Undercurrents 12 September-October 1975

______________________________________ Undercurrents 12 September-October 1975 Page 1
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 1

• UNDERCURRENTS, the magazine of radical science and alternative technology [ISSN

0306 2392], was published from London, England, from 1973 to 1984 [No. 60]. 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[though believed to be accurate at the time of publication] may now be out of date.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 This pdf version is formatted in 15 pt Optima throughout, so as to be
easily readable on screen; it runs to 170 pages [the print versions were 48 - 56 pp.]: readers
wishing to print it out to read are recommended to use the text version and to reformat it.
The many pictures that embellished the print version are sadly not included here. There
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:
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
From: Cliff Harper’s Class War Comix 1, reviewed in this issue
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 2

• • • • • • • • • • • •
UNDERCURRENTS Number 12 September-October 1975
6 EDDIES. The Usual Brew of News, Scandal, Eddie Currents, Gossip and
Reports - and now introducing Froth.
29 LETTERS Your chance to get your own back on us.
37 WORKERS AND THE WORLD UNITE. Workers at Lucas Aerospace
are demanding the right not only to work, but to work on socially
desirable 'alternative technologies'. Dave Elliott takes a look at the
background to this encouraging initiative, and examines the prospects.
51 CRABAPPLE: TWIN OAKS COMES TO WALES. A new community has
been set up near Shrewsbury by a group which intends to put into
practice some of B F Skinner's behavioural theories in an attempt to avoid
the conflicts which have divided many other experimental communities.
A member of the group describes how they're going about it.
60 BIOFEEDBACK. Elmer Green looks at what biofeedback means and
how it can be used, and tells of the extraordinary feats of Jack Schwartz
and Swami Rama in achieving control over bodily processes normally
regarded as involuntary. Plus: a simple but effective do-it-yourself
biofeedback device.
70 COMMUNITY TECHNOLOGY. Karl Hess describes how Community
Technology Inc is trying to promote small-scale, locally-controlled
techniques for food and energy production in a deprived area of
Washington DC.
81 COMTEK FESTIVAL:
SPECIAL REPORT. News,
pictures and comment
about the happenings at
Britain's second
Community Technology
Festival COMTEK·75,
which took place in Bath
in August.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 3

97 TOWARDS AN ALTERNATIVE CULTURE. In this third part of his

extended essay, Woody examines the concepts of the subjective group
and the objective-group and suggests how the former might evolve
towards the latter.
113 BAREFOOT IN THE SURGERY. Dr John Bradshaw, a medical
renegade in the Illich mould, talks to Chris Hutton-Squire about Illich's
ideas, about the need for neighbourhood 'life' centres, and about New
Medicine, an anti-establishment medical magazine he proposes to set up.
126 REVIEWS. The Red Paper on Scotland, Calgacus, Legal Frameworks
Handbook, Transcendental Meditation by Jack Forem, The Survivalists by
Patrick Rivers, and World Energy Strategies by Amory Lovins. PLUS The
Battle of the Bubble, a totally biassed Review (?) by Peter Harper of Class
War Comix No 1: New Times, by Cliff Harper who is no relation.
146 WIND POWER Part II : Electric Light Orchestration. Godfrey Boyle
describes how to wire up the dynamo and the associated electrical
devices required for the Undercurrents - LID Wind Generator described
in the last issue. PLUS wind power bibliography and Winco Wincharger
product review.
156 CARRY ON SWITCHING. In spite of strong evidence that Britain
already consumes far too much electrical energy, and that centralised
power stations are responsible for a major portion of the energy we
waste, CEGB planners seem unable to contemplate even the slightest
reduction in electricity demand. Their biases show through clearly in the
papers presented at a recent private CEGB symposium on Long Term
Studies. Godfrey Boyle puts some of them under the magnifying glass.
UNDERCURRENTS . . is published bimonthly by Undercurrents Limited. 275

Finchley Road London NW3 6 LY. England, a democratic, non-profit company
without share capital and limited by Guarantee. Printed in England by
Prestagate· Ltd.. Reading. t International Standard Serial Number 03062392
OUR ADDRESS. At the moment, Undercurrents is in a state of semi-
decentralisation. We still don't know what's going to happen· our office at 275
Finchley Road. London ?-i At the moment we're using the place on-and as
'licensed squatters'. but whether we will be able to negotiate an arrangement
to stay the is still uncertain. Meanwhile. daytime. weekday telephone calls to
our London number I (01-794 2750) are being intercepted by the Post Office
(officially) and callers are being referred to Uley (STD Code 0453 86) 636. This
the phone number of our permanent office 11 Shadwell. Uley, Dursley,
Gloucestershire. From now on. all communications about general editorial
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 4

matters. features. subscription and distribution should be addressed to Uley.

Communications about News and Reviews aM Advertising can still be sent to
275 Finchley Road, where they'll reach the people concerned a little more
quickly. (But don't worry too much about sending stuff to the wrong address:
mail is forwarded every few days from both addresses to the appropriate
people).
SUBSCRIPTIONS cost £2.50 sterling ($6.50. a equivalent in other currencies)
for six issues I posted by second class/surface mail to any country.
SUBSCRIPTIONS TO THE UNITED STATEl CANADA AND MEXICO cost US
$7.50 and I are sent by airfreight to New York and poste· from there by second
class mail. Delivery takes('l 3 to 14 days. Airfreighting is only economic if as
many subscribers as possible use it. so we I cannot accept surface mail
subscriptions to these countries. Our US mailing agents are Air and Sea Freight
Ltd .• 527 Madison Ave. Suite 1217, New York NY 10022. Second Class
postage paid at New York. NY.
COPYRIGHT. The Copyright © of all articles in Undercurrents belongs to
Undercurrents Limited, unless otherwise stated: they must not be reproduced without
our permission. But we will normally give permission for our material to be used.
without charge. for non-profit purposes. on condition that Undercurrents is credited.
CONTRIBUTIONS. We welcome unsolicited articles. news items. illustrations.
photographs, etc. from our readers. Though every care is td with such material.
we cannot be responsible f( its loss or damage. and we cannot undertake to
return it unless it is accompanied by an appropriate stamped envelope
addressed to the sender To make life easier for our typesetters, manuscripts for
publication must be typed clearly or one side of the page only. with double or
triple spacing and at least one inch margin on each side of the type. OK?
CREDITS. Undercurrents is produced by a large number of people. There are
only two paid staff. one full time. one part time. The re· of us work for nothing
in our spare time. Here in alphabetical order. are the names of the people most
directly concerned in putting the magazine together. Godfrey Boyle. Sally
Boyle. Duncan Campbell Peter Cockerton, Pat Coyne, Tony Durham. Dave
Elliott. Richard Elen. Sotires Eleftheriou Herbie Girardet. Peter Harper. Chris
Hutton-Squire. Martin Ince. Barbara Kern. Martyn Partridge. and Peter Sommer.
Other people without whom Undercurrents would be more or-less impossible
include: Graham Andrews. Gavin Browning. Ollie Caldecott, Charlie
Clutterbuck. Brian Ford. Ian Hogan, Roger Hall. Cliff Harper. John Prudhoe,
Dieter Pevsner. Nigel Thomas. Geoff Watts. Martyn Turner. Joy Watt and
Woody. And of course everyone we've forgotten.
HELPERS: If you're interested in helping: on Undercurrents in any way write or
phone for details of our weekly meetings.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 5

• • • • • • • • • • • •
Eddies
ATOMIC BOMBERS STRIKE
The French nuclear power industry has been shaken by the third in a
series of bomb attacks on nuclear reactors and workshops. The most
recent explosion at Mont Aree power station, Brennelis, Brittany, took
place on August 14th, causing its immediate shutdown. The attack has
been attributed to the Breton Liberation Front, but to date no
responsibility has been claimed. However, the incidents make it clear that
European terrorist and political organisations have recognised the
advantages to them of attacking nuclear installations.
The first, and probably most serious attack, was at the Fessenheim plant
in Alsace. On May 4th, two explosions damaged the reactor core casing,
and although damage was initially labelled "slight" by
Electricite'; de France (EDFl. the two charges have set back construction
work by more than three months. According to Undercurrents French
correspondent, the Paris group of Les Amis de 10 Terre (Friends of the
Earth) "expressed solidarity" with the attackers, approving the setback to
construction and the increased level of debate about EDF's plans which
would ensue. He reports that the actions of Amis de 10 Terre have, to
date, hardly been effective, and it is understandable that some groups
have sought other means of halting the EDF programme.
Responsibility for the Fessenheim attack was claimed by the
AntichMeinhof Commando, presumably a distant cousin of the Red Army
F action (RA F) many of whom have now gone on trial in a concrete
fortress in Stuttgart. Their communique, reproduced here, identifies
clearly with the struggle to stop the French nuclear power programme -
they call it a struggle of "primordial life" against the "genocide" of capital
The 'Commando' link their struggle with opposition to "the atom" by
women workers at other factories.
American nuclear factory attacked

A month later on June 6th, two charges exploded almost simultaneously
in northern Parisian suburbs at offices and factories belonging to
Framatome (the
French - American Atomic company, a subsidiary of US Westinghouse).
At Argenteuil, a workshop testing valves for reactors was damaged and
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 6

experimental valves destroyed. Not far away at Courbevoie, almost half

the input terminals to Framatome's main computer were destroyed in the
second blast. On this occasion as on the first, it was clear that the
attackers knew the target well, and aimed to cause spectacular damage
while avoiding harm to plant workers.
Responsibility for the Framatome attacks was
claimed by a different group, the 'Garmendia'Angela Luther Commando'
whose communique showed that the lead had been set by the previous
strike at Fessenheim. They also pointed to a recent incident where a
young
Italian worker had died after accidental exposure to Cobalt 60 at a plant
where food is preserved by irradiation.
As a result security was drastically increased at nuclear power sites and
related industries - including oil refineries and depots after two depots in
Metz were attacked in July. But the attack on the small experimental
power reactor
at Brennelis - which had been due for closure this year until given a five
year reprieve - points to the continued vulnerability of
nuclear installations. EDF planned to construct 200 reactors by the end of
the century, with 55 under, way by 1980. The plans, which were
announced soon after the Arab oil embargo, have already been cut back
once, and have met increasingly militant opposition -
This culminated in a Paris demonstration of 25,000 on 26th April, and has
united many elements in French society, not simply the left but people
living in areas planned for the construction of reactors, as well as a
significant section of the scientific and technological community.
Four hundred French scientists have signed an appeal to the French
government not to go ahead with
the programme until the risks involved are fully understood. They cite the
possibility of reactor accidents, of radioactive pollution, the risk of theft of
fissile materials - and express disquiet about EOF being both advocate
and
judge as to decisions about nuclear power.
The 400 were soon joined by researchers from the Saclay Centre d'Etudes
Nucleaire (Centre for Nuclear Studies) who, writing in the magazine
'Impascience' have, for the first time, revealed accidents and mishandling
of radioactive material and apparatus there.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 7

On the list, which included cancer deaths and radio-Iodine caused

thyroid disease. orders, were the following:
A container of radioactive products was sent to Romania but the
receiving laboratory did not have suitable equipment to handle it. With
CEN agreement, the container was sent back to France, marked as on
empty package to simplify customs procedure. At CEN, two workers
belonging to another organisation charged with opening empty
containers, opened the returned item and received a dose of radioactivity
well in excess of the maximum permissible safe dose. It is not yet known
what happened to them.
Dermatitis, including one case necessitating a skin graft, blood
abnormalities and one death through bone cancer have been caused by a
defectively shielded X-ray generator
at CEN.
Two operators have been injured by the beams of large accelerators. In
one case a physicist was partially blinded; in the other an accelerator had
continued to operate because the safety mechanisms had been short-
circuited - a practice apparently condoned by the Saclay radiological
protection service.
The door of a chamber holding a giant 75,000 Curie Cobalt 60 source
came open several times. releasing massive doses of radiation to the
surrounding area. In one incident, back-up safety systems did not operate
automatically and had to be operated manually. Fortunately, no one was
irradiated in the incident, despite some panic.
...
This is the text of the communique issued following the May 4th attack at
Fessenheim. Alsace. It has not been published in France but may be
included in the next (October) issue of the radical technology magazine
lntereferences.
"We claim responsibility for what has just happened at Fessenheim. We
took all possible precautions so that no human life should be threatened.
This is our way of contributing to the anti-nuclear struggle, hoping to stop
(or delay') the entry into service of this power station", since afterwards it
will be too late to use such methods.
Capital does not hesitate to pass from traditional forms of genocide (wars,
factories. prisons) to more radical genocide (bombs, depressions)
represented amongst others by the nuclear industry.
It is no longer the time for polemics: it is grotesque to hear defence of the
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 8
atom in the mouths of those 'who hal'l' contaminated tire waters of the
Rhine ..... with mercury. and still more the waters of Minamata where
capital defends itself against the anger of the people with lookout towers
and barbed wire.
Japan and here, Our enemies are the some; the multinationals who sell
that which they never had - oxygen and water hare now become
merchandise.
Our action. non-contradictory with the popular movements $such as
those of Wyhl and Marckolsheim is tire expression of the primordial
protest of life against the capitol that is guilt of genocide. the final stage iI/
the patriarchal society of oppression.
Maintaining;' a salaried population has itself become Q murderous
nonsense. We ha· 'e no more need of nuclear energy than we ha· ·e of
'working the whoIe day long to produce gadgets. The blind following of
productivity has become a planet-wide enemy. And the proletarian
combat of developed countries objectively joins that of the third world
countries.
The combat is total. be it that of women. of children of the third .... ,or/d.
or of the proletariat. Let liS remember that .... ,omen. at W)'hl (70% of
women voted against the atom) as elsewhere, are ;,in the vanguard of the
rejection of "nuclear power. which is nothing other than the last word of
this society built lip ..... without them and against them.
Puig Antich - Ulrike Meinhof Commando
..
LONG LIVE HALF LIFE
Did you know that a nuclear power station has already been overrun by
guerillas? that fuel rods have already been stolen from a British nuclear
plant? that a black market in uranium already exists? that nuclear bomb
threats and ransom demands have already been made? These questions
were posed by Mike Floud, a member of the Lancashire 'Half- Life'
antinuclear group, at the end of their 'Nuclear Week' of protests,
demonstrations and talks. They report ...
Nuclear Week, at the start of June, began with a series of theatrical events
which were intended to draw attention to our casc. The first of these was
a motorcade from Heysham to Windscale. About twenty cars set off from
Heysham, headlights on, barrels of radioactive waste prominently
displayed, and amateur terrorists aboard nervously clutching their smoke
bombs. When we got to Windscale we carried out a terrorist attack, about
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 9

fifty yards from the AGR and without apparent police surveillance. There
was one barbed wire fence between us and the reactor.
Wednesday saw Half Lifers clad in black, wearing gas· masks, cheering
up tourists along the Morecambe promenade with a 'Death March'. They
seemed to enjoy our rendition of "Where have all the flowers gone? ...
Radioactive everyone". The potential threat to the Morecambe tourist
industry may become an important element in Half Life's campaign. So
far the hoteliers see Half Life as 'more of a nuisance than the power
station. But there are signs that they are being won round. Other locals -
farmers and fishermen are also disturbed about the nuclear power plant-.
In the latter half of the week we turned to the more sober business of
persuasion and reasoned debate. On Thursday a group of Half Lifers
invited the local council's Environmental Health Committee to consider
the future of their resort under electronuclear management There is
growing unrest among local councils: South Lakeland has come out
openly against Windscale and has demanded to be told exactly which
routes are used for radioactive waste traffic.
On Friday and Saturday, public meetings and debates were held. Among
these were a discussion of Chapman and Price's view that an
exponentially · growing· nuclear power program, (such as CEGB's) may
produce a net energy loss Other discussions centred on the risks of
'routine' radioactive emissions. Representatives of the Atomic Energy
Authority and British Nuclear Fuels had initially agreed to attend the
teach·ins but then rapidly withdrew.
Stirring up AGRo
What hope is there for this tiny David pitted against the electronuclear
Goliath? Small indeed, it may seem, when one considers the forces
behind the world wide rush to nuclear power. But a few considerations
give us grounds for hope. The AG R at Heysham is admitted by the CEGB
to be • dead loss commercially ("This is a disaster we must not repeat"
Arthur Hawkins. head of CEGB). It may be that even when the investment
made up to now is discounted, the station will still not be capable of
breaking even. An unholy alliance between antinuclear conservationists
and Treasury gnomes could yet upset the nuclear applecart. Secondly, it is
likely to be at least four years before Heysham goes critical (if, indeed,
that is technically possible, which some CEGB engineers doubt). Thirdly,
we feel confident that we can stop any move to put other installations on
the Heysham site. We will collaborate with other groups round the
country to contest any further applications by
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 10
the CEGB for nuclear sites. Since the number of possible sites is limited,
action by local groups could place a severe check on British nuclear
devel·opments.
From the campaigner's point of view, one of the advantages of the
centralised power generation system is that its very giantism makes it
vulnerable at crucial weak spots. In Britain the obvious weak link in the
chain is Windscale, where all the waste from British reactors as well as
waste from Europe and Japan
is reprocessed and stored. Block the waste transport routes to Windscale
and you have closed down the British nuclear industry. Whereas action
directed against indiv·idual power stations can at best delay or halt a
single station, action at Windscale could potentially bring the whole
programme grinding to a halt.
Moreover. Windscale represents all the evils of the nuclearl power world
in a pure and un! diluted form. It emits at least I six times as much
radioactivity in routine emissions as all the other nuclear power stations
in Britain put together. It dumps sizeable quantities of plutonium directly
into the sea. Whereas accidents happen· at other reactors occasionally)
at Windscale they happen frequently. It is the largest storehouse of
plutonium in the country, and the nearest nuclear installation to norther
Ireland. It is there that a terrorist attack must be most feared, and there
that a British "nuclear park" is most likelyi to be sited. What is more,
Windscale is located on the windward side of the Lakes. There is an ever-
present possibility of our most beautiful national parks being
contaminated.
Half Life envisages a multi· faceted attack on nuclear · power,
comprising local and I national lobbying. a sustained publicity campaign
and, whet we have sufficient community]' support, direct action where
necessary. A crucial part of the campaign is to press for alternative energy
policies
The response of the public to Nuclear Week has been I encouraging. The
local people who have to take the alleged; "acceptable" risks of living
next t to large nuclear plants are uneasy, and becoming more so. Local
councils and M.P.s are pressing questions about nuclear safety to the
electronuclear establishment
The response of the statutory bodies has been less I satisfactory - though
predictable. The CEGB has resolutely boycotted our public debate and
refused to answer questions They won't say how much I radioactivity
Heysham will routinely emit, now what the. contingency plans are; nor ti
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 11
they assess accident risks (if they do); nor whether they I armed guards. I
Half Life, 82 Bare Lane, Morecambe
GRANADA, YOU'RE FALLING UNDER OUR SPELL

If public recognition is measured by getting your own television series,
Alternative Technology may have made it. Granada will be running a 21
or 26 week half-hour show called Ecohouse starting late this year or very
early next and - well, it's interesting. A two-storey derelict coachhouse
has been bought in a semi-rural, semi-urban setting in Macclesfield at the
back of a crumbling mansion and just past an idyllic amateur's cricket
pitch. An advertisement in the Manchester local evening paper produced
the Grant family - Geoff, a woodwork and metalwork teacher, Lynn, an
ex-English teacher, a three year-old daughter and a six-month baby. Good
luck found them a local 'generalist' architect. Don Williams, with no
direct AT experience but a keen intelligence and plenty of enthusiasm.
Over the next nine to twelve months the barn is going to be made into an
almost autonomous house adapted to the needs of the Grants, using the
resources of the AT world, both orthodox and freaky,
and with a good deal of the work being executed by Geoff Grant himself.
The lTV network audience will watch, partly out of curiosity, partly out of
envy, and partly because they'll learn how to be that
bit more self-sufficient themselves.
That's the intention there'll be as little cheating as necessary in order to
get the series working. Don't look for any heavy philosophising-
the Grants are nice ordinary people who want a 'nice' home but don't
want to change their life-styles completely. Producer and presenter Brian
Trueman
is unlikely to stare heavily at Gurus of Our Time and ask meaningfully
about the Implications For Society, but we got the impression that he
knows the implications are there and they'll be implicit. If you know what
keeps the house warm and where the food comes from, there should be a
bit more than smugness in your outlook, shouldn't there?
Trueman expects criticism on all sides - orthodox architects will dislike
the inelegancies of approach and the lash-up qualities of some of the
solutions. AT purists will quibble about what is meant by autonomy and
will pick holes in the ideology of involving the resources of a large
entertainment conglomerate, of asking big business as well as dedicated
amateur and academic enthusiasts for advice. Someone is going to
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 12
suggest that windmills will replace cars, pools, and yachts as status
symbols and someone else
will talk darkly of infringed building regulations, privilege, and, no doubt,
a threat to decent civilised morality. Nevertheless the technical solutions
evolved in Ecohouse may well turn out to have far-reaching political
implications. BRAD was a failure in that Robin Clarke's blueprint for a
community linked by AT and completely self·sufficient wasn't totally
realised. But in terms of tech·nical and social experiment, not to say
propaganda, BRAD has been extremely valuable, even if the participants
now feel uneasy about past history.
Ecohouse has a good chance of being another such exercise - Don
William's ideas look exciting and Granada's production team have the AT
'bug' even if total messianism has
yet to surface_ They have already defined their position by a series of
implied negat·ives - no mere product parade a la Tomorrow's World, no
pretentiousness a la Horizon
at its worst. So the precise balance between Barry Bucknall ism and
outward vision/ inward sanity has yet to emerge and depends on the
quality of the advice it gets and accepts. Some AT groups, such as BRA
[ and the Street Farmers have been contacted already.
foundations
- At the moment, the potential Ecohouse is about 12
metres by 6 metres on onethird of an acre of land. Ground level walls are
13" solid brick and the upper level 9". The slate roof is presently in a poor
state, and will have a BRAD-type solar collector. The whole house will be
put in a cocoon of insulation - 6" on the roof, 4" on the outside wall
surfaces plus wooden cladding (the weatherboard principle), and
2" below the solid floor. Heat from the roof will be stored in two water
tanks and a heat pump will be used to ex tract heat from the store to
transfer it to warm air ducts. There will be a windmill, though whether it
is to be used to generate electricity or to produce heat for transfer to the
heat store via a heat churn has yet to be determined.
There is a lean-to conser·vatory, partly for living, partly for growing, and
partly to act as a heat trap - the top ridge of the roof overlaps the bottom
of the upper storey windows
by 2" so that a small amount of early morning heat can be fed into the
bedrooms. There may be photovoltaic cells - or may be not. There will be
an emphasis on food producing gardens and elementary animal
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 13
husbandry.
The Ecohouse project will probably cost £20,000_ The site was expensive
at £9,000, while a provisional budget of £11,000 has been set for
'improvements'.
Is this what we want for ATs first screen debut? Well,
if your political perceptions encourage you to burn 10kWh of energy in
other people's places to accelerate the crumbling of the System; or if your
self-sufficient commune hides away to avoid contamination by the
outside world - you didn't seriously expect much from the telly, did you?
Ecohouse will be produced and presented by Brian Trueman, and is being
researched by Polly Bide: Granada TV, Manchester M60 9EA,061-
8321211 ext 119
THE JOB FOR THE RATE

Devious are the plans of govern·ment. Readers of Undercurrents 10 will
remember Dave Elliot's description of the pitfalls of state-run 'Back to the
land' schemes. The old Land Resettlement idea is not yet ready for
resurrection, but they're working on it. The latest proposal fro· the
Manpower Services Commission, part of the Department of Employment
is so-called 'job creation'. The Commission, which has been desperately
mounting training schemes and special courses in an attempt to conceal
true unemployment is now awaiting approval for its £30 million scheme.
The proposal is for 15,000 men and women to do "community work" in
areas of severe depression. They would be paid just a little more than
unemployment benefit or social security. In this way, cheap labour is
obtained by exploiting the unemployed to do necessary social work,
rather than by paying normal rates. There would be no job security
workers would return to the dole when projects ended. A nice way of
cutting the rates.
PLANNING FOR WAR

In the last 18 months, a revival of 'Civil Defence' work has gathered
considerable momentum. Recently, Bexley council in london voted
[77,000 for an emergency bunker. Eddies takes a look at some aspects of
renewed government preparations for its own survival - and how the
propaganda machine will work.
When the civil Defence Corps was given a peaceful burial in 1968, many
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 14

people may have supposed that the busy era of V-Bomber scrambles, eN
D marches, and secret underground shelters for top civil servants had
gone with them. Far from it. In the period since then, most local
authorities have quietly retained on their staff the professional cadre of
CD officers -usually known as Emergency Defence, Civil Aid or
by some other euphemism. Now, however. the official title is' Home
Defence' - and, under the Civil Defence (Planning) Regulations 1974, all
local authorities have been required to prepare plans (the "War Book")
which will deal with emergency organisation in their area. Normally this
would be done by the 'Emergency Planning Officer' and his staff, who
must also cover natural disaster and civil disturbances. The emphasis is a
little clearer in a recent advertisement by the Home (ex-Civil) Defence
College at Easingwold, Yorks, which defines the problem as "adopting the
peacetime services to function in the major emergencies of war and
peace peace". Clearly, TV and radio will have an important role in the
"major emergencies of peace" - in other words, an uprising in a time of
scarcity. Below, we document where the Jimmy Young prog may be
hanging out when the revolution starts. Preparations have also been made
to ensure that the government will be running the media if Britain is
attacked. Instructions have been conveyed to local authorities by circular
from the Home Office's Home Defence section. A new circular
(Emergency Services 2/75) describes the plans the gov·ernment has for
distributing information through the media in the event of nuclear attack.
It discusses manipulation of the media in general: "providing continu
ous guidance to the press and broadcasting services on the publication of
news and comment"; and the way in which people might react after an
attack, from initial stunned apathy" to "more aggressive behaviour" - if
there wasn't any government around. Control of the media would also be
necessary to prevent <defeatist and alarming rumours," We
are told that "existing publicity material is currently being revised", but
that in any case "the Central Office of Information and HMSO have plans
to act quickly." That must shake the Soviets!
The central section of the memorandum, however, deals with three pre-
war phases:During the Low level crisis, "very little material could be
released to the public ... Government broadcasts would give the first
indication that war might not be averted" and include - wait for it -
"references to the effectiveness of the nuclear deterrent." The second
phase Preparatory Period would be "some 3-4 weeks", while the country
was placed on a war footing".
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 15
Finally, the Immediate preattack period - we get "saturation coverage by

all the media. ' . repeating basic advice on the warning system, and
measures to be taken for survival of individuals and families ... This would
be some 72 hours,"
Then ... The publication of newspapers would continue right up to the
attack ... Normal peacetime TV and sound broadcasting would continue
until the govt decided to introduce the special wartime broadcasting
service (WTBS) ... Before this, announcements would be broadcast
telling the public about the new system. At the time specified, all TV and
local radio stations would close down and broadcasting would be
restricted to a single radio programme consisting primarily of news,
official announcements ... with, for morale purposes, an entertain·ment
element."
To cater for WTBS, the BBC has its own wartime headquarters and a
special network of transmitters (see below). In the post-attack period,
regional governments might restart regional local radio with news-sheets
when possible - in the event of an audience to listen. The memorandum
then discusses arrangements for gathering and selecting news and
propaganda, and finally the selection and training of "suitable persons" to
work for for WTBS.
In the first of issue of REPSYCHLlNG, more extracts from the HO circular
are given. 20p from 209 Archway Road, LONDON N6. REPSYCHLlNG,
the 'magazine of the unborn' is just that: indescribable.
TIM AND THE RED FLASH

The BBC's emergency arrangements are ostensibly part of the civil
warning apparatus in case of attack. All transmitters can be remotely
switched to transmit pre-recorded attack warnings, as part of an
emergency network. (Reputedly, these warnings are now 8 years old).
The other part of the warning net is 'Red Flash' - which connects Home
Office warning officers at RAF radar stations and at the Air Defence
Operations Centre (High Wycombe) to 250 'Carrier Control Points'
installed throughout the country in large police stations and telephone
exchanges. The secret about Red Flash is its usual name TIM, or the
talking clock I
But the information on Red Flash is never heard, as it uses a high
frequency carrier out of the normal speech bandwidth. The TI M circuit
provides a well maintained, high quality, link which has several loops
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 16

round the country From the control points, signals radiate to thousands of
special receivers, using ordinary telephone links. Again, the system is
inaudible on normal calls, since the HF carrier is filtered out. The carrier
receivers - small plastic boxes about the size of an ordinary phone. with
just a loudspeaker grille and two knobs - are located in police stations,
fire stations, BBC control centres, hospitals, etc. There are 14 thousand in
all, including some in private homes. Occasionally seen in police station
front offices, they tick quietly away on standby J dormant and waiting.
Other receivers auto·matically control 8 thousand sirens all over Britain.
A pitching and falling banshee signal would be the attack warning. Red
Flash also allows spoken messages to be sent to receivers over the TIM
network - to police and government establishments, even to all
policemen in a particular area. Applications to other situations can be
envisaged.
TIM's tones will never sound sound the same again. · Pip - pip -
pip!
NOT-SO-BRIEF CANDLE
Those (few) enthusiasts for nuclear power who still dismiss the Browns
Ferry incident as too bizarre an occurrence to take seriously as a threat to
the nuclear programme have been spared a rude shock largely as a
result of the inactivity of the World's press. The Browns Ferry incident, in
which workmen searching for air leaks with a candle accidently set fire to
polyurethane caulking material round control cables and caused all five
Emergency Core Cooling Systems (ECCS) to fail, was not the first at the
plant. Two days earlier a similar though much smaller fire was caused in
exactly the same manner.
Browns Ferry's local paper, the Nashville Tennessean, re·ported that the
plant's operators, the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (N RC) had not managed to find out why the
use of candles for air checks had not been halted after the first fire. The
incident was logged, but not, apparently, brought to the attention of
anyone in authority.
Also reported by the Tennessean was chief of TVA's nuclear generation
office, Jack Calhoun's comment that. so far as he knew, the use of candles
to make an air check was unauthorised. "I guarantee that we'll quit doing
that", said Calhoun. This is believed to be shutting· the stable door after a
record number of horses have bolted - approximately 1.3 million I
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 17

corresponding to the plant's 1000MW output

'· .. and now, over to Broadcasting Bunker ... "
“- This is station WTBS, the Voice of the British Nation
- What's the recipe today, Jim?
- Hallo all you mumsies out there listening in to the JY prog. today's
scrumttyeeeouus recipe comes from dear old Minfood. Their absolutely
delicious Buttery Pie can be made from a pound of used potato peelings
and ten ounces of fresh grass. But do check the radioactivity first,
dearies … “
The BBC has spent "several millions" of somebody‘s money on building
themselves a well-equipped wartime shelter at Wood Norton Engineering
Training Centre, near Evesham. The shelter, deep underground, is fully
provided with TV and radio studios and two "massive" generators. The
entrance nests incongruously below a curious office on the training
centre site. Under the surface are many feet of concrete, and behind the
thick steel doors is a staircase leading down to the shelter and its air-
conditioned vaults.
Above Wood Norton, on the appropriately named Tunnel Hill, microwave
radio links the centre with subregional headquarters at Kinver, near
Kidderminster, and to the Post Office national microwave network which
normally carries broadcasting material as well as military information.
Wood Norton was the emergency 'Broadcasting House' of the;"last war,
when all circuits to BBC radio transmitters were routed through massive
switchboards there, as well as through other centres such as Clifton
Gorge, Bristol. The old mansion at Wood Norton reportedly still has
speech circuits to all main transmitter centres, although broadcasting
cables apparently terminate in the shelter. According to a Post Office
engineer, these cables, labeled 'EC' for Emergency Circuit, are shielded
and laid separately, deeper than ordinary telephone cables. They run
directly to radio and TV transmitters, where the incoming cables are
termed 'deferred services' - a code use to fob off inquisitive transmitter
engineers who wonder why so many well· prepared circuits are left idle.
It is surprising that cables have apparently been provided to TV
transmitters, as there there is no intention of using them in a general War
situation. There are, of course, other circumstances in which protected
circuits and transmitters may be useful. According to BBe sources, many
transmitters carry enough fuel for three months operation. The Home
Office circular (above) describes a BBC "network of transmitters
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 18

throughout the country, equipped with generators to supply power and

providing fallout protection for the staff ... The WTBS system is linked
with sub-regional headquarters (SRHQ).”
Another, surprising, role for the BBC has been "keeping civil order" -
apparently abroad! One engineer spoke of activities at the time of the
Paris uprising in May 1968; "Urgent, secretive messages were sent to get a
couple of old wartime transmitters (low ·powered short"·wave)
operational. We did, they weren't used, but if events in France had got
worse (for the status quo) they would have been. But not for broadcasting,
as the power was too low." "Since the embassies and the Army have their
own large communications net·works, such as the Diplomatic Wireless
Service, I can only surmise that "Dirty Works" people would be dropped
in France. They were really serious about getting these junk transmitters
working, fast!"
COOKING THE NUKES

Creative energy accounting is now all the vogue with the US Nuclear
Regulatory Commission. According to David Dinsmore Comey in the
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the NRC, worried by the poor reliability
of its plants has started 'improving' the plants' capacity factors by
switching away from the traditional basis of 'design capacity' to a new
concept called 'Maximum Dependable Capacity' (MDC).
MDC is defined by the NRC as a plant's net output during the most
restrictive seasonal conditions for condenser cooling. This normally
occurs only for a couple of months at the height of summer but the NRC
apply the definition throughout the year. The net result is that the plant is
rated lower, making it easier for it to attain its 'capacity'. Says Comey, "It's
like computing a golfer's handicap solely on the basis of a score he got
during a New Year's blizzard while hung over". One power station
designed to produce 821 megawatts has been reduced to 700, another
has been downrated from 745 to 666 MW and the NRC now run four
plants which had more than 100% capacity factors in December 1974!
WHISTLE BLOWERS
UNDERCURRENTS would like to thank a small articulate minority whose
occasional titbits of inside information are readily separated from
redundant mountains of instantly recycled paper. Such information can
often be vital to groups or individuals who may be affected by the
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 19

indiscriminate actions of a large company or organ of state. Several

articles in this issue are based on such information. Obviously, we can't
say which - but you're allowed to guess. We're grateful - and will publish
whatever such reliable information is sent, as soon as possible.
PS Would our guest from the CIA London station who left his briefcase at
a recent office meeting please call back - we can't see which of his
teletyped secrets he intended for publication.
ENVIROFAIR BRIGHTENS BRIGHTON The first Peoples Free Fair,

Falmer, Brighton, 14/15th June.
The Envirofair held at Brighton last year has merged with the Kiddies
Karnival, and now provides an alternative show and a free festival. More
than forty groups spread their stalls, their ideas and better ways of living
across the green acres of downland adjacent to Sussex University - while
through the day and evening a succession of theatre groups, comics and
musicians played and performed for the kids and adults. The ecofraternity
provided the main Envirofair section. Shows included the local Friends of
the Earth and Conservation society J and the Socialist Environment and
Resources Association ( a little known eco-corner of the Labour Party.) The
Diggers were well represented, in view of the first land for People
meeting held the next day.
Assorted Street Farmers didn't quite get energy out of their alternative
technology. Their Bermuda rigged windmill dom·inated the entire scene
although Conservation Tools and Technology's Winco machine was
racing ahead on the energy stakes. Undercurrents was there on a
worthwhile trip, sharing a stall with the recently reformed Brighton
Science for People group. Plenty of others too; displaying, demonstrating
or sharing crafts, organic food, gadgets, or just ideas. Perhaps four or five
thousand people went through; didn't count them. A warm and pleasant
day was only marred by two events. One of the theatre groups, perform
ing free in the city centre, were brutally dragged off Brighton police;
charged, inter alia, with littering by throwing confetti (shades of Alice's
Restaurant?). But all charges were dropped later, at a cos of £50 to the
police. Veteran Windsor festival organiser Sid Rawle was a bushed by
sneaky solicitor for the Windsor Action Group and served with a writ. ..
which led him to jail the following week. Later the action moved stage in
the Falmer woods music given free by local a other groups. Quietly, the
through the downland nigh and on Sunday the woods were the setting for
breakfast and the first Land for People meeting.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 20
READERS REACTIONS
A FEW CHANGES in Undercurrents should result from the readers
meeting held at Comtek. More than fifty people came along to the
discussion tent on a hot afternoon for a chat about the way UC is going.
Nothing very controversial was said. Most people were rather surprised
but happy about the inclusion of occult science material in a recent issue.
One or two didn't relate well to Woody's long series
on Alternative Culture - but everyone else did. Unless the heat had
stultified all critical faculties, UC was doing alright.
However, a few changes may follow suggestions made. The most
important was probably proposals for a regional network; the others
were:.
EVENTS LISTING - there should be more, larger events notices. There will
be - but we rely on being told well in advance about an event (It takes
about three weeks to publish material for an issue which is then on sale
for two months.) So write to Barbara Kern in plenty of time.
SHORT REVIEWS - of magazines and lesser literature will be a new
information section.
DRECTORY of sources, groups, and individuals is something we couldn't
all agree on. A regular section, similar to that in 'Alternative Sources of
Energy' (USA) where readers identify their interests with an alphabetic
code in published listings could be a useful addition, enabling readers to
contact others locally with similar interests.
Would you like to see this arrangement - or a regular list of AT groups in
each issue? The problem was how wide to cast the net - where do you
stop? Please tell us what you think - more proposals in the next issue.
ALTERNATIVE TECHNOlOGY teaching - a review of courses involving AT
is in preparation.
A REGIONAL NETWORK of 'correspondents' was the most interesting
suggestion discussed. Fourteen people, broadly spaced over the country
have offered to start this idea off. At the minute, it's highly experimental
more work will be done after this issue has gone to press. But the network
might work like this. Each correspondent could write a short column
about local events of interest - communal ventures, AT experiments, etc.,
and supply information through Under· currents to the area, perhaps
including distribution and selling. Or conversely he/she might be asked to
find out about a local development. The net result ideally could be a
forum and contact pol for groups and individuals become acquainted.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 21
Next time round, we should have a better idea of how d network could
work. These are the current, experimental network members. If something
is going on of interest in your part of Britain, get in touch ...
CORNWALL - Jon Campbell Lucastes, Lerryn, Lostwithiel, Cornwall.

