31, 1973 . We make this unbelievable offer not, we hasten to add, became we like losing money, hut because £1.8 in worth more to a cash-starved magazine in these inflationary times than £2.0 next year or maybe never.( and because we cunningly hwe that you'll get so hooked on UNDERCURRENTS and SDDIES that you'll go on renewing your subscriotion for year after year, and we'll get our money's worth that way . Anyhow, who cares about economiem?)

So why not give in to your Impulse-buylng instincts, reach for your cheque book and treat yourself to an orgy of UNDERCURRENTS and an excess of EDDIES? Our hank manager will love you, and we don't think you'll regret it.

Godfrk Boyle for UNDERCURRENTS

BY THE W6Y. If you decide you don't want the enclosed coriies, we'd be extremely grateful if you'd just write 'return to sendarm on the envelope and ooo it in a wst box. And If you'd like to keep the enclosed cooies hat don't want to subscribe, it would help us a lot if you could send us 3On for the cooy of UNDTRCURRENTS. And if you & subscribe, it would be nice if you could itart your sub with the issue we've just sent you (No 4). We want to keen the cost of this mailing to an absolute minimum. BUT OF COURSE, there io absolutely no obligation uwn you to do any of these things.

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mentality i s of a proportionately-diminut- ive stature.

I am returning at once your thirty pieces of copper in what i s probably a futile attempt to allay your suspicion that we "where (sic) motivated by financial rather than ideological reasons" in send- ing you a free copy of UNDERCURRENTS with the politely-phrased request that if you liked it you might care to pay for it, but with the emphatic assurance that there was "absolutely no obligation" on you to respond in any way.

Of course i t waa an emmple of "Inertia selling" if you choose to regard our action In such a petty-minded way.

Your Implied criticism that someone is making money out of UNDERCURRENTS can only be the result of the paranoia that i s evident through out your miserable letter. If you had taken even the slightest est trouble to ascertain the facts, you would have found that far from benefitting in any way fromtheir involvement with the magazine, most UNDERCURRENTS pmple have actually small - though not insignificant - sums of money as a result.

People help in writing and producing UNDERCURRENTS because they want to, and because they feel that what we're doing is in a small way worthwhile - and for no other reasons.

As for our use of Polythene bags, Mr. Wood, you might, perhaps, be forgiven for considering us misguided -we have argued the pros and cons repeatedly both inside UNDERCURRENTS and elsewhere -but I take the greatest possible exception to your label "hypocritical". The original decision to use polythene was taken for what seemed at the time to be very sound reasons, but the debate continues. The next issue of UNDERCURRENTS will. in fact, be produced experimentally in conventional magazine format so people can make a more accurate assessment of the arguments involved. Positive criticism from people like yourself would be welcome: but not the mindless opposition so offensively expressed in your letter.

Were it not for the fact that we Intend to publish that letter, and this reply, in the next issue of UNDERCURRENTS, I would be strongly tempted to destroy your nasty little note on the spot instead of keeping it for "the statutory six months", as the law apparently requires me do with unsolicited material that arrives through the post. But perhaps publicity for your narrow views in the letter pages of our magazine will be a more effective way of anathematising them than mere destruction could ever be. Yours indignantly, Godfrey Boyle.

UNREPENTANT CRiTiC Dear Undercurrents,

I find it some-what difficult to answer a letter couched in such terms, that uses emotionalism in place of logic and invective in place of reason. However i will attempt to reply point-by-point.

Why do I use a small letter "1" in- stead of a capital "I" for the personal pronoun. There i s no reason anymore than there i s a reason for the typing errors which infect your epistle. I would say though that your attempt to assess my intellect from a minor idiosycrasy shows a belief in Freudian analysis which is refreshingly old-fashioned in our modern age.

My allusion to your finacial motiva-

UNDERCURRENTS Winter 197:

Hon refered purely to your reason for adopting Polythene bags. However 1 would say if an effort to increase your circulation is not motivated at least partly by reasons of finance, you a r e r u m h g a most pecul- magazine. Further If you think it petty to be concern- ed about a technique which apart from be- ing legally and morally dubious is also a gross invasion of privacy. Then 1 can only say that i am glad 1 am petty minded.

I have never implied by word or deed that anyone is making excessive profits from Undercurrents: but now that 1 know the truth i would not dream of keep- ing my 'thirty pieces of copper". You must use it to help relieve the poverty of those who have.run into debt for such a noble cause. I have no wish to denigrate the efforts of those who contribute to an otherwise excellent magazine: but debt argues either inadequate cost control or to small a market to sustain your publication.

As to your use of Polythene bags the assumption which i made and which i f e d is strengthened by your admitted financiaJ inadequaces that you were motivated by financial rather than ideological reasons. seems reasonable, in view of the world plastic shortage, which would affect specialist suppliers first and price the material out of your reach. As t o the term hypocrit i s not the meaning of the t e r h one who professes one thing and does the direct opposite. Spurious arguementa about recycling do not conceal the fact, that in one issue you decry the waste of non-renewable resources, and then, utilise an artifact, which is profligate with them. As to your reference to only welcomhg constructive criticism. i fall to see why a comment on the ethical standard of your marketing effort should need to be constructive.

With reference to your intension to publish my previous letter, 1 have no objection to this: though i would remind you that publicity i s a sword with two edges, one of which is blunt.

Yours, J. Wood.

CANCER CLUE Dear Undercurrents,

Geof Watts' article on Cancer Research in ~ndercurrents/3 missed an important point:-

Why, in some people, do normal cells run wild and eventually Mil the whole organism?

I think the answer is that cells run wild when they aren't fulfilling their proper function, thus women get breast cancer through not suckling and ovarian cysts by not conceiving, whilst men get cancer in their balls from insufficient fucking (last victim I knew i s a sailor) and everyone gets lung cancer by trying to metabolize smoke.

I also think that although there is a direct link between, say, abstinence and cancer of the balls that there would be no incidence of cancer if citizens could release this blocked energy in harmonious and creative ways, but it i s a feature of twentieth century mankind to live in a completely repressive universe.

Even reactionary psycholcgists like Eysenck are researching the links between Cancer and "Stress."

