Professional Documents
Culture Documents
• UNDERCURRENTS, the magazine of radical science and alternative technology [ISSN 0306
2392], was published from London, England, from 1973 to 1984 [No. 60]. This was a joint issue
with Resurgence, which still survives and thrives under the benign editorship of Satish Kumar:
www.resurgence.org . This text version has been created in 2006-8 by me, Chris [Hutton-]
Squire [a member of the now-dissolved Undercurrents Collective], by OCRing scanned images of
a print copy; the text has been spell-checked but it has NOT been checked against the original.
Health & Safety Warning: The practical, technical and scientific information herein [though
believed to be accurate at the time of publication] may now be out of date. CAVEAT LECTOR!
The many stories that Undercurrents told will interest students of a period that is both too distant
and too recent to be adequately documented on the Web. The moral, philosophical, social,
economic and political opinions herein remain, in my opinion, pertinent to the much more severe
problems we now face.
Readers who wish correspond on any matters arising are invited to contact me via:
chris[at]cjsquire.plus.com or Resurgence via resurgence.org/contact/
This pdf version is formatted in 15 pt Optima throughout, so as to be easily readable on screen; it
runs to 177 pages [the print versions were 48 - 56 pp.]: readers wishing to print it out to read are
recommended to get the text from the .doc or text versions and to reformat it. The many pictures
that embellished the print version are sadly not included here. There are no restrictions on the use
of this material but please credit individual authors where credit is due: they are mostly still with
us. Page numbers below are for this pdf version. The beginning of each section or article is
indicated thus:
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Godfrey Boyle writes: Undercurrents and Resurgence have a great deal in common.
We share the same anxiety that many of the institutions of modern society have
become far too large to be responsive to the real needs of the people. And we share
a common belief that the building of a humanscaled, ecologically harmonious, non
exploitative culture can begin now, as an important part of the overall movement for.
liberation from all forms of political, economic and spiritual repression that is
gathering strength in the world today. Of course, we do have our differences, too.
Some of them will be obvious when you read this issue, others more subtle. But if
there is one thing the movement for social change does not need, it is the support of
groups which have identical dogmatic views. Our differences are important, but they
must never blind us to our similarities. The spirit of mutual aid in which we have
embarked on this joint issue is one which we would like to see more evidence of in
other radical circles. Let a thousand flowers bloom.
...
Resurgence Journal of the Fourth World. Volume 6 Number 1 March-April 1975
275 Kings Road, Kingston, Surrey, England. Tel. 01 546 0544
Resurgence publishes articles on alternative life styles, human technology.
ecological-organic living, and small, simple. decentralised power structures. Regular
Columns by E. F . Schumacher and Geoffrey Ashe Frequent contributions by Leopold
Kohr. Vinoba Bhave, John Papworth Editor Satish Kumar Editorial Group Brian
Bridge, Tony Colbert, Geoffrey Cooper, Clive Harrison, Stephen Horne. Steve
Lambert, Thomas Land. June Mitchell, Jimoh OmoFadaka. Terry Sharman, Anne
Vogel. Associate Editors Ernest Bader, Danilo Dolei, Leopold Kohl', Jayaprakash
Narayan, John Papworth, E F Schumacher. Publisher Hugh Sharman. Layout Mike
Phillips, Pete Bonnici, Helene Saint-Jacques.
...
Undercurrents is designed and edited by Sally and Godfrey Boyle. Martin
Ince edited the Reviews and assembled the ads. Chris Hutton Squire
grappled with finance and distribution; Brian Ford and John Prudhoe took up
arms against a sea of subs; and Peter Harper, the Egon Ronay of AT. got as far
as Wales en route for Australia. Pat Coyne struggled against the powers of
nuclear darkness; Richard Elen followed the Leys and the ancient ways ;
Sooty Eleftheriou maintained the French connection; Dave Elliott
philosophised; and Ray Shannon pondered the deep meaning of it all. Many,
many other people helped us. Even if we haven't room to mention them all,
we thank them nevertheless. Published bimonthly (give or take a month or
two) by Undercurrents Limited. 275 Finchley Rd. , London NW3, England.
(phone 01 794 2750), a nonprofit company limited by guarantee and without
share capitaL
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
EDDIES pp. 1 7
P. S. Scotland joined the ZPG Club 30 years ago, with only three and a
half times her 1801 population. Ireland made it more brutally a century
earlier: her population today is some 20% less than in 1801. Separate
figures for Wales are not available, as far as I know.
Socialist Science?
AT THE VERY end of January,just in time to miss the last Undercurrents, .
BSSRS held their longplanned Conference to debate the question: "Is
there a Socialist Science?'
The title was a complete nonstarter, since the assembled crowd agreed
there was a socialist science, but there was still plenty of verbiage for the
faithful. These numbered some tW9 hundred on Friday evening,
dwindling to about fifty by
Sunday afternoon. Friday evening was the best. Introductory remarks
were by Professor Maurice Wilkins (FRS), who "didn't know the
intellectual left was this ;strong. " Nobel Prizes were worn. He even
inconspicuously as possible.
If you see anyone answering . this description, ring your favourite Fleet
Street news
paper immediately. . . . . .
Armstead
4
believes that with the new techniques of meltdrilling, which means that
no steel liners have to be put down the borehole; and rockshattering,
which might enable rocks anywhere to be made porous, geothermal
energy will eventually be available everywhere, and not just where
Nature has provided running h & c. But risk capital is apparently hard to
find for geothermal energy, which is puzzling: surely nuclear power and
offshore
oil are equallyrisky activities by any definition?
Peter Chapman of the Open University, proponent of the. theory that
nuclear programmes can eat more energy than they produce, painted two
contrasting scenarios for Britain: a highenergy one and a lowenergy one.
His energy analysis is brilliant
and he can tell you how many kilowatthours go to make a loaf of bread.
But his economics take little account of the existence of rich _
people and poor people. This led him to the absurd conclusion that a
highgrowth society (assumed capitalist since no change mentioned) can
be relatively free from
. social problems, and only has to cope with the techniCal ones. About
one member of the audience seemed worried by this. The rest, their
minds stimulated and their consciences assuaged, walked back to their
Jaguars with
a spring in their step.
Whatever became of the CSS?
JUST WHEN EVERY BODY had forgotten all about it, the Council for
Science and Society is about to surface again.
Paul Sieghart, who set it Up, is still somewhere in the back. ground, but
daytoday organisation is in the hands of
Jerry Ravetz, working from
a small office at 34 St Andrew's Hill, London EC4, just down the road
from
St Paul's. Jerry, whose Scientific Knowledge and its Social Problems is still
a source book for most who call themselves radical scientists, now seems
tired of fending off taunts about having joined the Establishment. "I've
oilmen?) have dared to tread: into the shadowy, semimagical world of oil
reserve estimation.
The game of calculating just how much energy can be got from a region
such as the North Sea is, at base, a guessing game. But it's a game on
_'which a lot of options depend such as how fast to develop' nuclear
power (assuming the Government contains enough lunatics to seriously
contemplate such a course especially after the publication of UC 9); how
rude we can be to the Arabs; and whether or not we ought to hang
around in Ireland. It's unfortunate, therefore, that there are at least three
schools about how much oil's in tham thar waters.
The opinions of Professor Peter Odell of Rotterdam are perhaps the best
known thanks to his somewhatoutdated paperback, Oil and World
Power, which has just been given a new cover and a chapter about the
1974 oil crisis, and been shoved back on the bookstalls by Penguin: who
says no one gains from the crises of capitalism? Prof. Odell reckons that
Britain ought to put its shirt on oil, and estimates the North Sea's total
capacity to be between 11 and 19 thousand million tons, which is huge
in comparison to our current annual consumption of 100 million tons.
OdeIl's sternest critics curious to relate, are the oil companies
themselves even Shell, for whom Odell worked for many years. The
companies' comparative
pessimism may not, of course, be unrelated to a desire to save their
empires from nationalisation under Labour, or penal taxation under the
Tories, both of which would be on the cards if North Sea reserves are as
big as Odell says they are. Doubtless the apologetic phrases are even
now being polished up in the Public Relations Department at the Shell
Centre for when the stuff refuses to run out in a few years.
In between Odell and oil companies lie the Department of Energy (see
their Production and Reserves Brown Book) and Arthur Whiteman,
Professor of Petroleum Exploration Studies at Aberdeen. They both plump
for reserves which would be enough to provide the UK with
selfsufficiency for most of the eighties and maybe
a few years more.
. One of the reasons for all these Widely differing estimates is that there
are ways and ways of extracting petroleum. Initially, the oil
and gas are at high pressure and can't wait to jump up the well to meet
their oxidised or polymeric fate. Hence the early20th century
phenomenon from which this column gets its name. In , those days, in
places like Iran, often only half the available
FRIGGIN' ON
a_
"'
oil was extracted, and gas was burned off because it wasn't worth selling,
so that the equipment could be moved on to the next well for
a quick profit. Nowadays, there are all sorts of:. ways of encouraging the
fluids to come out: forcing water into an oil well, or gas into either a gas
or an oil well, or pushing in oxygen to burn part of the oil underground.
But it's still an unreliable business.
But none of the reserve prognosticators seem to take account of the
efficiency of such extraction techniques
'when they do their sums ,Particularly Odell, who seems to count on 100
per cent "extraction of all the oil that can be detected, and doesn't
discuss the concept of recoverable reserves. Odell. moreover, quite
calmly lumps together the unexplored parts
of the North Sea with the most promising structures already drilled,
including the quite confined belt of Jurassic sands in which the majority
of discoveries to date have been struck. And then he treats the whole
North Sea as one geological province which is like estimating Britain's
coal reserves by working out the reserves of County Durham and
multiplying them, in proportion, by the size of the British Isles.
On the other hand, Odell does allow for
an element of mIsleading pessimism in the oil companies' figures. (BP's
official statistics, for example, are surprisingly opaque on the question of
reserves, though they provide loads of data on . every other aspect of the
company's business, from extraction to plastics. )
On balance, though, it's not possible to have much confidence in either
Odell or the oil industry. The only people with the slightest claim to
neutrality are Whiteman (who, incidentally, went for Odell's throat at the
recent Financial Times North Sea jamboree) and the Government (the
Department of Energy has access to the oil co'mpanies' confidential
information). They both agree surprisingly weB that the best we can
expect is \ a few years of selfsufficient bliss in the eighties.
. Gusher
Nor has any official word yet been given concerning the detrimental
effect the spill will have on the fish. But Gearheis Harbour, one of the
worst hit spots, has a herring spawning bed just outside it. The fishermen
lost fifteen 'nets when the spill occurred, their boats and the harbour
were covered in the thick 'chocolate mousse" oil, and they estimated they
were
losing £ 1. 000 a day.
Subsequent events plainly showed just how inadequate were Gulf's
antispill pre . cautions. The company's first estimate of the spill size
(175 gallons) was ridiculously low. Only after eight days did Gulf reveal a
realistic figure and admit that it had had this approximate figure ever
since the spill occurred. Three days passed before Cork County Council
(the body responsible for pollution control for the County) were asked to
help. On the fourth day Gulf,
\ finally realising the seriousness of the spill, diverted all available
manpower to work on the cleanup. Six days passed before the Minister
for Transport and Power deigned to make the first 'air monitoring' of the
disaster.
Then, as 'AntiGulf' publicity mounted in the
papers, it was put about that Gulf might pull out of Bantry, and the
terminal was for sale on the international market. This was immediately
denied by Gulf, though it was said that a UN study had shown that Gulf
could save £4. 5 million by bypassing the Bantry terminal. This would
involve the use of 250,000 ton tankers instead of the Universe Tankers
and shipping the oil direct to Rotterdam. A group of. 'business people' of
the area, feeling they would lose out if Gulf bypassed them, suddenly
became sympathetic. It was stated that a 'silent majority of 80%'
. wanted Gulf, and more industries like it, for West Cork, and felt that the
publicity would be detrimental to the tourist industry.
Interferences is for anyone who liked Undercurrents 7 as much as I did
and can still remember school French. In the first issue there are
articles on how to listen to
the police and how the police listen to us, on REGIS the (French)
government interministerial electronic network, and a special feature on
computerisation of the press. There's a plea for free radio which goes on
to analyse how this might be possible using the low power (some of them
only 50 watts) transmitters taken out of service with the recent
UC10 R6/1: page 21
Undercurrents 10 Resurgence 6/1: 1975: page 22
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Undercurrents Letters p. 8
HAM AT NET
Dear Sir,
With reference to New Directions Radio (p. 7 ,UC8J. I am a licensed
ham. If you do not receive any more constructive
and positive ideas, perhaps you could suggest interested hams meet
around 3750 Khz at 9 am
on Sundays. Then at least we would know where to find each other. By
calling CQAT or similar, contact could be established. Whilst I am unable
to offer to organise such, once
a meeting place is known something may develOp.
I am on the fringe of • A T' and whilst I would like to join in
a ham 'AT' net when able,
I would not want to be named as suggesting one and then never appear.
So please do not print my name. But I think the point of suggesting a day.
time and frequency is valid. You are then giving all 'ham and listener'
readers a focal point to start.
I wish to congratulate you on the amount of material in each issue. My
interest is limited primarily to the technical data. It is good that you do
not deal with things e. g. . windmills), generally but give the necessary
formulae and figures. Also the news about various. groups e. g. BRAD is
good.
DOWN WITH SKOOL
Dear Editor,
I have been enjoying Undercurrents for a number of issues now, I hope
you keep up the output. (What problems you must have behind the
scenes well,
I probably cannot imagine)
The purpose of my letter to you concerns an area of interest born of years
of experience in the Education or rather 'schooling' game. 1 have
become convinced that schools are much more
subtle in effect than we ordinarily imagine. Ivan Illich's 'Hidden
system and for what reasons? Did you stay just on the legal side of the
law? Are there any communities existing where young people's prOgress
occurs outside the standard state school system. If so, how does the com
munity avoid isolationism?
I would;1 like to hear about any of these or. similar topics, including any
thoughts or suggestions readers may have about what may . be possible.
It will assist my own
education for a start
Yours sincerelY, Dr. K. L. Smith;
The Electronics laboratory, The University,
Canterbury, Kent_
BREAK THE LAW?
Dear Sirs,
Thank you for sending a copy of your magazine. I had looked forward
with great interest to reading it but I was most disappointed. The reasons
I have are clear enough. With such a great subject as alternative
technology it seems a great pity that you have to debase your whole
approach with articles that encourage people to break the law with
regard to illegal broadcasting. To print articles from groups such as
'Anarchists Anonymous' would also appear to have little connection
with your main aims.
If you were to produce a magazine exclusively consisting of
articles such as the excellent ones on pages 27, 29 and 33 of UC8, then I
and many of my fellow students at leicester Poly would be most
interested.
Yours faithfully, Nigel Mills,
97 Upperton Road, Leicester LE3 OH E.
ANARCHISM:
THE AT CONNECTION
Dear Editors,
Obviously, I'm interested in some of the items in the magazine, but I
have a very clear impression that Undercurrents doesn't know exactly
where it's going. Clearly, you have problems financial and other and
one way out is to appeal to as wide
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
page 9 Geoffrey Ashe’s column
do nothing, they are in a dead end, inactive. Like the maligned middle
aged radicals described by Shaw.
Some years; back, I hit on a test question for revolutionaries which was,
and is, revealing. Noticing how members of certain groups complained
of their lack of money lack of resources s, inability to
compete with the media, etcetera, \
I started asking: "Very well suppose you were given a million pounds
with no strings attached, what would you do?" The question was liable to
be met by evasions. It wouldn't happen, you could only get the money by
betraying your cause, and so on. Untrue. Freak millionaires exist,
inheritance exists, and the gift is not impossible. When any serious reply
came, which wasn't often, it was almost always feeble. An editor whose
wailings about his paper's poverty were nonstop could only say, when
offered the hypothetical million, "I'd have a permanent European
correspondent. ",If that was the utmost reach of his vision, what right had
he to abuse the Establishment?