GLOUCESTER - Godfrey Boyle 11 Shadwell, Uley, Dursley, Gloucs. (Uley
636)
POWYS - Bob Todd (NCAT); Uwyngwern Quarry, Machynlleth, Powys.
(Machynlleth 2400)
CARDIFF - Paul Downton, I Wvverne Road. Cathays. (Cardiff 43485)
BUCKS - Kip Handling Signal Cottage, Bledlow, Bucks,
SUSSEX - Duncan Campbell Franklin Road, BRIGHTON. Sussex.
ESSEX - jan Wysocki, Hams Cottage, Rack Road, Kirton. IPSWICh.
YORKS - Leeds Future Studies Centre. 15 Kelso Road. LEED.' 2.
LANCS - Nigel Ferguson, 21 Chatsworth Road, LANCASTER
NORThUMBERLANd- Geoff Watson. Church Cottage, Chollerton.
HEXHAM, Northumberland Monica Frisch, EGIS Information Service,
North lodge, Elswick' Road Cemetery. NEWCASTLE 4
EDINBURGH - Michael Tribbeck 10 Cannon Lane, Edinburgh 10.
(031-447 4908)
NUCLEAR FOES Friends of the Earth, at 9 Poland Street, london Wl have

recently produced the first "Nuclear Times" - a newspaper concerned with
isSues in the nuclear power programme. Its free, apparently ... but they
are unlikely.to turn down contributions. The excellent first issue contains
a guide to the nuclear industry in Britain, the nuclear fuel cycle and an
account of the planned British reactor programme, plus information on
researching and organising against your local reactor. Get rid of a reactor
now!
SOMETHING IN THE AIR AN INTERNATIONAL Windmill Competition

was organised recently in France by BINI and ANVAR, two companies
dealing with inventions and patents, in conjunction with Phase Zero, a
weekly technical paper. Nearly 400 entries were received - a lot of them,
frankly, cranky and badly thought·out. But one or two were original and
ingenious.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 22

Wind Charger Take, for instance, the proposal by one M Gitton for the
direct electrostatic con version of wind to electrical energy. M Gitton's
device. which has no moving parts, apparently works by injecting into
the air stream electrostatically-charged 'packets' of ' air which are then
swept downstream into a large grid of wire mesh. As they pass through
the grid, the packets of ionised air induce alternating electrical potentials
whose peak value depends on the amount of charge passing through the
grid per second, the electrostatic capacity of the grid, and the impedance
of any external load con·nected to the system. The frequency of the
alternating potential varies, depending on the velocity of the wind and on
the frequency (f) with which the charged 'packets' are released into the
air though the inventor suggests that an output of fixed frequency could
be obtained by controlling f electronically.
'Un petit prototype' is being experimented with at the moment at ONE
RA, Meudon, but as the judges pointed out, the proposal is still far from
being a practical proposition. If it works, though, it could have at least
one environmental effect which the judges failed to mention. A whole
host of beneficial social side·effects should accompany the injection of
large quantities of negative ions into the atmosphere. as they waft along
with the breeze over the tense, nervy, irritable populations of our towns
and cities. On the other hand, of course, a few million packets per hour
of positive ions would soon have 'cm all fighting in the streets.
Another entry that was amusing, and might even work, was a wind
generator made out of an old umbrella, intended for portable use by
campers and hitch hikers. The fabric of the umbrella is removed and sails
are strung on the frame instead. The umbrella shaft drives a Bosch 6v
dynamo directly, though if you've been following the discussion about
minimum charging speeds in our latest Undercurrents Wind Generator
articles, you'll share our doubts that the sails could ever turn fast enough
to produce a useful voltage unless the dynamo were specially re·wound.
Still, how many designs have you seen for windmills that can be hidden
in a trouser leg?
Yet another odd proposal was for an inversion of the idea of a flapping
wing aero· plane. As the wind blows, it waggles two 'flappers' (you can
hardly call them wings) up and down. Adjustment for different wind
strengths is made by varying the phasing of the flappers relative to each
other. With careful setting up, efficiency is claimed to approach the
theoretical (Betz) maximum of 16/27.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 23
If you'd like to know more about these and other entries, write to Agence
Nationale pour la Valorisation'de la Recherche, 13 Rue Madeleine-
Michelis, 92 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France.
TELL-TALE TELEGRAMS
EARLY IN AUGUST the Post Office proudly showed the press round their
brand new computer-controlled telegram retransmission centre in
Cardinal House. Farringdon Road, London. By a curious coincidence,
three days later, on August 8, the papers were full of the admission by the
US National Security Agency that all international phone calls to or from
the United States are (as we told you in UC7 and UCB) intercepted,
recorded, and sometimes listened to. There is of course no immediate
connexion between these events. One concerned telephones in America;
the other, telegrams in England. We cannot infer that international
telegrams passing through London are subject to routine official
surveillance. But the fact remains that the system at Cardinal House is
ideally suited, in several ways, to just such an operation by the British
equivalents of the NSA.
The system has elaborate arrangements for recording and storing
telegrams, ostensibly to deal with complaints and enquiries. At any time,
the last 750,000 telegrams to pass through the centre are held on
magnetic disc stores. Since at present 68,000 telegrams are handled on
an average day, this means that the past eleven days' traffic is instantly
accessible through the computer. In addition, all telegrams are stored for
seven months on magnetic tape. Retrieval in this case is slower. since it
may mean getting a tape out of the cupboard and loading it onto a tape
drive to be read. The records include telegrams which merely happen to
have passed through London in transit between two other countries. One
quarter of the centre's traffic is in this category.
The computer's main task is to route telegrams correctly to their
destinations. At the same time, it tells its owners what it is doing, in
automatically generated reports. These, we are told, enable the staff to
keep a close watch on system operation and telegram handling progress.
But there is no technical reason
why the machine should confine its attention to the address at the top of
the message. Unlike a telephone call, a telegram can easily be analysed
by a computer, and it would be easy to arrange for an 'automatically
generated report' to pop up in someone's office every time a certain
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 24

name or word appeared in a telegram.

THE WIND ERA
The Electrical Research Association has gathered its reports on earlier
wind power work into three volumes, shortly to be published. Each
volume costs £17 - though you might get it for £11 if you have an ERA
member friend in the electrical industry. (Do any actual ERA members
read Undercurrents?) Titles are as follows:
ERA 75-34 Volume I, Wind measurement and characteristics.
ERA 75-35 Volume 2, Wind driven plant and its application.
ERA 75-36 Volume 3, Design and testing of wind-driven plant.
(Further information from D Warne, ERA, phone Leatherhead 74151 ext
391.) We're tired of complaining about expensive books so we'll leave
you to draw your own conclusions. Of course if a free copy plopped on
the mat we could write a super review of it for our next issue. Nudge,
nudge.
ALIEN PORN
TV piracy is happening in a small way in the South of France. One village
now has its own TV relay station, set up by a local engineer because of
poor reception. However, they rapidly realised that they could also use
the relay for programme origination. They aren't very radical about it the
weekly unofficial spot includes the mayo,'s account of the past week plus
odd local gossip. But at least the local gendarmerie are too sleepy to
worry about the illegal transmissions.
A more serious and effective experiment took place at Levezou on July
8th. In the middle of a play, transmissions were suddenly inter·rupted by
two minutes of hard porn, which equally abruptly returned to normal
material. The source was some local freaks who jammed out the normal
signal into the TV transmitter with their own programme recorded on a
videotape, and played back through a low power transmitter close to the
receiving aerial of the Lezevou transmitter. Because the station normally
acts as a local relay for the main trans·mitter many miles away, any group
transmitting on the same frequency as the main transmitter have got them·
selves a pleasingly powerful broadcasting station. Since you are much
closer to the receiver, you don't need to use very}' much power. And
you're guaranteed a big, attentive audience glued to their boxes!
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 25

... ANY NOISE YOU LIKE PROVIDED IT'S WHITE

The shop stewards at Ford's car components factory at Leamington,
Warwicks, have recently been organising with technology for better
working conditions. Their ally in the struggle was a simple noise meter to
measure the legality or otherwise of clattering aut·omated machinery. The
convenor using the noise·meter was summarily brought to the plant's
Personnel manager, who charged him with a disciplinary offence 'the
"possession of an unauthorised device". His attitude spoke volumes - and
the convenor informed him that his volume was topping 90 decibels -
rather noisy in fact, and could he please calm down. The ensuing out
burst registered at over 100 decibels, he was told, quite an 'orrible 'earful.
Would he like to take this case to national level, and would Ford
management claim (but quietly) that workers might not measure the
safety of the plant for themselves? Perhaps not. When the noise level on
the shop floor was measured, it was indeed found to be over t· e legal
limit of 90 decibels. Ford may be forced to take action to reduce the noise
made by factory machinery. The British Society for Social Responsibility
in Science are currently investigating the hazards of noise in industry. To
give/receive information, contact Tony Fletcher, BSSRS, 9 Poland Street,
London WC1
SECRECY THROWN TO THE WINDS

THE SECOND MAJOR US workshop on wind energy conversion systems
(WECS) was held in Washington on 9-11 June, 1975. It may be the last.
British delegates from the Electrical Research Association who were there
report that "the US view seems to be that they have reached a stage where
further public disclosure, especially to overseas organisations. may need
to be restricted."
The US WECS programme, run jointly by the new Energy Research and
Development Administration and the old, wings·clipped NASA, has a
generous budget which in the fiscal year 1975-6 could reach $18
mill·ion. At the time of the work·shop their 100kW machine with 125ft
diameter rotor had been manufactured and was being installed. There are
preliminary studies for machines up to 3 megawatts. The agencies have
also carried out economic studies of wind power and perhaps it is these
that have convinced them there is money to be made, provided the
grubby paws of foreigners can be kept off the precious blue· prints.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 26

WHAT'S ON
Leeds Futures Centre are holding a conference on ALTERNATIVE
TECHNOLOGY AND THE FACTORY with special emphasis on the Lucas
Aerospace initiative at Bradford College and the University of Bradford.
Dates are November 15·16th. For more details phone Roland Chaplain at
the Futures Centre: 0532/459865. leeds Future Studies Centre 15 Kelso
Rd. t.EEDS LS2 9PR.
THE CONSERVATION SOCIETY's AGM will be on November 15·16 a the
Corn Exchange in Bristol. The theme is the discussion and launching of
the society's 'Campaign for Conservation · and Survival'. Speakers
include the President, lord Avebury, Michael Allaby and John Seymour,
and the Dean of Bristol. Further information can be obtained from the
Secretary Mr H A Fowler, Henley Cottage. Yatten, Bristol.
lATE EXTRA - There y,iU possibly}' be a SiMPLE TECHNOLOGY
WEEKEND October 4/5th 1975 at Duckworth Farm, Shawforth,
Rochdale. Details - phone Diana Manning at · middlesex Polytechnic, on
01-804 t674.
The Teilhard Centre for the Future of Man is holding its Annual
Conference on Saturday October 18th at St. Pancras Assembly Rooms.
Euston Road. It is entitled SELF AND SOCIETY, CONFlict OR CO-
oPERATION, and Dr Joseph Needham and Ursula King are among the
speakers. Phone the centre for more detail" 01-582 9510.
PRINTERS NATIONAL MEltiNG organised by Jonathan Zeitlyn of the
Inter-Action Media Workshop is taking place in October - date not
decided as we went to press. This follows a meeting of London political
and community printers held in July, and will aim at setting up useful
national co-operative networks. Contact: Printers Meeting, 2A St Pauls
Road, LONDON Nl.
The next major LAND meeting will take place on October 18-19th at the
Futures Centre. 15 Kelso Road. LEEDS 2. (But please confirm the dates
with the Centre before you rush off towards Leeds.) Tel: 0532/459865.
looking much further ahead - there is to be a three'"day conference 3t the
University of Newcastle upon Tyne from March 30 to April I 1976. It is
entitled APpROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY FOR TIlE UK, and is org.anised by
the staff of the University's Faculty of Applied Science, supported by t
Intermediate Technology Development Group Among the possible
session ideas are: traditional techniques and their future development;
low impact sources of energy; and the philosophy of appropriate
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 27

technology. There, will also be a small exhibition of prototype working

models and other material. For more details write to Mrs Cox,
Administrative Assistant, Dept. of Civil Engineering; University of
Newcastle upon Tyne. NEI 7· after lst November 1975. We will also give
more details nearer the event.
ORGANISING AN EVENT?? Please send any information for inclusion in
this section to Barbara Kern at Undercurrents
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 28

• • • • • • • • • • • •
Letters
GOATS BEARDED
Tom Kewell didn't say the last word on cow-versus-goat in Undercurrents
11 - 1 doubt if anyone ever will. Since so many would be self-sufficers
seem to think first of goats, here are some observations in favour of the
cow. based on experience rather than theory.
First, if you want to make cream, and thence butter, forget goats. I dare-
say goats' cream can be skimmed if you have endless time and patience,
but there are better things to do. Small separators arc no longer made,
and secondhand ones are hard to find, expensive when you can get one,
and often in poor condition. What's more. they consist of a million parts,
each of which has to be rinsed, washed, sterilised, rinsed again, and
dried, every time the machine is used. For the small quantities of milk you
will get from a goat or two, they are just not worth it. For a pound of
butter, you need at least a quart of cream, which means several gallons of
milk. which means a lot of goats for worthwhile production - or one cow,
whose cream you can skim by hand.
Kewell implies that goats can be kept confined all the year round. Again I
dare say it is possible, though I doubt if they would be happy or healthy
in the minimum size of pen he mentions. But unless you want to run your
own little factory farm, it is more enjoyable for all concerned if animals
are out of doors whenever condition are right. So keeping any large
livestock involves land, and the chances are that, if you have any, it will
be grassland.
Now goats are not particularly good converters of grass., unlike a cow,
which will live and give milk, on little else for at least the summer
months. Goats need hay or other roughage in addition, and they have to
have expensive concentrates all the year round, whether they are
producing any· thing or not Again the cow wins, though if you have
access to a large area of heather or scrubland or something like that, the
balance of advantage shifts in favour of the goat. I think those are the only
circumstances in which goatkeeping could compete economically with
cowkeeping, though the goats "ill still need their concentrates.
So if your goats are out of doors, they will have to be confined somehow.
Any fence, hedge, or wall - of less than Long Kesh standard will not
contain them without fail, so they have to be tethered. No method of
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 29

tethering. including the one illustrated does not involve trouble and
discomfort - sometimes injury - for both animal and owner, and any is
likely to fail sooner or later. A row of fruit bushes or vegetables is soon
disposed of by a goat and nearly as quickly by a kid, which is even more
athletic and can't be tethered at all without risk of strangulation.
A cow, by (:contrast, is a placid creature without athletic ambitions., and
if it has grass and water will be confined by ordinary fences and gates. It
doesn't mind ram, which goats will not tolerate for long, so you don't
have to rush out to take it back to shelter every time there is a shower and
it starts bellowing.
Now the matter of quantities of milk and what to do with it. An animal
unfortunately, isn't like the milkman: you can't put out a note for it to tell
it how much you want the next morning. It gives what it is biologically
designed to do, which means a lot shortly after calving or kidding, and
progressively less for, usually ten months. Two months later, it "ill give
birth again if you have ordained it so. Or, on the other hand. it may not,
and if it is a goat, you will probably be carrying a hungry passenger for
several months., because goats, unlike cows., rarely breed outside their
season. For this reason, all your goats will be giving their maximum at
much the same time, while for a large part of the year you may be getting
only a pint or two or none. (And Kewell's average of
200 gallon a year seems a bit optimistic: I wouldn't count on getting that
much from a goat). So you can't smooth out the peaks and troughs of
production as you can with a pair of cows., or perhaps a cow and a goat,
which is what I keep.
Kewell seems to think it counts against the cow that it gives a lot of milk,
but in fact it is difficult to have too much of it. Here's how we use the
2Y.2 gallon a day we are getting from the cow: we skim it for cream,
either for the table and for cooking with or for butter, and if there is
too :much butter it is made into ghee for frying; the skim is made into
cheese (hard cheese which is a far more useful commodity than cottage
cheese and yogurt - although Kewell forgot to say that hard cheese needs
pressing, and it doesn't take six weeks to make, only to mature); and the
whey, unless I make Norwegian whey cheese, of which a little goes a
very long way, feeds the pig or the chicken or sometimes the goat. as
does any surplus skim, or spoilt whole milk or other odds and ends. We
thus directly or indirectly supply much of our fat and protein
consumption (and more than our needs) from, at this time of year, little
more than grass.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 30
But I don't want to give the impression that aU the advantages are one
way: a notable point in favour of goats' milk is that, quite apart from its
undoubted benefits in certain disease conditions, it can be fed direct to
babies without treatment, which cows' milk can't.
My real reason for writing is not to knock goats - I like them and their
milk and its derivatives - but, perversely, to be a bit discouraging. Goats
are too cheap and easy to buy -humble scrub animals, that is and I think
too many of this kind are bought by people who can't afford or won't be
bothered to house and feed them properly or manage them considerately.
A cow is large and relatively expensive, and taking one on is more
obviously a responsibility. I don't want to be sanctimonious, but any
article - even a sound one like Kewell's which encourages goat keeping
makes me think, not of the pampered pedigree animals belonging to the
ladies of the British Goat Society, but of the unfortunate beasts which are
bought on an impulse as a source of "free' milk and are neglected when
they don't live up to their owners' expectations or turn out to make
unforeseen demands.
Waller Gundrey North Hudgill Alston Cumbria
HAS BEAN
Come on Fiskeby V isn't all bad. Yes, it costs you. But Y.2 a packet planted
a ten foot double row last year, fed two people several meals., and we
saved seed, far more than we bought Cultivation notes - high germination
rate, but where a bean missed, the ones near the gap seemed to suffer a
little. I reckon they should be planted 3" apart or less, in rows 3 - 4 .,
apart We produced bushy plants, about 8 - 10" high, with plenty of pods.
Still low yield, small beans, two per pod, but the same size as the soya
beans in the local health food shop. No intensive irrigation, mulched with
garden compost. Practically no hoeing required. The saved seed plan ted
this season had 90% germination, if not more. The frost last weekend
destroyed maybe 20% of that. Not bad for a frost-tender plant. Maybe the
problem is partly culinary, It is greedy to expect to eat Fiskeby V by the
plateful as one might ",with runner and broad beans. A vegetable
casserole i!l a good technique, since Fiskeby V has a pretty unexciting
flavour, much improved by carrots, peas etc. Since at times the future
seems precarious, it seems worthwhile to raise a few plants for seed each
year.
Patricia Baker The Compasses Silverstone Northants.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 31

DIVINE LIGHT OF TAO

As an admirer of Joseph Needham for many years, I too have wished that
we could learn from the Taoists along the lines you recommend in your
last issue. The question is, whether Taoism is only a sensibility or also an
experience. When Needham says that Taoism is "free from all
transcendental elements", this is of course correct. But there is strong
evidence that it involves a very direct contact with an immanent divinity.
Books on Taoism will describe Taoist "alchemy" and meditation
techniques., as an essential part of its way. Thus, in Th Secret of the
Golden Rower (Routledge), we learn of a Taoist sect, that used breath and
sexual techniques for realising the "Divine Light" through the "Third Eye",
flourishing in China in quite recent times. Support for this identification of
Taoism with inner experience comes from Jung's commentary on the
Golden Flower. Thus, .' .. the light of heaven' which 'dwells between the
eyes' as 'the heart of heaven' is used synonymously with Tao. Human
nature and life are contained in 'the light of heaven' and, according to Liu
Hua-yang, are the most important secrets of-Tao."(pp. 97-98). Thus it can
be argued that this very simple and pure enhancement of consciousness
is a traditional and valid way towards the radical transformation of social
reality that we all desire and strive for.
Sincerely, Jerry Ravetz. 5 Moor Park Avenue, Leeds LS6 4 BT.
UNDERCURRENTZZZZ .... ?
I find Undercurrents more stimulating each issue. But please must we be
subjected to such lengthy boring diatribes, the worst examples being
boring Peter Harper and "Woody". I do not object to political comment,
being involved in an "alternative" newspaper myself (excellent, terse
Leeds Other Paper) but if these writers were to brush up their style a bit,
think about what they're trying to say, they should be able to release
space and time for more worthwhile things. This tendency is more
widespread in UC. Dave Elliot could have cut his interesting but too long
article by about one-third and lost nothing ..• and so on. I know we're all
trying to find styles to replace alienated and unreadable journalese and
scientific jargon but I think this is a step in the wrong direction. I think the
journals of the Women's Movement are solving this problem better than
anyone else just now. Still I'm enclosing my sub ..• Hopefully
Pauline Stone 6 Hessle Mt., Leeds, LS6 IEP
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 32

SKEPTICISM
Anyone encouraged by Sylvia Lee's article (Undercurrents 11) to start
beekeeping. should seek out a fellow beekeeper first. You can't rely on
the books - I would never have got through my first year without the help
of an old man down the lane. That way, you can also get a look at the
equipment and see what you can make yourself. Since it can cost over
£70 to get started it's amazing how soon you can learn the simple
carpentry required.
The even more AT-minded should get a copy of Make Your Own Skep,
published by the British Isles Bee Breeders' Association, from Whitegates,
Thulston, Derby DE7 3EW . Contrary to what most beekeepers are
brought up to believe, you don't have to kill skep bees to get the honey.
There are some snags.. but maybe these are outweighed by the fact that
skeps cost the price of a sheaf or two of straw.
Terry Pratchett Gayes Cottage, School Lane, Rowberrow, Winscombe,
Som. BS 25 lQP
DISAPPOINTMENT AT THE POINT OF PRODUCTION

May I comment on one or two things in the article by Browning and
Clutterbuck, Is there a Radical Science? in UC II, p.8? One can agree with
a good deal in Browning and Clutterbuck, not lease with their
disapproval of UCs recent Liaison with Resurgence, that grande dame of
high-minded obfuscation. But there is,I suggest. an equal. though
different, evasion in this sentence: "Surely, what we are supposed to be
doing is challenging existing technologies and the ideas behind them,
and surely that means taking some of our ideas to the points of
production - not to the most peripheral areas of these isles:' True, the next
sentence admits "it isn't easy", etc. But the following two paragraphs -
though recognising many snags - make me, though in my seventies, feel
so young! For they cling to a quasi-theology which was very plausible a
century ago but has become more and more disputable ever since. It
would certainly be lovely if those "at the points of production" were
foremost in vision of a liberated society and of its appropriate technology.
That they would have the first was Marx's belief, and Morris's News from
Nowhere gave a rough (and rather questionable) picture of the second.
But the unfeeling hand of History has produced something different. To
start with, whatever the increase in the proletariat in the nominal sense,
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 33

the point-of-production workers are a decreasing proportion of it and a

minority of the population in most of the "advanced" countries.. Thus any
revolution they accomplished would be a minority dictatorship unless (as
in News from Nowhere) they instilled eventually a like vision in most
other strata. Since space forbids discussion of just where "production"
work begins and ends in the complex hierarchies of modem industry, I
must resort to the broad distinction between blue and white collars and
point out that "militancy" is far from confined to the blues. Of course it is
the blues. the "engineers" of all grades, upon whose operations capitalist
industry primarily depends. That is what inspires "radical scientists" to try
to make them technologically "prefigure socialism". But scientists. said T.
H. Huxley, should sit down before facts like little children.
What are the facts? I am sure both UC and Browning-Clutterbuck would
agree that strikes and sit·ins, however militant and even if "general", are
not in the least revolutionary unless - but dammit. that article's last two
paragraphs strongly imply that the facts are far from encouraging. Can
anyone for instance produce evidence of a single strike by car workers
where any shopfloor voices, let alone union leaden, have protested at the
multi-pathogenic effects of their industry? And the article" expressly
questions the relevance of "workers' control". Then why still hope and
pray to the points of production? I suggest two allied motivations. (I)
"Marxist" piety and a consequent non-sequitur. If Marx rightly described
the "laws of motion" of the system (which is broadly true), his political
predictions about the "working class·' must be equally accepted. (2)
Bourgeois conscience. The working class, especially production workers,
are exploited; therefore they must be saved by the conscious among us
intellectuals and themselves become the saviours of us all To those twin
pieties I suggest two principal answers. (I) In industrial society we' are
practically all bourgeois now. (2) So Radical scientists should perhaps
think again.
On the first, we have of course Marcuse, Bookchin, and others saying
something like that with variations. How far the working class is now
"embourgeoisee" in social mores cannot be shortly discussed. But the
Industrial Revolution urbanised and starved its sensibilities. Of course the
agricultural proletariat led cramped, often ill-nourished, and exhausting
lives; but their children loved and gave names to a thousand flowers.
Need one spell out the contrast with the metallic alienations, enforced
competition, and commercialised "recreation" of their descendants?
And the second answer? Now it cannot, alas, be denied that today's
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 34

communal movement, obviously the target of the snide phrase "the most
peripheral areas of these isles", is beset by fetishism: personality
problems, let alone the threat from Authority if it did achieve a significant
erosion of the market economy. Too often it is co-opted by the latter, or
else it talks as if Jordan could be crossed on Pacifist pontoons. Bu t
Marxist piety derides it for a further reason. It has recruited few blue
collar heroes. Indeed, together with the student rebels of the sixties and
related stirrings. its members were mostly born in "he white collar
wardrobes; and they have the insolence to denounce "the consumer
society" wherein the sacred working class so "militantly" competes. In·
sufferable sin against the Holy Dialectic! Oh, no doubt Browning and
Clutterbuck don't love the consume society. But they still obviously feel
that. despite all disappointments, the points of capitalist production must
hold the magic key.
I am not at all asserting that the communal movement is a good bet
either. But I vigorously assert something else. So long as the industrial -
and most other - workers fall for every con trick such as "workers'
control" or whatever and show no conscious striving for the lost green of
life, then those who have that consciousness (even in freakish forms) hove
every right to seek escape wherever it may be found... Finally, if Marx
could rise today from his Highgate earth, he might ' find much cause to
say again "Personally, I am not a Marxist".
Basil Druitt 47 Barrack Road" Christchurch, Dorset.
WATTS THE RECIPE TODAY, GEOFF?

I thinks most of Geoff Watts' review of Ivan lIlich's "Medical Nemesis" is
fair and reasonable but I'm surprised that he's fallen into the trap of
expecting "Illich to provide a " .. recipe for the transition ... to a feasible
society". The basis of lIlich's arguments is that no "recipe", however wise,
benevolent and well-intentioned, can be anything but destructive of a
community's mutual aid systems if-it is imposed from outside; and he
repeatedly criticises our willingness to accept and "consume" solutions to
ethical. medical, l and technical problems instead being the engineers of
our OWl each other's salvation.
Given this, how can lllich ] pose any "recipe" for solving I problems,.
unless he contradict himself? Indeed, it's a sad reflection on how far
self·help has degenerated with Geoff Watts, reviewing a book which
stresses the need self·help. complains that he h; been given a solution to
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 35

consume!
And incidentally Geoff should re-read the bit about a barefoot doctors.
Illich does ·I· and criticise" this system ... because it is no longer fully de
professionalised. In his earlier; for conviviality he praised the! system, but
commented that t afraid the medical profession i succeed in undermining
and P.l professionalising it. Now it seems his fears were justified, so why I
shouldn't he criticise?
Sandy MorrisonDun Eisdean Beog 47 Church Road, Dover, Kent.
SELF-SUFFICIENCY PURE CAPITALISM

Dear Sir - As a paid up subscriber my position is clear - I welcome the
omnipolitical nature of your put. Your plaintive reviewers' demanding a
clear moral stance from which to view every issue carrying the
implication that only everyone shared their vi point the world would be a
p worth living in, should be tolerated but not heeded. As I see the left
wing cure is worse than the right wing disease - and it seems that a
philosophy of S4! sufficiency is more akin to PI capitalism than anything
else fact that pure capitalism (rugged enlightened independence, I
coupled to mechanisms enabling: everyone else to be thus too) never
been practised on a Ian scale scarcely detracts from r ing it as an
objective. Communes seem to be leading that way good luck to them.
The sociology of knowledge explains how f. plus nurture give to the
individual's unique outlook. I work with [not for) deprived kids (what else
someone whose parents don't I a damn for them?) and they seek only the
means of doing own thing - my problem being see that they allow
everyone else the same privilege. Perhaps y 'committed' correspondents
come to my school? Meantime suggest they read Popper an' Hume on
historicism and causal relationships; Sapir and Whorf on linguistic
relativity and Now We Are Six (A. A. Milne). Truly youth is wasted on the
young
Incidentally what is a Savonius Rotor?
Yours faithfully, T. G. P. Flinn 12 Menzieshill Road, Ninewells, Dundee.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 36

• • • • • • • • • • • •
Elliott WORKERS AND THE WORLD UNITE
The Lucas Aerospace Combine Shop Stewards Committee have decided
to put to their management a proposal for a new set of production
priorities: they are demanding the right to work on socially.needed
alternative technologies. This initiative shows the way towards a new type
of trade unionism which combines the traditional defensive economism,
forced on it by the capitalist system, with a progressive and 'positive view
of the possible alternatives · or socially and environmentally appropriate
production.
TRADE UNIONS are usually depicted by the press as narrow minded,
self-interested, greedy wreckers. Some Union spokesmen even obligingly
provide quotes to reinforce the impression, such as: "We are going to be
at the top of the tree and if that hurts anybody else, then I'm sorry .. " The
issue of income differentials is one that few trade unionists have yet fully
faced - except in theoretical or rhetorical terms. Levelling up is their ideal
- and, as far as it goes, a sound one. Even so, it still sounds pretty
materialistic.
But Trade Unions are, after all, part of the current socioeconomic
structure. They may have been created as an 'oppositional' movement
aimed at radically altering (or even removing) capitalism, but over the
years they have, to a considerable extent, had to adopt a reformist role.
They have become part of the system, in that their main activity,
collective bargaining. is concerned mainly with the division of the
roughly fixed share of the cake allocated to the workers.
Now of course when you say 'trade unions' this means different things to
dif·ferent people. For the press its either the top union officials (the
'faces') or the sinister shop floor militants who surface briefly into public
consciousness. In real·ity the union is the membership: the elected
officers are only there to carry out the mandated policies and protect and
advance the interests of the members. If some of the trade union officials
have espoused reformist policies, this does not mean that the trade unions
themselves as a whole are necessarily reformist instit·utions - although
that is the danger. There are some countervailing tendencies at the grass
roots, as the current rise in shop steward, rank-and-file, and cross union
combined activity illustrates.
But in a society which trains its members to chase the carrot of material
possessions, applauds conspicuous consumption and celebrates affluence
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 37
as an end in itself, it is not surprising that institutions which are partly

incorporated into it, like the trade unions, will absorb some of these
values.
And there are quite strong tactical reasons why trade unionists will
reduce all issues to economistic 'wage' issues - they are easily
understood, quantifiable and, in theory at least, such demands attack
profits and thus change the economic imbalance between wage-labourer
and capitalist In reality of course, and particularly in an inflationary
situation, wage demands do not attack profits - they just lead to price
increases, withdrawal of capital investment and further recession. No real
redistribution is produced.
_______________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________
Shown below are some existing items produced by Lucas and its subsidiaries. Lucas
Aerospace is one of the Joseph Lucas family of companies: Lucas is a major supplier of
electrical components to the motor vehicle industry.
Lucas Aerospace are mainly concerned with supplying a wide range of mechanical and
electrical systems to the aircraft industry. Consequently they are involved with producing a
wide range of pneumatic, hydraulic, electrical and electronic control systems, power
generation units and so on.
The Lucas group of companies also have, or have had, interests in the following products:
Lucas Marine solar cells for auxiliary power for boats, caravans and isolated sites (in
conjunction with the Solar Power Corporation of America) .
25 amp·hour/week, DO/watt.
Lucas electric delivery van and electric·pedal hybrid bicycle.
Lucas Freelite windmill (now discontinued)
Small scale power units, batteries etc. for isolated sites. (Lucas Industrial Equipment).
Medical equipment - haemodialysis systems, cardiac pacemakers etc (Lucas Aerospace ).
&. Regenerative 'retarder' breaking units for vehicles.
_______________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________
Management also prefer (to some extent) to deal with cash issues rather
than the more diffuse (and un·manageable) 'control' issues - such as those
concerning manning, safety, pollution, long term policy and so on.
Management quite consciously introduces or accepts conflict-reducing
institutions which force workers to define grievances in cash terms. As
Michael Mann has put it:
“What we call the institutionalisation of industrial conflict is nothing more
nor less than the narrowing down of conflict to aggressive economism
and defensive Consciousness and Action in the Western Working Class.”
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 38

Papermac 1973.
So wider issues are consciously reduced to economic issues. The fact that
this tactic fuels inflation illustrates how unstable the system is. The
tendency of management to encourage aggressive economism, for the
sake of short term ease of managerial control, leads to longer term
instabilities. i
Furthermore, this economism might cause workers' expectations and
aspirations to rise to a point when they cannot be satisfied within the
present economic system a point not lost on those who are working for
the overthrow of capitalism. The problem with this tactic, in its
revolutionary context, is that it does not equip workers with an awareness
of, and an ability to organise around, the many equally important non-
economic issues and problems, After all, workers are not just faced with
economic exploitation. Although
this may be the central mode of their oppression, other more diffuse
forms of control are in operation which help sustain, underpin and
legitimise the economic exploitation. In their daily experience at work, as
well as in the community or as
consumers, workers are forced to realise that they lack even the basic
elements of control over their lives. They are closely supervised at work,
paced by machine
and clock, bought and sold according to the needs of the capitalist
system, and cajoled to adopt its required consumption and life style
patterns. They are just hands and mouths. It is not surprising that some
workers want more than just more money to compensate for this
alienation. Not only do they seek to challenge the basic economic
alienation (the exploitation of their labour power) but they also see k to
have more control over the conditions
and purpose of their work. This goes further than simply asking for better
'work·ing conditions' and welfare provisions, and it is for this reason that
management fears
_______________________________________________________________
____________________________
P.R. and Profits from Poverty
Some people might argue that industry will come round to the sort of 'appropriate
technology' being considered by the Lucas Combine simply under the influence of
market forces, perhaps augmented by the pressure of public opinion or legislation on
environmental protection/energy conservation. Some of the new products being
considered by firms like Lucas indicate that this is a distinct possibility. In which case,
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 39

what's the problem? What would be lost if industry unilaterally opted to alternative
technologies? Now to some extent it may be that industry, operating in response to
the market, can shift its priorities in this way and thus enable some of its customers to
move towards self-sufficiency, or whatever. But it is by no means clear if it would be
possible for the mass of people to afford the products: they would simply be sold as
luxury extras to those who could afford them. After all, that is the most profitable
market at present. The point is that, given the present socio-economic system and the
present locus of control, the aims and priorities of production are rarely identical with
those of the mass of people: in short, this view ignores the possibility of structural
divergencies of interest in society. If the industrialists opt for alternative technology
you can be sure that they will do so in a way that insures the maintenance of the
present system of control, profit and privilege. In this context it is worth considering
briefly the activities of the US aerospace companies in the late 1960's when, due to
the 50% cut back in NASA projects, retrenchment hit them - for the UK aerospace
companies are facing a somewhat similar situation today.
The response of the US firms was to diversify. As De Greene records: " ...
retrenchment in the aerospace industry caused aerospace management to seek new
markets and applications" “the energies of a socially oriented engineering profession
(should) be switched from spectacular and technically sophisticated products like
weapon systerns and space vehicles, towards mundane but socially sophisticated
products meeting primary human needs."
Indeed they went further than rhetoric and investigated a considerable number of
social problem areas", including communication, education, transport·ation, health,
information processing, crime and delinquency, pollution and urban development".
But note the odd mixture of 'problem areas'. Many imply a very 'status quo' oriented
view of what constitutes a social problem and what 'solutions' should be
investigated. As these studies progressed it became more and more obvious that all
these firms could offer, despite their advanced systems analysis techniques, were
'technical fixes' that involved fairly sophisticated technology - computer data files and
analysis techniques for criminal records and crime pattern analysis, rapid transit
systems, electronic surveillance to combat crime, and so on. This is hardly surprising
when one remembers that the firms would inevitably be concerned with profit: as
one enthusiast put it: ". , . we must find a workable, profit-oriented mechanism by
which the great talents of systems-oriented industry can be brought to bear on the
needs of society". In the end what emerged were a few meagre, but profitable,
projects on mail handling systems, rapid transit:, and data files. As Boguslaw bitterly
commented, it seems difficult for H ••• technical elites nurtured on a diet of
weapons system development,
a criterion framework of time and cost efficiency,and a free enterprise' management
ethos, really (to) address themselves to the technological tasks involved in providing
human dignity and a peaceful planet ... "4
More recently, 'pollution control' and environmental protection have been seen as a
new market - with very similar results. As Ridgeway comments: "According to the
calculations of the American Council of Environmental Quality, at least a million doll
a" is pocketed in the course of the elimination of three million dollars worth of
damage to the environment" - and remember it is the large companies that to a
considerable extent are responsible for the pollution in the first place. As the old
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 40
saying goes: "where there's muck there's money". Another, newer motto has also
been heeded " ... there's money in poverty". Urban development grants and the US
poverty programme have provided much healthy profit for US firms. As the magazine
The American Way commented, the u ••• companies view America's poor as a vast
potential marketu.5 Given such a viewpoint, it seems hardly surprising that the
various 'environmen·tal' and 'poverty' projects embarked on by US industry
contributed only marginally to 'solving' the underlying problems. As Goodman
commented in After the Planners:
" ... their solutions give little hope that those who suffer most will benefit from these
efforts". What they did provide - besides profits - was an aura of 'social
responsibility'. The firm's PR departments could hold up these projects as
demonstrations of the companies' concern for the underprivileged. Now of course it
might have been possible, if these projects were enlarged and extended, to have
made some real contribution to solving the problems in a limited way - and in
particular to provide work for the many unemployed people who were part of the
problem. But in general the projects were high-capital prestige projects, involving
only small numbers of specialists. As Ida Hoos has pointed out:, they were used to
draw attention from the firm's major activities: U Anxious to create an image
reflect·ing the public good and demonstrate social responsiveness, companies deeply
engaged in the development of fighter bombers, missiles and rockets wish to convey
the impression that their prime focus is benevolent. Their advertising message is the
red herring drawing attention away from the fact that the ratio between civil and
defence-space contracts is that of gnat to elephant ... "7 The Californian Studies
mentioned earlier involved $100,000 apiece for projects investigated by Space
General, Lockheed, Aerojet General and North American Aviation, compared to say
$30 billion a year spent on weapons and space development ...
What does all this imply for groups like the Lucas.workers who are trying to shift
production priorities? It seems that the capitalist system imposes severe restrictions
on what can be done. But most workers, whether blue collar shop floor production
workers, highly skilled technicians or managers, would no doubt be quite happy to
engage in socially useful production. If the locus of control can be shifted then it may
perhaps be possible to engage all this goodwill and encompass the genuine concern
and interest of all the employees in a way that will transcend the narrow profit
incentive. This is not to say that Lucas or any other firm should seek to become a
philanthropic institution- but surely it is possible to organise production in a way that
meet real human need without becoming a charity: Initiatives like the one taken by
the Lucas Combine are exciting precisely because they will involve a wide range of
employees. The Combine covers employees who are members of a wide range of
unions - white collar, blue collar, engineers, technicians, office staff, supervisors,
research staff and middle managers. This body is unlikely to want just a facade of
social responsibility - it is the real thing they're after.
Kenyon B. Degreene Systems Psychology McGraw Hill 1970 p. 549.
N. Calder Technopolis McGibbon & Kee 1969 p.165.
J. F. Collins 'Technology for the Urban Crisis' Technology Review July-August 1968.
R. Boguslaw 'The Design Perspective in Sociology" in The Sociology of the Future W.
Bell & J. Mau Russel Sage 1971 p. 258.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 41

R. Martin 'Business Tackles the Ghetto' The American Way 1969.

R.. Goodman 'After the Planners' Penguin 1972. p.80
Ida Hoos 'Systems Analysis in Social Policy' lLEA 1969.
_______________________________________________________________
____________________________
the demand for "workers' control". For, to press for control over such
issues as line speed, job design and work organisation, manning levels,
product design, production system choice - and perhaps even long-term
policy on corporate pricing, marketing, employment, the environment
and technology - is to challenge seriously the prerogatives and authority
of manage·ment But is any of this really happening? Are there any signs of
trade unions transcending wage issues? Yes there are, but you will not
read about them in the capitalist press. You might get a few column
inches about Jack Jones pressing for higher pen·sions. And the local
papers might occasionally comment on the Trades Councils campaign for
better welfare or school provisions.
You hear a lot about management-initiated schemes for worker
participation, job enlargement, suggestion schemes and so on. Very
occasionally you get a report of union solidarity gestures concerning
deprived or oppressed workers abroad. And you might be told of the
activities of workers in far off (safely distanced) countries - like the
Australian building workers' "Green Bans" on environmentally and
socially inappropriate developments. But have more than a few people
been told about the Positive Employment Program at ICI, in which the
unions proposed a joint management-union control committee on
Environmental Studies? Have many read that these workers". . . were
anxious that the growth of their real-incomes is not to be at the expense
of the health of themselves, their families or their communities".
How many people know about the Transport 2000 group, which aims to
press for " ... a more rational and ecologically sound form of transport".
I t has not escaped these workers that current modes of technology and
produc·tion organisation affect them not only at work, but also in their
communities: theirs is a quite logical response, even in self-interest terms.
It is also rational to begin to question the logic of a form of production,
planned obsolescence, all in the name of conspicuous consumption.
If a car \worker spends eight hours a day shuffling along a conveyor line
contributing to the production of 200 cars, and then has to walk a quarter
of a mile, past the 200,000 unsold cars stored in what was the car park,
to his own car, so that he can then spend an hour driving through con-
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 42
gested streets to his polluted, motorway blighted, home - and all in order
to pay for his car and the consumer items and services to help him forget
his work -
then he is likely eventually to see the irrationality of it all.
Increasingly, his response is unlikely to be just a demand for more money
to compensate: the demand is now for more control over conditions and
policies. Trade Unions are probably in an ideal position to influence
industries' social and environmental policies - after all, their members are
organised around a crucial point in the production and distribution chain:
they have a strategic role. They could take a leading part in redirecting
industry towards more sane forms of production.
But are they taking up this challenge, you ask?
A year or so ago, the Lucas Aerospace, Shop Stewards Combine
Committee set up a science and Technology consultancy service which
was aimed at providing tech·nical advice to members who were faced
with new technologies, work methods, speed up, potentially dangerous
machines or processes, and similar innovations introduced by
management As such, this was essentially a defensive' organisation
in the traditional trade union sense.
But recently the Combine decided that they must adopt a more positive
stance, and develop counter proposals rather than just react to and resist
management's initiatives. The Aerospace workers -are highly skilled and
are used to tackling challenging new projects. They, like the car workers,
can plainly see the environmental problems associated with current
products and production - cars, weapon systems, and so on. In a
recession, when government Defence (and Welfare service) spending is
reduced, these goodies are Iikely to be in less demand. While at the same
time the needs of the community-for houses, basic subsistence items,
cheap sources of energy - keep growing.
But the Aerospace workers seem also
to have adopted a radical view of what they mean by 'alternative
products'. It's not just a matter of a shift in emphasis from military to
civilian aircraft and associated systems (such as automatic blind landing
systems) -socially useful
and radical in the present context though this shift might be. For although
the workers are considering these types of new priorities, and similar
socially useful and urgently needed pieces of equipment at present of
often only marginal or token interest to the firm - such as medical aids,
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 43

like haemodialysis units, artificial limbs and other aids to the disabled,
eddy current retarder braking systems for heavy vehicles and so on - they
are also considering alternative technologies which may have more long
term structural implications. They are interested in the whole range of
alternative energy technologies, including - windmills. solar collectors.
heat pumps, solar cells,
hydrogen electrolysis, fuel cells,
batteries, invertors, electric vehicles, steam cars, stirling engines and even
airships. They are considering in particular how these technologies can be
put to use in complete systems to aid people in need, both in the short
term and the longer
term - for example cheap heating and power service units for pre-
fabricated industrialised buildings, cheap small scale power units for third
world farmers, as well as, marine agriculture and undersea farming
equipment and robotic equipment to automate unpleasant tasks.
You might argue that some of these technologies imply l reform , rather
than radical change or revolutionary alternatives, in that:they simply deal
with problems thrown up by this existing society_ But the implied
classification' of radical/reform technologies is not necessarily a sound
one. For one thing, medical and safety problems will exist in any society.
And Furthermore, whether a particular technology is truly a radical'
technology depends to some extent on how, when, where and by whom
it is developed and used - in some circumstances·the creation and
introduction of quite conventional techniques, or minor shifts in the
pattern of production
or usage, can be revolutionary. For the mass of people to have access to
photocopying facilities would surely be a change which would shift the
balance of power somewhat The same could be argued for telex, radio,
TY or even computers. On
the other hand, some potentially 'radical' alternative technologies could
become the base for a repressive society.
This is not to return totally to a 'use-abuse' model of technology (i.e.
technology is neutral, it depends on how you use it) for the means cannot
be separated from the 'ends' but simply to throw more emphasis on the
social and political context of its inception, production and use. With this
in mind it is interesting to see that it's not only alternative products that
the Lucas workers are considering, but
also alternative modes of production.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 44