Scientists seem to be searching for some philosphers stone to cure al l our ills. Change our civilization and its ills will disappear, as Chairman Mao once observed:-

"Let a thousand cancers bloom." David Redon

Snacksland Clovelly Court Nr . Bideford North Devon

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see 'Suburban Sunsharing' General-purpose Windmill Tower, mde 6 ft. diameter windmill A . C . Generator, made from from materials already acquired h-* Bicycle Hub-Dynamo, 8 Bamboo Poles , Cloth S a i l s , CD (commercial s l o t t e d angle) and Car -3 Aluminium Sheet, String e t c . w Dynamo, Swivelling Platform. Gears tec.

I

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UNDERCURRENTS Winter 1973

. . developed I The use of mustard gas during the Abyssinian campaign and

1 the subject. course the major development th

iggered this interest was the nervi

the channel and a short distance up the East coast. By ultra-violet tracer teclmiques they were able to show that the dyes reached some 75% of the British Isles within 48 hours under normal weather conditions. The amount and level of concentration of the agents that might be disseminated by this method was

"defoliant" in Vietnam. his is de too small for chemical warfare piirposes if the aim had been to produce 100% mortal ity, but with biological warfare %puts this

oughout the years since is usually not the case. Since 1957,

filtered out from varion defensive research has been redoubled to a previously unknown level for peace- time. and Her Majesty's Government has reassured us on several occasions that this country is well equipped to deal with

r fare by the Japanese, a re exam The position as far a s Biolcgioal warfare agents a re concerned is not so clear, and the decree of protection available at present i s probably not as great as we

OBJECT of this article i s not to might be led to believe. At the present time, I believe that we can only rely on hope that the spirit of the recent agree-

warfare is banned if it involves the direct killing of persons. But various

THE TIMES THLTISDAY OCTOBER It 1973 never all b

The growing enerTy crisis has military implication fact since 1915, although proposals for as well as being a threat to national economie

Oil famine could change wa

irritant. Being a gas it was easily dispersed, and had little tendency to remain in one place, so it was classed as

Tabun and its sister agent being NON-PERSISTENT both extremely toxic (less

Â¥w the world's forces of of Sarin being enough to ki The second agent also used initially by

for an adult) but modern agents a re about and reddening of the skin (a VESICANT). a thousand times more potent. Mustard gas remained" in droplet from

where i t lay, vapomising slowly, there- fore being classed as a PERSISTENT gas.

. and SMOKES. classify all the chemical warfare

of the gas type into these groups,

Their experiment was simple b small nation, or be prepared by any- sophisticated in that they took a involved in urban warfare, spraying aircraft loaded with a f e tear smokes,CS and the more dvfi. and flew it a short distance o ecent CR, are too well known in side British territorial waters, al eir effects to need further elaboration

~ ~ .~. . een published, much of it is

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UNDERCURRENTS Winter 1973

a of development untii i t bears fruit'and so on,

ful l ideas because you persistently try to separate things without being able to put them together again. So I would say that theanalytical mind s r e problems than the synthetic mind i

whatever suchan approach was seeking. The danger of efficiency is that it's take independent branch of life. It isvery da

>ut having any experience of the e would probably come up woth a t might look like an apple, but it's

sensors in your mouth to taste it,and sidered to pi an. So I think your q u c i o n

weemthe two thew is thedifferenm i f m i n and live information. i f

t i ty isno exception to this imprative. to createan appleout oi the formula o computer withe

and have the idea remain only Utopian. Where

mvir0"me"t. h that leaves us I don't know.

JP /So our soda1 institution$ must plasticapple. I

Hxahedron /Po "lation 170000. selves to the limitsof the city container

not anappie.

things. S o k i 1 Undoubtedly companion and a kmw of environmental congruence show us that t animal (the city) must be seli-contained.

JP /Yes. but if you have aworking environment JP /So en 8,-I which is so distasteful that you want to put as S o k i 1 Yes, it's

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"..*.. ...- ."" --m "p zn wr- . the doors, or paaela. are low- . (See Drawing 6.1 Thin a l l o w t t o enter the window. The sun hi

lxckened drama of water, which thus baorba the heat. Simple! On very

F i l l Your d n n with water t o of the top. Thia allowa rocm f

quart foot over a id above that.

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supply. A generous supp mainly kitchen wastes. I drink in just over a moat

gallon bucket in ve the liquid and

the wine. A warm 01 cupboard, a mantle-piece over the fir< or just a shelf in a warm room.

srnight, always keep the collecting 2ket covered hv a lid or a sheet of s t i c . Washing the utensils in camde .ution also helps cut down the risk o

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UNDERCURRENTS Winter 197

,vans states that: iroducts of . . .>

, once used, can be r and sent out again this

ucts made from that products can then be

esources but cou ontaminated wast

olves beating a colle atmosphere of inert

Aliphatic acids could be produc ntaminating water supplies.

RE-USE AND

e effect of plastics on

the moment i s e harmful PVC

Page 42

ad water

i) PVC will degr cid products.

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UNDERCUBBENTS Winter 1978

ch a mechanism would that can be re-used over 20 DIRECT RECYCLING invol

ith domestic waste and

RE-USE AND RE-CYCLIN

Raging, wherepaper was

e effect of plastics on

md water

b) PVC will degrade icid products.

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sell m 2.Veq ecolcg a i the 3.DCg1

destro! paving 4.Recy iuterea materi widesp greatly or if pi

5. Ener plastics 6.Desig design i t can lead to easy

ig, another may mak

iCUBBENTS Winter 1973

p i s an important factor af a produc

8.If plastics recyc an efficient system will have to be devi loves Pure Research $.Plastics can be bo ecologically than other mate

ydrochloric acid tumes or orod ause corrosit

.Plastics con .. ... bi,.,,̂ nu

ume i r re~laceabi n million mean. You don't find rs that big anywhere else in

immune to the effects of cheap r tape and noisy radio links. The concerned, says m, is "the