Since the time when I first put the question, there has been a promising
growth of small ideas. It will be remembered that when BIT asked for
suggestions for spending £I,250, it received a rich enough harvest of
'alternative' projects to fill a book. But few of these, perhaps none, had
any credible bearing on change of a major kind.
If you profess revolutionary aims, try
. asking yourself the question. Given your million pounds to further the
cause (or five million, I won't accept inflation. . . :. Js
an excuse), how would you spend it? Do you really have any ideas? Or
are you just another symptom of deadlock and negativity, a mood
without :. J programme?
You may protest that it is unfair to pose the challenge if I have no answer
myself. Well, my personal answer and it is personal only, not put forward
as what the money 'ought' to be spent on would fall into two parts. One
would be
a BITtype part, a specific local thing
with powers of development: to be precise, the founding of an
"alternative' hostel and centre in the place where I live. No need to
enlarge on that now. The major outlay would go, not on promoting any
scheme of my own, but on breaking the ice of frustration and conformity
over
a wider front. I would be inclined to call this project a National
Brainstorm.
That word, used as it is here, may need explaining. It was adopted in
American management circles when they made
a shocking discovery: that their specialists and experts didn't have all the
answers to the problems they were getting involved in. Often, it was
found, the best way to attack a problem is to assemble a varied group of
people some of them specialists in that field, some of them specialists in
quite different fields, some of them rank amateurs and simply let them
discuss it freely, tossing up any idea that comes to them, however silly it
sounds. With luck, somewhere in the hubbub, inspiration will strike.
In one classic brainstorming session, the manager of a factory running an
outdoor operation wanted to know the rate of rainfall as it was coming
down. Conventional meteorological equipment couldn't tell him. After
much baffled debate, the stenographer who was taking notes looked up
and asked: "Why not count the raindrops?" The experts' first reaction was
to smile indulgently. The' second was to say, "Well, why not?" And that
was the answer. 1 don't recall how they managed it perhaps by putting
0'" sheets of blotting paper but counting the raindrops did the trick.
It seems to me that in the current semideadlock, the great mobilising
ideas and programmes do exist somewhere. They are in the minds of
people whom, for the most part, we don't yet know. People who are
isolated, silenced, without a platform, without encouragement. You may
reply, "If they have any ideas, they can write to the papers. " Yes, they
can, but usually to no purpose. When papers such as The Times run their
periodical correspondences on What's Wrong And How To Put It Right,
the suggestions they print are 'rational' ones for making the present setup
work better, not suggestions for radically changing it.
'. The bulk of my million pounds, or five. million, would go to finance a
National Brainstorm: a gigantic, noholdsbarred, sky'stheIimit airing of
every available idea for a revolutionary leap forward. [t would provide
incentives to speak up, and media and platforms for doing so. A lot
of the ideas would turn out to be totally lunatic and totally disreputable.
So much the better. Sanity and respectability are surely a little faded by
now. If the restraints were once broken, truly broken, I think the paralysis
of mind and purpose would begin to break too. The saving inspirations
would flash.
And just to forestall criticism, let me say I am well aware that a project
like this could be dangerous as well as helpful. It could lead, for instance,
to the emergence of a sort of First Prize Winner and a personality cult: to
the coronation_ so to speak, of the raindropcounting stenographer. There
is no room here to discuss that hazard or how to guard against it. But you
call find it pursued in one of my books, which I shall be happy to tell the
name of, if asked. I have, you see; given some thought to this. I have
worked out a way to spend the money. But it is only my way. Now work
one out yourself.
Geoffrey Ashe
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Conscious Culture of Poverty pp. 10 11 E F Schumacher
ONLY THE RICII can have a good life, this is the daunting message that
has been' drummed 'into the ears of all humankind during the last
halfcentury or so. It is
the implicit doctrine of 'development';
the growth of income serves as the very criterion of progress. Everyone, it
is held, has not only the right but the duty to become rich, and this
applies to societies even more stringently than to individuals. The most
succinct and most relevant indicatorof a country's status in the
world is thought to be average income per head, while the prime object
of admiration is not the level already attained but the current rate of
growth.
It follows logically or so it seems that the greatest obstacle to progress is
a growth of population: it frustrates; diminishes, offsets what the growth
of Gross National Product (GNP) would otherwise achieve. What is the
point or, let us say, doubling GNP over a period if population is also
allowed to double during the same time'! It would mean
running fast merely to stand still: average income per head would remain
stationary, and there would be no advance at all towards the cherished
goal of universal affluence.
In the light of this received doctrine, the wellnigh unanimous prediction
of the demographers that world population, barring unforeseen
catastrophes, will double during the next thirty years is taken as an
intolerable threat. What other prospect is this than one of limitless
frustration?
Some mathematical enthusiasts are still content to project the economic
'growth curves' of the last thirty years for another thirty or even fifty years,
to 'prove' that all humankind can become immensely rich within a
generation or two. Our only danger, they suggest, is to succumb, at this
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
LIVING THE REVOLUTION Djilas interview pp. 12 13
Milovan Djilas was one of the leading fighters for the liberation of
Yugoslavia from German occupation. After independence he was vice
president to President Tito. But when he wrote his' critique of the
postrevolutionary government, published as a book entitled 'New Class',
he was arrested and imprisoned for a number of years. He has written a
number of novels and other books including 'Talking to Stalin'.
No,:! he lives in Belgrade where Satish Kumar met him.
SATISH KUMAR: You have spent a long time in prison for your political
beliefs.
MILOVAN D)ILAS: I believed that when a revolutionary attains power he
should not allow it to corrupt him, nor should he try to retain it. His aim
should be to give maximum power to the people. I still
hold that belief. I exposed those revolutionaries who, in the name of class
destruction, withheld power from their own class. I am not a politician
but .
a revolutionary, and although politics may enter into revolution,
revolution is
a continuous process of life. We ought
not to think in terms of 'making revolution' but of 'living in revolution':
S. K. : What do you mean by 'living in revolution'?
M. D. : Revolution is a state of mind. When
one is always ready to accept change and one upholds the ultimate
values of revolution, I would call that 'living in revolution'. In this way a
revolutionary sets
an example for others. During the struggle for independence, for
liberation, for revolution, a revolutionary usually lives up to these values,
but there comes
12
a time, after the struggle is over, when he starts to seek privilege and
opportunity.
S. K. : In countries where socialist revolution has taken place the workers
are in power.
M. D. : To a certain extent. But the real power is in the hands of
bureaucrats. Bureaucracy has institutionalised socialism. Socialism is no
longer a revolution but has become the Establishment. Once in power,
the leaders of the revolutionary movement retained the power structure
they had formerly opposed. The
reason is that. having achieved power,
they considered it their right to enjoy its fruits. That is how revolutions fail
and turn into counterrevolutions.
Revolution and liberation are not products but processes. They are
processes that should continue ceaselessly in our thoughts, in our
personal, social and political lives, and in relation to the whole of
mankind.
S. K. : Does this mean that revolutionaries become counterrevolutionaries
when they are. in power?
M. D. : What I'm sayinG is obvious. Revolution is not the mere
substitution of one lot of rulers for another. Revolutionaries should get rid
of those in power, but take over power themselves only in order to . use it
to destroy the power structure. Such revolutionaries are very few. Lenin
and Gandhi are the two people who have exerted the most influence on
this century. Although they followed quite different lines of thought and
method,
there is no conflict in the effect they had.
S. K. : Why do you think their influence as so great?
M. D. : Some people have good intellects and produce good ideas, but
they don't know how to put them into practice; others excel at
organisation and the techniques of action, but they don't have original
ideas. Gandhi and Lenin were outstanding because they combined both
_ qualities, and that is why they were such successful revolutionaries.
They both knew what kind of society they wanted and how to set about
achieving it. Gandhi was an Indianstyle socialist. He opposed. private
ownership, a profitorientated competitive economy that is socialism. At
the same time, he did not want power to be in the hands of the state but
believed that it should be retained by the local community that was the
Indian contribution.
S. K. : You admire. Gandhi, but do you agree with his philosophy of non
violence?
M. D. : Because one admires someone it doesn't follow that one agrees
with the whole of his philosophy. I'm afraid that nonviolence cannot
work in all circumstances. A ruling class will never yield power to the
people if they rely on non violent movements.
S. K. : But it worked with the British in India.
M. D. : There is a basic difference between a colonial ruling power and
the ruling class within a country. It succeeded with the British in India,
but I'm not hopeful about its effectiveness in the Portuguese African
colonies, in Rhodesia and in South Africa. In such circumstances,
I would justify defying the greater violence of the Establishment with the
lesser violence of the revolutionaries.
S. K. : What happened in the USSR proves that if revolution is achieved
by violence it must be maintained by violence.
M. D. : That depends on the revolutionaries. India gained independence
nonviolently, but afterwards the leaders became powerminded and
conformist. It is not a question of violence or nonviolence but of the
concept of revolution.
S. K. : Does that mean you are an advocate of violence?
. : M. D. : No, I'm not an advocate of violence, but in certain
circumstances violence is inevitable. I should like to sec Gandhi's kind of
nonviolent revolution succeed, but it will not be easy. Of
course, I know that in European countries a direct violent confrontation
with the authorities would be almost as difficult to. organise and would
have some disastrous consequences. Therefore a determined effort must
be made to effect change in European society by the use of nonviolent
techniques.
S. K. : What kind of changes do you consider necessary and r:possible in
Europe?
M. D. : Changing regimes is no longer the solution for Europe. We need a
change of attitude" and a revolution of values . . Without such changes it
won't make
much difference whether the social democrats or the communists are in
power. We have to seek a deeper level of revolution. European socialism
and communism have failed to provide truly revolutionary alternatives to
capitalism.
people by willing sacrifice and service; he must not deviate from those
principles if he is to retain public trust.
S. K. : Do you still consider yourself
a communist? '
M. D. : Not in the conventional sense; I am not in the party any longer. I
am just. Milovan Djilas, a freethinker and an objective observer,
committed to my own search for realism. I belong to myself and not to
any external institution. Of course, I still believe in the fundamental
analysis of Marx, but I am not a dogmatic disciple, because I believe we
have to relate him to the present situation and make the necessary
adjustments. For that reason
I am glad that many Marxist thinkers
have adopted a more experimental and questioning attitude. Communism
is not like a religion which imposes acceptance of an established and
fixed set of beliefs. Noone should take Marx as the ultimate and absolute
prophet, for that would mean we were in danger of turning him into an
idol, thus destroying the true spirit of Marx himself. That is why I have
opted out of organised and dogmatic communism. Each and every
individual should. evolve his own design for revolutionary living.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Resurgence Feedback pp. 14 15
essential as a basis for a value system, but need it involve mysticism and
superstition? I can see no reason why a value system could not be based
upon axioms like 'no man has a right to more good things than another'.
The flight from rationality will lead us into blind alleys; we d. . o not want
to end up putting water out for the pixies.
Mark Burton, 78 Three Shires Oak Road, Smethwick, Warley, Worcs. 26.
11. 74
Howling in Orchards
Looking at Nature
The extract from Frederic Spiegelberg's Zen. Rocks and Waters, printed in
the EcologistResurgence jOint issue (NovemberDecember 1974) has a
poetic quality, but after reading it with pleasure I would like to question
some of it.
Mr Spiegelberg is concerned with ways of looking at nature. We should
not, he says, ask nature to edify us, or to symbolise a transcendent
<reality' behind it, nor should we be wanting to get anything from nature
for our use or pleasure. 'The stone is. Why must one want to experience
more than that in looking <It it? . . . The raindrop, the fallen leaf, exist.
Thus they have in common with ourselves and with the gods the
mostimportant thing that can be imagined. ' And the effect of looking at
nature in this way is to 'make . religion vanish into reality', the immediate
'here and now',
This view of things evidently comes from personal experience. But a lot
of personal experience goes against the conclusions drawn from it.
Blake's, for instance: <If the doors of perception were cleansed, every
thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. ' Many people have told of
occasions when their experience of nature was of this heightened order.
(See Raynor Johnson's Watcher on the //ills. 1959, chapter 4).
These people are not carried away from the here and now. They perceive
the ordinary world, but it appears to them transfigured, illuminated; and
it brings them a conviction that this is what the world really is, but
normally they are more or less blind to it.
It could be argued that the radiance is an illusion, a projection of
personal feelings on lo indifferent nature. This 'theory can be neither
proved nor disproved. To those who have this kind of experience it seems
evident that the radiance belongs to the natural scene, illuminates it from
inside.
So much for looking at nature. What about ways of working on and with
nature? Mr Spiegelberg implies that the best thing is to leave nature
alone.
<A stone that has been changed even slightly by the human hand,
whether polished or chopped, has lost its vitality and is rejected by the
bonseki master as "dead" . . . . Seen from this standpoint, 14 ••
even the greatest work of sculptural art is dead stone. '
Similarly, it appears that from
Mr Spiegelberg's standpoint any work on nature, as in farming, must rank
as
a spoiling operation, however necessary it may be if we are not to live
entirely on fruit and nuts.
Nowadays we are very sharply aware of the despoiling and exploitation
of nature by human hands, but that is only one of three ways destructive,
neutral, creative in which man can relate himself to nature. He is
UC10 R6/1: page 47
Undercurrents 10 Resurgence 6/1: 1975: page 48
creative when as husbandman he tends and tills the soil, maintains its
health and fertility and assists it to produce wholesome food, flowers for
pleasure, wood for use. And this working partnership should be seen "not
as an unavoidable interference with pristine nature, but as a healthgiving
cooperation, necessary both for humanity and for the land, and for the
future evolution of the Earth.
Charles Davy, Priory Bank, Forest Row, Sussex. 30. 12. 74
Dear Sir, Readers of A Prophet Ignored may like to note also the following
passage from G. K. Chesterton's Auto
biography: •
<This was the primary problem for me, certainly in order of time and
largely in order of logic. It was the problem of how men could be made
to realise the wonder and splendour of being alive, in environments
which their own daily criticism treated as deadalive and which their
imagination had left for dead. It is normal for a man to boast if he can or
even when he can't that he is a citizen of no mean city. But these men
had really resigned themselves to being citizens of mean cities; and on
every side of us the mean cities stretched far away beyond the horizons;
mean in architecture, mean in costume, mean even in manners; but,
what was the only thing that really mattered, mean in the imaginative
conception of their own inhabitants. These mean cities were indeed
supposed to be the component parts of a very great city but in the
thought of most modern people, the great city has become
a journalistic generalisation, no longer imaginative and very nearly
imaginary.
On the other hand the modern mode of life, only professing to be
prosaic, pressed upon them day and night and was the real
molder of their minds. ' .
B. R. Gilbert, 29 Molesworth Street; Wadebridge Cornwall. 8. 12. 74
Coordinating Communities
would not have some of the benefits of modern life like skyscrapers and
subways and socialism. So much the better.
John McClaughry, President, Institute for Liberty and Community,
Concord, Vermont 05824, U. S. A. 4. 11. 74
Dear Resurgence, I'm not, need I say, replying to you on behalf of 108
organisations [Resurgence Vol. 5, No. 6], nor even on behalf of the one
or two to which I belong merely on behalf of myself. While I am
naturally entirely with you in your insistence upon the need for smaller
communities, I cannot share your certainty that change to less monstrous
groups would of itself achieve the end of war and the manipulators who
contrive it. be it military, political, economic or social war. The
manipulator mentality is not, I think, attributable to the size of the
political unit in which it is nurtured. Th rooster will crow just as fiercely
in
a tiny barnyard with two hens as when he has a large terrain and, say,
two hundred and twentytwo biddies around whet he or not there are
other cocks present. Manipulators known as kings, conquerors, priests,
statesmen have appeared with horrifying regularity on every
community's scene, however small it may have been. Think how small
wen the city states of ancient Greece, of __ Renaissance Italy. They
produced some
A
of man's most noble ideas and splendid art, but they were also among
the most fiercely contentious and warlike groups. And what about the
smallness of the Balkan States pray, and the minute countries that now
make up Britain? Nothing big about them as long as they stay at home
and don't go off empirebuilding across the seas.