They are well aware that it is pointless to produce environmentally

appropriate products in a way that is socially alienating and
environmentally damaging. So they
will press for radical changes in the organisation and control of work and
demand better designed jobs, autonomous control by work groups and
project teams, new forms of management, and so on.
_______________________________________________________________
____________________________
THE LUCAS LETTER
We are" taking the liberty of writing to you as we understand you are interested in
the possibility of deploying the skills and equipment of technologically advanced
firms on alternative technology, in particular those forms which are socially useful.
We should explain at the outset that this Combine Committee represents all employ ..
of the 17 U.K. sites of Lucas Aerospace. It is therefore unique in the British Trade
Union Movement in that it speaks for the entire spectrum of workers by hand and
brain, from labourers to senior technologists and engineers. We design, develop and
manufacture a wide range of aerospace components and complete systems. A
substantial proportion of this work is on defence contracts. It seems to us that the
"energy crisis" will result in a slowing down of many of these projects and the
general economic climate is likely to result in cutbacks in defence contracts. This we
regard as inevitable and even desirable: Our concern however is that cutbacks of this
kind have always resulted, in the past, in the break up of teams of skilled workers and
design staff, followed by the degradation of the dole queue. We have, over the past
two years, been engaged in a number of bitter disputes to assert the 'right to work'. It
is our intention to do so in the future. However, instead of campaigning for the
continuation of socially undesirable product ranges we will, products. In addition .•.
we also want to ensure that the work is carried out in such a fashion that the full skill
and ability of our members is utilised, and that we depart from the dehumanised
fragmented forms of work which are now becoming common place even in a highly
skilled industry such as aerospace.
The annual turnover of Lucas Aerospace in the U.K. is approximately £60 million.
There are about 14,000 employees, and some 2,000 of these are engineers,
draftsmen and scientific staff. A large proportion of the remainder are highly skilled
manual workers. It is the kind of work force which, because of its skilled background
is extremely adaptable, and would be capable of working on a wide range of
products ... We have just over 5000 machine tools and about 250 of these are
numerically, automatically or digital display controlled. A list of test facilities shows
that this is backed up by products, environmental and investigation laboratories.
There is a very genuine desire to work on products which would be socially useful,
not only in Britain, but in the newly emergent and developing countries. It is certainly
not the view of the Combine Committee or of the work force involved that the kind
of capital intensive products which have come to characterise the technologically
advanced nations will be appropriate to the newly emergent nations. I t is therefore
fully understood and accepted that entirely different forms of technology will have to
be considered.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 45
IF YOU KNOW OF ALTERNATIVE TECHNOLOGIES on which a work force of this

kind could become engaged, in particular if these technologies would be socially
useful, we will be very pleased to discuss the matter with you further. We are
particularly keen to see that the very considerable skill and ability of our members is
used to solve the wide range of human problems we see about us.
We should like, in conclusion, to point out that this initiative comes entirely from our
workforce itself, through its Combined Shop Stewards Committee. and as such is
completely independent of the normal commercial considerations of a large
company of this kind. We will greatly appreciate your advice and suggestions, and
would, of course, treat your reply in confidence. (Emphasis added) If you think you
can contribute in any way to the Lucas workers' appeal, with its far reaching
implications: Contact (with s.a.e.): Roland Chaplain, Future Studies Centre, 15 Kelso
Road, Leeds, LS2 9PR. (Tel.: 1532-459865). The FSC is acting as a clearing house at
the present, and can put you in direct contact with the lucas Aerospace Shop
Stewards Committee if you wish. A conference is likely, with workers from Lucas,
Yorkshire ITOG, and other people. Details from FSC again. Do you know of ..:>other
TUs, shop stewards, workers' groups etc. thinking on these lines? If you'd like to
publicise this further, please contact the FSC or the Lucas workers' committee before
you do, as developments may get outdated fairly quickly.
Undercurrents will publicise further developments as they occur.
_______________________________________________________________
____________________________
All these changes must, they argue, be geared towards meeting the real
needs of the community - that is towards providing socially useful
products as opposed to the spurious consumer goodies thrown up by the
present mode of production planning and 'market research'.
The urgency of the need for housing, for cheap wholesome food, cheap
heating, acceptable public transport and education, does not require a
market' for it to be articulated.
The fundamental question that is raised by this development is whether
an advanced technological company like Lucas, assembled by capitalism
to meet its needs can be diverted or modified to meet community needs.
Can large centralised units produce appropriate technologies in a socially
and environmentally desirable
way - or must they be broken up into smaller decentralised units? Now it
is important to realise that these large companies represent a huge social
investment in human capital - a vast national' skill and equipment
resource. Many 'alternativists' want to dismantle such units, and they may
well be right. But for the moment they exist and we must think about how
to change them: we need a transitional strategy. The proposals pill
forward by the Lucas workers are a first step.
For it is not just a matter of technical re-organisation: it's a question of
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 46
social change. And what the Lucas Combine is planning is to try to

generate discussions on the possible alternative types of production
throughout the membership: the emphasis will be on the process of
developing new priorities, new ideas, new attitudes to technology and,
eventually, new ways to relate to consumer' need. All this activity will
feed into the final 'corporate plan' which will be presented to
management: ultimately it could become the focus of a collective
bargaining confrontation or it might be treated as part of a long term
planning agreement' exercise as laid
out in Benn's scheme for Industrial Democracy. It will be interesting to
see how management will react to such a positive gesture - and it will be
interesting to see what alternatives the Lucas workers come up with.
The point for us on the outside to remember is that here we have a group
of workers who have some degree of power to turn the dreams we have
had of alternative technologies' into reality. We can perhaps act as
advisors - feeding in ideas and helping where we can. For although it is
an internal development. the Combine is, as its letter illustrates, keen to
get outside advice and contributions.
This initiative seems to me to have partially circumvented the central
problem of developing Alternative Technology in a capitalist society. It is
often argued that you can't develop AT until you've got an alternative
society. The trouble with this is that it becomes a chicken and egg
problem. But some people have argued that you can at least make a start
- you can develop premature or semi-fledged alternatlves which help
stimulate and motivate others. The point is that this requires both social
and technological changes to occur together in a sort of dialectical
process. The experimental communes have been depicted this way
by some people - as embryonic attempts
to live in the future now'. But the Lucas initiative, and the others that will
undoubtedly follow, provides a much more viable route and context for
this dialectical development. Theirs is an ongoing situation, rooted firmly
in reality. Utopian ideas and technical and social reality can interact in
a productive way and in a context which links immediately to the lives of
large numbers of people - not just the readers of Undercurrents or the
commune down the road.
I see this process of technological and social change as crucial, though
it's not
the only possible vehicle for change. As the capitalist system gets further
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 47

into crisis many other types of development will become possible and
appropriate. Where needs are no longer met by the system, people may
move towards self help, self sufficiency and co-operative efforts (although
they might also move towards a further state of dependence on
centralised authority. And in either case there is the danger of
isolationism, privatization and individualism).
The redirection of existing industry by those who work in it. towards new
goals using new methods, holds out the hope of keeping the emphasis on
collective organisation and control. This does not mean continued
centralised, bureaucratic forms of control ... it means struggling where
people are, for new forms of social organisation, and new forms of
technology.
Cynics might argue that the whole thing will be co-opted - the workers
initiative will be absorbed and their ideas will be used by the company to
improve its profits, at the workers' expense (see insert). But remember that
these workers are well organised. They will campaign for these changes
within an oppositional frame . of references: they are well aware of the
dangers of co-option and collaboration. Whereas small, insecure groups
tinkering with AT in the hills are much more likely to be ripped off and
have their ideas misused by the system. The point is that well organised
and technically skilled workers are in a good position to develop
alternatives and to protect them from abuse. although it should be
remembers that the alternatives thrown up by this process may not be
what we would call 'AT' ... With this context in mind, (and bearing in
mind that there's no reason why \IW should know what is socially
appropriate) what alternative technologies could be worth exploring?
Tactically, it might be wise to 'sugar the pill' somewhat by emphasising
fairly 'high' technologies rather than low' technologies - although this
would only be a temporary expedient In the area of alternative energy
technologies this suggests things like large scale water electrolysers
producing hydrogen for storage, transport (in cryogenic or metal hydride
form) or for transmission as a gas along conventional pipe lines (as a basis
for the so called 'hydrogen economy'). Or district heating units using heat
pumps run off conventional power stations. Or Silicon or Cadmium
Sulphide solar cells - which with new thin film techniques can be
manufactured cheaply. Or large scale solar farms and solar furnaces
producing steam for turbogenerators.
But I imagine there would be a better case (as far as the 'alternative
technologists' are concerned) for less sophisticated and small·scale
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 48
alternatives: methane production from anaerobic digestors; the local

generation of hydrogen by electrolysis powered by a windmill; small
water mills and turbines; electric generation by fuel cells fuelled by
methane, natural gas or hydrogen; the development of electric powered
and steam powered vehicles and soon.
Then come those techniques that we . would accept as 'pure' AT - small
scale, easily controlled, maintained and understood, amenable to local
construction and use. For example, small scale wind-electric machines,
flat plate solar collectors, and small scale convertors like heat pumps run
from windmill-generated electricity - or even directly by mechanical
power from a windmill operating the compressor
Some of the items on this list might not turn out to be appropriate in
social and environmental terms. It may be counterproductive in energy
and resource usage terms to invest in large numbers of small wind
machines or solar panels. Some of the more complex technologies, like
fuel cells or heat pumps, may be too sophisticated to be classified as AT.
On the other hand it may be more important (both socially and tactically)
to focus on meeting urgent social needs, such as those for safer vehicles,
cheap housing. medical aids and so on areas which many alternativists
tend to ignore as being too linked to 'advanced' technology, but which,
certainly in the interim, are vital.
These are the sorts of problems that must be thrashed out in the process
of selecting suitable priorities for production - and they are obviously the
sort of questions the AT movement has been chewing over for some time.
But now we are no longer alone. We are joined by a group of highly
skilled, well organised and enthusiastic engineers, designers, technicians,
administrators and junior managers. And remember, we are not talking
about the absorption of AT ideas into an unchanged capitalist firm. The
stewards represent a membership made up of blue and white collar
workers and their families and communities. They do not represent
financial, government, commercial or military interests. So that the ideas
and changes that they introduce are likely to be geared towards the needs
of the community. Hopefully they will be able to make links with those
groups which are currently trying to get AT introduced into a community
context Initially this might mean dealing with Local Authorities, but
ultimately it might be possible to forge links between producing firms like
Lucas and local collectives and communities who are trying to work
towards AT - whether on housing estates, in rural farms or in production
co-ops.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 49
The Combine Committee welcomes ideas. Here is a chance to get it

together in a way that (;4n help spread the idea and practice of AT on a
mass scale. I hope we live up to our own rhetoric. And at the same time
learn from the experience.
Dave Elliott
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 50

• • • • • • • • • • • •
CRABAPPLE : Twin Oaks comes to Wales
IF YOUR philosophical leanings are towards, rather than away from, a
broadly scientific outlook, and you want to change your lifestyle so that
it's more in keeping with some of the ideas and values of current
alternative culture, what do you actually do?
More people are experimenting with communal living situations and/or
common ownership work situations. It seems likely that if such projects
were to flourish in sufficient quantity and diversity, they would form a
significant and viable alternative to the conventional society of our times.
No need to expand this daydream; many of us share it to differing degrees
and in getting our different social projects off
the ground and making them succeed.
How many groups fail to get started for everyone that makes it? If an
intentional commune/community does manage to get started, it's been
said that it has a life expectancy of about three months on average.
In so tar as there are any reasons for failure, perhaps the two most
common are financial insolvency and irretrievable breakdown of social
relationships. But there again, perhaps they're not. It's impossible to
know since there is so little available material on the perceived reasons
for failure of different projects. It seems likely that a greater flow of
information and ideas from and between different groups will be to the
advantage of all. This article is about the philosophy behind, and the
experiences of, one small experiment - Crabapple Community.
Walden Two
We came together on the basis of a shared philosophy since we had all
read Walden Two and agreed with most of the central ideas in it. In
practice the Israeli kibbutz would probably have made as good a starting
point; we wanted something to aim at. Walden Two was written by the
behaviour psychologist B. F. Skinner. In it he describes a hypothetical
community of about one thousand people living to a high degree of self
sufficiency on a large acreage of land. They run their own agriculture.
industry and education, and have their own doctors, dentists and so on.
Each person or couple has their own private room in which they sleep
and keep their private possessions. All else is owned communally. e.g..
transport, kitchens. dining roomS, workshops, equipment, library, etc.
Some of the main values put forward in the book are: co-operation, rather
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 51

than competition, as the means of achieving; equality among members,

no dominant leaders, elites, heroes, etc. people are more important than
property or profit the overall aim of the community being the
achievement of the 'Good Life' for its members. expansion of such
communities to enable them to offer a viable alternative to life in
conventional society to as many as want it. the empirical approach to
problems. use of the potential for good of behaviour modification
techniques using positive reinforcement, not punishment. This last point is
the most controversial, and is best ignored here since it would take an
article in itself. A highly recommended book on the subject is An
Introduction to Behaviour Modification (for details of this and other
literature, see bibliography).
Twin Oaks
In 1967 a group of eight people started a community in the States called
Twin Oaks. It was broadly based on Walden Two, and has moved on from
a somewhat shaky start to be a thriving community of some sixty or so
members on a 120 acre farm. The combination of ideas from Walden Two
with counter-culture ideas seems to have proved to be very fruitful. It
seems that there are another dozen groups in the USA that are set up
along broadly similar lines - although, perhaps more than in kibbutz,
there is a great deal of individual variation. It may be that much of this
commonly adopted framework is successful, as judged by the criteria of
survival. What are the features of this framework?
Well, probably the most immediately obvious feature is organisation.
Neither a power hierarchy, nor rigid organisation, merely organisation
designed to help to achieve those things that the members wish.
For example, the labour credit system is a system devised to ensure that
necessary work gets done with a minimum of negative feelings. In
outline, it's simple. A labour credit is a measure of work and hour of
averagely unpleasant work rates one credit. If the work is more
unpleasant than average, it rates more than one credit per hour, and
conversely vice versa. All members have to fulfill the same quota 01
credits per week (40 at Twin Oaks) and they sign up for the work of their
choice. Due to conflicting interests, they will have some work assigned to
them that w; not of their choice, and they will not get some of the work
they wanted to, but, i general, mathematical shuffling gives the most
satisfactory arrangement for the greatest number.
Another system used is that of manage' A manager is a person who has
volunteered" to be responsible for some particular area of community
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 52
activity, like transport, maintenance, or agriculture. A manager has, in

effect, a mandate from the group to co-ordinate activities in his particular
field; the policy, however is determined by the group, the manager
merely taking the more mundane decisions. At Twin Oaks, nearly all
members are managers of something.
One further system is that of government. Their system is a sort of
benevolent open oligarchy with numerous safeguards including a
democratic over-rule mechanism
There are three people who take on tho job of being planners (blame
Skinner for unfashionable names ... ), each planner being in office for 18
months before automatically getting the boot. The three planners have
decision making powers, but
their decisions are arrived at · after open discussion with any interested
members: decisions are then posted on the notice board and can be
overuled by a two thirds vote of the members;
there is no means of enforcing unpalatable decisions, members have
certain rights and freedoms guaranteed.
It comes down to open government with the active consent of the
governed and seems to have worked well for Twin Oaks.]
In brief outline, some of the other features of Twin Oaks are as follows.
A contract signed on joining makes explicit certain aspects of the
relationship between the individual and the community, - for example,
finance, or terms of membership.
• All incomes are pooled. The only money that members may spend on
their own behalf is their pocket money allowance"
• All of a member's private financial asset are donated to the community
after three years (and 'frozen' before three years).
• All members have private rooms in which they must keep any
possessions that they wish to keep privately.
• No illegal drugs. No TV, its values being too opposed to those that they
believe in.
• Communal child care. This is a job on the labour credit system, but
members wanting to take part in it must have had appropriate training in
community policy on education. In their early days they found that
parents' relationships with their own children, mainly their reluctance to
pass control and responsibility on to the community, repeatedly caused
unpleasant and counterproductive situations. In the interest of their own
survival, they refused to allow children to be brought to the community,
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 53
and the only children they have had subsequently have been those born
and educated at the community.
They have a behaviour code which is not a set of rules, more a
specification of some of the norms that they are trying to establish. Some
of the main points on it are: - all members expected to explain their work
to any other member asking. no speaking negatively about a person
except to their face on their own. no public complaining - bad for
morale; complain via appropriate manager, or via 'bitch box'. no
discussion of seniority or other prestige groupings. attempt consideration
and tolerance in interaction with others. no boasting of individual
accomplishments, everybody does their share. private rooms are
inviolate. try to tidy up after self. For those who would like to know more
about Twin Oaks, details of their newsletter and book are included in the
bibliography. Both of these are well worth the effort and expense of
obtaining.
Crabapple - heads in the clouds
There are six of us at the moment, plus two children. We came together
as a result of ads in alternative mags. Despite using very careful wording
designed to attract compatible people only, there has been
disappointment, on one or both sides, in three cases out of every four. It
took many meetings to get to know each other well enough and to begin
to formulate a coherent policy. Our decision-making procedure was one
of attempting consensus, but moving to voting where necessary. In fact
we seldom found it necessary. Having got a nucleus of committed
people, we had to decide whether to set up a trial living situation, or get
on with 'the real thing'. Trial living is probably the most sensible course of
action since there is not so much at risk emotionally or financially: on the
other hand there is less incentive to make it work. We decided to skip the
trial.
Money. solicitors, and Other Nasty Things.
We were most fortunate in that we had enough capital between us to
finance our project ourselves. Though we all wanted it to work, we
realised from the experiences of other groups that it was quite likely to
fail. If it failed, we all wanted to know in advance how any assets or
liabilities were to be divided up, in order to lessen the potential
unpleasant scenes. So the first stage was to agree how we wanted the
project to be arranged financially, and the second was to find an
appropriate legal framework. On the financial side, we wanted quite a
lot: financial equality within the community. people to return to their
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 54
previous financial states on leaving the community. members assets to be

used by the c,community. the community to become financially
independent of its component members as soon as possible, and capable
of selfsustained growth. After much discussion we ended up with the
following curious arrangement. On joining. each member declares their
estimated private wealth and it is frozen - they may no longer spend any
of iL A percentage of this private wealth (the same percentage for
everybody) is then lent to the community at the current building society
interest rate to be repaid over a ten year term. On leaving, a member has
to give one years notice to the community before they can claim back
that part of the loan still outstanding. However, at the end of that period
the community is obliged to pay the debt, even if it has to sell its assets to
do so, the main asset being the small holding that we intended to buy. All
a bit unidealistic. We know. We lost one of our most promising potential
members over this issue. But then its not intended to be idealistic, just a
brutish functional compromise.
Having decided what we wanted to, there remained only the small
problem of doing it Since more than four people may not own a property
jointly in the normal way, a legal form is needed to enable a group to do
this. This turned out to be a ridiculously involved area; fortunately
Laurieston Hall organised a legal frameworks conference at about this
time. This helped clarify quite a lot of thin· . The Legal Frameworks
Handbook (see Review in this issue) that resulted from the conference is
the best available introduction to this whole headachy area. We were
lucky and found a solicitor who was sympathetic and had previous
experience in solving a very similar problem to ours. This meant his
research time would be lower and fees correspondingly.
What we've got now is a trust which administers the property for the
beneficiaries, who are the members. The trustee of the trust, and therefore
the legal owner, is a limited company. By a curious freak of fate, it so
happens that each and every member is a director of this limited
company. Also, we have been granted a partial capital gains tax
exemption on selling up the property. We think that we have, in effect,
equal joint ownership by a group of more than four. Other aspects of our
formal relationship to each other are made explicit in our trust deed, and,
to a lesser extent, in the articles of association of our company.
Since the trust deed is the most easily changed, we have used it as a sort
of constitution outlining decision making rules, votes needed to change
rules, minimum conditions of membership, and so on. Sadly, our legal
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 55

form documents are still with out solicitor; this causes no little
embarrassment since we cannot remember what's in them ... As these
documents could well be of interest to other groups, we intend to make
them available to interested parties when we get them back. We're still
waiting for the bill; it's likely to be well over £200, but our solicitor says
that other groups could merely modify those bits that do not suit them
and so get themselves set up for a good deal less.
Looking for a place
We chose the Welsh border somewhere within commuting distance of
Shrewsbury. We chose Wales, because it's a land of smallholdings and
prices are less than in England. Near Shrewsbury, so that we could earn
money, hopefully from our own business.The reference library yielded a
list of estate agents. MID were duly written to. At under £18,000 the
choice was somewhat restricted; in fact only one place seemed to be a
possibility, so we bought it It is 17 miles west of Shrewsbury in the Welsh
foothills at 300 feet Most of the eight acres is fairly flat, potentially
cultivable pasture divided into six small fields. There is also the remains
of an orchard and about half an acre of dingle - a wooded scrubby dell
with a small stream trickling through the bottom. The buildings are
surrounded by the land. The five roomed house has been recently rebuilt
and is fairly sound. The outbuildings, in contrast, are remarkably
unsound, but quite extensive. Mains water and electricity were
connected. At the time, this was relatively cheap at £13,250. The
repayments for this sum, spread over ten years, come to £42 per week.
This whole process, from writing out the first ad to moving in, had taken
eighteen months.
Arjuna
Two of us had started and had been running Arjuna wholefood shop in
Cambridge. They had tried to sell it before joining, but had been unable
to get a realistic price and so we decided that the community would take
over running it This allows us to earn some money in a work situation
under our own control. even though it means that there are always at
least two of us living at Arjuna doing shift work there. Its main advantage
is that it allows all of us to learn what is involved in running a wholefood
shop. This means that we will be in a better position to try starting one in
Shrewsbury, which is what we hope to do. This could provide the
community with an adequate income source. but it's quite a financial
risk. At the moment we're negotiating for shop premises and appear to
have been gazumped.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 56
Planners and managers

Although we've got planners, they've not so far been used. Policy is
decided by those who are interested, which is usually everybody. The
managers carry out the pol icy. To avoid being left in the lurch by
somebody leaving, there are two managers for each area. one of whom is
nominally a trainee. Since there are ten managerships this means that
everybody gets three or four responsibilities. Our manager areas are:
House - the domestic bit, cleaning, food, laundry. labour - working the
labour credit system and allocating the work. Finance - keeping records
and accounts, budgeting. Behaviour - predominantly child care. Arjuna -
running it. Shrewsbury shop - getting it started. Transport - keeping the
vans and bikes serviced and functioning. Agriculture - starting the veg
garden. Construction and maintenance - any repairing or building
including running the workshop. Visitor and information - answering
letters. looking after visitors. information systems.
The labour credit system
For quite a few weeks we managed without a labour credit system, but
this began to cause difficulties. For example. we did not feel free to sit
down while others were working; some were perceived as doing more
than others. We started to evolve a system. but got very bogged down in
complexity. Only recently have we arrived at a system that works
reasonably satisfactorily. It goes like this: Each evening the labour
manager writes out a list of the jobs that need doing the following day,
with the current rate for each type of job, for example:
washing up breakfast 0.8 cooking the evening meal 1. 2 gardening 1.0
shopping 0.9
fire care 0;5
construction 1.1.
child care 1.1
(This means that anybody doing the shopping gets 0.9 credits per hour,
and so on). Each person independently ticks the work they want to do the
following day. When two or more people sign up for the same job, it is
given to one of them at random. but the following day the rate drops by
0.1. Conversely, when nobody signs up for a job, it is assigned to the
person who has signed up for least work that day, and the rate goes up by
0.1. If the average rate that work is being done at rises above 1.05, then
the rate for everything drops by 0.1.
Our main criticism of this system is that it takes too much time - 30
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 57
minutes. Apart from that, it works well. and the work gets done. The main
criticism from visitors has been that it's silly, and that people do not need
systems like that to allocate work. It is perhaps no coincidence that of the
three that have voiced this kind of criticism, two have been the only two
who have failed to meet the quota. The flexibility of the system is really
nice. For example, when I finish writing this, I'll use up some of my
surplus credits and take the rest of the day off, do a bit of reading, go for a
wal k around the hedgerows to see what's growing and then write to
some friends. I know that I don't have to worry about other people
wondering why "I'm not working.
Hopes for the future
Much depends on the Shrewsbury wholefood shop. If it can provide
good, cheap, natural food for this area, then it should be able to give us
enough work at 53p per hour (the statutory minimum for shop work) to
give the community an adequate and reliable income. If we've got that
income, then we can borrow more money and put up an extension to the
house so that we have space for a total of some thirteen members (each
with private rooms). This would make the per capita costs much more
manageable - for example, repaying the total loans for smallholding,
business and extension over a ten year period should cost less than £8
per person per week, or about £5 over a twentyfive year term.
Needless to say we all want some Ii stock, hens and two cows will
probably' the first priority. We are also enthusiastic· about alternative
technology; solar r, extension, methane generator, etc ad nauseam, to say
nothing of continued expansion ...
But these and all our other dreams in the future. Right now we're just
getting started and our main problem isn't a p or even money. its lack of
suitable people who are sympathetic to this p, kind of set up and its
aims. If any you want to know more about us, send s ... e.s. for our free
newsletters. If you' still interested and want to visit, then can be arranged.
Our policy on visitors may sound a little harsh; we have some unpleasant
experiences with visitors, so if you do not accept our policy, it woo be
better not to come.
We want our relationship with visit, to be symbiotic; a balanced two way
relationship; we help you as much as you hi us. In practical terms. visitors
cover the own costs (75p/day) and take a full par" the labour credit
system (currently 7 credits/day);n return for food, shelter whatever else
they gain. One final request, if you do want to visit us, please write to the
visitor manager: (s.a.e. please) and arrange it all before appearing,
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 58
otherwise you're likely to a very cool reception. As well as being of

many different social experiments · are a place where people live.
Tailpiece
We would really like more communication between different
groups_doing different things in the realm of intentional communities.
This could be of help to u all. Perhaps the new Communes Network
newsletter would be the appropriate place,
Bibliography.
Communes Network. Subscription £3. articles for publication to: 76 New
Nor Road, Huddersfield, W. Yorks. Crabapple Community, Middle Ty
Brith, Llansantffraid, Powys, SY22 6TE. . An introduction to Behaviour
Modifies,i Behaviordelia, PO Box 1044, Kalamazoo:
Michigan, 49005, USA. As far as we know not available in this country -
cost SIO. Good source of other books for behaviour freaks.
The Leaves of Twin Oaks - their newsletter!' The first four years are
available in book form (paperback) costing $2.95. Subsequent bi-monthly
issues work out at roughly 50 cents each. Subscription is S3 dollars for six
issues, but write to them first to check prices, availability, etc. Ask also
about an' other publications they handle. Twin Oa Box 426, louisa,
Virginia, 23093, USA. A Walden Two Experiment, by Kathleen Kinkade, a
book about some of Twin Oak early trials and tribulations. Hardback,
S7.95. Order from Twin Oaks.
Walden Two, by a F. Skinner, published in paperback by Macmillan at
about £1.40 - unlike the other books this one is available from bookshops
in this country, but it is of considerably less interest than the Leaves or
Walden Two Experiment
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 59

• • • • • • • • • • • •
Green BIOFEEDBACK
In Germany, about 1910, Johannes Schultz started a programme which he
called autogenic training - meaning self-generated or self-motivated
training. He had been interested in yoga and hypnotism, but abandoned
the latter about the same time as Freud. on the grounds that hypnosis was
so idiosyncratic; its results were not sufficiently repeatable. The patients'
resistance was often the reason. As a result, Schultz wondered if control
over the process could be given to the patient himself. If the patient were
giving himself instructions, maybe his resistance to them would dissipate.
He would, for instance, get a patient to say to himself such phrases as 'I
feel quite quiet,' while
at the same time allowing himself to be quiet This approach works. You
can say to yourself, IMy hands are warm,' and in
a while they will feel, and actually be,
warmer. .
We, that is my wife and I, began our work in 1964. We attended the
Menninger Foundation autogenic training programme in 1964. Most of
the physicians attending the programme had never heard of autogenic
training. But my wife and I decided to investigate what a person could do
to change their physiological states.
We trained thirty-three women for two weeks in a programme of
relaxation and hand-warming. Eventually, several could raise the
temperature of their hands between two and ten degrees Fahrenheit.
Encouraged, we decided to add biofeedback to the programme. Up to
this point, only my wife and I had studied the equipment read-outs; the
trainees did not see them. But biofeedback requires the individual to
receive direct and continuous information about his or her performance.
So we turned our monitors around so that the trainees could see what
was happening. The result was that people · o were given biofeedback in
the course of autogenic training learned much faster. The programme was
now a programme of selfregulation. At the time we did not understand
how, if you told your hands to get warm, they got warm. Even today, we
do not have a complete understanding. For example, an epileptic learns
to discourage the type of brain rhythms likely to lead
to an epileptic seizure - but we do not fully understand the process by
which this takes place. How does a person select a brain pattern?
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 60

Figure 1 divides the nervous system into two sections. These I label
'conscious' and 'unconscious'. (Psychological terms can be avoided by
using the labels 'voluntary nervous system' and 'involuntary nervous
system'.) Information usually comes to us through our external senses
- sight, smell, sound, etc. This information might be called OUTS -
outside·the-skin information. External information usually arouses an
emotional response in us, but the response is not always obvious or even
consciously accessible. We know that there ;s a system deep in the brain,
the limbic
system, which registers whenever emotional excitement is felL This has
been determined by the use of electrode implants. The reverse is also the
case. If we stimulate the limbic system, conscious excitement is
experienced.
The limbic system is connected with the hypothalamus. This small organ,
in turn, is connected with (and regulates) the visceral and glandular
systems of the body - the smooth muscles, the intestines, etc. None of this
is news; it has been well known for some time that external information
enter
. ing the organism is filtered through levels of the nervous system where it
ultimately produces appropriate bodily reactions and changes. What is
new is this: we now know that information arising from inside the
organism (of which the individual may be completely unaware
consciously) when displayed on monitoring meters and then fed into the
brain, in the same way in which any external (OUTS) information passes
to the brain, can cause the same organismic response - it can produce
internal changes. The result is a cybernetic loop. Inside-the·skin
information, INTS, is converted to outside-the-skin information. OUTS.
This OUTS information is then fed back into the system, leading to or
producing new INTS, which is then once again externalised. And so the
loop is continued.
Putting it simply and nontechnically, all that we apparently need to do to
learn voluntary control of a physiological function that is normally
unconscious, is to acquire some information about it that we can
consciously understand.
The equipment we use to display bodily states is not always needed. After
people have worked with a biofeedback device for a while, they cease to
need it. Somehow the subject learns how to consciously perceive
unconscious states. The cybernetic loop looses a link. The subject can
directly control inside-the-skin events. A cardiac patient in Baltimore, for
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 61
example, initially learned to control her rate of heartbeat through a

biofeedback monitoring device. She reduced her heart rate from 110 to
60/70 beats per minute over a period of three months. During that time
she discovered that she no longer required the machine. Consequently,
the difference between biofeedback and yoga may not be be great Yoga is
harder and takes longer to master. perhaps because the adept must work
on a kind of hit-or·miss basis; only as the yogi succeeds in acquiring
some control - that is, actually manages to produce larger changes within
himself - can he then become rapidly more adept, because he now has
an adequate flow of information.
One of the most frequent applications of biofeedback technology focuses
on brainwave frequencies. Alpha and the other brain rhythms were
discovered about 1935 by Berger. He placed an electrode on the back of
a subject's head and picked up an electrical rhythm of about ten cycles
per second. This was the first frequency
he observed and that is probably why he called it alpha. The second type
of frequency - beta waves - appeared when the alpha rhythm
disappeared. Alpha waves vary between eight and thirteen cycles per
second. They occur in about ninety per cent of the population whenever
the eyes are closed and thinking is random. The beta wave frequency is
about thirteen to twenty-five cycles per second. Both rhythms occur when
the eyes are open and attention is focused. It is possible to produce alpha
waves with the eyes open - if you are sitting staring into the distance. or
are trapped in a boring conversation in which your attention is
wandering, then you will probably produce alpha rhythms. Through the
use of biofeedback, a subject can 'learn' to generate a certain brain
rhythm, although theta and delta rhythms, both of which are lower in
frequency and are associated with sleep or semiconscious states. are
more difficult to produce.
Some Uses of Biofeedback
Among the possibilities for the use of biofeedback is the control of
migraine headaches and related conditions. Headaches are probably
related to high levels of tension and, to some degree, to a restricted flow
of blood through the brain or scalp. Tension and the flow of blood are
generally considered functions of the autonomic system. Accordingly, in
principle, control can be learned through biofeedback. (The absence of
alpha waves is one index of tension. Mental patients are often unable to
produce them or if they can, do so only sporadically. Learning to produce
them is closely associated with learning how to relax.) How we learn to
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 62
control, and what the physiological processes are that are induced, is
uncertain. It is possible. however, to be slightly more precise about the
probable mechanics of migraine and its relief. People who suffer from
migraine usually have abnormally cold hands. They can learn to warm up
their hands through biofeedback, like other people, but in this case the
increase achieved is as much as twenty-five degrees Fahrenheit.
Improving the flow of flood in the hands - making them warm often
results in elimination of the migraine. This is a matter of simple
hydraulics; the result is not achieved by drawing the blood away from the
brain and the scalp. Soaking the subject's hands in hot water, which also
makes them warm, has no effect on the headache in the majority of
cases.
What appears to happen in biofeedback is that in learning to control the
flow of blood in the hands, the patient is learning both how to engage the
entire autonomic nervous system in the blood flow process. The benefits
of improving blood flow in one part of the body are then generalised (by
the central hypothalamic control) to all parts of the system, including the
head. The loss of the migraine appears to be a fortunate by-product.
Our interests, however, are not limited to the physiological aspects of
psychosomatic illness and disturbance. We are also interested in
psychological processes. For example, we have done a substantial
amount of research on theta brain waves. The theta wave is an even
slower rhythm than alpha, from four to six cycles per second. It begins
usually just before we actually fall asleep, when we are very
quiet and still. If theta is produced without the individual actually falling
asleep, although that is what usually occurs, then the subject experiences
hypnagogic images. A hypnagogic image is one that flashes vividly and
completely into the mind,
often with considerable detail and complexity. Most of us experience this
phenomenon on briefly and occasionally at the edge of sleep.
Biofeedback can be used to help trainees induce theta waves without
succumbing to sleep. When this happens, the hypnagogic images
become more plentiful and persist. They are not consciously created; they
are self-generating.
Theta waves and the associated hypnagogic images are important from
several points of view. For example, a number of eminent scientists and
artists report in their autobiographies that hypnagogic images were
sometimes the source of their best ideas. Hypnagogic images in creative
individuals may represent an aspect of their genius. Theta waves may be
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 63
related to creativity.
We also found that the increased production of theta waves - as with
alpha waves - produced greater well-being, better work output and more
relaxed and convivial personal relationships in most subjects. These
results were also experienced by mental patients. Some patients seem to
get information from their unconscious in the form of hypnagogic images,
which aids them and their psychiatrists in the resolution of their
problems.
Swami Rama
The heart control experiment referred to above was only one of a
continuing series of experiments at the Menninger Foundation. The
experiments were a part of the Menninger Voluntary Controls Programme.
One day one of the doctors who had graduated from Menninger called
me on the phone and said he had found a yogi who could make his pulse
disappear. This seemed mildly interesting so we
agreed that this yogi, Swami Rama, should come to the Foundation for a
series of tests. When he arrived, we connected him to our monitoring
devices. He then stated that initially he would differentiate the
temperature in two spots on his hand; he said he would heat up one
place and cool the
other.
The results, briefly, were as follows.
Over a five minute period the temperature of both spots drifted up
slightly. Then there was a distinct shift in the record, and the temperature
of both began to drop. But then the temperature below the little finger
began to rise while that below the thumb went down and stayed down.
We talked a little, and then the yogi said he was about to do something.
At that 'point the temperature of both spots began to rise. Then the one
below the thumb went down again while the other continued to rise.
Finally, we had a difference of eleven degrees Fahrenheit between the
two areas.
Then we did the heart experiment. On the cardiotachometer record his
heart produced an initial rate of 66 beats per minute. Then it speeded up
to almost 94 beats and finally dropped to 62. This fluctuation was
interesting, but other subjects had
achieved comparable results. Suddenly yogi called out, 'What is my heart
d now?' At this point he had increased 'dub' half of the normal 'flub-dub'
be: so that it was unusually large - some like 'flub-DUB, flub-DUB,' to
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 64
represent: this in words. When he did this, his rate shot up from around
66 to around 8 per minute. We then requested the SWi to slow down his
heart rate. Quickly he reduced it from 70 beats per minute to around 52.
The session ended.
The Swami was due to depart for Minneapolis the next day, but he was
distressed that he had not 'stopped' his heart for us Originally he had said
that he needed fast for three days before attempting so. This was logical if
'control' was to achieved; it would be exercised through the vagus nerve,
which also controls stomach and a good deal of the viscera. Indigestion
could result from interference with that nerve. Nevertheless, the Sw,
announced that he would make the at without fasting. He was interested
to out if there would be any side effects. second, he did not want to forgo
the opportunity of being recorded. In any case, said, his own teacher
could stop his h at any time without any preparation. agreed to the
attempt. We did not agree' however, to the Swami's proposal that'
would stop his heart for three to four minutes! Ten seconds would be
enough for us.
The next day he performed. Our record, reflect that his heart rate of 70
beats per minute suddenly rose to 300 beats per minute for a period of 17
seconds. At this point my wife in the control room called, 'That's all,' our
pre-arranged signal to conclude the experiment. But we were puzzled - if
his heart had stopped, why did our records show 300 beats per minute?
We took the graph to a cardiologist for his opinion. He told us the 300
beats per minute signal was known at atrial flutter. This occurs when the
heart is not pumping blood; the valves are not working and the chambers
are not filling with blood. Blood pressure drops and the person faints.
What, by the way, he asked us, had happened to this patient? We told
him 'nothing' - the Swami just took off the electrodes and went out and
gave a lecture.
Jack Schwartz
I had heard about Jack Schwartz and invited him to come to the
laboratory. About a year after the invitation was issued he called and said
he would come to the laboratory for eight days. When I looked
in my diary all the days on either side of those dates were full, but the
eight days were available.
We wired him up in the usual way. I had not known in advance what he
would demonstrate. What he did was drive knitting needles through his
biceps, without any expression of pain and (except as described below)
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 65

without bleeding. Later he performed the same thing before an audience

of fifty doctors. But before he began, he dropped the knitting needle on
the floor and rubbed along the floor with his shoe. In answer to our
curious looks, he explained that he was sterilizing his equipment. Playing
the 'straight man', I asked why he had never developed an infection. He
replied roughly, 'All the cellular material of the body can be controlled by
the mind. Normally we cannot do it because we are unaware or
unconscious. Yet such functions are under the mind's control, and if I give
instructions for my body not to interact with any foreign materials, how
can I get an in infection?'
By the time he had the needle buried about half an inch deep in his arm,
I began, to think that even if he did this a hundred times, I still would not
believe that he could control his blood flow. Maybe, I thought, he has a
peculiar skin. Consequently, with the intention of interfering with his
concentration, I asked him if he would bleed when he pulled the needle""
out. I was thinking that I could interrupt his conscious-unconscious
harmony. He looked startled and said that he did not think he would
bleed. But when he took the needle out he did bleed, quite a lot in fact
We were mopping the blood up when he said in a soft voice, 'Now it
stops'. Then, while I was actually looking at the puncture wound with the
blood running out, it closed up in about one second. I congratulated him.
We now knew that he could bleed like a normal person, but could also
stop the bleeding at will. I suggested that he might like to do the whole
thing again without bleeding. A long pause ensued,
and I began to wonder what I had said wrong. Finally he said okay, and
inserted the needle a second time in a slightly different place. This time
the holes closed up quickly. There was no subdermal bleeding and there
were no marks of any kind. All traces of one puncture had disappeared in
twenty· four hours, and of the other three
in seventy-two hours.
Later I asked Jack why he had paused before agreeing to a second trial.
He explained that he would never 'force' his body to do anything.
Instead, he had to request his body to perform the task -
that is, he had to 'ask' his 'subconscious'
if it was willing to co-operate. He also said that he had to clear the
request with his paraconscious'. {Paraconscious is apparently his term for
some kind of superconscious In other words, he is not willing to do
'tricks'. Apparently, he needs to feel that the effort is worthwhile. He
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 66

apparently must seek confirmation, first from his subconscious and then
from his paraconscious.
Swami Rama had discussed the same issue with us. His comments
suggest that there is some kind of field or fields associated with the body.
The Swami went further - he argued that there is a 'field of mind'
surrounding the planet. There are a lot of 'pranas' or energies outside the
skin, as well as ten within it.
Theoretically, biofeedback holds enormous potential for self-healing. But
there may also be some real limits to the control capacity of many, if not
all, subjects. Then too there is the argument that biofeedback may be
potentially harmful, even if apparently effective. Lewis Thomas, M.D.,
takes essentially this position when he argues that the problem is:
If I was informed tomorrow that I was in direct communication with my
liver and I could now take over, I would become deeply depressed. For I
am, to face the facts squarely, considerably
less intelligent than my liver. I am, moreover, constitutionally unable to
make hepatic decisions, and I prefer
not to be obliged to do so; I would not be able to think of the first thing to
do.'
There are probably limits to the application of biofeedback; this is likely
to
prove the case as the phenomenon is further researched. One of the
disease conditions few have thought to be amenable to any kind of
conscious control, limits notwithstanding, is cancer. Yet Carl and
Stephanie Simonton have introduced the 'mind' into their practice. Carl,
a physician, is a radiation therapist. Stephanie is a psychologist and works
closely with Carl's patients, principally in J. counselling role. Simonton
first teaches his patients how to meditate and then instructs them about
their
disease process and the means by which
the body's natural immunities resist the cancer. He then asks them to
meditate on the disease process and the attack' on the disease by the
immune system. It sounds simplistic and perhaps it is; but, according to
Simonton. for those patients who use meditation the prognosis is roughly
twice as favourable as another patient population matched for
demographics, severity of disease and attitude.
Elmer Green
References:
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 67
1. Lewis Thomas, M.D. 'I am less intelligent than my liver', New England
Journal of Medicine 287 (Massachusetts Medical Society, 1972).
This article is an extract from The Frontiers of Science and Medicine, an

edited transcript of the 1974 May Lectures. just published by Wildwood
House at £2.50. The "Hay" lectures take place this year from October 15
to 18. Details from the Franklin School.
_______________________________________________________________
Skin Flicker
THIS SKIN RESISTANCE meter is the simplest of all biofeedback devices and is very
easy to construct. The circuit is the same as that used by Maxwell Cade for the
biofeedback meters he provides for each student in his Psychocybernetics classes at
the Franklin School of Contemporary Studies in London (see UC11). It consists of a
battery and a variable resistor (potentiometer) which pass a minute electric current
through a suitable part of the body, via a pair of electrodes. The magnitude of the
current is measured using a microammeter and varies with the subject's skin
conductivity. When you are relaxed and calm, your body does not perspire very
much and, due to the lack of moisture on your skin, only a relatively small current
will flow between the electrodes. But if you begin to feel excited, your body starts to
sweat and the current between the electrodes increases significantly. To make your
own skin resistance meter, with which you can start to explore the correlation
between your own mental and physical states, this is all you need.
• A 50 microampere meter. New, this can cost you about £5 (suppliers advertise in
magazines like Wireless World). But by nosing around in secondhand shops you
should be able to pick one up for a lot less. I compromised a little, and bought
a 50-0-50 microampere 'centre-zero' instrument in a shop off Tottenham ." Court
Road in London for £1. It works just the same as a SO microampere meter, except
you only use one half of the scale. (Warning: if you're buying a secondhand meter,
be sure to get it tested in the shop first).
A 5 kilohm linear potentiometer.
Electrodes. Cade's are made from two metal buttons (yes, just like you put on
clothes) embedded in a small sponge, with wires soldered to them. The spa is
wrapped in plastic tape (except when; the buttons are) and is fastened to the palm of
the subject's hand by means 0 a strip of Velcro (which costs about 1 per foot from
any dress material shop), Putting the electrodes on is like strapping your watch to the
inside of the palm 01 your hand.
I used virtually the same arrangement except that I defaced two 1 p coins of realm
(don't know wot come over me, Officer) for use as electrodes, since I didn't have
any metal buttons. A convenient sponge to use is the type you
for washing up, with an abrasive coati on one side of the sponge.
• Battery. I used a 9-volt PP7 transistor radio battery. Cade uses two 1 Y2 volt torch
batteries in series, but battery voltage doesn't seem too critical and Y, can probably
use almost any transistor radio battery: experiment.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 68