. 3n. It would , therefore !ntly from other plastic; ,*,,mn+<,," <" "?,""""? ...-

it may be possible tc them from biologics

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UNDERCURRENTS Winter 1973

but frankly , methane is not suitabl

few "cs,%, ,be ma, <*L b"c-*"b

ad" - "st! m ** b " S kc* d ~ . c ~ d ~ ~ d

or ,racw a d nsiiig levels o i batkpoiuid nd-0

where trips a re short and near metb sources (=.on farm vehicles or factory

FOSSIL FUELS like coal, oil gas a re all the result of solar

gas from organic materials, this book* ~ u t what happens when we come to the claims to be no more than a starting ous future for methane '" of these natural fuel resources? The energy contained within the

fuel generated for use in the farmhouse about the dangers ft-om nuclear oow accidents and about the long-term when we write the second edition we environmental effects of this form

his i s particularly true of the secon generation fast breeder reactors now

unable to meet even present needs. Wind energy represen

Who's to say which 0

e most hopeful technique Maybe they all have a part to play. isham, Cambridgeshire,

thing is clear, though. The techno1 A paperback edition will

for all these "unlimited reserve" fue

Pace 44

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John Clark is a senior lect Psychology at Manchester He draws lotus-flower maps of 'inner space', and flow-diagrams of Patanjali's yoga.. John Lilly used to he one of the world's leading researchers on dolphins. Trvioe to come to erios with their - - . awesome, alien intelligence he decided the biggest obstacles were in his ow mind. The scientifically correct th to do was forget the dolphins for the being and start exploring his which Lilly did with the help hvonosis. encounter erouos exercises. You'll find Clark's

ollection "Six approaches to the pe y's log of the voyage to heaven a

1 is "The Centre of the Cyclon h men write like scientists. B in his own way, taken his science

where angels fear to tread: into the realm of mystical states, satori, samadhi, bliss, the Void. scientists doing here where, faith is the rule, not empiric Attemps at scientific introspe an unhappy history. In any branc science, t&e act of observation pert the experimental situation, however m~nutely. The worst possible cas presumably, is when the observer the experimental situation. Then the problem, beyond poets even, communicating a subjective exp to others in precise terms. And what the hell. in this context. is a reoeatable experiment? No wonder the study everyday consciousness, thoughts desires, by introspection still see tricky as picking up ball-bearings w oin. Why should non-everyday consci ness he in this respect, any different Scientific study of the mystical states consciousness presupposes, I think, that those states have structures or laws of some kind. Most of the literature woul confirm this. Carlos Castaneda calls it a 'separate reality', self-consistent and only strange when it contradicts the laws of everyday reality. Aldous Hitx

The metaphor of 'space'which Cla Lilly both use, regards each menta state as a 'place' which you reach by well-defined routes; its essential f e are the same on each visit, though o course you'll always find something different happening there. The fact every day something new happens i Parsons Green doesn't stop you d r a Tube map. What's more, given a Tube

they'll all find it looking Both Clark and Lilly are

Christian, Sufi, Zen, a re in fact talk!

about the same set of eight or nine a scientist, the different states of consciousness. Clar the discovery that terminology, which is all his own, and Lilly's, which i s borrowed from Gurd look different. But I have seen a map hand drawn by Clark, which shows wh Lilly/Gurdjieff's states surprise, then, that only certain ways

ripping are wesible, too. because that how we're all wired up. That gives a certain repeatability experiments with the mystical sta The broad features of the Map can checked, in principle by anyone.

Anyone, that it, who devotes th time and energy to acquiring th skille. And I think the opport a human to acquire these skills a re at least as good as the opportunities t acquire the skills of nuclear physi

NT molecular biology

still bothered me. There is a lingering feeline that when we exnlore the 'real - world' we come up against "truths" which we have to accept because they are part oi the structure of that world, while it is easy to suspect that the "truths8* encountered i n "inner soace" don't have the same absolute value. Perhaps the "inner truths" a re merely fulfilments of our, or our guru's, expectations. Perhaps

mystical experiences a re similar, ause each man's experience i s elled, unconsciously, on that of his

cher, and his teacher's teacher, and o n Lilly encourages this suspicion en he says 'What one believes to he e either is true or becomes true in

mind. within limits to he determined imentally and experientially. " e r I don't think there's necessarily

ing unscientific about "what one ieves becomes true". That, surely, s the experience of Copernicus, wton, and Einstein! Surely "truths"

the "real world" a re just as rmanent as "inner truths".

Newton's belief became newton's truth; but Einstein's truth transcended it. Lilly and Clark a r s s t i l l only at the beeinnine of the scientific investie'ation: the stage biology was at before ~innaeus . Too soon perhaps to call it a Science. But as anyone who's read a little of the Mystical literature must admit, for centuries already it has been a mighty fine technology.

Tony Durham.

Lilly. Paladin Sop.

Six Approaches to the Person, ed Ralph Ruddock. Routledge and Kegan Paul £ Special reference i s made to the essay 'A Map of Inner Space' by John H.Clar

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UNDERCURRENTS Winter 1973

disappointing for one reason o r anothe and quickly run into problems which would be unable to deal with and beco very discouraged. Considerable sophistication would be needed to get flesh-and-blood transmitter going f r the circuits as presented - withou indulging in too much nit-picking found them far from easy to read suspect that others would share my difficulty. This leaves us with the book lists and addresses, which have been

batteries - i s admirable. He has Success- the construction of a successful stat' fully conveyed in very little space (for after a little while, provided he r this is a short book) the excitement and had the inclination to get there. I captivating charm of the whole business wondering, however, if there mig of running a radio station, which is be an easier and better way heightened when the odds against success Everyone concedes that the are greatest. Pirate radio still has the Amateurs' Handbooks and the amate sweet tang of sin, and sin which does not radio course offered in technical col injure anyone or anything either, and I give a very thorough grounding in believe that this comes across more than art, and the usual reply to anyone a little in the boo asks how to get started is to tell h Where the book is go and read the books or better ati ,

anything up to two year's work, and en the best American texts on radi

passages lifted almost direct1 h their liberal use of colour and suffers from the same limitat hter style, a re pretty stiff going. When writing about radio as a

arefully prepared volume, to answer not the question "how do I build a boat.