It is not size that matters so much. It
is ideas, the rigid institutional and cultural boundaries, selfinterest, and
envy that divide individuals and groups from one another. You may scoff
at the UN and
the European experiments, but the prime motive for their birth was a
fervent desire to live in peace instead of war with the chaps in other
groups, however many people with less glowing ideals may have
subsequently jumped on the two bandwagons.
We live in a society where, quite thoughtlessly, everyone (almost)
continues to say and write 'employer' and 'employee' without pausing to
reflect upon the nauseating meaning of being
a 'user' of other people or a 'used' by other people person. Isn't it time
that such an obscene, antisocial relationship was finally rejected and the
words themselves confined to the limbo of obsolete crossword puzzle
definitions? Gandhi with his religious view of life reiterated time and
again that one of the most serious crimes against God and Man was a
sense of superiority.
Greenpeace . . . . . . . LoveRosalind Schamma, c/o Jacobson, The
Bungalow, Wittey's Lane, High Street, Thorncombe
Nr. Chard. Somerset. 29. 12. 74
Inflation
Dear. Sir, Anatol Murad wrote in your last issue that inflation was avoided
during World War II by direct price and income controls, and suggested
that, if comprehensive and strictly enforced, these could be equally
effective today.
In this country there was more to the wartime antiinflation measure than
price and income controls: rationing and subsidies on essential goods
played a crucial role. The aim was to stabilise a particular
retail price index covering mainly these goods, and to share the available
supplies fairly among the population by means of rationing. The system
did not produce ) absolute equality in that unsubsidised unrationed goods
not represented in the index could rise substantially arid some ration
coupons were sold on the black market, but it was nevertheless a serious
and largely effective attempt to share fairly the reduced supplies of
consumer goods available.
It would be from this attempt at fairer distribution rather from the use of
price and income controls that we could, if we wanted to; learn
something relevant to our present problem of inflation from the
experience of World War II.
'Peggy Hemming, Flat 4, 62 Southwood Lane, London N 6. 29. 1. 75
Dear Sir, The letter from David Pearce [VoLS, No. 6] 'Big is not Bad'
cannot be allowed to go unanswered; most of our readers must realise
that the question of size is the very basis of our argument.
Does David Pearce see no faults in bigness? What is wrong with a big
hospital, country, or overseas aid programme is precisely what is wrong
with any big organisation or approach impersonality, inflexibility,
complexity, authoritarianism, vulnerability, etc. , etc. More to the point,
however, a correct scale of organisation would enable us to be free of the
need for hospitals, aid programmes and so on.
As regards the merits of the present socioeconomic system, obviously D. r
and I are seeing totally different systems. but he really is out of touch with
a large proportion of the people of this country if he thinks we have
healthier and" more rewarding lives. (Life expectancy has begun to fall!)
Reread your letter, David, and see if you don't think it's an hysterical out
burst which only illustrates how you're viewing things on a superficial
level and failing to see root causes (e. g. How can a scheme like Maplin
be deemed 'good' for anyone, when it is designed to squander
everincreasing amounts of ail kinds of natural resources oil, space, peace
and quiet on which we all depend?) I
Yours seriously, Steve Lambert,
23 Hamilton Road, Hayes, Middlesex. 15. 1. 75
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Industrial slavery can now end! John Papworth pp. 16 17
ONE OF THE MAJOR EVILS confronting mankind, namely' war, does not
spring from any' desire of the generality of people for a nuclear
armageddon; rather armament programmes and the pursuit of war
policies negate the profound desire for peace which is wellnigh universal.
The war danger springs from the fact that our political units are too large
to be susceptible to the control of the people in whose name they are
presumed to be operating. It is this oversize and its corresponding degree
of over centralisation of government functions which is promoting the
dangerous overspill of power. It is for this primary reason that the Fourth
World* is envisaged as a world of small political units which are
genuinely subject to the control of their peoples.
It follows as a matter of course that these small units will themselves be
as noncentralised as possible so that in all but the most unavoidable areas
where national control is imperative, people will be making their own
decisions and running their own lives.
In' this respect the people of Switzerland have shown themselves to be
generations ahead of the rest of the world. We tend to accept it as normal
that local government can only perform those functions decreed to it by
the national government, In Switzerland the national government can
only perform those functions (and none other) as decreed by its
constituent cantons. It is for this reason that the Swiss claim that theirs is
not a country but a confederation. Since it is not. a country it cannot
even have a foreign policy, it therefore abides by a strict rule of neutrality
in the
. affairs of its neighbours and refuses to have any truck with membership
of the United Nations.
But the Swiss experience points to one area where it has failed to
implement the working practice of its political democracy; that is in its
economic institutions. Huge national and multinational concern (not
least in the field of banking andfinance) are subverting Swiss political
democracy simply because . with their vast advertising budgets they are
able to establish the phoney values of consumerism. (t is these values
which are being used to establish the terrain of debate in the political
arena and thus preempting political decisions even before they come to
Even now many socialists of the old school seem quite unable to grasp
what this revolution is all about and how it is tipping the old concepts of
progress through mass" party structures, a mass party headquarters, mass
party leaders and mass party discipline into the dustbins of history. Even
now they seem unable to grasp that the key question is not whether
something will work, whether an independent Scotland will work or
whether a free Wales, let us say, is viable, but whether people want them.
At present the political forces ranged against the Fourth World are
imposing enough and repression is the order of the day either by police
and military thuggery or by administrative artifice coupled with a
conspiracy of media silence. I t is not commonly known, for example,
that when Robert Lafont, the author of several books on Occitanie, and a
champion of the independence of this historic region of France, sought to
enter his candidature for the recent presidential elections it was rejected
by the French constitutional council. "
Nevertheless, the old order is facing its own problems, for whilst small
nations of only a few million people are showing that their arrangements
work very well indeed, so that Denmark, for example (population 5
million), has a higher per capita gross domestic product than West
Germany population 61 million), it is becoming increasingly evident that
the political and economic arrangements of the big units, far from
working at all, are quite simply breaking down. Indeed, the future of the
big powers is now being freely_prognosticated in terms of the total
collapse of their paper currencies, massive{ unemployment, widespread
social unrest and rebellion and greater and greater measures of repression
and coercion by the state, itself largely a machine of war.
There is as yet no ideology of world liberation which will rescue it from
the clutches of our decaying bourgeois civilisation, so that Women's Lib,
Gay Lib, Student Lib, Black Power, the commune movement, radical
pacifism, ecology action, community politics and a host of other new
manifestations have yet to see the vital ideological link between their
own concerns and the broader realities 01 the Fourth World.
When that link is established we may expect the world to change and
the, prospects of a new and more hopeful phase in human affairs to open
up. This will not happen because people want it, even though they do; it
will result from the unremitting efforts of a small minority (as always') to
establish those organisational links and those working structures imbued
with a clearsighted momentum towards objectives which at present are
so patently lacking. The nee' now, as never before, is for organising and
building, to lay that groundwork of structure which will help to make the
Fourth World a reality. 'Our lack is nothing but our leave'.
* The Fourth World;s the world of small nations, the colonies within
states. the Mohawks. the Basques. the Lapps. the Welsh. Those who want
decentralised, smallscale forms of organisation and the fulfilment of
human values. Editor
17
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Manifesto of an alternative culture Renee Dumont
Our 'expansion' has been brought about largely through the pillage of the
third world, through underpayment for raw materials, including oil until
1971. This pillage has made possible our unparalleled waste&e of all
these resources. The famine is due to the breaking down of the traditional
customs, grain reserves, and irresponsible export of cultures. I t is also
caused by the extravagant spending of the elites who want to live. in
western style at the expense of the agricultural and industrial equipment
of their countries.
There are Solutions
• The primacy of wellbeing over the accumulation of goods, and the
quality of Iife over the standard of living.
• equilibrium between production, consumption, population and
resources.
• transference to the whole population, men and women, within the
framework of their communities, of the power to organise themselves,
make their own decisions, as well 'as the power to acquire the necessary
information.
• respect for technical and cultural diversity, of human beings and of
social I
groups.
• the use of decentralised production techniques, nonpolluting and
based on renewable resources as, for example, solar energy (soft
technology).
• decentralisation of power at all geographical levels (regions,
departments, communes, quartiers).
• obligatory information to associations about the decisions which
concern them, and access to the decisionmaking procedures.
. the possibility of legal intervention by the associations before the
harmful projects are begun.
• the setting up of local means of communication which will allow
everyone to express their views and effectively make decisions (local
television).
All the present economic calculations are false. They count as an addition
to the national wealth expenditure on medicines, costs of hospitalisation,
charges for car repairs and costs of burial.
Equally monumental errors today remove all significance from the Gross
UC10 R6/1: page 61
Undercurrents 10 Resurgence 6/1: 1975: page 62
pesticides. n /'
translated by Anne Vogel
Country Afternoon
we buy postcards sepiatinted
putting extra money, carefully, in the box
a lone tourist
made nervous by laughter
and the child climbing on tombstones hurries towards the lychgate
shuts it with an echoing click
a church noted by Betjeman saddlebacked, herringboned
tiny, cool '
more ancient than its written history a god's eye in Cotswold fields:
outside, the graven cross, six centuries won is a single shaft to heaven
from the crypt I look up
see your face for an instant
dark against sunlight
still as a stone knight
a ,woodpigeon clattersfrom a smouldering bonfire smoke wavers
upwards
we gaze into the rectory orchard
I heavy with forbidden fruit dahlias in shocks lean towards us
across the lane
five. geese _from a fairy tale
cows gathered peaceably to be milked a muddy ford with minnows
no sound or sight of other human
fifteen adults in this community a few children and the old
where are they allindoors, or vanished long ago
into the hedgerows, the rolling fields?
at the edge of the wood a horse chases a cow "an afternoon out of time,"
you say
Frances Horovitz
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Towards An Alternative Culture Woody
This is the first extract from a long essay entitled 'An Introduction to
Alternative Culture' which will be serialised in the next few issues of
Undercurrents. We think it represents an original and refreshing approach
to the problem that has plagued radicals in every era: how can society be
changed? Subsequent extracts will deal with, and hopefully shed light
upon, such topics as: the characteristics of a society in which sociality
('living for each other') is the keynote; the factors which restrict the
spread of radical ideas to limited numbers of people and how those
limitations might be transcended; the necessity for tolerance of the views
of others; and how the embryonic alternative culture can begin, now, to
lay the foundations of the 'voluntary state' in the midst of our 'mature'
society.
What's wrong
There is something very wrong with the world. If you don't think so, don't
bother to read this. If you do think so, I am trying to talk to you.
We are all, basically, unhappy about what is wrong. A few million people
get very down at times, and have to take tablets or go to the doctor. And
thousands commit suicide every year. But most of us keep p cheerful
enough. We have our jobs and our duties; and we have our
entertainments. So we keep cheerful, and yet we are unhappy.
Moreover, we feel lonely. For old people, those who cannot get about,
people who don't make friends easily, being lonely is very real. But most
of us have lots of friends,as well as families yet we still feel lonely. The
other people in the street, or on the train even people who live a few
doors away seem like strangers. When something special happens, like a
fire in our street, we are ,1I1 out in the road and everybody finds they can
talk to everybody. For a little while, it is just as it should be.
We don't feel safe, either. It's not so much the Bomb that frightens us we
don't like the thought of it, so we don't think about it. We don't feel safe
because we are worried about 'holding our own'. Most of it comes down
to money,. If we have a fairly good job (or our husband has) we can buy
most of the things other people can buy and do most of the things other
people can do. But if we lose our job, or fall ill, or get injured, or reach
retiring age, then we can't hold our own any more: We feel a failure,
even if it was not our fault. Some blokes stay away from their local pub
and their friends, rather than not be able to buy a round.
So long as we compete like this, there have got to be losers. And the next
loser could be you or me. That is why we don't feel safe.
We feel selfish. Most of us can be very generous at times, and yet in our
whole lives we feel selfish. I f you are trying to hold your own against the
others, it just does not make sense to let yourself down by helping
There is a word for what's wrong with the world. I t is called Alienation.
We believe that these things (and many more you probably wanted to
add) are not things wrong with the world. They
all exist because of what's wrong with the world: they are symptoms of
the illness, not the illness itself. I f we were wrong; if they were just things
wrong by themselves, then many of them would have been put right by
now. For some of them are too dangerous or inhuman for any human
people who were themselves, and who were in control of themselves, to
allow.
The world is not all bad
What do we have that's good? Firstly, a measure of political. freedom.
This means that there is no law stopping us from becoming Prime
Minister, 'or
a millionaire. We are not denied the political right to stand on a soap
box at Hyde Park Corner, to meet with others who share our views, to
demonstrate our opposition to this or that i[injustice. We have the legal
right to live in any part of the country or even to leave it, to change our
job at any time, to buy
a cottage or a mansion. There may be good reasons why we can't do any
or all of these things, but they are not political reasons. We, in Britain,
have political freedom. People who haven't got it know how important it
is. We know that it doesn't put everything right.
Next, there is paid social behaviour.
There are many people who, though they go to work firstly for money,
take pleasure and pride in their work as
a social act in itself. We can straight away think of many doctors and
nurses, teachers, engineers, craftsmen and tradesmen of many kinds,
even some people with what seem to be really lousy jobs.
Then, there is voluntary social behaviour. People who, without pay and
for all sorts of reasons, do things intended to help other people; from
holding a door open for another person, to a lifetime of work for the
mentally handicapped; from hot soup for the hungry, to political agitation
for justice, Some of these actions have mixed results. An efficient
voluntary service for the aged may bring real help to thousands, though it
may
also help society to dodge its debt to tens of thousands. But, taking all
these things together, our lives here and now are better for the voluntary
that the bad things can be put right little by little. The
revolutionary assumes that society is ('
rotten, and must be broken down before a better one can be built.
But what changes are possible in
a society of people who are Iiving against each other? The pressure for
power to be shared does not come from the very bottom, but always from
a group which has grown in identity and selfconfidence on the edge of
power. Barons in one age, clerics in another, merchants in another,
managers in another, organised labour in
I'
another, students in another. The sharing is seldom equal, and each time
there is less to share. Society becomes a great pyramid with many groups
arranged according to their bargaining power. Few groups haw; great
power, and few have none. To take account of, and to try and fix these
changes, the rules are changed.
. They become more and more compIicated. .
How far can reform go? In theory all
the way to full, hostile equality. The end
of the reformist road is the Conservative dream: a property owning
democracy; equality in,competition; all the forces of greed and ambition
in perfect balance. Luckily for us, this nightmareparadise is unlikely to be
reached, though it is the
goal for which reformers of all political parties are working, whether they
know it or not. As the forces of society slowly
wear down the pinnacle of total power,
so the corruption of power penetrates
every level of society. This in turn undermines the drive to reform. The
point
today is not so much that the top two per cent still own four fifths of the
wealth
(or whatever) but that the rest of us are prepared to fight each other for
what's
left. So the very fact of living against each other sets a limit to how far
reform can
old order. But the new restrictions on freedom renew the drive to
reform.
Where does this leave reform and revolution? The reformist hope that the
'improvement' in the rules would itself change our ways, has not been
met. The revolutionary insists that in the real revolution the people as a
whole will take power. But this, as we have just seen, requires the people
to be for each other
as a whole . l the very condition which
the revolution is, or should be outto achieve. Likewise, the reformer,
seeking changes in the rules from competition to cooperation needed a
real reforming drive in this direction from the people the rules were to
change. So both reform and
revolution require as a condition of success the very thing they intend to
create a real human society.
Escape or example?
What about the personal or moral approach to change? Here again, we
find two different ways of dealing with the problem: escape and example.
The escapist believes that we are hopelessly contaminated by the real
world, and can only change ourselves by turning away from it. The
exemplar believes that the world does allow us the options of being good
and bad, and that the good in us can be increased by example and
teaching. The attitudes of the revolutionary and the reformer can be
seen in these positions, despite the difference between the personal and
the political approaches. The escapist and the revolutionary reject the
world as they find it. The exemplar and the reformer accept it as a
foundation on which to build.