• Switch. This is inserted between the positive terminal of the battery and t: rest of
the circuit. It's not necessary i you're sure you can remember to disconnect the
battery after using the device. Otherwise, you'll run the battery down slowly.
The battery, switch, potentiometer, meter and electrodes are all interconnected as
shown in the circuit diagram. All connections that can be soldered should be
soldered. The photograph showing the various parts interconnected (but uncased)
should make things clearer.
In practice, you should of course rig up some kind of case for the thing. It is not
conducive to good meditation if, when you accidentally tug one of the wires in a
moment of Satori, the bits come tumbling· into your lap like an overturned plate of
spaghetti. Cade uses a plastic box of the type sold for holding 5 by 3 index cards. The
meter is mounted through a circular hole in the lid, the potentiometer and switch are
inserted in holes drilled at the side, and the electrodes are stored conveniently inside
the box when not in use.
It's difficult to give other than vague advice about using the meter. The best thing is
just to experiment with various relaxation techniques (such as the Zazen procedure
which Cade uses: see UC 11 I, taking a peek at your meter every now and then to
see how the needle's behaving.
When you have reached a calm state, neither deeply relaxed nor excited, adjust the
potentiometer until the meter reads 25 microamps - the middle of its scale. Then, as a
very rough guide, when you can make the meter reading drop below 15 microamps,
you should be in a state approximating to 'Alpha', If you can make the meter drop
below about 10 microamps, you should be somewhere near 'Theta'. But it is
important to remember that the meter is merely measuring your skin resistance, not
your state of consciousness which cannot be measured. (Also, if you're feeling tired,
01 unwell, it's sometimes difficult to get the needle to rise above 10 microamps:
equally, if you're over-excited it's often hard to get the reading down below 50
microamps).
There are significant correlations between skin resistance and observed mental state,
but the correspondences are by no means one-to-one, and a great deal of research
into the whole subject is still ,being carried out. Maxwell Cade is working on a book
on the subject, to be published by Heinemann next year. Heinemann are also
publishing a book by Elmer Green sometime soon.
Details of Maxwell Cade's next series of classes are obtainable from the Franklin
School of Contemporary Studies, 43 Adelaide Road, London NW3. But until such
classes become much more widespread throughout the country, readers who can't
get to London easily will have to find out for themselves by trial and error what the
various meter readings and potentiometer setting mean for them. As always, having a
teacher makes things a great deal easier, but it's by no means impossible to get along
without one.
Godfrey Boyle
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 69

• • • • • • • • • • • •
Hess COMMUNITY TECHNOLOGY
SINCE EARLY 1973, a group of engineers, scientists, technicians, and
craft-people in one Washington neighbourhood has been pushing against
the conventional wisdom of neighbourhood helplessness and has been
attempting to create, in effect, an institution of technology in a racially
and economically mixed inner city neighbourhood.
What the work strongly indicates so far is that, at least, the sheer scale of
industry and technology, often seen as overwhelming, can be reduced to
a size that is humane, locally useful, and within the bounds of
democratic control. Also, that inner city neighbourhoods can be far more
self
reliant in basic production, including food, than usually imagined, and
that engineering and technical skills have a useful and innovative place in
community life as
well as in the life of great institutions and corporate bodies.
The group selected as an operating name Community Technology, Inc.,
giving it legal form as a non-profit corporation with all participants
agreeing to an equal, participatory voice in its affairs. Its financial form
was a S2,500 grant from a friend. Beyond that, participants have
contributed time, tools and their own money to begin and complete
projects.
When the group began meeting together
it agreed to this summary of its purposes:
Technology is too often seen as a mysterious force, virtually beyond
human control and, because of imag.ined efficiencies, well beyond
human scale. It thus becomes master rather than servant, massive rather
than flexible and humane.
The goals of Community Technology Inc., and of its projects, are to
demystify technology, to challenge all of the claimed economies of scale,
and to push as far as possible practical demonstrations of high technology
in the direct service of human needs and imagination in an urban
community. We propose, beyond the demonstrations, to gather
information relating
to technology which is both usable by and useful for communities of
people
- technology which, although sophisticated in concept, is low in impact
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 70
upon the environment and low also in capital and labour demand!. This
sort of technology, sometimes called intermediate technology, is
decentralizing or centrifugal in social impact and frugal in resource use.
After gathering in formation, we will concentrate upon the most effective
methods of dissemination()l1.
Specific projects immediately planned, in addition to a complete
information service, are trout raising in basement-sized areas; vegetable
farming in roof-
sized areas; use of solar energy on a community scale; use of windmills
as an urban energy source; effect of machine tools upon community
selfreliance; and redesign of community facilities, including
transportation. Additionally, in partnership with every project-
demonstration there will be the development of community institutions
which best bring citizens and technology into the closest, least
dominating, and most liberating relationship.
It was clear from the first meetings that the fatal danger facing any such
effort would be a lapse into talk rather than work. Some in the group had
previously been involved with the political implications of scientific
work. The discussions had been endless but without discovery of ways to
project theory into action.
The way the C·T group chose to make that projection, to live both its
politics (loosely, communitarian, decentralist, nonhierarchical, humanist)
and its technology was to hunt out real space in an inner-city
neighbourhood for real work. Such neighbourhoods are heir to most of
the social ills of the time. Most are seriousIy deprived of any institutions
of science or of any locally scaled technology.
They are, for the most part, residential colonies in the empires of the city,
the state, or the nation.
Washington. D.C., suffers under just about all of the disadvantages
imaginable. It is only now taking even a half·hearted and, some say, half-
baked step towards local government. Its major industry is the federal
bureaucracy. Its school system, as with most others, is concerned with
obedience of manner and not with agility of thought. Science and
technology, in Washington, are not embodied even in the usual corporate
activities but are, instead, just sections in the local museum.
The Warehouse
The space the group found was the rear area of a warehouse, in the Adam
Morgan neighbourhood of Washington D.C. The warehouse itself was
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 71

leased b' the Children's Hospital of Washington. Part of. the space housed
a clinic, part a recreation program. The rear was a shambles, a junkyard.
But it was offered to without charge, on the condition that i be cleaned
up and used for the group's community-centred projects.
The C- T meetings became, and have remained, talk-work meetings, at
the w; house. The technique seems to keep feet of the group solidly on
the ground their original intent - to do technological, work in the
neighbourhood, to test the reduction(l of technological scale to human
size and human needs, and participatory rather than institutional control.
All meetings are open. Neighbourhood people drop in and out.
Assistance is given to neighbourhood projects of eve sort. One high
priority right now is find out how children in the neighbourhood who are
interested in the work can be involved in the work more regularly than
present, when about the best that can done is having a few kids in now
and then for informal craft lessons, a little reading: and so forth. The main
stumbling bloc of course, is the fact that everyone involved in the project
does other work as well so that there is no time when the warehouse is
regularly open, no members who are always available, and no extra mate
for "apprentice" projects.
In the year that the meetings have held at the warehouse, electric lines
ha' been brought in, plumbing has been installed, a complete welding
shop (the stock-in-trade of one of the members, Karl Hess) has been set
up, and there is now a good array of general tools, a me lathe,
woodworking equipment, some electrical test equipment, the beginning
of a chemistry lab, and a very basic set reference books. An entire wall of
broken: windows has been replaced by mylar sheet in wooden frames
and an antique blower system for the area's single steam: pipe has been
restored to health to keep the temperature at least above freezing
The first major projects that the group decided upon were related to food
and energy. In discussing the scaling of technology to neighbourhood
use, the problem of food had been a constant concern With the
agricultural mode, generally, moving up the scale, toward vast indus
farms, how could a movement in the opposite direction be feasible and,
even' feasible somewhere, how could it be feasible in a crowded, inner-
city neighbour! hood? The same with energy and its u· connotations of
giant corporations and. continent-spanning grids and pipelines.
A chemist in the group, Dr. Fern Wood Mitchell, had just returned from
establishing a large commercial trout farm in Canada. He was intrigued
by the possibilities of high-density fish production and suggested that it
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 72
would be feasible indoors. It was obvious that, if true, the perfect herd
animal for a city neighbourhood had been found.
A senior engineer from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory,
C.J.Swet, suggested that the group consider some sort of solar energy
demonstration as the energy equivalent of the food project
Because the warehouse space was not yet suitable for the fish project, it
was carried out in the basement of Mitchell's home. The solar
demonstration, a high temperature concentrator which could transfer heat
indoors for cooking, could be built in the warehouse.
Both projects have now gone through an entire cycle of planning,
building, operation and, now, re-design. Both projects worked
satisfactorily the first time around but can certainly be improved.
Basement Fish Farm
The fish, rainbow trout· are grown in fibre-glassed plywood tanks at a
density of five pounds per cubic foot of water. They are healthy, not being
exposed to outside bacterial infections, grow a bit faster than stream or
pond fish, have good musculature thanks to turbulently circulated water,
and end up consuming less than a dollar per edible pound in energy and
feed. (Rainbows sell locally at about $2.25 a pound.)
The innovation that makes the project feasible in an inner city
neighbourhood is its frugal use of water. Its consumption of water for a
500-gallon tank is just 25 gallons a day, compared to the usual
commercial high-density usage of about 1400 times as much water.
Existing commercial systems use a straight flow-through system. The
Community Technology System that makes that possible is a
bacteriological ammonia converter. Fish excrete significant amounts of
ammonia and, in such
dense conditions, the ammonia concentration would reach fatal levels in
half a day unless",s constantly carried out in a flow-through system or
converted into benign components. C-T's ammonia converter (a tall,
narrow container in which the fish tank water is continuously filtered
through bacteria-covered stones) established, in effect, a constant
nitrogen cycle for::the fish tank. Water is transferred from the fish tank to
the converter by siphon and then back into the fish tank by air lift pump,
which has the added advantage of aerating the flow as it does its work.
Particulant matter in the fish excreta is mechanically removed, being
handily deposited in a corner of the tank by the designed circulation of
the water.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 73

Solar Cooker
The solar concentrator uses a trough-like parabolic reflector to focus
radiant energy along a black heat pipe. The pipe is enclosed in an
evacuated Pyrex cylinder to prevent re-radiation. To drive the reflector
around.the heat pipe in a way that it will always be facing toward the
sun, a bi-metal helix is wound around a shaft inside the evacuated tube.
As it is heated by the sun, and twists, its torque is transferred through a
stainless steel seal at the end of the glass tube by means of a ring magnet
which drives another ring magnet on the other side of the seal. That· in
turn, moves the parabolic reflector. Heat is transferred from the heat pipe
to a hot plate via a high-boiling-point fluid. As the hot gas transfers its
energy, it condenses and trickles back into the heat pipe. The hot plate is
useful (at about 400 F) for cooking or for transferring energy to a heat
storage mass (lithium nitrate) which, insulated, could retain useful energy
for cooking after sundown or even in the morning.
Subsequently, the solar work of the group has turned to the more
practical
area of flat plate collectors for home hot water heating. Three designs, all
capable
of withstanding freezing temperatures (a northern, winter-time bane of
solar devices) have been modeled so far. The group's
hope is that the flat plate collectors will not only be useful for installation
in neighbourhood houses and apartment buildings (several have asked for
the devices) but could provide a light industrial product for the
neighbourhood, which as a community resource, could break the
obvious bonds of dependency which have made so many inner-city
neighbourhoods virtual colonies of the surrounding.. dominant economy
in which neighbourhood people have little hope of doing anything more
than selling their raw labour or, finally, whatever claim to real property
they might have, such as family homes or apartment leases. Community
Technology's weekly work meetings have, of course, produced their own
inner social dynamics as well as selling up relationships with the ambient
community.
Meetings
First of all, intemally, the group (a dozen regularly, with as many more
attending meetings irregularly but keeping in touch fairly closely) has
been able to resist any sort of hierarchical organization. Leadership, such
as it is, is project-centered but with the fullest participation and
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 74

discussion by all who wish to join in. A technical editor, Therese Hess,
and a physicist, Jeff Woodside, are working on the second fish project,
did all of the plumbing, and are now constructing tanks for a production
run in the warehouse itself. Although they have taken the lead in the
project, it is discussed by everyone at each meeting and, after the talk·
session, anyone who wants can join in an evening's work on some phase
of the project. People can drop in to work on projects at any time, in fact
Woodside also did the actual construction work on the solar
concentrator. Meantime, a mechanical engineer, Roy Samras, has advised
on the construction details of all the projects. Two house-builders who
vi,it the group about once a month assisted in the electrical wiring of the
warehouse.
Karl Hess, a welder, has been able to assist in the construction processes.
An electronics teacher, Rich Steinberger, meantime, has helped move the
group toward production of a neighbourhood newsletter. An electrical
engineering student at the University of Maryland has operated some
methane production studies in.support of the group's wider interest in
waste-use systems to follow its food projects. Students from other schools
have visited and have established other projects in support of the general
area of interest: human-
scale technology. (In one of the gloomier developments, however, C. ).
Swet, the group's main solar researcher, was fired from his job recently
for simply stating that he would be unwilling to work on weapons
systems. He now teaches part-time and continues his active association
with C-T.)
The food projects have been expanded by the continuing study of the use
of urban rooftops for gardens. The Hesses maintained a very productive
rooftop garden through the summer and another C-T associate, Gil
Friend, is now building a small, pilot greenhouse on a roof to study the
feasibility of year-round growing, hydroponically, on rooftops.
Lack of Support
If the group has faced an ongoing crisis, it is simply that of money.
Attempts to solicit foundation support for the enterprise have proven
fruitless. So called liberal foundations have expressed great skepticism at
the entire notion of neighbourhood scale technology, preferring, instead,
projects of more spectacular scale and, particularly, projects which, rather
than emphasize work, emphasize welfare. It is the conventional wisdom
that inner city neighbourhoods are doomed to the most demeaning sort of
dependency and that, therefore, the best thing to do for them is just try to
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 75
make life bearable. It is also said that inner city people cannot deal with
scientific concepts or with technological terms and tools. While CoT
cannot claim to have disproven that absolutely, its members feel there is
no reason to accept it as a fact, either.
It is possible, however, that the very lack of support for the project will, in
the long run, prove to be beneficial. If the group can survive the lack of
any substantial initial funding, particularly for tools, then it will have
made a better case for neighbourhood self-sufficiency than it possibly
could have if elaborately supported. As a pioneering effort, however, it
would not seem that its work would be seriously distorted if it could at
least afford, from outside resources, to acquire such needed items as a
milling machine, adequate air compressor, lifting and jigging equipment,
and general laboratory equipment.
The group's next order of priority, particularly after getting the second-
generation fish production system underway, is to develop self·sustaining
projects which will, also, produce enough income to sustain the
operation overall and even enable at least one or two people to work at it
full-time. One such project would be a mobile auto repair service -
driving to disabled machines, particularly in the suburbs, and earning
enough, say, from two or three days' operation there to enable several
more days of operation at cost, or free, in the neighbourhood. (Three of
the group who are competent at such things as engine tune-ups already
work for people in the neighbourhood and emphasize teaching those
helped now to help themselves.) Other suggestions include a home repair
van which would operate on the same basis as the auto repair service
and, of course, the commercial sale of the rainbow trout and the flat plate
collectors.
But the long-range purposes of the group will be served only as the skills
and information available at C-T permeate and become useful tools in the
neighbourhood generally. Thus, a "teaching hardware store" is also
planned, with hope of some space for its operation being available some
time next year. The store would carry very basic items, tools, fasteners,
and wood and metal modules (boards and strips, plates and rods) and
would provide tools, on the premises, for basic fabrications such as
cutting to size and threading.for finished assembly in homes and
apartments or group project spaces in the neighbourhood. (C-T itself has
already fabricated entirely such neighbourhood items as playground
equipment and a large barbecuing machine for the community park.) The
hardware store, it is hoped, would be a constant,
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 76

practical link between information and people in the neighbourhood.

First reactions in the community itself are enthusiastic but not terribly.
active. The neighbourhood (a 70-block rectangle in
the inner city, with 31,000 people just about equally divided between
black,
white and Spanish-speaking) comes to C- T regularly for routine advice
on mechanical matters. But no major project of cooperation has been
accomplished. Ongoing discussions of light industrial production and
gardening at least keep the possibility very much alive. Two substantial
neighbourhood groups are now talking about such projects.
Now what's the use of all this, in principle? First, it offers at least one
small alternative path for those who, while working at high skills or
science, question the current corporate organization and deployment of
those resources. It enables scientists, engineers, technicians, and
craftpeople to re-think the roles of their skills and talents while actively
or, you could say, scientifically testing the material possibilities of new
ways of work. Second, it offers to the neighbourhood the possibility of
invention and knowledge that may make it possible for community
groups, who also deplore large-scale corporate organization of life and
the economy, to provide a material base for actual alternatives. Political
theories of social change, without a material base, may be merely pie in
the sky.
Given patience and with resources to keep going even at the present t
level, the group already has discussed with people in the neighbourhood
these sorts of extensions of C-T work: conversion of vehicles to electrical,
methane, methanol, or hydrogen drive systems with particular hope that
one or two such vehicles could be maintained as community vehicles; a
system of basement fish farms to enable regular harvests; more rooftop
gardens; regular apprenticeships for the neighbourhood to spread as far
as possible scientific methods and technical knowledge and skills; wind-
power devices, with one already being planned to charge a battery to
light a community sign; design and construction of motorless load-
carrying devices to replace the rickety shopping carts which are now
about the only such devices in the neighbourhood; emancipation of some
houses from the sewerage system by the installation of composting waste
systems.
Beliefs
All of the work and hopes connected with it are based upon a few shared
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 77

beliefs. There is the belief that humans, to survive as humans, must

understand the natural world, neither ignoring it nor being mystified by it
Humans are ill-suited to living as foraging animals or predators - the
bucolic foraging instinct denying the creative bursts of the mind, and the
predatory instinct denying the finite resources of the natural world and
the humane advantages of mutual aid. Science is the way we understand
the natural world. Technology is the way we do work. Both are seen as
necessary. It is the organization of both, and not the existence of either,
that the Community Technology group questions. Further, the group
questions the hierarchical corporate and state organization society itself
and intends that its work in support of a non· hierarchical, de centralized,
participatory (rather than representative ) notion of society. As
encouragement for this line of research, the group cites obvious
breakdown of the larger institutions of society. Experientially the w is
encouraged by the long historical e existence and success of small-scale
social organization, from villages and com to town meetings, assemblies,
and 0 forms which, even when obliterated greater institutional power,
have shown' remarkable power to resist and even recover and return.
Techniques and tools most suited to decentralization are everywhere
apparent i development of technology (miniaturlsation, cybernation,
alternative energy sources) and yet, because of corpora state
organization, the scales of application continue to grow gigantically, with
something as simple as an aerosol vat achieving, thanks to scalar
organization the proportions of a major industry now, a national or
perhaps international health hazard. The assembly line is a. instance of
scalar development which be contrasted to project-centered workl called
"gangH or team work or any other more decentralized form.
The development of cities themselves is another process which
encourages Community Technology approach. American cities, in
particular, are agglomerations of once-independent municipalities which
maintained their own social se· vices, protection, and even productive,
facilities prior to annexation into the city proper - annexations most
characteristically carried out to extend the tax base, police power, and
political scope of the "downtown" area. These cities, in their growth,
have, it is now apparent· created more problems than they have solved.
City life today is perilous at best devastating of sensibilities at worst. Ir
social debris of the cities, however, a return to neighbourhood solidarity
is noticeable here and there and in communities of every racial and
ethnic sort or. mixture. It is this decentralist urge whicH immediately
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 78

would be assisted by groups such as Community Technology. Fo who

answer that problems can be solved only by increasing the scale of social
organization and control, the Community Technology view is that
virtually all of society's resources already have been commandeered to
feed that growth. To not pay any attention to an alternative, particularly in
view of the shaky state of gigantism would be, at the very least, unwise.
Beyond that, of course, Community Technology projects are based on the
positive view that, in fact, the most effective and decent way of life will
be found in small-scale and not gigantic organization.
The vision is of people living in peace, in a society of mutual aid and full
participation. The work is to ensure a material base for the vision, for the
dream.
Karl Hess
Recommended Reading
Small is Beautiful, E. F. Schumacher, Harper Torchbook. (Abacus in UK)
Post Scarcity Anarchism, Murray Bookchin, Ramparts Press (Wildwood
House in UK)
Energy for Survival, William Clark, Anchor Press.
Communitasl Paul and Percival Goodman.
Vintage. (Wildwood House in UK) Mutual Aid, Petr Kropotkin, Porter and
Sargent.
Mohandas Ghandi, George Woodcock, Viking.
The Essential Works of Anarchism, ed.
Marchal Shatz, Bantam.
Neighborhood Government Milton Kotler, Bobbs-Merrill.
Design for the Real World, Victor Papanek, Bantam (Paladin in UK).
Economic Concentrationl John Blair, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
The Pentagon of Power, Lewis Mumford, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
The Case for Participatory Democracy, ed.
George Benello and Dimitrios Roussopoulos, Grossman.
Participatory Democracy for Canada, ed.
Gerry Hunius, Black Rose Books, Our Generation Press, Montreal.
Periodicals
Journal of the New Alchemists, Shank's Pond Road, Falmouth, Mass.
Alternative Sources of Energy,Route 2, Box 90-A, Milaca, Minn. 56353.
Articles
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 79
· Karl Hess, "The System Has Failed'\ Penthouse, Aug. 1974.

CJ Swet, "A Prototype Solar Kitchen," A.S.M.E. publication 73-WA/SOL-4,
Nov. 1973.
"Urban Aquaculture Comes of Age," (Author unknown) Based on
interview with Fern Wood Mitchell, American Fishes Magazine, Dec.
1973.
UNESCO publication Vol. 23, No.4, Impact of Science on SocietY.
Seymour Melman, "Why Nothing Works," Ramparts Magazine, July 1974.
John Passmore, Anti·Science - A Misunderstanding, It Excerpted from
Science, July 27, 1973.
Karl Hess, Principles of Lifestyles.
Energy: Today's Choice, Tomorrow's Opportunities, World Future Society.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 80

• • • • • • • • • • • •
Partridge PHEW! WATT A SCORCHER!
A HOT COMING we had of it, just the best time of the year for a journey,
and such a long journey .... .... thumbing the Hogarth flyover at eight on a
Saturday morning, overtaken by a hitch·hiking vicar (could hardly believe
my eyes - must have been last night's over·dose of Grotney's), sweeping
along in the slipstream of juggernauts laden with intervention butter for
the eager inhabitants of South Wales. Oh Lucky Day! That man must be
stopping for me.
"You heading out west, mate?" "Take yer as far as Slough." "Far out.”
Three hours later made a triumphal entry into the Roman City, wedged
into Professor Crump's Post Office van, surrounded by stuffed birds and
things that went squeak every time he changed gear. Pretty hairy, no
doubt, but it's nice for the children. And then we are in Walcot Street,
bunting hanging from anything that will take the weight, and a big sign
'Welcome to the Festival'.
Phew! Wot a relief! It really is going to happen after all! And that
dome·,shaped object must,t be a dome-our dome-site of the
world·famous Undercurrents 24-hour literary hyper·market (by courtesy
of Compendium and Comtek). Someone says "dome ,sweet dome" for the
thirty·fourth . time; everyone writhes on the ground politely. A stately
home glowers at us from across the river ... Are those nasty hippies
actually enjoying themselves?" Too right we are! And so are the
neighbourhood kids. And the neighbourhood grown·up'. And the 'un s
shining and the band's playing.
"Would you like a copy of Under·currents?"
"No thanks. My granny sends me hers after she's read it."
This festival's got everything - boat·trips, races, performances, discussions,
music, pet-shows, good food and a whole regiment of windmills of
various shapes, sizes and degrees of effectiveness. Since there wasn't
much wind, the legend 'Danger Electricity' on the Undercurrents
generator proved to be an act of faith rather than a dire threat. The
hydropower man was, holding out for better weather too, but the CTT
solar panel merchant' seemed happy enough. It', a nill wind ..
Sward gardener Tony Farmer offered a gruelling demonstration of how to
extricate oneself from the tender embrace of the supermarket chain, and
gave proof, if proof were needed, that self·,sufficiency ha, nothing to do
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 81

with lying in the sun while the fruits of nature fall into your lap_ Yes, the,
field i, full of people busy trying to change each other s opinions in the
nicest possible way. a veritable Babel of world-views. What does it all
add up to? You too can be a Vegan, a Dowser, a Homeopath, all three or
even more. You too can learn to see things differently. But everyone's
really cool about their evangelism,m. The most important thing is to have
fun do what you want to do because it turn' you on and makes you feel
good. Take delight in the scintillating variety of people's creativity_ This is
a celebration of life.
The temperature's been in the nineties most of the week, sunburn strikes
and yet another sallow urban dweller is reduced to applying beer
internally in order to quell the pain. This remedy is highly recommended
merciful oblivion bears the ,sufferer away to the land of anaesthesia.
A man turns up at the Comtek cabin and asks whose in charge. When
told that no·one is, he staggers away mystified. There are hundred, of
people here, and none of them are fighting, stealing, raping, pillaging,
looting or burning. And yet no-one's in charge. Freaky. If you missed it
this time, there'll always be another time.
Martyn Partridge
A FREE UNIVERSITY OF THE FIELDS

THE COMTEK '75 FUTURES FORUM followed on from last year's
discussions and from the People's free Fair discussions at Sussex in June.
These ad hoc meetings, set in crude conditions without the props or the
rigging of political assemblies, on everyman's land among arts events and
technology exhibits, open to anyone who cares and attended by a motley
band of diggers, squatters, academics, editors, farmers, dowsers, vegans.
thinkers and doers, are of greater significance than they seem. Godfrey
Boyle caught this distinctiveness when he described the creation of
alternative societies not as the work of a unified assault force, welded into
immobile solidarity, but of numerous parallel movements working out of
their own immediate situation towards a wider alliance.
The three main discussions were on land, the social implications of AT,
and alternative cultures. This account is not meant to represent everything
that was said, but to give a summary of the main arguments and one
person's impressions of what was important. The discussions do not yet
bite as they might do, nor come to any definite conclusions, but beneath
the surface is the sense that problems are more urgent, the questions
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 82

more serious, and the solutions far less obvious than before.
Land reform on the agenda of mankind
The agrarian base on which all technologies are erected is neglected by
humankind only at our peril. To radicalise society and turn technology to
a fully human use, we must reach for its roots into the earth beneath the
layers of history from which all things grow.
As a prelude to the Land for the People meeting. we were shown two
films contrasting science's 'nature proof' monoculture chemical farming
with organic methods, the spectacle of the mass-produced madness of
agribiz was sufficient to terrorise anyone out of the supermarket.
Taking us closer to the soil, David Trowbridge described Working
Weekends on Organic Farms (WWOOFing) as a way of experiencing
country work while still city-bound, and Alan Gear introduced the Henry
Doubleday Research Association's agricultural research work. Neither
approach was particularly revolutionary, but while most of us are city-
bound, these everyday approaches to the land, like the allotment efforts
of the Sussex Whole Earth Group, could have a much deeper effect than
the beautifully produced Land for the People manifesto. As Philip Brachi
of BRAD and sward gardener Tony Farmer reminded us, "working the
land changes your head." Tempering any over-confidence, Joss Kingston,
from Sheffield's RadTech, and others warned of the experiences of
previous 'back to the land' movements, - the 1930's Government Land
Settlement Scheme (see Undercurrents 11), the Dig for Victory campaign,
or the Tanzanian Ujamaa Villages.
Re-tooling Society
Peter Harper sparked off on the social implications of alternative
technology with his congenial assault on AT for concentrating on the
conspicuous technology of consumption, rather than the more massive
hidden technology of production. If what we are doing is to have any
significant effect, we will have to shift the entire emphasis of radical
technology from windmills, methane digestors and solar roofs, all well
and good in themselves, to the hard tools of coal-mines, steel refineries
and assembly lines.
Not only must the monopoly of supply, services and ideas be broken, but
the entire middle area between home and factory, the private and public
spheres, must be recolonised. AT and selfsufficiency were a reaction to
technology out of control; now we must begin to redress the imbalances
between production and consumption, town and country, the
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 83

autonomous and the collective. With a drive to produce more food in the
cities, a shift of light industry into the country and a redistribution of
productive activity back to household and neighbourhood, a better
equilibrium between living and producing, between the land and the city,
might be achieved.
Another balance must be struck between the formal and informal sides of
working for social change - between the legal and political structures as
distinct from the values (or "what it feels like") which ultimately decide
the quality of any changes. If we neglect the way we work together and
our own intimate relationships, then our actions will be without a
fulcrum.
David Elliott followed Peter's master plan for a balanced future with the
nuts and bolts example of the Lucas Aero·space workers (see his article in
this issue But when the Aerospace workers suddenly drew the AT
movement into arena of large-scale industry by asking "What should we
produce?", our backyard boys apparently had very little to offer. We have
much to learn from them in terms of skills and harsh industrial realities.
Whether the production of AT hardware by big business (which has
already begun) comes about under workers' control or as yet another
radical co-option monopoly capitalism, depends very much on our own
enterprise as well as support of the Aerospace workers and others like
them.
The final forum was on Alternative Cultures. Someone said that culture is
about personal growth. The satisfaction of all needs, from basic physical
necessities such as food and shelter to emotional desires and the
realisation of deeper human potentials must all be pa of a radical
approach to technology. We are all 'bruised fruit' and must cut through
the layers of 'chicken-shit'-the, defence mechanisms of role-playing-an
'bull-shit' - intellectualised explanations to rediscover our organismic
needs. So one else suggested that next time we meet there might be
encounter groups body workshops to assist the discussion and practical
workshops.
Out of meetings such as these, a 'free university of the fields' is being
born, without frontiers or regulations. The terms of the debate are
widening and activities expanding, but until they begin to embrace the
differences that still separate the mystic, the landsman and technologist,
they cannot even hope to form the alliance that will seduce the straight
world into one that is round ant whole. The workers at Dagenham are not
to be persuaded that bicycles, whole food< and a satisfying mixture of
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 84
work under their control is better than a well-define job with few
responsibilities, a good wage; and a wide choice of goods in the shops
until the viability of the former has bee' proven to them by example and
their o! experience.
Who wants a country estate . . ? - We do!
THE LAND MEETING started with Satish Kumar pointing out why it
seemed necessary to start a new land movement: Land for the People.
Existing groups concern themselves with some aspects of the land
question without facing up to the problem in its totality. land for the
People intends to concern itself with three main questions: protection,
production and distribution.
Protection of the land from agricultural malpractices which lead to a loss
of vitality of the soil, endangering the chances of future generations.
Increased production of food on the basis of ecologically-sound methods,
to ensure greater food self-sufficiency for the people of this country. And
finally, redistribution of land, which will require drastic changes in the
present system of landownership, particularly the ownership of large
estates.
Malcolm Caldwell, approached the land question from the point of view
of the international economy. The relationship between the
overdeveloped Western countries and the rest of the world is changing
rapidly. National Iiberation movements all over the world are reducing
the dependence of their countries on Western imports. The present world
economic crisis is only an indication of the shape of things to come. A
reduction in exports from countries like Britain to other parts of the world
will make it increasingly difficult for us to pay for food imports which are
now costing us £3,000 million a year.
But greater food self-sufficiency, which is therefore becoming increasingly
necessary, is not likely to be achieved without drastic changes in
economic attitudes and in the present power structure. We've got to
realise that none of the existing political parties would support a move
towards workers' control and community ownership of the land. We've
therefore got quite a struggle ahead of us, but as this will be seen
increasingly as matter of necessity, rather than choice, time will be on our
side.
So far the theory ... but many people in the meeting, already convinced of
the HALF-LIFE from lancaster brought down their travelling nuclear
horror show, which has been used in a campaign against the local
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 85

Heysham nuclear power station. Each card in the illustration con·tains

details of a separate nuclear accident or terrorist threat. need for people
to get back to the land, were more concerned with how this can be done.
A variety of approaches were suggested - from people pooling money to
buy farms to approaching landowners for land; from asking government
or local authorities to squatting on land. It was generally accepted that we
must draw attention to the fact that there are already many people who
want to get onto the land to live and work who do not have a chance to
do so. A number of people said that they were going to look for suitable
disused land on which we can demonstrate our aims.
But in order to build up a successful campaign it is necessary for local
groups to bring together people already interested in the whole land
issue, but not yet committed to concrete action. It was agreed that Land
for The People should help to set up a network of local contacts as the
basis for the development of local groups ... whatever name they want to
give themselves.
The next major land meeting· will be at the Futures Centre, 15 Kelso
Road, leeds 2, on October 18 to 19. The Diggers group in leeds have al
ready taken over some land in the town for cultivation and they are going
to show us what is possible in the town context. (If you want to come to
this meeting please confirm the dates with the Futures Centre.)
_______________________________________________________________
__________________________
Ralph, lady Oswick, Marchioness of the Arts Workshop, leads OAP's from
their cuppie tea on a tour of the festival site. Comtek was punctuated at
frequent intervals by curious visitations, be they frogmen, dragons,
witches clowns or Silly Party canvassers - all seemingly emanating from
the BAW shop in Walcott Street.
_______________________________________________________________
__________________________
GLIMPSES OF SOCIALISM
GRAHAM CAINE of the Street Farmers group recently spent several
weeks in Portugal where he and some friends were able to get involved
with a local community and local workers and to learn something of the
struggle that is under way in that country. They were also able to lay the
groundwork for a programme of Community Technology development.
Graham presented a fascinating report of their visit at Comtek.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 86

What was impressive was that they were, even if only tentatively, able to
stimulate local people into awareness of the potential of community-
generated technology. Perhaps more significantly, they were able to
interest a worker-controlled factory in the idea of distributing some
material resources to aid this project.
What one catches a glimpse of here is how a fully-developed socialist
society could work. It took only a few minutes to overcome the (natural)
suspicion of the workers controlling the factory; then they were
discussing amongst themselves whether this particular project deserved
their support. That's real, if embryonic, democracy.
Graham and his friends built a solar heated shower unit in a poor
working class village, mainly to demonstrate what could be done with
solar energy to meet community needs. They admit that per·hap, they
picked the wrong project in that the peasants did not have even cold
running water, much less hot water. And the level of local technical skill
in plumbing was surprisingly low. Perhaps they could have done better
spending their time transfering skills and ideas so that the community
itself could generate what it needed subsequently. Nevertheless the solar
shower gradually won acceptance, even if it was treated as a somewhat
eccentric idea brought in by strangers.
Graham and the group then interested the local people in a plan for
sewage disposal (there is just an open sewer pit) and power generation. It
is this much more crucial development which they hope to be able to aid
when they can obtain sufficient funds to return.
It was particularly interesting to hear from Graham that although he had
up until then operated on the principle of 'do·it-yourself-sufficiency' -
following a small-group anarchist line - when he was faced with fairly
large groups of workers who controlled the factory, he could see no
problem with an elementary division of labour. You don't have to do
everything yourself or be able to control everything if you live in a society
in which everything is under collective control, so that decisions can be
negotiated communally.
Throughout Portugal, workers and tenants (as well as soldiers and sailors)
are getting organised in workers' and tenants' councils. It is no surprise
that one of the urgent issues that they will be addressing themselves to
(apart from extending popular control and defending the revolution
against control by the Communists or destruction by the reactionary
elements/Social Democrats) is improving the poor community technical
and environmental facilities and conditions that most people have had to
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 87
put up
with. These are the sorts of development you don't hear about in the
media.
Dave Elliott
_______________________________________________________________
__________________________
Pages 28-9 are omitted [photo spread]
_______________________________________________________________
__________________________
HOT STUFF
A WIDE RANGE of flat plate and para·bolic reflecting collectors could be
seen strewn around the periphery of the solar collector workshop.
Although most were built by 'enthusiasts', there were two manufactured
flat plate collectors on show. Sunheat Systems' ABS plastic quick·response
collector (see UC10) aroused a lot of interest, but also illustrated one of
the main problems associated with thick plastic heat exchangers of this
kind: unless water was constantly circulated through the panel,
it wilted in the sun. Robinsons of Winchester also showed a panel
although it did not arrive until late in the week. Made from}4" thick
channelled PVC membrane, this panel bore striking resemblance to an
enthusiast's panel built nearly a year ago. The channelled membrane is
used in the packaging industry - in PVC it costs about [21m' but in
Polypropylene only 40p/m'. PVC does not weather as well as
polypropylene, but the problem with poly·prop is bonding it to the
header pipes. An appropriate solvent is not available, and suggestions of
heat welding, though feasible, could be very tricky with such a thin
membrane. However. such techniques would be worth developing since
the cost of such a panel would be so small.
_______________________________________________________________
__________________________
BRIAN FORD acts as gaffer over the Comtek solar heater. This was the
largest project actually built during COMTEK, and provided good hot
water for the nearby kitchen during the final days. It was temporarily
insulated with polythene sheet after recycled window frames proved
unsatisfactory.
_______________________________________________________________
__________________________
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 88