reasonably be achieved in the word e foot fibreglass row-b

In the f irst edi available. It is rather like setting 1 lake?" In othe6 words, to tell someone how to build a boat. repare a course of practi There are many, many different types of boat with greatly differing potentialities. mple station, which would

ular craft, even in great detail, may be practical success without scaring to th worse than telling his nothing at all. It will ndt make a sailor of him, it will not

technical section, which in the s tell him how to navigate or read a chart space available could amount deal with any of the thousands of things than a list of book-titles and informatio that are likely to go wrong on a voyage. sources on the topic of radio C0mmWi It may be better to direct him to a school

atious. f sailing or nautical science, O r give This book by Nigel Turner brea m an extensive reading list. However, into roughly the same division; a fair amount of space given of what has already been done in f how to build a boat. noukommercial free radio field, ii the same way radio here and in the United States, an much shorter practical section cannot in a few thousand words equip a details of how to set up a work* newcomer with the necessary skills to As a crude indication of the we build a transmitter (bearing in mind the t o each aspect, 17 of the hook's huge choice and diversity that even this could be said t o be given to c presents) and, more important, to set matters, including the appendices, it up correctly and keep it on the air - addresses and booklists dealing with all the faults, large and Dealing first with what small, to which radio equipment is strong point, we must prone. author on his handling I feel, perhaps too pessimistically, that technical aspects of ccmmuni even if a newcomer were to succeed in is choice of topics - the Americ getting one of the circuits in Nigel's listener-sponsored stations typified hook to operate, he would find results

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RCUBBENTS Winter 1973

d temptations to most ore? The aim of this

rage overhead.

"No: it 's just that I really wanted you to buy this book, and my Great Aunt Beulah convinced me that a book with the word

for additional information and Yes, I understand. It's hecaus nny. Very funny. Its humour is of thc o buy parts. Perhaps bout radio and you know how c , black variety that will strike a

ould be if only . . . . , and you fo lowed yourself to entertain naive

rimer as a joint venture. IS any re good idea across that deadly minefield,

The Least Worst Broadcasting Service

to smithereens by the first grat

to making the damned thing ' Nigel's book has started the pseudo-working class voice, by t

ders, by the frightful banal'

hem to question the political and economic syste] ma1 for US Community Radio freaks

want to know how to tackle the zzard of paperwork needed to persuade

that absolutely maddening will-o-the-wisp, the FCC" to let them loose on the air with a 10 watt, nos-profit P M broadcast

richly-deserved irrelevanc FCC. In this country, your

nity station are about as

ot that Sdx and Broadca r i n s after all , either. As the author ex

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D eat

Duckworth 75 biographical picture of Kro

activities of these m u n s reached a very

description of his views. This s e a s I have indicated, i s admirably In an elegant couple of lines, he sums u the teaching of the 19th centu philosopher/scientist

- high level dunng the middle six "The revolution must avoid not only when their disruotive activities led exchanging one authority for another, - the resignation of Amsterdam's Mayor but also removing one form of

and Chief of Police, and on the oppression in favour of anothe side to the founding of the Oran Kmptkin would have freedom, Freestate, an anarchic republi and indivisible, for everyone i t s own anh-authontarian scho A very succinct statement o kindergartens and creches, pure- put forward in Kmpotkin's shops, housing (squatting) projeCtS. "Ethics", one of the finest non-profit small industries, free texts available. Kmpotkin spent a great transport system, and even a tongue- deal of his time collecting evidence for in-cheek assembly of "shadow mims tne~ ' ' the imw*nc. of co-operation in nature, such a s the "Department of Sabotage of as a factor in evolution and survival; Fixed Roles and the Habit of Obedience whether it is found between members

the same species o r between the spec themselves. Van Duyn's theory rests

amid the stale smell of cabbages i an attempt to extend this into a pnncip politics", but the existence of the volving an equilibrium between the c Freestate did operative tendency and "aggression", known outside which he seems to mean slightly diffe

things in different contexts. P a n elusiveness of his ideas may oriel the translation from the Dutch, bu suspects that the unsatisfactoriness a l i t t l e riepner than th is

not become very wide13 Holland, even amongst

. . . .. - - - - - - . . .- . . . . .- - . [is theory of the "altem hat swings successively egression and co-operation (or -"tit,I*, -"A r i ~ ~ + " , , . + : ~ , o , . . , ~ ~ ~ h I must say right away that van Duyn has C.V.." ...., - .A "-".--" "-, --"

a fine gift of summary, and the most f t ~ h w f in it of A r t h u r Koeqtler's -. . . . . . penetrating paragraphs a r e almost "janus-faced holona" which combine always the ones tha self-assertive quality of "wholes" w i of other anarchist t the co-operative , dependent propert his chosen mentor, Pete parts; but I. for one, find Koestler's When he begins to speak model a great deal easier to grasp. Like voice, and to apply his C Koestler (and more recently Stafford such things a s cyhe Beer), he refers to cybernetic cone social science to the classical theorie to account fo r events in the social i s where be i s at his weakest in my Vie political spheres, and attempts to

It i s Kropotkin's message which has this to an older dialectic view of social inspired van Duyn, and i t is he whom he change. His conclusion i s that:

". . ... the two systems a re complementary. Diale account for historical I the framework of a con evolution; cybernetics continuity of events within framework of a discontinuou revolution."

Van Duyn's insistence on retaining the "aggressive instinct" as a necessary noncomitant of social stability seems to lead him into some odd contradictio which Kropotldn, Malatesta, Bakunin and the other classical theorists avoi simply by making fewer generalisatio about the nature of man. This i s a fau to which van Duyn seems particular!

haracterlatics i s hi

himself in the dark. This i m t i o fear, with which we a re all Elmil sets up a need for some fixed au

only i s this a total contradiction ropotkin's beliefs, i t goes against

good anthropological evidence and leads van Duvn into the comoletelv inconsistent call for a society ". . . .in which the n for hierarchy will be satisfied. The would still be a rudimentary hierarc this society, but i t would be adap etc.