Escape takes many forms. For some it is turning away from the dirty world
of the body and of things, to the pure world of thought and of the spirit.
For others, it is the more practical step of
. withdrawing from modern alienated society to some small selfcontained
community of likeminded souls usually to a fairly primitive and hardy
life. Many others simply drop out from personal cooperation with society
and its values.
serious projects arose that couldn't get money elsewhere because they
didn't fit into society's framework. .
So CLAP was to fulfill this role of financing alternative projects on a
regular basis by placing a voluntary tax on established projects. The idea
was that
any going organisation has a turnover of money and won't be broken by
giving say 2% not of profit, but of total turnover to new projects. And to
avoid a hierarchy deciding which projects get the money, the donors
would give direct to the projects they like CLAP only acting to put givers
in touch with takers.
Purely in terms of money CLAP has been an amazing success, averaging
over £3,000 every twomonthly payout. And it's had another important
side effect of putting people in touch who have projects listed in the
CLAP Handbook which is included with Peace News.
But, as a tax it's so far been a failure.
Most of the money. comes from generous individuals; nearly all the rest is
lump sums from organisations hardly any is
a percentage of turnover or individuals' income. Why worry? Personally,
I'm not worried where the money comes from (it's said the most generous
donor runs blue movie clipjoints) but it's unlikely. to keep flowing in a
depression. But if the same amount came from a lot of individuals and
organisations each giving 2%, then it would be a much more stable
situation and could expand indefinitely without anyone feeling the
pinch.
Travelling around the country over the last year researching my new book
Alternative England and Wales, I've found the CLAP Handbook a useful
source of contacts but one aspect does worry me. The writeups in the
handbook aren't a clear indication of what's happening or likely to
happen someone can do a convincing writeup of a scheme that's only
in his head while others have really gat it
all together except the writing. But I can't see a good answer to this: do
you vet the schemes like the new Northern CLAP propose, and if so
doesn't this bring in similar problems of the people applying putting on a
show the roots of PR? The Northern CLAP people reckon they all know
who's. who but I don't like the sound of that much better.
. As I see it the problem goes very deep
1 first, what right has one person got to say what other person. is OK?
Secondly, can anyone, even the person himself, say whether he's got the
energy to carry out
his plans? So often people say that it's only lack ofmoney stopping them
going whatever it is and they firmly believe it. Yet in reality it's often that
they just haven't got the energy and aren't prepared to risk failure. To
give a safely
I irrelevant example, a shopkeeper down Kings Road decided to make
over a big space for artists to hold free exhibitions since he was always
hearing them complain that the galleries were too commercial. But, to
cut a long story short, four out of the first five keen artists to book it never
got it together. I'd be surprised if the proportion of CLAP projects that get
money and then do what they said they would is any higher.
To enable one in five supported projects to succeed is certainly
worthwhile on the obvious level, but maybe CLAP's most important
function is to teach some of the other four who fail: that it's inside them
where the difficulties really lie. n For further information contact CLAP c/
o BIT, 146 Great Western Road, London WI1.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Solar Collectors pages 25 30 Low Impact Design/Undercurrents
OK, I know you want to build solar collectors. We're going to tell you
how, but we must realise that we're infants of the technocracy, and great
chunks of tin on your roof are in no sense alternative technology. They
started life as ore, half a world away, and have been thoroughly chomped
by highenergy processes since.
Diagram 2
CLIMATE
Pause again, and learn another lesson from trees. Because we in Britain
have a climate problem.
All the enthusiasm, all the data, all the freaks, NASA and all, are from
America
(though a little information trickles North from Australia and France). And
there they have sunshine.
America is a large landmass, our small one is heavily influenced by the
seas. Large landmasses get cold winters and hot summers, and, away
from the coast, yearround bright skies. We all know that
maritime climates bring year round grey skies, with little direct sun.
Diagram 2 makes this clear. We get about 1200 hours of direct sun
yearly, according to this map. New Mexico gets nearly 4000. New
Mexico is the home of solarenergy workers. High, cold, bright.
Here's a plug. Write to Zomeworks
P. O. Box 712 Albuquerque
NM 87103, USA
for Steve Baer's Solar Book$3 + $1. 50 p&p). It's full of insight and
understanding, by a man who's actually done it. Better than any other
publication I know' for the feel of the thermal environment.
But there, in NM, when they need sunlight they have it, right there on
their wintertime south walls. Here, though, the classic crunch occurs:
when you want it, you don't have it. We need it at night, in winter. We
get it in the day, in summer. Occasionally.
Now a flatplate solar collector is conceptually very simple, and it works
beautifully in New Mexico. But here, the technology just doesn’t import.
And the trees tell you why (I said I was still with the trees). Take a
hotclimate lowlatitude palmtree, and compare it with the English elm.
Both are highly adapted, to get the carbon dioxide and water together in
the
presence of sunlight. The palm has ample sun and has to conserve water,
and has' therefore a small crown of tough leaves. 'The elm is not limited
by water, but spreads a great cauliflower of leaves to trap and retrap the
diffuse, reflected radiation that gets through the cloudcover from the
whole bright sky
While the palm is nature's precursor of the flatplate solar collector, the
elm is nature's triumphant answer to a tricky' design problem.
So you want to build flatplate collectors here in England? Well, at least
the problem is easily defined. You need a very large area, collecting from
the whole sky. It has to work when the sun comes out, but mostly when it
doesn't. It has to swing into action pretty quickly when the photons do
zap through, though. It has to closedown elegantly to weather the winter.
It has to get the energy into store rapidly and lock it in securely. It has to
be happy working at fairly low temperatures. Just like an elm.
Translating the above requirements into engineering reality produces a
system like this:
Very large collector plates, at lowish, uncritical angle to the horizontal,
with uncritical orientation. Rapid, accurate control system sensitive to
brightovercast and brightclear conditions, activating pumped fluid
system. Thermistor control accurate to about 2°C, but not prone to
'hunting'. Very thin collector plates with thin allover film of water or
other heattransfer fluid (why heat the tin if ya want hot water?). Long
heatstorage period (large storage mass). For reasons we'll go into in
subsequent articles, we think about two months' heat requirement is
most sensible. And you've got to find a use for lowtemperature heat.
(You'll never escape the need for a 'backup system' of conventional
type. Or you're into heat pumps. ) The system has to weather wind and
rain, winter cold and equinoctial gales. Has to be exceptionally well
insulated, or else work at temperatures so close to ambient (or even
below, using heatpumps) that insulation doesn't matter. And it has to look
good, otherwise your local planning Neanderthals won't let you build it.
So far, no manufacturer is remotely close to solving these problems in a
way that competes with existing power sources. And the only
economicallyviable installation is a wellinformed doityourself design
using readymade collector plates originally designed for domestic central
heating radiators, in other words.
even one that is too small for all your" needs. (If that were true, we could
all take economical 5 gallon showers. ) This
is because solar,collectors work best at It
low temperatures. (Smaller losses, and '
better heat transfer into the water. ) So
what you get is a largish body of water, I
lukewarm. And you therefore need a 1
backup system such as the dreaded ]
electric immersion heater. If you were to "
attempt to get fullyhot water, you'd have to be con tent with teacups fuII
on 10 or 20 days a year. '
Solar collectors are designed to collect
from direct radiation, and the best for us
are those that heat up smartly when the i
sun comes out from behind a cloud, arid j
which have small thermal mass. At the moment, plastic collectors are
apparently
the best (see Product Reviews section); l
pressed steel radiators are not quite as J
good, and 'purpose made' plates, made up
from sheets of copper, steel or aluminium .
with pipes attached, are worst of all, being usually clumsy with overlarge
water pipes spaced too far apart on their
surfaces. '
A blackpainted standard central heating radiator of pressed steel is the
ideal doityourself answer.
But surely in our cloudy climate we don't get much energy from the sun?
Well we do get some, and times are rough, so we should look at the
possibilities.
At SOoN, we would theoretically, under clear skies, receive 8. 6 KWh/
m2 day in MidJune, 4. 3 KWh/m2 day in MidSeptember and March, and
1. 3 KWh/m2 day in MidDecember on a horizontal surface.
Measurements at Kew show average figures for actual receipts of 4. 6
UC10 R6/1: page 84
Undercurrents 10 Resurgence 6/1: 1975: page 85
The formulae below will give values for various tilted collectors pointing
due South. But Steve Baer gives the following table showing the
percentage of possible sunshine intercepted by a plane orientated away
from the sun by the number of degrees shown.
o degrees 100%
5 99. 6%
10 98. 5%
15 96. 5%
20 94. 0%
25 90. 6%
30 86. 6%
35 81. 9%
40 76. 6%
45 70. 7%
50 64. 3%
55 57. 4%
60 50%
65 42. 3%
70 34. 2%
75 25. 8%
80 17. 4%
85 8. 7%
90 0%
Use this table to modify your result if the collector you're installing is not
due South. In fact, the use of the table in this way is not strictly correct,
but it'll give an approximation quite a good one if your collector is
within 40% of due South. Over 40°, reflective losses from the surface of
the glass cover begin to be important.
collector.
Aug 190
Sep 137
Oct 96
Nov 55
Dec 40
(Kew is one of the sunniest places around, so reduce these figures, or
obtain local ones for your area. )
INDIRECT RECEIPTS
= 0. 698 i n Y2 (1 + case)
now i = 0. 22, and is obtained by averaging Kew data from Robert Vale as
follows:
Jan 0. 08 Feb 0. 16 Mar 0. 22 Apr 0. 29 May 0. 36 Jun 0. 39 Jul . 0. 36
Aug 0;29 Sep 0. 22 Oct 0. 16 Nov 0. 08 Dec 0. 05
These figures are probably OK to use throughout the country.
So 0. 698 x 0. 22 x 113 x Y2 (1 + 0. 71) = 14. 7 KWh/m2 month.
Therefore total receipt of energy =47. 4+14. 7=62. 1 KWh/m2month.
Allowing 30% efficiency, Usable heat= 18. 6 KWh/m2 month.
These formulae were used to compile this table for the monthly energy
receipt of a theoretical 1 m2, 45° collector at Kew, 30% efficient.
RECEIPTS (KWh/month)
Jan Mar Jun Sep
HOT COMPETITOR
Sunheat Systems Ltd. Barn House, Kemerton,
Nr. Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire
APART FROM heating water, the Salamander solar collector seems likely
to raise still further the temperature of competition between the
numerous small companies now manufacturing solar collectors in
Britain.
Out of what many people have come to feel is the unacceptable face of
AT, has come a solar collector made in this count for this country; and at
around £17/m (for the ABS plastic heat exchanger only) it's the least
expensive in its field.
UK manufacturers have tended to follow blindly the early example of the
Israelis and Americans in using a metal (copper, aluminium or galvanized
steel) collector plate. However in the
UK, where the intensity of solar radiation is very variable even on sunny
days,
a collector which responds quickly to periods of intermittent sunshine
will prove to be more effective. Th is 'quick response' can be achieved by
providing
a thin film of water which covers virtually the whole of the back of the
collector plate, enabling more of the heat absorbed by the plate to be
conducted away more quickly.
In effect this is what the Salamander collector does. The front of the
collector is made from . 062 ins thick matt black ABS plastic sheet, and
the back is
. 031 ins thick corrugated ABS moulded sheet with 'header' pipes
moulded at top and bottom of the vertical grooves. (The material is
claimed to be resistant to ultraviolet radiation. ) The two sheets are
welded together to form the heat exchanger, which contains only 31/3
Iitres of water per square metre, with an inlet and outlet from headers at
the back. This basic unit is available for anybody wanting to frame and
insulate it themselves, and costs about half the price of the completed
unit, which incorporates
an extruded aluminium frame, % in insulation and 4 mm glazing, and
sells at about £30/m2•
Plumbing connections are taken out of the baCk of the collector, and
units are connected in parallel. Brackets are provided to join panels
together and to provide angle supports for fixing to roof battens. Joins
between panels are made watertight by use of flexible plastic strip, and a
'flashing' is used to make good between the edges of roof tiles and the
sides of the collector
A pumped, indirect circulation system
is recommended which heats water in a small tank. This then feeds
preheated water into the base of the main hot water cylinder A simple
dual thermistor control
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Land For The People page 31
1. Land is Life! Man must work the land for food and life. Agriculture is
the one mode of production with which humans cannot dispense under
any circumstances.
2. Land ultimately cannot be owned by anybody. Land is constant while
human life is transient upon it. It is the duty of every generation to leave
the land as vigorous and fertile as they found it, in order not to diminish
the chances of future. generations.
3. At present the land in Britain is "owned" by far less than 1 % of the
population. Those who work it farmers and agricultural workers
represent only 1% of the people. Half of Britain's food is imported and
yet there is enough land to feed everybody. Greater food selfsufficiency
can only be achieved if agriculture ceases to be the private concern of a
tiny minority.
4. Present agricultural practices aim at maximising yield per person and
machine, but due to cost explosion this system is coming unstuck.
Industrialised agriculture is experiencing a crisis which can only be
resolved by drastic changes: agriculture can only be revitalised by more
people being engaged in it, on the basis of cooperation rather than com
petition. But people will not 'go back' to the land if they have to look
forward to
a life of drudgery and subservience, on somebody else's farm.
5. In every economy a balance must be achieved between agriculture
and industry, between country and town. The 'principle' that food must
be imported from wherever it is cheapest is' dead: nobody is prepared to
sell us cheap food any longer. But greater food selfsufficiency, which is
becoming increasingly necessary, cannot be achieved
unless more people work the land, collectively and in the public interest.
6. At the present time nearly all development taking place upon the
land is residential, traffic or industrial development. How the
inhabitants of new towns are to be fed is never taken into consideration;
it is taken for granted. But
due to speculative land prices the gardens of the houses in new towns are
12. Some sceptics might say: "But no body wants to leave the cities to live
in farming villages. " But there is much evidence that they are wrong. It is
wellknown that many people are still being driven from the land who
would love to stay if only they had the chance of
a satisfactory life, economically and socially, as well as culturally. There
are many people eager to live and work in the country who can't afford a
few acres and a cottage.
The redistribution of land (by popular demand) is a precondition for the
creation of new and viable communities. Agriculture and industry must
be under the control of those who do the work. But without a popular
movement the necessary changes cannot be brought about.
It is time that those who broadly. agree on these urgent issues join and
work. together. If you are interested in joining a work & study group write
to:
Land for the People c/o 8a Leighton Crescent, London' NW5
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
New Villages Now
MANY thousands of people in the cities have had enough ... they want to
get out, onto the land ... but where can they go? What can you do if you
don't have the money in the bank to buy a small holding? For a start the
State now controls over 5 million acres of land! Much of this was
previously 'owned' by landlords whose heirs couldn't pay the death
duties. If the State has 'confiscated' land in the interest of the people,
then the people must get access to it. If the people need land to work and
to live on they must get together - and voice their demands, loudly and
clearly.
Another 16,000 agricultural workers (and their families) left farms in
1974 to take up work in factories or to join the growing queues outside
labour exchanges in British towns and cities. Just 1% of the people are
now working in British agriculture and that is the lowest percentage of
any country in the world. The number of farm workers is shrinking almost
as fast as the food import bills are growing. These are trends which we
can no longer afford. There are clear indications that the limits of
mechanisation in agriculture have been reached and that the productivity
per person can grow no further. In some areas the productivity per acre of
land has been decreasing in the past few years due to deteriorating soil
conditions.
After the oil crisis some sections o( industry will never be- the same
again. It seems clear now that at least in the car industry there will be
permanent redundancies. This will have serious repercussions for
everyone. At a time of growing unemployment in industry it is becoming
apparent that we have neglected the land and all its marvellous potential.