Other manufacturers were reticent to participate in Comtek (did they fear

unfavourable comparisons?). but the range of DIY panels helped to make
up or it. With a temperature of 92" F in the shade, Nick's elegant
parabolic reflector could have produced super-heated steam, and I dare
say the smaller parabolic collector (now a completed solar cooker) could
have boiled an egg or two. But the prize for zany humour goes to the
solar collector built from a refrigerator con·denser unit, painted black and
placed inside an old TV set.
The main workshop activity was centred on the installation of 80ft' of
radiator collectors to provide hot water for the main kitchen. Kevin, Ian
and Ted wrestled with monster plumbing
problems, but in the end got the array plumbed in and free of leaks, using
an assortment of plastic and copper fittings radiator hose and jubilee
clips. An ex-washing machine pump circulated the water, and Steve
wired up a control box to vary flow rate according to heat gain. The
heavily-insulated 55gal hot water storage tank provided much more hot
water than was required by the kitchen)" and it was a pity that our
original " intention of providing a shower as well could not be fulfilled.
However, we showed by building the system from largely scrap
components that with minimum plumbing skills anybody can install a
cheap water heating system of their own. Further details of the collect:
installation and control box are available through Comtek.
GUERILLA ELECTRONICS
AN IMPROMPTU SEMINAR on elec·tronic communicationsJ arranged at
short notice to fill a gap in the programme, was organised by Richard
Elen and Alan Campbell. Under the circumstances it was not a very
ambitious event and the discussion rarely strayed from ground already
covered in Undercurrents 7 and 8.
Electronic media in the UK are dominated by the Post Office and the SSe.
These organisations have accumulated a vast amount of power to control
the airwaves and the wirewaves, and a movement for radical technology
should be concerned with making these techniques more widely
available to the rest of the human race.
Richard described the saga of the ship-based commercial pirate stations
back in the sixties, which were effectively scuppered by the Marine
Offences Act in 1967. Since then, unsuspecting listeners have been
astonished to discover occasional fly-by-night land-based stations
insinuating themselves rudely into Auntie's exclusive airspace and
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 89

broadcasting the sort of music which sends the average SBe producer
screaming for his gin and tonic. Probably the best known of these is
London's Radio Jackie, though there are lots of others-which is hardly
surprising when you can build a transmitter for as little as a fiver. For high
quality music broadcasting in stereo, a rather more expensive VHF setup
is necessary, but for a station devoted to community news, discussion,
agitprop etc., cheap medium-wave equipment should suffice.
Alan spoke mostly about the telephone system and mentioned one or two
of the devious underhand tricks which some people have been resorting
to in order to cut down on their bills. There was also discussion about
official tapping techniques. Apparently there are very few subscribers
who merit the permanent attention of a snooper, but it's not unusual for a
man with a little black bag to turn up at an exchange, brandish his head-
office ID card, and pass an entertaining evening tuning in to the local
eccentrics. So if you think the GPO might have you marked down as an
eccentric it would be better if you conducted your more enterprising
business! deals from a call-box. Talking about call boxes, incidentally,
never use the same one for the same nefarious technique.
If you happen to have a number that buys you an hour of transworld
prime time for a 2p piece, for chrissakes don' be greedy. It takes about ten
minutes tG trace a call and send the bogies round t1 chat to you, and if
you mention your location during your call you'll make if easier still.
Richard and Alan were at great pains to emphasise that most of these
methods are thoroughly illegal, an that they were in no way encouraging
anyone to practise them_ That goes for
me, too.
Martyn Partridge
_______________________________________________________________
__________________________
Tony Durham showed how two Fresnel lenses (available for 50 p each)
could gather useful amounts of solar power ii enough to pop corns one at
a time - c heat a small cup of water to a usefUlly' high temperature.
_______________________________________________________________
__________________________
VAT ‘75
ONE DIFFERENCE between Comtek '74 and '75 was the increased
emphasis on fringe science or, as someone put it, 'Very Alternative
Technology'.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 90

A major aim of the AT movement has always been to work with natural
forces; the aim of 'VAT' is to use the full range of these forces - even
though some are less tangible than others. The idea is;, to put these forces
to practical use, whether using a form of 'earth acupuncture' to 'clean up'
a valley, or dowsing to trace old land drains.
There was an alternative medicine stand; Tom Graves taught a large
number of people dowsing; and on the final day, a crowded and very
fruitful discussion was held on the relevance of such things as ESP. alpha
brainwaves, dowsing, and magic to the AT movement.
Several people commented on the recent surge of interest in things
magical. Tales of paranormal happenings, strange facts about ley lines
and megaliths, and personal experiences of the inner world were
swapped enthusiastically. We came no nearer to reconciling science and
magic, but there seemed to be an agreement that science itself explains
very little, and that there is still room in the universe for many other
things.
It was emphasised that there are psychological dangers in magic, and it is
important to develop the kind of sensitivity which tells you where you are
and what is happening. When in real trouble, think of pure white light,
one person suggested. Someone else found a crucifix useful.
How to start? Well, dowser Tom Graves recommends - naturally -
dowsing. The rods or the pendulum amplify your subconscious reactions,
and eventually you can feel phenomena such as the so-<:called 'human
aura' without these artificial aids.
COMTEK itself was an example of 'synchronism' - the way in which
interested people seem to arrive in the same place at the same time. Such
'co·incidences' often happen, of course - the problem is sorting out the
meaningful from the meaningless. The attitude of
mind is all-important here - 'controlled subjectivity' is the aim. Since true
objectivity is impossible to obtain in practice, even in the physical world,
that state of mind is as close to 'objective' as one can get.
The question of ethics comes up frequently. If you are working for selfish
reasons, to boost the ego for instance, the operation will certainly misfire.
It may just fail, or it may backfire on you instant karma with a vengeance!
Increasing attention has been given to fringe science by the media
recently one example is a weekly 'paranormal' night on London
Broadcasting, which always keeps the switchboard busy. It was brought
home to us how much general feeling towards inner evolution has grown
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 91

in the last year, albeit slightly tarnished by the influx of what might be
called 'esoteric big business'. And with that inner evolution, change in
the outer 'real world' will become yet more powerful and constructive.
_______________________________________________________________
__________________________
TOM GRAVES was Comtek's dowsing teacher. More than two hundred
people, he says, tried the vibes of converted coat-hangers, with 'real
success' in finding buried sewers.
_______________________________________________________________
__________________________
LIQUID ASSET
FRIDAY AFTERNOON's discussions were enlivened by the appearance of
Rupert Armstrong-Evans making a plea for water-power.
In a temperate climate running water is far and away the most reliable
natural source of energy (unless you can think of a way of harnessing the
power of falling rain!), so it's a pity we don't make better use of it. It's
largely a problem of longterm investment against a quick pay-off. Water-
wheels and turbines cost a lot of effort and materials, but they'll last for
ever if they're properly maintained. (Unlike Nuclear Power stations,
which become energy-hungry paranoia-centres when their days of
usefulness are over.)
Many rural dwellers are in a good position to make use of hydro-
electricity if only they had the motivation and the techniques. Problem is,
planning regulations and the Water Resources Act can militate against the
casual harnessing of
stream-power. What's more, this raises
an important question of whether the countryside is to be preserved as a
sort of nature·reserve for aesthetically inclined townies, or whether it is to
be used to support indigenous communities.
An interesting point that came out in the course of questions was the fact
that a large part of the CEGB generating potential is surplus capacity held
in reserve against the occasional sudden surge. (Such as when the whole
population switches off Tomorrow's World and makes a nice cuppa tea to
revive the flagging national morale.) A system of limiting domestic
consumption to, say, 3kW at a time (as is done in certain parts of Canada)
would greatly reduce capacity requirements and save unborn generations
from our jerry-built leaky nukes.
Martyn Partridge
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 92
REACH FOR YOUR GUN

MAYBE 25 PEOPLE turned up in the Village Hall for a discussion on
Alternative Culture, and then we realised we didn't know what we were
meant to be talking about. Definitions of 'culture' were offered, so broad
as to be meaningless. Social theories were sketched out on huge
canvases. Points were scored by all including the Gestalt therapist who
quite correctly sussed the games people were playing, and then joined in
himself with an impressive lecture on Maslow's hierarchy of human
needs.
What did the people who hadn't spoken yet want to say? Nothing, for the
most part. The people who did speak mostly disagreed. I don't think any
two people in the room even agreed over what the disagreement had
been about. The man next to me thought it was political activists versus
New Age Consciousness.
I thought it was intellectuals v. the rest. Someone said if this was how the
Alternative Culture held discussions we were no better than the straight
society outside. I don't agree. I've never heard the Institution of Civil
Engineers baring their souls the way we did that afternoon. Maybe it did
hurt for some of us. Maybe we didn't reach any conclusions. Maybe we
proved once again that without straight culture to lean on, Alternative
Culture would collapse. But it set the brain cells tingling, and I think even
some of those who left with a bad taste in their mouths will find, week.s,
months or years hence, that they learned something useful _ from the
people around them. Especially from the ones who didn't say a thing.
Tony Durham
_______________________________________________________________
__________________________
FROM COMTEK WITH HINDSIGHT
COMTEK·75. Was it a success or failure? Here's what one of the
organisers has to say:
MOST PEOPLE have their own definition of Alternative Technology but
COMTEK stands for Community Technology, which means a technology
designed, produced and marketed within the local, social fabric. This is
something that cannot be achieved by sitting in a shed building yourself a
wind generator. It can only be done slowly by putting materials, tools,
and techniques into the hands of your neighbour and getting him to do it
him·self. Initially people have to become more aware of their own
potential and it is here that festivals like COMTEK are particularly
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 93
important.
The aims of the COMTEK festivals are threefold:-
To increase the national impact of AT as a whole, to provide a forum for
the exchange of ideas amongst those already involved, and to provide a
vehicle for getting these ideas across to the local community. In order to
deal with these objectives the festivals have been structured into three
main elements: the Forum; the Workshops; and the Exhibits. In taking a
critical look at the success or failure of the objectives one must look at
the response to each of these three elements.
The Forum. On the face of it, this was the most successful element in that
the discussions probably involved the most people and created the most
enthusiasm amongst the participants. However, there could have been
more public contribution, especially if there had been quieter
surroundings and a more detailed pre·liminary programme, with possibly
a few more technical experts with facts and figures about their work.
The Workshops. The pottery and the kites were particularly popular
especially with the kids, some of whom went on a special kite flying
picnic to escape the becalmed festival field. The Earth Block Building was
also popular but,like the Solar and Wind workshops, it could have been
more demonstrative in attempts to involve the public. This aspect could
be improved if exhibitors gave more associated performance data, but
even then it would be difficult to improve the participation of people in a
relatively serious subject within the context of what the local media call a
'festival of the absurd'. It seems that many people react to superficial
impressions and see Alternative Technology as a freak fringe. The Exhibits.
It is always good to see working examples. It's a pity the wind didn't blow
much - except during a thunderstorm in the middle of the night, when all
seven windmills were strobing in the lightning. Once again, however,
there is a need for test figures to be displayed so that performances can be
compared. To improve this situation COMTE K is planning· to obtain
some pen recorders and electrical monitoring apparatus in order to
measure the performance of prototypes of both enthusiasts and
manufacturers.
Overall, COMTEK 75 has been reasonably successful in increasing the
national interest in the subject. There are two nationwide TV programmes
in the 'pipeline' and other reports of interest have been fairly widespread.
The exchange of ideas between those who took part was very good,
everyone enjoyed themselves but the contacts must be followed through
for it to have all been worthwhile. However, I am not convinced that
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 94
Festivals of this format are the best way of getting ideas across to the
layman_
The Festivals tend to be a fulcrum around which revolve the activities of
COMTEK for the rest of the year. Consequently, the commitment to
continue interaction with the community through reclamation, and
co·operatives, has been recently reaffirmed. There are also plans for
improvements to the studio, including a solar shower, eco toilet, heat
pump an windgenerator. It is also hoped that others will be interested in
producing a testing their prototypes in the depot an activity which could
be supplemented by regular weekend workshops on specific topics with
audiences of 'ex per and 'laymen'. Finally it is felt that it is time to do
something really outrageous and serious in order to demonstrate the
possibilities of alternative approaches. Applications for AT are particularly
appropriate for revitalizing local industries and for liberating disused
buildings and land - and there is plenty of that in most places, including
Bath. L us all now get together and look for a legal but quick way to stage
such a c convincing demonstration.
Glyn Davies COMTEK/Bath Arts Workshop
MAGIC & MUSIC
IN THE WEEK of Comtek and the Walcot Festival, a number of favourable
factors seemed to come into am almost astrological conjunction. There
was, of course, Comet Kobayashi. which a couple of us managed to spot
through binoculars. And one of the site's resident magicians informed us
that Thursday August 7 was, appropriately, an exceptional high point in
the megalithic calendar.
But more tangible contributions to the extraordinary atmosphere of the
week were made by the site itself - a steep riverside meadow prettier than
last year's muddy field; the weather, which blazed up to 34° C by day
and went mad with wild thunderstorms on Monday and Friday nights;
and of course the music. surely the most powerful of all forms of
community technology.
Saturday's all-day concert, with J""s Roden last on, was an enjoyable
climax to a week of more intimate musical happenings. There was Reg
Meuross an Martyn Raphael, singing and playing guitar by a wood fire in
the corner of field on Wednesday night: two very warm, very unassuming
and very talented musicians. Then there were the Ace Drummers with
their picturesque collection of - I suppose - African instruments. They
drummed as the Parachute Dome was erected, infusing ritual into
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 95

engineering. They drummed the dusk on the hillside, and people joined
in on pennywhistles and an old d drum. They drummed quietly, out of
sight behind the tents, and a subliminal pulse-beat throbbed over the site.
they drummed on the same hillside in full afternoon sun. and bronzed
dancers stamped and circled on the grass.
Global Village Trucking Company, Thursday night, St Alphege's Hall.
People were leaping about from the band's firs note. Heat in the stuffy
little hall was unbelievable. and I came out feeling better than after a
Turkish bath. Friday night: disco in the Village Hal As basically-clad
dancers tested the n" in the deconsecrated chapel, lightning flashed
marshmallow pink and baby b over the sodden gravestones outside. I sure
the heavens were celebrating, not angry. It was so nice and warm the best
protection against the deluge was to sit in your bathing trunks. If any of
the d got up and joined in, they doubtless added to the spirit of the
occasion. I'm sure a lot of things happened right that week because of the
stars and the sun. But a lot more happened right because of the hard
work and solid organising put in by the amazing ladies and gentlemen of
Bath Arts Workshop Thanks. it was a proper festival, it was.
Tony Durham
_______________________________________________________________
A section of the UNDERCURRENTS mob; from the left, Tony Durham,
Duncan Campbell, Martin Ince, Barbara Kern, Chris Hutton-Squire
(bespectacled) Martyn Partridge (truckin'). Richard Elen and others were
magically absent, and the essential Sally, Holly and Godfrey Boyle were
just outasight.
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 96

• • • • • • • • • • • •
Woody Part 3 of TOWARDS AN ALTERNATIVE CULTURE
This is the third part of an extended essay by Woody. Parts one and two
appeared in Undercurrents 10 and 11.
Is change possible?
How is change possible? We still confront the same dialectic between the
way are, and the way the world is, which has tended to defeat reformer
and revolutionary, escapist and exemplar, in every generation.
Let us consider the growth of a social movement. whether religious.
political or whatever. It might be assumed - and usually is assumed. by
those concerned - that if the message is right. it should be possible to
convince at least a majority of people of its worth; to convert them to the
truth. At first. it looks as if the assumption may be justified: the movement
begins to grow. Sometimes growth may be slow and steady, sometimes
really spectacular, with thousands. even millions, flocking to the banner.
After some time. however. it becomes clear that all is not well. The
movement is growing more slowly than might be expected, and the rate
of growth is tailing off.
At this point, one of two troubles are usually diagnosed. Either the failure
is a failure to communicate effectively (perhaps the movement's failure,
perhaps the effect of counter-propaganda from other sources); or the
message, the vision. the· programme, is not quite right after all.
The second option brings Its own special dilemma: to what extent should
the message be modIfied? At one extreme. there may be the view that the.
message is sacred, it is the truth. and any attempt to dilute it in pursuit of
popularity is profane. At the other end of the scale. there may be those
prepared to give people what they want. to reduce to zero the original
conviction and purpose. in order that the movement should continue to
grow. Between these limits a whole range of compromises is possible.
Even if the movement was not already tending to disintegrate - under the
pressures of competitive egos seeking leadership roles - into numerous
sects and factions, it probably does so now.
Fragmentation: the subjective group
This tendency to factions will be least at the pragmatic end of the scale,
where numbers and influence are a measure of success, and there is very
little principle left to fall out over: few will want to leave the most viable
going concern. It will be greatest at the dogmatic extreme, where large
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 97

numbers of small sects may be formed. Each of these sects now laces the
world as a movement in its own right, and meets the same problem: the
heathen, most of them. stubbornly refuse to be converted . What went
wrong? Why did the movement fail? The surprising answer is that it
probably didn't L .. at least, not until the rot set in. The notion of relative
morality tells us that it never had any absolute truth, either before ore or
after 'adjustment'. There 'never were any heathen. What the movement
did have was a relative truth which was valid for a certain minority with
particular ranges of personality, life experience, and life situation. It is
quite possible that most of this minority did associate with it. For the
majority. its truth was not valid. and would not become so until their life
experience and/or situation, was modified in an appropriate way. This
conclusion can be summarised in the following axiom, which we will
argue is of crucial importance in understanding social change:
For any set of ideas. propagated by perfect communications, there is a
saturation n .. number of people able to accept them, in the given social
conditions, This number is the subjective group to those ideas.
It might be useful 10 consider some corollaries of this axiom. First:
For any set of ideas. no matter how ridiculous from other standpoints, and
no matter how poorly communicated, there will probably be some
fraction of a real subjective group available 10 accept them.
Next time a member of the Flat Earth Society crosses your path, don't feel
so astonished !
Of more concern to us :
The response to communications effort (aimed at reaching an entire
subjective group) is governed by the law of diminishing returns,
It follows from this that a fair proportion of the subjective group can be
reached with comparatively modest effort. In fact, the corollary rather
understates the case, for in addition to the increasing duplication of
information, etc., implied· d by it, the subjective group to a given
ideology displays a 'homing' tendency: a reminder that people are active
and not passive beings. Thus it would not be necessary to communicate
with anything like half the population in order to contact half a subjective
group. Even less would it be necessary to saturate them with propaganda.
Note also that the effect of counter-propaganda is going to be minimal:
the movement's subjective group, almost by definition, is unlikely to be a
subjective group to the idea of its negation.
The significance of the second corollary now begins to emerge. If a
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 98

movement is attempting to communicate its message, and the response to

effort ratio begins to fall, this is less likely to be a sign of communications
or other failure, than a sign that movement building is nearly complete. In
plain language, everyone else thinks the ideas are rubbish.
By changing the message, the subjective group will also change, and the
group which responds to the modified ideas may be larger than before.
There is no absolute sense, however, in which::h one set of ideas is better
than the other. II this is so, it might seem logical to take the ideas (if any)
which command majority support, to be right by definition ..In. This will
be little help to the originators and followers of the movement: it was
almost certainly the fact that they were not part of the subjective group to
the prevailing ideas which produced the movement.
We can now give a second, more objective, answer to the moral
questions asked before: why struggle? and why struggle for sociality? We
struggle because we are part of the subjective group to these ideas. This
discovery makes more, not less, urgent our continuous criticism of our
own position, and of the ways in which it remains valid for us. The
feedback by which we modify our stand will be the interaction of our life
experience with our values, and not. repeat not, the extent to which
others are able to accept its truth. Further, we can now distinguish two
very different aspects of communication. the confusion of which has
disastroUs consequences for most radical movements. In one sense.
communication is making available ideas- both facts and values, reasons
and explanations-to those able to receive them. If after the initial contact.
communication becomes a two way process. then something can be said
to have been created. Communication in this sense is vital to any
movement. Indeed, some would say that it is the movement. But
communication may also imply persuasion, getting the other person to
see it your way, convincing people of the need for change, etc.
Communication in this second sense is intolerant. dogmatic. It seeks to
make a relative morality absolute. This remains true even when the
content and style of the message appears to be light-years away from the
ideas we associate with religious and political dogmas. An invitation to a
charity social which implies, however tacitly, that the person receiving it
ought to attend and support the cause, belongs in the same class of
communication as the Spanish Inquisition, and the coercion of some
modern states.
On this issue, we all live in glasshouses. A re-reading of this article will
reveal no shortage of passages where the exhortation is implicit. where
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 99

the useful and dogmatic aspects of communication are intertwined: 'How

can you fail to see the correctness of my argument ?" In verbal
discussions, with more emotional involvement, it seems almost
impossible not to behave in this way. Non· the-Iess, for those who would
wage values struggle, critical attention to this problem is likely to be high
on the agenda.
II the concept of relative morality allows us to see the dogmatic nature of
persuasion, the concept of the subjective group allows us to see its futility
- at least up to the point where the persuasion is SO intense as to
constitute a real factor in the life situation of the victims: a facility which
is (fortunateIy) seldom available to minority groups. Once any subjective
group has communicated . with itself, identified itself, become a
movement, then the problem of social change, whatever else it may be, is
not a communications problem.
The objective group
The question floW arises, what if the message being advocated is pitched
in terms of. practical advantage 1 What if it can be shown that the
morality, the purpose, the cause, coincides with the objective interests of
the people being invited to accept it ? This assumes that they, or at least
some of them, do have some objective interests in common. The
existence of objective interests is debatable, since 'interest' is a value
word which implies purpose, and hence subjective morality. Great wealth
is hardly an advantage to someone seeking poverty, nor is escape from
pain in the interests of a -masOChist. We will get round this difficulty by
making the following down to earth assumption:
Where a number of people share the same conditions of life, there are
other real conditions of life which, once experienced, would be
considered more (less) desirable by the majority. It is therefOre in their
objective interests to move towards (away from) these latter conditions,
We can observe numbers of people with more or less the same real
conditions of Iife. In some cases very large numbers. Each group of
people bound together in 'his way can be said to form an objective
group, or class (In contrast with the subjective group, or movement, who
have in common their ideas.) II the above assumption holds, the class can
be said to have common objective interests.
Now it was inconceivable to earlier movement builders that an objective
group could not be persuaded of a cause which was not only right. but in
their own interests. Indeed, in the most sophisticated version. the
subjective messiahs were dispensed with. The objective group was to
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 100
become subjective group to itself. The class, out of its own bitter
experience and its own struggles, would generate its own movement. The
real superiority of this vision lay precisely in the absence of moral
persuaders.
When hopes and predictions were not fulfilled (despite, in the latter case,
plenty of 'oft-stage' prompting by subjective groups who saw the road:
i.e. a retreat to the persuasive position), explanations were called for.
Either the communications war was being lost, or the message was not
quite right...
Let us add a third corollary to our principle axiom·
The subjective group to given ideas will not in general coincide with the
objective group to whose benefit the ideas allegedly refer.
Just why this corollary (or its equivalent in other systems of
understanding) should be true, is the .subject of intense investigation at a
number of levels. Some lines of enquiry suggest that the whole naive idea
of common objective interests breaks down once the wonderful
complexity of human beings is understood. Others stand by the notion of
objective interests on common sense grounds, and see the problem in
terms of psychological barriers.
If the barrier theory holds, we can distinguish between two types of

objective interest: negative and positive interest. A class with a negative
interest in change, Le. every interest in preserving the status quo, seems
10 coincide relatively well with its subjective group: the psychological
barrier is weak. Conversely, a class with a positive interest in change
often coincides .very badly with the subjective group(s) receptive to the
idea of change. Indeed, the .more desperate the plight of the people
involved, the greater the barrier seems 10 become. For a treatment of this
theme, and also some aspects of the dialectic between life attitudes and
social change - especially the key role of sexual repression - the Solidarity
pamphlet: .. The Irrational in Politics-is essential reading. Our earlier
caution regarding the libertarian position should be borne in mind.
In the case of complex mature societies, two new difficulties arise for
movements aimed at an objective group. Firstly, the definition 6f common
objective conditions of life - once the easy part of the problem - becomes
increasingly difficult. Secondly, the real interests of a class, which are to
be the subjective interests of the movement, are much harder to define in
specific terms.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 101

Social change
Now we noted that the subjective group to given ideas may change as
social conditions change'- Therefore it should in theory be possible to
change society
in ,an appropriate way until I: subjective and objective groups coin de.
(On the barrier theory, this WOI correspond to the elimination of psych
logical barriers to acceptance.) B: changing society is the task in ha
Therefore, we find no reason to make an exception to the general
proposition that persuading people beyond 0 own subjective group -
even in t own interests - is (a) dogmatic, (b) futile. The implications of this
POSItion for religious. cultural political movements, hardly need to
stressed.
So far we have treated society passive. It is of course dynamic. evolving.

changing. As it changes. sizes of the subjective groups to e, and every set
of ideas are liable change. There is no absolute reason why the subjective
group to given so' Ideas should not become a majority under favourable
conditions. In political terms. The classic success story ( was the rise of
fascism in '205 and . Germany. Almost every twist of economic. social
and political situation seemed to operate in their favour. It was the
punters dream: 'going through the card'.
The prospect that circumstance move society in their particular direction
remains the one real hope every social movement operating the basis of
recruitment by persuasion The odds against any particular g are very high.
to put it mildly. blind history will show no prefer in the ideas it favours.
Social change maybe, but in which direction? Regarding radical
movements with purposes similar to our own, we envy the touching faith
that history, is on their side, but we do not share It. We respect, In S
cases, the thoroughness with which objective arguments to support
prediction are marshalled, but WE not find them convincing.
The System
Where social movements are cq ned, the ideas put forward so farl
implied truly radical movements. ving a total vision, and seeking i we
seek - fundamental change< society. Let us now look briefly j
conservative centre, at the she subjective world of big parties small
principles; sporting contest spectacular shows; gentlemen's · ments and
career opportunities. I look also at the single reality t them: The System.
The society stands over us and against us, a which is ourselves. The
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 102

culture even in the midst of change, acts

continuously to preserve itself, a influence over us. We can now no
longer think subjective group as a neat watertight compartment. The
principle operates, but the groups shade more into each other. Different
paris sel of ideas may find different ces. The same audience may be':
subjective group to various conflicting, Ideas. In some reception is
extremely fickle ani ble, almost from day to day. j these difficulties in
mind, we can define two
fundamental subjective groups:- those who respond to soclety's
subjective message - an establishment mentality. if you like; and those
who draw their ideas from its objective reality: an 'every man for himself'
outlook.
Morality and Strategy
Armed with the concept of the subJectIve group. and the separated
notions of communication and persuasion, we will now approach the
problem of morality and strategy from a new- angle. To anyone who feels
this is a trivial diversion, we would reply that since part of the price of
real change is likely to be paid in lives, possibly including ours, we may
as well have our sums fight. Close to the heart of the idea of morality is
the notion of 'fighting fair': of restrictions that must be placed on strategic
options for moral reasons. ThiS IS sometimes explained by postulating an
interrelation, a dialectic, between means and ends: e.g. • One cannot
attain a just end by unjust means •. Now we have seen that each morality
is relevant to a specific purpose, which In the case of social purpose can
be represented by a particular direction on the social map. Likewise a
strategy can be measured by the amount of progress it makes towards the
desired end. On this basis, the notion of moral restrictions on strategy, of
the result put at risk, is meaningless. An 'immoral' strategy would not be
chosen in the first place, since it leads in another direction. The dialectic
of means and ends is revealed as a nonsense; rather like saying: • One
cannot get North by walking East •.
Yet, to take a simple example, a sword· man resolved to fight in a
chivalrous manner, and who does not press home the advantage when his
opponent stumbles on a root. may well pay dearly for his decision a few
moments later. There has been a very real restriction on strategy.
The point to note is that the swordsman realty had two purposes: to win,
and to be fair; each with their attendant morality. As noted before, a
purpose which can stand on its own. such as to win, is often not thought
of in moral terms when It is the only purpose. However, when two
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 103
conflicting purposes are attempted. a moral dilemma is posed. The

morality of eIther purpose may impose restrictions on the strategy·
required to secure the other, and the morality of both is revealed. As an
aside, it can be shown for the case chosen. that the morality of winning
probably serves the biological purpose of indiVIdual survival, while the
morality of being fair may serve the refracted social purpose of group
survival. II follows by definition that in social language only relations to
the second purpose will be described in moral terms: a very one-sided
outlook.
Having added the notion of moral dilemma to our collection, let us
choose a specific issue: pacifism. Ignoring borderline problems, such as
abortion and vegetarianism, pacIfism IS a clearcut moral issue for those
who believe in it. Or is it ? Up to four distinct norms
may De sought after by persons sailing under the pacifist banner. La. they
can have up to tour purposes. four moralities. These are:
To practise pacifism: a resolve not to take human life under any
provocation.
To communicate the idea and logic of pacifism as information.
To defend themselves/others against the real consequences of actions by
persons holding other values.
To achieve, by persuasion or other means, a pacifist world: to make the
pacifist morality absolute.
The fourth norm is dogmatic by definition: those pursuing it are dogmatic
pacifists Many such people would reply: If that is dogma. then pacifism IS
a cause worth being dogmatiC about·To thiS we have no answer. except
to note that a lot of other dogmatists feel that way about their cases too:
half the world's troubles start at this point. So we will leave them in
peace.
This leaves the remaining pacifists with three possible causes to struggle
for For simplicity, we will assume that they live in a society which
tolerates communication. They are able to fulfil their second norm,
contact their subjective group. become a movement. However, under the
prevailing conditions, the subjective group to pacifist ideas is small - say
1 %.
Here they are then, one per cent of the population, tolerant. but with two
norms to achieve in a brutal world. Perhaps we assume too much. Some
of them may seek only the first norm: to hUmbly follow their faith. and to
submit to their fate if their own, or loved ones', lives are demanded. For
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 104

these at least, the road is clear: no moral dilemma faces them. For the
others, the dilemma is very real. If even one innocent Iife lost in the world
is one too many, then the problem is to apply effective sanctions to those
of other moralities: not to convert them, but to protect the innocent. The
first conviction places a limitation on the strategic options available 10
secure the third, and vice versa. Pacifists themselves are often unaware of
the extent of their difficulties, and their compromise. Committed to
nonviolent means, and noting that it is in the objective interests of
everyone not to be killed, they look for majority no co-operation with the
war mongers. The notion of the subjective group escapes them. Even
amongst the faithful, an incitement to effective (and therefore reprisal-
provoking) non-violent action against people who share neither morality
to the issue concerned, nor their restriction on strategy, is a complicity to
murder,.
What comes out of all this is the hopelessness of the full paCifist poSition
as a single issue. Now It is time to put sociality in the hot seat: to test it
with respect 10 the same four norms.
We find first of all that the fourth, dogmatic, norm cannot be; that
tolerance to other moralities, other cultures, is inbuilt by definition. We
begin to comprehend sociality as an integrated concept. We see that the
practice of sociality is inseparable from communication with others who
would practise it. and from its minimal defence by any means necessary.
The pursuit of sOCIality poses no moral dilemmas in the sense we have
indicated.
This does not mean there will not be dilemmas of another kind: strategic
dilemmas. In the real world, the perfect strategy will seldom be available.
The need will often be to choose the least immoral. as well as the most
effective, of several available strategies or tactics, none of which will
point exactly in the direction of human love.
The mature society
Two facts about the mature society. The first of these is the high degree of
political freedom. including freedom to communicate. This liberal climate
stands in contrast to other social forms. Nor is it a superficial feature in
the sense of a bonus handed down to good boys and girls, as many
radicals like to persuade themselves. A liberal image of itself is essential
to the functioning of the mature society. Now this does not mean that the
liberal era is permanent. merely that to close it the whole complex
culture must be set in motion towards authority. We need to understand
this kind of freedom, and the limits which society imposes, since the
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 105
climate itself is essential to our intentions.

Secondly, the maturing of a society. often after generations, perhaps
centuries, of political struggle and social evolution, marks the end of
many dreams. People become vaguely aware that the road does not lead
to utopia: it is a road to nowhere. To turn backwards into the dark tunnel
at authority seems equally depressing, though for some the paternal
hierarchic·communal society of remote ancestry now stirs as a race
memory. Those of a pragmatic outlook are prepared to count the real
sociality index - or better still the subjective one - and reflect that
authority and alienation in_ balance are less unpleasant than tyranny
alone.
It is a time of uncertainty, of confusion. Many weird embryos appear.
Minority subjective groups, always present in society, grow to unusual
proportions. Older combatants, of definitions now failed. continue their
ritual struggle: a tragi-comedy on the stage of life. Behind this subjective
world lies the objective reality we have tried to describe, the real world of
mutually hostile people and blind socio-economic forces, lurching
unsteadily forward.
Alternative Culture
An unproved assumption, one already being put to the test, in a blind
empirical way. by small groups of people. which takes as its key the idea
of the subjective group, can be stated as follows:
Under the conditions of modern society, we find an increasing number of
people who have in common their subjective rejection of its norms, in
favour of a social ethic. These people. if they can base their values in
·common objective conditions of life. will generate a social culture.
It may be useful to compare the above with a corresponding assumption
keyed to the objective group:
Bourgeois society has called into existence a class. the proletariat. which
has in common its objective relations to the mode of production, and
which, so soon as it becomes conscious of these relations.. must
inevitably triumph over them to create a new, socialist. society.
Let it be clear that no breakthrough is being offered, only a new line of
advance We still face the same defeating dialectic between the way we
are, and the way the world is, which has frustrated so many intentions
and predictions. Just as the theory of the objective group requires that it
becomes conscious, becomes a subjective group to itself, becomes a
movement. so the theory of the subjectlve group requires that it becomes
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 106

committed, becomes an objective group to itself, becomes a culture. Just

as consciousness has been the Achilles' heel of class theory, so
commitment is the stumbling block of culture theory.
At this point, however, the similarities end. The protagonists of class
theory never doubted their right, indeed duty, to make their morality
absolute, for the benefit of all. In our case, the notion of tolerance to
other moralities is central to the whole concept: the condition of sociality
is incompatible with the forced inclusion of hostile, or even reluctant,
human beings.
The idea of capturing state power has no place in alternative culture
strategy.
The goal is to create a social culture among those who desire one, not to
convert the existing society into a socialist one, dislike it who dares. This
may sound an incredible statement to those used to thinking in
conventional terms. Some will ask: « How can it be meaningful for a
limited number of people to practise social culture, while the system
continues to alienate, exploit or napalm both them and other victims,
according to i· s logic? •
This difficulty springs partly from a failure to understand what the pursuit
and practice of social culture involves, and partly from a hidebound
frame of reference concerning the nation state, territory, the meaning of
democracy, etc. Some of these areas will doubtless be illuminated in the
course of sketching out a programme for the alternative culture. At the
level of social theory, we shall confine our attention to two related
aspects.
Taking the last one first, a commitment to tolerance should not be
misread as any modesty concerning our belief in the superiority of
sociality over all
other social forms. When fully emancipated social cultures become
available as real options, we think the vast majority of the world's people
will opt for them. We then think that most of those who prefer tyranny
will become less keen with no one to oppress; most of those who accept
exploitation as 'necessary' will review their verdict with only themselves
to exploit; most of those who revel_in the rat-race will find it a duller
game without losers to prove themselves by ..
Meanwhile, if the key assumption holds, how would a mere subjective
group become a fully emancipated social culture?
The existence of a subjective group to any set of ideas is itself a factor, an
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 107

objective force, on the stage of history; just as much as, say, the potential
for development of a new method of weaving. In the course of a
subjective group fulfilling itself, becoming a movement, it exerts pressure
on the social framework. A greater or lesser ... shift occurs in: the real
situation. This applies equally to a local campaign for better street
lighting, or a full scale political movement. However, society is actually
responding to the growth of the movement, rather than its existence. (This
is often obscured by time-lag factors.)
As the movement saturates its subjective group and levels out, so the
social framework completes its adjustment, and new equilibrium
conditions are established between all social forces. That, un-be-known
to the faithful, is the end of the matter in most cases.
Exceptions are:
(i) When (and so long as) social con·ditions are themselves escalating the
subjective group, and hence the movement;
(ii) When the fact of no progress reacts as a disintegrating force on the
movement itself.
But most movements reach equilibrium with society, and then live on for
many years, not knowing their date with destiny is past, becoming part of
the landscape - institutions even. We can all think of a few.
Values struggle and a new phenomenon
Now when (and if) a conscious subjective group, a movement, becomes
ever to a mild extent an objective group this introduces a new real factor
to the social scene. The frame of reference of those concerned, of people
in contact with them, and of society as a whole, is altered. Where this
frame of reference is tilted in favour of the movement's ideas, the result is
likely to be an increase in the size. (and depth) of the subjective group.
Of course, society is again adjusting to the 'becoming', rather than the
fact. of the partial objective group. If equilibrium is reached, that is once
more the end of the matter. Except that there will have crept modestly
into existence some real conditions of Iife other than those called for by
the social pressures and structures - mode of production and all - hitherto
existing.
Equilibrium may not be reached, order to trace the development let us
assume this; assume it for a movement committed to values struggle.
increase in size of the movement, the strengthening of its values, m
possible the extension of the scale scope of objective social cha within it.
This in turn will further ex and consolidate the movement. A continuous
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 108

dialectical process develops this time with no certain saturation; level. An

alternative culture will growing, having a progressively hi sociality index
than the dominant culture[s](s) in which it may reside · social cultures
will ignore existing boundaries.) There will be no political; confrontation
with society, no response, politics to this or that issue of the no
oppositional politics to the stan injustices. The culture will have a c
subjective identity: its people think of themselves as just that, not as
citizens of this or that state, Legally, it will have no status what ever in the
eyes of national govern
Its people will obey laws, pay d suffer exploitation, do alienating w, (The
last two only partially reduced internal arrangements.) Their total sit ion
will be similar to that of the habitants of a completely subjugate COlony.
The first, peaceful, phase will end when the cultural divergence reaches
limit of tolerance of the dominant culture(s). As and when the new c re
feels able to do so, it will grow this limit: it will begin to defend it' against
imposed pressures. The struggle that ensues will in some aspects be a
colonial struggle for e emancipation. In other respects, a more
comparison would be with the struggle
of religious minorities for acceptance by the dogmatic religious states
mediaeval Europe. Just as it w thought impossible that two or me faiths
could co-habit within the same nation, so it will be declared unworkable
to have two or more cultures c cohabiting the same territory.
The exact form that the struggle amy take is difficult to foresee. Like
colonial struggles, it will be waged from a position of material weakness
and moral strength. It will possibly include phases of defensive violence
against brutal measures, though presence of the, colony within the
dominant cultures will impose unusual S' strategic restrictions on the
latter. Another imponderable is the effect of a h sociality culture on the
remain population of the old cultures: if desertion rate from these
societies exponential, then they will indeed prove paper tigers. Perhaps
the m powerful weapon of the alternative culture will be this: it will not
seek replace one dogma, one absolute morality, with another.
The final outcome will release upon the world a new phenomenon:
voluntary state. Its birth will .mark even greater milestone in human
history than the emergence of the secular state from the struggle for
religious tolerance.
Woody’s essay will be continued in the next Undercurrents . . .
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 109

__________________________
Second Thoughts
A FEW MISTAKES have, unfortunately, crept into recent issues of
Undercurrents. Most of them are relatively trivial, but we thought that to
preserve our reputation for absolute accuracy and utter objectivity we'd
better print some corrections. Here goes.
In Undercurrents 10, the solar collectors described on page 28 as being
"connected in series" should, of course, have been described as
"connected in parallel" - though the accompanying diagram made this
clear anyway. -
In Undercurrents 9, there was a mistake on page 12 in the circuit diagram
of the BRAD 'black box' for controlling solar water heating systems.
Diode D1 should be connected the other way round (we didn't know that
BRAD had added this correction to the circuit when we went to press)_
And on page 28, the table showing "The potential bomb-making capacity
of the world's reactor programme" should have the figures in its last two
columns reversed. (You didn't really think that Luxembourg was planning
to have 80 nuclear power stations, did you?).
In Pat Pringle's table on page 36, which showed the nutritional
composition of vegetables per ounce. a line relating to potatoes was
omitted, and the line above, relating to peas, contained some of the
figures for potatoes. For peas, the thiamine, riboflavine. nicotinic acid and
vitamin C contents should read: 0.09; 0.04; 1.0; and 7, respectively. And
the missing line should read: "potatoes: 0.6; 22; 2; 0.2; 0; 0.03; 0.01; 0.5
and 5.5.
In Undercurrents 8. we stated that an article on Steve Baer's solar house
appears in UC6. In fact it appears in UC5, which is now out of print.
How Straight is the Old Straight Track? A Correction John Michell has
asked us to make it clear that he himself does not consider that the five
points that I took as defining a ley in my article in Undercurrents 11
(p.21) lie on one single alignment. In fact in his book The Old Stones of
Land's End (p.18) he describes two alignments (Boscawen I from
Boscawen circle -Cross A .... Stone 3 and Boscawen II from Boscawen
circle - Stone 4 -+ Stone 5).
These two alignments, he says, "deviate by no more than one degree".
However, he does not state how this figure was estimated. Simple
arithmetic shows that if all the grid references given are accurate (which
Michell says they are not) then these two lines deviate by about 0.5°, Of
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 110
about 10 metres over 1 kilometre.