There i s something disturbingly about much of the reasomng that leads his theory of the "single continuo discontinuous metabolic process living." It has about it the same rather than rigorous flavour (hat in the political theories of. say, Bernard Shaw. The conclusions seem precede the chains of reasoning on whi they hang; and rhetoric and "imagery" figure in the argument a s much as logic and deduction:-

sperm i s dependent o the ovum on the spe

tun?, in her representational. ative power, wanted to hold se up to us a s symh ual dependence and

s like this, a s well y faulty examples

c a l sciences, may URRENTS readem

d yet the man has got his heart in ght place and obviously a great wel

f thought and reading behind what be i g to say. Would i t 1 i te for u s to requet

ae very it tbat he try

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now while you plan and debate, a book to devour word by word later when you're ready to sow, hoe and milk your f irst cow, kill your first pig, make bread and butter, cheese wine, nugar and preserve your own v But Self Sufficiency is much more do-it-yourself handbook- it 's rich i istrmgent anecdotes, robust philo

For John and Sally Se they're at and where

though they don't tell w Thev began with next to their family of four children fo years on five acres of very poo

nearly all their fuel before mo n bigger farm. John brought n mo from the System as a writer, Sally as a potter. They've always worked hard b i t they've always lived well. "We ha I'ved extremely well on a very small noney income, and the tax eaters ha not done very well out of us", he wri 'We have not contributed very much the atom bomb, nor to the building o Concorde. When the latter brea sound barrier over our heads, a

more i n i'.ngland. Pigs are now being kept all their lives, in total darkness except when they are fed, and in tiny cages like battery hens. Where do yc from there?" . .

d, by John & Sally Seymour (Fab e satisfaction of knowing th plenty Of straw and they get confused and ven't & for it. !s smother the piglets. So you give them

1s i s a book to bring the sharp r ey reckon that a family wit no straw. They then loose their natural ountry living slap into the midd ' dren can live very well on f i chain of instinctual actions - nest-making murky urban pipe dreams of st ocd land, buying very little f and all the rest of it - so they lay on or a rural community. ide, but only if they manage eat their piglets. They are mixed up.

8 a How-to-do-it book to skim r e r s very carefully. None of you So you confine them in a farrowing crate where they can't move a t all and attract

vmours. Not only do thev en~ov the o idets awav from them wsth a warm ~-

and take slaughter in their stride, bu F i r e d light. And the piglets get they put forward a vigorous ecologic s pneumonia. So you go in

the land and - despite their lack of qualms on killing - a transcending lo ge scale in America and more and

. -

(battery houses or broiler houses

esh air and good food are the these things, is revoltingly cruel and I ernative to the ills of urban cannot bring myself to talk to anybody

... make their point they quote

who does it, condition, house". An,

v..n., ...W...-.,U- ses, on which straight society depend this way: "Once you start to interfere w' nature, with sows, you've got to int all fall down!

book also has delightful illustrations

have to confine them even more, on concrete. Keeo them on concrete they can't get iron, so you have to inject + Patrick Rivers.

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You have to pay for anything g these days, even publicity ma Catalogue-poster costs 15p (si or lop (10 or more) including pos from Low Impact Technology L 73 Molesworth Street, Wadebri Cornwall. Lots of ideas for how unhook your energy inputs, and shit output, from city networks

UNDERCURRENTS Winter 1%

of Am1 ethods. Government too poor (ass iltecture, July 1973. 45pp. 6 0 ~

u s if you think a Clivus in the

. . - -- -. i odox priorities) to build piped sewe

Read tk . 'Intermediate' technology to th basement will save you money, or tna escue? Alas, Scan Plan scans ran

methane equals riches from shit. Re xisting 'non-network' methods (inciner if you never worried about how to r e r, algae tank etc.) and finds all wanting.

you drinking water without recycling c good ones a re too wildly

germs; if you never realized your f r i suggest a hand-operated, ox

anaerobic digester was an explosion pit emptier' which would be

Read it for 1001 commercially availab e ui , but don't say how to build it.

alternatives to mains water and sewage ope they've had some ideas sine

Read it if you want to know why none o Gerry Smith (see review on this tudy was published.

them in average UK population densitie i s an economic vronosition. Read it if Counties. Now transpose it to an African Tony Durham.

ennronmen two versions, winted and on compute ape. ('Fraid we haven't seen it and an

way the Undercurrents computer is broken down.) Main merit of Fil Review i s the sheer number of f i

ts . Utility in UK i s limited, though, ince only US distributors are listed. ut people making or distributing nment films in Britain might find it

useful. Same roes for anyone research

nd agencies. Example: Atomic Ener .

124 East 39th St.. New York. NY 10 Published annually, about $20.

Commission's film "Return to Bikini". . where the palm trees wave again over the radioactive sands.

Tony Durham.

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UNDERCURRENTS Winter 1973

r register and how do they effect our ons individually and collectively?

Sommer. Peter thought the book wa tie our feelings, thoughts and action bit insubstantial. MIKE GREY think the ultimate goals of that culture. ( ennsylvania Amish missed the point of the book symbols, Roszak labels as 'resonan , Since this i s no mere quibhl e.g. the Cross for Christians). ump water from our hand-dug well

We must take the clues further; wha reciprocating wire transmits the ature and origin of these reson ergy from a crank below the wind

hols. at what levels of our mind d 11 to a lever above the well. Each rizontal wire stroke i s converted to a

vertical pump stroke. Using the Brace plans, an optimum pump stroke can he

just in theory, but in our experienc calculated from the average windspeed, those of us in the rut of everyday consci e arc well on the way out of one wa pump diameter, and the height of ness, i s totally inadequate. d. But I emphasise that we shoul . By choosing various ratios of the Roszak's language i s not that of ect neat, logical behavioural model er , we can set the windmill for treatise, hut how could it be? I ing us what to do. We need new ferent windspeeds. difficult to attack the very basis oncepts (qualitative rather than - perience has shown that a large crank scientific culture, using a langu quantitative), new means of commu ith a long wire stroke will produce

ing -not just ideas but ideas interwove erious wire vibration The result is therefore sometimes with feelings and intuition - and new fast reciprocating freq

e geared the windmill 2 : l ratio, and settled o i re stroke. The wire-supporting les are 15ft apart. e have our pumping sy

ystical contemporaries, often shows a r t in an eight mph w windspepds between 6 and 30 mph.

id at a - for action. an then raised consciousness and

nge of aristocratic condescension in s attitude to the masses and the Third 'orld. I think he is wrong in thinking tha revolution of consciousness can only

4uswers that a rc just dished up ightened experience must be availabl are the product of analytical thought you apace the centera of your upright*

everyone lust as much as alternativ 2W apart. y o u ' l l have roan between will only drive us deeper into the alienati m e for aiucone putty, wit-hout h w

of objective consciousness. in8 to tills ?OUT 8 1 ~ ~ .

ing, a revolutiona~y mysticism, to heal the split between the 'political' and the 'mystical' factions of the counter-culture.