If we say 'Back to the Land' we are not trying to run away from reality, on
the contrary, we are facing up to it! It is clear now that we ourselves must
grow much more of the food we require. In other words, that we must
establish a new balance between agriculture and industry, between
country and town. We can no longer afford to treat agriculture as the
neglected child of the economy. Growing food is the basis of human
existence and it is time that we gave it more thought than we are
accustomed to.
In order for Britain to become selfsufficient foodwise more people must
work the land. But nobody will choose to go and work in the country
under the sort of conditions that are offered to
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Talking About Land (Where have all the farmers gone?)
FARMERS WHO HAVE TIME to confer together are usually well-heeled,
established, hard-headed businessmen who have achieved - not, it must be
admitted, without much hard work -
a position where they can afford both time and money to take anything from
one to four days off and travel far from their farms.
The Oxford Farming Conference of 5-7th January 1975 was no exception, and
it was perhaps a little paradoxical to hear so much of their desperate situation
when 850 of them could converge on Oxford for this occasion to debate the
theme 'Farming for Survival?' Those in danger of not surviving were no doubt
hard at it on their farms. As one speaker from the floor pointed out towards the
end of the Conference, it could hardly be regarded as covering the agricultural
scene when not one small farmer had been heard. A young man from Wales
who asked if he could survive if he bought a small farm now was firmly
advised to get off the grass, while the single reference to 'small is beautiful'
came from a speaker who farms 3,800 acres, is chairman of a farmers' co-
operative, a director of an oil seed company and of two frozen food processing
companies. Sir Michael Culme-Seymour certainly talked of stewardship and
the duty of the farmer to hand over an estate in a better condition than he
found it. His statement "You do not own the land, the land owns you" might
well be written on the brow of every farmer, Sir Michael also recognised that a
farm divided into small tenant holdings does better than a large enterprise, but
regarded 800 acres as the sort
of farm-unit which an individual could adequately handle. Cold comfort for all
those seeking anything from 10 acres up (or even less) had they been present.
Professor Britton from Wye College opined that if the average farmer in Britain
has three or four times as much land as his continental counterpart, this is a
situation we should do everything possible to preserve.
A speaker from the floor who questioned the ethics of feeding quantities of
cereals to livestock received
no support, while others felt confident that intensive animal production would
continue, using all available land for production of red meat, and producing
white meat from intensive units. This seems to suggest a painful ignorance of
the world food situation.
At a discussion on economic use of fertilizers, the chairman tentatively
enquired whether anyone thought
a return to,'muck and mystery' techniques desirable. One farmer muttered that
he had never left them, but so sotto voce that only his immediate neighbours
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Good Sward Guide Tony Farmer pages 35 37
SINCE THIS article may be read by a number of people who are faced
with their first gardening experience and who intend to produce a
significant part of their food by gardening, I would like to begin by
explaining a few basic practices which are so 'obvious' they generally get
left out of gardening manuals.
For example, digging. Whether you wish to prepare the garden for sward
or intend to be a continuous digger, you are bound to have at least one
large bout of soil moving. Digging soil, especially neglected sailor
pasture, is heavy work. If you are not used to it, start gently. Do only an
hour a day at first. Keep your enthusiasm balanced with your strength. It
is very important in the garden to maintain a positive frame of mind as
plants acquire an unusual sensitivity to the mental pattern of their human
mentor. And don't forget that there is as much plant life in the soil as on it
in the
"form of the essential fungi. (Organic soil that is).
Divide the digging into parts and concentrate on one part at a time for
short spells for example, breaking the soil, turning it and chopping the
lumps. Loosen the surface with a spade or mattock, if necessary, in a line
until your arms are complaining. Then return to the beginning and turn a
spadeful at a time all along, then return again and chop the lumps if
UC10 R6/1: page 102
Undercurrents 10 Resurgence 6/1: 1975: page 103
there are any. This way, more of a rhythm can be maintained whilst dis
tributing the effects of the exercise around the body,
Weeds; Even in sward gardening,
a certain amount of soil has to be kept clear in the immediate vicinity of
the vegetables. This is best maintained by growing the vegetables in tracks
six to eight inches wide. Stemmy perennials such as nettles, wild mint
and burdock will soon disappear if clipped or mowed regularly, every
two weeks or so. While the occasional dock or dandelion in the sward is
beneficial (it taps deep sources of minerals) stem my perennials should be
removed with tap root intact from the growing tracks. Buttercups' also
will' . succumb to regular mowing in a clover sward but they are such
greedy and rapid colonisers of cleared ground a determined effort should
be made to confine them to the wiId patch. A good tool' for the
_ removal of unwanted growth without too much mess is the small,
twoprong d
hand weeder rather like a rightangled jointcarving fork.
Fertilizer: Nothing discourages the beginner so much as poor results.
I strongly advise the use of a good organic fertilizer either in powder or
spray form for the first few years in a new garden. The fertilizer should be
well balanced for example, hoof, bone and blood in powdered dry
form, or a seaweed concentrate diluted with water and applied with a
watering. can. About two feeds per year will be all that is necessary and
will stimulate soil flora and fauna to digest
the first heavy doses of compost needed to raise the soil potential. The
cost is negligible: a gallon of concentrated seaweed spray may cost a
fiver and will last several years used on !4 acre of garden. Liquid feeds
produce such excellent results when combined with composting and
swards that the gardener may wish to make his own. This can be done
very simply by washing good compost and rich turves in a bucket with
fresh water. Or more elaborately by growing a special crop specifically
for the job for example, comfrey, nettles, borage, angelica. These can be
suspended in a bag in a tub of water for a week or two and decompose
very rapidly to give a rich supply of nutrients.
Establishing a sward garden
There are two basic approaches to beginning a . sward garden. I f there is
a stiff stand of deep rooted perennials in the
soil the best course would probably be to clean the soil thoroughly with a
fork and compost the roots.
If the soil is covered with a thick carpet of buttercups or grass it could be
preferable to dig the entire area with the spit and trench method.
Spit and trench: First cut a strip of the topsoil about three feet long and
eight inches wide into turves eight inches square. Lift these turves and lay
them aside, without breaking if possible. Dig out the subsoil to a depth of
a foot at least and place this aside also but separate from the turves of
topsoil. You now have a trench three feet long, a foot deep and, eight
inches wide. Step back and cut another eight inch strip of topsoil and
turn the turves, as intact as possible, into the bottom of the trench so that
they lie upside down. Dig the subsoil over on top of them. Step back and
proceed as before. (Fig 4) When you reach the end of the plot place the
first spit cut in the trench and the first subsoil dug on top. If the
soil is fine you might find it more manageable to take two spits at the
beginning with their subsoil and place them aside. If this is done carefully
it will ensure a good start to the clover sward as there will be less weed
and grass seeds in the raised subsoil to compete with the clover as it is
establishing.
Raking and sowing: The digging or cleaning should be completed
immediately before the sowing. For best results, , speedy germination of
the sward mixture is required, and as clover needs more heat to grow
than most grasses and weeds, the sowing should not take place too early
in the year. The best time is late March to early April in the South, and a
month later in the North. The raking and sowing should be done as
soon,as possible after the digging so that any weed seeds brought to the
surface do not have
a chance to gain a start on the clover.
Rake off any large stones from the surface of the riot and break up any
clods remaining.
Seed mixture: Along with the clover, I have been using some herb seeds
which are commonly sold for pasture leys.
A typical mixture would be: 70% clover, 10% yarrow, 10% chicory, 10%
ribgrass. These are thoroughly mixed and sown with a seed sower
(purchased from Chase organic seed merchants for a few pence). Also a
quantity of burnet is sown by hand, as the seeds are too large to go with
UC10 R6/1: page 104
Undercurrents 10 Resurgence 6/1: 1975: page 105
the other parts of the mixture. All of these herbs, like the clovers, are
deep rooted arid therefore droughtresistant and capable oftapping the
subsoil for minerals.
The type of clover required will depend
/ on what is suited to your particular soil.
On acidic poorer soils such strains as Alsike and Danish wild white are
recommended, whilst on better soils Kent wild white or one of the New
Zealand strains may do better. Ask your nearest farmer or the seedsman.
Laying the swards: After the final raking, mark off the positions of the
vegetablegrowing tracks at 24 inch intervals and lay a couple of planks,
or
36 _,
'some strips of paper about eight indies wide over the first two track
positions.
,Commence sowing seed with an even steady movement not too thickly,
about % ounce of seed to the square yard. When this has been
adequately covered begin treading with the feet at the edge of the bed
and proceed carefully over the extent of the seeded ground. Sow a few
more feet then continue treading. The treading should be done with flat
heeled shoes or bare feet, in order to have an even surface to the sward
which allows closer mowing or clipping. The treading should not be done
when the soil is too moist, as the surface and seeds will stick to the feet.
When the space between the first two positions is finished move one of
the planks over to the next position and begin on the next space, taking
care that no seeds resting on the plank fall onto the vegetable tracks. No
further raking or covering of the seeds is necessary. At this point it is
advantageous to give the bed
a feed of a good liquid fertilizer (followed by a similar feed a few weeks
later) if the soil is poor. Do not sprinkle it too heavily as the seeds may be
washed away.
Composting techniques: After treading the vegetable tracks should remain
about two inches or so above the sward strips. They can be prepared for
vegetable sowing immediately, provided conditions are dry, but as soon
as the clover has begun to germinate all traffic on it should
cease for several weeks until the sward has established itself. The growing
tracks may be mulched, in the manner of Shewell Cooper, or dug and
tedious and longwinded but the yields more than compensate roots
weighing one pound apiece are common.
The same method is recommended for onion sets and leeks, the
transplanted leek going into the hole after it is halffilled with compost,
with a little waterdiluted fertilizer poured down afterwards.
Weeding of the vegetable tracks: Any weed, grass or clover in the
vegetable tracks should be lifted, complete with roots 'and dropped down
the barred holes before filling with compost. Weeding of the track may be
necessary one to two months after the vegetable seeds are sown but
thereafter the growing plants, provided they are not checked, should
inhibit further week growth by the shade cast by their leaves.
Take care with transplants, handling them gently and do not let them dry
out during the change over. Watering them with a weak solution of liquid
fertilizer is very advantageous. I n the case of plants remaining in the seed
beds, a liquid feed given after the seedling has established itself will bring
it on smoothly and one further feed before fruiting or heading should be
sufficient to produce good crops reliably.
I n the growing season, cut the swards about once a fortnight until the
developing vegetables make further cuts impossible. Mowing is an
extremely rapid method of controlling growth and
a properly laid out sward garden measuring one tenth of an acre can be
mown thoroughly in under two hours, whilst the small amount of initial
weeding of the seedlings requires, altogether, around six hours for the
first two months of growth and virtually nothing thereafter. The con
siderable subsidiary benefits gained from the sward fertility, moisture
retention and visual beauty have also to be taken into account.
Tools: A very cheap pair of lawn shears can outlast and outperform
several sets of' more expensive blades. Basically because the blades, of
softer steel, are easier to sharpen, (I use a large file not a stone) , and so
there is less strain on the bolt and handles. Avoid shears with narrow
blades: they are too flexible and will fail to cut stemmy swards. It is
essential to keep the shears sharp and oiled, and see that the cutting
edges meet all along the blade. If necessary substitute a bolt with more
thread and. use a lock nut.
For larger areas of sward a mower reduces maintenance enormously. I am
using a 'Husqvarna' type with a cutting width of ten inches. This is a very
light, efficient little machine of the barrel type without a roller, measuring
15% inches between the outsides of the sidewheels.
It fits neatly down the sward tracks.
A smaller mower would be still more efficient as space becomes cramped
when the vegetables begin to mature and crowd the swards. It is
beneficial for the sward if mowing can continue into the Autumn, as
clover is more competitive the greater the number of cuts.
I am at present trying to get together the prototype of a hand mower
made from bicycle parts and designed specifically for sward gardening .
. If any readers familiar with light engineering can lend
a hand, I should be interested to meet them.
Establishing a sward garden on pasture land
t appears to be quite feasible to begin a sward garden ona piece of
pasture land with a minimum of digging, retaining the pasture sward for
the sward strips. The
Undercurrents 10 vegetable tracks are established in
. a variety of ways depending on the condition of the pasture land. Here
are a few
possibilities: Cut a strip of turves from .
the position where the vegetables are to grow, and lay them aside. Bar or
spade the subsoil that has been exposed and incorporate compost as you
go. Return the turves to their original positions but upside down. Give the
strip a good liquid feed and sow vegetable seeds or transplants on the
'upturned turves.
Dig spit and trench method, as explained above, but only along. g the
actual growing track position. Compost as, you go. This will need a good
liquid feed as you will have brought some very
dormant subsoil to the surface. Begin to bar large holes as for
carrots and scrape off the surface green around each hole and drop it to
the bottom of the hole before topping up with compost. You will end up
with a cleared strip, well composted for a root crop.
If the pasture already supports clover then nothing need be. added. The
mowing will increase the percentage of clover.
If no clover is present, and does not appear in the first year even with
feeding, the sward strips might be chopped Iightly with the point of the
spade to loosen the surface, then some clover and herbs scattered over
them. This should be trodden down as before and more feeding done.
It will be found that the swards can be permitted to grow quite long,
particularly in dry weather. They will then act as moisture collectors and
keep the wind and sun from drying the soil surface. But in continuous
wet conditions close cropping may be essential, particularly around
seedlings, in order to deter the slug population from moving around too
much. ,
I n gardening of any type it is always preferable to do a little work, often
rather than doing all of it at once. With the sward garden, maintenance
is minimal but should be done regularly to keep things under control. n
Primavera
april's buds
explode into bloom shaking last year's leaves out of their gloom like stars
they beam
through the darkest room
Michael Horovitz
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Anarchist Cities Colin Ward pages 38 39
Anarchism the political philosophy',of a nongovernmental society of
autonomous communities " does not at first sight seem to address itself to
the problems of the city at all. But there is in fact a stream of anarchist
contributions to urban thought that stretches from Kropotkin to Murray
Bookchin historically, and from John Turner to the International
Situationists ideologically. A lot of the people who might help us evolve
an anarchist philosophy of the city would never think of trying because in
spirit, though less often in practice, they have abandoned the city.
GOVERNMENTS are invariably based in cities: whoever heard of a
nation ruled from a village? Very often they actually build cities to house
themselves: New Delhi, Canberra, Ottawa, Washington, Chandigar and
Brasilia are examples. And isn't it significant that the visitor who wants to
sample the real life of a place has to escape from the city of the bureau
crats and technocrats in order to do so? He has to go ten miles from
Brasilia for example, to the Cidade Libre (Free
Town) where the building workers live. They built the "City for the Year
2000" but are too poor to live there,' an,d in their own homemade city, "a
spontaneous wild west shantytown life has arisen, which contrasts with
the formality of the city itself, and which has become too valuable to be
destroyed. "
The myth of rural bliss
Particularly in Britain, the most highly urbanised country in the world, we
have for centuries nurtured a myth of ruraL bliss a myth cherished by
people all across the political spectrum. Raymond Williams in his book
'The Country and the City' has shown. how all through history this myth
has been fed into literature, always placing the lost paradise of rural bliss
in some past period. And , E. P. Thompson comments that what is wrong
with the myth is that it has been "softened, prettified, protracted, and then
taken over by the city dwellers as
a major point from which to criticise 'industrialism. Thus it became a
substitute for the utopian courage of imagining what a true community, in
an industrial city, might be indeed of imagining how far community may
have already been attained. "
Like Williams, he sees this as a debilitating situation: "a continuous
cultural hemorrhage, a loss of rebellious blood, draining away now to
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
General systems Peter Sommer pages 40 43
Most of us are to some degree suckers for the Big Theory, the New Guru,
the Opened Door of Perception that will Change All either through
Wisdom or Immutable Scientific Law.
The General Systems Approach (GSA) has been around in one form or
another, since the Thirties and has scored considerable success both as a
theoretical discipline and as a technology particularly under one of its
disguises, as Management Science/Operational Research. I n the past five
years it has extended its influence considerably. Its concerns are being
adapted to whole countries (Stafford Beer tried it briefly in Chile and is
now apparently doing the same for India) and the whole world (the Club
of Rome /MIT 'Limits to Growth forecast). Academics and armchair
polemicists are turning to it as an indirect justification of
elites (or so one gathers from Mensa) or as a quasiutopian model
for change. (Donald Schon in the 1970 Reith Lectures).