Work is in hand on a computer study of the Land's End alignments, using
a program written by Pat Gadsby, a Computer Science Consultant. Maps
will be scanned using a digitiser, to generate grid references to 10 figures
instead of 8. We hope to report the results in Undercurrents 13.
STOP PRESS!
The first run of Pat Gadsby's program has yielded some interesting results.
Working on the 52 stones and crosses listed by Michell, it found 460
possible 3-point alignments less than 50 metres wide. This is twice the
number that would be expected if the points were distributed at random,
so there is no way that these alignments could be due to chance. How
many of them would be accepted as leys by the ley-hunting fraternity is
another matter: Michell himself only lists 30 3-point leys between the
same set of points. However, he doesn't state the standard of accuracy he
used to decide whether to accept or reject an alignment, so it is not
possible at this point to compare our set of alignments directly with his.
We hope to carry a full report of this work in Undercurrents 13.
Chris Hutton-Squire
Crossing Your Mind With Silva: How to go about it.
The response to the article on Silva Mind Control last issue was so great
that we felt we should print details of how to contact them. The guy who
co-ordinates Silva's operations in the UK is Paul Fransella, the lecturer for
the UK courses. Unfortunately he lives in the States, so there will be a
delay letter-wise. Write to: Paul Fransella, c/o Silva Mind Control Of
Florida, PO Box 8591, Orlando, Florida 32806. 'Head Office' for the
organisation is SMC, PO Box 1149, 1110 Cedar, Laredo Tx 78040.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 111

• • • • • • • • • • • •
Hutton-Squire & Bradshaw BAREFOOT IN IN THE SURGERY
Dr. John S. Bradshaw is a medical man who, with others, helped lIIich in
the writing of Medical Nemesis, and who provides the medical element
in the ‘Alternative Society' organisation. He wants to start a new type of
medical journal for doctors, medical students, and paramedics, and also
to set up two' Amigos Life Centres', each as an integral pan of a viable
community centre that will enable people to discover how to stay healthy.
Chris Hutton· Squire interviewed Dr. Bradshaw recently in london, and
this is a record of what was said.
Dr. Bradshaw, what would you say are the essentials of IlIich's position on
medicine?
IIich says that the changes in the pattern of disease in western countries
during, say. the last hundred years have not owed much to specific doctor
intervention, but rather have resulted from purer water supplies, better
housing, education, improved nutrition, and so on.
But weren't these changes doctor-inspired?
Well, that is what all doctors say. And it is true that doctors played some
part but not, I think, the major part The changes were mainly due to
industrial development, to aesthetics, to faith in the virtue of rational man
and so on. Anyway, lllich goes on to say that, in the 1910 to 1950 period,
with the discovery of insulin for diabetes, liver for pernicious anaemia,
sulphonamides and so on, medicine entered a brief golden age. At least
one's chances of benefitting from an encounter with a doctor became
better than fifty-fifty. We had the best of the old priest·physician and of
the new technologist physician - not that he isn't a bit of a priest too.
And then?
And then, since about 1945 or 1950 medicine has entered its
high·technology phase, and has become counter-productive: what is
meant to cure ills produces them instead. IIlich claims this has been
parallelled in e· "cation and transport Illich classifies the doctors' ill-doing
under the general heading of iatrogenesis (meaning 'caused by doctors')
of which he says there arc three kinds: clinical iatrogenesis: that is, side
effects of drugs. operations, and investigations; social iatrogenesis: that is,
medicine's invasion of society and the mutual reinforcement of the
medical mode and the industrial mode. Most of our diseases today are
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 112

caused by the industrial way of life, and are treated by analogues of the
very industrial machines that caused them. This category also embraces
doctors' certification of deviance or of simple disgust with our society as
disease; and, most importantly. structural iatrogenesis: that is, the removal
from the individual of all responsibility for decisions about his own health
and sickness. What the individual used to copy with by himself, says
Illich, - given some help from the extended family, his neighbours, the
priest, and perhaps the doctor (witch or western) - including disease and
death, has been expropriated by the high-technology medicine man of
today. Health-wise, the individual has been castrated by the medical
institution.
Do you think IIIich has been misunderstood?
Yes, I'm sure he has, especially by doctors. Clinical iatrogenesis is the
only one of the trio doctors seem to have latched on to, though Illich
thinks it the least damaging. Also he does not think pain is ennobling,
which a lot of doctors think he's saying, but rather that to make pain
something always alien to oneself, to be managed by a doctor with drugs
or whatever, diminishes the scope of life. To live is to suffer, and to suffer
is to live. Do you want to live in a sterile. painless operating theatre. or
where the action is - and the pain? A promise and an expectation of total
elimination of suffering, pain, and death (our unmentionable topic) is to
make life a meaningless nonsense. Illich is profoundly serious though a
joker as well.
You know him?
Yes, I know him fairly well; though what human being knows another?
Do you agree with what he says?
With most of it; though I think it's a shade up-stage for most people.
lIIich's thinking is very tight and very deep. Although most people can
understand at least some of the symptoms of the disease he is trying to
characterise exactly - for example, the mess our own NHS is in; or the
constantly increasing health demands of the laity; or the present state of
medicine in the USA; or the falling expectation of life in some western
countries. Certainly they provide very good reasons why we should at
least give him a careful hearing. His prose, mind you, is rather heavy
going for some people.
He has been criticised for not suggesting alternatives to the various
industrial institutions he criticises.
Yes, and I think this is partly justified. He says he provides touchstones by
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 113

which to judge the validity of the various alternatives that are open to us;
but as has been said to him, if there are so many, why not suggest one or
two? - otherwise, the touchstones become a shade suspect
And you, what do you think about alternatives?
I think au fond the only alternative that will work in the health field (and
other fields) is a radical change in society. I do not mean so much a
political change, though that would doubtless follow, (and I'm certainly
not left or right-wing in any conventional sense - I think the terms have
become irrelevant) as a revulsion against our materialistic, high-
technology, non-human, growth-orientated culture; the culture that has
produced motorways and supermarkets and jet planes; and pollution and
oil slicks and Minamata disease, and Hiroshima; and laziness and envy
and greed; and of course, coronary heart disease and obesity and road
deaths and - well, you name it and our society has produced it. In this
respect, as IIlich says, the socialists of the world, in the West anyway, are
as guilty as the reactionaries - they simply want to distribute the cake
differently. But they think cake is what we need - a bigger and better
cake, with more icing.
Well, and how is society to achieve a change?
Only if and when we reach the brink, I . suspect; then we'II see that to
turn back is the only · way to-survival. I don't mean go back to,same-
bucolic paradise that never was, or to mediaeval squalor (though that did
produce our cathedrals and not Concorde), but rather to go back
mentally, and then painfully dismantle while simultaneously rebuilding
our society. Walk on a tightrope, in other words. I don't think,
incidentally, we are going to do it - not until millions, perhaps tens of
millions have died; perhaps the lot of us.
All right. But short of such fundamental change, what changes would you
like to see in the health field?
If one is thinking of ad hoc change along more or less conventional lines,
one would go first perhaps for nurse practitioners, doctor surrogates,
physician assistants and so on, all of which are being tried and found
useful in the USA and Canada. Doctor substitutes, in other words.
Feldshers. The priests have got too high, so let's use the deacons.
Any other alternatives?
Yes, in China a clearly viable alternative in the form of the barefoot
doctors, who operate in the country and the cities and the factories, has
been at work with great success for the pas t 10 years. Enormous success.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 114

This is the doctor substitute idea carried a stage lower - or higher.

depending on how you look at it. The Chinese have also made a radical
change in their society. of course. They've controlled overpopulation, or
made a good start to it; eliminated hunger, kept out the motor car,
encouraged the bicycle (and therefore the health-promoting exercise that
goes with it). and so on. Not that I'm advocating Maoist Communism, by
whose practitioners I suspect I'd be regarded as a deviant greatly in need
of re-education from the word 'go'. But at the moment China, I think, is
the most fruitful and hopeful country in the world, and I suspect will
continue to be for the rest of this century.
And apart from- North American experiments and Chinese barefoot
doctors, what?
Well, the doctor substitutes and barefoot doctors are simply the positive
side of the de-institutionalisation of medicine that is needed, and that has
its negative aspect too - that is, the dismantling of a lot of the;medical
superstructure. People believe IlIich- wants to de-institutionalise
medicine. though he denies it. He says quite rightly that one needs a
specialised healer, and specialised techniques for certain fevers, for
fractures, sometimes for childbirth, obviously for hernias or skin diseases
or eye diseases, and so on. It's a long list. However he does, even though
he might deny..!.!, believe in a partial deinstitutionalisation - only he calls
it deprofessionalisation. On one hand no more heart transplants, no more
high-rise hospitals; on the other hand the giving back to the laity of much
of the responsibility for its own health. If one compares different western
countries', there's no correlation between health and the amount of
money spent on Health or between health and the density· of doctors on
the ground or of hospitals. More doctors, in other words, can mean less
health.
I don't quite follow that
I am simplifying, though> not oversimplifying: doctors and the trappings
of modern technological medicine are produced by the same grand
process that produces the diseases from which we suffer and die. Let me
give an example: the commonest killing disease in the western world is
coronary heart disease. It kills more people than all forms of cancer
combined. We know pretty well what predisposes to it - cigarette
smoking, lack of regular vigorous exercise, eating too much. especially
saturated animal fats and sugar and white bread, high blood pressure,
obesity, and one or two other items. In other words, the way we smoke,
the way we eat, the way we drive around in motor cars and sit in front of
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 115
television se· - our life style, in other words, causes it. And coronary
heart disease kills 150,000 people in this country every year, some of
them in their thirties and forties. Now there are other killing diseases -
lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, obesity and all that goes with it, raised
blood pressure, hardening of the arteries. peptic ulcers, appendicitis, two
or three diseases of the large bowel (including cancer) - that are almost
certainly produced also by our way of life; not to mention minor ailments
like piles or varicose veins. We are killing ourselves, and for the first time
in history we know just how we are killing ourselves - anyway, doctors
know - and we are doing almost nothing useful about it Heart transplants
for coronary heart disease are a joke, a sick joke at that. What I am saying
is that we do very little about altering our life style, perhaps
understandably because, if we were to alter it, our entire lives would be
very different - western industrial society would probably have to be
altered. I keep coming back to this. What we do instead is to apply more
scientific and technological expertise to treating the diseases at a later
stage, more of the very expertise that produced the disease in the first
place; brilliant expertise, but almost useless, certainly expensive, and
obviously irrational. Driving round in motor cars and sitting watching TV
helps produce coronaries; so if you have a coronary, you'll be whisked off
to hospital in double-quick time in a special motor car called an
ambulance, and·your heart beat will be monitored on a television screen,
and so on. Incidentally, many doctors think 'you'd fare just as well if you
stayed at home with your coronary. The engine certainly has run
away;with the driver. .The more disease the m1:?re doctors: or the other
way round, if you prefer. We · re chasing our own tail, and someone must
break the trance-inducing vicious circle we've got ourselves in· .
And any other recipe apart from cutting the medical establishment down
to size?
Well, obviously; after what I've just said, prevention of diSease_ This is
just- another aspect of the de-institutionalisation or deprofessionalisation
process. Putting health back into the hands of the· people. I mean early
prevention too, or, primary prevention as doctors call i.t, starting in
childhood, at birth even, when the seeds of our western diseases are
sown; though, as I've indicated, whether this is feasible without a radical
change in society I doubt. Anyway, doctors have been singularly inactive
at such prevention - except in arguing about its value, Iike the mediaeval
churchmen on about how many angels could dance on the point of a
needle - and they've been singularly unsuccessful when they have tried
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 116

their hand at it. Perhaps they find it boring, there's no intellectual

challenge to it. In other words, perhaps we are dealing with a problem
that is not susceptible to clear-cut rational solutions (the kind doctors
like), but is rooted in the collective unconscious, if it's not societal.
Anyway, if the reasons·for smoking, or driving motor cars too often and
too fast, or eating saturated fats are, in part at least, basically as deep as
that - in the psyche, collective or individual - it is very likely just an
exercise in institutional pathos to do what doctors mostly do, which is to
tell people how dangerous cigarettes or saturated fats are and then expect
them actually to do something about it. People are not motiv·ated by
exhortation unless it really taps their reservoir of guilt, anxiety, paranoia,
and so on; or else appeals to their idealism or altruism; or unless you so
order society - say, in the way Chairman Mao ordered Chinese society -
that a personal change becomes easy, almost inevitable and painless: the
group supports the individual. But where does the motivation for altering
society come from? Incidentally, apart from giving up cigarette smoking,
doctors themselves are staunch adherents of the western life style, despite
a few honourable exceptions; and since they see the end results of that
lifestyle, in disease, what hope can there be for conventional exhortatory
health education?
You are· saying we must get away, in the health field, from the institution
to the individual?
Well, yes, that in part - from the huge institution that manages things for
you to the human-sized group inside which you can manage things
yourself - with your neighbour. This is IIlich's whole point The institutions
of medicine, education, transport, and so on and so on have expropriated
the individual's right to stand on his own two feet: say, to learn a
language he wants to learn from those who are prepared to help him
learn it, or to manage, with a bit of help, much of his own illness - or
better, prevent it; or get from A to B at a reasonable pace - say, at up to 20
m.p.h.
BUl can't we do that now?
No, some of us can, some of us can progress at 600 m.p.h., but only at
the cost of depriving others ·of the chance of moving around at a much
slower pace - though one well above walking pace. Of course, in cities
the transport institution is manifestly counter-productive for all of us today
- traffic has almost stopped moving. 100 m.p.h. motor cars standing still,
their drivers being brain-washed by the car radio, their coronary arteries
silting up. lIIich's critique, you see, is of western industrial society as a
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 117
whole: he has selected medicine as just one of the modes, though he

thinks a crucial one, to be scrutinised. And just as one cannot separate
medicine from the society that fosters it and that it succours in turn, so -
and this is vital - one cannot, one must not separate health from the life of
which it is an expression. What must one do to be healthy? Answer: one
must live a healthy life. And living healthily has very deep roots. It is as
simple as that, and as complex. And healthy living, let it be added, may
include - indeed, has to include - a certain amount of disease, apart from
the terminal kind. The terminal kind, and death are, of course, by
definition as essential to a healthy life as birth is. One simply cannot have
a healthy life without a beginning and an end to it. It is our ability to deal
with the end, and with threats of death that matters.
Well now, what concrete alternatives would you personally like to see
here and now? Getting down to the nuts and bolts, how will you put
these theories into practice?
In this country today? - I should like to see set up what I call some
AMIGOS Life Centres. Just a couple. If they were a success, obviously
they'd be copied. I'd call them I Life' Centres because Health' Centre has
a different, clinical connotation already. 'AMIGOS' to suggest the spirit
that would hopefully prevail, and because AMIGOS is made up of the
initial letters of Alternative Medical Information, Group, and Open
Sesame' Life Centres.
Open Sesame?
Yes, I want them to be open to all of the laity in the same way as a good
home - as the world - is open to a child, to have an easy egalitarian
atmosphere, to give hope where often all our industrial society now offers
is frustration and greyness and the miasma of higher wages, and to enable
people to ask any questions about health - and find answers in books and
so on, or from people.
And the other elements?
The AMIGOS Life Centres would each be within a larger community
centre. I cannot stress this too much. AM IGOS is not some kind of
supermarket where packaged health and nothing else is sold. By
'community centre' I mean a viable heart, a living heart, to a community
of, say, 5,000 people, if there ever is such a living heart today. And I want
the whole thing to have its structure and exact mode of functioning
determined by the laity.
Why?
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 118

Because I'm not a man behind a counter selling a package. Because I

trust the laity, acting as a body. Because, as I said, doctors and allied
professionals have been conspicuously unsuccessful in improving our
health recently, a} distinct from, say, repairing hernias or removing
stomachs or giving penicillin. Because all the successful preventive
organisations are lay-inspired and lay-run: Alcoholics Anonymous, the
Samaritans, Weight Watchers, Psychoprophylaxis for Childbirth, and so
on.
And what will your AMIGOS Centres consist of physically?
First an AMIGOS Kitchen. The Kitchen is the best room in any good
home, I think. I'd like a big stove, and light, health-giving refreshments to
be available (though not compost-grown or in any way gimmicky - whole
meal·bread sandwiches, say; no sweets, chocolates, or cigarettes). Room
for about 40 - 50 people. The atmosphere of a pub without the alcohol, a
place where as part of a more general community process and almost
imperceptibly as a distinct part of it, people will absorb ideas on health
through pores - not be taught them.
How will you achieve that no-drink, pub· like atmosphere?
I have no idea. The laity will find out. I've thought of ritual dispensation
of tranquillisers, a sort of profane communion if you like. I'm joking - but
at least it'd be a less costly ritual than that of the prescription pad. From
the AMIGOS Kitchen encounters I'd hope groups of, say 10 or 12 people
would emerge, interested in slimming, or giving up cigarettes, or taking
vigorous exercise, and so on; and they would then meet in one another's
homes regularly, and, above all, help one another in their particular
endeavour, support one another.
And the second element?
The AMIGOS Quiet Room, a kind of library of health maintenance
literature leaflets, booklets, books, perhaps cassettes, and filmstrips,
though I'm really against technical gimmickry - all for the laity. The third
element would be the AMIGOS Help Room, in charge of a nurse - say,
aged 35 to 40. The Help Room would be her office, where she'd advise
some people quietly (without making any diagnosis) that she thinks
they'd better go to see their doctors, or that such and such a group would
suit them, and so on. Nudging them, not directing them.
And the local doctors?
I'd like the family doctors and some nominated by the local hospital or
hospitals to come in from the start to advise on the Centre and to visit it,
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 119

but as people, not as the topmost pinnacles of hierarchical pyramids; to

talk with people in the Kitchen, not to hold clinics or give lectures -
unless the laity invited them to. I'd like also, perhaps above any other
connection, a link with the local Community Health Council. The
Councils were set up last year under the new NHS to help inject a
democratic element into it. They are bodies without a role, as I see them;
and AMIGOS is a role without a body, so ...
How would you get it all started?
An advertisement in the local paper to the effect that a new kind of
slimming group was available at AMIGOS would bring the women
running; or walking perhaps. And I think one might have to form a group
that I call 'Phone Friends', people with a telephone who'd be prepared to
help one another out the way the Samaritans help those in despair,. but in
a wider sphere you know, someone who's tempted to have a cigarette or
eat a plate of biscuits would ring a friend and talk and talk instead of
puffing or munching. And that could lead to the development of the first
anti-cigarette group, the first slimming group, and so on. Then off we go.
Any facilities for sports?
Ideally, yes; and for dramatics, encounter groups, and so on. And this
might be easy in some community centres. But it's not essential. Ideally
one would like, say, a swimming pool the way the Peckham Centre had
one many years ago; though that would be a luxury - and certainly I
would not want the doctor-run clinics that Peckham had.
Anything else?
Yes, some young people (say, aged 18 to 22), working in the community
already, intelligent but who had not been to university, with warmth and
empathy; to be called CHEs, which stands for Community Health
Educators. They'd act as sources of information for the Centres. If, say, no
men were coming to the slimming groups, or the anti-cigarette groups
were weak, we'd ask the CHEs to find out why, and they'd nose around
and then report back. We'd give them a follow-up service - whatever they
wanted within reason, a newsletter and so on - after an initial quick first-
aid cum health-education course. These, of course, are the barefoot
doctors, westernised version: one can at least see if the idea wiII work
here.
And you, where do you come into this?
As little as possible. I'd like to be invisible, or almost so. I want to start a
couple of Centres, find a place for them, choose the nurses who'll
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 120

oversee them (the AYAHs, as I call these nurses - which means 'Aide to
Your Action on Health'), get the literature, and then let them rip. I don't
want to be Big Brother or 'The Doctor'. I want to be a shadow. I want no
hierarchical pyramids, no bosses, no miraculous expertise that will enable
one to tell people exactly what to do. I haven't got any of that, and
neither has any other doctor most of the time. I want people, including
doctors, to help one another - and to find out how they can best do that.
And the money for all this?
There'd be small charges for the refreshments and for membership of the-
groups. People value what they have to pay something for, however little.
And I have promises from one or two sources of health literature, and of
some help with the monitoring research that would obviously be needed,
and so on. (We'd have to look at changes in attitudes to unhealthy habits,
changes in the habits, and finally changes in disease prevalence.) The
main part of the cash I haven't got yet; and I'm not quite sure I ever shall
get it
Why not?
Because the almost reflex response of the charities I've been to is 'Which
University Department of Social Medicine/Community Medicine/
Epidemiology is sponsoring you?' Now I know a number of people in all
those fields who are interested in AMIGOS, and who would - or I think
would - certainly sponsor the project. But I am trying to break or at least
to alter the system (not that there aren't plenty of cracks to be seen in the
superstructure already). Can one ask the system, the establishment, to
help produce its own radical, perhaps painful transformation? Ought one
to? Is it permissible? I don't know. Also I'm not, of course, keen on letting
the establishment take over AMIGOS - which might be the price of
sponsorship - because it could also be the kiss of death.
So what do you propose to do?
I'd like, while trying to resolve that central dilemma of sponsorship and
because one has to do some breaking down before one begins to build -
I'd like to start an antimedical-journal. One that was critical both of
medicine - or at any rate of those aspects of it that I've criticised here -
and of the medical journals it succours and that sustain it in turn. Perhaps
to be called New Medicine.
For the AMIGOS people?
No, for doctors and medical scientists and nurses and so on, plus medical
and paramedical students. This would provide a philosophy, a rationale, a
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 121

mystique for the AMIGOS thing while the Centres themselves would
provide the action. I'd really like it to cover the intelligent laity as well -
but I'm told, firstly, that you can't talk simultaneously to the laity and
doctors (which I simply do not believe), and secondly that a lay journal
costs the earth to launch, which I do believe. Perhaps, in time, there'd be
a separate journal for the laity - especially the less intelligent laity, the
people w· o matter.
And what's it going to consist of, this anti·medical-journal?
Well, the Royal Society of Medicine Library takes over 2,500 journal
titles. This is not the fault of the Society, of course: it is the victim of the
system. But 2,500 is sheer lunacy. We could probably manage perfectly
well without 2,000 of them. My anti-medical-journal would wake up the
students and para-medics by abstracting humorously or wittily the articles
in a range of medical journals that seem almost totally irrelevant to health
(they're usually ego-gratifiers for the authors), or by juxtaposing abstracts -
for example, one about the cost of the very latest in our doubtfully
beneficial coronary care units with one about the miserable amounts
spent on early prevention of coronary heart disease. It might even alert
some of the doctors. New Medicine would also have abstracts of positive
articles, pointing out a better way - on early prevention, for instance: the
kind of thing we'd be practising in the AMIGOS Centres. Not the usual
dry-as-dust abstracts, which have put so many abstract journals out of
business, but live ones with a message for live people - though always
technically accurate and just.
Anything else to the journal?
Well, we might start getting original articles after a bit; or rather, original
antiarticles. And some sharp cartoons and other illustrations relevant to
the main themes. And we'd have leaders, of course, and letters, and
abstracts of letters in other journals (their letters are often more
informative than their articles - because the original articles have got so
high-priestly). And news about the wider ecological scene as a matrix.
After all, doctors have played some part in causing overpopulation, and if
anybody starts throwing plutonium about, it'll hit doctors the same as
everyone else. My journal would be a cross between Lancet, Private Eye,
and, say, the New Yorker: technical expertise plus sharpness plus style. All
I want is the journalistic moon, in other words.
And what are its chances?
Well, perhaps better than the chances for AMIGOS, though people tell
me it's silly to think of launching any new journal in the present
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 122
economic climate. But, in fact, it'", that climate makes the need for such
a journal starkly obvious, in my opinion. The time is ripe for somebody to
start taking the mickey out of high-technology, institutionalised medicine,
as part of a larger anti-institution endeavour. Ivan IIlich thinks much the
best way to alter institutions is to make fun of them. Indeed, he has more
than once suggested that we need a journal of just this type; and he has a·
reed to be the patron of New Medicine. Are you more keen on the
journal than on the Centres?
Yes, I think I am: partly because it is more in my line of country than is
AMIGOS, partly because I think perhaps the gospel has to be preached
before one starts building the churches. And oddly enough, those most
taken with the idea of the journal are some very hard-bitten types in the
medical publishing field.
So it might take off?
It might, though I doubt it will make all that much difference - because
we live in a profoundly unhealthy society, unhealthy in the deepest sense.
I mean our Western, materialistic, technologico-scientific industrial
society, Communist or capitalist It's clearly, I think, headed for disaster,
mega·disaster complete with an assortment of high priests, its own effete
aristocracy, mendicants, and woe-criers - Iike me. We're all in it together.
And the only solution is probably 'religious' - in very large inverted
commas.
But why bother to try anything if you're so pessimistic?
Realistic is perhaps a better word. Why? - For the sake of my children;
and yours, and the next man's; and for the sake of their children in turn.
We must hope for salvation. As Illich says, 'salud' means both health and
salvation. I try for health: I hope for salvation. IIlich says about the after-
life that he hopes for it but doesn't expect it. He hopes for a surprise on
his death-bed. I think man kind is on its death-bed - I hope it's going to
get a surprise .
The Alternative Society, 9 Morton Avenue Kidlington. Oxford
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 123

• • • • • • • • • • • •
REVIEWS + SMALL ADS
BETTER RED THAN DEVOLVED
The Red Paper on Scotland. 368 pp. £1.60 from bookshops or EUSPB, 1
Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW.
"Any study of Scotland today must start from where the people are, the
realities of day to day living, extremes of wealth and poverty, unequal
opportunities at work, in housing, health, education and community
living generally." So begins the Red Paper on Scotland.
Deprivation and lack of adequate social provisions are widespread
throughout the UK. But Scotland has more than its 'fair' share of social
problems·and economic deprivation and less than its 'fair' share of
housing, educational and employment opportunities, social and welfare
facilities and general economic prosperity. Successive Governments have
classified large areas of Scotland as 'development' regions, yet the
unemployment rate in Scotland remains up to three times higher than that
of the South East of England even in times of economic boom. Twenty-
three per cent of the Scottish people (1\4 million) live at, or just above,
the poverty line. One in ten houses in Scotland are substandard, the
percentage of children of working class parents in Scottish Universities is
decreasing to a level probably below that of the 1920's, and there is an
incidence of rickets in Glasgow slums. As Richard Bryant's article in the
Paper points out, it would take an extra 41p per person per year to raise
Scotland's social services merely to the average position of England and
Wales. This situation is no accident. It is, as the Red Paper attempts to
show, deeply entrenched and is a result of the whole economic and
social structure of the West - a result of the ways in which capitalism
concentrates its power and investments\';· · and bleeds whole areas dry
without even attempting to cover up the wounds adequately.
Tho Highlands, where 9% of the population own 64% of the land, have
their share of [he problems. Carter in his article raises t· e problem of
basing a socialist strategy for the Highlands on land issues. The power of
the Highland landlords is based on land, and any strategy must challenge
that he· · m\.'I1Y. Secondly, the idea of industrial development, equated
with · high technology, must also be challenged. He emphasizes the need
for an intermediate technology, where self-sufficiency could be achieved
by more intensive use of the Highlands' labour and land resources- the
same preconditions as the Chinese model. He emphasizes that such a
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 124
strategy for decentralisation can only be viable if combined with altering

the structures of inequality.
Scotland's problems are gaining recognition, but solutions reflect a
superficial analySiS of these problems and many are based on the
popular myth 'from rags to riches' - where the discovery of oil is seen as
Scotland's liberator. But the bulk of the oil industry is in American hands
and the 'oil boom has not meant increased prosperity or higher living
standards for most Scots. Rather it has meant soaring prices, inadequate
amenities, social dislocation, hazardous conditions of work for the
people involved in the industry. (200 have died so far in the North Sea
Industry, according to North Sea Oil Action Committee). This parallels the
experience of exploited peoples in colonies throughout history. Despite
promises, neither the SNP's nor Labour's policies represent a challenge to
this situation. Smith analyses the 'Political Economy of North Sea Oil' and
discusses the implications of oil as a fuel, or as a supply of raw material
for one of the world's growing industries- the petrochemical industry. He
shows, for example, how the pharmaceutical industry in Britain is
presently dominated by mainly US monopoly prices, and an anti-
monopoly alliance of Trade Unions and community groups. This
emphasis on community action runs through the book and seems to
reflect a kind of neo-syndicalism which appears to be growing in
Scotland in the form of increased demands for workers' control and
community democracy.
The Scottish experience of deprivation in the midst of affluence and
heightened aspirations, the false promise of a boom through oil, and
alienation from a centralised and bureaucratic Westminster government,
together begin to explain the recent dramatic rise of Scottish Nationalism.
But what would Independence really mean for the Scottish people?
Independence on'the basis of oil would lead to less independence for the
Scottish economy rather than more. We would be essentially a single
commodity-producing country, subservient to the wishes of the multi-
national corporations and living on borrowed time, for neither
the supply of oil nor the demand will last forever. Moreover, the social
democratic solutions advocated by the Scottish Nationalist Party have
proved themselves powerless to bring fundamental change. Inequalities
of wealth and power continue to persist everywhere in the Free
World' (including Scandinavia). Like Burnett, we would ask how and why
a Scottish social democracy can succeed where others have failed. When
the question of freedom for Scotland is raised we must ask: Freedom from
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 125

whom and from what? In answering these questions we realise that

independence without socialism brings little more than a nominal
"change of government, as the example of Eire shows.
The traditional parties have responded to Nationalism with the promise of
devolution, but as McGrath says: "Devolution is a game that Waddingtons
ought to patent 'You have gained a minor Concession. Collect £50 and
wait 5 years before your next throw. Your minor Concession produced a
boring incompetent Assembly. Devolution Discredited. Pay £50 back and
lose 10000000 votes:."
Reform through the SNP or Westminster clearly offers us no solution, for
capitalism is the root cause of Scotland's economic and social problems.
Massive structural change is needed if we are to create real alternatives to
what exists now,: and we must not underestimate the problems - or the
potential in contemporary Scotland. Brown puts it succinctly in his
introduction to the Red Paper: "What appear to be contradictory features
of Scottish life today - militancy and apathy, cynicism and a thirst for
change
- can best be understood as working people's frustration with and refusal
to accept powerlessness, and lack of control over blind social forces
which determine their lives. It is a disenchantment which underlines an
untapped potential for co-operative action upon which we must build."
Edinburgh Science for People
71 South Clerk Street, Edinburgh
DIALECTICAL CALGACUS
Calgacus, No.1. Winter 74/5. Ed:
Ray Burnett. West Highland Publishing Co. 64 pp. 40p. (SSp by post).
subscription: £3 for six.
SOME PEOPLE say that Nationalism plus Socialism equals National
Socialism; in the case of Scotland, it may well be that Nationalism
without Socialism will degenerate into Fascism. The aim of Calgacus is to
prevent such a process and at the same time to act as 'an unaligned but
committed forum' for the Scottish left.
Coming from the same stable as the West Highland Free Press the
excellent quality is to be expected, although the drab cover may
discourage the casual buyer. For three years, the Free Press has printed
local news, weddings. sport, regular columns (some in Gaelic). longer
articles which seek to expose the motives underlying the words and acts
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 126
of government,
big business, the military, landowners and developers, as these affect the
local scene; those who believe that the ruling class is a figment of Marxist
imagination could learn much from West Coast daily life. Careful
investigation, material from a diversity of sources and an extensive letters
section ensures that the local readership is not alienated by crude Marxist
dogmatics.
Calgacus$. however, is clearly aimed at the intellectual left. This issue is
about Politics and the Law, an attempt to show how the
'impartial' ,processes of Law are used to implement Government policy.
Articles on internment in Northern Ireland seek to underline its use as a
laboratory for techniques of containment, which could just as easily be
used against rebellious elements in England or Scotland. Further
emphasis is placed on this article with articles on the 'Shrewsbury Two'
the BWNIC 14, and the trials of one Scots and one Welsh 'extremist'. Are
they the thin end of the wedge?
Some will be surprised that a Scottish Review contains only three main
articles directly about Scottish issues, whereas eight others concern
England, Ireland or Brittany. Obviously, there is no intention to allow
Nationalism to split the solidarity of English and Scots people. Future
issues will undoubtedly reflect this solidarity. There is also a growing
awareness of Celtic connections, similarities in the situations in Scotland,
Wales, Brittany and Ireland and their likeness to the colonialism and neo-
colonialism in the Third World. The
Celtic left could become a significant force for change in the future.
Apart from one article from Rob Gibson, there is no attempt to woo the
"Scots Nats". World Socialism is still the first aim, but now there is a
recognition that cultural uniformity is not part of that. There are
characteristic differences in the Scottish economy and power structure
and there is such a thing as a Scottish culture. All this is willingly
acknowledged, but the woolly·minded, apolitical stance of the SNP is not
accepted.
The magazine's commitment to the Arts is real; almost a third of the
magazine is given to poetry, a good short story, an interview with the
Breton musician. Alan Stivell, an account of the work of the 19th century
Gaelic poetess Mairi Mhor nan Oran, reviews of poetry, records and
books. Forthcoming issues will cover Scottish theatre and include an
events listing.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 127

Essential reading for Scottish radicals, will Calgacus be of interest to other

Under·currents readers? Clearly it is not for that portion of the readership
who throw up their hands in horror at the merest mention of words like
class, repression or exploitation. True enough the heavy hand of'
authoritarian socialism,is in evidence: Brian Trench tries to explain why
the left should continue to support the Provos, in spite of recent
bombings; and there are two articles praising the UNB, a revolutionary
Breton 'nationalist' party which accepts centralised party democracy, and
rejects spontaneity and libertarian ideals. The bulk of the articles (such as
Bob Purdie on Kitsonism) give a welcome dose of realism, and reject the
myth of Britain as a country whose government and army act decently
and humanely and which unwillingly accepted the burden of Northern
Ireland. The line taken is that this is just the latest in a long line of
colonial situations where troops, special powers acts, boot, baton and
torture are used to frighten and control not just 'extremists' but entire
indigenous populations. Perhaps we still can't envisage such methods of
control in action in England or Scotland, but it perhaps wouldn't take
much in the way of economic or ecological crisis plus a few extremist
bombings from left or right to tip the balance.
The editorial ends with a prescient remark; "It is over 50 years since the
tanks rolled into Glasgow and the State deployed the military against
striking Scottish workers. It is unlikely to be another 50 years before we
see it again". Not 50 years but several weeks later the Glasgow dustmen’s
strike was broken by troops. Tanks were not used but if a 'socialist'
government and a 'socialist' provost can use troops in strike-breaking,
then a future Tory administration may well he tempted to be a bit tougher.
The WHFP also has two excellent community papers, the West Highland
Free Press and the new Fort William Free Press, each weekly. Subs are £5
per year or £250 for six months. They're at Breakish, Isle of Skye,
Scotland. Mike Grey
TAKING THE LAW INTO YOUR OWN HANDS

Legal Frameworks Handbook - for communes and collectives. SOp from
laurieston Hall, Castle Douglas, Kirkudbrightshire. 40pp.
MANY PEOPLE are easily put off by the thought of legalistic rigmarole
and small print. But if you want to avoid inequality in your collective as
far as property ownership goes you'll need a legal framework. And you
can do all the work yourselves in setting it up so don't be shy: get
yourselves a bespoke framework with the aid of this booklet! The booklet
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 128
is the outcome of a conference held at laurieston Hall in 1974 and has

been written by people at laurieston with assistance from Robin Fielder of
RadTech and Trevor Howell of People in Common amongst others. It
deals with arguments for and against the various types of legal entities
(trusts, companies, housing associations, etc.) as well as financial
problems such as raising money, and has a section of suggestions for
internal rules for communities. There are many examples of actual cases
of communities using the various types of framework, and a set of model
rules for a housing association is included. There is an excellent
bibliography. So this is an extremely meaty and well written little book. If
you're about to set up a commune or any sort of collective enterprise
where you'll be owning property communally it will go a long way tQ
helping you sort out the various legal problems. I understand that future
editions will cover legal frameworks for alternative work projects. It is
also hoped to have a conference at Laurieston Hall about this in the
winter. If you're interested or have any practical information to offer write
to Dave Treanor at Laurieston.
Peter Cockerton
MAKING TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING

Transcendental Meditation. Jack Forero. £3.50 George Allen & Unwin.
There is an Indian story: After 12 years of ascetic life and deep meditation
a yogi found the truth and experienced enlightenment. God Vishnu, the
protector of the. world, then became worried lest 'maya' (the illusions of
this world) should disappear from the earth .and the whole purpose of
'samsara' (the cycle of birth and death) should become meaningless. He
called all the angels and devils to him and asked their advice. The devil
god said he would deal with the matter and he went to the enlightened
one disguised as a young Brahmin disciple. He begged to be allowed to
spread the message of enlightenment all over the world for the benefit of
everyone. Receiving neither objection nor assent from the yogi, the devil
went ahead and created an organisation with millions of disciples. He
came back to God Vishnu and told him that there was no further need for
him to worry.
The western managers of Maharshi seem to be fulfilling the same role.
Reading the 17 page evangelical introduction to Forem's book one can't
help feeling that the movement is much more interested in perpetuating
itself than in the real experience of meditation. The movement aims to
have 3.6 million teachers throughout the world - at the moment they have
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 129
4000. (The emphasis seems to be on quantity rather than quality). Yet I am

sure there are more than 3.6 million religious\teachers already in
existence and the world is no nearer to religious enlightenment The days
of organised religion are over. Little spirituality is to be found in the
institutions of religion-and huge ambitious organisations can only
obscure the simple nature of meditation. Especially when almost every
organisation and sect seems to believe that it knows the truth and its way
is the only way. The author of this book is no exception. He claims that
TM produces beneficial effects immediately and cumulatively and brings
happiness to all. In my view if anybody is practising meditation to find
happiness that is the surest way to cause unhappiness. Happiness must be
followed by unhappiness as day is followed by night. At the deepest level
of consciousness there is no such thing as happiness or unhappiness there
is only the blissful union of all opposites. But it you want to sell an
organisation the most superficial gimmick is to say we have the means or
techniques for your happiness, come to us". The author tries to show the
value of meditation by alluding to pseudo-scientific experiments
conducted with the aid of mechanical instruments which only prove the
obvious. Spiritual realisation is a science in its own right and it must be
understood by experiencing it as Teilhard de Chardin and Aurobindo'
were able to do. But when the author tries to convince us that meditation
is good because certain physiologists and psychologists have said so, he
appears to think that if TM were not accepted by objective scientists it
would be of less value. I would argue that the whole division between
science and spirituality is an artificial one_ Both those who think that
only objective proof is valid and those who believe that only faith is valid
are wandering among half truths_ Meditation can help to unite the
objective and subjective. There is no need to think in terms of the
superiority of the one or the other. Scientists without spiritual awareness
of the whole have put forward partial solutions to this problem or that
problem and ecological catastrophe. On the other hand, spiritual souls
have often ignored the social and material realities of life. Perhaps the
new consciousness, through meditation, will be able to unite the two. But
in movements like TM there is little hope for such union.
Realisation of the self and awareness of the whole being is inherent in
Meditation. If this is not happening then one has to conclude that
meditation is not taking place. There are as many ways and techniques of
meditation as there are individuals practising it. All meditation is
transcendental: there is no one Transcendental Meditation'. Non-
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 130

transcendental meditation is not meditation. The senses are subtle, the

mind is more subtle but the intellect is the most subtle. When one is able
to go beyond, utterly beyond, these three subtle levels one reaches a very
deep level of consciousness and that is meditation. The TM movement
has initiated many people into meditation but I don't believe that TM
will save the world at a stroke as the author would like us to believe.
Satish Kumar
• Aurobindo footnote: Aurobindo was an Indian poet. philosopher and
physicist. He was active as a guerilla fighter against the British and
escaped to Pondicherry which was at that time a French colony. He
founded Aurobindo Ashram where he practised meditation for many
years. Aurobindo Ashram is now a world spiritual centre.
UNDERGROUND MAP
The Survivalists. Patrick Rivers. Eyre Methuen £7.75. 224 pp.
EVERV NOW and then books emerge which try to describe what's
happening in the underground sub-<:culture. They often have an
immense impact - people are always keen to find out how the other half
live.
Patrick Rivers has attempted to document the activities of individuals and
groups who are, in response to impending ecological crisis, tinkering
with alternative technology, community self-sufficiency and alternative
life styles - he calls them survivalists. He correctly sees this as a multi-
stranded movement made up partly of those with a radical critique of
current modes of social and technological organisation and partly of
those seeking individual security, peace, and metaphysical enlightenment
One way to assess a book like this is in terms of its aim - which is
apparently to communicate with the man in the street. Unfortunately it
seems to have been assumed that to do this requires a racy, journalistic
style, reminiscent of the Daily Mail or, more charitably, a colour
supplement article. Perhaps this is necessary, but it makes for
embarrassing reading at times. The reader is taken on rapid tour of various
projects - BRAD, New Alchemists, Laurieston Hall and so on - a trip
interspersed with facts, figures, chunks of theory, commentary and
analysis. This material is often presented in an uncritical technically and
politically naive way, and
sometimes with an over-rhetorical pompous! flourish. But despite (or
perhaps because of) the book's visionary enthusiasm it may succeed in
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 131
convincing individual newcomers that there are real alternatives to the

present social and environmental impasse - even if it provides no real
strategy for the transition en mass. Despite the journalistic style there is a
lot of information and some convincing arguments tucked away in this
book - and it is backed up by a fairly comprehensive source guide and
bibliography. The author certainly takes pains to relate to his audience -
he maintains, at least initially,
a sort of personal detachment, if not objectivity, which should appeal to
the uncommitted but interested reader.
There is a love-hate relationship throughout. the book with the values of
the counter culture. u •.• they were not all young and stoned, and it was
not strictly necessary to grow a beard and eat brown rice to feel at ease
with them ...... This culminates in the author's eventual capitulation: he
and his wife are attempting to set up a small self sufficient farm. Whether
the same magic will work on his readers is unclear. Many people are
terrified by the future: books like this which offer a positive, hopeful and
non-technocratic alternative must be of some use. But if we are to go
beyond recognizing this alternative as a possibility, and on to creating it
as a reality, then we will need better guides than this.
CHEAP SLAVES ARE SO HARD TO COME BY NOWADAYS