What i s needed i s something which will --.. 3 ---. .L .--. ..xL. . 3 .

technology, political self-determination

de-schooled networks, meaningful work, basic security, and so on. I believe tha

L .eLL. 3 . ~ ~ - ~ ~ ~ . A ~ ~ . . ~~ .

. . working-class environment). Only when the mass of people begin to experience a breaking up of the old

hope.

The question which Roszak only begins to answer is, what i s the nature of reality, mind (conscious and unconscious) and n u E L mgiiiige ana ceciiniqucs 01

mystics is alien to those of a working culture, and the relation between these Re seeks to build from such an underst class culture (to use Roszak's terms

their smbol ic hnse ~q not rewwcit i fore, you must make sure they m e r r c s open when you don't expe i t - w c i a l l y be careful-of chll-

.+L.UIVV~ ~ a ~ g e aca~u ~ r ~ z c r g e wtcnuu~ uepr~v always run a parallel line or winch

ug People and small communities of their right to self determination and psychologi 1 wholeness. Only an und the reality of people olar house: coed luck

achieve this. I belie more than just hehavioural mechanis lust individual consciousnesses; they

of a culture, an end expresses a certain world-view and subordinates all i ts facets, scienc feUgion, language. technology, eco tc., to that expression. movement i s only the prelude Hat which binds the individ dture i s myth-patterns of

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UNDERCURRENTS Winter 1973

THE SUNDAY TIMES, OCTOBER 1 1972

I SUBSCRIBE! SUBSCRIBE! SUBSCRIBE! SUBSCRIBE! SUBSCRIBE!

I I'd like t o subscribe to UNDERCURRENTS, starting from issue number 6 . + fff I enclose a cheque/postal order for £2.0 ( or equivalent)

*Please put m e on your mailing l is t and send m e an invoice for £2.00+(o equivalent) (please delete a s appropriate)

This entitles m e t o Six bi-monthly issues by second class/surface mail.

I ................................... NAME (block capitals,please, s o we can read it) ADDRESS ...................................................................... ...............................................................................

........................... .................................. Country SIGNATURE ..................... DATE. ( Please allow us a while to process your subscription)

....... * -I'd like to order back issues of UNDERCURRENTS number and I enclose ....... a ~ h e q u e / ~ o s t a l o rder for * Back issues of No 1 a r e sold out -- sorry!

Readers who previously asked for No2 (the "Peoples' Bomb" issue) may be glad to hear that we've had a few returned, s o write now if you want one. Back issues of EDDIES a r e f r e e if ordered with UNDERCURRENTS, but we only have copies of EDDIES Nos 3, 6 ant 8 left.*The cost of back issues is 30p for Nos. 2, 3 and 4, and 35p for No 5, post paid. +AIR MAIL RATES a r e a s follows: EUROPE,£3.00 OUTSIDE EUROPE: cost varies according to distance and "Zone". ZONE A ( Middle Eastern countries, N. Africa, and ex-British colonies, roughly-speaking ) : £3.50 ZONE B (USA, Canada, etc., ):£4.00 ZONE C ( Australia, Japan etc.): £4.75 If you find Airmail postage ra tes hard t o follow ( s o do we), wri te and we'll l e t you know how much airmail to your country costs.

The chances of a nuclear hi jacking MORE THAN 200 d ~ f i n g t b i s l i ~ ~ l scientists at the P w h Confer-

,ence on World Affairs in Oxford + last month raised the alarm obolt 1 the possibilrty o atomic bombs

!being used l y tomorrom~s terrorists. The conference's con-

cern coincided with the publi- cation in London o f an under- faround leaflet which claimed t o 1 ,< describe in details hm11 to make a

peopie~' bomb PAUL EDDY1 1 land BRYAN SILCOCK invest%-

THE COMMENTS above a r e just some of the reactions to UNDERCURRENTS and EDDIES that have appeared in both the straight and underground press over the past year o r so. -- As you can see, most of the comment has been pretty favourable.

-.

But we're not getting complacent. -. - - -- -. - - Until now. UNDERCURRENTS and EDDIES have had to leave untouched many a reas of science and technology that obviously need coveraee from a radical viewooint.

u . ,

mainly because of limitations of t i m e , money and energy. Now, with the reorganisation that's under way, we're confident that we can soon orovide an even better coveraee than - - - - - - - .- Qou've liked what youtve been readLg in this issue, and you'd 1 i k ~ K h e l p us- expand-and improve the magazine, the most useful thing you can do is take out a subscription . If a t any stage you're dissatisfied with the "value for money" you're getting, we undertake t o refund the-outstanding balance of your subscription. Can't say fairer than that, can we?

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UNDERCURRENTS Winter 1973 be suspected of powestripping. A final meeting at the half-finished Eco-House in pouring rain during a tube s t r ike finally depress* the enthusiasts enough to close things down for the winter.

Shortly af ter that, I was invited a s a token hai ry-freak-and-angry-young-man to a rather poncy conference in Par i s on "Appropriate Technology for Development". Trying to explain to very straight development economists and international civil servants just why we should be doing it here and not out there in the Third- World-which-doesn't-know-any-better was not easy, because they didn't share any of my assumptions. I t became perfectly clear that I didn't know what my assumptions were either: I just took them for granted. So I wrote a paper in which I tried to set down the assumptions of the "AT movement". A very cathartic process. If you look a t a l i s t of typical oa t s of AT a s se t out in the "Guide" (UC No. 3), you can see that there's no particular reason why favouring one goal should oblige favouring another. Neither is there any reason to think that a technology compatible with one goal would also help achieve another. At least I found I couldn't think of any reasons except that I liked them all. Actually, they tend to conflict, e. g. for a given output an ecologically "clean" technology will often require more resources, be m o r e complex, - and more expensive. More anon about this. That means we a r e either split ' into many groups having conflicting aims, o r e lse we attempt to devise a set of priority rules which will resolve conflicts among the various goals. I ask you, a r e we ever likely to agree on such a se t of rules? Furthermore, we a r e also divided along ipany other lines, such a s political assumptions ("Ididn't come here to talk about revolution"), various moral stand- points (e.g. small communities se t up for their own sakes, o r those with wider social intentions), cultural styles (straights and freaks) and so on. The ideal of a unified movement seemed hopeless. The impression had anyway only been created by the belief that all the goals were compatible, and technical systems could be found to serve them all. I tried to salvage some of the idea by defining "soft technology" as the common a r e a of a number of different "alternative technologies", but I had no grounds f o r believing that this common a r e a really existed.