It also throws up some . entertaining views on political science.
I think we'll be hearing a great deal more about GSA. Because it is often
presented as holding out more promise (and threat) than is in fact
the case, here is a guide to its concerns and its terminology:
THE FIRST mistake people make about general systems theory is that they
think it attempts to have (or actually does have) an explanation of
everything. General systems theory is about systems which for this
purpose is anything that is reasonably complicated. A singlecelled
creature is a system, so is a community, a farm, a large commercial
enterprise,
a nation state. And so, of course, is the Earth. Systems can be biological,
ecological, economic, political, and social. .
The one common factor is their complexity; they are comprised of a
number
of separate parts and processes, which interact with each other. At
anyone time these components are in a state of stable tension, though
this may vary with time. General Systems Theory claims that systems as
such, irrespective of their components, show certain common pro
perties, and that by extracting the basic laws that describe these
properties, we can have a better understanding of the
world. .
The second mistake implied in General Systems Theory is that it presents
a whole theory. It doesn't only a series of separate models or ways of
looking at systems:This is why I have preferred to refer to the area as the
systems approach. . Most of traditional twentieth century science has
attempted to make sense of the world by pulling it apart and examining
the constituent parts this approach is called 'mechanist' or 'reductionist'
and was a reaction against the mystic ideas of 'vitalism' and 'life force'.
But if you pull a clock apart you are left with just a set, of cogs and
springs a clock can only be really 'under stood' by seeing it as a "work
ing whole. I n practice, of course, it is wrong to oppose the 'reductionist'
and
'holistic' approaches we need both. Our ways of 'understanding' what
we see depend on the creation of a number of models which we use at
various times to give us a rounded view and we need to have the
imagination to map several models on to each other.
The first model I will deal with is concerned with a system in which the
components do not change much over
a period of time and which receives no stimulus from outside and has no
effect on outside either this is the theoretical 'closed' system. In most
simple explanations we like to say that A causes B inflation is caused
by wage demands, for example. In practice, an end result may be the
product of a number of mutuallyinteracting forces, and the 'simple'
explanation is therefore wrong.
Imagine a tugofwar in which there are three, instead of two teams. The
three strands of rope meet in one knot and
once the game has commenced the knot hovers, more or less steadily, as
atribute to the respective strengths of the teams. This is a stable system. If
one of the men in one of the teams suddenly has to leave the game, then
the pull given by his team will diminish and the position of the knot will
change, moving partly towards one
of the other teams; and partly towards the third. This change is known as
perturbation and the period it takes for
a new stability to emerge is called the relaxation time. Now suppose a
man in another of the teams develops rope burn blister. Again the system
is perturbed and then relaxes. If we observe the knot and the teams over a
period of time we can assess the area of space over which the . knot will
hover and hence the number of states of possible stability. This number is
known as the system's variety, which is a measure of its complexity.
Now imagine (and I'm afraid the art of metaphor gets strained here) a
whole series of threeteam tugsofwar going on in a moreorIess circular
formation and with each knot linked to a giganticcentral knot:
In fig. l the individual games going on are ABC, DEF, GHI, KJL, and
MNO, the respective knots of which are U, W, X, V, and Y. The centre
knot, affected by all the games, is Z. At the time the diagram was drawn,
the system is stable although all the teams, A through 0, are working
hard at tugging. Now, if team L, say, is suddenly weakened, this will
affect directly the position of knot V. This in' turn will affect slightly the
position of knot Z (the centre one) and all the other knots and teams will
change position slightly.
If we allow a more serious change to take place in one of the teams,
depending
on the relative strengths of the other teams in the various games and the
lengths of the rope involved; one of the other individual games may
actually cease to exist because its knot has moved outside the control of
the three teams keeping it in place. In order to keep the big system
going, one of the component parts has had to collapse and be sacrificed.
This, in the jargon, is a catastrophe.
Also; in the jargon, each knot can be regarded as an esoteric box. for
certain purposes, one does not need to know all about the properties of
each of the teams A through O. If we simply want to know roughly what
knot Z is likely to do, we can treat each of the games ABC, DEF, GHI,
KJL, and MNO as esoteric (or 'black') boxes, the insides of which we
need not examine because their general external properties Le. the
'pulls' exerted by their respective central knots give us enough
information on which
to predict the behaviour of knot Z.
While the teams go off to the changing rooms and you start clipping this
out to send to Pseud's Corner, let's map this notion to something more
important contemporary British society. The model demonstrates why
the apparently stable institutions of a society can break down with no
'cause'.
So far; we have assumed that all the components of our system are
roughly equal in status, if not in strength. But many systems are in fact
hierarchic and have chains of command (fig. 2).
Obviously one thinks most readily of the business concern and a good
deal of the real work done in GSA (under its titles ofManagement Science
and Operational Research) is concerned with this situation. Biological
organisms, however, are hierarchic as well, the brain helping to regulate
the function of the specialised organs which provide and use energy.
In the simplistic account of hierarchies (say in the Army or a big
corporation) the talk is of 'orders' and 'chains of command'. 'Delegation',
a word beloved of oldtime managers who like to think themselves liberal
and modern, implies that the boss could, if he had time and wasn't so
fantastically talented, do the worker's job. In fact, he couldn't, because
whatever their respective innate natural abilities, the worker is doing his
job all
the time and hence the greatest expert in it. The boss's skill really lies in
selecting and manipulating workers.
For this reason, Operational Research (OR) sometimes tries to talk in
terms of 'flows of information', the 'information' flowing backandforth in
a series of loops which modify the behaviour at both the top and bottom
of the hierarchy. Information which goes back to the top is of course
known as feedback, one of the best known terms in the cybernetic
vocabulary.
Simple hierarchies, of course, rarely exist and some OR people attempt to
draw complicated charts showing actual
_ flows of information: These charts can then be used as a means of
regulating flows of information. You can, however, have a hierarchy in
which certain middle elements are connected together, inside an esoteric
box the Civil Service is in theory a hierarchy, except that individual
Ministries, and even groups within _
a Ministry, may in fact be allied. It is in this way that bureaucracies get
'bureaucratic': and a hierarchy may collapse because of such internal
tensions as well as the result of instability created by outside pressures.
This brings us to the distinction between 'closed' and 'open' systems.
Most systems are closed in respect to some of their functions and 'open'
in regard to others. It all depends on what way you have of looking at the
model are you trying to see its internal working, or its effect on other
elements outside?
It is, however, misleading to think of hierarchies as being simply about
flows of information and to feel that the other 'immutable natural laws
are suspended. The economic 'laws' that capital tends to regulate what
happens in a society, whether overtly profitmotivated or not, don't
suddenly disappear, they merely
get tempered. As we will see, later, some of the more utopian visions of
GSA practitioners tend to ignore considerations of economics and
sovereignty.
At this point you may feel that your sense of free will and
selfdetermination is threatened, if not annihilated. Most people interested
in 'Alternative Technology' put a high premium on being against 'the
system'. And GSA, with its claims to perceiving everything as a system,
seems to leave no room for choice or selfexpression. However, if we go
back to our very earliest model, it was shown that the 'knot' was capable
of occupying a number of different positions called its variety.
GSA says that any given 'knot' or • esoteric box (which can of course be
a human being) exhibits a series of ( possible. e states, and the number of
these states is its variety. In binary computer logic, each 'bit' has only
two states 'on' or 'off'. Human beings may exhibit a large number of
possible states, alternative courses of action and behaviour, preferences
for which can be expressed on
a scale.
The cybernetic principle governing variety is:
Only variety can absorb. variety
and is known as Ashby's Law of Requisite Variety. In other words; if an
individual wishes to have almost total free will (irresponsible anarchy! do
I hear someone say?) then if he . is to exist in any societal group, that
group and its environment must have an almost total ability to absorb or
satisfy not only his actual
needs, but also all his possible needs.
In a reallife situation, a society couldn't exist if its members, unrestricted,
wanted almost total choice. The choices would conflict both with the
other individuals in the group and with the group itself. Hence the need
for a variety reducer ('you can have any car you like as long as it's black'
for instance) which, in terms of a society, tends to mean laws
and a way of enforcing them.
But although this argument could be used to 'justify' a police state, in
practice this need not be necessary. Very few of us, when it comes to it,
wish to exercise all our possible 'choices' simultaneously. In practice too,
whilst in theory everyone in a community could all suddenly demand the
same item, in fact they don't; and by observation it is possible to
ascribe a probability to people's wants and so give the system a chance
of satisfying it. A corner vegetable shop could suddenly find that all of
its regular . customers want carrots and nothing but carrots, but the
greengrocer's experience is that not all his customers come in on
42
j.
the same day and that they also wish to buy quantities of potatoes,
swedes, pars nips, and so on. .
. Thus the Law of Requisite Variety, though always there, need not be
particularly tough in its application, especially if the situation in which
itis operating is a stable one. The more unstable a situation within a
system, the harsher are likely to be the effects of Ashby's Law. The French
mathematician Rene Thom has a formal mathematical theory, known as
catastrophe theory which seeks to show the links between the elements
of restricted variety, and the perturbations and relaxations in a system,
and which can show when a catastrophe is likely to occur. (But to
demonstrate it involves cartesian coordinates on at least three dimensions
and an examination of the folds (instead of straightline graphs) created. )
Even if the explanations are difficult, however, the ideas are easy to
recognise. We can pause now and look at some political implications.
In a reasonably stable "society, without any important shortages, without
complicated hierarchies and
where each individual is modest in his wants (exhibits a low variety),
there will only be a small need for 'rule enforcement'. In a situation of
economic shortages, hierarchies that are felt to be 'unjust', and with a
growing population, the various esoteric boxes forming the institutions of
a society will be under
great strain, each attempting to assert its internal stability at the expense
of the
rest. Individuals will feel threatened, and the society will feel the need to
restrict
the 'variety' of the individuals normally by policing.
It is on this basis that the currentlypopular GSA term 'the extremism of
the centre' makes sense. If we look at the British scene today we can see
the 'social contract' and 'parliamentary democracy' as holding the centre
of a complicated set of tensions between various elements in
the country workers, consumers, manufacturers, capitalists, pension fund
operators, trade unions, government, and so on. Outside that 'closed
system' is another one embracing such factors as the area of resources
available (which in turn reflects our eroded economic base
and dwindling world supplies) and the expectations of the individuals in
the community for an improvement in their life styles.
In order to protect 'parliamentary democracy' and the 'social contract', it
would be reasonable to expect government to try to ensure their
stability otherwise, the whole system will undergo a perturbation before
finding a new point of stability (which would probably be after some
people got hurt).
This model seems to give a much more real picture of what is actually
happening than the eternal slanging matches involving the workers
versus the capitalists or the deflationers versus the inflationers, which are
the currency of most political
debate. .
However, if the social contract should collapse (which seems quite likely)
the process of perturbation would be painful and the sets of variety
available to the
participants in the system would be reduced, probably painfully. In GSA
terms, therefore, government's task would be to make the perturbation as
easy as possible that is if you think it
a good idea that some variant of the present system should continue and
if you think it likely that people will be 'reasonable' enough to accept a
modification of their 'choices'.
Now the utopians among the practitioners of GSA have a number of
recipes to sort this type of situation out. One is simply to aid the change
UC10 R6/1: page 125
Undercurrents 10 Resurgence 6/1: 1975: page 126
setting, which don't work. ) But Beer is also energetic and imaginative.
He knows very little about realpolitik and has some curious ideas about
how human happiness (which is what counts) might be measured. He
also undoubtedly behaves
as though computer modelling was more
. advanced than it actually is. But some of
what he says should be listened to .
. . . What emerges from this survey of GSA.
I think, is that it does not actually solve anything it merely presents a way
of looking at the world which is extremely helpful. Of course you can use
it to 'justify' police states, or low impact technology (of a certain sort),
or elites (of a certain sort), and anything else you like, , just as, years ago,
the new theories of evolution were used 'to 'justify' laisser faire
capitalism (the survival of the fittest) and the supremacy of man as a
rational ethical animal (because we had the ability to think). J am
suspicious of all theories that try to explain everything. GSA shows, in the
language of maths, that we are all part of one another. The system will
always be there in some form or another, but it is up to us, within limits,
to make it what we like. Peter Sommer
Acknowledgments
General Systems Theory Ludwig von Bertalannfy
Man and the Computer John Deibold The Human Use of Human Beings
Norbert Weiner
Lecture course by F H George at Brunel University (not published) ,
Platform for Change Stafford Beer
Designing Freedom Stafford Beer
Beyond the Stable State Donald Schon
and helpful talks with CH Waddington and Michael Thompson.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Centre for Living page 43
JOHN SEYMOUR, author of Self Sufficiency and The Fat of the Land,
intends to establish a Centre of Living at and around his farm in
Pembrokeshire. The object will be to provide a place where people who
wish to master the skills needed for self sufficiency in the countryside can
come and do so. Such people will be able to stay for as long as it takes
them to master the necessary 'techniques (a year seems reasonable for
most people) and when they leave, if they desire, the Centre will try to
help them establish themselves as peasant craftsmen,' or peasant food
producers, or peasantprofessionals, or whatever they want to be.
Thereafter it will be hoped that contact will be kept with as many as want
it so that they shall still feel affiliated to the Centre, that help will be given
to them if possible when necessary, and that they will continue to help
and support the Centre, and in particular help other free people to
establish themselves in the countryside.
The main aim will be to train people to be able to take a piece of their
country and make it produce more food than it did before with less input
than it had before, and also to earn a good and honest living at some
craft or profession. If a person cannot make his or her land produce more
than it did before then they shouldn't have it!
It is/to be hoped that some alumni will stay near and in close touch with
the Centre, perhaps even helping it to expand and themselves becoming
part of it, others will drift further away and perhaps some of them even
set up Centres of their own. There is no reason why such an infiltrating
movement should ever stop!
Instruction in the various skills (which will have to be completely
professional not the blind leading the blind!) will be provided partly by
the 'staff' partly by experts paid to come in from outside. More buildings
will be required (which involves buying at least another farm) and more
stock and equipment although we have a pretty good collection already.
It is therefore necessary to find a small number of people who are willing
to come in as working partners and invest capital in the Centre. They will
be assured of a good life and their capital will be secure but
moneymaking is not the object.
Learners may be expected to pay a fee at first if they can afford it. If not
they will have to pay with very hard work! But the aim will be to produce
all the food, power and fuel required, as far as possible use free material
and our own labour for buildings, and also produce enough high quality
produce or artifacts to sell to pay the expenses of the Centre.
It is the aim that all the produce of the land of the Centre shall be brought
to its final and most perfect form before being used or sold. For example
wool will not be sold as wool but as clothes or blankets. Milk will not be
sold as milk but as high quality cheese, butter, buttermilk, yoghourt etc.
and the skim and whey will not just be fed to pigs for market but the pigs
will be turned into the best quality ham, bacon, and smoked sausage.
There will be enough labour available to bring everything to its peak of
excellence. Any trees harvested will not be sold as sticks of timber but as
high class furniture, turned goods, etc. Some apples may be sold as
apples but more will be sold as cider.
Research will be carried out on every aspect of self sufficiency, not only
in husbandry and food production and processing but in power, heat
production (wood, wind, water, manure] crafts and manufacturing. The
findings of the research will be disseminated as widely as possible in
publications like this one and also possibly through a Centre News Letter
(which of,course will be printed on the Centre press on Centre produced
paper!)
At present thousands of people are dropping out of the cities and finding
their bits of land and trying to 'have a go'. Hardly any succeed because
they don't know how. The aim of the Centre will be to show them how
and to do it well. If technological society is to break up, let us start
preparing people for something better now.