World Energy Strategies by Amory B. Lovins, Friends of the Earth 1975.
131 pp. £2.50 + 15p p&p from FOE L ., 9 Poland Street, London WI V
30G. ($5 in the U.S.A. from FOE Inc.).
This excellent book is a powerful counterblast to the lies and propaganda
put out by the P R men of the energy lobby and faithfully reported by the
straight press hacks. Lovins is not concerned with the immediate tactical
question of how to deal with the Arabs or how many reactors to build this
year but with long term strategy: what possibilities are open to us from
about 19S5 onwards, how can
we choose between them, and what should we do now (and more
important not do) to make the transition to a sustainable energy economy.
Our rulers, of course, aren't thinking about these problems at all. Their
'policy' is to use up our existing reserves as quickly as possible and then
to rely on fast breeder reactors. They have no idea what to do if these
monsters prove to be so dangerous or inefficient that they can't be used.
50 we have to do their thinking for them, with only a fraction of their
resources, and this book is an example of what can be done. Lovins
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 132

surveys the whole field with admirable brevity but with an extensive list
of references, particularly for the more contentious parts. The first chapter,
on energy conversion, starts with a particularly striking fact: world energy
conversion is equivalent to giving each one of us 50 slaves at his elbow.
The trouble is, not only is the supply of cheap slaves running out, but
some people have more than others: an American has 300, a Briton
200 and a Frenchman a mere 100. Nigerians have just over one each.
This is a good way to look at energy problems: human labour time and
concentrated energy are the two
primary inputs to our economic life. Our wasteful affluence has been
achieved by substituting energy for labour time in every sphere of life as
though it were a free good. If this substitution is going to have to stop or
be reversed we are going to have to do some hard thinking about what
tasks we will set our energy slaves and what we will do ourselves.
Subsequent chapters deal with the main sources of energy: fossil, nuclear
and renewable. There is a chapter on the physical and financial
constraints on the deployment of new energy technologies, one on the
technologies of conversion, storage and supply, and one on energy
conservation. There is plenty of scope here; the 200-odd million
Americans use more electricity for airconditioning than 800-odd million
Chinese use for everything!
Having given the facts, Lovins then considers some of the issues that need
to be settled in the political arena; the skewed distribution of energy
sources and use; the risks of accidents more terrible than anything we
have yet seen (for example, an exploding tanker of liquefied natural gas
equivalent to 55 Hiroshima bombs); and the ethics of committing
posterity to looking after our nuclear wastes for the rest of history. Finally
he sets out his conclusions which make a good foundation for the
construction of an energy policy -
(a) rapid energy growth cannot continue much longer;
(b) most technical fixes that increase
energy supply are slow, cOstly, risky and temporary; most social or
technical fixes that reduce energy demand are fairly quick, cheap, safe
and permanent;
(c) means of minimising the social and environmental costs of using coal
are urgently needed;
(d) renewable sources of energy should be developed;
(e) nuclear programmes should be suspended until enough infallible
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 133
people can be found to operate them for the next few hundred thousand
years (a hereditary caste of priests, perhaps?);
(f) oil and gas reserves should be used as late and as slowly as possible;
(g) we should change our lifestyles so that we can live happily with fewer
slaves at our beck and call;
(h) technical aid should be given to Third World countries to help them
exploit their local renewable energy sources;
(i) Third World countries should not try to develop energy intensive
industries; conventional economic analysis is an inadequate tool for
policymaking when non-renewable resources are involved.
Not bad thinking for a bourgeois liberal still trying very much to work
within the system. For a more radical view, hopefully the English version
of the Swedish A Low Energy Society - But How? (see
UC 9) will be out in the Autumn. What we really need is someone to
consider the problems of this country in detail and work out how we
might make the transition. That is, if we're really serious about stopping
Walter Marshall littering our shores with derelict Fast Breeder Reactors.
Finally a word about the price of this book (£2.50 for 131 pages, 30 of
which are blank or nearly 50). Comparing it with other similar books
recently published, I reckon that it is at least twice as expensive as it need
be. The result will be that instead of the mass sale that this book deserves,
the only people who will buy it will be the affluent Is this what Friends of
the Earth intend? I was unable to get from them a clear explanation of
why they hadn't been able to produce a separate British edition in
partnership say with Penguin who would surely have snapped it up. I got
the distinct impression that they weren't too worried about the price.
Lovins himself remarked that the book was still good value because it
contained so much information not available elsewhere! This is just not
good enough. Our rulers will only adopt a sane energy policy when
public opinion forces them to. So the first duty of a campaigning
organisation like FOE must be to get the message out as cheaply as
possible to every corner of the land. One has the uneasy feeling that they
are more at home lobbying the powerful in the corridors of Whitehall.
Chris Hutton Squire
THE BATTLE OF THE BUBBLE

A Review/History/Gripe/Grope/Hope/ltold-you-so by Peter Harper (no
kin), of New Times, Class War Comix No.1., by Cliff Harper, Epic
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 134
Productions, 76 Peckham Rd, SE5; 25p.

IT ALL STARTED for me a few years ago when I was introduced to a funny
man with a twinkle in his eye and some xeroxes under his arm. He
turned out to be Cliff Harper. I went to see his etchings of life after the
Revolution: a collection of remarkable. drawings intended for a series of
comic books. At that time there weren't very many drawings but their
potential seemed extraordinary. The world depicted in them was like
scenes out of News 'from Nowhere: sunny, clean-looking countryside
with Beautiful People riding horses. running windmills, living in
communes in idyllic Tudor mansions, and wearing medieval costume.
There was something about the grainy texture that made it seem extra-
vivid, like old Buster Keaton films. The style was in a way straightforward,
but had a static, even monumental, character which made time move
slower. I suppose it wasn't really art, whatever that is; more a kind of
inspired draftsmanship in which virtually everything in that new world
was derived from real things in this world: the people, the furniture, the
buildings, the tools and machines were all precisely copied. All the
'items' were very carefully selected for their visual or symbolic qualities,
and although the composition of the pictures was superb, there was little
sense of flow within or between the frames: each was a self-sufficient
tableau of discrete elements in a crystalline, intellectual world of symbols
where people seemed rather mechanical and machines seemed almost
human. This may seem rather arid, but I really dug the purity of it all. In
particular, because there were no words, each frame was full of
possibilities, and one's fancy could roam freely, investing personal
dreams in a relatively impersonal frame·work.
Of course, it wasn't by any means completely open. There was a general
plot: the scene was set after the revolution', and a Leninist party was in
power in the cities. The groovy people in the pictures were supposed to
be keeping the red and black flag flying in the countryside. For me, as an
amateur utopian and eco-freak, it was irresistible: an amazing dreamy
world of anarchist collectives doing their romantic, rural, ecological AT
thing. Imagination had indeed seized power. I was hooked.
I promised to help Cliff get the thing published. He could never make up
his mind whether to do it through a straight publisher, with all the hassles
that would involve, not to mention the principle of the thing; or to try and
go it alone, with the even worse hassles that would involve. We took the
xerox samples of No.1 New Times around to various publishers and
agents, and they all said lovely pictures, ducky, bring it back when you've
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 135

done the words".

The words, the words. In retrospect, it was crazy to do the pictures before
the words, but Cliff trucked on with frame after frame, leaving carefully
sculpted bubbles of protoverbal utopiary. The plot got more detailed and
the sequence of frames more or less fixed. We spent happy hours arguing
about what the hell was going on in each frame and why, and how it
linked up with the rest, and the personalities and roles of the characters
and so on. It became a question of creating words and shoehorning them
into the pre-existing bubbles. Cliff asked Will Pollard to do a set of words,
and he did. But Cliff didn't fancy them for some reason and produced a
working set himself. They were more or less dreadful. Meanwhile I took
to wandering round with xerox copies of the virtually complete but
wordless frames, showing them to people and asking their opinions. That
was the high point for me: an indefinite richness of possibilities in a
wordless state of becoming. Maybe we should have left it at that But to do
so would have been culture and not Propaganda, so words it had to be.
What sort of words would fit? Perhaps to counterbalance the static
pictures, extrazappy fast-moving words were needed? Or should they be
formal to match the pictures? Should they be explicit and heavily
political, or funny and allusive, leaving it
to hints and symbols to get the message over? I felt rather strongly that
they should be Iike snatches of overheard conversation, but it was terribly
hard to tell in advance what would be averagely best for the average
reader coming at the whole thing cold. Our friend Bernard Seal worked
with Cliff on the working version, and they finally came up with a version
that had all the right content, but which I felt rather unhappy about. It was
like a failed toad-in-the-hole, with certain goodie sausages of inspiration
in a turgid matrix of hectoring. humourless rhetoric. I suggested
reworking it to make it more colloquial and Cliff agreed, but even this
version was crummy.
I reckoned it was better to wait. But we'd been hanging around for
months dithering over the words, and one day, unable to stand it any
longer, Cliff went ahead and inked in his own divers'-booted words
anyway. Obstinate bugger.
Meanwhile, we had decided to publish it ourselves, and Bernard and t
had managed to borrow some money from longsuffering friends and well-
wishers for publishing It was
all ready for printing bar a few details. At the last moment it was pointed
out by Ame, Cliffs wife, that the fellers in the story were doing all the
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 136
talking. It was too late for major redrawing or moving bubbles about, so
Dr. Cliff set to work on a bit of crude but clever plastic surgery with his
Rotring. The resulting sex-changes added a number of hefty-looking dykes
to an already rather androgynous population, but restored the proper
balance.
Cliff had also prepared an 8-page synopsis of the whole series of six
comics, outlining the basic story of each. This is helpful to read in order
to get No.1 in its proper perspective, particularly as it shows that only the
first three are set in the country, the last three being about the struggle in
the cities. It also lists sources that have particularly influenced Cliff,
including works of Kropotkin, Berkman and Serge; Lotta Continua's Take
Over the City; Seymours' Self Sufficiency; A Blueprint for Survival;' and of
course News From Nowhere. The synopsis was printed separately, and a
condensed version appears inside the front cover of New Times. Black
Wedge in Brighton did a lovely job of the printing, and we sat back to see
what would happen.
And what did happen? Well, to cut a long story short, it just didn't work.
Most of my worst fears were confirmed. Of course it depends what
criteria you think apply, but generally speaking it's been a failure. In
retrospect I think this arises from a series of misconceptions about the
comic form, but before I get into that, there's the more basic question of
who it's supposed to be for. There's a phrase on the front of the synopsis
about how the series · i11 become available to the people'. So who are
the people? Cliff had a quaint notion that workers all over the country
would be queuing up to buy it Rather touching, really,but in event its
readership was obviously restricted to freaks and middle class
intellectuals', if only on account of the channels of distribution. But they
didn't appreciate it either, by and large. Cliff put his finger on it one day
when he said sadly, I· There's something for everybody to hate". And that
indeed is how it seems to have gone. Apolitical freaks are put off by the
adapted Russian Revolution poster on the cover and the title 'Class War
Comix'; pacifists object to phrases like 'the people arm themselves';
tough·minded radicals are put off by the rural romanticism; literati are
offended by the leaden words; and for sophisticates and anybody with a
vestigial sense of the ridiculous, there is something undeniably auto-
satirical about New Times (like Radio 3 announcers when you're stoned):
this permitted New Society's reviewer his savagely mocking review, and
persuaded some people at BIT that the whole thing was produced by the
Special Branch.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 137

Before this experience I hadn't-really thought about what comics were

and how they worked, although I had been very interested in them as a
medium of propaganda and collected examples such as Rius' Los
Agachados in Mexico, 'Our Norman' in Socialist Worker, and the brilliant
'A Proper Place' printed by Community Press in Islington a couple of
years ago. Looking back over these, and comparing them with Superman
on one side and New Times on the other, it seems that the medium and
habits of reading it have grown up together and difficulties arise if the
conventions are not followed. Basically, people seem to read the words
very quickly, using the pictures simply as a context. Elaborate drawings
and exact details are unnecessary or may even impede the rapid flow of
the action. They need to be simple and dramatic. Messages can be
conveyed, but they need to be an honest part of the story, or carried in
symbols and allusions.
New Times seems to misjudge the medium on many of these points.
Zipping through the words in the usual manner, one tends to overlook the
fine points of the drawings which are after all the main element of the
work. Going through at a slower pace, the static Qualities of the pictures
strike one as incongruous. And the density of frames and bubbles is rather
lower than most comics, so one gets to the end feeling that not enough
has happened. For the same reason, the attempt to explain complex
political positions in such a restricted space is by the end merely
frustrating. And as a means of disseminating ideas in a popular medium,
the words are too heavy and didactic, and the symbols seem to be too
subtle or unappealing (the Vietnamese anarchist heroine, the 'armed love'
motif on the child's sweater, the red and black flag on the roof, the video-
tape recorder lying on the floor, the Paris '68 poster in the workshop, the
Elizabethan bisexual musicians' commune [wow! I etc). For such reasons
it doesn't work as a comic in the conventional sense. Could it work in
another way? To me it invites recognition as a fine piece of craftsmanship,
setting forward ideas in a considered manner. In such context the symbols
could become significant and fascinating and the drawings appreciated
for what they are. Unfortunately this possibility is itself marred by the
attempted comic form. The words, and even the bubbles themselves,
distract one from the pictures and prevent one from climbing into the
possibilities of that crisp and fantastic world. Specific efforts to mimic
comic conventions (such as emphasis for dramatic effect) come over as
merely crass ('We're developing a new fuel system, based on WIND
GENERATED ELECTROLYTIC HYDROGEN!'). With a different style of
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 138

words, it might possibly have worked. After all, some frames (the sausages
... ) are superb and show what could be done.
So what should be done in later numbers? No doubt Cliff will tread his
own path if he feels he should, whatever anyone says. But we have fallen
between two stools with New Times. We must either do real comics,
zappy and ephemeral; or get into loving craftsmanship with pretensions
to immortality. The attempt to do both has failed. In my opinion Cliff
could not do real comics without literally changing his spots. This would
be a waste of formidable talent and (by now) experience. I vote for the
Hoch Kultur solution. Anybody got any ideas? It might be better to shift
the burden of exposition to slabs of text at the beginning or the end,
freeing the bubbles from heavy rhetoric and allowing them to follow the
promptings of whimsy, drama, poesy, or what we will.
Alternatively, what about the Rupert Bear format, with doggerel couplets
under each frame? No? Anyway with a text somewhere and no bubbles,
allowing the pictures to speak for themselves. This would also have the
effect of making the reader move through the story more slowly, and its
open possibilities would still exist through looking at the pictures alone. I
think we do need cheap, mass-selling propaganda comic-books (as
Orwell called for in his essay on boys' papers), and 'A Proper Place
shows what can be achieved in this direction. But New Times is not in
that category, and I think Cliff's extraordinary gifts are better employed in
carefully crafted visual analogues of the Utopian novel, helping to
maintain supplies of that essential vitamin of the Left - the one that keeps
the juices of the imagination flowing and stops us looking mangy and
losing our teeth - critical but generous visions of how it could be.
A footnote for kids. New Times makes a really great colouring book.
Small Ads:
COMMUNITIES
THE GENESIS COMMUNITY is being born. A detailed proposal defining
the community will go
out In July to upwards of 300 very carefully chosen people, all of whom
are significant to the proJect and most of whom have expressed
considerable Interest In Genesis during the last 12 months. It will be on
the strength of this proposal that some of these will come together as
founder members of the community at a remarkable gathering In
November 1975. Approximately five months later some of us will move
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 139
on site (almost certainly In either New Zealand or Southern Ireland) to

start building a new a9EI community the like of which has not been seen
before, one providing every Imaginable opportunity for human and
spiritual growth, It seems that we have the capacity to do this. Genesis Is
ShOwing" signs of being part community, part network of people, with
locations In AustralasIa, the United States and Britain. If you are Interested
In what we are doing, write to us briefly enclosIng return postage. we
shall ask yOU to answer a very searching Questionnaire before sharing
our elaborate plans further, Keep flowIng! Keep growing! We love you:
The Genesis COmmunity, BM. Genesis, London WC1 V 6XX.
READERS of Undercurrents 10 will remember John Seymours'
article about the Centre of Living In Wales to be set up to enable
would-be small farmers to learn the necessary skills. This scheme
Is now under way and abOut fifteen people are there learning
about the land, plants and animals by working on his farm. He
originally envisaged other farms being bought In the
neighbourhood to provide more land and accommodation. This
has not happened, and while the demand Is there the facilities for
teaching are not. Another[ nearby farm Is badly needed to provide
space for the large numbers of potential students to learn buildIng,
carpentry, blacksmithing andA T projects, A small group within the
Centre Is looking for more capital to buy an adjoining farm, which
Is Ideal In every way for the Centres expansion and as·a productive
unit for occupation by a group Into organic growing and
selfsufficiency. People with money who might want to be part of
this should write to J & J, No. 1 Holway Hill, Taunton, Somerset,
INTERESTED In alternative technology? Interested In developing a totally
new revolutionary POlitics Outside the traditional or libertarIan left? We
are an organisation of revolutionary non-marxists who don't believe In
class struggle, bUt do belle .... In non-centrallst organIsation and
liberation from all roles, both at home and at work. Interested? •••
contact B. M. LEEWAY, London WC1.6XX.
COMMUNE - are you Interested in Joining an established group to form a
10 people unit who are planning to buy a farmhouse In order to progress
from the present 5 person urban commune. Main outlines of commune:
non nuclear, progressive self manufactlve, communards retain "straight"
occupations, radical, communards to contribute approx, £.200 Initially.
write with personal details to R.T. Norton, 257 Legrams Lane, Bradford
BD7 2EJ, West Yorkshire.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 140

I HAVE a farm-house with large garden and out-buildIngs In rural

Aberdeenshlre. I need more people to help build an alternative lifestyle.
Self-sufficiency, education, crafts, meditation are pOssible directions.
Frank Lledwlth, South Wlndhlll, by Maud, by Peterhead, Aberdeenshire,
ECOLOGICALLY INCLINED country male, late 30's, Interests nature, rural
crafts, music and the simple things of life seeks practical and creative
female with similar views to get to know, later perhaps marriage. Box E1,
c/o Undercurrents.
SHELTER
COUPLE SEEK accommodation In seml-communal mixed house In S.W.
London or adjacent areas. Phone Lloyd or Mandy 874 2170.
TO PROSPECTIVE URBAN COMMUNITY: Earth Workshop Community
(+C.A.G.E.) moving out to country would like to sell Its Exeter house to a
Craft - AT - organic based group wishing to mO .... West. Detached
Georgian house with fI .... bedrooms, walled organic garden, semi-
basement workshop, display possibilities In street windows. Good whole
food shOP nearby. Central heating from Baxt Burnall; house Insulated for
low energy living. Reasonable price. Tel. Exeter 79447.
FOR SALE. RADNORSHIRE. Traditional Welsh stone & slate roofed
modernised cottage. Secluded elevated position on Hergest Ridge with
superb rural views. 3/4 bedrooms, kitchen, Iounge, study, bathroom.
Electricity, private water supply, Rayburn, septic tank, telephone. 1112
acres land, grazing, large veg, garden & flowers. Common grazIng rights
for sheep. Poultry house, large shed, outside toilet. woodshed & store
shed. Vehicular access by rough track over common & pedestrian right of
way over neighbouring farm. £'10,000 o.n.o. Tel. Gladestry 640.
WORK
A DIFFERENT KIND OF JOB Interested In new ways of working together?
Want to have more say In your own IIfe? Don't miss the new Issue (No.3)
of In The Making, a directory of proposed productive projects, 1975
edition. From 22 Albert Road, Sheffield 8. Price 22p per copy, Including
post. Subscriptions 60P.
BRAD'S SOLAR ROOF PLAN. Complete do-it-yourself Info (drawings,
costlngs, suppliers,
snags, plumbing, even the electronic control circuitry) for the elegant
canopy that made the New Scientist cover story of September 19th J 974.
8 months hot water (126· , 52 C) for 1p/day; we've had over 21 kilowatts
from our 60 sq.m. roof, And
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 141

at £8/sq.m., It's cheaper than tiles. NO rip-off, 25p plus SAE from BRAD,
Churchstoke, Montgomery, Wales. (Any surplus, we promise, goes to fund
further AT research).
HEDGEHOG HANDING 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. T. J. Willcox, Wheatcroft, Itchlngfleld, Horsham. sussex,
THINKING OF BEEKEEPING
All equipment. Send for list. Honey Producers, 66 High Street,
Malmesbury, Wilts.
COACH HIRE - 41 seater for hire at low rates In London area, Untours,
34 Leamington Rd •• Southall, Mlddx - phone 01 - 5741668.
99.9 PER CENT EXTERMINATED since the onset of farm mechanisation.
Heavy Horse Preservation Society seeks donations of money, unwanted
clothing, used stamps, old postcards, coins, jewellery', to sell for Horse
Rescue Fund for the few survivors, HHPS, Old Rectory, whitchurch.
Salop.
CLAP 4% TAX. NObody Is too poor to pay this tax! Send 17p in stamps
for the latest CLAP handbook - it's a goOd read In its own right, a bi-
monthly directory of alternative-society projects. Pay this tax, or don't
complain if by 1984 there are no revolutionary. imaginative, co-operative
and visionary projects left in this country. Community Levy for Alternative
Projects, c/o BIT.
146 Great Western Road, London W.ll. (tel 01-229 8219) OR DOES
YOUR PROJECT NEED MONEY? If it's community-baSed. concerned
with the environment,
please send for details of how to apply.
BOOKS - Environment, Low Tech, Pollution, Survival etc. Send S,A.E, for
lists. Bogus, 60 Princes Avenue, Hull, Yorks.
SOLAR HEATED BUILDINGS A BRIEF SURVEY. by W.A. Shurcllff 122 pp,
s: 10 (pOstpaid) from Solar Energy Digest, PO Box 17776, California
92117. "This new and enlarged edition of Dr. Shurcliff's continuing
survey provides concise Information on 132 past, present and future
solarheated structures, primarily In the USA but Including a few from
other countries."
COURSES
MIDDLESEX POLYTECHNIC BSc and BSc Honours In Society and
Technology. This four·year sandwich course offers you the opportunity to
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 142
study the natural and social sciences and their Inter·dependence. You can
enter with A·levels 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,
Undercurrents Advertisement Rates.

Small Ads cost 2p per word, up to a maximum of 150 words, although
bigger ads may be acceptable in some cases. Payment must be sent in
advance.
Display Ads (1 page maximum).
Full page (11 in by 7· in) £50.00
Half page (llin by 3'" in, or 7· in by 5V,in) £24.00
Quarter Page (5V,in by 351ain): £11.00
Eighth Page (5V, in by lMin, or 2Min by 35 .... in): £ 5.00
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 143

• • • • • • • • • • • •
Boyle The Undercurrents Wind Generator
WE'VE SPENT most of the summer Ir' ing to iron out the bugs in the
Undercurrents/LID wind generator we described in the last issue. We've
met with some success - and a few disasters.
A few people wrote to us to say they were disappointed we hadn't given
a complete cut-and-dried design there and then in UC 11. One person
even said he thought it was a sales gimmick to get people to buy the next
issue! In case any other readers are under the mistaken impression that
Undercurrents is some AT equivalent of NASA, with vast engineering and
test facilities at its disposal, capable of producing gleaming, precision-
built prototypes in a few weeks, Jet us make it clear that we have no more
facilities than the average man-in-the-&street. Indeed we don't really
want to have super·sophisticated equipment because we want our work
to be of a nature that's accessible to, and duplicable by, ordinary people -
people's technology, in fact.
You have been warned!
First of all, about that disaster; it happened purely through our own
stupidity. Instead of securing all the guy wires to the ground using the
stakes made of 4ft of angle iron which we ourselves ha had
recommended, we skimped and used a piece of thin tubing for one stake.
A
big wind came along and in no time the repeated tugging on the stake
caused it to shear, from sheer metal fatigue. Down came the tower,
smashing the propellor to smithereens and, luckily, missing a parked car
that had been moved only an hour before. We got off lightly. We learned
at very little expense how careful you have to be to make sure that
everything, is absolutely secure when you put your windmill up in your
back garden. Don't take any chances: you might not be as lucky as we
were.
The Electrics
Another thing some people said to us after the last issue was: 'Why don't
you use an alternator instead of a dynamo. Alternators give a higher
output at lower RPMs: Well, basically, it is a myth that most alternators
give higher output at low RPMs. A few speCialised alternators, such as
those designed for marine engines, may do, but the vast majority of
alternators, as is evident from Lucas manuals, only start to deliver current
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 144

at around 1000 RPM, and only deliver their maximum au output at 3,000
to 4,000 RPM. Which isn't really surprising, since they're deSigned as
replacements for dynamos in cars, and would be expected to have similar
characteristics. Their main advantage is higher output at higher RPMs.
There may, however, be other reasons for using an alternator: we'll get to
that in a moment. The main reason we didn't use one was cost: you can
get dynamos for virtually nothing in scrap yards· but alternators are very
scarce and expensive
As we said last time, our aim was to avoid re-winding the armature of the
dynamo (the bit that rotates) if at all possible, since rewinding involves so
much work. So we decided to m<\make the 12V dynamo charge 6Volt
batteries, reasoning that we could get 6V out at about SOORPM -
providing the magnetic field from the field coils could be kept the same
at 6V as it would be at 12V. We did this by re<connecting the field coils
in parallel, instead of series. The diagram shows how to do it. It shouldn't
take more than half an hour. Loosening the long bolts which run though
the dynamo body from front to back is the perhaps most difficult part.
Penetrating oil helps if they're very stiff. Then ease off the back cover,
pulling the brushes off the commutator as you do it. This will reveal the
field coils and their connections as shown. It's just possible that you may,
by mistake, end up connecting the coils so that their magnetic fields'
oppose' one another, rather than 'assisting' one another (we did, at first).
In that case you'll get absolutely no output from the dynamo whatsoever.
Simply reverse the wires to one field coil and it should be OK.
It's a good idea to set up a crude test rig to see how your dynamo is
performing on the ground. We clamped ours to the bench and turned the
pulley at high speed by connecting it, via a car fan belt, to a similar
pulley connected to an electric drill chuck. That way, you can rotate the
armature at about 900 RPM. Our drill is a 2-speed Black & Decker which
has 900 RPM as its slower speed. (If you think that's crude, well, we told
you we were just amateurs.) Connect up a voltmeter and an ammeter as
shown in the diagram so you can monitor its·open-circuit voltage, and
the charging current, at 900 RPM. One Significant point: try to get as big
a dynamo in the scrap yard as you can. We ended up using one from an
old Rover 90, and found that it had a significantly higher output than the
smaller, more modern dynamos like the Lucas 890 replacement model
we'd started with "1"1. .. big dynamo has screw-type terminals (instead of
push-on terminals), about 20 per cent larger diameter. and a big brass
'screw' which you remove to oil the rear bearing. On test, we found the
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 145

big dynamo had a DC armature resistance of Y.J ohm, and a field coil
resistance (with coils in parallel) of 2 ohms. The figures for the smaller
dynamo were 2/3 ohm and 2 ohms respectively. The big dynamo's lower
armature resistance is no doubt part of the reason why it produces a
higher output.
Performance
Up aloft, as part of the working wind generator, we found that it took
moderate to fresh winds (roughly 20 mph) before the propellor would
spin fast enough to start the dynamo Charging. This is in spite of the fact
that we have a very fast propellor with a tip-speed ratio of about 8,
which should mean that the prop spins at some 750 RPM at 20 mph. It's
very difficult for us to estimate how the mill performs at it maximum rated
windspeed of about 25 mph - i.e., the speed above which we've decided
it would be unsafe to allow the rotor to spin. At this speed the prop ought
to be rotating at more than 900 RPM (the speed of the bench test).
The performance is difficult to estimate because we don't have a wind
tunnel, (but then, neither does the man-in-the street) and we have to wait
for suitable winds. Neither do we have accurate wind-measuring
equipment. But we estimate that it's giving about a 4 amp output in 25
mph winds. That works out, with a 6V charging voltage, at a "rated'
power of 25 watts or (incidentally, you might like to try charging at only 4
volts: we're not yet sure whether this gives slightly higher overall power
au output).
Another variable that's upsetting our estimations is that swinging tail
vane, which keeps moving the mill away from the wind (as it's designed
to do, of course: just when things get interesting. We'll be trying a
stronger spring, but then the prop speed may get just that little bit too fast
for comfort in high winds. More about the tail vane later. There aren't any
easy answers here: you just have to experiment over many m months with
different wind conditions to see what works best.
The Brake. We've simply covered the wall of the dynamo pulley with a
ring of rubber cut from an old car inner tube, stuck on with strong
adhesive (we used Dunlop Thixofix). This works fine as a brake liner and
hasn't given any problems. Incidentally, we just use a rope attached to the
brake wire to operate the brake. We don't need to use the pole and hook
mentioned last time.
Tail Vane. We found the damped door closer we talked about last issue
had too strong a spring. At the moment we're just using several thick
elastic bands in parallel, but since these perish outdoors, we'll be fitting a
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 146
spring soon. Eventually, we'II be fixing up a home-made piston damper,

too.
The Invertor: We haven't found an invertor necessary so far, because
we've decided to use 12V caravan-type fluorescent lights, which have
their own built-in invertor, They're available from Halfords at about £3,
which is less than you could build them for. (Kits are advertised in
Wireless World. We run them off two wind charged 6V batteries in series.
The radio works off two 6V batteries, too. If you want a bigger invertor,
CTT have several Norelco models available from
about £30. We hope to have the circuit of a DIY SOOW invertor in the
next issue.
Batteries. You can make two 6V batteries out of a l2V by separating it
into two halves, This can be done if the battery has lead 'straps' on the
top connecting the individual cells.
Revitalising old batteries is a dodgy business. If possible try to get new
batteries, and you'll save a lot of trough'. But here, courtesy of Wind and
Windspinners supplement, are two tips
I. 'Fill with rain water and shake, Drain and fill again. Put on slow charge
overnight. Drain and repeat 2 or 3 times until electrodes are chocolate
brown (pOSitive) and grey-white · negative). Refill with electrolyte
(available from
your chemist as battery acid) and charge slowly.'
2. 'Dissolve 1/2-oz epsom salts per battery in a minimum of hot water.
Pour electrolyte solution out of battery and into a container. Add epsom
salt solution to electrolyte and pour back into battery. Charge at 6 to 10
amps continuously for 3 or more days. (interruption of charging means
starting again). When bubbling begins, batteries are taking Charge.'
Incidentally. this supplement, like Wind and Windspinners itself, is really
worth having., even (hough it concentrates on Savonius Rotors. Both are
available from Earthmind at Josel, Sagus, California 91350. USA.
We'd be interested to hear how effective readers find these tips. We tried
just adding epsom salts, but found it pretty ineffective.
Rewinding the Armature.
At first. Wt:, thought that this would be a good thing to do, but now we're
not so sure:,. Instructions for re-winding an old Lucas dynamo W· re
given in the May, June, July, August and September 1954 issues of the
now defunct Practical Mechanics.
The details of how to re-wind a more modern dynamo probably differ in
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 147
some respects, but the prinCiples are the same. You strip off all the old
wiring from the armature and start again from scratch winding new coils
with thinner wire. The PJl article goes into considerable detail about how
(0 go about the job. We give some relevant extracts below. Unfortunately.
unless you really know what you 're doing, and are familiar with the
theory of DC electrical machines (for instance, du you know what a
'wave winding' is'!) we reckon you would be very ill-advised to try it
since it's pretty complicated and tedious, " In the finished wave-wound
armature each slot will carry two coils of wire, a bottom and a top one,
The more turns in these coils. the slower the charging speed, but a
compromise is necessary between wire diameter and current-carrying
capacity. For 6-volt work the minimum number -of turns per slot is 18-
nine in each coil-and 18 s.W.g. enamel or s.c.c. will fill the slot under
these conditions. This wire has a listed safe current of 7 amps, but since
the current is generated in two parallel paths meeting at the brushes the
maximum armature current would be about 15 amps.'
"A winding of 2 I s. w .g. will carry J.o amps, and is the slowest winding
recommended for use in this dynamo. With care 40 turns of enamelled or
s.c.c. 21 s.W.g. can be put in each slot, but 30-36 turns of 20 S.W.g.
enamelled _ wire is a better winding for general use. It is a convenient
size of wire to handle, but good governors arranged to operate at 10
amps are a necessity. It is slow enough for 12-volt working. The choice of
wire will depend on individual conditions but should be between the
limits mentioned. Old dynamo field coils provide a useful source of
suitable wire. The winding diagram explains the whole procedure." We're
sceptical, however, about whether all this tedious re-winding is really
worth the effort: we've recently begun to re-explore the other alternative
to re-winding which is gearing, and we think that on balance it is the
more attractive option.
Someone recently suggested we should try 'gear belts', These are like the
Vee belts used on cars to connect the fan and dynamo to the crankshaft
pulley except that they're not vee shaped. They used special toothed
pulleys and belts with notches which fit into them. The nice thing about
gear belts is that they transmit power with very low friction - we've heard
figures as low as 10 per cent loss quoted. The total amount of friction in
the system is very important when you're gearing a prop 'up' to a
dynamo. If you're gearing 'up' say by five times. then you effectively
make the prop five times as difficult to start.
We may, for this reason, use an alternator when we try our gearing
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 148

experiment, because it has a much lower starting friction than a dynamo,

since it has sliprings rather than carbon brushes. A15o. with gearing, we
can probably get the alternator to turn at the high speeds at which it will
start to deliver more power than a dynamo.
But Alternators bring another problem, which is also relevant to a
problem we've experienced with the dynamo on our UC-LID wind
generator, the problem is: how to cut in the field coils when the prop is
spinning fast enough to charge, and out again when it slows down. In
theory, the 6V cut out and voltage regulator (from an old Ford Popular)
should do this, but we find it isn't sensitive enough to cut in at low
Charging currents of a couple of amps. We may have to adapt the system
used on some alternator-based wind generators (like Sencenbaugh's),
which is to have a wind-pressure sensor - a small vane which operates a
microswitch when the wind is strong enough, More about that, next
issue.
Godfrey Boyle
WIND ACCESS
Books.
The Generation of Electricity by Wind Power. EW Golding. 318 pp. Spon
1955. Out of print but available through your local library. The textbook.
Strong on site surveying and how to relate power availability to mill
sizing, but you won't find DiY plans in here.
Electric power from the wind Henry Clews 1973. 29pp. 52.00 postpaid
from:
Solar Wind 0>., PO Box 7, East Holden, M.E. 04429, USA. Good
introduction, plus description of their work. Power-from the Wind. P. C.
Putnam. 224 pp. 1948 Van Nostrand. Description of the huge Grandpa's
Knob project the antithesis of scrap technology.
Wind Power. VoI.7. Proceedings of the UN Conference on New Sources
of Energy, Rome Aug. 1961. 480 pp. 1964
I believe its been republished, but very expensive. Described as the most
complete technical reference on wind power'.
Wind and Windspinners. M. A. Hackleman and D. W. House. Good on
electricity theory and the pros and cons of alternators and generators.
Also good general explanation of required control mechanisms,
Unfortunately. they got hooked on Savonius rotors but having decided on
this type. have done it well.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 149
Wind section in Energy Primer. Takes you through

theory, determination of demand, siting, AC alternator v. DC generator,
blade design and feathering techniques, and drawings for a recycled wind
generator'. Published by Portola Institute. Available from Whole Earth
Truck Store, 558 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park, California 94025.55.50.
Also includes comprehensive bibliography.
50
Plans
VITA (Volunteers for International Tech·nical Assistance) have four simple
low-cost designs for water pumping windmills: two multi·blade farm
types 51.00 each. (cat. Nos. 11133.1 and 11133.3); helical sail, 50.75
(No. 11131.1); and Savonius rotor, 50.75 (No. 11132.1). Available from:
VITA 3706 Rhode Island Avenue, Mt. Rainier, Maryland 20822, USA.
The Brace Research Institute's DIY leaflet No.5 (51.00) tells 'How to
construct a cheap windmachine for pumping water'. Technical Report No
T.1 0 describes a performance test of this mill, an oil drum Savonious.
Brace have also developed a 10hp Airscrew windmill described in
Technical Report No 43. The Airscrew is also described by R.E. Chilcott in
the Aeronautical Journal Vol 73 No 700 April '69 (available from: The
Royal! Aeronautical Society, 4 Hamilton Place, London WIV OBQ.)
Brace's publications list is available from: Brace Research Institute,
MacDonald College, McGill University, Ste Anne de Bellevue 800,
Quebec, Canada.
Wind works sell detailed plans for a 25ft diameter sail windmill ($25 for
15 sheets of Drawings and 20 page construction manual) and for a 12 ft
diameter 3 bladed windgenerator (515 for plans). Both of these are really
beautiful! Windworks also produce a very comprehensive bibliography
on wind (53.00). all available from:
Windworks, Box 329, Route 3, Mukwanago, Wisconsin 53149, USA.
Jim Sencenbaugh has produced plans for his 10ft diameter windgenerator
(512.00) available from: Sencenbaugh Wind Electric, P.O. Box 11174,
Palo Alto, CA 94306, USA.
Marcus Sherman of the New Alchemy institute describes the design for a
25ft diameter sailwing windmill in The Journal of the New Alchemists,
Number 1. (54.00). In the same journal, Earle Barnhart describes an
inexpensive electricity generating windmill utilising automobile parts.
There are also two articles on low cost windmills in Vol 2, available from:
The New Alchemy Institute, Box 432, Woods Hole, Mass., 02543, USA.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 150

Pliny Fisk (of Max's Pot), has designed a 1.75kw wind cycle'. Low cost
wind generator using canvas sails and bicycle parts. Specifications
available from: Laboratory for Maximum Potential Building Systems,
University of Texas, School of Architecture, Austin, Texas.
Commercial Windmills
CTT (Conservation Tools and Technology market the 200W Winco
Windcharger (Rated wind speed 20 - 23-mph, produces 12v, and a wide
range of the Swiss Elektro windmills (ranging from 50W to 5KW). A
windcharger plus 10ft tower costs £214, plus VAT and delivery. Elektro
mills sell for £700 to £2,235. CTT are hoping to manufacture Elektro mills
under licence, which would bring the prices down, but this depends on
demand. Further details available from: Conservation Tools and
Technology, P.O. Box' 134, Kingston, Surrey KT2 6PR.
Brian Ford
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 151