I ended up thinking i t was still worth having a go. Good things were happening in China, I was reading lots of nice anarchist stuff, and C much, Church and Vale produced their massive 2-volume thesis on "The Autonomous

Servicing of Dwellings". Spring came. BSSRS ran a conference on "Community Science" (see SCIENCE FOR PEOPLE No. 20), but some stray Leninists got the boot in f i r s t and everyone went away thinking Nothing Could Be Done. ,

Andy MacKillop started Low Impact Technology Ltd.; BRADfolk moved onto their s i te in Wales. An encouraging meeting on "Science Collectives" was held in Sheffield (see EDDIES No. 7), and some real progress was made in discussing problems of self-managed enterprises . At that time also the Sheffield group started IN THE MAKING, which i s probably the most constructive act since the whole thing began. Shortly after, Andrew Singer convened a meeting in Cambridge (see EDDIES No. 8), and the enthusiasts were subjected to an icy douche from some members of the Technical Research Division of the Cambridge Department of Architecture. They were certainly sympathisers, but their research had turned up some unwelcome data: AT, o r a t l eas t i t s biotechnic branch, is v x expensive, a t l eas t in its present s ta te of development. Some details of costs a r e given i n the important paper "Economics of Solar Collectors, Heat Pumps and Wind Generators" by Gerry Smith (April 1973). You can't get out of i t by saying "I'll do all the work myself", because these things take a lot of time and while you're making windmills o r milking the cow, you're neglecting the ca r ro t s o r unable to teach the kids how to mend heat-pumps. Time must be counted if we a r e to generalise these costs. And another holy cow to the slaughter: costs of most services tend to increase with decreasing scale, reaching their highest point a t the village scale, beloved of many AT freaks, and dropping slightly fo r the single dwelling where i o distribution system i s required. "Autonomous houses" remain expensive. Not much help fo r the citizens of Dagenham here.

Meanwhile, AT ar t ic les were appearing everywhere. ALTERNATIVE SOURCES O F ENERGY got better and bet ter and fat ter and fatter. EDDIES became a monthly (well, e r . . . .) gossip sheet and Went Litho. If you're reading this, UNDERCURRENTS reached i t s 5th number. General Books came out (SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL, SELF-SUFFICIENCY) Special Books came out: Steve Boulter's Methane Book, published by Andrew Singer. Street Farmhouse was finished, and was so efficient that the cabbage got heat-stroke (but you should have seen the tobacco crop: ). BRAD was well on i t s way to finishing i t s Jacob to Street Farm's Esau. The ECOLOGIST crowd were well

established a s gentlemen organic f a n n e r s in Cornwall. Rad-Tech-in- Pact got £50 from the BIT ideas pool, and the Manchester food coop got £300 £80 for AT out of £1,250 Fame at las t . Plans for projects proliferated. Everyone was talking about AT. Some people were actually making a living out of it (writing about it , that i s ; surely you didn't think . . . .)

Then came the AT meeting at Laurieston Hall. Like all AT meetings it was pretty shambolic, but there were some good discussions in which some of the dis- illusioned came in with their hatchets swinging. Mike Reid, one of the menagerie at Laurieston, proposed a discussion on ''the politics of AT", but when discussion time came he had, significantly, changed it t o "The Technology of Alternative Politics". Some innocent questions: What a r e the political implications of the 1001 strands of AT? How could, would, should technology be organised after the revolution? What role does it play in bringing about social change? NONE, says Mike -- or at least none that we would approve. Capitalism can absorb any AT hardware and turn it into a profitable commodity. GM can make windmills a t popular prices. Playboy can advertise jock s traps made from soya beans. Chairs of Biotechnics will b e endowed in all the best universities. Knighthoods will be awarded to designers of eco- office blocks. Without politics, AT becomes nothing more than a se t of trendy technical fixes. It's expensive, difficult for ordinary people, inefficient, unreliable; and monopoly capitalism

goes rolling on. Against this, the'biotechnicians' argued that the environmental situation was so bad that 'biotechnics' ( defined a s living within your physical and biological means) was an absolute necessity.

The sceptics didn't feel environmental problems were that desperate. Neither did they find the idea of simple, folksy technology particularly appealing in itself. Why not have computers, power stations, TV, hi-fi sets , and labour- saving devices? What exactly is the case against them? Why not distribute d e c - tricity through a grid-? When were you last oppressed by the local electricity board? Hew much of what you need can you get in a community of 10 ?I00 ?I000 ? 10,000? Make a l is t of a l l the things you have in your home. Hew many could you do without? How many could you make yourself? How many a r e made on a massive scale and would cost five t imes more made in any other way?

Page 53

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To defend AT, all these questions and many others have to be answered very carefully, and if we a r e honest I don't think many of u s could fully live out the answers.

I think we have to recognise that the old, "unified" conception of AT is dead. What is biotechnic is not necessarily non-exploitative o r cheap; what conserves resources is not necessarily fulfilling o r interesting to work with; cooperative production is not necessarily efficient enough to avoid hassles over distribution; what is simple to manufacture may require great expertise to maintain and be deadly to use, o r vice versa. Our dreams of a magic technology -- the distillation of all our hopes, without any compromises -- must be over. We rejoin the human race , and with it the unavoidable conflicts and tradeoffs of economics and technology. We have t o decide what we want, then decide what we a r e prepared t o sacrafice for it in t e rms of things we want less . It 's my guess that, faced with the rea l choices and the real costs, nearly everybody would opt to stay in the straight society a s things a r e at the moment. Apparent successes of cheap AT have on the whole been acheived through hidden subsidies of time or resources which could not be generalised throughout society. At the moment, only those with very unusual tas tes (such a s for Spartan living), o r those who place an extremely

even might not be greater: there would b e l e s s a i r pollution, but there would b e dangers from breakdowns of big wind generators. Perhaps it would be better to spend the extra money on chimney-scrubbers? As t ime goes on, fuel pr ices will certainly go up; windmill designs may be improved; people may become willing to put up with these creatures (monsters?) in the countryside, o r even to pay for the construction of beautiful old slow-speed mills of farcical efficiency. But to afford that kind. of inefficiency we would have to be fa r more than usually efficient elsewhere. Which means: no AT. I expect biotechnic research to continue,