Anyone interested write to: John Seymour, Fachongle Isaf, Newport,
Pembrokeshire, Wales, with a stamped addressed envelope.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
The future of alternative technology Dave Elliott & Colin Stoneman
MANY ALTERNATIVE Technology 'enthusiasts have a predilection for
pragmatism which cohabits uneasily with their utopian tendencies. Faced
with the complexity of national not to mention international power
politics, they prefer to work at a relatively practical
, level, sustained either by longterm ideals or simply by success at the
parochial level.
As Robin Clarke has argued: "Having lost faith in any system of rescuing
mankind as a whole they operate in a world of selfhelp".
One common scenario for the future is as follows.
Plagued by environmental crisis, and by energy and resource scarcities,
the 'advanced' world wakes up to the fact that it must decentralise to
survive: it must find new technologies which are
ecologically appropriate and new forms of socioeconomic organisations
that are less wasteful of energy and material. The Alternative Technology
people, having worked in isolation in garrets, basements, and remote
communes will suddenly be welcomed back into the mainstream
technological fold. The adoption of Alternative Technology would imply
a transition to decentral forms of organisation. Thus Alternative
Technology carries within it the seeds of a new society.
Behind this scenario lies a revision of Marx's belief that the capitalist
form of' organisation creates the necessary technological base for
socialism. Much of the technology produced under Capitalism is
'flawed', argue the AT enthusiasts; some might be rescued, but most
would have
to be abandoned. The technological base for thefuture must be
'fundamentally rethought, all existing technologies must be reviewed,
and Alternative Technology may lead the way to new 'appropriate'
technologies.
There is an element of technological determinism in this scenario. It is
assumed that the introduction of Alternative Technology would
automatically change the socioeconomic structure. The attributes
associated with Alternative Technology such as nonalienation and
ease of control by the worker
are supposed to be inseparable from it; they are part of the Alternative
UC10 R6/1: page 131
Undercurrents 10 Resurgence 6/1: 1975: page 132
Technology package_
In one sense this is true, but in another it is false. A society creates the
type of technology suited to its mode of production and its social forms
whether of hierarchy or equality. Technologies like the national grid, the
mass media, super\f00 sonic transports and intercontinental ballistic
missiles, are more likely to arise from societies in which a few people are
in a position to control, (and to threaten to deny) the means of heating,
information, communication. even existence itself, for others. Such forms
of technology depend on centralisation, and centralisation increases the
power of those at the top.
On the other hand, societies with grass\f00 roots democracy are more
likely to successfully develop refuse digesters, local entertainment
(perhaps including community television), communal transport,
democratic communication techniques, and so on.
But it is important to realise that although both 'Flawed Technology' and
'Alternative Technology' come as packages, both can be broken up_
Ideas and inventions are often perverted to serve opposite ends from
those originally envisaged: witness the fate of the pacifist suggestion that
the army should be issued with rubber bullets instead of lead ones.
Peter Harper has emphasised in past issues of Undercurrents that the links
between social and technological components of a package are not
indissoluble. Alternative Technology, like any other technology. provides
only a means to social ends: but there is no fixed link between means
and ends the link can only be made politically_ It is possible to imagine
a highly reactionary Alternative Technologybased world, with feudal
ownership and control and intensive slave labour, which is nevertheless
'ecologically' viable. (Some might even say such a world would be
socially desirable if it avoided economic collapse: better
a slave than dead . . _ . . and better still
a feudal lord than a slave. )
The separation of means and ends, techniques from goals, is profoundly
dangerous. It is understandable that Alternative Technology people
despair of political involvement. and want to get on with the job of
developing hardware_ But unless they consider how this will be
implemented on a mass scale they are coming dangerously near to
elitism.
Some of them would retaliate saying that the social 'software' associated
References
1. Robin Clarke in his Review of
David Dickson's Alternative Technology: New Scientist, May 16th 1974.
2 Stephen Cotgrove 'Ecology and Utopia' New Scientist, to be
UC10 R6/1: page 137
Undercurrents 10 Resurgence 6/1: 1975: page 138
published.
3. J. Ridgeway, The Politics of Ecology \f00 E. P. Dulton and Co. , 1971.
4. There is, of course, a third possible scenario it may be that AT will turn
out not to be socially, technically, economically, or even environmentally
viable, even if used on a small scale in decentralised units. Of course this
would not stop the corporations from marketing it for shortterm gain. But
if it were obvious, as some people believe, that AT is just 'not on', then
industry would be unlikely to take much interest in it.
5. Although they might not subscribe to the ecological determinism
implied by the latter part of this scenario, some AT enthusiasts would be
happy to accept the absorption of AT by industry, since, they argue,
industry has the money and skills to develop and market AT systems and
kits and once it has done so, it would find it had undermined itself, by
enabling sections of the community to become selfsufficient. However,
although it is possible that the centralised industrial system would
consequently 'wither away', it seems equally likely that, (as in the case of
the doityourself boom, or even the health food boom), the purveying
organisations would continue to thrive at their customers expense.
6. S. Bodington, Computers and Socialism, Spokesman books, 1973.
7. M. Bookchin 'Towards a Liberatory Technology' in Post Scarcity
Anarchism Ramparts Press 1971.
EVENSONG
The downpour hesitates;
Frail ghosts are rising from the ground and raindrops halt their skate on
leaves.
Especially after evening rain
the moments freeze among the green.
The gardener moving mid the plants replaces tools for the night's rest,
is touched by icc that locks the day,
and lovers coupled in the shrubs
are dressed by silence, then by dew, then frozen in the twilight's cloak all
feel at one with leaf and wood.
The hand that holds the stars and then will move the fragile arms of ivy
through the stone of walls
Peter Fallon
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Books Pages 47 52
PAPER DOMES BLOW YOUR MIND
TONY DURHAM
PAPER HOUSES (Survival Scrapbook 4)
by Roger Sheppard, Richard Threadgill and John Holmes. Unicorn
Bookshop, Caerfyrddin. Cymru. Paperback. 133pp. £2. 50.
WHEN PAPER HOUSES have been produced commercially it has usually
been for one or two purposes: for kids to play in, or for people to live in
when disaster has wiped out their former dwellings. Ordinary people do
not live in paper houses. Play and disaster arc "at opposite ends of a
spectrum; ordinary adult life, which goes on in brick and mortar houses,
occupies the middle of the spectrum and has little contact with the
extremes. For the alternative culture,however, the middle ground is
narrow or non'existent. Playas a way of life is often practised by the same
visionary people who are conscious of the advancing, global ecological
disaster. If, as this Survival Scrapbook says, 'domes blow your mind', (and
all the houses it describes are, broadly speaking, domes) then I think it is
because domes make you more aware both of the possibilities of play
and the possibility of disaster. Life on earth is precarious, but it should be
fun.
In fact, 'paper houses' sound rather more precarious than they really are.
It's not Basildon Bond we're talking about, but triwall fibreboard. Its
stiffness and insulating properties qualify it as a build\f10 ing material.
But if you're going to build something strong with it, you have to build
clever. The main source of inspiration here is of course Buckminster
Fuller. Most of Fuller's designs were not done with paper, but they were
lightweight and highly engineered; his aluminium Wichita house was
actually built by an aircraft firm. And the geodesic dome concept,
popularised by Fuller, is easily adapted to paper buildings. Paper comes
in flat pieces, ,and geodesics will magic a sphere
out at planes.
Domebuilders need some grasp of geometry, and with luck this book will
get you there if you're starting from OIevel maths. The section on
spherical geometry and geodesic calculations should help a lot if you're
planning
The book is in two halves, Theory and Practice. Unusually, the former is
the shorter, only twofifths of the book. There are four chapters on
premarxist socialism, three on Marx and his work and one long chapter
on Anarchism, which shows distinct signs of compression. The Practice
section deals with the Social Democrats with satisfying crispness
('Sweden: welfare, certainly; socialism, not bloody likely'), the Anarchists,
the Syndicalists, Russia, China and the New Left.
without legal or economic sanctions? Parents like having kids, and come
up with endless rationalisations to prove that their own offspring aren't
part of the population problem. But considering how close we are to a
stable population already, it seems more like 'foolish pessimism' to regard
population growth as inevitable. Many traditional 'cultures stabilised their
numbers well below what their territory could support. We might have
something to learn from their. use of social measures such as taboos on
intercourse. There is already in some circles in this country a taboo on
large families. Some otherwise affluent societies limit population by
linking marriage to certain prestige goods whose supply is artificially
limited, so that their price is bid up, much as if we were to say that only
couples buying colour TVs could have children, production being limited
to 300,000 a year. Clearly under the present setup this would be grossly
unfair, but would it be so unacceptable in an egalitarian society? The
point is that social control can be achieved in quite subtle ways as well
as by the crude mechanisms of the market and the law.
My own view is that 'the Revolution' still has a chance, albeit a slim one,
and certainly not in our lifetimes. At the very best the world population
will be stabilised at an uncomfortably crowded level (and this will take
30 years) as has happened in England. But once this has been achieved
then the question of what the population should be is back on the
agenda. Would it really be impossible to persuade (say) the English that a
slow fall in their numbers would be for the good of all? Many, I think,
would accept this already. What the longterm carrying capacity of
England is, sans nuclear and fossil fuels, an open question: it might be
very mu. ch lower than anyone now thinks, sayan eighth of today's
numbers (6. 5m. , the population in 1750, before
the Industrial Revolution) because of the large acreage that would have to
be devoted to growing fuel to keep us warm. Without a catastrophe and
uncoerced it is hard to imagine the population falling at more than 0. 5%
p. a. initially. The death rate is about 1. 3% p. a. so the birth rate would
have to be reduced by about
a third from its present level. At that rate the population would halve in
about 120 years, so that it would take at least 450 years to achieve
stability, about 200 times the average planning horizon of our rulers. No
wonder noone gives much thought to the problem except for a few
cranks. Much better to hang on, Micawberlike, for fusion power o come
within
a limited budget. High technology it may well be, but it is also a very
significant and worthwhile medium in today's world, and maybe in
tomorrow's too.
When faced with the label 'Freak Science', I always used to wonder what
it meant, along the lines of "Who are the Freaks? What is their Science?"
Now, I am pleased to report, I know at least part of the answer. Art
Rosenblum is one of the freaks, and his science is in his book. Art
Rosenblum runs an outfit which goes under the name of the Aquarian
Research Foundation, and he and it churn out a huge volume of news
letters, whence the book is compiled. The ARF exists to find ways in
which the New Age can be brought in peacefully instead of chaotically.
(If only it were more likely. ) Drawing on these newsletters as he does
gives the book a sort of 'diarylike' effect; we hear about his dogs
having puppies, people visiting him, and so on, plus a good deal of
introductions to many 'New Age' subjects, including Pyramid Power,
recording spirit voices, ESP in plants, Astral Travel, and lots more. All
good stuff on an introductory level; a read through will give you plenty to
'break the ice at parties' plus a good selection of books to read on your
favourite psychic phenomenon. Could do with a better index, but it's
good fun trying to find a specific subject, so why bother?
To the extent that free schools provide free access to things, places,
processes, events and records, they are unquestionably good. But the
'freeway to learning' lies beyond the certification effect and the Education
Act.
NEIGHBOURHOOD REVIVAL
STEPHEN HORNE
NEIGHBORHOOD GOVERNMENT
by Milton Kotler. BabbsMerrill Company Inc. , New York. $4. 95.
KOTLER CLAIMS that the modern' American city is an empire. It spread
from its original area; the present downtown business district, not, as
one would suppose simply by covering the surrounding fields with
buildings, but by annexing adjacent towns which had their own
governments. For example, Philadelphia covered two square miles from
1682 till 1854 when the State legislature allowed it to annex twentyeight
neighbouring townships so increasing its area to 129 square miles, the
size it remains today.
The neighbourhoods are not vague groupings mitigating the vastness of
the city but the townships annexed by the city. The object of annexation
was to destroy the commercial independence of the neighbourhoods
which, given that local governments in America seem to have fiscal and
legislative powers far greater than their English counterparts ever had, t
reacted downtown interests. The neighbourhood revival, Kotler says, has
come about because the cities are falling apart, the party machines which
kept political attention focussed on City Hall are disintegrating and
modern multi national companies are not interested in buying local
politicians in the manner of their robber baron predecessors. The book
was written in 1968 and whether the revival continues now I do not
know though I see from the press that two of the neighbourhoods
mentioned in this book, Roxbury and South Boston, have
recently shown a remarkable degree of neighbourhood spirit. Roxbury,
Kotler tells us, had, perhaps still has, a group called the Roxbury United
Front wishing to regain Roxbury's independence of Boston. The city
government must now be kicking themselves for not having conceded it.
Much of the book is taken up with
a theoretical analysis of how, and why, to recapture neighbourhood
documented. And of course, the farce of exporting oil and gas and
building American lightwater reactors, as at Carnsore Point, to make up
the energy requirement, is lovingly documented. So full points for the
standard Marxist analysis of. the status quo.
But oh dear! Sinn Fein's alternative seems hardly better. What they'd
replace the above with is a massive tripartite nationalised petroleum
industry, based on the Electricity Supply Board (whose 'proud record',
'dedication and skill' and 'ingenuity' are lauded extensively) for energy,
Nitrigin Eirann for fertilisers and
a nationalised version of the foreignowned plastics industry for
polymers. But even Ireland's stocks of oil and gas are exhaustible, and if
they are developed there's every chance they'll get covetous glances from
Britain by the end of the century. And not even Ireland's air can stand
indefinite amounts of pollution,
and nor can her already acid soil. An economy which, for all the usual
third world reasons, still has lots of farming, small industries and little
dependence on hightechnology stuff like oil, plastics and fertilisers
should count its blessings. By all means chuck the foreignowned
industries out of Ireland, North and South, and accept gladly the
increased prosperity for most Irishmen. But why not accompany that with
a massive decentralisation, with peat for burning (Shetland's high
standard of living isn't maintained by imported fuel) and compost
instead of Nitrigin Eirann's excrescence, and lowcost renewable energy
instead of offshore petroleum?
Maybe because, come the revolution, Sinn Fein want something to rule,
not a load of independent rural communities that don't need Dublin?
* Best send a PO rather than a cheque even your friendly bank manager
might notice this one!
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
See what you've been missing:
BACK ISSUES of Undercurrents numbers 1. 2. 3, 4 and 5 are now sold
out. But we're hoping to reprint numbers 1,2. 3 & 4. along with early
issues of Eddies (which used to be mailed out separately to subscribers
only) in the form of a book. We can't do it for another few months.
though. because all the capital we can get is needed just to keep current
issues coming out. and we can't afford to tie UD money ill reprinting
hack issues. which may take years to pay for themselves. We’ll be
announcing when the book is ready.
Undercurrents 6 . Heat Pumps how they work and what they can do.
Organic Living Experiment part 1. Do We :\ccd An Alternative
Electronics Industry? Two DIY Wind Generator designs from France. Peter
Harper's New. Improved Alternative Technology Guide. Running Your
Car On Gas complete DIY Instructions. Petrol Stinks how petrol pollutes.
how gas is cleaner. Water Running Wild a guide to homebuilt water
Dower plant. What's Left of Alternative Technology part 2 of Peter
Harper's evolving Movement strategy. Alternative ways of looking at
Cancer Research is stress the cause? An AgitKrop Communique
manifesto from the militant naturalists.
Science Fiction Review. The Dark Side of the Mind Stan Gooch's Total
Man reviewed by Colin Wilson.
Plus Reviews: The Secret Life of Plants; Shelter; Phenomenon: Survival
Scrapbook on Energy: How It Works. And Eddies: The Diggers & the
People Party; Irish Sea Gas Strikes; Dinorwic is Flooded for the CEGB:
BRAD Community Progress Report: Radial House proposal; Cuban
Science.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
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2533 % discount, and they won't pay you until they've sold the copies.
but the few coppers you make on the deal should at least cover the bus fare.
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RENEWALS: & CHANGES OF ADDRESS. When you renew your sub or change your
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• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Things . .