• • • • • • • • • • • •
UNDERCURRENTS/LOW IMPACT DESIGN Product
Reviews The Winco Wincharger.
THERE'S VERY little to say about the Winco except that it's an excellent
machine - if you can afford £250 plus tower and batteries. U's purpose-
built, so there are none of the generator hassles that plague amateur
machines which ha .. to rely on car generators. It can deliver a maximum
of 14 amps at 12 volts in a 23 mph wind with the prop rotating at 900
RPM, so its output is about seven times that of our little machine - but
then, it costs about 20 times as much. Dun cost about £15, and could've
cost almost nothing if we'd scrounged more parts, whereas the Winco
would cost at least £3 SO. So you pay yer money, if you have it. and
makes yer choice.
This Winco Windcharger is currently spinning merrily atop Julian Keable's
house in West london, not far from the Westway motorway. It provides
standby lighting via an assortment of car head lamps. Julian himself
describes the experience of putting it up as "terrifying", but the ordeal
doesn't seem to have bothered his sons, Crispin and' Boppy', judging by
the following account of how they helped their father with the work.
'We first put up the scaffolding on 31st March. We had to tie it to the
building to keep it from swaying too much. The next day we took away
enough tiles on each side of the ridge of the roof to be certain that we
had room for the base of the windmill to fit quite easily. Then we cut off
the slats that hold the tiles up in this area, and bolted two boards of the
right size to the beams that held up the slats. Then we placed a piece of
tarred building paper over both these,e boards and nailed a piece of
roofing felt on over it After that we assembled the first five feet of the
tower in the garden below, and used a rope to haul it up. Then dad
crawled over to the other side of the section we had laid out for it, and
we eased the first five feet of tower onto the roof (dad was hoping to
climb in through one of our skylights afterwards). After that we put two
small slats under two of the legs to make it absolutely level. When we had
finished this we bolted the whole thing down. When this· base section
was bolted onto the roof we replaced the tiles: where the base was, we
chipped the tiles to fit. At this stage dad was going to climb in through our
skylight as he was cut off from the scaffolding by the base, but he found
that the base was so strong that it would hold his weight, so he climbed
over it!
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 152

The top section of tower, the generator and the blade were hauled up all
in one. When this section was bolted in place over the bottom section,
the tail was carried up and attached with bolts behind the generator. We
put that assembly on the top of the tower. Then we put the brake cable
down through a gap in the ridge tiles and down into the attic. The top of a
washingup liquid bottle was put round the cable to' prevent it leaking.
Then we attached the electricity cables to the appropriate places below
the generator. The positive cable went down one leg of the tower, and the
negative down another, and then we fed them both up under each side of
a ridge tile and into the house. This was so that the drops of rainwater
would drip off the cables instead of running into the house. The electricity
cable, lead to two 12v batteries, wired up in parallel to give twice the
capacity of one 12v battery. They are also in the roofspace, 50 as to be
nearer to the windmill. We now have reading lights by our beds powered
by this, and there arc also fog lamps (used for cars) spread over the
house.'
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 153

• • • • • • • • • • • •
Boyle Is Your Electricity Really Necessary?
YOU'VE SEEN the ads. "Save it" - that's the slogan that screams at us from
street·side hoardings and leaps out from the pages of our national
newspapers. "Save it" is the Department of Energy's war cry in its
campaign to engender a sense of guilt in each member of the British
public who hasn't got round to filling his wall cavities with foam, who
fails to insulate his loft or who takes the car round the corner to the local
pub when he could walk. But what the "Save it" campaign rails to tell the
British public is that all these conservation measures would save only a
fraction of the energy squandered each year by the last of the big energy
spenders: the Central Electricity Generating Board.
The minds of CEGB planners seem to be set permanently in a

bureaucratic rut which blinds them to any energy futures other than those
implying continued growth in electricity demand. This conclusion
emerges clearly from some very interesting papers delivered at a recent
CEGB Symposium on Long Term Studies. Many of these papers are now
available from the CEGB - some, indeed, have been published in
popularised form (complete with colour illustrations printed on art paper,
entirely at electricity bill payers' expense) in the May issue of the Board's
glossy new magazine CEGB Research. The largest paper is on the
"Potential of Natural Energy Sources', and is subdivided into detailed
sections dealing with Solar Energy, Wind Power, Wave Power, Tidal Power
and Geothermal Energy. Other papers deal with Electrical Energy Storage,
The Use of Waste, Heat from Power Stations, and the possibility that
Hydrogen may replace Electricity. But some controversial passages from
the papers have been edited out, and the paper on the Use of Reject Heat
from Power Stations appears to have been suppressed entirely. Requests
to the CEGB Library for a copy are met with the reply that the paper does
not exist: but Undercurrents has a copy of the original. Its suppression
may not be unconnected with the fact that the paper's authors resort to
extraordinarily-dubious logic in their attempts to show that the use of
power station waste heat for district heating is not economically
competitive with district heating supplied by a central boiler. But more
about all this in a moment. Before looking in detail at the CEGB planners'
curious view of the future, let me turn to another recently-published
energy study. The study is lengthily titled "Energy Conservation: a Study of
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 154

Energy Consumption in Buildings and Possible Means of Energy Saving in

Housing", and it's just been published by Department of the
Environment's Building Research Establishment.
The first thing that strikes you on reading the BRE report is the enormity of
the energy savings that would be possible if this country adopted an
enthusiastic policy of energy conservation in buildings alone. The report's
main conclusion is that "by undertaking the technically feasible options"
and without any reduction in the environmental standards of comfort)
"over 15% of the national primary energy consumption could be saved
eventually by “energy conservation in building services". This "over 15%"
figure consists mainly of an estimated 14% potential saving in the
Domestic Sector (housing). Conservation measures in other buildings
(shops, offices etc) were "roughly estimated to be able to save 2 to 3 per
cent". To highlight the significance of that 14% figure, let's remember that
the Domestic Sector of the national energy economy consumes 29% of
all our primary energy (primary energy i· the energy contained in fossil
fuels, or in hydro or nuclear electricity; as distinct from secondary energy,
which is that contained in manufactured fuels such as coke, and that
supplied by fossil-fuelled power stations. Two more useful terms: net
energy is the amount of energy actually received by consumers. gross
energy is the amount of primary energy consumed in the course of
prodUCing and distributing their net energy.). So this is equivalent to a
saving of 14/29, or nearly 50 per cent, of Domestic Energy consumption,
by action solely in the domestic sector. That's quite an impressive saving
by any standards. But how's it to be done? The report begins by looking at
the sources, and the end uses, of primary energy in the UK In 1972, we
consumed 8.83 x 10 (2.45 x 1012 kWh) Gigajoules of primary energy.
But our nett energy consumption - that is, the amount we actually got to
consume after losses in distribution and in conversion into s· secondary
energy - was only 6.16 x 10 Gigajoules (GJ). So nearly a third of the
country's primary energy, 2.67 x 109 GJ, was wasted before any of us
even got the chance to secretly leave the central heating on all night or to
indulge in the sinful luxury of an unlagged hot water tank.
It's interesting to examine exactly how all this waste (euphemistically
termed the ··energy overhead" by our Civil Servants) comes about. Very
little of it is caused by either the oil, coal or natural gas industries:
"overheads" (i.e. the difference between gross and net consumption) are
7.5% for oil, 2% for coal and 5.6% for natural gas. (Energy overheads for
manufactured fuels like coke are considerably higher-around 27% - since
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 155

their processing requires energy.) But when you look at the figures for the
electricity industry, the overheads amount to an enormous 64%, of which
only 3.5% was due to the overheads of the primary fuels like coal and oil
used for electriCity generation, leaving a nett overhead of 60.5%. Putting
it another way, of the 2.87 GJ of primary energy fed into the electricity
generating system, 2.1 GJ was wasted and 0.77 GJ eventually found its
way to consumers. And 90% (1.88 GJ) of that 2.1 GJ of waste was due to
non-utilisation of waste heat from power stations. This 1.88 GJ represents
21 % of the nation's primary el)energy consumption, and no less than
70% of the country's total "energy overheads".
In short, the biggest wasters of energy in the country are not you and me,
but the Central Electricity Generating Board. Moreover, as the BRE Report
makes clear, the key to energy conservation in buildings in the UK, apart
from obvious measures like better insulation, lies in minimising our
consumption of thermally-generated electricity - and particularly in a
drastic curtailment of its use for space and water heating. By no means
every advanced industrial country is as profligate in its consumption of
electricity as we are. The BRE Report takes care to point out that in
Britain:
'·The per capita consumption of electricity in the domestic sector is more
than twice as much as in the original six EEC member countries. Belgium
and Holland provide particularly good examples as they share with the
UK a maritime climate. The domestic sector per capital consumption of
electricity in the UK is about 2.5 times that of Belgium and twice that of
the Netherlands".
Energy consumption in the UK is officially sub-divided into four main
Sectors:
Industry, Domestic, Transport, and Other Users. (Other Users is defined
as Public Services, Agriculture and Miscellaneous). Their shares of the
country's primary consumption are 40%, 29%, 16% and 15%
respectively. The BRE Report gives the "overheads" of each Sector as a
percentage of the total consumption in the Sector. The figures are:
Industry 40%; Domestic 66%; Transport 10%; and Other Users 65%.
It is clear that the Domestic and Other Users sectors are those with the
largest wastage (sorry, overheads). "This feature", says the Report
discreetly, "is highly correlated with public electricity consumption.
The Domestic and Other Users sectors, where energy will in general be
consumed within buildings, took twothirds of the total production of
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 156

public electricity. This accounted for 45% of the gross consumption of

energy in these sectors, although it provided only 20% of the net
requirements".
Focussing on the Domestic sector, the Report gives a breakdown of the
net energy consumption of an average household as follows: Of the
average· annual consumption of 81 GJ, 64% was used for space heating,
22% for water heating, 10% for cooking, and 4% for lighting, television
and similar applications. The important thing
to note here is that it is only in supplying that final 4% of household
energy that electricity is really necessary. All the other domestic energy
needs can be supplied by sources with far lower energy overheads than
those of the electricity
grid. Yet electricity is in fact used
to supply some 20% of nett household energy consumption (and because
of the high associated overhead, this
is equivalent to 50% of gross domestic consumption).
In its conclusion! about how this waste in the Domestic sector might be
minimised, the BRE Report touches on a number of areas in which the
CEGB is implicated.
Its first conclusion, in marked contrast to that of the CEGB, is that the use
of waste heat from electrical generation for district heating "offers a
considerable potential for energy savings".
"If the present domestic requirements for heat and power had been met
by combined schemes operating at an overall thermal efficiency of 70%,
the total UK primary energy consumption would have been 10% less" .
Later on, it treads on a few more CEGB toes:
"The use of resistive electric heating for space heating, hot water and
cooking is inefficient in the use of primary energy. If the existing UK
domestic
use of electricity for these services
had been provided by direct use of fossil fuels, the energy consumption
would have been 3 to 4% less". (the
3 to 4 per cent, by the way, refers to gross national energy consumption:
this is equivalent to a 9 to 12 per cent saving in the Domestic sector).
Solar Collectors. and heat pumps, favourite techniques of we AT
enthusiasts. merit generally-favourable mentions from the BRE.
"The use of solar collectors to augment the hot water supply of existing
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 157

dwellings, wherever practicable. would result in a reduction in the UK

consumption of primary energy of I to 2 per cent". Solar collectors, the
Report adds, are "particularly suitable for new dwellings".
"Heat pumps", says the BRE, "lend themselves particularly well to UK
space heating requirements. If the present domestic space heating and
hot water requirements had been met by electric heat pumps the UK
energy consumption would have been about 7 to 9 per cent less".
But we eco-freaks. who tend to regard the heat pump as a nice device for
tapping otherwise unusable low grade heat. may forget that electrically
powered heat pumps may prove to be a major trump card in the hands of
the CEGB. Heat pumps can give two or three times as much heat energy
output as is supplied to them in electrical input. It can therefore be
argued with superficial plausibility that, as the BRE puts it:
"Heat pumps powered by electricity generated without waste utilisation
use primary energy at least as well as individual domestic fuel fired
appliances". (my italics). In other words, the CEGB might well argue,
if you use heat pumps it doesn't matter how much energy you throwaway
up the power station chimney. What this argument doesn't say. of course.
is
that heat pumps and the use of waste heat make still better use of primary
energy. An aspect of heat pumps less fraught with political overtones is
the notion of a heat pump powered by a stationary internal (or external)
combustion engine. This approach (tOUChed on by the· Report but not
pursued) could lead to extremely high effective efficiencies if the waste
heat from the engine was usefully employed. A similar idea. equally
inadequately explored, is the notion of a wind-powered heat pump,
Which Would You Prefer: Heat pumps. in short, certainly do not have to
he Creatures of the CEGB grid.
On the subject of thermal insulation, the Report makes the point that: "If
the existing housing stock had been cavity-filled where possible, if the loft
insulation had been improved, and windows double-glazed, the UK
energy consumption would have been 3 to 4 per cent less, taking account
of the past evidence that some of the potential fuel saving in old
properties with only partial heating would have been taken up in
increased comfort", As for that other environmentalists' favourite, the
wind generator, the BRJ: says that "in principle the potential savings from
aerogenerators could represent a few per cent of the national primary
energy consumption", but that environmental restrictions are likely to
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 158

limit this potential. Hmmmmmm. More about that, anon,
CEGB
Armed, then. with the BRE's figures on just how much energy in Britain is
wasted, and how much could be conserved. let's now turn back to the
CEGB's Long Term Studies. The use of waste heat from power stations,
one of the major conservation measures suggested by the;;' BRE Report. is
given a very curious treatment by the CEGB planners in their paper on the
subject. "The studies reported here show:' they say. "that at present, the
use of reject heat from steam turbines is unlikely to have major economic
advantages over producing heat in a simple boiler. largely because the
associated loss of electrical output will need to be made
up by fossil·fuelled generating plant, with high fuel costs"
What they're saying, in other words,
is that,in order to use waste hot water from power stations it must be
extracted from the turbine at a temperature higher than the normal I
OOC, which is too low for heating purposes. A temperature of between
70 and 1300C would be required. This makes the thermodynamic
efficiency of the turbine generator lower, so it produces less electricity,
and this electricity must be made up by electricity from another power
station, which involves burning more fuel.
What the authors of this odd piece of logic fail to see, presumably
because they cannot contemplate an actual fall in the demand for
electricity, is that if domestic consumers \were supplied with heating
from power stations, they wouldn't need to run their energy-gobbling
electric fires and electric immersion heaters, and so there would be no
need to generate more electricity elsewhere to make up for the decreased
electrical output from the local power station. But even from their
somewhat jaundiced perspective, the paper's authors concede grudgingly
that the "Use of heat from steam turbine stations ... might be competitive
for a scheme designed to operate at a relatively low temperature,
providing the scheme is not too far from a fairly high efficiency power
station to reduce the capital costs associated with heat transmission".
As for the other CEGB Long Term Studies, I propose to concentrate on the
Solar and Wind sections of the paper on Natural Energy Sources, partly
because wind and solar power are the most widely and equitably
distributed of the natural energy sources, and so offer the greatest
potential for utilisation by the decentralised society we have frequently
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 159

advocated in these pages; partly because the CEG B is more dismissive of

these sources than it is of wave power, geothermal power and tidal
power; and partly for space reasons. For similar reasons, I won't delve
into the papers on the hydrogen economy and on large scale energy
storage, interesting though they are.
Solar Energy
The solar energy paper starts with a short preamble setting forth the vital
solar statistics in a fairly uncontroversial way (see UCIO). It then looks at
methods of generating electricity from the sun - solar cells, thermo-
eIectric schemes such as the Meinels' mammoth "power farm" in the
Arizona desert, and Dr Peter Glaser's megaproject for a 10,000 tonne
orbiting satellite which would beam several thousand megawatts of
power back to earth by microwave. AU of these are dismissed as unlikely
to be economically competitive with . that touchstone of energy-
generating virtue. nuclear power. Then comes a section on the use of the
sun to provide low grade heat. This consists of an analysis of the amount
of energy consumed in Britain in space and water heating by the
domestic and commercial sectors. No attempt is made to assess the
contribution solar water and space heating could make to reducing the
total demand for energy in general and electricity in particular.
Under the heading "costs", it is suggested that "complete domestic hot
water all the year round could be supplied in the SW of England at a
collector cost of £95 with further (possibly comparable) costs of
installation. This would correspond to a fuel cost equivalent of 9.7p/kWh
(at 10% interest)." Again, no attempt is made to assess the overall energy
national savings possible by such measures. Perhaps the thought that
solar collectors could effect a I to 2 per cent drop in national demand (as
estimated by the BRE) with an attendant reduction in demand for
electricity. is too uncomfortable. .
In the next section. on biological conversion of solar energy. the authors
Prototype Solar Council house at Milton. Keynes. Solar energy is being
used not only for heating hot water but to provide
60% of space heating requirements. contend that the maximum
conversion efficiency of solar radiation to stored chemical energy is likely
to be 6%, and that although certain crops in Britain can attain efficiencies
of 3 to 4% under favourable circumstances,in practice, averaging over a
whole year, the most efficient energy crop is likely to be coniferous forest,
with only about 1% efficiency.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 160

Now that may be a fair summary of the situation at the moment, but
many believe that it would be entirely possible to achieve much higher
efficiencies by such techniques as selective breeding
of plants to increase their yield of combustible matter and growing plants
in rich nutrient solution with an enriched supply of C02 - perhaps in
earth-covered solar heated greenhouses like those being developed by
the New Alchemists for use in Northern climates.
But even if 1% is the highest practical efficiency of biological conversion
(equivalent to 10 kWh per sq metre per year), the authors' contention that
excessively large tracts of land devoted to coniferous forest would be
necessary to generate significant quantities of energy is open to question.
It may be true, as they suggest, that "the supply of all the UK's demand for
petroleum and gas for 1971 would have required coniferous forest
covering 43.5% of the country's surface".
But such statements represent a (deliberate?) attempt at reductio ad
absurdum. · o-one is suggesting that all the country's cars should be
powered by wood instead of Gil. What is possible. however, is that wood
burning could provide a significant portion of domestic heating
requirements. If we assume, as the BRE Report does, that "the present
average demand for useful energy for space heating works out at about
34 GJ". This is equivalent to some 9180 kWh a year. Savings through
insulation. cavity filling. and so on, says the BRE. would cut demand to
24 GJ (about 6700 kWh). To supply this demand from forests would
therefore require some 670 sq metres per household in theory. or in
practice about 950 sq metres if wood-burning stoves of 70% efficiency
were used. Since there are 19 million households in the country. the total
area of land needed would be 19 x 950 x 106 sq metres. or 18 x 109 sq
metres of forest. Now this is a little less than the total area of forest in
Britain, which 19.5 x 109 sq metres.
And though it would not be possible to use all the forest area of the
country solely for fuel. a great deal of the wood grown in forests at
present is wasted. Forestry companies interested in timber for
construction often use only the trunk of a tree and leave the other
branches to rot. And trees used for paper mostly end up as waste paper,
which could be burned instead of decaying slowly in dust bins (after
several recycling processes, if necessary). And new areas of forest could
be grown On land unsuitable for agriculture. Forests at the moment
comprise about 7% of our land area. This could easily be increased to
10% and the only noticeable difference would be a more pleasant
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 161
landscape.
Wind Power
The paper on the potential of wind power begins with a discussion of
basic wind power theory. (see UC II). The work of the Electrical Research
Association in the 19505 is quoted: the ERA's conclusion at that time was
that only at an average windspeed exceeding 8.9 metres per second (20
mph) was it economic to generate wind-powered electricity. Some 39
sites which met this requirement were identified. The ERA proposed the
construction of a monster 3.67 MW rating machine with a 69 metre
diameter rotor, which would give a· annual energy output of 11 x 10
kWh (some 3100 kWh per kilowatt of rated output). Based on ERA
calculations, extrapolated with a good deal of guesswork to today, the
authors estimate a capital cost of £170/kW for such a machine. Such
machines, the CECB suggests, could be employed in two ways, in
conjunction with pumped (or other) storage facilities like the installations
at Dinorwic and Ffestiniog; or to supply peak power in periods of
demand, which would otherwise have to be supplied by low-efficiency
standby plant at a high cost.
In the latter role. the paper's authors suggest, a large wind machine
would cost about £ 18.7 per kilowatt of capacity per year, compared to
£24.8 per kilowatt for conventional plant. This saving, some 25 per cent,
is for some reason described as only "marginally economic". And
although such a windmill would become even more economic with
rising fuel costs, the authors argue rather lamely that this advantage might
be offset by till' increasing efficiency of standby peakload plant. If used in
conjunction with storage facilities, the paper contends that wind power at
£ 170/kW would not compare with nuclear power at £2301 kW because
its load factor (the fraction of its potential energy that is actually
delivered) is low - about 0.2 to 0.4. Nuclear power can achieve very high
load factors because of its low fuel cost. so wind power Cannot compete,
say the authors, "short of a major,,?r increase in nuclear fuel costs .
But a major increase in nuclear fuel costs in preCisely what the CEGB
itself is anticipating when it advocate ... the need for breeder reactors to
stop the price of uranium going right through the roof. It is inconceivable
that uranium costs will not escalate enormously in coming decades (see
UC 9). Furthermore, the capital cost of £230{kW quoted for nuclear
power is on the optimistic side. The paper then attempts to demonstrate
the environmental unacceptability of wind power by estimating the
number of windmills needed to replace a single 2,000 MW central power
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 162
station. " ... the large number of sites required would mean accepting a
lower mean wind speed, say 6.7 m/s (15 mph). The most economical
70m diameter machine would have a rated power of about 2MW and a
specific output of 1800 kWh/kW/year. A total of 4,800 machines would
be needed, .. their impact on the environment would be enormously
greater than that of a single 2,000 MW power station and the cost would
be roughly double that from the station".
Well, for a start, this calculation assumes that the 2,000 MW station is
operating with a 100% load factor. Let us be more realistic and assume,
generously, that the station is nuclear and achieves a load factor equal to
that achieved by nuclear stations in the UK in 1971-72, namely 75.9%
(fossil fuel stations had much lower load factors). Then it will produce
only · of the energy allowed for by the CEGB and the number of
windmills needed to replace it becomes 3,600. But the environmental
impact of those windmills, it can certainly be argued, would be
considerable. What this comparison ignores, however, is the
environmental impact of the present system of electricity generation. To
be specific, what about the environmental impact of all the thousands of
electricity pylons scattered about the country? According to this year's
CEGB Statistical Yearbook, there are 20,950 towers carrying high voltage
power on the: main national grid over a total route distance of 6.786 km.
That's one tower every 320 metres of grid, on average.
There are many more towers than this, however. Lower voltage lines
(below 132 kV) are now under the control of Area Electricity Boards, and
don't show up in CEGB statistics. But the figures for 1974, before the
transfer of these lines to the Area Boards took place, show that there
were, in toto, some 15,778 route km of transmission line (the number of
towers is not given). If we assume the same spacing, however, there must
be at least 49,300 towers In all, excluding Scotland. (In fact, the number
of towers is probably much greater, since low-voltage towers are spaced
at less than 320m. But then such towers are not so tall, so their total
impact is probably equivalent to the smaller number of larger towers we
have assumed). Let's assume that-the towers are 100 ft high, on average:
this is about the height of the towers on the main 400 kV to 132 kV lines,
Let us suppose that wind generators are erected on the sites of these
50,000 100 ft towers and the towers themselves act as pylons for the
transmission lines - as is pOSSible if vertical axis machines are employed.
Such tall windmills could look considerably more attractive than the
towers used at present (the picture on the front cover of the July 25 issue
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 163

of Science illustrates: I'll be coming back to that in a moment). Suppose

the windmill is capable of 100 kW rated power output (based, quite
conventionally, on a 20m swept area for each of six vertical·axis
machines per tower, and 25 mph rated winds).
Such a mill would be capable of delivering, say 1500 kWh per kW per
year (to be pessimistic: this is less than the 1800 kWh/kW quoted by the
CEGB earlier). So one such windmill should deliver 150,000 kWh per
year, and all 50,000 should deliver some 7.5 x 10 kWh delivered by the
CEGB last year, that doesn't sound a lot - only 4%, But that doesn't mean
it couldn't be very useful. If we go back to the BRE Report, the figure for
the net necessary electricity consumption per household (3 GJ per home,
for running TV, lights etc) leads to a total consumption of IS x 109 kWh
for the 19 million house·holds in Britain, So our array of windmills on
existing pylon sites could supply half the necessary domestic electricity
consumption in Britain. And if we doubled the height of each vertical-
axis windmill to 200 ft, which would not increase its environmental
impact very much, we could get four times the power output from our
50,000 machines - i.e., twice the necessary domestic electricity
consumption, and 16% of the total National electricity consumption at
present.
The paper do.:s suggest that "on· solution to the problem of locating large
windmills is to place them offshore either on towers set in the sea bed or
on large buoys. " .. .If necessary, the whole British electricity demand
could be supplied in this way, albeit at far higher cost than at present, but
this would involve finding suitable offshore sites for perhaps 50,000
machines". (Perhaps recycled oil rigs, after 1990 when the North Sea oil
runs out, could be converted into offshore windmill platforms?) But,
curiously, the authors' recommendation that it might be worthwhile
building and operating a prototype offshore wind generator "so that the
costs of such a scheme could be more accurately assessed", has been
deleted from the version of the paper available from the CEGB, and from
the "popularised" version published in CHCB Research.
But one off·shore idea which apparently finds favour among CEGB
dreamers is in the realm of Wave Power. CEGB Research enthuses that
ocean waves afford "an almost continuous inexhaustible supply of free
energy. It amounts on average to nearly 80 kW per square metre of wave
frontage. This implies the availability within UK territorial waters of more
than 120,000 MW - more than twice the CEGB's present installed
capacity", After discussing the various problems involved in actually
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 164

getting any of this 'free' energy ashore, the paper suggests that the power
could be used in situ in a "floating factory" situated beside the wave
generators themselves, The significant thing about this proposal is the
kind of factory the CEGB has in mind. A suggestion that could be
particularly" attractive to the CEGB is uranium separation from sea
water ... "Virtually limitless supplies of Uranium might conceivably be
produced in this way and could have a profound effect on the future of
nuclear power. Fast Breeders would no longer be necessary for nuclear
fuel economy". (my italics)
So the CEGB doesn't see natural energy sources like wave power as a
means of avoiding the need for nuclear power, with aU its attendant
dangers. It views them as a means for generating 'cheap' fuel to keep its
nuclear power programme going, and as a way of avoiding uranium
shortages in case all those silly environmentalists succeed in banning the
Breeder reactor from our shores for ever. (The fact that it would almost
certainly take far more energy to ex tract the uranium than could ever be
recovered by fissioning it in a reactor is clearly secondary in CEGB
minds.) The tired thinking of CEGB planners (mirrored in the recent
reports by their fellow-bureaucrats at the Department of Energy and the
Central Policy Review Staff) is clearly rooted in an inability to accept the
idea that the days of the "growth economy" are numbered and that a
transition to steady-state economy is inevitable even though it is a
logically unavoidable fact that in a world with finite resources, growth
must cease sooner or later.
But the scientific elites of other countries do not all share our perverse
desire to march against the tide of history. Take, for instance, the
imaginative plan outlined in the July 25 issue of Science by Prof Bent
Sorensen of the University of Copenhagen, in which Denmark would
stabilise its energy consumption at the present level and supply Its entire
energy needs by harnessing the sun and the wind. Sorensen believes that
"the traditional manner of growth, characterised by diminishing returns
related to the quality of life, should be replaced by our implementing a
policy aimed at stimulating growth that will improve the quality of life.
Sorensen further contends that "compared with nuclear power, the
renewable sources such 6S wind and sun, which favour decentralised
utilisation, would facilitate development in the direction of plaCing more
emphasis on the quality of life". He then goes on to sketch out a scenario
in which Denmark's rate of energy consumption would stay the same as
now, at about 20 x 10 to the 9 watts. The amount of energy consumed by
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 165

heating (now mainly oil-fired) would decline steadily to about half its
present value. The amounts of energy consumed by the Transportation,
Agriculture and Food, and Household and Commerce sectors would stay
almost the same as now. As for the Industry sector, Sorensen's plan allows
the energy consumption of production industry to stay about the same,
but he expects the recycling industry to increase its consumption
(because decreasing resources would necessitate increased energy
consumption for recycling) to a point where it roughly equals that of
productive industry.
This energy demand would be met by a large number of solar collectors'
and wind generators, whose energy would gradually replace coal and oil
over a 75 year period, At first, wind electricity would supplement that
from fossil fuel power stations, but from the year 2000, wind-generated
hydrogen would start to bite into oil consumption, being increasingly
used as a fuel for transport. To meet the static energy demand, Sorensen
calculates that solar panels (water·heating type) of J 80 sq km in area, and
wind generators totalling 150 sq km in swept area, would be required.
These would take up less than 1 % of Denmark's land area. Whether we
can ever get the technocracy in Britain to start thinking along these lines
(without the impetus of a major jolt to public consciousness provided by,
say, a catastrophic nuclear reactor accident) is doubtful. OUf coal, gas
and North Sea oil reserves loom so large on the planning horizon that,
coupled with the glamorous high-technology challenge of a massive
expansion in nuclear power, they induce a complacent stupefaction in
the minds of our rulers. It will be interesting to see whether Tony Benn,
the new Energy secretary, is capable of living up to his revolutionary
rhetoric. Although in a truly democratic country no-one man would have
such power, in the present situation Benn is uniquely placed to exert a
major influence on the nation's longterm energy strategy. Will he take the
soft option and fall for the nuclear lobby's lurid promise of unlimited
power to prolong indefinitely the consumer society, with its false promise
that economic growth will better the lot of working people? Will he go
down in history as the politician who not only polluted our skies with
Concordes, but went on to pollute our landscapes with nuclear reactors
as well? Or will he seize the opportunity to initiate the creation of an
egalitarian. low-energy society powered by the inexhaustible,
decentralised energies of the sun, wind and water? I wouldn't count on it.
We'll probably have to do it ourselves.
Godfrey Boyle
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 166

• • • • • • • • • • • •
Chisholme House Beshara School of Intensive Esoteric Education
Imperfect Man is the Macrocosmll "Our discourse is with him who has resolution and
energy in seeking to know himself in order to know God, and who keeps fresh in his heart
the image of his seeking and longing for union with God; and not with him who has neither
aim nor end ... 1975 Course from Oct. 1st 1975 to Mar. 3lst 1976 Cost £600 Enrolment
forms and further information from: The Secretary, Swyre Farm, Aldsworth. Gloucs. teI.:
Windrush 377
_______________________________________________________________
BSc, (Hons) Social and Physical Sciences
Our concerns are well expressed by Theodore Roszak in Where the Wasteland Ends:
"Science is not. in my view, merely another subject for discussion. It is the subject. It is the
prime expression of the West's cultural uniqueness. the secret of our extraordinary
dynamism. the keystone of technocratic politics, the curse and the gift we bring to history.
Where social thought on the dilemmas of urban-industrial life refuses to touch science
critically it betrays its essential conservatism and can only finish with shallow
understanding". If these concerns are yours and if you are interested in interdisciplinary
study in a demanding context, then write for further details to the Senior Faculty Assistant.
Faculty of Science and Technology. Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic. Ellison Building.
Ellison Place. Newcastle upon Tyne NEl 8ST.
_______________________________________________________________
RESISTANCE THROUGH RITUALS YOUTH subCULTURES
Demystifying youth culture, radical intervention, generational consciousness, method,
significance of style, why no girls, doin' nothin', reggae / rastas / rudies, teds-mods, skins-
hippies.
CENTRE FOR CONTEMPORARY CULTURAL STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM
BIRMINGHAM 15 wpcs 7summer 1975
_______________________________________________________________
Ecologist AS WE APPROACH THE POST INDUSTRIAL AGE, a totally new set of solutions is
required to the problems that confront man today: - poverty - unemployment - disease -
malnutrition crime - war - pollution etc. The need is for ecological solutions rather than
technological ones, solutions that do not require the massive expenditure of ever scarcer
resources, that solve problems rather than mask them by eradicating their symptoms, that
lead to stability rather than instability and collapse. THE ECOLOGIST - Journal of the Post
Industrial Age, whose editors wrote the now famous Blueprint for Survival (Vol 2. I. Jan.
1972) has for more than three years published articles that contribute to this end .
subscription: 1 year (2 issues) - individual £1.80 ($4.50 USA) library £2.80 ($6.75 USA) 2
years (4 issues) -individual £3.40 ($8.00 USA) library £5.40 ($13.00 USA)
individual copies £1.00
Annual SubSCription £5.50 (U.S.A. $14.501 Members of the Conservation Society, Friends
of the Earth, SOIl Association,£5.00. Students attending full time course £4.50 (Annual
Index (50p) Included free with all subscriptIOns). Name Address Month of first issue
required......................... I
Cheques, money orders, postal orders should be crossed and made payable to the Ecologist,
and sent to Subscriptions Dept., Ecologist, 73 Molesworth Street, Wadebridge, Cornwall.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 167

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
UNDERCURRENTS BACK ISSUES Magazines worth £s -
yours for mere pence!
TRY one of these sumptuous magazines for yourself! Each issue contains
between 52 and 60 exciting, action-packed pages, lovingly printed in
glorious black and white by British craftsmen on the finest quality
newsprint, carefully wrapped in a magnificent imitation art cover, and
precision bound with two hand-crafted staples of the finest English steel!
THRILL to the delights of our fact-filled Guide to Sources and Contacts in
Alternative Technology!
DROOL over the Do-it-Yourself windmill water power and solar collector
designs!
LEARN THE SECRETS of Heat Pumps, People's Radio, Phone Phreaking,
and Gas-Powered Transport!
ASTONISH YOUR FRIENDS with your intimate knowledge of little
known underground installations!
BLOW YOUR MIND with the political theories of an alternative culture!
YOU, TOO, can own these wickedly-handsome volumes for a mere sap.
($ 1.25) per copy delivered to your door! Only by selling direct to the
public can we make these prices possible! Hurry, hurry, buy now while
our limited stocks last! Complete with FREE wrapper, worth at least 1/2 p!
Undercurrents 6 Heat Pumps I Alternative Electronics I Organic Living
Experiment I DIY Windmill Design I Alternative Technology Sources
Guide I Running Your Car on Gas I Small-Scale Water Power I What's Left
of Alternative Technology? I Stan Gooch reviewed by Colin Wilson I Have
Plants a Secret Life? . "The Heat Pump does offer one big advantage -
the abilitY to tap heat sources that have for centuries been out of reach"
"It's relatively easy TO create consumption-alternatives because we have
fairly direct control over the technology of consumption .. Creating
alternatives in the sphere of production is not so easy because it's a
social thing _ and therefore requires mass-scale political action to
change."
Undercurrents 7. Special Communications Issue Telephone Tapping & ·
mail Opening: who does it & how I A Phone Phreak's Confessions I The
Government's Doomsday Communications Systems I TV Cameras Spy
on City Streets I The People's Radio Primer I Switched·on Uses of Ham
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 168

Radio & TV I Cable TV: \\what's in it for the Media Moguls I AT in the
Shade I Did a Stray Missile Shoot Down an Airliner? "A very useful
intelligence-gathering tool is the printer-meter. This device, when
attached to the equipment assigned to your telephone at your local
exchange, prints out a tape of every number dialled." "It is a pleasant
diversion on a winter evening to discuss surfing with the Honolulu
operator or to chat about the weather with the Sydney operator. "
Undercurrents 8 Prince Philip Visits National AT Centre I Eddies' Paranoia
Corner I COMTEK Festival Report & Pictures I BRAD Community I
Organic Living Experiment I Sward Gardening Introduction I The Other
London Underground Radio: Opening Up the Air Waves I Building with
Rammed Earth I Multi-blade Windmill Design I Wind Generator Theory I
Hermeticism: Technology Needs Transcendence I Plus: a look at
Undercurrents finances . " .•. it took two more days ••• for the
dampened spirits of those who had first camped in that empty field to be
lifted by the realisation that COMTEK '74 was slowly becoming the
joyful, mass celebration of people's technology that everyone secretly
hoped it would be.'· . "It would be naive to think at someone /like the
Duke of Edinburgh isn't an incredibly powerful figure in the country ••.•
therefore he is someone whose sympathy is most valuable to the whole
AT movement”
Undercurrents 9 Special Feature on Nuclear Power Dangers. Kiddies'
Guide to Nuclear Power I Waste Disposal Dangers I The Breeder - Fast &
Deadly I End of the US Nuclear Dream I The International Protesters I
Energy AJ:analysis of Nuclear Power I Nuclear Proliferation Perils I The
Terrorists' DIY A·Bomb I Uranium Supply Shortages, . . ' PLUS: Nuclear
Blackmail - has it already been tried? I Bunker Secrets de--bunked I Solar
Collectors: product review I Nature et Progress Conference in Paris: full
report & photos I Hudson Institute Critique I Can Home-Grown Food
make a Significant Contribution? "· en one source, solar power is a good
example, is available in abundance, has been used by man in one form
or another for centuries, is cheap and easy to exploit and will be around
for at least as long as humanity, and the other depends on the extraction
of a rare metal, its isotopic enrichment is perhaps the most difficult and
expensive process yet developed, is attended by all sorts of dangers, all of
them serious and some of them hardly understood, and could lead
ultimately to the destruction of the world, it is difficult to follow the
logic of those who deem the first impracticable and the second the
energy source which will save mankind. II "Ephemeral figures, quietly
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 169
shot, their bodies burned - was this the end of the European Freedom
Fighters and their People's Bomb?"
Undercurrents 10 Joint Issue with Resurgence Magazine. Solar Collectors:
Complete Background Theory and low-cost DIY Design I Towards An
Alternative Culture: Part 1 Land for the People I New Villages Now I
Sward Gardening in Practice I Anarchist Cities I General Systems I Future
of Alternative Technology I Schumacher: A Conscious Culture of Poverty I
Living the Revolution: Milovan Djilas I Industrial Slavery Can Now End I
Nuclear Protest Builds up Steam .... "Trees are solar collectors - so the
simplest way of obtaining solar heating is by burning brother wood. The
only economically-viable installation is a well-informed 01 Y design
using ready-made collector /' plates originally designed for domestic
central heating - radiators in other words. " ", ... the struggle for social
change cannot be waged with the ballot box, nor yet with the gun. The
alternative culture is happening. Or rather, it is trying to happen."
Undercurrents 11 Nuclear Nightmares Come True I Bee Keeping I Back to
the Land: What happened in the '30s I Mysterious Energies: the Hidden
Secrets of Ancient Britain I Building with Compressed Subsoil Blocks I
Wind Power Special Feature: Background Theory & Part I of the
Undercurrents-LID Wind Generator Design I New Methane Digester
Design I The House That Jaap Built - an Autonomous Dome in Holland I
Mind Expansion: An Evaluation of Psychocybernetics and Silva Mind
Control I Getting Your Goat: Goat-keeping Demystified I Towards An
Alternative Culture - part 2 .... "It is chastening to realise the gulf which
lies between oneself and even elementary thought control." · ' ... we
should realise, when thinking our way towards self·sufficiency, that it will
be difficult to make the system work at the macro-socioeconomic level
if we do not, at the same time, consider radically restructuring the entire
economic system. Without this more radical change, "well-meaning
philanthropy can lead to (or be a disguise for) incipient fascism and a
return to authoritarian feudalism."
_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 170

Undercurrents 12 September-October 1975

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Undercurrents 12 September-October 1975

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

______________________________________ Undercurrents 12 September-October 1975 Page 1

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 1

• UNDERCURRENTS, the magazine of radical science and alternative technology [ISSN

From: Cliff Harper’s Class War Comix 1, reviewed in this issue

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 2

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 3

97 TOWARDS AN ALTERNATIVE CULTURE. In this third part of his

UNDERCURRENTS . . is published bimonthly by Undercurrents Limited. 275

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 4

matters. features. subscription and distribution should be addressed to Uley.

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 5

American nuclear factory attacked

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 6

experimental valves destroyed. Not far away at Courbevoie, almost half

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 7

On the list, which included cancer deaths and radio-Iodine caused

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 9

GRANADA, YOU'RE FALLING UNDER OUR SPELL

THE JOB FOR THE RATE

PLANNING FOR WAR

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 14

Finally, the Immediate pre­attack period - we get "saturation coverage by

TIM AND THE RED FLASH

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 16

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 17

corresponding to the plant's 1000MW output

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 18

throughout the country, equipped with generators to supply power and

COOKING THE NUKES

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 19

indiscriminate actions of a large company or organ of state. Several

ENVIROFAIR BRIGHTENS BRIGHTON The first Peoples Free Fair,

CORNWALL - Jon Campbell Lucastes, Lerryn, Lostwithiel, Cornwall.

NUCLEAR FOES Friends of the Earth, at 9 Poland Street, london Wl have

SOMETHING IN THE AIR AN INTERNATIONAL Windmill Competition

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 22

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 24

name or word appeared in a telegram.

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 25

... ANY NOISE YOU LIKE PROVIDED IT'S WHITE

SECRECY THROWN TO THE WINDS

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 26

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 27

technology. There, will also be a small exhibition of prototype working

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 28

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 29

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 31

DIVINE LIGHT OF TAO

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 32

DISAPPOINTMENT AT THE POINT OF PRODUCTION

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 33

the point-of-production workers are a decreasing proportion of it and a

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 34

WATTS THE RECIPE TODAY, GEOFF?

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 35

SELF-SUFFICIENCY PURE CAPITALISM

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 36

as an end in itself, it is not surprising that institutions which are partly

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 38

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 39

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 41

R. Martin 'Business Tackles the Ghetto' The American Way 1969.

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 43

_______________________________________________________________________ UC12: page 44

Finally, the Immediate preattack period - we get "saturation coverage by