high value on environmental purity, o r & {Sy those who think that the relative positions of "straight and "alternative economics will change markedly, would find it rational t o pay the full cost of ATs. This last point indicates why "biotechnics" (or low impact technology) has been the strongest branch of AT: because there has been a widespread theory about the long-term incompatibility of industrial hyper-development and physical and biological constraints. Research now can be justified in preparation for something expected later. But i t ' s not a s easy a s that, even within biotechnics . Replace a 20 Meggawatt coal-burning power station with 1000x20 Kilowatt windmills, o r 20000x1 kW mills. Is it any environmental improvement? They would look like pylons with knobs on , need transmission lines anyway t o c a r r y the electricity generated, and would make a fearful noise. (I am reminded that in Israel, rooftop solar water heaters a r e considered an eyesore). As fa r a s resources a r e concerned, a large number of small windmills will need f a r more copper for windings and wiring ( and more lead for batteries perhaps). The cost would b e higher . Safety

Page 54

if only because there's bound to be at least a Sunday Colour-supp market for it in the coming decades. I expect "autonomous housing" research to continue, partly for the same reasons, partly to meet genuine needs in remote areas , and partly a s a hedge against rising fossil fuel costs. Many people will attempt to build "eco-houses" t o demonstrate a principle of independence o r to avoid exploiting anyone else, but I doubt if these aims will be realised without hidden subsidies. I pray that someone can prove m e wrong. *

I expect "appropriate technology" to spread a s a concept because it can mean anything; and I expect Intermediate Technology to gain in credibility a s a continuous spectrum of technologies which a r e often appropriate t o situations in both developed and undeveloped countries.

As t o "Soft Technology" and "Alternative Technology", which a r e the t e r m s I have tended t o use myself, I think their meanings have got hopelessly out of control and should be abandoned.

UNDERCURRENTS Winter 1973

Maybe "ST" should b e used as a synonym for biotechnics (Robin Clarke's ar t ic le in UNDERCURRENTS 2 was later reprinted in Futures a s "The Biotechnic Research Community") "Alternative Technology" is an annoying t e r m because it is so vague. Anything not orthodox could be AT -- Glaserts orbiting solar microwave collector, for example. "No, no, we meant , well, l i t t le things, decentralised.. . " Then why not call it

small-scale technology, o r decentralised technology, if that 's what you mean ? The Stone Age? I ' Well, no-- more sophisticated than that, taking advantage of modern knowledge". Then do you mean Intermediate Technology, o r perhaps Liber atory Technology a l a Bookchin ? Now ask: where a r e the components made? Waht training and equipment is needed? What a r e the working conditions? Do you have any control over them? The point of the s1ogan:"The Technology of Alternative Politics" is: f i rs t talk about your pol'itics, your social goals, your priorities. Then s e e how they may be achieved by selecting from the many alternative possibilities the most appropriate ones for your purposes. Much of this selection will be "soft" in that it will involve organisaticm rather than hardware, again involving politics and relationships and conflicts.

Maybe we should call i t "AEf7, Alternative Economics. (Uncle Karl, don't laugh). Another name I have been toying with is "freconomics" (the a r t of putting poetry into work and s t i l l having enough t ime t o go fishing?) A lot of this has already been said in H D Coster 's ar t ic le "After Soft Technology: an Attempt t o Approach a Soft Economy", in De Kleine Aarde No 3 ( in Dutch). Nearly finished. Does all this mean it's been a waste of t ime? A lot of people would say so, but I think it has been an extremely valuable exploration. Our thoughts on AT have oriented us properly for an effective approach t o a different (but related) se t of problems, which I intend to pass on to, but there 's no more space in this UNDERCURRENTS s o I'll have to leave them for the next issue. The main point in writing al l this has been t o provoke some stinging repl ies; t o call forth irrefutable proof that AT is every- thing we ever dreamed it was; and that if we would only have faith in the ultimate defeat of the Big by the Small, aided by the holy trinity of Sun, Wind and Shit, the f i r s t r a y s of the millenium would burst over the horizon before you could say "self sufficiency".

AMEN

Page 55: UC05 Winter 1973

gratefully

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I can be reduced to A4 siz

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i e urawmgs, tames,

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The major reason for the deficit is that we've had to pay mo for printing EDDIES than we originally estimated for, and w also had to pay more to airmail it abroad, because the wei exceeds the first half-ounce, airmail step. Trivial e r ro r might think, but cumulative, and fatal if allowed to continu unchecked. Another important cause of decreased income h the bigger-than-budgeted cost of sending copies out to books Many people don't realise that we have to give bookshops a 3 3 i discount on cvcry copy, and that it costs at least Sp per copy to send copies, in bulk, to many bookshops. Which leaves us a mere 1 3 , ' ~ income from each bookshop-sold copy --- if we over get :t. At a cover price of 35p, however, we should have an income of around 20p per copy, and we may, in addition, be able to get a distributor to handle the magazine evcntually. Distribution - companies take at least 50% of the cover price of a mag which would leave us with 174p - not much, but enough Subscription prices , you'll observe, a r e only rising s in the UK, and staying the same for overseas subscribe That's because postage, envelopes, invoicing and so on c us much less , proportionately, than the discounts that hook- sel lers and distributors requir If you feel that 6 UNDERCURR for, let us know and we'll refund your subscription, less the cos copies already sent.But stick with us and we're sure you'll agre that you're getting your money's worth, especially bearing in m' that we have no subsidy from advertising or anywhere else. If v

RENTS was designed and edited by Sails and Godfrey Boyle. The reviews editor was Tony Durham. Joy

helped out by Ann Miller est) the ever-reso Dorothy at Metro, where th chtoll, Lyn Gamble looked after the mail John Daniels and Geo and all at the Russell can take the credit for a crazy magazine. printing, and for waiting igures in the backgroun for their mone help and encouragemen Every Wednes ppreciated include J band of workers came r o help with tasks great and Thomas, Phil R Their names include Davi Gooch, Trux and May Gardiner, Peter Harper, Ryan, Martin Lockett, Char1 e r e must be m

u in the rush.

Clutterbuck, Alan Dalton, Hug Saddler, Sooty, John Prudhoe, and many others, all of whom

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