BRAZIERS COMMUNITY Recognising that all the problems of humanity
stem from ourselves.
a small group of people at Braziers are working on a living experiment in
social research in which they themselves are the material. They
endeavour as individuals to face and admit their own weaknesses as well
as their own strengths. as these are revealed to them in the course of their
communications with each other. The 'core' of this group functions in a
pleasant country house which is run as an Adult Education Centre,
supported and assisted by the active work of its many nonresident
members.
Its research is carried on in some of the courses and summer schools, and
as far as possible in the centre, where the aim is to try to live in
accordance with their findings. Conflict and stress are not shirked, and
when they arise, as they always do in any group or community, they are
studied carefully and an endeavour made to turn them to positive use.
The research, which was originally launched under the aegis of Norman
Glaister, a medical psychiatrist, is based on the observation that humanity
tends to be roughly divided into two main types. Various names have
been given to these types by different philosophers. 'I immediate and
Deliberate'; 'Introvert and Extrovert' and so on. The terms used by
Norman Glaister are 'Resistive and Sensitive'. By the recognition and
acceptance of these differences they can be seen to be complementary.
The aim is to achieve a better balance and understanding in our living
together. To date results are encouraging. For further information write to:
Bonnie Russell. Braziers, Ipsden, Oxford. OX9 6AN .
• WHEELS WITHIN WHEELS
A study<of the road lobby by Mick Hamer.
"I can confirm that the British Road Federation is the strongest lobby
inside parliament:'Frank Allaun MP.
Nearly one quarter of all the oil used in Britain goes into transport and
about onefifth of the total energy resources. The levels of pollution from
exhaust emissions, disappearance of increasingly valuable agricultural
land and habitat destruction are all related to the transport policies we
adopt. The road lobby is an industrially based interest group, which exists
to promote the construction of more, and better, roads, and to minimise
UC10 R6/1: page 162
Undercurrents 10 Resurgence 6/1: 1975: page 163
restrictions on roads and road traffic. The road lobby tends to shun
publicity and it has enjoyed an unusually close working
relationship with Government.
Published 1974 by Friends of the Earth,9 Poland St, London W1V 30G.
See also: Some Alternatives to the M65 Motorway, by Transport Action
Group, 45 Lowerhouse Lane, Burnley, Lancs.
• HELDER CAMARA'S LATIN AMERICA
Betty Richardson Nute has written the latest booklet in the series Non
violence in Action. 25p. Other titles are: GramdanRevolution by Per
suasion, by Erica Linton; The significance of John Woolman for Southern
Africa, by Fred Moorhouse. Published by Friends Peace Committee,
Friends House, Euston Road, London NW12BJ.
LOVE IN CONFLICT
David Harding states a case for loving ways of conflict resolution,
Published by F. O. R. 1974,9 Coombe Road, New Malden, Surrey.
• COMMUMANITY
A transnational journal of the Commune Movement particularly report
ing the activities in Japan. Full of useful and detailed information all in
English. From The Japanese Commune Movement, Nikko Kyodo Noen,
1962 Suginosawa Imaichishi, TochigiKen, Japan 32112.
• ON CREATIVE THINKING
I n this original essay, Marjorie Hourd, author of the pioneering book, The
Education of the Poetic Spirit, reminds us of the intricate nature of poetic
thinking, reveals the important connections between creative teaching
and psychotherapy and gently urges teachers to cultivate in themselves
and in their children or students, a state of reverie. Her arguments,
quoting some beautiful children's poems, should be of, l'nterest to all
those concerned with education as a force for expression and individual
development. By Marjorie Hourd. The Gryphon
Press. Llanon, Cardiganshire. SOp
• MA VA Free Nation News
was first produced to counter the media misrepresentation of the events
of the 3rd People's Free Festival in Windsor Great Park. It exists as a
mouthpiece for the counterculture, an outlet for the many creative people
within our national community, and deals in depth with those issues not
young men, Cliff Goodman and Ronnie Lee, members of the militant
animal liberation group the 'Sand of Mercy', carried out attacks on
a partially constructed vivisection laboratory and vehicles belonging
to animal breeders. Ronnie Lee and Robin Howard attacked twO boats
which were used by seal hunters in the murder of baby seals. At all times
the 'Bicester Three', Robin, Ronnie and Cliff took the utmost care that no
person or animal would be injured by their activities. They have been
charged with arson. They face possible life imprisonment. Please give
generously to: Bicester Three Defence Fund, 91 Home Close, Hockwell
Ring, Luton, Beds.
CLAP
Payouts happen every two months. The last CLAP Payout, No. 5, was the
biggest ever, and came to £5,002. 47 projects for radical social change
received money, including: the Chapeltown Women' Group 1£2571,
Cope alternatives to mental hospital 1(500), Lazarus Emergency
Ambulance Corps (Belfast I (£2161, Maya free national newspaper
1(230), the Transsexual A'ction Organisation (£2001 and Unicom
Community Press Birmingham (£2001.
Please pay your CLAP tax! You pledge up to 4% of your gross income
every two months minimum £1 and choose yourself projects to
support described in the CLAP Handbook. It's a good read in its own
right, full of outrageous, visionary and imaginative projects.
HEALTH ANO HEALING SELFHEALTH CENTRE
This is a centre for the promotion and practice of selfhealth. Preventive
medicine through correct bodymanagement and diet; health education;
and the ultimate dissolution of the doctorpatient situation. Seminars every
Tuesday evening on alternatives in medicine, regular workshops on
acupuncture, shiatsu, massage, etc, and cooking classes. Newcomers are
always welcome. 507 Caledonian Road, London N7. .
WOMEN'S SELFCARE
Women help women take responsibility for their own health care.
Women have started selfexamination. With the aid of a torch,
a mirror, a plastic speculum and
a group of women to share the experience each woman can easily and
safely see her own cervix and 'os' the entrance to the uterus!. Women
can know and care for their own reproductive organs. Self determination
Small Ads . . . .
COMMUNITIES PEOPLE with capital/income needed for BRAD
community to replace departed members. Interests: (i) communal living;
Cii) alternative technology and farming. Rewards: happy living on
established selfsufficient 40acre Welsh hill farm. Write fully to: Eithiny
Gaer, Churchstoke, Mont gomeryshire.
GROUP PLANNING to purchase 100 acres to farm organically and
create a cooperative community endeavour for all to work together and
find common purpose for the future, need someone to help with an
interest free loan to enable start. Bridge Trust, 20 The Chase, Reigate,
Surrey.
A GROUP OF MATURE
New Age workers are
planning to buy a large property with at least 4 acres of land to form a
mainly self supporting Light centre for retreat, healing and teaching of all
kinds. Also art and craft work and animal care. We should like to know of
anyone interested in selling such
a property for this purpose or wishing to join such a venture. Write '
Allways', 21 St. Pauls Road West, Dorking, Surrey.
YOUNG rural community aim ing for selfsufficiency. experimenting with
alternative technology and cooperation. needs people. Those with
building skills especially welcome, as we're about to start a major
renovation job
on part of the property. If you're interested, write to Inside Out Press,
Edenbank
Cottages, Dairsie, Fife, Scotland.
PUBLICATIONS ARCTIC COUNTERCULTURE. Read about the arctic
counterculture in Vannbaereren. If you like Resurgence (and understand
Norwegian) you're going to like Vannbaereren. Each issue contains
articles and pictures about various aspects of the search for new lifestyles
that are ecologically sound. Also poems, reviews: short stories, comic
strips. contact column etc. Write to: Vannbaereren. Box 13, 9155 Karls
\,>y. Norway.
JUST OUT! Smoothie's Alternative Technology Series. SAE for details.
prices etc. to John Noyce, Flat 2, 83 Montpelier Road, Brighton, Sussex.
IRISH BOOKS BY POST. For descriptions and prices of our large
assortment of books about Ireland, send just 20p, refundable on your first
purchase. Listed are books about visiting and settling in Ireland,
genealogy. history and many more. Gand Ltd . • Dept. U2. Dunmanway.
Cork, Ireland. LEAVING THE 20th CENTURY the incomplete work of the
Situationist International. Original translations of SI texts comix and
graffiti. joyful and nonsensical. 168 pages (large) for only 80 pence plus
15p postage. Free Fall Box 13u 197 Kings Cross Road, London WCI.
"Milord, I am from another country We are bored in the town We have no
intention of contributing"' to this mechanical civilisation. to its bleak
architecture . . . . We want to create environments which are permanently
evolving . . . . The hacienda must be built!" Hurry!
NEUE FREIE PRE SSE (New' Free Press) from Vienna. Independent
magazine for dependents. Monthly4 colours more pictures than
wordshard pictureshard wordsnothing softcomixsex. THE
leftwingmagazine for young people. Be newbe freeread New Free Press.
UC10 R6/1: page 168
Undercurrents 10 Resurgence 6/1: 1975: page 169
Undercurrents Stockists
LONDON
Housman's Bookshop 5 Caledonian Rd Kings Cross Nt.
Grass Roots
61 Goldborne Rd, W11.
Seed Bookshop Portobello Rd, Wl1.
Compendium
240 Camden High St, NWl. Haelan Centre
39 Park Rd, Crouch End, N8.
Sunflower Friends
Portobello Rd, W11. Paperback Centre
28 Charlotte St, WI. BSSR5
9 Poland 5t, WI.
Friends of the Earth 9 Poland St, WI. Moonfleet
39 Clapham Park Rd, 5W4. Village Bookshop
Regent St. WCI.
Architectural Association Bookshop 36 Bedford Square, WCl.
Freedom Bookshop
846, Whitechapel High 5t, El Mandarin Books
New College Parade, NW3. Robinson & Watkins 1921 Cecil Court
(off Charing Cross Rd) WCZ.
Rising Free
197 Kings Cross P,d, WCI. Ceres
269 Portobello Rd, W11. Centreprise
136 Kingsland High St, E8. Collets
66 Charing Cross Rd, WC2.
Dillons University Bookshop 1 Malet St, WCI.
Grotes
29b Hornsey Rise. N19. NUS Environment Section 3 Endsleigh St, WI.
Copies may also be purchased from the Undercurrents Office (this is not
SMALL ADS . . . .
HARDWARE
THINKING OF BEEKEEPING All equipment. Send for list. Honey
Producers, 66, High Street. Malmesbury, Wilts.
HEDGEHOG HAND CARDING and Spinning Equipment made to order
for beginners and professionals. Handcarders, Drum carders, and
Canadian Indian Spinners. I try to keep prices low. SAE enquiries
welcomed. . J'. J. Willcox, Wheatcroft, Itchingfield, Horsham, Sussex.
GROUPS
BSSRS, 9 Poland Street, London WI V 3DG. organises radical work on all
aspects of science and technology. including occupational health.
military science, unionising scientists. and more. Membership is £3 per
year.
£ 1 for, students and claimants. Latest Science for People magazine. No
28, is now out. Articles on Fighting
pollution at work.
The New Technology_ ill repression: lessons from Ulster, is only 45p by
post while stocks last.
BOOKS & magazine
UP AGAINST THE LAW. Issue No 8 now available from all disreputable
newsagents, bookshops and UPAL office, 66. York Way, London Nt.
Contributions welcome for
next issue. More bent apples,
sagas of corruption. bent wigs, and naughty tales about the legal gravy
train.
And in spite of the Law, radical legal advice continues to be published
all the vital little tips your lawyer won't tell you. UPAL: essential reading
for all those who want an alternative diet to ZCars
and SoftlySoftly. £2. 50 per annum, special rate for lawyers and
professionals, £6. 00.
COURSES
MIDDLESEX POLYTECHNIC BSc and BSc Honours in Society and Technology.
This four year sandwich course offers you the opportunity to stud)' the natural
and social sciences and their interdependence. You can enter with Alevels In
any two subjects. The course provides an understanding of the complex
relationships between science and technology, enabling you not only to
understand your own place in contemporary society, but to work responsibly
with the benefits technology can bring. Write or telephone for further details
and an application form to: The Admissions Office. PO Box 40. Middlesex
Polytechnic. Queensway, Enfield. Mlddx. EN3 4SF. Phone 01 805 0892.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
SUBSCRIBE NOW Resurgence Journal of the Fourth World
This journal includes articles on the social and political implications of alternative
science and peoples' technology. It emphasises the importance of care of the land,
good husbandry and selfsufficiency in food production for England and for all
countries. E. F. Schumacher, founder of Intermediate Technology Development
Group and author of Small is Beautiful, and Geoffrey Ashe, historian,. author of
Gandhi: a Study in Revolution, and authority on Glastonbury and King Arthur, write
in every issue.
VOL 5 No:5
A special issue on the spiritual impetus to ecological living.
Hunting Peoples: harmony between community and environment: Robert Waller
"Religion articulates a moral order which fits us complicated human beings into our
complicated world. "
The Holy World of the Hindus:
"Thus practising the art of seeing God at play everywhere, one day, the seersaint
merges into the Divine,"
Other articles include: Ancestor Power, Make Religion Vanish Into Reality
VOL 5 No:3
Afraid of Magic:
"Quite simply the rod twisted or failed to twist, and knew more than I did. "
Whole Food and Agriculture for Healthy Selfsufficiency "Britain must feed itself
because nobody else is going to . . . Treating the Whole Body and Soul
"The sick person in search of a cure is an easy victim. "
Other articles include: The Fourth World:
History Written Backwards, Technology with Good Vibes, Ecology: The Household
Pet of the Corporate State
VOL 5 No:1
The Rape of Mother Earth: John Seymour, author of SelfSufficiency.
"The only alternative is smallscale farming to get more people on the land. "
Meditation: Satish Kumar.
"Meditation is to be able to experience existence without anxiety, impatience, haste
and attachment. "
Plus 8page poetry special.
VOL 5 No:6
No Future for Megapolis: E. F. Schumacher. "For more than a century, the emphasis
on city life and the brain drain at the expense of the rural areas has been
devastatingly severe. "
Missing Knowledge: Keith Critchlow et al. "We have become increasingly aware of
three major omissions in our educational system: the survival areas of food, shelter
and health. "
Other articles include: How Many Celts,
The Nuclear Myth, Back to the LandWorking Weekends on Organic Farms, School
of Self reliance, and more.
VOL 5 No:4
A special issue on who owns the land and how it should be cultivated.
Can Britain Feed Itself?: Michael Allaby. "There are more tractors than workers on
British farms and six times more energy goes into a British battery farm than home
produce. "
Letter from Chief Seathl to the President of the United States:
"If we sell our land, love it as we've loved it. Care for it as we've cared for it . . . Our
God is the same God. "
VOL 5 No:2
The Tantra of Erotic Love: Acharya Shree Rajneesh.
"One who is interested in life and consciousness will automatically become
interested in sex because sex is the source of life, of love, of all that is happening in
the world of consciousness. So if a seeker is not interested in sex, he is not a seeker
at all. Sex is just the beginning, not the end. But if you miss the beginning, you will
miss the end also. "
VOL 4 No:6
Education or Manipulation?: Vinoba Shave. "We consider medicine bottles the sign
of
a sick body; we ought to consider books the sign of a sick mind. The wise men of
past ages took no pains to make life literate, but to make it meaningful. "
When the Food Crisis Comes: Anthony Farmer.
The author was one of the first to argue that it is possible for England and Wales to
be selfsufficient in food. I would like to subscribe for one year. Enclosed is £2. 50 (U.
S. $7. 00, airmail $10. 00)
NAME ADDRESS Cheque to 'RESURGENCE', 275 Kings Road, Kingston, Surrey,
England.
Lost Post
Due to circumstances "beyond our control (honest:) Undercurrents has lost an entire
days post. If you wrote to us on or about February 19th please write again. We have
asked the Post Office to try to trace the missing letters.
Missing Resurgence
If any reader can give or loan us the following Resurgence issues we would be very
grateful: Vol. 1, No. 9 Sept/Oct 67 Vol. 1, No. 11 Jan/Feb 68 VoI. 2, No. 7 May/
June69 Vo1. 2, No. 10 Nov/Dec 69. The Architectural Press wants to put them on
microfilm.